MINUTES OF COMMUNITIES FIRST WILDMILL MEETING Held at Bridgend ARC Building on Thursday 17 th of March 2011 at 6.30pm PRESENT: Debbie Burcombe Ryland Doyle Dennis Evans Cllr Peter Foley Gaynor Hayes Rhiannon Hayes Susan Hopwood Roger Marsh Craig Lester Chris Palmer Cllr Beverly Quennell Cllr Madge Quennell Gwyn Roberts Mandy Snape Mark Williams APOLOGIES: Kate Atkin Debbie Bryn David Downes Maria Downes Tracey Everton Anita Langdon Diane Morris Rachel Morton Mathew Palmer Ivy Pilliner Cal Stevenson Phil Williams Treasurer County Councillor WATRA Chair BTCV County Councillor Community Councillor Wildmill Community Life Centre Bridges into Work Youth Work Vice Chair Valleys to Coast Valleys to Coast BC/lc BTCV 1. WELCOME AND APOLOGIES Roger welcomed all to the meeting and apologies were made as above. 2. PRESENTATION & TOUR OF THE ARC BUILDING Prior to the meeting the partnership were given a presentation by Martyn Llewellyn on the services offered by ARC and information on the services that use the building, and were also given a tour of the building. 1
3. MINUTES OF LAST MEETING Debbie Burcombe proposed that the minutes of the last meeting were correct, and Sue seconded this. 4. MATTERS ARISING a) COMMUNITY FLOOD PLAN Chris explained that a session to go through the Draft version of the Community Flood plan and finalise the plan would take place on 29 th March, 10.30am; The Environment Agency and Emergency Planning Officer would also be attending. There was a need for volunteers and a Flood Warden to be appointed. Chris invited any interested partnership members to attend the session. b) ACTION PLAN CONSULTATION Discussed as agenda item. c) ST JOHNS AMBULANCE Chris explained that he has been trying to get in contact with St John s Ambulance re a potential project, but has been unable to speak to anyone as of yet. d) COMMUNITY COHESION FUND Chris explained that the two Conflict Management courses funded through the Community Cohesion Fund had run and were very successful. Chris has met with Sergeant Truscott and PCSO Paul Galtry, and all are still keen to go ahead with the community reassurance project, which the Community Cohesion fund was unable to pay for. This project will be looked at during the new financial year and is a part of the partnership workplan. e) CENSUS Chris explained that he had met with the Bridgend s Census Area Manager, who is keen for CF to help community members to fill out their questionnaires if they require assistance. A census event has been arranged for Wednesday 30 th March, 1-7pm. Chris explained that the Census representative would be at the Hub at 1pm that day to discuss the census, and invited partnership members who would be available on the day to assist during the event. 5. CO-ORDINATOR S UPDATE a) JOBS FAIR Chris reported that the jobs fair went well with around 150 attendees, and succeeded in boosting the number of attendees to Wildmill Job Club, and BTCV volunteers. b) QUARTERLY REPORT Chris reported that the quarterly report has now been sent off. 2
c) ANNUAL MONITORING REPORT Chris explained that the AMR report needs to be sent off before the next meeting. Discussion took place as to whether to bring forward the next partnership meeting or hold a separate meeting which would just discuss the report similar to the way it was dealt with last year which took about an hour and a half. It was agreed that a separate meeting would be held to go through this. 6. COMMUNITY PARK Craig explained that a tree planting event was held at the park over February half term, which was attended by over 40 people despite the bad weather. The team are currently working on finishing the paths. Everything is on track to be completed in time for the WAG inspection 6 th April. Chris explained that the letter thanking Bridgend Town Council for their support in the regeneration of the park, as actioned during the last meeting had been sent. 7. COMMUNITY CENTRE Gwyn explained that he is currently in the process of emptying the Community Centre in preparation for the refurbishment. Roger explained that everything is on track for the refurbishment to commence on the 4 th April. 8. TRUST FUND Chris explained that the Trust Fund for 2010/11 is now closed; the 10,000 allocated to Wildmill has been spent. WATRA, Bridge Church and Wildmill Youth Club have applied for funding from the under spend, results pending. 9. BTCV UPDATE Craig noted that the Gardening Club would be running every Tuesday from 12 th April, 10am-3pm, from the Community Hub, and that the social enterprise team were still waiting to hear on the next years grass cutting contract. 10. BRIDGES INTO WORK UPDATE Chris updated the partnership on the BiW project in Kate s absence. Chris explained that 3 work-skills courses would be running March/April from Wildmill Youth Club Introduction to Customer Service, Introduction to Community Development, and Get That Job! Chris noted that there has been a change to BiW project, there is now a limit on the number of courses a participant can attend. ACTION: Kate to report back to partnership on changes to the project. 3
11. WATRA EASTER EGG HUNT Gaynor explained that WATRA s Easter Egg Hunt would be held on Saturday 23 rd April, from 12pm, around the Precinct. Any children interested in participating should sign up at the Community Hub. There will also be go-karts, a bouncy castle, Easter Bonnet Parade and BBQ. Gaynor asked whether anyone would be available to help out at the event. 12. ANY OTHER BUSINESS ROYAL WEDDING MUGS Chris explained that had bought 500 Royal Wedding mugs to distribute throughout the community. The mugs will be given to the children and young people at the Easter Egg Hunt. will then link in with other groups in the community to distribute the rest of the mugs. SEMINAR Chris reported that he had attended an Intermediate Labour Market Seminar. Two EU funded project are expected to run in Bridgend, offering 6 month employment opportunities to 16-17year olds who must reside in a area. This is only available to young people who wish to sign up and who are ready and want to seek employment, and will be available to a maximum of 40 young people throughout the whole of Bridgend. These projects are expected to be implemented by September. ACTION PLAN Chris handed out copies of the partnership s draft action plan, and items in the plan were discussed. Some amendments were made to the plan and the partnership accepted the plan which will finalised and distributed ACTION : Pass comments back to UOG, amend and distribute completed plan CREDIT UNION Chris explained that the two ladies who have been volunteering with the Credit Union in Wildmill have stepped down. Debbie Burcombe and Mandy have volunteered to take on the Wildmill Collection point. The credit union are also looking for ideas on how to increase Credit Union membership within Wildmill, They have been successful in getting new members but many are paying by standing order not at the collection point, they had suggested a possible way to do this could be to link in with a community group. Chris asked if anyone had any ideas on this to contact him. 4
INTRODUCTION Ryland Doyle introduced himself as the Assistant Programme Manager for Bridgend, and explained that he would be looking to attend more future partnership meetings. 13. NEXT MEETING Thursday 21 st April, 2011, 5.30pm, at Wildmill Community Hub. 5