Minutes of the South Ruislip Residents Association Quarterly Meeting Held at St Marys Church Hall, South Ruislip Wednesday 22nd January 2020 Annual General Meeting

Present: 10 committee members, 5 local Cllrs (Barnes, Lavery, Makwana, Tuckwell and Kauffman) and 22 residents Apologies: Hazel Hook, Geoff Quantock, Jenny Hunt, Mr Phillips and Joy Warner & Cllr Lavery and Cllr Hurhangee

Meeting opened at 20:02

1. Reports from the Chairman

Apologies for the lack of newsletter from Sid due to committee illness. It was felt that this had impacted heavily on attendance this time.

No RAF today and no police.

Sadly, Teenager stabbed outside Harrow Lighting in Eastcote. Police following up.

2. Treasurers Report

Current £248 and Reserve £13,105. Up to date with all debts except for the current newsletter of £117.

3) Chief Road Steward Report

Arthur Lewis, long time road steward and member passed away.

Need Road Stewards Angus Drive and part of Long Drive, even numbers.

4) HS2

Price estimated at £106bn. Looks like a white elephant. Aim to scrap. Sid stopped going to HS2 meetings locally as was consistently disappointed with the replies which lacked detail and accountability.

5) Victoria Road – Parking

At a meeting re Speed humps in Princes Ways meeting with Cllr Burroughs, Sid discussed with him re Victoria Road. Both issues are ongoing.

Right turn into West Mead. And right turn from Manor into ALDI. Two issues still need to resolve. All actions take a long time with the council but appreciate that all decisions have to be auditable. They working to make the junctions safer.

6) Lidl – 6 weeks work

Still ongoing. Had to shore up the culvert and it took a long time to resolve.
Cllr Allan Kauffman to advise whether there is an expected finish date. Stonefield Way to be 2-way for non-HGV’s to the point of entrance.

7) RAF Northolt

Harrow MP complaining of lack of planning permission for the reopening. Consultancy on the change of flight paths at the Link in Portal Way.

8) HUBB Meeting

Older people attending on a regular basis. Walking football event. Pearly Kings and Queens coming. Colourway session.

9) SRRA Area improvements

General improvement in the Area with Flowers and planters etc in the area. We should be proud of the area.

10) SKLP

Quiet at the present time. No building work – expected 2021 for this to start.

11) Reports from Ward Councillors

Teji Barnes

Council will be sending a letter to people in Torcross re consultancy gating. 35% in favour and against 13%. Required support is over 95% so it won’t be carried through.

Woodands Avenue in Eastcote parking consultation

Police forum at The Great Barn in Ruislip High Street from 1pm police can answer questions.

New recycling bin to be installed at Whitby Road shops.

On OWL website informed that inspector has stepped down, Rob Bryan retired.

Bins over-flowing. People use bins for domestic waste. For example Jubilee Drive.

Push from the residents association to the council to encourage the schools to reduce rubbish around the area especially their schools

Discussion moved onto low level drug activity. Dealing.

12) Break for Tea

13) Cont’ of Report from Ward Cllr

Steve Tuckwell

Litter, Steve and Allan on an overview committee for rubbish. Education is a key issue. New residents. Civic pride. The meeting is on Youtube.

Chrysalis is the annual budget for community projects. From £200 to £100,000. Cllrs always on the lookout for suitable schemes. Looking for projects for 2021. Such as £12,000 to Queens Walk children’s centre and Deans Park CCTV and improvements. Bid for upgrade to Spider Park. Allotment work and CCTV upgrades.

Council Annual budget – £10 million in road improvements up from £8m

Climate emergency adopted by the council. Council carbon neutral by 2030.

Traffic monitoring in Long Drive following petition.

Allan Kauffman

Chrysalis bid on Parkfield Crescent for playground facilities there.

Trees for Field End rec. Planting on the 29th Feb in the North East corner of the park.

ASB. Management company, names and addresses and if gates not closed they will take out enforcement.

The bridge at South Ruislip going to put in lighting etc. to start before the next financial year starts.

14) AOB

Acol Crescent development. Building has encroached onto the access drive. They have moved a boundary following complaints from residents. Pay attention to borders as developers will try to take it.

Colin raised concern over fraud by not using the full year date on legal documents. i.e just adding year ‘20’ could be changed to 2019 or 2021. So complete in full as 2020.

Enforcement of Princes Road parking restrictions between 12 and 2pm.

Yellow lines going in on West End Road to stop parking on there.

Meeting closed at 21:36

Apologies, due to illness the newsletter is delayed.  No change to the quarterly though which takes place on Wednesday at 8pm at St Mary’s hall as normal.

Public Quarterly Meetings – Future Meeting Dates and Previous Minutes

Present: 11 committee members, 5 local Cllrs (Barnes, Lavery, Tuckwell and Kauffman) and 46 residents

Apologies: Cllr Makwana, Claudia Gerrard, Adela Mann, Geoff Quantock, Jenny Hunt

1) Meeting opened at 20:00

Minutes of the last meeting – no issues raised

2) RAF

Addressed by Wing Commander Claire Adamson and Sat Co. Sqd Ldr Andy Edgecombe, who deals with air traffic controller.  Andy explained that work on the runway by Lagan started in April this year and is now complete a week ahead of schedule.

The central part of the runway which needed reinforcement was dug out to a depth of a metre and the rest to 10cm only.  The lighting was changed from tungsten to LED.

New arrester beds were installed, emas (engineered materials arrestor system).  This is a foamed glass system.  The arrester beds are longer, but the RAF are keen to point out the runway is still the same length. The black and white lines are still in the same position.

