The AGM for 2018 took place at the Village Hall on Tuesday 5th June.

The following is the collected reports of the various sections, beginning with the minutes of the meeting of 2017 and ending with an account of the AGM Forum 2018.

Chairman :: Treasurer :: OIAW/Website :: Hall :: Entertainment :: Environment :: Communications
Planning Issues  [Welborne, FBC Draft Local Plan, Flood Alleviation Scheme]

MINUTES OF THE 25th ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

TUESDAY 6 JUNE 2017

Present: J Clark (Chair); A Bloxham (Secretary); E Burley (Planning); S Morse (Entertainment); C Morgan (Hall), C Scott, Cllrs K Trott and M Brady and 45 members.

The Chairman opened the meeting at 7.30pm.

Apologies: P.Trott, D Walton, D Kett, S Pankhania, C Weeks and N Getty.

Minutes of 2016AGM: Proposed K Trott and seconded J Haynes that the minutes should be adopted. Carried.

There were no matters arising from those minutes.

Summary of Reports: Written reports from Chairman, Treasurer, Planning, OIAW Editorial Board, Hall, Entertainment and Environment and Communications and updates on the Welborne and Flooding situations had been submitted to the meeting and were summarised for the benefit of members present.

There were no other matters arising from the reports and it was proposed by A Humphrey and seconded by R Cox that the reports should be adopted. Carried.

Election of Officers and Committee Members: It was proposed by R Downing and seconded by M Reeve and agreed by members that the following should be elected as Officers and members of the Executive Committee for the year 2016/2017:-

OFFICERS NAME PROPOSED SECONDED
Chairman James Clark C Morgan M V der Heijden
Secretary David Kett R Ellis R Hooper
Treasurer Peter Trott A Bloxham J Clark
COMMITTEE
Charlie Scott D Blyth M Reeve
Chris Morgan B Millerchip N Marney
Eve Burley J Favill S Walton
Alan Bloxham J Clark C Morgan
Sue Morse C Morgan P Morgan
Nikki Getty P Wilson S Hodnett
Clare Weeks M Weeks S Morse
D Walton R Firth A Firth
Sally Dixon C Morgan S Morse
Kate Howell S Morse G Knipe

Tribute was paid to Alan Bloxham who after many years as Secretary was stepping down.

Annual General Meeting 2018: The meeting will be held on Tuesday 5th June 2018 at 7.30pm.

There being no other business the Chairman closed the meeting at 8.15pm.

WVCA Chairman’s AGM Report 2018

Welcome to the 2018 Annual General Meeting. The following reports contain details of the work done by the WVCA on your behalf during the last year, as well as the final accounts for the year ending 31st March. My thanks, as usual, go to all those who serve on the Executive Committee as Trustees as well as those who get involved in a voluntary capacity with other events throughout the year.

The Village Hall continues to generate a healthy income which leaves us in the enviable position of being able to take on ambitious tasks which many similar organisations would be unable to contemplate. However, we do rely on other external agencies to help us facilitate these works. This is becoming more problematic with the various changes being made within local government and the time constraints placed on those individuals we have relied so heavily on in the past. My thanks go to Sue Morse and David Walton in particular for the work they do on these often unseen projects. Without the depth of local knowledge they have built up, these would be almost impossible to achieve. I think I should also make mention of the far reaching work of our local Councillor Katrina Trott, who is always there to offer advice and use her contacts and knowledge of FBC to help where appropriate.

In Wallington, we are in the ideal geographic location to warrant having a local community association. We have existed as such for many years, but such organisations rely on the support and participation of the members and residents to make such a group a success. I have alluded to the fact in my previous pieces for the “Once in a While” that I believe that we are standing at a crossroads as to what we, as an organisation, are able to undertake. I have no doubt that we will continue, but the focus may well change from what we have traditionally undertaken. Many of the Executive Committee have been involved for many years and, whilst they largely enjoy the work, it would be nice if some new blood would be able to come in and allow some of the “old timers” to take more of a back seat. We have had new members in the last few years but we still need more people coming forward and getting involved. We will continue with the core work that is most important and we would be looking to members of the Association to come forward with ideas which the Trustees will help facilitate, rather than becoming directly involved with. As I have said before please don’t take these comments in a negative way, they are merely my observations on what I believe to be the way forward in light of the changing times in which we live.

