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1.
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Introductions and Apologies
Apologies were
received from Cllrs Jane Chitty, Mark Last, Stephen Kearney, Karen
Griffin and Rehman Chishti
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2.
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Minutes of Previous Meeting
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2.1
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Item 2.2 refers
– Working plan has now been received and work will commence on
Monday 5th June to improve areas requiring attention.
Recent press
regarding market moving out of the High Street on one day a week
is purely speculation. There
are no plans to move the market at present.
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2.2
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Item 4 refers
– Hanging Baskets - No building regulation applying unless a listed
building – very grey area.
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2.3
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Item 8.2 refers
– Speciality Markets would need to be put out to tender and would
need consultation.
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Ongoing Action: Lesley
Jennings
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2.4
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Item 8.3 refers
– RM reported that the Community Safety Officers work on taskings
based on intelligence information.
Ron advised that the Security Group Meetings had just been
restarted
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2.5
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Item 8.4 refers
– Citizens Advice Bureau has no plans to close.
Opens on three days per week only – Monday, Tuesday and
Thursday from 0930 until 1500.
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2.6
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Item 8.7 refers
– The area is being monitored by Lesley Jennings.
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Action: Lesley Jennings
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2.7
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Item 8.8 refers
– A Play Facility Strategy is being completed – the outcome is
not yet known. Lesley Jennings to report back.
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Action: Lesley Jennings
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2.8
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Item 8.9 refers
– The work is being carried out.
Temporary toilets will be available during the work.
Douglas Rimmer advised that there are already vandalism
problems with the planters in Sapper Walk.
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2.9
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The minutes were
agreed.
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3.
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Update on
Parking Issues
Keith Hanshawe,
Head of Parking Services, gave a progress report.
Phase 1 - comprised the removal of Pay & Display
machines in Marlborough Road and Canterbury Street.
This has now been completed.
Phase 2 –KH met with Richard Collen and Annette Le Breton
to examine a series of problem areas.
Keith thanked Richard for the amount of effort he had contributed
and then tabled the resulting list of proposed changes to the
parking, including the addition of loading bays, introduction
of more disabled bays. These changes were discussed. Council officers will be working on the
changes within the next two weeks.
Although traffic regulation orders take some time it was
envisaged that the work could be complete by September 2006.
Michelle Jones
of Thyme Out asked about the loading & unloading regulations
at the west end of the High Street.
She stated that the traffic wardens do not appear to know
the rules exactly. Keith agreed to look into this and follow
it up with a leaflet drop to all the properties in that area. He advised traders to try and build a relationship
with traffic wardens.
John Welch of
Liddelows Bakers stated that many traders use multi-purpose vehicles
for unloading but the signs state ‘commercial vehicles only’.
Keith agreed to check the traffic order and signage but
advised that it is not possible to have loading at all times of
the day.
Mr Welch stated
that previous proposals had agreed an area to be marked out for
deliveries in Saxton Street but this had not happened.
Keith agreed to add this to the list of requirements for
Phase 2 works.
Traders were
asked to pass their comments or concerns to Richard Collen so
they could be fed through to Parking (KH).
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4.
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Barton Wilmore
Brief presented by Wendy Mesher
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Wendy provided
some copies of a first draft report commissioned by Medway Renaissance,
using previous research as a baseline.
Wendy emphasised this was not a ‘drawn plan’, but observations
of retail trends and some ideas on how to take things forward
in Gillingham.
Gillingham forum
was being given an early opportunity to comment on the brief,
which would have to go through further consultation processes
before achieving official status. The timescale would include a press release by 1 June, public consultation
throughout July, including leaflets, drop in centres, workshops
etc. This will be followed
up with more work looking at the various elements.
The process can take until December.
Cllr Juby was
concerned that the consultation period was too early because of
annual holidays.
The brief was
discussed at length, main points emerging were:
- Traders felt that small businesses were being
squeezed out of the town in favour of multiples. Wendy stated that the plan was to encourage
investment at a higher level.
Change was inevitable but in order to win larger retailers
back have to demonstrate that the whole area is being addressed.
- Access from the colleges/universities into Gillingham
was imperative otherwise students will be driven into Chatham.
WM stated officers are working with MOD but had not gone into
detailed discussions. It
was noted however that a new bus service had been provided.
- Traders were concerned that the Council wanted
to change Canterbury Street back to residential.
