Present: Richard Wiltshire, David Meade, Malcolm Still, Richard Stone, Pat Still (Chairman), Justin Bettey, Phil Kessel, David Crowe.

Apologies for Absence: Dennis Darling, Jean Armour, David Sharpe (B&Q)

Minutes of AGM 2000

The group discussed issues raised from the AGM 2000 to assess what initiatives and projects QED had and had not achieved.

Bio-diversity Group:

Since the last AGM the Biodiversity group has been set-up and has undertaken several projects including producing items for the Borough News and development of land at Tredegar allotments for wildlife preservation.

Health Group:

Since the last AGM the health group has been set-up. Although it has only managed several meetings this year it is planned to have a new impetus starting with a meeting on the 10th October.

Festival:

Once again QED displayed at this years Dartford Festival. (See below for details)

Welcome pack:

At last years AGM a residents welcome pack was discussed which John Gunn had been working on. Earlier on this year J. Bettey and J. Gunn did some further work on the welcome pack. At the same time JB with other officers at DBC submitted a report to management on a "DBC Resident Pack"that could incorporate a section on QED. JB is still waiting for a management response to this report. If it does not go ahead then it was decided that the QED Welcome pack project should continue.

Matters Arising

Election of Chairperson:

Nominations were invited for the position of Chairperson to the QED Steering Group. Mrs Pat Still and no other nominations were received. Mrs Pat Still was elected as Chairperson for the forthcoming year. The group expressed there thanks to Pat for her work as chairperson over the last year.

Festival

The group raised the issue as to whether the festival was the right event to promote QED. The main reason for raising this was due to excessive noise at the Festival. The group discussed several options to reduce the noise impact including moving the location of the QED tent, but none of these presented a suitable solution to the problem.

Leading on from this the group stated that if QED was not to present at the Festival then how could it promote itself. Members came up with several ideas including.

Holding 2/3 QED displays/open days at community halls. Each one could be themed on different aspects of QED or local environmental issues.

Concentrating QED resources on one local issue that is impacting on the community e.g. liasing with developers to ensure local sustainability issues are included in development.

Taking advantage of local media to help promote QED

Action: All chairs to ask their members whether QED should participate at next yearís festival and to consider how QED could best engage with the community on projects and report back at the next steering meeting (21st Nov).

Feed back from groups

Bio-diversity:

MS presented to the group a summary of the Tredegar allotment project. The pond has now been installed and plants are due to be purchased. MS has managed to secure sponsorship from Wicks, Wilkinsonís and B&Q who are providing materials for the project.

MS is still in discussions with Balfour Beaty and Railtrack on the possibility of obtaining land at the far end of Tredegar allotment.

Health:

The health group is to have a meeting on the 10th October. PS informed the group that she met an individual who was a member of the British Allergy Foundation based in Bexleyheath. PS asked JB to contact him.

Archaeological group:

The Archaeological group stated that they would like to get involved with QED. JB contacted them and invited them to the next steering meeting, which they did not attend. The QED group asked the question whether the archeological group could get involved with some work associated with contaminated land within the Borough. This also fits in with DBCís Contaminated Land strategy.

Action: JB to contact archaeological group and discuss

AOB:

Quarry Pit

MS brought up the issue of the planned "Quarry Pit" on Dartford marshes. The group were presented with the article from the local paper. The group suggested that QED could get involved in some manner, possibly by seeking assurance that stated mitigation measures are undertaken.

Action: JB to obtain copy of the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) report

Lawrence Hills memorial

RS showed the group the memorial plaque for Lawrence Hills. PK suggested that the QED group could write some text on the work that Lawrence Hill did and that this could be displayed with the plaque. PK and RW added that it could be presented at various events around Dartford.

Action: RS to provide JB with some text on Lawrence Hills work

Allotment Census

PK informed the group that he had received a letter and questionnaire on allotment sites in the Borough. It is not clear exactly what this information is to be used for. PK to forward the details to RW who will investigate. QED may be able to help with this questionnaire if the reasons behind it are beneficial.

Developer & Allotment Sites

MS stated that a developer had approached him with regards attaching allotment sites to sales of newly developed houses. MS was unsure of the legal and ethical implications surrounding this issue. The group felt that there maybe a good opportunity for QED to engage with this developer and to discuss this issue further, but not in terms of allocating allotment sites to home sales.

Action: MS to contact developer

Next steering meeting: 21st November 2001

There was no official minute of the 2000 AGM available at the meeting, although attendees managed to raise all relevant topics and issues. JB will send a copy of the 2000 AGM minutes to the chairman for signing off.

JB contacted the British Allergy Foundation. They seemed very interested in working with the QED health group. JB will invite them to the n ext meeting.

The group did not have time to discuss the minutes of the last steering meeting. These will be reviewed at the next meeting

END: Return to QED Steering Group home page ...