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THE COMMUNICATOR
BALSALL COMMON VILLAGE RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION
E-Newsflash 11th April 2015
email: feedback@balsallcommonresidents.org
Editor - David Felthouse
Dear Residents,
Herewith the minutes of last year’s Residents Association Annual General Meeting as a further
reminder that this year’s AGM will be held this coming Thursday, 16th April, starting at 7:30pm, in the
Balsall Common Village Hall, Station Road. As previously announced, it is combined with Balsall
Parish Council’s Annual Assembly.
Also you will see that it is an early start to this year’s Balsall Common Festival with the heats to the
“Balsall’s Got the Voice” competition. The first of these is on this coming Friday, 17th April; there are
still places available in this heat. Please note children can come to watch if accompanied by an adult.
To complete a busy week there is a Jumble Sale, on Saturday, in St Peter’s Church Hall.
The newsflash is completed by two notices from our Neighbourhood Police team. I am sure you have
read in the local press about the hit & run incident which left a 93 year old woman seriously injured;
the police are asking for help in finding the car which they believe could be involved. It is a silver
Chrysler Voyager and it is likely to have damage to the front near side.
The team would also like to re-state the warning that the scam to obtain credit/debit cards and PIN
numbers by use of a courier is still a serious threat.
Finally, there have been a number of thefts of vehicle number plates, so be on your guard. With the
increasing use of Automatic Number Plate Recognition systems it is likely that such incidents will
increase. It is worth considering fitting unscrewable security fittings.
David Felthouse
BALSALL COMMON VILLAGE RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION
Minutes of Annual General Meeting held on Thursday 17th April 2014
Present: K Tindall (Chair), D Felthouse (Vice Chair), T Hughes (Treasurer), C Shadbolt (Minutes), D
Ellis, W Heard, J Lea and P Lucas plus 12 members of the public.
1. Apologies R Hatton,
2. Minutes of the previous AGM were accepted. Proposed CS, Seconded DF .
3. Matters Arising – none.
4. Chairman’s report – see attached, the report was noted.
A resident new to the village, who live on the Kenilworth Road stated that they have noticed a
significant increase in the volume of HGV traffic since January and asked if there was any reason
for this and if anything could be done about it. KT stated that Jaguar Land Rover had been given
permission to store vehicles near Fen End whilst premises alterations are taking place. There are
some large delivery vehicles passing through the village but that is usually between 11 –
11.30pm. New supermarkets in the surrounding villages may add to this problem. HS2 will also
make the problem considerably worse during the construction phase with up to 750 additional
vehicles a day passing up the Kenilworth Road. There has also been some expansion at the
aggregate pits just outside the village.
5. Treasurers Report – see attached, the report was adopted, Proposed DH, Seconded DE .
6. Elections of Committee and Officers, the following were elected: Will Heard and Paul Lucas are stepping down as committee members and our thanks go to them
for the work they have done on our behalf.
Committee Members
Chairman
Vice-Chairman
Secretary
Treasurer
E-News Editor
David Ellis, David Felthouse, Rod Hatton, Terry Hughes,
Judy Lea, Charlotte Shadbolt, Keith Tindall
Proposed KT, Seconded GP
Keith Tindall
David Felthouse
Charlotte Shadbolt
Terry Hughes
David Felthouse
Proposed DE
Seconded WH
7. Questions / Comments covered the following topics:PL asked if Sixth Form representatives from Heart of England School would be interested in
volunteering to join the committee. CS agreed to approach the Head of Sixth Form in this respect.
G Price commented on the lack of Solihull Councillors present at the AGM, and other residents
present stated they wished their disappointment to be passed onto the Councillors. KT undertook to
write to them. R Lloyd stated Balsall Parish Council had signed a charter with SMBC to encourage
them to liaise with Parish Councils and consult residents. This appears to have had no impact.
8.
Presentation on Severn Trent Services by Leanne Town.
9.
Resolution to oppose the HS2 Hybrid Bid.
The following resolution was proposed by KT and seconded by RL and passed unanimously:
Balsall Common Village Residents Association hereby resolves to oppose the HS2 Hybrid Bill, and to
Petition Parliament in order to attempt to mitigate the impact of HS2 on the local community.
RL stated that he plans to hold a drop in session shortly at the library or Police Shop to advise
residents who wish to petition in respect of HS2. This can be undertaken by individuals and
costs £20, PL suggested using some of the BCVRA to help people who may be put off by the
cost.
10. AOB.
JL wishes to thank the following local businesses who donated prizes for the raffle: Balsall Common
Pharmacy, Co-op, One Stop Stores, Angela Jayne’s Florist, Balsall Common Barbers, Shane
Collins and John Taylor Butchers.
Next Meeting Tuesday 6th May, 7.30pm in the Westlake Room at the back of the Village Hall.
TREASURER’S REPORT
Annual accounts April 2013 - April 2014
Business Premium account
£
168.66
0.08
168.74
Opening balance
Interest
Closing balance
Community account
Opening balance
Proceeds of Raffle
Closing Balance
506.53
42.00
548.53
Balance Sheet
Opening balance April 2013
Add income
Closing balance - April 2014
675.19
42.08
717.27
T.E.Hughes
Honorary Treasurer
Annual General Meeting Chairman’s Address 17th April 2014
Once again it has been a busy year for the Association in responding to both new and long standing
challenges that affect our residents.