- Traders felt that Chatham is designated the retail
centre of Medway at the expense of Gillingham. They felt that for small businesses
to survive, more free parking is needed.
Wendy agreed
to make more copies available to the forum.
Cllrs Juby and Price offered funding from ward improvement
fund to provide more copies if necessary. Existing copies would
be held at Photomemories for forum members to borrow.
Members were asked to feed their comments through Richard
Collen.
Wendy agreed
to try and arrange for a representative of the Consultants Barton
Wilmore to attend a forum meeting in the near future.
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5.
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Planning Applications
Pizza Go Go –
84/86 Canterbury Street – Retrospective application for alterations
to shop front.
Pizza Hut 4U
– 39/41 High Street – Removal of opening hours condition to permit
opening 0800 – 2400 Mon-Sat inclusive.
0900-2230 Sunday.
Gillingham Railway
Station – Advertisement consent for installation of an internally
illuminated fascia sign.
Rayner Opticians,
111 High Street – Installation of new shopfront.
New Look, 120
High Street – Installation New Shopfront and internally illuminated
fascia sign.
Barclays Bank,
77 High St & 2/4 Canterbury St – Installation of two automatic
teller machines into High St elevation and removal of existing
ATM and insertion of window to Canterbury elevation.
Aldi Stores, 62-68 Duncan Road – Extension to provide additional
retail and storage area together with associated parking.
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6.
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Love Gillingham
27 July – 1st August 06
David John from
Gillingham Baptist Church outlined the scheme which had been piloted
on a small scale in 2005. This
year it was hoped to extend it and David asked for support from
businesses in the form of publicity and possibly drinks or lollipops
for the children volunteering. Current projects to include:
Clearing the
field by the Vineries of rubbish
Visiting OAP
homes
Youth project
Children’s projects
in Balmoral garden (donations of drinks welcome)
Clearing and
replanting borders near Jubilee Clips
Painting a mural
by Somerfield
Rubbish clearance
around High Street
To volunteer
contact Sarah Ryan at St Marks Church on 01634 570489.
One area sited
for a clean-up was the railway embankment.
Cllr Juby stated that it had been reported but was the
responsibility of the rail operator and furthermore could not
be cleaned without closure of the railway line.
More problems
with litter were reported, particularly at the west end of the
high street. Lesley confirmed that the cleaning machine
goes to the west-end at 6pm but she agreed to look into the problems
and report back.
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Action: Lesley Jennings
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7.
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Any Other
Business
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7.1
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The first of
the new Security meetings was due to take place at Woolworths
Canteen on 13th June at 3 pm.
Ron stated he would try to get a representative of the
Community Safety Team to attend the meetings.
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Action: Ron Morlham
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It
was noted that WH Smith’s store will close on Sundays in future
because of the problems with shoplifters.
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Ron
explained that the Security Group was formed from traders who
have a radio network and can connect with the CCTV control room
to identify shoplifters. Traders
can bring their security concerns to the TCF meetings where it
is hoped a representative from the Security Group will be present.
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It
was noted that Inspector Kay Maynard of Kent Police now has responsibility
for Gillingham.
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Ron
asked for a list of traders from the Gillingham Forum Website
Co-ordinator, Phil Plaistowe.
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Action : Phil Plaistowe
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7.2
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Chris
White, Community Networker from the Sunlight Centre tabled their
latest newsletter. Chris
will attend future meetings to share information on what services
are available at the Centre. Members were invited to advertise in the
forthcoming newsletter. Anyone
wishing to do so can contact Chris on 338601.
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7.3
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Douglas
Rimmer asked what progress had been made on improving the signage
to discourage people feeding pigeons.
Lesley agreed to follow this up.
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Action: Lesley Jennings
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7.4
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Douglas
Rimmer reported that one of the steel cables slung between buildings
across the high street was down and needs to be sorted.
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Action: Ron Morlham/Lesley
Jennings
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7.5
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Ron
and Lesley were unable to confirm that ‘The Works’ was taking
over the recently vacated. ‘New Look’ premises.
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Lesley
confirmed that no planning application had been received from
Mecca Bingo with respect to the Co-op building.
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7.7
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Carol
Welch reported that 50% of the lights in Somerfield Mall are out.
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Action: Lesley Jennings
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8.
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Date of Next Meeting
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The
next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday 11 July 2006 at 6 pm, at
the Adult Education Centre, Green Street.
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