The Village of Wark

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Mid Tyne Community Trust hosting the Community Forum

The next meeting of the Mid Tyne Community Trust, hosting the Mid Tyne Community Forum, is to be held on Wednesday 14th April 7.30pm at Wark Town Hall. We will be dicussing the Community Action Plan for the area and invite each Parish to send along a representative. For more information contact Vicky Herod – admin on 01434 230180 or Phil Wanless – chairman on 01434 230629

 

Minutes of the AGM held 28th January, 2010 Wark Town Hall

 

Present:           

Vicky Herod                  Administrator

Alex Kerr                       Chairman

Susi Gonchu                 NCC

Sandra Guthrie            Warden PC

G B Shaw                     Warden PC

Dave Westle                  Wall PC

Mick West                    Wall PC

Harold Foster                  Newbrough PC

Philip Wanless              Wark Sports Club

Anne Hutchinson            Treasurer

Judith Weir                    Wark PC/Wark Town Hall

Janet Somerville            Nth Tyne and Redesdale

Murray Somerville            Nth Tyne and Redesdale

Maud Jupp                    Chollerton

Edward Heslop               NCC/vice Chairman

Margit Stoksted            Wark     PC

Elaine Bristow                Simonburn PC

Simon Gregory               Gt Whittington PC

Colin Earnshaw              NNPA

 

Apologies received from : John Wood – Newbrough, Justin Angus – Whittington

                                                Maureen Ward – Simonburn, Marilyn Framrose

 

1)         Alex Kerr opened the meeting and introductions from the floor were made.

2)         Minutes of the AGM help 25th September 2008 were accepted.

3)            Chairman’s Report:   Alex Kerr reflected that the past year had highs and lows, among the highs were: MTCT becoming host to the Community Forum, the interest in the energy audit and renewables -  see presentation report,  the new Mid Tyne Business Forum which has had it’s first meeting and made plans for Business Breakfasts to enable local businesses to network, there is an on line data base and website, subscription £30 pa.. – see separate report.  The lows have been the lack of support for themed meetings that have focused on the needs of the community re education and transport, the lack of dissemination of information to clubs, societies and organisations within the Parishes and no feedback or articles for his newsletter ‘Gossip’.

Alex gave notice that he will be standing down as Chairman and at the next meeting of the MTCT we need someone to stand for office who will move the Community Forum (MTCT) forward as the representative of the Mid Tyne at NCC.

 

Edward Heslop asked the meeting to look on the bright side, so much has been achieved since the MTCT was thought of in 1998.   He asked that the surge of interest we are now experiencing should keep the MTCT going as the foundation to the Community Forum.

Edward gave a vote of thanks on behalf of the meeting to Alex and thanked him for all the hard work he has done which is greatly appreciated.   He reminded us we will need a chairman, he is unable to stand for chair as it may prove in conflict with his NCC position.

 

4)  The accounts for 2008 were presented and accepted by the meeting.

5) Development Fund:   We have two applications – Humshaugh Village Hall for disabled toilets and Simonburn Village Hall for disabled access – agreed in principle, some amendments needed to forms plus a second quotation for works.

The meeting was reminded that there is funding available for capital works – please ask if you have a need within your Parish.

 

6) Reports:  

Mid Tyne Community Forum:  Susi Gonchu told the meeting that there are 7 Community Forums and the MTCT was a good base for the Mid Tyne Community Forum as the forums are made up of a cluster of Parishes.   As Sustainable Communities the Parish plans can form the basis of an action plan for the area, identifying local issues ie affordable housing, energy and renewables.   Susi administers the Community Chest funding stream and projects could be put forward through the Community Forums.

 

Mid Tyne Business Forum : see separate report – appendix 1.

 

7) Presentation on Renewable and Sustainable Technologies:

Colin Earnshaw reported on the systems supported by the Northumberland National Park Sustainable Development Fund identifying the types of renewable energy technologies: Heat Producing – Biomass boilers, solar water heating, heat pumps both ground and air sourced.

Electricity Generation – Wind turbines, photovoltaics, micro-hydro turbines.

Colin gave details of each scheme, where they had been used in the area and the funding streams available.

Philip Wanless posed the questions – how much energy do we as householders use day to day, how could this be reduced – could the area become carbon neutral?   Could each Parish take up the challenge, could we afford not to?

