32 members attended.
Mr &
Mrs Bloomfield.
Agreed by
all.
Accounts to 30th April 2014
I am happy to say that it has been another good year on the financial
front. In spite of Margaret’s sterling work as Membership Secretary there has
been a drop in membership figures and thus reduced membership income. Members
helped save over half of printing and postage costs by receiving communications
by email: thank you. We showed a surplus on the year and can comfortably cover
our routine costs. Subscription rates are always under review because of the
time taken for changes to produce results. No change is proposed this year but
I cannot promise the same for next year.
The trip on SB “Victor” last August eventually resulted in a surplus of
£120, but not without giving your Chairman and Treasurer some concerns along
the way!
Expenditure from the Fighting Fund was dictated by activity on the
Tesco front. The revised planning application was heard last September and the
costs incurred preparing the refuting documentation almost exhausted the fund.
Volunteers hand delivered the documents not so much to save money but to ensure
timely delivery. Recognising that it is handy to have cash available quickly to
meet urgent needs a generous donor topped up the fund for us. Legal costs
associated with the application were met by others and do not show in the accounts.
Our congratulations and thanks go to the Town Mayor, Sue Angland, for
another successful application to the Lottery Fund. This time it was £642 for
audio equipment to use at public meetings. Acquisition is in hand.
My thanks go to Paul Garrard of Walter Wright Chartered Accountants for
his help once again in the preparation of the accounts.
If you have any questions relating to the Accounts for 2013/2014 I will
attempt to answer them.
Accepted
by all.
The group spent the
second half of 2013 fine-tuning the script for our talk 'Hadleigh during the
Great War' which we presented in December. The talk was enjoyed by all
who attended and we received some favourable reviews. The branch chairman
of the Royal British Legion described the talk as 'superb, fascinating and
informative!.....it was obvious that the entire town
was behind the War effort'. People seemed to particularly enjoy the
extracts from the school log books. One member of the audience recognised
her family name and discovered that it was indeed her grandfather who was
described as 'a scout, signaller and sniper with a reputation for feats of
daring'. Since then she has researched his service records and
discovered that, having survived the Great War, he lied about his age and
enlisted for the Second World War. He survived that too!
Recently we have
all learnt a lot about the Medieval Manor of Hadleigh from Margaret's excellent
research, but what of our other manor, Toppesfield? The group has decided
to explore the possibility of researching the Manor of Toppesfield for its next
project. In the meantime, we are re-visiting a talk we gave back in the
1990s on 'Hadleigh Charities' with a view to presenting it to the Society at
the beginning of next year.
The History Group
has been asked by the Suffolk Local History Council, of which we are a member,
to host a study day for their members in September. We shall present our
talks on 'Hadleigh during the Great War' and 'The Medieval Manor of Hadleigh'
as well as organising tours of the Guildhall Complex and the town itself
including the Row Chapel. We also have to provide teas, coffees and
lunches throughout the day. It'll be a very busy day, but it will be an
opportunity to showcase Hadleigh and the work that the Society does here.
If you could lend a hand on the day, with the teas and coffees especially,
please let us know!
When thinking about
what to write for this report I thought that there was really nothing of
importance to say only to be reminded that of course since our last A.G.M. we
have hopefully seen off Tesco.
I suppose for the
records I should state that after some fourteen years of opposing the building
of a supermarket on the Brett Works site the Babergh District Councillors again
refused permission for Tesco to develop the site, if only by one vote and
against their officers recommendations. Had we not been able to acquire the
money to buy in professional support and speakers there is little doubt that
Tesco would have won, but our professional advisors made it quite clear that
there was enough evidence to seek a Judicial Review if permission was granted,
and they were also prepared to offer support to the opposing councillors in the
face of thinly disguised threats from the Babergh Planning Officers.
Thankfully the
outcome being in our favour Tesco decided not to appeal, I am not sure where we
would have found the money to finance an appeal or a Judicial Review.
Tesco appear to have stated that they will be talking to the Council about the
site, though as yet we can find no evidence that any consultation has taken
place. I understand that there is some private interest in purchasing the Brett
Works site. I believe it is important to keep reminding people that Tesco
only own that part of the site that was the Brett Works and that the rest of
the ground in the application is in various other ownerships, not least that
Town Council Allotments which block the access from Bridge Street and would
require a Compulsory Purchase Order should anybody wish to gain access across
them.
We can but await
the future proposals to develop the site and respond as appropriate.
At the other end of
the site of course is Bridge House which belongs to Babergh and has been used
for storage. You will remember that originally it was planned to knock the
house down to allow access across the Babergh Car Park, this was blocked and
Tesco then received permission to knock it down but rebuild a similar building
in a slightly different position, subject to Babergh selling them the land. At
the monthly meetings called by Councillor Riley to discuss the future for
Hadleigh I brought up the subject of Bridge House, and following investigation
by Babergh Officers we are told that it is unsafe, the roof leaks etc. Having
made a fuss about the District Council permitting a property of their own which
is in the conservation area to become uninhabitable Councillor Riley is in
discussion with Babergh about the building and possible community uses.
