Minutes of the Meeting of Visit New Mills held on 30th September 2013
- Present:
Barry Bate, Jean Fildes, Mike Daniels, Beth Atkins, Sean Whewell, Northe Slack
- Apologies:
None
- Minutes of the Meeting of 29/05/2013:
were accepted as a true and correct record.
- Matters arising:
From 8) a) iii) (Torr Vale Mill) Barry reported that he had hand-delivered the letter to Daniel Cunningham. VNM hopes for an early response as Daniel is recognised as an active member of the New Mills community.
- Finance Update:
VNM finances are as reported at the last meeting. Sean reported that the Co-op bank required another signature in order to activate the internet banking pin number. He will arrange for an additional signature and then circulate the number to members.
- Web Site Update:
- Barry reported that he had informed Karl of the groups’ decision to award him (in principle) the job of creating the VNM website.
- Funding Sources
- i) Beth reported that David Harrison (Greenbank Trust) had agreed to provide funding for the creation of the website. She will determine what the next stage of the application process is and invite David to a future meeting of VNM. It was agreed that the group will now compile a ‘wish list’ of I.T. and new technology needs for the area – and negotiate with the Adult Education Service about whether they are able to deliver such training.
- Sean reported that he had submitted an application to the Derbyshire Community Foundation. The next meeting of the Foundation will be in October. It was agreed that, should this application be successful, it will be the primary fund for the creation of the website.
- Jean reported that no decision would be taken about the Mayors Fund for many months. It was agreed not to pursue this application.
- Mike reported that the Leaders’ Fund was already very heavily subscribed and no decision about further use would be made for a long time. It was agreed not to pursue this application.
- Beth reported that she was currently directing her DCC Leadership Funding towards the Festival and Carnival, rather than VNM.
- Jean reported that she had spent some time considering Lottery Funds but, at the moment, considered them to be too complicated for the group to undertake.
- Action Plan update:
Jean reported on her correspondence with Jo Brookes. After lengthy discussion it was agreed that VNM will write back thanking Jo for her reply, confirming the work that had gone into the creation of the VNM Constitution and asking her to invite to a subsequent VNM meeting whichever Officer was appropriate to deal with our questions.
Jean expressed continuing concern about the ‘conflict’ between the New Mills Conservation Area and the adjacent Designated Employment Area EMP4. It was noted that her principal wish was to get a review of the boundary of the Conservation Area and to extend it into the EMP4 area.
- Correspondence with Transition New Mills
Barry reported on the recent correspondence between himself, Sean and Angharad Hughes of Transition New Mills. Following a lengthy discussion it was agreed that Barry will contact Angharad and ask to meet with her so that they can discuss the ‘overlap’ or commonalities that VNM and Transition New Mills share in order that work on future projects is not duplicated.
- Issues pertaining to New Mills Festival
Barry reported on the sequence of events that had occurred in relation to Lynn Bannisters’ about the ‘linking back’ of posts from the VNM Facebook page.
It was agreed that VNM is not attempting to be a competitor to ANY organisation within the town and is seeking to promote as widely as possible all and every event. VNM is also not seeking to gain credit for the work undertaken by any other organisation within the town. Mike felt that this issue had been caused partly as a function of how Facebook works and that such technical issues are impossible to overcome. It was noted that several other people outside the VNM group had administrators’ rights to the VNM Facebook page – especially set up by Sean to help alleviate this sort of issue.
It was agreed that, in future, VNM will be pro-active and try to forestall any such similar issues.
10)Â Â Â Â Â Any Other Business:
None
- Date, time and place of next meeting:
3.00 on Monday 21st October at the Heritage Centre.