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Reports, Minutes, Meetings, Plans, Outer Avenue Residents' Association, OARA.

Notes of an informal meeting of the OARA Committee - Thursday 21 January 2021

(This was meeting was held online using Zoom due to Covid 19 precautions)

Participants: John Hayward (Chair), Phine Dahle, Barbro Fitzjohn, Ally Hayes, Hilary Jackson, Jayanti Shah, Sue Swallow, Wendy Stokes
Apologies: Barbara Matcham, Ann Woolnough – both without Zoom

1. Administration

John noted Barbro had indicated she wished to step down from some admin duties and concentrate on more creative activities including the noticeboard. He thanked her for all her work on membership and mailing. He also thanked Wendy and Jayanti who had indicated they would be willing to take on some admin duties. Agreed to meet as small group to discuss and sort. Hilary reminded people we had to ensure we kept to GDPR data privacy regulations. Sue suggested that it made sense for Treasurer to keep Membership as linked to keeping membership money.
Action: John will arrange Zoom session

2. Finance

Wendy reported on the current balance. There had not been a lot of expenditure due to lockdown. Money was due to Sue for planting done for Student No Fee at 45 Gordon, who were due to pay the cost of the plants. Wendy inquired if she should still be invoicing SnF for Bin Buddy support in Gordon Avenue. Hilary said yes as we had still been checking bins, putting them out when students were away, and back in generally and guiding students on recycling etc.
Action: Wendy to invoice SnF
Hilary asked if it might be possible to pay for claims to OARA by online banking as not so easy to pay cheques in. Wendy explained that our (Barclays) account does not have this facility. Will enquire.

3. Squirrels

A number of members had submitted objections to the off-sales alcohol licence application at 92 Avenue Rd, the former Squirrels site and had been invited to online hearing on 3rd February. We needed to decide who would speak from OARA and who as individuals. To be decided nearer the time. Ally added that personally she was in favour of the application as it had had a former life as a corner shop. Some discussion re changes to traffic since then.
*At this point Phine raised the issue of how limited time on Zoom created pressure and curtailed discussion. Agreed to look at ways to extend time and reduce pressure - resulting in immediate upgrade to unlimited time for this meeting with immediate positive effect.

4. Student No Fee and works at 46/8 Gordon Avenue

Hilary reported that she had contacted Student no Fee with some urgency the previous Friday as works had unexpectedly started at 46/48 Gordon Avenue, including removal of hedges and some mature trees. She had emailed Dr Fogg, the owner, putting social and environmental arguments for protecting such mature greenery. It was too late for what had already been removed but Dr Fogg had replied, explaining that front garden walls needed repairing as part of general refurbishment and that there was a plan for replanting which she would be seeking OARA advice for and inviting involvement in future plans for 50 & 52.

5. City of Culture

Jayanti and several others had signed up for the Southampton City of Culture online consultation. The one for Bevois was on Tuesday 26th January. – still time to sign up for those interested. Discussion followed:
A lot of people -80%?- don't join in or think it's for them
Southampton was historically made up of several villages and this still exists in some ways
How can the City of Culture help join up the whole city? How can it appeal more widely?
Whole city events that attract a wide section of the community help e.g the half marathon, the old Balloon Festival, and Carnival but local events also important.
Food and parks also count as culture!
The new cycle ways have made a start in joining up the city - like arteries and veins – could these be used as a culture trail too?

Food for thought.

6. Committee Membership

Hilary suggested we might ask Nigel Barnes- who is very positive and supportive and does a lot of good things- including regular litter picking. Agreed!
Action: Hilary to ask if he would be interested in joining Committee
Hilary also let the committee know that Suzanne's father had sadly passed away over the Christmas holiday.

7. Windows of Hope

John proposed we launch a Windows of Hope project- following on from Christmas lights etc- inviting members to decorate their windows to bring a bit of lockdown and Spring cheer. Agreed!