I doubt if we will
hear anything more about this until Babergh have made their decisions on the
future of their Corks Lane Offices, but his building could possibly be used for
some of the Community purposes that the East House supporters group feel are
lacking in the town.
We await any
further proposals or decision on the Future of East House.
Whilst on the topic
of planning the Town Council are at the beginning of starting the long and very
complicated work on producing a Neighbourhood plan. The Government ‘proposals
on Neighbourhood plans’ was brought in a few years ago and many towns and
parishes are progressing with these plans. Simplistically the parish produces
its own plans within the local District plan for the present and future of
their parish. If the neighbourhood plan is passed then the District Council has
to abide by it and also 25% of the Community Infrastructure Levy comes to the
Parish Council for their designated use.
To produce the plan
there has to be full involvement and consultation with the community, when the
plan is produced it then goes through an examination process by the government
appointed inspector and then if passed the plan then has to pass a referendum
of the residents. At the moment the process is taking at least two years, only
a handful of parishes have gone through the whole process successfully, many
failing the examination and the costs of producing the plan are high. Thame has
produced a successful plan and are working to it, but at a cost of £100,000.
Most parishes at the moment are around the £30 to £40,000 with a lot of the
working being undertaken by volunteers.
I mention this
tonight because in the next few months consultation will start in Hadleigh and
I would urge you to become involved, answer questionnaires and put your views
forward. The whole process is about Hadleigh taking ownership of its
future, it is not about refusing new developments but making sure new housing
is in the best place for the town, and while there may be some dreaming of what
we would like for the future it must all of course take place within the
finances available, so really best use of resources. Please watch this
space and take part in any consultations.
There is nothing
exciting to report in this year’s Chair’s review. Membership remains stable and
the numbers attending meetings are very good for a relatively small
organisation.
Yet again our
speakers and their topics have been varied and interesting and I am aware that
you really enjoyed the Christmas meeting when the History group gave their
presentation on Hadleigh in the First World War. We will never pull up a
dandelion again without thinking of school children collecting the roots, or
indeed conkers being used for munitions! It was interesting to see how a small
town gave it’s all to the war effort.
This coming year’s
programme is just as varied and we hope meets with your approval and continued
support.
We are very
grateful to Sue Angland for struggling through the mounds of paperwork required
to acquire the monies for our new P.A. system. The equipment will be given to
the Town Council for use in this building, which hopefully brings in a little
more money for the struggling building, but we really hope to be able to
persuade our speakers to use the equipment so that we no longer struggle to
hear some of the asides that even speakers with loud voices make. Thank you
very much Sue.
And thank you to
all of the committee who have met regularly to undertake the work for the
Society, we share the jobs out and everybody joins in so that no one role is
arduous. Unfortunately under the five year rule Hattie has to stand down this
year, but I have little doubt that we will keep her busy. Thank you Hattie, and all of the committee.
May I take this
opportunity to wish Graham every happiness in his
marriage in a few weeks’ time, we hope that you have a really memorable day,
and are delighted that you are not leaving Hadleigh.
As you have seen in
the Newsletter we would ask you to support the committee in this change to the
constitution. The current relevant clause states:- The
Executive Committee shall consist of the Officers and not less than six and not
more than eight other members to include the representatives of study groups set
up under item 9.
We wish to change
this to:-
The Executive
Committee shall consist of not less than six and not more than eight members to
include the Officers and the representatives of study groups set up under item
9.
Over the last few
years we have not had enough people offer to join the committee to achieve the
required numbers and have often not been quorate. We hope that reducing the
number will enable us always to be quorate, remembering if at any time you
inundate us with offers to join the committee we can always co-opt until the
next A.G.M. when rules can be changed.
Please will you
vote for this resolution?
Proposed by Jan
Byrne,
Seconded by:-Graham
Panton
Passed unanimously
The present committee are
all willing to continue and have been nominated and seconded.
|
Margaret
Woods |
||
|
member |
representing
the History Group |
|
|
Barry
Denny |
member |
Agreed by
all.
Congratulations to
the committee on their opposition to the Tesco plans.
Before we continue
the business of the evening may I remind you that our next meeting is on
Wednesday 6th August when Pip Wright will be talking on ‘Frolic,
Fervour and Fornication’
Having finished the
business of the Annual Meeting and before we have a drink and nibbles we are
delighted that Margaret Woods has agreed to talk to us on the Courts and Petty
Crime in Medieval Hadleigh.
Finished formal
business 8:25
Finished talk: 9:25
Finished social
meeting: 10:00