Culcheth Community Meeting

Date:Wednesday, 21May 2014

Time:1:30pm

Venue:CulchethCommunityHigh School

Present:Diane White (East Neighbourhood Coordinator),Amanda Stevens (Culcheth High School business manager),Chris Elcoat (LiveWire),Christine Housby (3rd Warrington East Scouts),Cllr Jacqui Johnson (Culcheth & Glazebury Parish Council),Daphne Eastburn (Culcheth Methodist Church), Dawn Ashcroft (LiveWire Libraries),Jane Titchard (Culcheth High School Governor & Children’s Society), Leanne Butterworth (Golden Gates Housing Trust),Mandy Brown (Sainsburys),Nick Milner (Sainsburys),Rev Andrew Bradley (Culcheth Methodist Church), Rosalind Roberts (Culcheth Methodist Church), Steve Dodd (PCSO),

Apologies:Cllr Sue Bland (Culcheth, Glazebury & Croft Ward),Hayley Hill (Youth Service), Maurizio Lucchesi (PCSO),Ruth Harrison (Chair of Governors for Culcheth Primary), Sara Isles (Girl Guiding Culcheth District)

  1. Welcome & Introductions
  2. Diane welcomed all present to the meeting.
  3. Introductions were given by all.
  4. Apologies were noted.
  5. Dave Terry, the new headmaster for CulchethHigh School, attended the meeting briefly to introduce himself and welcome the group to the school. He will be engaging with the group at future meetings.
  6. Head teacher of St HelensPrimary school, Rixton had asked whether she should come to the meetings i.e was it just for the Culcheth area. It was explained anyone who has an interest in this part of East Warrington would be very welcome to attend the meeting.
  1. Minutes & Matters Arising
  2. Minutes taken as accurate record. No matters arising.
  1. Aim of the meeting
  • The aim of the meeting is to bring partners and members of the community from Culcheth, Glazebury and Croft and neighbouring areas together to discuss what projects are taking place in the areas, what issues there may be and how to best work together and avoid any duplication. The group meet bi-monthly.
  1. Partner updates
  • Jacqui Johnson (Culcheth Parish)
  • Community Day was a big success.
  • Sainsburys were thanked for their help in selling raffle tickets.
  • A particular success was work done on the Egypt display, which was done by the students of two primary schools and can be seen in the library.
  • A form was sent out to partners requesting information on how much money they had raised at Community Day.
  • The youth shelter was officially opened and an article will be put into Culcheth Life, which will bepublished soon.
  • Work is being done towards installation of paths that will lead to the shelter.
  • The CADRAG AGM took place recently. There was an agenda item about the HS2 and re-routing the line was discussed. The outcome from this is yet to be confirmed.
  • Christine Housby (Scouts)
  • Fundraising ongoing for the scouts. It was mentioned enough is raised to cover costs.
  • The scouts did a display done on work done by Wolf Cubs and Scouts during World War 1 for Community day
  • A camping event with cubs and scouts took place over the weekend.
  • The Beavers went on a family day trip on Sunday.
  • The jamboree event is coming up in the summer.
  • Scouts are still recruiting adult volunteers.
  • The group will be 65 years old this year.
  • Rosalind Roberts (CulchethMethodistChurch)
  • Bethany Bates (Methodist Church Youth Worker) was given employment working in the high school on Tuesdays after school, on Friday evenings at the youth club & every second Sunday.
  • The Friday night group is going really well.
  • 30-50 youth people attend the group.
  • Rev Andrew Bradley (CulchethMethodistChurch)
  • Andrew is new to the area and attended the group to familiarise himself with events taking place in the area.
  • Steve Dodd (PCSO)
  • Summer events and holidays coming up.
  • Movie night has now ended now the lighter nights are here. It will re-open in October.
  • The group has 70+ children in attendance.
  • To link with World Book Day “ TheBoy in the striped pyjamas” film was watched and all attendees received a copy of the book as well. A huge success and popular with the children.
  • Diane asked if it’s worth applying for funding to keep the movie night going through the summer perhaps once a month.
  • Community Fun Day is taking place at CulchethHigh School on Sunday, 20 July.
  • Patrols have increased to keep an eye on ASB.
  • Crime prevention advice – Whilst on previous patrol Steve noted 15 garages open whilst people were gardening – usually in their back gardens. Advice is to keep doors & garage doors closed even I fyou are in the house.
  • It was mentioned 1 in 20 cars are left unlocked by theirowners, which makes breaking into them easy.
  • An increase of awareness on keeping property secure was done in the area.
  • Cheshire Police Alert mentioned. This encourages residents to sign up to new messaging system about staying informed on what’s happening in the area.
  • Diane White
  • The East Board is looking for resident representation.
  • Diane asked all present if anyone would like to offer their time to attend 3 Board meetings this year and act as the culcheth resident representative.
  • There’s an area plan that looks at priorities for the area.
  • Costs for travel will be covered.
  • Dates and venues for the meetings are:

Date / Start time / End time / Venue
Wed, 11 Jun 2014 / 18:00 / 20:00 / Croft Memorial Hall - Small Hall
Thu, 11 Sep 2014 / 18:00 / 20:00 / St HelensPrimary School
Wed, 19 Nov 2014 / 18:00 / 20:00 / Culcheth Community Campus
  • Diane will be moving to the Central area and Ruth Whitworth will be taking on the half time role as east manager from the beginning of July.
  • An email distribution list was put together to send out information that would be of interest to the group. If anyone wants to be added, please let Di know.
  • Dawn Ashcroft (LiveWire Libraries)
  • Orford Park Festival coming up on 8June.
  • Community Walk of 1 mile on same day taking place. This is a sponsored walk for charity of your choice. Those taking part need to register on the LiveWire website.
  • Woolston and Orford hubs will be open over the bank holiday (Monday, 26 May) as detailed:

