Minutes of Committee Meeting 11th June

LANEHEAD RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION
Minutes of committee meeting held at Newhouses, Friday 11 June, 6.30pm

MEMBERS PRESENT:
Ross Anderson, Neil Astley, Pat Cooper, Rex Cooper, Preston Hoggan, John Holland and Pamela Robertson-Pearce.
Apologies: Jenny Swaile.

1. MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING
The minutes of the previous committe meeting held on 21 April were read and approved by the appointed committee as a true record of what was discussed and agreed.

2. BANK ACCOUNT
Bank account arrangements in motion with Lloyds TSB in Bellingham.

3. PUBLICISING LHRA
Still awaiting list of LHRA area households and residents from Ande Jackson.

4. NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH
PC Neil Grubbins at Bellingham Police has been contacted regarding a possible Neighbourhood Watch scheme for Lanehead. Ross Anderson suggested amalgamating this with the Farm Watch Scheme run by Northumbria Police which has been rolled out in other parts of Northumberland: George Knight at Hexham police station is the contact for this.

5. SPEED LIMITS
Action to be taken to raise the issue of motorbikes speeding through Lanehead, involving the police and Hexham Courant. This issue has been raised by all LHRA committee members as well as other Lanehead residents including Rob Cocker. Ross Anderson said Ridsdale residents had succeeded in getting a 40mph limit imposed on the A696 through their village, but Preston Hoggan stated that it had taken over two years to get the 30mph signpost moved back down the road from Bellingham Middle School to keep pace with the extension of housing along that road. Neil Astley argued that as well as the road safety issue in Lanehead itself, the problem of noise pollution (as well as road safety) related to the C200 road from Charlton to Lanehead and from Lanehead to Falstone: speed limits needed to be observed not just at the dogleg junction but for miles on either side; some Greystead residents had been forced to move or put their houses on the market because of the noise and danger of motorbikes.

6. OTHER INITIATIVES
Ross Anderson listed several other possible issues or initiatives for LHRA, including a labour free day to help the community, a winter rescue team, a rubbish removal service, the state of the Village Hall and Lanehead in bloom. Rex Cooper proposed a coffee morning to bring together members of the community and as a means of finding out what issues most concerned residents. Pamela Robertson-Pearce cautioned against taking on too many ideas at once with limited resources and manpower: we needed to concentrate on no more than one or two at a time.

7. HEADS DEVELOPMENT
Full application has now been made by Robert Cocker for the Heads development in two parts:
http://planning.northumberlandnationalpark.org.uk/application.asp?NNPA_ref=10NP0023
http://planning.northumberlandnationalpark.org.uk/application.asp?NNPA_ref=10NP0022
The deadline for submissions was 29 June. Both parts of the development were discussed. It was agreed that LHRA would submit an objection to the Long House on the grounds that it was too large and out of place and doesn't appear to respect various planning policies, but accepting that a smaller house built from traditional materials would be acceptable. A second letter objecting to the holiday village would cover aspects such as inadequate parking provision, excess traffic, construction traffic, access to the private road without permission from residents or British Telecom/Telereal Trillium (joint owners of the telephone exchange through which access was planned), drainage, light pollution, and that this was an inappropriate site for such a development in a residential area with no amenities. Individual residents had been raising their own concerns in relation to other issues affecting their households in particular, and they would lodge separate letters of objection with the National Park as would the Village Hall and the Parish Council.

8. DATE OF NEXT MEETING
Date and time to be agreed by the committe members after email consultation.


Attached:
LHRA letters to National Park objecting to Rob Cocker planning applications.


Agreed as a true record, Committee Meeting 27th July 2010