8. AOB

Noticeboard: Barbro was keeping it updated included with bits to bring a bit of cheer in lockdown

Facebook Page: Ally encouraged members to take a look at the OARA Facebook page and to send in any news bits and photos that she could post up to try and increase interest/reach

Trees: Sue had four new bare-root cherry trees ready for planting. Three allocated- one going spare if anyone knew anyone who would like one for their front garden

Reaching out: Jayanti returned to issues raised at last meeting, including avoiding stereotyping certain groups and the important question of "How do get (more) people to feel they belong to the neighbourhood?" Some discussion followed. Agreed to have a proper discussion of this at our next meeting.

Future Meetings: Jayanti (ZoomMaster?!) agreed to look at ways of holding future online committee meetings while lockdown and Covid precautions last.

Notes of an informal meeting of the OARA Committee - Friday 4 December 2020

(This was meeting was held online using Zoom due to Covid 19 precautions)

Participants: John Hayward (Chair), Phine Dahle, Barbro Fitzjohn, Ally Hayes, Hilary Jackson, Jayanti Shah, Wendy Stokes
Apologies: Barbara Matcham (no Zoom), Ann Woolnough (no Zoom), Sue Swallow

1. Notes from last meeting on 27th November

Ally will follow up the big hole in Cedar Rd
Hilary had sent email to Council re HMO Planning and licensing and will forward to committee.
Hilary had had reply from Will Robson in Waste re bin matters and will forward to committee
Phine reported that Sue had written to Planning to enquire about works taking place at 92 Gordon

2. Christmas Arrangements

Agreed to postpone Craft Trail to Sunday 6th from 12.30-2-30 due to poor weather forecast for Saturday. Notices to go out.

Noted October Books Xmas Milk Float in the area on Saturday evening. To include in mailing.

Agreed to continue idea of outdoor musical event- perhaps linking up with local radio on 16th December. To discuss with Maggie and report back.

3. Clean Streets Stuff
Hilary reported that Cllr Kataria had contacted us re information on flytipping hotspots as he is arranging to walk the patch with one of the relevant officers. He had also made contact with a Romanian agency with a view to working with them to build links with Romanian residents.

4. AGM

It was agreed that we should postpone the AGM until the Spring rather than try to hold one online.
Action: Hilary to inform members

5. Next memo to members

Agreed to include; Christmas update, briefing from the Uni, Council-linked matters, reminder re our Facebook page

Request from PhD student re environmental matters to be forward separately.

There was a brief discussion about balancing the need to share information with members and not overwhelming them with too much stuff, including from associated organisations. Also noted that this creates more tasks for the mailing/membership secretary. Agreed we should try to make more use of Facebook for immediate events- and thank you to Ally for taking this on (and to Fiona for getting and keeping this going).

AOB

John raised the need to recruit more members to the Committee and to make us more representative of the community, including bringing in younger members. He asked members to consider how to do this. There followed a brief discussion on "diversity", relevance to the whole community and responsibility. An important issue that needs proper time to explore. Agreed to make it a major item and have a proper discussion at next meeting.

Date of Next Meeting: TBA- in January?

Meeting finished at 10.35

Notes of an informal meeting of the OARA Committee - Friday 27 November 2020

Participants: John Hayward (Chair), Phine Dahle, Barbro Fitzjohn, Ally Hayes, Hilary Jackson, Jayanti Shah, Sue Swallow
Apologies: Barbara Matcham (no Zoom), Wendy Stokes, Ann Woolnough

1. Welcome

John welcomed Jayanti to the meeting. Jayanti was attending for a taster session with a view to joining the Committee. Jay explained that he is member of the Southampton City of Culture panel and hoped that would be one way in which he could contribute.

2. Notes from last meeting on 20th November

John had investigated Zoom Licence but had not proceeded as cost could be £148. Agreed to carry on as we are for now and if more time needed for a meeting to set up invite for consecutive session. Hilary had emailed Council contacts re uncollected bins.

3. Christmas Arrangements

Email had gone out to members re possible Christmas activities, including house decorations to share.

The Christmas Craft Trail is due to go ahead on Saturday 5 December 11-2 with 6 stalls, Covid and weather permitting. If weather is poor it will take place on next suitable Saturday or Sunday.

It was suggested and agreed that it would be good to hold a safely distanced musical Christmas evening at the Mural. Mike and Maggie had expressed interest. Action: HJ to inquire re suitable date.

