OCTOBER HIRA Meeting

- Fri 12th Nov 2004

HIRA Executive Committee.
Minutes of meeting held on October 12th 2004 at Sunnyside Hall

Present: L. Neale (LN), A. Higham (AH), D. Turvey (DT), P. Fisher (PF). R Blindell (RB)
Lesley and Nigel Marsden attended the meeting. We hope they will join the Committee at the AGM.

Councillors: A Lenaghan

Apologies: Colin Richards (CR), Shirley Adams. (SA)

Minutes of September meeting

These were approved.

Matters Arising

Dealt with subsequently.

Planning Issues


After his recent trip, RB dealt with these.

Station Road - 2 dwellings had been applied for at Rapleys old yard in Station Road. As most of the properties here were already residential, there seemed little reason to object.

Funlands Drop Ride - There also appeared to be little reason to object to the extension of permission for the drop ride at Funlands as the noise issue had been overstated and this was not a problem.

Holiday Caravans - The main discussion was on an application for extended occupation of holiday caravans. The current limit on occupation is intended to ensure that they do not become used for permanent occupation, but remain available for visitors. The dilemma is: should they be kept to this use or should they be available for people to live in. In the latter case, presumably the occupants would become more contributing members of the community and that should be to the benefit of the Island.

A further point was that many owners would like to use them at Christmas and this is presently not permitted.

There was no strong view on the overall matter, but a trend towards longer permitted occupation, though equally there was no strong feeling that the conditions should be totally removed.

Buccaneer - There was some concern about the approval for mixed retail/residential use at the old Buccaneer site. More concern existed that the whole area should be subject to a better overall planning approach but otherwise the situation was accepted.

Health Centre Car Park - AL also mentioned that the Council were reviewing parking charges and the introduction of charges at the Health Centre. It was likely that a decision on this matter was to be deferred for the time being.

Wokswagon - It was reported that an enforcement notice had been served to resolve the emission nuisance. We hope it will resolve the problem.

Liveability Fund

AL presented the latest state of this programme. He highlighted the importance of timescale, programme to be completed in 18 months. Improvement of roundabouts was a topic. DT requested shelters on the beach. The overall programme was to make Havant a flagship Borough in 5 years. Meetings were held every month and were advertised in the Islander.

AL stated he had been taken on a tour of Hayling by a Council Officer to look at various issues of importance.

The problem of waste bins had been discussed and AL informed us that dog droppings could be put in normal bins, thus questioning the point of having two separate bins. This meeting was of the opinion that one set of bins, better positioned, better located and sometimes bigger, would give a better service, would be less obtrusive and would probably be less expensive to operate, thus benefiting all.

Billy Trail Survey

PF presented an overview of this survey and talked about the meeting that had recently taken place between interested parties. It was hoped that English Nature would take a more relaxed view on the conflicts between users and single-issue environmentalists.

AGM

PF confirmed that David Willetts would attend the AGM and that all was in hand.

Correspondence

P Turnbull (Langstone RA) had written about various issues in Havant relating to developments and associated road issues. The various Council groups were cooperating on this and plans were afoot to add extra lanes to the Langstone roundabout, for example.

Crime

CCTV was now operating at the Community Centre and appeared to be effective. The MUGA at the park was also progressing and it would be interesting to see how use of this developed and how it would relate to better community respect.

HIRA Social Event

It was suggested that HIRA should organise a social event of some sort next summer, to allow members to meet and talk over issues of interest to them. A venue such as the ‘Inn on the Beach’ was put forward. The general idea was agreed upon and we will work towards such a happening.

DONM

November 9th at 7.30 in the Sunnyside Hall.

Distribution.

Committee members, councillors and others.

By forum user, PaulFisher