Minutes of the Board Meeting of St. Mary’s Island Residents’ Association Ltd. (SMIRA)
held at the Community Centre on Tuesday 5th April 2016
commencing at 7:00pm
Present:
Chair: David Taylor
Directors: Leslie James, Barry Woolford, Peter Haigh, Allan Sneller and Graham Wrightson.
Officers: Bob Muid (Secretary).
Visiting Members: Nanette Crawford, Steve Quayle, Wendy Pinder, Alan Bennett, Andrew Lambert, Adele Fairman, Cara Hall, Jack Hall, Martine Pay, Jessica Pay, Helen Davies, Barrie Davis, John Jones, Brian Viney and Gary Page.
CMT Representatives: Dalia Halpern-Matthews (CEO).
Medway Councillor: Cllr Andrew Mackness, Cllr. Habib Tejan
Guests: Helen Kristic (PCSO), Rebecca Pease (Community Warden)
Apologies for absence: Lily Leaver (Treasurer), Chris Reynolds (Director), Dean Marsh (CMT), Grant Leathwhite(CMT), Ben McGowan and the Moat Team.
Abbreviations: CMT – Chatham Maritime Trust, CML – Countryside Maritime Ltd. (developers), HCA – Homes and Communities Agency (SMI landowner), SMI – St. Mary’s Island.
Item 25/16: Minutes of the previous meeting
Adoption of the minutes of the meeting of the 23rd February 2016 were proposed by Allan Sneller, seconded by Leslie James and unanimously adopted.
Item 26/16: Matters Arising
Nothing not covered by items in the agenda.
Item 27/16: Moat Housing
Ben McGowan has sent his apologies for not being able to attend this evening and for there being no-one from Moat at the pre meeting surgery. These surgeries are held before each SMIRA meeting and are attended by a representative from CMT, a Councillor, a representative from Moat Housing and a SMIRA Director. If anyone has any one to one issues the surgery is a good place to raise them.
Ben McGowan (Moat Housing) is happy to answer queries and any concerns by phone to 0845 359 6218 or email to .
Item 28/16: Chatham Maritime Trust Report
Dalia Halpern-Matthews, CEO of Chatham Maritime Trust updated the meeting.
Ship & Trades area
The extension works on the pub and the restaurant are currently underway and the Ship & Trades will reopen on the 4th May. The HCA have employed someone to enforce the new parking restrictions around Machine Shop No.8. CMT have also met with the new manager of the Co-op and his Area Manager to discuss problems raised by residents to CMT and they are looking to see how those can be resolved.
David Taylor said that he has been in contact with the Co-op Manager, Mike, who has been very helpful and will be keeping the area beside the fish shop clean and free of spillages. Because the building is listed he cannot put up a container for cigarette butts. David invited him to come to a SMIRA meeting which he said he will do.
Christmas Fair
It was decided to continue with the Christmas Fair instead of the summer fair as it was more popular and in 2016 will be held at St. Mary's Island Community Centre on Saturday 26th November. It will have the same format as last year.
Finsborough Down Bulb Planting:
CMT have had a lot of great feedback on the beautiful purple crocuses planted last October associated with the Rotary Club’s charity ‘End Polio Now’ campaign. On the 8th October this year, residents will be invited to plant red and blue bulbs, associated with charity ‘Help for Heroes’, on the Central East Bund.
River Walk
The tree crowning has been completed on the River Walk and the resurfacing of some of the glass resin sections has been completed and that area is to be transferred from the HCA to CMT shortly.
Water Sports Hub
You may be aware that there has been a delay with the Water Sports Hub but it is still hoped that it will open this year. The aeration system is installed in Basin 2.
Pedestrian Caisson Bridge
It is hoped that this will be opening shortly, before the Food & Drink Festival. All the materials for the bridge have been delivered and the labour is booked. CMT are just waiting for the legal documents to be exchanged and as soon as this happens works will be able to progress. Dalia Halpern-Matthews hopes to have an opening ceremony with Leslie James (Director of SMIRA) cutting the ribbon. Leslie has been persistent in mentioning the bridge at every SMIRA meeting.