4. Planning

Sue gave update re resubmitted application for Lawful Development Certificate in Gordon Avenue.
John raised issue of large hole at building site in Cedar Rd. Action: Ally to find out more

Hilary and Sue reported that NSCF and HRA had submitted requests to the Council that they should follow the example of Warwick Council in closing current gap so that there must be Planning Permission before an HMO Licence can be granted. Agreed we should also contact Council.
Action: HJ to draw up letter re linking planning and HMO licensing

5. Clean Streets Stuff

Hilary reported that flytipped plasterboard in the Cut had been reported to Barry with his new hat on and he had provided an email link for reporting any such incidents. Agreed to circulate to members.

6. AGM

It was suggested that we should postpone the AGM until the Spring rather than try to hold one online. There was general agreement on this. To be discussed further at next meeting.

7. AOB

Barbro mentioned that she knew of a number of new families who had moved into the area in Avenue Rd and Gordon Avenue. Agreed to contact them with OARA postcard.
John suggested he would contact Jayanti after the meeting to discuss how he felt about becoming a committee member. Jay indicated he would be happy to join. He was formally proposed by Phine and seconded by Hilary.

Date of Next Meeting: as we were running out if time it was agreed to reconvene by Zoom the following Friday 4th December at 10.00. Zoom expired at 10.40.

Notes of an informal meeting of the OARA Committee - Friday 21 November 2020

(This was meeting was held online using Zoom due to Covid 19 precautions)

Participants: John Hayward (Chair), Phine Dahle, Barbro Fitzjohn, Ally Hayes, Hilary Jackson, Sue Swallow
Apologies: Barbara Matcham (no Zoom), Wendy Stokes (another meeting), Ann Woolnough (no Zoom)

1. Committee Matters

John reported that he had received an email from Suzanne indicating she wished to stand down from the committee as she did not feel able to give the commitment needed at the present time. Those participating accepted the resignation but were really sorry to do so as all felt Suzanne had made a valuable contribution. Action: John would contact Suzanne to give our thanks.

As we have not held formal meetings since lockdown, there had not been the opportunity to invite Jayanti Shah to join a committee meeting for a taster session, following a conversation with Phine and an expression of interest earlier in the year. As we are still not holding face to face meetings it was decided to hold an additional Zoom meeting soon and ask Jayanti if he would like to attend. Action: John to invite Jayanti.
John raised the issue of whether we should pay for a Zoom Licence so that we had longer than the free 40-minute session. Agreed to investigate this - cost likely to be approx. £119.00. We could then even possibly use it for an AGM. Action:John to investigate Zoom Licence.

2. Christmas Arrangements
The Christmas Craft Trail is due to go ahead on Saturday 5 December, Covid restrictions permitting. To be decided once we have more information.

It was agreed that we should try to do something to help lift community spirits over the Christmas period, even though what we could do would be limited this year. After discussion it was agreed we should invite residents to decorate their houses/front gardens to bring a bit of street cheer to share. This could include: lights, trees, decorations in windows, door wreaths etc. It should be easy to achieve, every bit welcome, but those that felt creative enough could even illustrate one of the twelve days of Christmas or a Christmas song in their window- creating another sort of Christmas trail to follow. Action: Hilary would draft some words and send to committee for comment and Barbro would add illustration.

3. Smart Streets Stuff

Hilary reported that she had again complained to our contacts in the Council about the number of unemptied contaminated recycling bins. This time we had a positive response and prompt action, including from Cllr Kataria. Agreed we needed to follow this up with letter email about the need for more joined up thinking re this aspect of management of waste on a regular basis. Action: Hilary to draft letter re bin/waste collection matters.
It was also noted that there is still no sign of a replacement for Barry Olson, HMO Warden. Action: Hilary to send letter to Councillors re replacement HMO Warden

4. Greening Update:

Sue reported that it was now tree planting season and that she was ordering a number of new cherry trees, including for 35 ,41 and 51 Gordon Ave – the latter two being landlord properties. Beds had been tidied, bulbs planted and barrels refreshed.
Sue also reported that she had heard from Balfour Beattie who were still planning to install new planters opposite the mural, as we had proposed.

