Minutes of the Forum Meeting held on Wednesday, 3rd July 2024,
Manor Room, Buttery Lane, Teversal Village, NG17 3JN
1. Attendance.
Geoff Snare (Secretary), Victoria Crossley (Treasurer), Jan Jenkins, Mike Vardy, Sallie Vardy, Jane Cooper, Lis Reid, Lynn Henstock, Viv Smith, Mick Smith, Julie Miller, Chris Jordan, Richard Goad, Phil Smith (Notts CC), Cllr Helen-Ann Smith, Janine Vardy
Apologies: Andrew Jenkins, Doug Edwards
In the absence of Andrew Jenkins, Mike Vardy chaired the meeting
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2. Minutes.
The minutes of the previous meeting were agreed as an accurate record.
Matters Arising - there were no matters arising
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3. Treasurers Report.
Current Balance (10/1/25): £3,328.26, which is broken down as follows:
£190.40 FOSH
£307.23 Repair Café
£2,000.00 Energy Project
£830.63 General funds
The biggest movements were related to the Community Energy Project: On Friday 3rd January we received £12.7k from NCC, in payment for our first Energy Project invoice. On Monday 6th January, we paid over £10.7k to Savi, to cover their first invoice. This leaves £2k in our bank account which was billed as management costs, primarily to be used in the future for public consultation activities. Now that we are set up in everyone's system and have a PO for the full £40k from NCC, hopefully payment of the next invoice will be a little faster. I kept Ian (Savi) updated of progress and he seems happy.
Aside from that, we have received £850 from Councillor Helen-Ann Smith's Grant Funds;
£350 to help with the Repair Café which Geoff is leading on, and
£500 to cover the Forum's insurance, which has subsequently been set up.
Finally, we had a bonus £75 from Virgin Money as compensation for their poor customer service when setting up internet banking in November, which has gone into the General Funds.
There were no questions for the Treasurer and the report was accepted by the meeting.
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4. Reports from Working Groups
Planning & Environment - Richard Goad
Crompton Street, off Fackley Road: the Planning Appeal has taken place and Cllr Helen-Ann Smith advised that the council is likely to lose the appeal – there were seven people on the Persimmon legal team alone, against just three people on the entire ADC team.
It was also reported that surveyors had been seen in the fields to the north of the proposed development, suggesting there might be further planning application(s).
Wild Hill: ongoing applications being received, mainly for infill housing. All our previous objections in relation to traffic, access, etc., remain pertinent and will be lodged.
Whiteboro Farm: enforcement notice has been issued by ADC and the appeal deadline has passed, but no change in the status as of now.
Radford Farm, Dawgates Lane, Skegby: a decision on this has been delayed from December 8th
Silverhill Lane (Heathfield): Lis Reid is writing a detailed objection on behalf of the Forum; Cllr Smith was not aware of the application and will investigate urgently
There was a lengthy discussion regarding the significant volume of houses planned for the Fackley settlement area, amounting to a 50% increase in dwellings, which is completely contrary to a key principle of the ADC Local Plan related to settlements.
The discussion also raised the Forum’s major concern regarding the current poor state of the health, education and transport infrastructure in the Forum area, with no plans for improvement of these, despite the number of new dwellings proposed under the ADC Local Plan. Which will only be made even more serious by the increase in house building demanded of ADC by the new government.
Cllr Smith advised that the review of the ADC Local Plan has now been put on hold for six months by the inspector, pending ADC providing locations for an additional 800 houses in the Ashfield area.
Friends of Stanton Hill (FOSH) – Mike Vardy
Doug Edwards is currently undergoing medical treatment and is unlikely to be able to continue maintaining the Community Garden at the Co-op
A Draft Investment Plan for Stanton Hill, prepared by external consultants had been received on the morning of the meeting. It is understood there will be follow up meetings planned for later in January for interested parties.
Heritage – Lynn Henstock
The proposed development at Radford Farm (see Planning & Environment) would see the blocking / destruction of a Neolithic way, and as such would be a great concern from a heritage perspective. It was very worrying that Notts CC had not included any information on the heritage risks in their comments on the Planning application.
