Ipswich Branch Committee Minutes 3 Feb 2012

INLAND WATERWAYS ASSOCIATION IPSWICH BRANCH Committee Meeting

Date: Friday, 3 February 2012 Venue: ‘The Chequers’, Great Blakenham.

Present: Chard Wadley (Chairman), Charles Stride (Secretary), Spencer Greystrong (Treasurer), Brian Holt (PRO), Diana Holt (Social), Lewis Tyler (RGT), Susan Brown (RST), Brian Cornell (Pickerel) and Gerry Crease.

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APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE Clive Saville.

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MINUTES OF THE MEETING HELD 25 NOVEMBER 2011 The Chairman duly signed the minutes for 25 November 2011 as being a true record of the proceedings.

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MATTERS ARISING NOT INCLUDED IN THE AGENDA Brian Holt raised his concern about other branches in the region having the ability to email our members directly. Brian said he felt that it was the wrong decision for us to agree to this process and if they are bombarded with mailings from other branches they may stop taking Anglian Cutting electronically.

Charles is to find out more detail regarding this request and to advise Head Office, if needed, that we do not want e-circulars direct to our Branch members. Any info from outside should be sent to Chairman/Secretary only.

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COMMITTEE REPORTS Chairman Chard asked if everyone had seen the press release from HO on the Government funding deal for the new Canal and River Charity agreed by DEFRA and this was discussed.

Chard told the committee the sad news of the death of Doug Beard and asked Susan if anyone from the River Stour Trust would be attending the funeral on Friday, 10 February to which Susan replied that she did not know. Chard suggested a sympathy card should be sent to Mollie Beard and all agreed.

Secretary Charles reported on items received and circulated: Pickerel Project minutes for 17 January 2012.

Cambridge minutes for 29 November 2011 and 10 January 2012 plus the Ouse News.

Peterborough minutes for 7 December 2011 and 4 January 2012.

EAWA and Dilham work party lists for the coming year.

IWA email regarding the purchase of clothes.

IWA press release on funding and IWA Bulletins.

Planning Note from the Forest Heath and St Edmundsbury’s combined policy dealing with Town Centres, Street Trading and Cafes.

River Action Group’s discussion regarding creation of the footpath in Ipswich reporting that the EA have loads of requirements and have stated that RAG will have to take responsibility for maintenance in the future.

Mid Suffolk core strategy review of several items with one item of interest being a map of Mill Lane proposal which was for information only.

Waveney District Council regarding industrial sites in Halesworth.

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Aylsham Navigation regarding the setting up of the Bure Navigation Conservation Trust; this had been reported in Anglian Cuttings.

AGM Charles reported that committee members due to retire at the AGM are Brian Cornell, Charles Stride and Susan Brown. Brian Cornell has completed a form saying he wishes to continue, Charles has agreed to stand again and Susan is not sure and will decide before the AGM. Chard reminded the committee that Carolyn, minute’s secretary, will be typing the minutes from the recording taken at the meetings until a replacement can be found. Chard said the position of minute’s secretary would be raised at the AGM. Treasurer Spencer asked if anyone had any problems with the accounts report for the AGM saying he had received queries from Chard and Lewis and these he clarified. Susan asked about ownership of the container, which was mentioned in the accounts, and it was explained that it is owned by the Ipswich Branch of the IWA and not the River Gipping Trust and that the accounts before the committee are for the branch and not the Trust. All approved the accounts report and Spencer explained that it had been checked and approved by HO. Helen from Finance had contacted Spencer saying she had been looking at the branch’s current account with Barclays and found that it is paying a better rate of interest than the Charities Aid Foundation, therefore Helen has now transferred all our money from the Charity account to the Barclays account.

Public Relations Officer Brian said Aylsham have an event coming up in August which is an anniversary celebration.

Once more details are known it will be reported in Anglian Cuttings.

Social Secretary Diana said there is just one more speaker to organize for next social season. Brian said that people had asked if we could do a fish and chip supper again for our next social meeting near Christmas and this was agreed. Chard asked about a trip for next year and Brian replied that nothing had been decided as yet but he is looking into a possible day trip later this year on the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation on the Victoria.

Attendance numbers for the branch meetings were as follows: December 2011 - 24 January 2012 - 34 It was said that the January meeting was a very good evening and a vote of thanks was recorded to Joan and John Finch for organizing and running the quiz.

Editor, Anglian Cuttings Chard stated that the recent Anglian Cuttings was excellent. Charles reported that the next edition would be April or June. Charles thanked all contributors to the magazine.