5. Planning

Sue reported that there continued to be a number of applications for retrospective permission for HMO use or increase in numbers per house. A recent application for 59 Gordon Avenue had been refused. Our Councillors had supported us in this. There was however concern about the overall council policy re HMOs and how we should respond to this -to be continued on next agenda. She also drew attention to the permitted development proposals introduced on the last day before parliamentary recess in the summer- which would include addition of two storeys without planning permission! We need to monitor this.

6. AOB

Hilary mentioned that Fiona is planning to move out of the area- which will be sad loss. She will contact her to keep in touch and ask about Facebook.

7. Date of Next Meeting

Agreed to hold another Zoom meeting next Friday 27 November at 10.00am. It is not ideal as not all of the committee can access Zoom but better than not meeting at all. (Hilary suggested by email after the meeting that it could be possible to join the meeting by phone if anyone wished to try this.)

Zoom expired at 10.40!

Minutes of OARA Committee Meeting - Monday 25 November 2019

1.Attending and Apologies

Attending: John Hayward(Chair), Fiona Barnes, Barbro Fitzjohn, Ally Hayes, Hilary Jackson, Barbara Matcham, Wendy Stokes, Sue Swallow, Ann Woolnough

Apologies: Phine Dahle and Suzanne Wright.

2. Notice of any urgent other business to be discussed at end of meeting:

Mailing out October Books events, Eleanor, SUSU re election, design for another planter

3. Approval of Minutes of Committee Meeting on 16 September 2019:

HJ will re-lobby for a Street Sparkle over Christmas. Listed actions taken forward.

4. Finance Report

The change of signatories was still in progress. A few payments had gone through. Membership monies were being held for deposit. The production of accounts for the end of December was likely to be delayed. The Bevois Mount History Group account was subject to change.

5. Membership

2 new recruits had been achieved through the website but fees had not been requested.

6. OGM Follow Up

The speaker from the Council had been very patient recognising that staff cuts meant that staff were taking on new responsibilities and finding their way. There was disappointment with the Police response to drug dealing reports. There is a 101 website for reports which serves to build up intelligence of activity. Louise will be doing a survey of anti social behaviour. Southampton University makes a payment to the Police; the specification for use of the money was unknown. Barbro had welcomed new and renewing members. She suggested that next year each committee member could take responsibility for properties 100m either side of their residences. Barbro sought a volunteer to maintain the membership list. Wendy had placed a message on Next Door re membership.

7. Preparation for AGM

Speaker. Suggestions: John Walsh (students, his role, latest happenings), Colin(landlords and quality of accommodation), Preservation teams(eg roundabout greening at Millbrook),Chris Collins (the HMO Licensing System), new Interim Head of Planning?
Venue to be booked
Projector required for Highlights of OARA Year photo presentation illustrating main points in Chair's Report( notices are posted saying photos being taken at events). All to give photographs to AH/WS
Initial notice of AGM to be sent out at beginning of January.3 weeks' notice required. Agenda as previously.
Annual report: All contributions by 7 January ideally to include at end plans for 2020. Photographs to mirror. Copy of previous Treasurer's Report to be sent to Wendy. Andy tabled and posted on website retrospectively… p1 table of figures, p2 table of notes.
Committee meeting 13 January final check, finalise paperwork for end of week.
Committee Profiles. All to stand again. Update
Refreshments?

8. Parking and Lodge Road

SS had emailed Geoff Hobbs. OARA needs to know what happening elsewhere in Portswood. There seems to be movement in Council thinking re the approach to 'softening ' areas with references to Active Traffic Zones involving calming streets, reducing rat running and improving appearance through the use of planters with local communities involved .A meeting had been suggested for 6 December at the Civic Centre. HJ (possibly), Richard, Fiona to attend.
Suggested GH be invited to AGM.

Steve Leggett has walked Lodge Road and found a place for a planter on a space where a telephone box used to stand.

Ask on 6 December about match funding for a composter.

Changes were happening at the car dealers in Lodge Road but this was consistent with previous history of the site. Maybe this was the opportunity for a flower bed.

