Llanblethian Community Group
Minutes of Meeting 12 February 2014, Cross Inn
Attending:
Mike BaileyMargaret BaileyGraham Bailey
Rebecca ExleyGraham BuddenBeverly Tonkin
Chris StreetArthur O’LearySteve Harkett
Apologies: None
Visitor: Peter Thomas, Conservation Officer, Vale of Glamorgan Council
Minutes of last meeting 15 January 2014
The meeting minutes were agreed.
Village Pumps
Peter Thomas gave a brief history of the County Treasures scheme – established 1970s in cooperation with local history groups and a lottery grant to give some protection for items and buildings of interest. Approximately 2500 treasures were originally identified with ca. 400 now listed, 2 being in Cowbridge. There is no legal protection given by the County Treasures listing, but planners must formally consider them in any planning application. Reviewing and updating the list should be done annually, but in practice this tends to be rather ad hoc due to lack of resources.
The decision to list or not is made by judging against criteria that are in line with CADW listing criteria. Peter Thomas has added his support to have the pumps listed, but priority for review is unknown.Restoration of the pumps was briefly discussed and Peter mentioned that “Funds for Historic Buildings” may be available.
To have the Llanblethian pumps listed requires a formal request to be made – ACTION Chris.
Curry & Quiz Night 5 Feb
There were 51 attendees. Feedback was good. Arthur added that at the next quiz on 2 April, he would introduce photos into the questions.
Fundraiser Meal 15 Feb
Beverly advised that ticket sales were standing at 21, which is disappointing, but sufficient to proceed. An excess of ca. £100 was expected nevertheless.
Llanblethian History Trail- Rebecca & Beverly
This will be advertised and is set for launch during the Vale Walking Festival on 30th May. The intended marker posts with QR codes may not be in place by then and a handout may be given in this case. Creative Rural Communities is providing match funding for the posts. Advertising will be at Y Bont Faen School, the Cross Inn, Emm’s Cottage and at the Village Playing Fields.
Rebecca advised that she is still receiving history reminiscences from villagers.
Road Safety
Mike confirmed that according to the group “20’s Plenty for Us”, no traffic calming measures are needed if we proceed with a 20mph speed limit rather than a 20mph Zone. We are now waiting for a response from VoG (Steven Arthur) and will then decide how to campaign in the village for support. ACTION Mike to add to agenda for the March meeting.
Damaged litter bin Emms cottage
Mike confirmed the bin was damaged during installation and has now been repainted.
Litter pick day 15 March
Mike will promote through the Llanblethian website and Google invite, and at the fundraiser meal on 15th
Beverly kindly volunteered to provide tea and cake at the Church Hall.
Wild flowers & bees funding
Rebecca advised no progress and suggested the cut-off date for funding may have passed.
ACTION Rebecca to check date
Treasurer update
Beverly advised that at end Jan funds stand at £583.83 with a further £100 still due.
Cowbridge Parish magazine
Rebecca advised that she will aim to get a village article into the next publication in March
Senedd visit
Chris gave a review of the visit, which was enjoyed by all.
Mike proposed a vote of thanks to Chris for making the arrangements – agreed by all.
Future benches for the village
Arthur’s suggestion to have sponsored benches with memorial plaques was discussed. Issues of maintenance, ownership and the possibly depressing nature of having excessive memorials were raised.
ACTION Rebecca will try to find further information about ownership, maintenance etc.
Cowbridge Town Destination Management
Chris explained that CRC are collecting views about Cowbridge & Llantwit Major town centres through a survey running until 28 Feb:
This is a positive initiative designed to understand views and problems in these communities and all are encouraged to complete the survey.
Llantrithyd –villagers against drilling
After some correspondence with the Llantrithyd group (Rebecca/Chris) Rebecca suggested that we should not add their views/link to the Llanblethian website and we should remain impartial. All agreed this.
Bridge Road flood planning
No further news. Waiting for the Environment Agency to provide data relating to the need to dredge the river Thaw. Rob Jones is following up with Natural Resources Wales.
Defibrillator
Mike reported that we had received a request from Lorna O’Callaghan whether we could have a defibrillator in the village. It was agreed that the best action was to refer Lorna to Lyn Duance (Firstresponders) to see whether she is willing to start a campaign to raise funds.Mike will get them talking together to take a better coordinated approach. LCG could possibly support when it is clear what is involved.
LCG group dinner
Not much appetite (!) for another dinner, so agreed to drop.
AOB
Arthur reported that on his meeting with Open Reach; the road works/disruptionfor the laying of fibre optic cable from Cowbridge to the Cross Inn Road side cabinet will be completed by March. The remaining Cowbridge telephone exchange area conversion will take until July 2014 to complete and the new system will permit up to 80MBTyte to all properties in Llanblethian.
Mike advised that Llanblethian is scheduled for fibre optic service to be available from around July 2014
Next Meeting
Wednesday 12 March 5:30pm The Cross Inn
GDB21-02-14