Finally, I look forward to working with the Executive Committee again in what will be my seventh year as Chairman, and I hope we all enjoy our roles within the organisation. I feel that seven years is stretching the length of time any individual should hold this role (only Russian Presidents seem to serve longer) and consequently I will be seeking someone to take on the position next year.

James Clark

Chairman

Wallington Village Community Association

Treasurer's Report 2017/18

  1. Gross income/expenditure
    The financial statements for this year show gross income for the year of £1,525 compared to gross expenditure of £9,028 last year. Once again a great deal of new work has been undertaken in the Hall during the year. This expenditure has been undertaken in order to help keep the hall in an "as new" condition in line with our charitable objectives.
  1. Income
    Overall income for the year was £83,773 increasing by £ 19,640 compared to the 2017 Figure. This is primarily due to an injection of reserves from the FP Equity Growth Fund in preparation for funding the resurfacing of the 5-arch bridge in conjunction with the local council.
  • The hall continues to be our main source of funds, income having increased by £9,723.
  • The fete income was up only very slightly compared to the previous year.
  • Interest and dividends received have reduced compared last year primarily due to continuing low interest rates. Nevertheless interest amounts remain fairly because we maintain £65,000 of our long-term investments in investment These funds are now held with the United Trust Bank.
  1. Payments
    Overall payments for the year have increased by £9,086 over the 2017 figure to a total of £82,247.
  • Hall costs have increased as the hall sub-committee was authorised to make significant improvements to keep the hall in an "as new" condition. Details of the major items of expenditure are given in the notes to the accounts on page
  • Other costs have stayed relatively consistent with the previous year, with the exception of the environmental project, in concert with the local council, to improve safety by the installation of a street lighting pole on the Wallington Way Bridge, which the WVCA agreed to fund.
  1. Cash reserves
  • At 31 March 2018, monies held in bank accounts, fixed interest accounts and cash amounted to £105,399.
  • £10,000 has been released from the Ecology Building Society account to fund the Hall improvements outlined at item 3 above.
  • A further £106,828 is held in the Equity Growth Fund. This investment has decreased by £15,624 for the reasons given at item 2 above. Overall, total monetary assets available to the Association are £212,227, a decrease of £14,098 over last year.
  1. Treasurer's summary - allocation of reserves

Hall rebuild fund:

  • Income from the hall is a large percentage of total income so the reserves held to cover lost revenue, currently stands at £110,000,
  • This is increased by £5,000 each year in line with the Reserves Policy.
  • We have set this sum aside to help with rebuild costs of a new hall, in particular to cover the costs of any improvements the association can make to a new hall in light of technological advances. It will also be sufficient to enable the Association to continue with its other activities for more than two years without having the income from hiring the hall.

Hall maintenance fund:

  • The hall maintenance reserves have been set aside in order to cover any larger items of expenditure that would be required to keep the existing hall in an "as new" condition. Funds have been used for this purpose during this financial year; the £20,000 figure remains to ensure further work can be undertaken in future

Water Meadow fund:

  • The water meadow reserve has again been increased by £1,200 this year in line with the Reserves Policy to £25,040. These funds are set aside by the trustees to ensure funds are available to cover any costs that might be incurred in protecting the meadow. This could include legal costs incurred in fighting a potential development of the meadow.

Although some of the funds have been designated for particular purposes by the trustees, most of the funds available to the Association are unrestricted reserves. A total of £204,732 can be re-designated at the agreement of the trustees to cover any requirement the WVCA may have.

The WVCA continues to be in a good position with regard to the level of reserves it holds and is, due to a conservative and careful approach over many years, well placed to cope with any unforeseen costs or loss of income.