9. Other COMMON GROUND Updates, Proposals & Plans

(order of topics to rotate each meeting)

9.1 Smart Streets

Barbara confirmed she was ok for 1 December. HJ will put on Next Door. HJ will check that OARA is programmed in for Xmas Street Cleaning.

9.2 Community Liaison/ Social

Students moving out. No information was provided to students this year on what to do about putting out waste .The reactive lorry had been discontinued. Stuff was being picked up as a goodwill gesture by the Council. Staff needed to be told to knock on doors re contaminated bins. Waste Management will provide extra bins. Tendering for recycling bins now stretched beyond when students moving on.
North Southampton Common. Under storey being removed to encourage wildlife. Working on Hawthorns'fountains.
The Local Plan. A 2 year staff appointment made. Important for influencing housing supply and HMO issues.
PPG. No discussion.
Craft Fair Feedback. Significantly higher footfall. Lovely atmosphere. OARA business cards required. Thanks to Suzanne and Fiona for great work with teas and coffees, etc.
Christmas Party on 8 December. Posters to be produced and circulated. Expenses to be claimed by JH. Request for raffle prizes to be made. Bring food if attending if possible
Student Election Debate. OARA invited.

9.3 History and Heritage.

1000 Southampton Story copies available for £5.95 each. Schools to contact through libraries.
Flaking mural horse to be fixed.
Southampton Star Awards: 2 categories….community and events.
Avenue St Andrews church tower repair using Lottery monies. Assisting with project lead and evaluation.
OARA has table and a half at church Christmas fair on 7 December.

9.4 Planning

Applications approved and refused reported.

9.5 Communications

A stand- in for website updating required.

9.6 Greening

Tidying of barrels and bulb planting almost complete; offer made re Lime Bar planter
TPO on ash tree progressing, interest in tulip tree; another planter agreed at mural using cut to measure wood blocks (no parking to be lost)
Plants required for church stall.

10.0 AOB

Noted October Books events.

11.0 Date of next meeting and priorities for discussion:

The next meeting will be on Monday 13 January. AGM Monday 27 January.

Minutes of OARA Committee Meeting - Monday 16 September 2019

1. Attending and Apologies

Attending: John Hayward(Chair), and Fiona Barnes, Barbro Fitzjohn, Ally Hayes, Hilary Jackson, Barbara Matcham, Wendy Stokes, Suzanne Wright, Ann Woolnough

Apologies: Phine Dahle, Andy Haselhurst, Dorothy Haselhurst Sue Swallow,

2. Notice of any urgent other business to be discussed at end of meeting:

3. Approval of Minutes of Committee Meeting on 22 July 2019:

Approved subject to the date in item 11 being changed to November with the addition of SS to those pursuing the possibility of trees in Portswood High Street.(Item 9.1)

4. Finance Report

Wendy's appointment was approved at the OGM. She will go to the bank with Andy before 28 October to change signatories along with Sue and John who need to redo their mandates.2/4 signatories required on cheques. Hilary in possession of the cheque book.
The latest accounts were received which showed no variation in the position.

5. Membership Recruitment Drive

More 178 people had signed up as members. C.60 people had made a financial payment. John and Des will work on Avenue Road.

Generally the membership position was looking healthy with no panic to increase numbers. 150 was an optimal number in some circumstances for maintaining intimacy. Membership payment records had been simplified by Wendy. The street party provided an opportunity for recruitment; Barbro will do an email in advance of the party, an item will be placed on Next Door, the postcard will be amended to include contact details and phrase 'recruiting now'. HJ to sort bundles/labels.
Rachel from Blue Door will be asked for the whereabouts of the hanging 'contraptions'.

6. Start of Term Arrangements

The Student/ Community Liaison Meeting had discussed the problems of recycling including the drop in the market for plastic. The Echo had usefully had a campaign. It was agreed to explore the possibility of the Council, through Barry, circulating a 'notice' to students and engaging landlords in reinforcing the messages. The distribution of bags remained an issue.

John awaited the return of the students to finalise the performers at the Street Party. A recycling table of pots and pans for anyone in need was suggested, any donations gratefully accepted.

