The Woodingdean Tenants and Residents Association AGM - Woodingdean Residents demand answers from the Bus Company
The Woodingdean Tenants and Residents Association AGM was held at the Community Centre, on Thursday 12th February this year
It promised to deliver a lively meeting, and didn't disappoint!
60 residents turned out to see the election of Committee members for the year and to hear a thank you given to Councillor Geoff Wells, from the Chair Leigh Farrow, for his twenty two years work for the Village of Woodingdean - incorporating a period of the Mayor for Brighton - in the process. This has not been achieved before by a Woodingdean Councillor.
First off, a presentation by Rachel Chasseaud, from Brighton & Hove City Council, on the prickly subject of Unlawful Travellers Encampments. She described, with the help of Inspector Paul Ransome giving the Police perspective, the problems all communities faced, and why solutions could not be instantly found.
She then spoke about the financial and legal implications the Council has, and what it was proposing to do to sort this perennial problem.
There followed questions from the floor.
A presentation was then given by JP Amos, Chairman of the new Woodingdean Neighbourhood Watch Scheme.
This is the fastest growing organisation in Woodingdean and he urged all residents to get involved, so that Woodingdean can remain a lovely place to live, with low crime.
The scheme has been set up properly with a Chairman, Treasurer, banking facilities and a committee. All the committee members have had their Police checks done! Funds are already coming in to start paying for street signage.
There will be a tear-off section, in the March Newsletter edition, for everybody to pay their £1.00 one-off per household subscription, to become a member of the scheme, and enjoy, at the very least, a discount off their next house insurance quotation.
Lastly, there was a presentation from Patrick Warner, Business Development Manager of Brighton Buses, supported by Martin Harris, the Managing Director of Brighton Buses.
Councillor Geoff Wells spoke first, to mention some of the work done by the Woodingdean Councillors, and how there had been a recent meeting with Martin Harris, and our MP Simon Kirby, to discuss Woodingdean routes and the problems to residents, following a request to provide instances of missed buses from the last village Newsletter.
In Patrick's presentation, he covered the 2 & 22 bus routes to Woodingdean. He covered the problems they have had and how they are going to resolve matters.
The company will be sorting the current issues, then putting on an extra daily bus from April (which represents a £200,000 investment by them), and then by asking residents to comment on the improvements, by way of a postal consultation document that will be sent to everybody in the Village. This was followed by a lively question and answer session.
Our PCSO Ray Harrison, supported by Sgt. Chris Durrant and Inspector Paul Ransome, was on hand to answer questions from residents on local Policing matters before the meeting.
Simon Kirby MP then spoke at the end of the meeting to support residents in both the presentation issues raised in the meeting.
He had been in meetings with Brighton Bus Company and had taken the issue of Travellers Unlawful Encampments to Parliament (following over 4,000 local signatures) to ask why Councils don't use all the powers available to them and how long to local residents have to continue to pay for the clearing up process, after the Travellers have been moved on.
All in all, an eventful AGM. Thank you for attending if you did.