Peter Trott

Click here for: Financial Accounts Report 2018 or Financial Audit Report 2018

ONCE IN A WHILE AND WEBSITE REPORT

The cost of printing the three issues of the magazine in 2017 was £2012, a significant reduction on the previous year’s figure of £3122. For each of the three editions 430 magazines were distributed equating to an annual figure close to 1,300. The average cost has now dropped to £1.56 per copy, which has resulted in the desirable situation that for the first time in recent memory the subscriptions received cover the cost of the magazine. Colour pages bump up the production cost, of course, but they do add to the visual appeal of the magazine.

The reduction in cost has been brought about in no small measure by the work of Richard Yorke of Wallington Shore Road. Since autumn 2016 Richard, who is a graphic designer by profession, has taken over the pre-printing layout preparation of the magazine. The new style of the magazine was seen in the pages of the Christmas issue that year. Richard’s input has also had a knock-on effect in that the colour graphics, in particular, are now submitted to the printers ‘ready to go’ whereas, before, I used to spend a fair amount of time at the printers discussing what was wanted in the layout, captions etc. and that added to the cost, of course. Happily, some very useful continuity prevails since the ever-patient Colin from Farleys is still looking after us in his new post at the merged company Farleys/Stanbury.

The downward trend in advertising revenue continues, unfortunately. Advertising helps to offset printing costs slightly and the accounts from Peter Trott show that it contributed £113 to the OIAW figures in the year just gone. The rates we charge advertisers are modest but are looked at each year to make sure that they are reasonably commercial.

The Website:

I am very grateful for the support and advice provided by Mark Hobbs who looks after the general welfare of the website as gatekeeper. He always deals speedily with problems and any updates or amendments that I can’t carry out. The user portals News, Social and Environment News enable rapid uploads of current information; the News portal in particular has been pretty active in the past year due to work connected with the riverbanks. It is also the jumping off point to dedicated pages for major or developing topics so that there is now a separate entry for the Local Plan – sitting alongside the existing one for Welborne. The other portals are probably still not really used to their full potential but the growing use of Mailchimp substitutes for more immediate impact if you are signed up for it.

Personal thanks are due to several people. Editing assistance provided by David Kett during the year has been indispensable and special thanks are due to Cherry Harnott for providing outstanding photographs of social happenings and images of the village. Thanks are also due to the Street Reps for their faithful service and for interesting articles and items submitted to us. I am especially grateful to Richard Yorke for his technical input, supplementary material and for fresh ideas.

In my report last year I indicated my intention to take more of a back seat with the magazine. I am still here (!), however I am hopeful that ideas to make the publication more future-proof are becoming better established – on the technical side at least. On the writing side it should be a priority to find ways to distribute the load, notably by extending the team and developing collaborative effort.

Arthur Hackney and the Editorial Team

(David Kett, and Richard Yorke)

WVCA Hall Sub-Committee AGM Report 2018

Our Aim is: to maintain the Hall in “as new” condition.

The revenue raised from the Hall bookings has permitted us not only to make significant improvements to the Hall, but also to undertake schemes within the village that benefit residents and would not be possible without the foresight of those who built the Hall. Examples of projects, other than Hall improvements, funded from the Hall revenue include: the lamp standard at the top of the footbridge over Wallington Way and a significant financial contribution to the Wallington Flood Alleviation Scheme.

Hall Improvements in 2017

  • Kitchen has been totally updated with new cupboards; flooring and fridge/freezer.
  • LED energy efficient lighting has been installed throughout the building.
  • Main Hall curtains have been replaced.

Plans for hall improvements in 2018

  • Ladies and Gents Toilets are to undergo major refurbishment.
  • Front Entrance doors will be replaced with new stronger doors that can be operated by a press button to comply with the Disability Discrimination Act.

Hall Bookings

Bookings continue to rise year on year and in the last financial year (ending March 2018) income had increased by 23% over the previous year. Whilst most of this income came from commercial hirers, we remember that it is our Village Hall, built for Villagers by the efforts of so many Wallington residents. In recognition of this, the Terms and Conditions of Hire have been rewritten to stress that preference will be given to the trust’s charitable purpose – WVCA members.