Lynn relayed the details of the potential munitions risk for the development at Omberley Avenue which has been provided to ADC as part of our comment on the Planning application
Climate Change & Sustainability & Public Transport – Andrew Jenkins
Food Share
Two Food Share volunteers cannot continue so we have to drop Saturdays from this month. Wednesdays are working well in the library combined with a ‘Place of Welcome’. If we get more volunteers we can restart Saturdays.
Other Energy Work
As a result of the link with the Nottingham Energy Partnership a number of HEAT (Home Energy Advice Team) Hub events have taken place in the Manor Room and online with a good response. A Healthy Housing workshop can take place later. We hope that cooperation between Nottingham Energy Partnership and ADC’s Selective Licensing in Stanton Hill is continuing.
Public transport
It was reported that the 141 Bus service was much more reliable, with far fewer cancellation, since the service had been taken over by Stagecoach and passenger numbers had increased. However, the overall length of the route still presents significant “on-time” issues.
There is still no bus service for Wild Hill and the 417 service for Fackley and Teversal has just 3 buses a day, at 10.13, 12.13 & 14.13, i.e. of no use to any working people, forcing yet higher road usage.
Phil Smith advised that East Midlands regional authority had not yet taken over responsibility for public transport, but had hired a number of senior staff in this area, and we should seek to engage with them at the earliest opportunity
Cllr Smith advised that she understood that Notts C.C. were looking to increase the opening hours of the Skegby Library
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5. Examination of ADC Local Plan
This was already covered under the Planning & Environment working group agenda item
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6. Forum Re-designation (Geoff Snare)
The final decision on Forum re-designation is due take place at the Council Cabinet meeting on January 27th. We understand that there is unlikely to be any issues with re-designation and we have been invited to make a short statement at the Cabinet meeting – Andrew Jenkins will attend the meeting and make the statement.
Cllr Smith offered to read out a statement at the meeting on our behalf if no one from the Forum could attend.
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7. Community Energy Project
The contract for the £40,000 grant for the Feasibility Study has been signed and work started. SAVI’s first invoice (£10,746) has been paid for the following work which has been carried out:
Pre-contract consultancy support
Kick-off meeting preparation and internal meetings
In-person kick-off meeting (TSS/Savi)
Site visits and options assessment
High-level electricity network assessment
SAVI would like to have a review meeting with the Forum working group later this month.
Phil Smith advised that Notts C.C. would be interested in understanding more about this project and there are C.C. owned buildings that could potentially be locations for roof-top solar panels. He agreed to provide a list of C.C. owned buildings in the area that we could forward to Savi for inclusion their assessment.
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8. Repair Café (Geoff Snare)
A volunteer open morning had been held at the Visitor Centre on January 11th and a total of 10 volunteers have now signed up.
The first Repair Café event will be held on Saturday February 1st, from 10am to 1pm. We have repairers for items ranging from electrical / electronic goods, household equipment, costume jewellery, wooden repairs, bikes, clothing mending and alterations, plus blade sharpening.
There will only be limited publicity for this first event, so that we are not overwhelmed and help make sure we have the right processes in place.
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9. Any Other Business
Phil Smith advised that whilst the government had announced a major reorganisation of local government, likely moving to a single tier council for each area, no plans had been announced for our area and as such it was still business as usual for ADC and Notts C.C.
Installation of fibre cabling for broadband had been seen within Teversal Village and one of the contractors had said that “it should all be working by summer”. We will keep an eye out for further developments and include Broadband service as an agenda item in further meetings
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10. Next Meeting.
The next Forum meeting, will be held on Wednesday April 2nd from 7.00 pm, in the Manor Room, Teversal Village.
Attendees were thanked for their input to the meeting which closed at 9.10 pm.
The Forum is recognised by Ashfield District Council as the representative body for Skegby, Stanton Hill and Teversal
and Forum working groups are dealing with a number of issues affecting our area.
Anyone who lives or works in Teversal, Stanton Hill and Skegby is entitled to be a member of the Forum and attend its meetings.
To become a Forum member please visit our website