A quiz around the contents of the mural, the plants in the planters, OARA contact details, etc was another suggestion, named entries with data protection authority to enable addition to mailing list.

John to send a message to members re need for soup and rolls.

Bulb planting in pots could be another activity with OARA wooden sticks with web address. HJ to speak to SS. BM to source sticks and litter pick rubber gloves.

Hilary to mock up a student invitation letter.

7.14 October OGM

Will Robson, Street Scene Enforcement Team, invited to explain his role but yet to reply.

Phine anxious to discuss mental health wellbeing in the community.

8. Parking and Lodge Road

In abeyance. A request for action in Rigby Road forwarded to Geoff Hobbs with no objection from OARA. OARA Resident in Rigby Road to be acknowledged. A suggestion of a national ban on anti social pavement parking. Action still required re lines and Alma Road planters.

9. Other COMMON GROUND Updates, Proposals & Plans

(order of topics to rotate each meeting)

9.1 Greening

It was suggested that the summer bedding being removed from the parks could be valuable to community groups such as OARA. SW to discuss with SS. There were trees worthy of protection in the locality.

9.2 Smart Streets

Lobbying continued for Street Sparkle particularly for a street sweep (and pavements) at Christmas and Easter. The Council needed to programme this activity automatically into its work programme.

9.3 Community Liaison/ Social

The street clean will be moved to the weekend before the party.

The system for booking GP appointments on line appeared to be inequitable.

There is a Bevois Mount Art and Craft Fayre at October Books on 16 November 11am-5pm.It costs £105 for the day for 10 participants 7 recruited to date. Payment has to be made 2 weeks in advance. OARA asked to fund this to be refunded once money collected from participants.

9.4 History and Heritage.

A photograph for the school presented to HJ.

2020 calendar available which includes the Mayflower 400 year anniversary @ £6.00

21/9 Lost Pubs or not of Rockstone/Bevois Mount.

12/10 Last Common History Walk of year but probably to be repeated next year.

16/10 Talk at Portswood Library : Painting The Town, artists who recorded the changing face of Southampton. At 7pm.

Flew flag for Bevois Mount History Group at West Quay on Historic Buildings weekend.

9.5 Planning

Conversions discussed.

9.6 Communications

Squirrels interest.

Portswood HMO statistics circulated.

10.0 AOB

More equipment bought for Smart Streets activity. Trying to source high vis jackets without silver bands in order to properly display OARA's name.

11.0 Date of next meeting and priorities for discussion:

The next meeting will be on Monday 25 November. Barbara to host.

Minutes of OARA Committee Meeting - Monday 22 July 2019

1. Attending:

John Hayward (Chair), Andy Haslehurst, Dorothy Haslehurst, Phine Dahle, Hilary Jackson, Barbra Matcham, Sue Swallow, Suzanne Wright

Apologies: Ally Hayes and Wendy Stokes (giving BMH talk), Fiona Barnes, Barbro Fitzjohn, Ann Woolnough

2. Notice of any urgent other business to be discussed at end of meeting

3. Approval of Minutes of Cttee Meeting on 17 June

Minutes were approved.

4. Finance Report

AH circulated latest balance sheet

JH thanked Andy and Dorothy for their work and combined efforts for OARA, particularly Andy's long service as Treasurer and Dorothy's tenacity with thorny issue of parking. They are due to move out of the area (but not too far) in the coming months and will be greatly missed. Thanks were wholeheartedly endorsed by the Committee.

5. Membership recruitment drive:

Agreed that this was needed in the autumn and that we needed a new recruitment leaflet for circulating door to door. HJ to try and draft new leaflet based on previous version

6. Photography Protocols

John had circulated draft protocol and poster for events, alerting people to taking of photographs and action needed if they did not want to be photographed and/or have photos used for publicity. These were approved. HJ to arrange for Photo protocol to be approved at the OGM and put on website.

7. Parking Survey and Lodge Rd- What next?

Hold over discussion to next meeting. Dorothy to contact Geoff at SCC re next steps.

