AGM 2015 Minutes

Present

Anne Chadborn (AnneC), Alan Chadborn (AC), Rebekah Clark (RC), Steve Cornish (SC), Andrew Doyle (AD), Lee Howard (LH), Andrea Pita (AP), Jak Purcell, John Taylor (JT), Paul Toal (PT), Kath Whittam(KW) John Wills.

The meeting commenced at 19.02.

Apologies

Neil Coyle, MP, the Sprotsons, Georgina Hicks, Stephanie Cryan, Bill Williams, Stephanie & Jim Lodge & Miles Pryce.

The minutes of the 2014 AGM were approved.

Matters Arising

The £49k from Barratts had been handed over & SC will detail in his report.

AC was concerned that the trees had not been cut. RK said a proper management plan had been produced & coppicing was included. There was to be selective felling of non-native trees. A discussion by interested parties would need to be arranged & the RDW management plan would need to be reconsidered.

Election of Officers

The current committee stood down but were offering themselves for re-election. They were nominated and seconded. Chairman & Secretary were elected unopposed. The post of Treasurer had become vacant on the departure of Ben Dewhurst, so there would be no Treasure’s Report at tonight’s meeting. It was not possible to elect one at the meeting and SC thanked Ben for his past work. It was proposed that Toby Prescott could be Vice-Chair if the meeting agreed. RC proposed this and AD seconded and Toby P was duly elected. It was proposed that an EGM be held in 2 months time to elect a Treasurer.

Report from the Chair

SC ran through the achievements of the year:

• Celtic stones had been installed in the natural ply area and more were placed in the Joe’s Pond area. They were low maintenance and had been paid for from the Barratts 106 £49k money.
• 30 Flowering fruit trees had been planted as part of the diverse woodland trees approach. Sadly, there have been more arson attacks in the woodland this year and 3 of the trees had been victims.

RK said that the Natural Play Area by Joe’s Pond had been carried out by RBS for 2½ months. Local residents had been consulted & the design altered to take into account their concerns re older children. Feedback has been positive and the feature is well used & 2 Forest Groups have asked to use it. It is easy for Quadron to maintain. ¼ ton boulders had been requested but the smallest one delivered had been 1¼ tons so these have been arranged in a circle. It had been decided to create this project at Joe’s Pond to balance others at the Moby Dick end of the woodland.

• 13 new bins & benches had been installed around the green.

AC asked if the bins were fox proof. PT said that he thought they were. LH said that elaborate parties were becoming a problem; he cited examples of gazebos etc being used & rubbish was not being taken away. AnneC suggested notices to take rubbish home. RC suggested notices on trees & AC said that photos of foxes marauding would be good. LH said that BBQs were also being built in the woodland.

• 700 small trees had been planted by Jon Best but possibly only 400 of these had survived.

A drought hadn’t helped. AnneC suggested watering but RC said that the number was too great.

• Water & Wildlife: The Pump was working well and water was now penetrating into the Green area. The bottom pond (Moby Dick end) needed cleaning out; could this be a job for volunteers?

AD said that the pond by St John’s was low. RC said that it was a seasonal pond & is fine for newts and that the liner was still ok. AD said that it still seemed lower than usual.

• The Rain Shelter: Planning Permission was needed.

RC said her carpenter was experienced & had done a lot of work at Lavender Pond. He was very competent. SC has asked for a design & costing + the cost of leading a team of volunteers over a weekend to build it. It was hoped that it would look like a country bus-stop. LH asked if it would not be used anti-socially. SC said that it could be sited for passive surveillance. The carpenter had suggested an open-sided building & money for it will come from CGS.

Events

RC reported that a lot had happened in the woodland:

Sound camp for the 2nd year, a Bat Walk attended by 40 people ~ bats and toads had been seen but no hedgehogs ~ & the 04.30 bird walk had been astonishingly loud. Sound Camp will be repeated in 2016 and an application had been made to the Heritage Lottery Fund to make it larger in its remit.

There had been 30 years of ecology at S.H.E.P. JT remarked there was no plaque or acknowledgement of the people who created & designed RDW. This was thought to be a good idea. AnneC said the woodland was not well signed; were there plans for signs? AP said they could be done if RC said RDW was becoming better known.