Orford Jubilee Neighbourhood Hub / 6am-4pm
Orford Jubilee Neighbourhood Hub Library / 1pm-4pm
Woolston Neighbourhood Hub / 6am-4pm
Woolston Neighbourhood Hub Library / 10am-1pm
  • Robert Williams (prize winning author) will be attending Stockton Heath library to talk about how he got into writing.
  • Bookmarks detailing what goes on in LiveWire buildings were circulated to the group.
  • LiveWire Challenge is taking place on 8 September at Victoria Park.
  • Information on LiveWire is on the website –
  • Leann Butterworth (GGHT)
  • Warrington’s Got Talent is taking place again this year.
  • A gardening competition with £1000 worth of vouchers to be won is taking place for GGHT tenants. Entries to be submitted by 13 June.
  • Funding of £500 can be applied for by community groups for projects they are doing. Don’t need to be a Golden Gates tenant.
  • An event took place in Bewsey where deep fat fryerswere given away to replace chip pans. There are some still available for any GGHT tenants in the Culcheth area.
  • Amanda Stevens (CulchethHigh School)
  • Dave Terry, the new headmaster for CulchethHigh Schoolcalled into the meeting to say hello and promised to attend a future meeting.
  • The school was visited by Ofstedon the new heads first day whereby a good report was fed back.
  • A report from ofsted was circulated to the group.
  • The sixth form maybe closing depending on what decision WBC make in June.
  • It was asked if the school had tried to keep the sixth form. Amanda outlined the history of the sixth form and the steps taken leading up to the decision to close.
  • Part of the outcome depends on funding.
  • The astroturf atCulchethHigh Schoolis nearly 10 years old and will soon need replacing. The costs will be £300k-£500k.
  • This is used by the school in the day and community in the evening.
  • This will be a 3 year project to complete due to raising funds to allow the work to commence.
  • Need to link with local groups to demonstrate the need as part of the application for any funding that will be applied for.
  • Daphne Eastburn (CulchethMethodistChurch)
  • The youth shelter is open. A meeting is being organised about installation of a path leading to the shelter.
  • A photo was taken of the shelter for a press release.
  • It was mentioned there’s room for another shelter. However the current shelter is being monitored for usage before a decision is made to whether or not to look at another shelter on the Common.
  • The food bank that the church contribute to is working well and is continuing to help people in the Culcheth area.
  • A contact asked about funds for a particular family, who were referred to the food bank.
  • It was mentioned theCulcheth food bank need to increase their publicityand promotion.
  • Having links with the Warrington food bank has meant being able to work in the wider areas.
  • On 9 May a fundraiser was done where £700 was raised that was donated between the school and Children’s Society. Positive feedback was given towards the pupils who took part in this.
  • A South African exchange is taking place in July with staff and pupils from the schools partner school in Soweto coming to stay.
  • Chris Elcoat (LiveWire)
  • A Morris Dancing event took place. 500 dancers attended.
  • The Big BrownieBirthday event took place.
  • New set of adult courses list has been published on the LiveWire website.
  • LiveWire employee awards taking place tonight (21 May) (and the Culcheth team won! Many congratulations!).
  • There is a special offer of 50% discount for new members joining LiveWire in May.
  • Community Fun Day taking place on 20th July
  • For information about this Chris can be emailed on or details.
  • Stall holders must provide their own gazebo.
  • A leaflet is currently being made and will be published soon.
  • There are plans to continue to do fitness sessions at Culcheth Age Concern Centre as a result of positive feedback from previous sessions.
  • New karate booking ongoing – had 1 expression of interest so far.
  • Nick Milner (Sainsburys)
  • Two defibrillators had been bought as a result of supporting the Hand on Heart charity.
  • Leaflets are on display in the store to nominate charities to be this years chosen charity.
  • Sainsburys donated water for the big brownie birthday.
  • Anyone who would like to advertise on the store’s community board can take their posters into the store for displaying.
  • £250 has been donatedtowards the new parish community board.
  • Sara Isles (Girl Guiding, Culcheth)
  • Over 150 members of our District aged between 5yrs – 65yrs enjoyed our Big Brownie Birthday Star Quest day at Livewire Culcheth in April.
  • Girls took part in country dancing, climbed the mobile climbing wall, tried cake decorating as well as learning about space in the mobile planetarium and taking part in scientific experiments to find out who had “stolen” the birthday cake!
  • 70 Brownies and their Leaders are going to sleepover in the circus ring at Blackpool Tower Circus on 14th June (not sure how much sleeping there will be!)
  • Guides will be camping at Sandiway for 2 nights at the beginning of June.
  • 16 Senior Section members have completed their DofE Practice Expedition and are now planning for the assessed Expeditions which take place in July.
  • Some of the Volunteers are leaving to attend University or due to changes in personal circumstances (house move, change of job, etc).
  • There have been numerous appeals made for new volunteers. This includes posters, letters home to parents, leaflets and information given out at Community Day and appeals in Essential Guide and on Facebook… so far no one has volunteered so if people can help to spread the word it would be much appreciated.
  • There is a huge demand for Guiding in the area (over 230 girls + Leaders take part in weekly meetings in the village), but the group can’t carry on without volunteers.

  1. Other issues / Events to discuss
  2. A new play area and allotments are being built in Glazebury.
  3. Roadworks will be commencing soon near Bents garden centre where a new roundabout will be installed. It is hoped this will slow down speeding cars travelling through the area but it was also hoped that work would take place between the hours of 12 and 3 so that people trying to get to schools wouldn’t be affected..
  1. Any Other Business
  • None
  1. Date & time of next meeting
  2. Wednesday, 23 July at 1:30pm atCulchethHigh School Community Campus