Also suggested:

that we have printed cards to put on windscreens for persistent problem parkers
we do survey of students and their reasons for needing a car/parking. Emphasise environmental issues, good transport/bus services.

8. Start of term arrangements- what do we need to do?

JH, BM and HJ due to attend Shift Your Stuff Washup which was also due to discuss start of term arrangements. Intended to urge uni to put out guidance to students moving into houses. Agreed we needed to make positive initial contact with student households to alert them to the community, good neighbour expectations etc. HJ suggested a letter in an envelope, with party invitation. HJ to try to draft letter to students.

9. October OGM – speaker suggestions

OGM is Monday 14 October. Suggested we invite Will Robson, Street Scene Enforcement officer to follow up joined-up thinking related to environment, appearance of the area.

PD also suggested inviting speaker on mental health. Agreed maybe not as main item but to complement overall approach on environment and wellbeing. HJ to invite Will Robson

10 Other COMMON GROUND Updates, Proposals & Plans

(order of topics to rotate each meeting)

10.1 Greening:

Sue reported that she had two new barrels for 126 and 128 Gordon- to replace two which had been taken. Also time to contact possible takers for new trees.
Street Trees: PD suggested we should lobby council/businesses for trees in Portswood Broadway. Suggested Portswood RA would be worth contacting.

PD and SS to pursue possibilities of trees in Portswood

OARA/Committee Agenda and Minutes 190722 Committee Minutes 22 July 2019

10.2 Smart Streets

Shift Your Stuff Review: different parties had worked well together this year. General feeling was there was less rubbish on the street and extra collections had been effective

Flytipping/littering signs: Extra sign needed at bottom of Earl's Road.

HJ to contact Will Robson to request extra fly-tipping sign

New litter picking equipment: stocks a bit low after individuals being allocated them for looking after own patch. BM would order extra equipment

10.3 Community Liaison / Social

PPG. Phine had stood down as Chair, which was now being shared on rotating basis

Meet Your Neighbour Party: scheduled for Sunday 6 October. Suggested we have table of household goods left behind by leaving students. Agreed. JH to organise party with help!

Art Fair scheduled for 16th November TBC

10.4 History & Heritage

Ally had sent in written report - see below:

We are continuing with our monthly Common History walks and it was lovely to see Sue last time around. Our next one is Wednesday 21st August meeting at The Hawthorns at 2pm.
Hopefully you will get another opportunity to hear Wendy's John Arlott talk (at Burgess Road library tonight - so you've missed it!) because it really is good.
We are doing a double act 'Portswood Manor and the Italian Connection' on Wednesday 14th August 7.30pm at Portswood Library.
We did a Suffragette Walk for Friends of Ave St Andrews last Wednesday and they must have liked it because they are booking us again for next year.

10.5 Planning

Application for 24-hour gym at Sainsburys had been passed despite objections.

SS and SW would attend council panel related to application for Lidl's at 73 the Avenue/Stag Gates junction. See next minutes for outcome.

10.6 Communications

Nothing to report

11 AOB

12 Date of next meeting, venue and priorities for discussion:

Monday 16 September

Minutes of OARA Committee Meeting - Wednesday 17 July 2019

1. Attending and Apologies

Attending: John Hayward(Chair), Barbro Fitzjohn, Andy Haselhurst, Dorothy Haselhurst Ally Hayes, Hilary Jackson, Barbara Matcham, Wendy Stokes, Sue Swallow, Ann Woolnough

Apologies: Fiona Barnes, Phine Dahle, Suzanne Wright,

2. Notice of any urgent other business to be discussed at end of meeting:

Kingsley House.

3. Approval of Minutes of Committee Meeting on 29 April 2019:

Approved.

4. Finance Report

The finances were in a reasonably healthy state. At the Big Lunch £96.00 was received by way of voluntary contributions (via a designated bucket) as well as membership monies (£115.00). The greening table took c£60.00. Hilary will send card(s) of thanks. Barbara presented her receipts (£49.99) for the purchase of her replacement gazebo.

