MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING AND SUBSEQUENT ORDINARY MEETING OF SUSTAINABLE PENWITH HELD ON MONDAY 18TH OCTOBER 2004 AT ST CLARE, PENZANCE
Present: Karen Clowes, David Rutherford, Ralph Openshaw, Jo
Forsyth, Rob Pickering,
Ruth Browning, Justin Olosunde, Julia Bradley, Matt Trevaskis,
Z Faulkner, Stuart
Thompson, Jane Michelle, Michelle Cowmeadow.
Apologies: John Brailey, Lynne Gulliford, Frances Truscott, John
Pritchard, Crystal
Wakefield, Paul Matthews, Cllr White, Anne and Nick Round, Natasha
Mitchel, Pamela
Gray.
1. Chairperson's report
Justin Olosunde welcomed everyone to the meeting. He reported
that Sustainable
Penwith has come together as a group after a tricky start. We
have had a number of
successes over the past year, including the Green Fayre, our website,
and our stall at the
Golowan. The stall at the Golowan festival was our only fundraising
event for the year
and thanks should be given to everyone involved. We also hosted
and organised the
Sustainable Communities Bill public meeting held at St Johns Hall,
120 local residents
attended the event which was an amazing turnout for a rural area.
Our most recent event
was the workshop last month, which proved to be extremely useful
for helping the group to
start forming its mission statement and defining sustainable community
indicators for
Penwith. Justin stated that now we need to decide the direction
in which the group should
go forward. There are three ways in which we could go:
1. As a sustainability networking system. There is some potential
here for grant funding.
The network would form co-operative partnerships with other community
groups and
provide a one stop shop through our website and forum to co-ordinate
and inform on
sustainability.
2. As activists. In this role we can get involved in real projects
for example helping
Michelle with the Millennium Woodlands.
3. A combination of both activism and networking.
He asked that this be considered in the ordinary meeting after
our AGM.
Secretary's Report information to come from Matt
Election of Chairperson
Justin outlined the duties and expectations of the role of
Chair. This person will be
responsible for leading the group and taking it forward, the chair
would also be expected
to sit on the Environment, Culture and Heritage sub-group of our
local strategic
partnership. Matt suggested that we reintroduce a rotating chair
if a nomination for
Chairperson is not received. Ruth stated that she would be happy
to be a rotating chair.
It was agreed that Justin will continue for the present to Chair
the group although he did·stress that work commitments
will mean that he may not be able to attend all meetings.
Election of Secretary
Matt outlined the duties and expectations of the secretary's
role. This includes distributing
the minutes and postal copies and administration of the website.
It was agreed that in the
absence of anyone nominating for the role, that Matt would continue
as Secretary for the
time being.
Press and Publicity Officer
The role of the Press and Publicity Officer was outlined by
Matt. It was noted that Andy
from CSEP had shown an interest in this role. Justin agreed that
he would persue this
with Andy.
Minutes of the Ordinary Meeting of Sustainable Penwith held
on Monday 20 th
October 2004
The minutes of the last meeting were agreed as an accurate
description apart from the
reference to a Cornwall Sustainable Forum Network should have
read Cornwall
Sustainable Tourism Network.
1. Mission Statement
David Rutherford read out the draft mission statement. This
statement has pulled together
the results of the brainstorming session on our workshop day.
It was agreed that the
statement will be sent out with the minutes of this meeting. Justin
stated that he feels it
encapsulates what we agreed to be important at the workshop and
thanked David for his
hard work. It was asked whether we might need to change the statement
should we as a
group amalgamate with Penwith Environmental Network. It was agreed
that this would be
discussed as and when we know whether an amalgamation will take
place.
2.Proposed Amalgamation with Penwith Environmental Network
(PEN)
Ralph explained that PEN will shortly be holding an Extraordinary
General Meeting to vote
on whether members consider an amalgamation to be a good way forward.
It was felt that
this would be a good way of bringing new blood into PEN and that
it would allow us to take
on the roles of both activists and facilitators. Matt formally
proposed that Sustainable
Penwith join up with PEN if, after their EGM, they voted to amalgamate.
Rob and Justin
seconded the proposal.
3. Workshop Day
The day was deemed by all involved to be a great success.
Crystal has written her thanks
to all those involved and Matt has sent these out to members.
Justin stated that he learnt
a lot on the day and it may be valuable to give the presentation
again.
4. Sustainable Building Project
Justin stated that we had part-funded Matt to attend the course.
Matt and Zed will give the·group a presentation on the
project at the next meeting.
5. Creating Excellence
The launch of 'creating excellence' took place in Falmouth.
This is a national regeneration
network initative to help make regeneration projects function
more effectively. Sustainable
Penwith has joined the network our password is <deleted>.
The website is
www.creatingexcellence.org.uk
6. Fundraising
Ruth stated that there was an advertisement recently in the
Cornishman for applications
for grants from PDC. Up to £500 is available for organisations
developing projects in
Penwith. These organisations must not have received funding from
PDC in the last few
years. Karen agreed to speak to Dominique Gabry at PDC about the
grants.
It was felt that we could apply for funding for Crystal's idea
which is to develop a toolkit for
community groups to use when developing real sustainable community
indicators.
Matt asked whether we could look for funding for a public workshop
to help educate on
how to use simple technology in order to become more sustainable
for example DIY solar
projects, connecting up and installing water butts, bike mending,
etc. It was felt that there
could be scope for funding under the Learking Skills Council.
It was agreed that Michelle liaise with Andy Tanner to see
whether there was scope for us
as a group to help deliver sustainability into schools.
It was agreed that we need to set up a fundraising group sub-group
in order to take
funding projects forward. The members of the sub group to include
Justin, Ruth, and Rob
(and Ralph as a consultant). David Rutherford stated that he would
ask Jeremy Joslin
(Hayle Chamber of Commerce) whether he would be interested in
sitting on the sub-group.
7. Smoke Control Areas in Penwith
Matt asked the group to consider whether we could lobby for
smoke control areas in
Penwith. Whilst many houses in Penwith now have central heating,
for asthmatics the
smoke from coal fires can make a huge difference to their quality
of life. Some members
of the group felt that this might cause hardship to poor people
who cannot afford
smokeless fuel. It was agreed that Matt write a letter to the
environmental health
department at PDC asking them to consider whether it would be
feasible to make parts of
Penwith smokeless zones.
8. Any other business
Ralph briefly outlined the waste awareness programme that
Cornwall Waste Action and
Rezolve are to carry out on behalf of all the Councils in Cornwall,
the Environment Agency·and NHS. This will involve both
a door knocking campaign to encourage people to recycle
and reduce waste and a waste awareness publicity campaign.
Matt advised that the planning application for Trinity Church
has been withdrawn. Matt will
follow up the latest developments and report back at our next
meeting.
Justin stated that Crystal would like clarification on how
she should proceed with her role
as our representative for planning matters. This will be raised
at the next meeting.
Matt mentioned the Badgers and Bodgers event being held at
the Sustainable Trust
Woodland Project. If anyone else is interested in going would
they consider car-sharing.
Zed asked whether we as a group could help with finding out
where PDC are planning to
allocate land for affordable housing. It was agreed that we would
ask Crystal to ascertain
where such sites should be. Karen suggested that Zed contact Rod
Porter at PDC he is
manager of estates and might be of help.
David Rutherford asked whether the group would consider sending
a representative to
attend the Tourism Action Group. Matt said that he can attend
on our behalf.
The next meeting will be held at 7pm on Monday 15 th November,
Committee Room 2, St.
Clare.