Central Walk
The transfer of the landscaping on Central Walk and the Lookout from CML to CMT will be happening fairly shortly, hopefully by the end of the month.
Food & Drink Festival
The Festival will be on the Whitsun bank holiday weekend 28-30th May with the Sunlight Rotary Dragon Boat Challenge on Sunday 29th May. Medway Sunlight Rotary currently have 25 teams entered for the Dragon Boat Challenge and residents can view a short video of last year’s event on the SMIRA website (Latest News). The maximum number of teams is 30 and Kent police are believed to have two teams entered. For details about entering a team in the Dragon Boat Challenge e-mail .
This year at the Festival there will be some old fashioned fairground rides and maybe some antique stalls as well. The tugs will be playing a more active role than in previous years. There are three main festival sponsors; CML, the Universities and Bose, along with a number of smaller donors.
Anyone wanting more details or that would like to be involved with music and or stalls should email details and information to .
Transfers
The northern bullnose, where the petanque court is, has now been transferred from CML to CMT and there will be some works to bring the landscaping up to CMT’s normal standard. The Blue Crane, riverside walk behind MHS homes and the pier have also been transferred to CMT.
David Taylor mentioned that the area between the blue crane and the lock gets a lot of dog fouling and perhaps, now that it is under the control of CMT, things will improve. David asked Rebecca Pease if she could also monitor the area. Nanette Crawford also said dog fouling was getting to be a problem around the Community Centre and Astor Drive.
There are five additional CCTV cameras which will be going up as part of the security package on the newly transferred areas.
The second Medway 10K run will be on the 12th June. Runners will be going through the University campus; there were 373 runners last year.
Sadly SMIRA were unsuccessful in their bid to The British Heart Foundation (BHF) to get a defibrillator for the Community Centre. Dalia Halpern-Matthews has spoken to BHF’s area co-ordinator and is in discussions about how CMT can have four or five defibrillators across the whole estate.
Allan Sneller wanted to thank Turfsoil for their work on the bunds.
Item 29/16 Chair’s report
David Taylor said that residents should now be aware of the CQC report on the St. Mary’s Island Surgery. David suggested that SMIRA wait and see how Dr Lawrence addresses the issues raised in the report. Most of these appear to be procedural. Cllr Andrew Mackness said that 95% of doctors who are struck off are done so because of administrative failures rather than clinical negligence but Dr Lawrence is a long way from that. He does have a distinct time period to address the issues. Cllr Mackness said that from personal experience Dr Lawrence was a caring, compassionate GP.
David Taylor read out a piece from the surgery website asking that if anyone was interested in joining a patient panel or wanted more information about the CQC report to contact the surgery. Allan Sneller has already volunteered to join the panel but has heard nothing yet.
David Taylor has had a communication from the St. Mary’s Island History Group about this year’s project which is ‘the first 20 years of St. Mary’s Island’. The group’s intention is to produce an exhibition and a commemorative booklet with photos and captions from the period and possibly a calendar. The group is looking for donations and asked if SMIRA would be willing to donate £250 to the project. Our councillors have given SMIRA £1,000 for community projects. Some Directors had a conflict of interest as they are also members of the History Group but Allan Sneller, who is not a member, proposed that SMIRA give the History Group £250. It was seconded by Martine Pay and passed unanimously. Barry Woollford thanked SMIRA for their generosity and also the Councillors for funding the Group at its inception.
The Group is looking for loans of photos and information from residents who lived on the Island from the beginning. The exhibition will be on the 5th November at the Community Centre.
Item 30/16: Secretary’s report
SMIRA has submitted its Annual Return to Companies House; a legal requirement for the Association. We’ve had one new member since the last meeting. David Taylor reminded everyone that if they move houses on the Island their original membership would lapse as it is associated with the original house. They should fill in a new membership application form (on the website) with their new contact details. Dalia Halpern-Matthews said that SMIRA membership forms are put in CMT’s new owner packs which are sent out to all new owners at the new address.