Bookings for the Hall are through the WVCA website and WVCA members get preferential rates. If you do not have access to a computer, phone Geoff Knipe 07826 309186.

Outside Flower Beds

These continue to receive good and loving attention from Jenny Jervis and her team. We thank them for their voluntary support in making the outside area look so attractive.

Hall Manager

Geoff Knipe continues to work tirelessly on looking after our Village Hall, dealing with the many day to day challenges and often responding to issues out of hours. He is ably supported by his partner Pauline who takes care of the important administration with the Hallmaster booking system. A new updated system which is GDPR (Data Protection) compliant is currently about to come on stream. We thank them both for all their hard work.

Chris Morgan (Chair)          James Clark
April 2018

Entertainment group 2017 – 2018

Another hugely successful fete took place in 2017 which is the highlight of Wallington’s social year. 2018 fete takes place on July 14th starting at 1.30 pm. Music on the Meadows in the evening will feature Strumpet Town and Ska Dogs.

Fareham Wine Cellar co-hosted with WVCA a cheese and evening which is always very popular combining as it does the opportunity to try some less well-known wines as well as trying to answer the Wine Cellar’s quite difficult quiz. Back in 2018 by popular demand in October, date to be advised.

Also, back due to demand was the ‘Quiz with a Difference’ - who knew we had such talented newspaper bridge builders in the village. This will be again repeated in November, date to be advised.

Wallington Players meet regularly and put on a festive treat after the ‘Carols round the Village’ in December which was well received. October 6th will see them presenting a Murder Mystery with a Twist, watch out for more details soon.

Forest Forge made a very welcome return to the village hall in January, they say they feel like they are part of the village as they have been performing here so many years and we really enjoy their wonderful evenings.

New for the village is the inclusion in the Hampshire Open Studios tour with Artists on the Water Meadows displaying the talents of art and craft participants from Wallington on display Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th August at the hall.

Environment Sub Committee

The past year has had its share of problems with organisers being unwell for long periods and for most of the year the Environmental group consisted of just one member.

Some good work has been achieved with events like the river clearance, litter picking, Himalayan balsam control, rebuilding and extending the bund at Lowlands, and seeding the river bank and bund with poppy seed.

However, proposed open events designed to involve larger numbers of participants were all poorly attended with little or no support.

Work undertaken by small groups or individuals working on their own, such as that undertaken by the residents of North Wallington on the river bank was successful. This may be the way forward in the future.

We look forward to having a more successful year in 2018/9.

Charlie Scott

Communications Sub Committee

GDPR

WVCA membership forms are in line with the General Data Protection Regulation meaning that all given membership details are secure and protected and will not be passed on to any third parties.

Local Plan

The Communications committee received positive feedback from villagers over the amount of useful and purposeful information given to them over the current proposals from FBC to build more homes in Wallington. The team continue to work hard to ensure that lines of communication are clear and relevant information is passed on promptly to villagers.

Facebook

Thank you to Kate Howell for a very successful set up of the WVCA Facebook page. As we move with the times and add another form of communication, alongside the Mailchimp emails, we are pleased with the responses and “likes” from villagers as well as gaining more instant feedback and up-dates on what is happening within and around our local community. We would also like to thank Kate for her wonderful Christmas card design and for keeping villagers up to date with the many festive events in December. It was a very thoughtful idea and one we would like to repeat in the future.

Memory Lane

This remains an ongoing item for the committee as we continue to research into the Wallington archives to record and possibly create some displays of Wallington history.

Noticeboards

At the time of writing our very poorly noticeboards have gone away for a revamp so watch this space…..

And finally

Geoff Knipe, the WVCA Hall Manager will be contributing to a “Hall Manager’s Corner” in the Once in A While village magazine so you can be kept up to date with all the hard work that goes into maintaining this wonderful village asset.

Thank you to the small group of members who work quietly behind the scenes to ensure that avenues of communication around the village are accurate, relevant and accessible. If you have any further ideas about development of similar matters, please speak to any member of the Exec and if you would like to join our communications committee, do let us know.