Monitors are available to calculate how much an appliance uses, consider an audit of a sample of homes and collate the findings.

 

Alex Kerr closed the meeting by inviting Parishes to look at energy saving, also to give MTCT (Vicky Herod) a data base of community contacts so that more people/communities can become involved in the Community Forum – encourage others to join, spread the word.

 

This meeting has been held in Wark but we invite other community rooms to be our host.

 

The date of the next Mid Tyne Community Trust/Community Forum is 25th March 2010, 7.30 at Stonehaugh Village Hall.

 

The meeting closed at 9.30pm.

 

Appendix 1) Report for Mid Tyne Community Trust

 

  There has been a great deal of progress made with the Mid Tyne Business Forum since the initial meetings with the Community Trust last year. The inaugural meeting was held at Newbrough Town Hall in October 2009, where there were over 30 attendees, this meeting established how the forum would work going forward and was followed up with a meeting of the proposed committee members at Wark Sports Club in November. The committee was established at Chairman – Gary Killmister, Treasurer – Philip Wanless, Membership Secretary – Sam Burnish and PR and Marketing – Julian Christopher. During the early stages administrative support will still be provided by CI Accountancy Limited.

 

Website

 

The MTBF website was created with the support of Peter Rodger of TalkingHat Associates. There is a comprehensive business directory detailing the business name and contact details for over 180 entries, we envisage that this will continue to grow and develop over the coming months. The website is updated on a regular basis with latest news flashes and event details. www.mtbf.org.uk. As contacts become full members of the forum, they can log in to see details not available to the general public such as minutes of meetings and take part in the forum online, whereby they can post questions to other members or advertise services. The website also has a “featured members” section on the home page, which we envisage will be organised on a rotational basis, possibly every week changed to show different details.

Once we have the bank account opened, we will have a ‘paypal’ account linked to the website to enable people to pay their membership fee online.

 

Membership

 

It was agreed that there would be an annual membership fee, which would cover the cost of refreshments and venue hire. The membership fee has been set at £30.00, which is comparable with other forums in the area, this would give members access to all forum events and a discounted entry to the proposed networking groups. Full members would also be able to have a fuller business description within the website directory and the option to link it to their own website. We currently have 10 full members, however this is increasing all the time, we do not think this is a bad start as some of the larger forums in Hexham only have 70 members.

 

Forum Events

 

It was envisaged that the forum events would be held quarterly at different venues around the Mid Tyne region, they would give members the opportunity to listen to the guest speakers and meet other business owners.

 

The first Forum event was held at Wark Sports Club on 20th January with two guest speakers, Paul Blakey of Nat West and Colin Earnshaw from NNPA. There was an attendance fee of £5.00 for all non members; however this was refunded for any who became members on the night. There was a good turnout with over 20 attendees, most of whom did say that they would encourage friends and colleagues to join up as members too.

 

It was decided that the next forum event would be held in March at Wall village hall, the final details are yet to be decided and will follow on the website.

 

We are currently advertising events via email to everyone on our contact list, publications on the MTBF website and press releases in local newspapers, parish magazines etc.

 

The format for the forum events will generally be that there are one or two guest speakers discussing a range of subjects, which will hopefully be selected by the MTBF committee and members to ensure that they are relevant to the audience.

 

Networking Group

 

It is hoped that there will be a more frequent networking group, held every fortnight, again in different venues around the area, most probably cafés and tearooms as a breakfast club. This will not only help support local businesses in the region but will give networking members the opportunity to meet up on a regular basis and gain referrals and advice from others. Networking events are proved to be successful; many of the MTBF committee members are involved in other networking groups. By the same people meeting on a regular basis in a more informal environment, it is hoped that they will build a close working relationship lending itself to the opportunity to refer business and gain knowledge and advice from within the group. We are aiming for the first networking event to be held in mid February. Steps have been taken to build a core group of attendees who it is hoped will encourage others to come along and the group should then expand quite rapidly.

 

 

 

Next steps…

 

We aim to have both regular networking and forum events, these will encourage like minded business owners to meet up and share knowledge and experiences. Holding these events in various venues around the area will also contribute to supporting local communities and businesses. We would hope to grow and gain members on an ongoing basis making the most of the wide variety of businesses in the Mid Tyne region.

 

 

 

  

 

 

Some pictures of the worthy winners and produce at this year’s show.

 

Some images of Wark  on a sunny afternoon in June 2009