Membership Secretary Ipswich Branch memberships figures are as follow: November 2011 - 503 members and 329 memberships December 2011 – 493 members and 323 memberships Brian reported that William Sibley a member of the branch had recently died.

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REPORTS ON OTHER BODIES River Gipping Trust Lewis reported that a meeting of the Trust was held on 13 December 2011 and that Les Howard had now joined the Trust as a Trustee and is an active working party member.

The next meeting is on 13 March 2012 with the AGM being held on 25 May 2012.

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Lewis said that the Trust is now involved in discussions with Bramford Parish Council about the redevelopment of the old Fison Building. Spencer continued saying that Martin and Les had attended a meeting which included the Chair and Vice Chair of Bramford Parish Council, John Hooker and Kevin Wolsby and the meeting was led by Paul Foster for Barton Willmore. They are currently working up development proposals prior to submitting planning application. The site consists of two areas; Area 1, between the railway line and the road, currently occupied by industrial buildings and Area 2 between the railway and the river down to Bushman’s bridge, currently meadow.

Spencer reported that regarding the clearance of the Himalayan Balsam from the river, the EA had decided to refer this to senior management and as yet there has been no response. Spencer continued saying that if it is not done by the end of February it will be too late so it looks like this will not happen now until next year.

Regarding Balham sluice, Spencer said that they have submitted an LDC and have had positive responses from both the land owner and the EA so are not expecting any problems. Work at Pipps Ford is continuing.

River Stour Trust Susan started her report by saying that this is the time of the year for maintenance work.

At Sudbury the strengthening and replacing of rotting timbers on the Granary balcony has been done, and work parties have been preparing the site ready to construct the jetty extension for the delivery of the restored lighter.

The Trust will be taking delivery of their third electric boat next week to work between Sudbury and Henny. Spencer added that the new boat was bought on a very good deal and replaces the Elsie Mary which was actually hired and not owned by the Trust and this will make a yearly saving.

The poor condition of the gates in Dedham and Flatford locks is causing concern. The estimated cost of new gates is £35,000.

A meeting is currently being arranged with the EA to decide how to proceed with the restoration of Stratford Lock.

The Trust is negotiating to take over the public open space beside the river at Cattawade from Suffolk County Council. This provides a rare public access point to the river, with car parking, picnic tables and wooden jetties for fishing or small boats. It is the last landing place at the lower end of the river before the tidal barrier, and is regularly used by River Stour Boating for their canoe trips as well as being the finish point for RST’s S2C event each year.

John Osborne, a popular Trust Vice-President, died on 24th December. He was a long-standing member who both crewed and maintained the Flatford boat for many years, and was a member of Council He was involved in every aspect of Trust activity, and was an enthusiastic supporter of the Stratford Lock restoration.

The AGM will be held at The Granary in Sudbury on Saturday May 26th.

Broads Authority Forum Brian reported that he had attended a Broads Authority meeting on 2 February 2012 in Norwich about Broads Biodiversity regarding the Wetlands saying this is a World Wide event for Wetlands and is to be an annual event. Brian said it was a very interesting meeting and there was nothing negative said regarding boating and it was said that they see navigation as an important part of the Broads.

The next Broads Forum meeting will to be on the 9 February 2012 and Brian said that following the last meeting the chairman, Jonathan Bowman, resigned and for the next meeting the interim chairman will be Stephen Johnson.

Brian continued explaining some of the essential work being done on the Broads.

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Pickerel Project Group Brian Cornell had attended the Pickerel Project meeting on 17 January 2012 and gave a report to the committee. Brian had suggested to the PPG a joint walk with the IWA and they had agreed.

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ANY OTHER BUSINESS Charles reported on the latest talks listing and will circulate an update.

Spencer reported that a couple of weeks ago HO had asked for suggestions to improve the IWA web site. Spencer said he sent in several ideas which have been acknowledged and will be considered further.

Spencer has been asked to spend a day at IWA HO to offer help to IWA staff in the use of Microsoft Office 2010 and arrangements are in hand.

Spencer said he had written to HO suggesting numerous method changes in the way we offered web site training to branches.

Lewis mentioned that there will be a workshop on Volunteering for the new Canal and River Trust which is to be held in Birmingham on 18 February 2012. Unfortunately, no-one from the committee is available to attend.

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NEXT MEETING Friday, 20 April 2012.

The Chairman closed the meeting at 2pm.

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