During the past year we raised objections to two major housing development proposals in the
surrounding Greenbelt, one off Magpie Lane the other off Meeting House Lane, and I am pleased to
say both were ultimately withdrawn by the developers.
A new Sainsbury’s convenience store and filling station opened in January, but the long saga of the
Chattaway’s site continues with the latest information pointing to it being a Tesco convenience store
opening later in the year, we are told the development will start within 4 weeks. There is clearly a local
demand for affordable housing, and we gave our support to two proposals for apartments in the
centre of Balsall Common. One being an extension of Arden House the other being conversion of the
eye sore known as the Partco building, but unfortunately although planning permission was granted
nothing has taken place – bit like the Chattaway’s site.
The Association has supported residents in the need to control school term parking in Gipsy Lane and
Close, and I can report that parking restrictions are now being finalised which it’s hoped will improve
the situation for those residents. However it is feared that the restrictions are likely to push the
problem into other roads around the Heart of England School.
Turning now to the two main ongoing issues affecting our community; Birmingham Airport runway
extension and resulting flight route changes, and HS2.
On the flight routes we have made continued representations and objections to Birmingham airport,
both during the consultation and after, opposing routes 5 and 6 as unacceptable and proposing
departure route 7 which would have less impact on communities living under the flightpath.
Unfortunately the airport, despite being presented with a technical document prepared by pilots
supporting route 7, has chosen to ignore it. So from 1st May they will run two six month trial periods on
route Option’s 5 and 6 to track noise levels. It’s therefore important that residents monitor flights and
report unacceptable noise and off route aircraft to the airport. Many thanks to Dave Ellis for all the
work he has put in on this issue and the knowledge he brings to the Association. DE added that a
portable noise monitor will be situated in Magpie Lane from 16th June due to the route trials. He urged
residents to complain if the aircraft noise bothers them otherwise the new routes will be introduced
and it will be too late. KT added that the residents of Balsall Common and Berkswell needed to work
together on issues such as these and that the BCVRA would keep pushing for the Parish Councils to
work together to produce a local plan.
And now to HS2. Where do I start? Well the White Elephant is still charging forward despite more
damaging evidence showing how insane it is and that it needs to be culled. During the year the
Residents Association has responded to consultations on the Draft Environmental Statement,
Property Compensation and the mammoth 50,000 page long Environmental Statement, commenting
on and raising objections to the many issues and the impact HS2 will have on this community and
surrounding area; affecting the lives of each and everyone of us even if we don’t live near the line.
The next stage will be Petitioning Parliament for mitigation – and so the fight continues.
To end on a more positive tone, the problems of anti social behaviour around the village, especially in
the Library car park, have subsided and we hope though the work of the Police and others this will
continue. I would like to pay special thanks to Will Heard for his efforts in helping to resolve the
problem of youths gathering in the Library car park.
As many of you will know we now have a defibrillator installed in the Village Centre outside the
pharmacy, and a number of residents have been trained in its use. Hopefully it will not be used too
often, but it’s there if it’s needed.
Finally, I would like to thank the Committee for their support during the past twelve months, and pay
special thanks to David Felthouse for all his hard work in publishing the much valued on line
Communicator and to Charlotte for taking the Minutes.
Balsall’s Got the Voice competition Launch
Balsall Common Festival organisers are gearing up for the
start of this year's Balsall's Got the Voice competition, with
sequence of first round qualifying heats that gets
underway on Friday 17th April 2015 at The Berkswell and
District Royal British Legion.
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“The idea behind the competition is community
involvement as much as it is about the contest itself”, says
Balsall Common Festival Chairman Craig Burgess:
"We want as many people as possible to come out and
enjoy the qualifying rounds, from competitors friends and family, to anyone from the community.
All are welcome to attend the Heats and Quarter Finals at The Royal British Legion.”
"Last year's qualifiers were lots of fun and people really got into the shows. We have bar facilities
available through every round of competition, so everybody can come and relax at the end of a
hard week's work."
All three first round heats and a further Quarter Finals night will all be held at The Berkswell &
District Royal British Legion, before the competition arrives at the Balsall Common Festival on
Saturday 19th September, where a lucky dozen will compete through Semi Finals and Finals on
the Main Festival Stage.
Competition Entries
“We’re still looking at applications to see who to invite to the first qualifiers on Friday 17th April at
the moment,” says Craig Burgess:
“So anyone who is able to rush a quick snippet of themselves performing to info@bcfest.co.uk
could still receive an invitation to come and play on Friday.”
“We’re also interested in hearing from any local artists who don’t wish to compete, are maybe
already established on the local music scene and would like to perform as part of our shows while
the judges are deliberating.”
All enquiries are invited by email to: info@bcfest.co.uk
Full competition details, including rules and how to enter can be found at the following page at the
Balsall Common Festival website:
http://bcfest.co.uk/docstore/TheVoiceRulesPDF.pdf
Balsall’s Got the Voice in the news
http://www.balsallcom.com/2015/04/balsalls-got-the-voice-2015-competition-launch/
Balsall’s Got the Voice online
For regular updates on Balsall’s Got the Voice and Balsall Common Festival visit:
bcfest.co.uk
facebook.com/bc.festival
twitter.com/bcfest @bcfest
Balsall’s Got the Voice is an integral part of the Balsall Common Festival. The Balsall Common
Festival website at bcfest.co.uk is currently under construction and should be in full working order
by next Friday 17th April 2015.