Item 31/16: Treasurer’s report
In the absence of Lily Leaver, David Taylor reported that SMIRA had income of £3,000 from CMT and donations of £30 (from some membership forms). Some invoices have just come in and so haven’t been paid yet but it is projected that SMIRA will have a deficit of £300 this year. The deficit will be taken off our grant from CMT next year. There were no ‘Good Causes’ donations last year although we did set aside £300 for these. We are formally requesting a grant from CMT for 2016/17.
Post Meeting Note: SMIRA have now received the 2016/17 Grant from CMT.
We also have an additional grant of £1,000 from our Councillors for the purchase of a defibrillator. SMIRA will be working with CMT to obtain defibrillators (see above). Barry Woolford suggested that some residents should be trained to use them, although modern units are designed to be used by people with no experience or training. Dalia Halpern-Matthews said that training was included in the price of the package
Item 32/16: Homes and Communities Agency
Not much to report other than parking ticketing is now going on around Machine Shop No.8. It had been mentioned at a previous meeting that HCA had put up some no parking signs but that they weren’t enforcing them.
Item 33/16: Bus services on St Mary’s Island
The bus service appears to be operating okay. Some delays to the timetable are caused by people inconsiderately parking, narrowing the road and making the buses go slow to avoid collisions.
Barrie Davis advised that National Express took over Kings Ferry a few years back and in November they started a Gatwick run which will continue to at least this November. It starts at Canterbury, then Hempstead Valley, the Universities at Georges Gate, Chatham bus station, Maidstone and then fast to Gatwick. It is a pretty good service.
Item 34/16: Chatham Docks
Arcellor Mittal (Kent Wire) are covering the sides of their sheds as Phil Taylor, their CEO, had promised because residents were complaining of the noise.
Bob Muid raised an issue on behalf of a resident about the site behind Finsborough Down where there appears to be stockpiling of timber. Recently the piles have grown considerably (10 to 12 feet high) with no obvious fire breaks. Now the Environment Agency doesn’t have a local telephone number we appear to have lost our contact. David Taylor said he had been emailing the EA with no response. Could we raise the issue with the EA? David Taylor said he would look into it.
Post Meeting Note: David Taylor has telephoned Arcelor Mittal (Phil Taylor) and has been advised that the stock piles of timber reported above are in fact recommended to reduce the impact of the noise generated by their activities.
With reference to the E.A., David Taylor has made contact again and been advised that Jon Griffin, who we know from the past and has a lot of experience and knowledge of our environmental issues, is now responsible for our area and Mark Jaeger continues to work in his team.
Item 35/16: Youth Club
David Taylor reported that the youth club does have a new youth leader who is very keen but David is worried that without volunteer support it might be too much for him to manage. David has three volunteers who will give one night a month but he wants to get it up to sixteen volunteers. David is canvassing around SMI but will not re-open the youth club until he can be sure it can operate safely.
Post Meeting Note: We are currently up to 12 volunteers and David Taylor now wants to send an appeal through the SMI Parent Mail. If we can get a few more volunteers who can spare one Friday night a month over about 9 months, then we plan to reopen at the start of the school year in September. Anyone reading this who would like more information please call David Taylor on 01634 893447.
Item 36/16: Planning Matters
Allan Sneller reported that the Marina is to install another line of pontoons to increase mooring capacity. Starbucks have opened a coffee shop next door to Zippers.
Post meeting note: The pontoons are now installed and many of the moorings have been taken.
Any Other Business:
Nanette Crawford notified the meeting of a scam targeting disabled people about servicing their mobility scooters.
Barry Woolford raised the recurring issue of the rubbish which accrues in the corner of Basin 1 near the petanque court. The resident of the house nearest the spot used to contact the marina to get them to come out with their special boat and clean up the mess. They have now moved and no one is regularly monitoring the situation. David Taylor will contact Tracy at the marina. As CMT have just now taken possession of the northern bullnose (where the rubbish collects) perhaps they can contact the marina when there is a problem.