AGM UPDATE – WELBORNE & FBC’s LOCAL PLANS (2 & 3)

The Outline Planning Application (OPA) for Welborne (Local Plan 3) was submitted to FBC by Buckland Development Ltd (BDL) in March 2017. I now understand that the Application is unlikely be determined until this Autumn -18 months after initial submission. (So much for BDL having delayed Welborne!) The “Welborne Standing Conference” having been abolished by FBC and not replaced, the local Community Groups (WVCA included) have over the past 2 years, held quarterly and for the most part, very productive Mtgs with BDL (a form of BREXIT from FBC if you will!!) Clearly however we can no longer consider Welborne in splendid isolation, because in Oct 2017, FBC published their Local Plan 2 (2036) – the combined effect of which, is the imposition of some 12,000 houses across the Borough between now and 2036 (4,000 @ Welborne by 2036 and 8,000 elsewhere – including 127 @ Wallington, which I appreciate many objected to/signed the E. petition against) These so called “Housing Requirement Figures” are set by an Organisation called the “Partnership for Urban South Hampshire” (PUSH) - The Chairman of PUSH and the Executive Leader of FBC (Cllr Sean Woodward) are one and the same person – most people might expect a possible conflict of interest to arise.

  1. A) TRAFFIC IMPACT – FBC’s Local Plans 2/3 will result in a massive increase of (some 24,000) cars on our already heavily congested roads and specifically, fears remain that a great deal of Welborne derived traffic will come South on the A32 into Fareham. It is quite clear that neither HCC nor FBC have any credible proposals to mitigate this traffic impact and there is little if indeed any confidence in the output of the HCC Transport model. Furthermore, FBC’s recent statement(s) regarding the possibility of a Railway Station @ Welborne (at a cost of nearly £80M), are somewhat fanciful in the extreme. (There has frankly been an in-ordinate amount of Spin/Froth from FBC regarding Welborne; a great deal of which has now been exposed, as being just a complete nonsense – designed to deceive!!
  1. B) AIR QUALITY – The importance of Air Quality as an issue, is now increasingly recognised and the inevitable congestion on both the M27 and local road networks as a direct consequence of FBC agreeing to build a further 12,000 houses will only serve to exacerbate this problem. Whilst I appreciate that FBC has recently received “some” Govt. grant funding to address this issue, this is very small scale and completely inadequate.
  1. C) FLOOD RISK – I welcomed in my AGM report of a year ago, the fact that a Flood Risk Assessment had at long last, been conducted for Welborne and went on to say, that in the absence however, of any real detail as to the design of the SUDS system(s) and equally importantly, the responsibility for their maintenance in the long term, then it is difficult to have any real confidence in the assurances that “Surface Water Run Off” to the Rivers Wallington & Meon will not increase beyond which I believe is now fully funded (£64M). The work will be done in conjunction with Upgrading the M27 to a “Smart Motorway” – both of which are due to complete circa 2021; the final design for J10 is close to being approved by Highways England. The J10 layout is quite understandably, very Welborne centric and it is certainly not a “Conventional Motorway Junction”; contrary to what FBC would have you believe, I suggest it will bring few if indeed any benefit to existing Fareham residents, quite the opposite in some regards.
  1. E) HEALTH CARE PROVISION – Clearly FBC’s Development Plans will place massive demands on Primary/Secondary Healthcare provision. It is of concern that there has been very little if indeed any, assurance from the local Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG’s) and responsible Health Trusts that the Health Care infrastructure can cope with development on this scale. (Accordingly, it is FBC who will ultimately be held accountable for the consequences of their completely unnecessary Development Plans, which patently bear no relation to “Fareham’s Housing Need”).
  1. F) VIABILITY/INFRASTRUCTURE PROVISION – Much has been written on this subject in recent years and clearly the Welborne Phasing Plan needs to be written, not just in robust terms, but also in such a way as it clearly identifies who precisely is responsible for Funding What – to date, we (the Public remain a long way from having that degree of clarity.