The runway will take the same aircraft as previously.

They dug up 25 tons of asphalt and reused 98% of it.  450 tons of milling was reused around the station.  The expected to have provided 40 jobs locally + the planters.

1^st November they will restart fixed wing activity.

At the moment RAF Northolt still takes government officials who are flown via an air bridge to RAF Benson.

Other activities on the station include a STEM event for local schools (inc Deansfield).

Air space change proposal for RAF Northolt has passed stage 1.  Principals have been established. For the next stage RAF Northolt is holding open days at The Link on Portal Close on 19^th Nov 3pm to 8pm and 25^th Nov 9am to 2pm to go through the methodology.

Commercial flights will take place between 8am and 8pm weekdays, during the weekend (could not recall times) but there could be non-commercial flights at other times.

Asked about the larger planes there was not an expectation that visits from the likes of the C17 would increase post runway reopening.

Question from floor on Odyssey Business Park. What changes made – advised that they have moved a post for the new lighting.

 3) Treasurers report

Current account £337, reserve account £13,098.  With £175 owing for newsletter printing.

 4) Chief Road Steward

Missing Road Stewards for      Angus Drive, 18

Crest Gardens 16

Hunters Hill 28

Jubilee Drive 41

Long Drive 35

5) Dog Dirt

Sid exclaimed disquiet at the poor treatment of the poo bags which are often left to litter around the area rather than being disposed of properly in suitable bins.

6) SKLP

Discussed applying for a retraining order for the site due to noise etc, however this will take time.

7) Fly tipping / Waste

Discussed this current issue. Sid thanked Cllrs Barnes and Kauffman for swift help in resolving a local fly tipping issue.

The council have recently purchased 27 new vehicles to assist with clearance and are issuing enforcement notices to people and businesses who dump commercial or domestic waste in street bins.

8) LIDL

 Work is to start this week by O’Hara to change the entry point, and will take circa 6 weeks.  They will work to ensure the zebra crossing on Victoria Road remains very visible.

 9) Health

Community Voice remains closed with a lack of volunteers.

CV campaigned a long time to retain Mount Vernon Hospital as an asset for the heath of local people. Two Executive committee members from the SRRA are set to meet Boris Johnson at a future MP’s surgery [Ed: Written pre election]

10) Police Ward Panel

Felt that low numbers of police are impacting on crime.

Police and Neighbourhood Watch encourage members to sign up to OWL at https://www.owl.co.uk/

Keen to encourage people to sign up to the virtual ward panel to highlight priorities for the local police.

11) Parks Locally

Council continue to be well respected with national recognition.   https://archive.hillingdon.gov.uk/article/34001/Hillingdon-parks-regarded-the-best-in-the-country

Concern raised that for example Dean Park is somewhat sterile, the council have planted Wild Flowers.  Discussed a suggestion from Simon Green to try and make the local parks closer to wood land, to add more interest to flat plains (without impinging on playing areas etc).

More trees can be provided for people to plant in their own gardens from the Woodland Trust and the council.

Discussed Ruislip Lido and why people can’t swim in there.  Due to it not meeting water quality standards.

12) Polish War Memorial Parking

Concern about parking raised on West End Road which has a detrimental effect on traffic flow.  Council will look at issue but is a TFL road.

13) Pavements

Uneven slabs in Princes Way.  Cllr Kauffman explained that if they are a danger then the council have to repair them but there is a maintenance program which is slow but steady across the borough.  So please report issues with dangerous paving slabs.

Resident David Seaman explained that he has had to road tax his pavement vehicle so he can drive it on the roads to avoid the uneven paving.

14) Victoria Road

Concern expressed and a request made for a camera to cover people making right turns into Westmead.

15) Cllrs Reports

Cllr Kauffman

1000’s of bulbs planted at the DFS and Curry’s site.  Should be nice next year.

South Ruislip well represented in Green Flags with recent awards. In our area Polish War Memorial Remembrance Garden and  Bessingby Park both hold these.

Remembrance service to be held on the 10^th Sunday November at 10:20am at the Polish War and then onto the GAA

Further reports to be conducted on the SR bridge from TFL.  Network rail pigeons off three of the spans they earn.

Cllr Barnes

Have been spending the ward budget, with £600 spent at the 12^th South Ruislip Scouts.

The council have recovered an unused disabled bay in Oxford Drive. Near to Venue 5.

Collins Drive installing tactile paving to assist visually impaired users.

East Mead Cllr Barnes advised on dumped rubbish which was collected by the council and names traced back resulting in a fine for the dumper.

Cavendish Tennis – tennis available for all.  Play on the Saturday morning until the end of the year.

Litterpicks in Cavendish, Roxbourne and Bessingby Parks.

Sgt Damien Keyes is looking for members of the community to attend weapons sweeps.  Meetings at the Link/RAF for training.

Cllr Lavery

Torcross Road to be resurfaced.

On the brook side of Torcross looking again at an alley gate scheme.  Will need respondents to carry any changes forward.

Parking in the ward.  Looking at West Mead residents scheme parking.

CCTV upgraded across the board.  Improving resolution to give better coverage.

Discussed flooding.  If it occurs then do report to Thames Water.  If not reported it does not get done.

Whitby Road/Torcross discussed parking.

Cllr Tuckwell

Thanks to police and council for removing travellers in Bournecourt in 12 hours.

Safer neighbourhood teams and community payback team – worked on clearing some dumped rubbish in the area from alley gates scheme.

Christmas Lights up!

Clifford Road – petition on traffic calming and parking management.

New notice board at the allotments.

Meeting Closed.