Bird Box Building ~ funded by United St Saviour’s ~ had not been entirely successful as only 10 people had turned up.

The hedgehog “pop-up” had been very successful & 30 had been completed.

There had been a foraging cycle-ride starting at Burgess hill, via Southwark and finishing at SHEP. AC suggested Galleywall NR for the next time

Forest Schools had taken place quite a few times since April and had ended in September. Local mums meet every week a go off to run Forest School pre-schools.

• Local Nature Reserve Status: SC showed the meeting the application for LNR status. If we succeed it would be a great achievement. A new ecological management plan has been produced.

RC said that LNR had to be proposed by someone important and Jon Best was our proposer. Stave Hill & RDW have now been matched up & the new management plan has taken a year to produce. Support letters have been written by RDW & Stave Hill and these will be sent to Natural England. If we achieve LNR funding will be easier to obtain. SC said that Neil Coyle had backed us and Barry Hargrove also supported us. JT asked if a manager was needed. AP said it would be managed by LBS. RC said Parks would be using a different set of plans to go by & a discussion would be needed between LBS & Quadron.

• Section 106: there is still money left for Globe & Mahogany ponds and lily pads had been suggested.

LH asked if this would compromise the LNR status. AP said that any water lilies could be native species only ~ she would investigate. RC said water lilies were usual planted initially at the edge and gradually moved to deeper water. Local water lilies were known as Brandy Bottles. She said she would like to see more of what we already have such as water irises. AC suggested tree planting “In Memory of….”. RC said that this had happened in the ecology park. She said that within the management plan there was scope for commemorative trees. AP said LBS make a charge for this in their other parks. JT said Lady Dock Path is an anomaly ~ it is not maintained by Quadron or LBS. There is an ugly patch near The Ship York chicane; it is rarely swept of the grass cut.

• Floating nesting Pontoons: SC said it was lucky that Greenland Dock residents donated a couple. We have circa £10k & we can spend some of that on high quality pontoons. AP said she had 4 spare & RDW could have them.
• Bulbs: 10,000 bulbs (snowdrops, bluebells & crocuses) could be planted in each area. AnneC suggested aconite & JT daffodils.

SC asked how many years Rebekah had been at SHEP (since 1989 she told him) & he thanked her for all her hard work & dedication.

• Sites: SC said that on the Downtown site Barratts would be leaving late January 2016. 100 trees were “missing” from the original replanting agreement. Legal action had been threatened & Barratts had agreed to reinstate them. Quebec Way: a stream is not going to be put in instead a pipe system will be installed which will fill up the ponds. Holding tanks are already in place. LH raised his concerns re the plan and the amount of soils that would need to be shifted. SC used a drawing to show how he thought it would work. He agreed it would be a lot of work. He said that at the beginning of the development 5 x 15 storey blocks were proposed with 3 entrances into the woodland. This had been reduced to1 entrance. The developers have said that they are experienced in SUDS schemes. RC said all developers now had to demonstrate environmental assets & most now developers now opt for SUDS. AP said the developer would initially have a maintenance plan but it would eventually pass to LBS. SC said that £80k would ensure that it would be landscaped but he would have to wait to see their plans. This would be next year. RC commented they must have a Landscape Architect on board. We should meet up to express concerns. LH asked who would control the diversion valve SC said it would be either RDW or LBS. JT said he backed RC in arranging a meeting with the developer. SC said he would make it a priority.
• Fairview Homes: the development was on the old Fisher Athletic site and was nearly ⅔ finished but the pitch had been on Metropolitan Open Land and it was hoped that it could be taken under the RDW umbrella possibly as wetlands. It might be called the Barry Albin Dyer Park. AC asked if it could provide a kick-around area. SC said this was a possibility but he didn’t know.
• British Land: the developer had massive proposals including a 40-story block with all that entails. There could be problems if too many people try to access via only 1 entrance. However, there will be a 30mx100m linked park as a green link and this is where Green Connections 106 comes in. British Land’s vision is for new green links from RDW to Southwark Park. A new swimming pool/ Leisure Centre is to be located somewhere on the Master plan Area, yet to be decided. LH worried again about the LNR status but SC said he felt people would be more drawn towards the “Town Centre”.

The meeting then closed at 20.30