NB: “Not a brick will be laid (@ Welborne before the infrastructure requirements have been properly assessed, costed and the funding guaranteed” (FBC’s “In/Out of Touch” Flyer of Summer 2011 refers!)

AGM UPDATE – WALLINGTON FLOOD ALLEVIATION SCHEME (FAS)

The Environment Agency (EA) have spent the past 12 months determining what is the most cost-effective solution and seeking “Partnership Funding”. I am very pleased to report that the EA led scheme for the Village is now fully funded, to a total Project cost of £692K, which includes a £10K WVCA contribution. A “Drop In Session” was hosted by the EA at the Village Hall on 9 May to further explain the detail of the Wallington FAS, which formally began at the end of May. Whilst focused predominantly on repairing existing Flood Defence Walls and bringing them to a consistent level, it also includes raising the White Horse Footbridge, the closure of which we will try to keep to an absolute minimum. Additionally, there has already been very significant work on both sides of the riverbank immediately downstream of the 5 Arch Bridge in recent months and in March 2018, the Wire Gabions on the S Bend @ Lowlands were both replaced and extended. HCC (Highways) had agreed over a year ago, to address the fitting of an additional Drain discharge to the Flood Defence Hump on the S Bend @ Lowlands and to raise the Road Defence Hump to the required level. Whilst this important package of work to improve the Village’s defence against Tidal Flooding remains outstanding, HCC have however agreed to work with the EA to address these issues as a part of the current (FY 2018) Wallington FAS – Let us hope that HCC deliver, (as without this important and previously agreed package of work), our ability to cope with the combined risk of Fluvial/Tidal Flooding will be seriously impaired. In an associated project, Richard Boswell and I have also been working with the EA on a Pilot Scheme looking at “Natural Flood Management” on the Potwell Tributary (which drains into the River Wallington and is just upstream of the Lake @ Southwick) The aim, is to better understand how best to delay the rate at which water flows into the River Wallington during times of heavy rainfall. The landowners (Southwick Estates) are generally supportive and we now have confirmation that our £50K funding bid for the pilot scheme has been successful. There are, potentially “lessons to be learned” from this Pilot Scheme, that will be of benefit to Southwick Estates/Buckland Development Ltd when they come to design the Welborne Sustainable Urban Drainage Scheme (SUDS).

David Walton

OPEN FORUM

Post AGM Tuesday 5th June 2018

Began at 9.00 p.m.

The Chairman invited questions from the floor:-

Feeding of swans and ducks

Cherry Harnott gave a short talk in which she pointed out that there had been a marked increase in human food in the river and on the side walls (including whole slices of white bread). Such food has no nutritional value for the swans or ducks, it gets waterlogged, sinks and pollutes the river. It is harmful to the chicks and female swan. It is important that swans eat of the river.

Rules: don’t feed anything baked, cooked, sweet or dairy products. They need natural food – e.g. broccoli; spinach; corn. As a special treat swan and duck food pellets that do not sink can be purchased from the hardware store in Wickham Square.

Members suggested that an article be put in OIAW; that posters be produced; that social media should be used to spread the word.

Professional support concerning local developments in the area

The question of spending funds on professional support was raised and the Chairman stated that this had been considered and, if deemed necessary, the funds would be made available.

Walk Round

The following issues were raised for consideration for inclusion in the walk round:

  • Cycling on the five arch bridge and the removal of the no cycling sign on Wallington Hill
  • The light at the White Horse pub which has been obscured by tree growth
  • The dip in the road on the river-side of North Wallington. [Sue Morse explained that this has been discussed with Hampshire Highways but the funds were unavailable for remedial work.]
  • The condition of the rail and post fence from the White Horse pub. [Sue Morse stated that the Executive was aware of this and the WVCA might make a contribution if the cost was not too excessive.]

Flood alleviation

Richard Boswell informed the meeting that the Environment Agency work had begun and that a grant had been won to explore measures on the upper reaches of the river Wallington. A meeting had been held with Southwick Estates.

This part of the meeting ended at 9.30 p.m.