5. Membership

The committee discussed the approach to collecting membership dues which would continue to stand at £5.00 per household but was not obligatory and with a waiver for concessions. Streamlining payments through direct debits, bank transfers, Paypal, etc. was discussed as an option but door knocking had the advantage of personal contact and potential immediacy of payment action and issue of membership cards and avoided time consuming tracking of bank payments made without adequate referencing. The aim is to complete collection in one month. Teams were agreed for Alma Road, Avenue Road and Gordon Road. Options for payment will be emailed to existing members by Barbro following shared proof reading.

Recruitment of new members will be discussed at the next meeting.

6. Big Lunch Party

The Big Lunch was the most successful to date with lots of children attending and enjoying face painting. It was now seen by many as a fixture in the social calendar. Thanks were given to John for carrying the stress of prime organiser. Taking donations to promote OARA's work had been successful and will be repeated in October which is an opportunity to promote bin etiquette to students. The Committee will look into the affordability of communal water urns with a view to self service. OARA used photographs of events to promote OARA and its work. John will draft a photograph protocol and circulate to the committee for comments. A major concern for people was where any photograph would appear.

7. Parking Survey

Action seemed to be in abeyance with OARA objecting to only partial introduction in local streets. SCC expects OARA to be involved in future information gathering. It was agreed that the parking issue should be raised with students through the university highlighting the lack of onroad parking in the area and stressing the environmental gains from carless university life. The committee supported the creation of a card on recycled paper to be left on vehicles unused for 2/3 weeks asking the owner to consider whether they really needed the vehicle in Southampton. The university will be advised and invited to add its logo to the cards. Wendy will design a card and circulate for comments.

8. OGM

The minutes were agreed for posting on the website.

Lodge Road will be on the agenda for the next (committee) meeting

9. Other COMMON GROUND Updates, Proposals & Plans

(order of topics to rotate each meeting)

9.1 Greening

The half barrels have been planted up. The table top sale went very well. Thank you to Mandy for the lovely selection of plants for the Big Lunch stall. Most of the plants at the plant swap found homes. Sue was nurturing a couple of cherry trees in pots and has 3 mountain ash. Sue will contact Heather.

9.2 Smart Streets

Extra collections have been organised for the student exit period and the Council will be more lenient re overfull bins. It was unclear as to what had happened to bags and leaflets. Posh Pads had stencilled addresses on 'its' bins. Members to let Hilary know of instances of dumping. The next litter pick is 7 July.

9.3 Community Liaison/ Social

The last PACT meeting had been poorly attended. Post noisy party action had a number of effective strands. Hilary will draft a note setting out what to do for circulation to members and for the website.

9.4 History and Heritage.

The 4th Common History Walk will be on Saturday 13 July; the last one was attended by 7 people. Re Stag Gates anniversary: laminated pictures have been put out in the central library and Ally had an article in the 'Evening Echo'. The October Books community room is being prepared for hire. Fiona will lead a suffragette walk on July 17th.There are plans to repeat the 'Lost Pubs of Bevois Valley' walk again because it has proved popular in the past. Copies of the leaflet on the Common will be made available to The Common's Forum and the Hawthorn Centre but come at a cost

9.5 Planning

There was concern about the latest plan for yet another manicure establishment in Portswood Road and the potential pressure on parking in nearby residential streets. The future of the Blockbusters site remained of interest. Sue had been in contact with SCC re an additional planter at the communal space.

9.6 Communications

Nothing to add

10.0 AOB

Action in respect of the dying magnolia at Kingsley House discussed. Concerns expressed about unofficial/ illicit use of properties as HMOs.

11.0 Date of next meeting and priorities for discussion:

The next meeting will be on Monday 22 July.

Minutes of OARA Committee Meeting - Monday 25 March 2019

1. Present:

Fiona Barnes, Phine Dahle, Barbara Fitzjohn, Ally Hayes, Andy Haslehurst, John Hayward (Chair), Hilary Jackson, Barbara Matcham, Wendy Stokes, Sue Swallow,

Also attending: Dorothy Haslehurst, Rachel from Blue Door, Suzanne Wright

Apologies: Ann Woolnough

2. Notice of any urgent other business to be discussed at end of meeting

Property Developer letter; City of Culture

3. Approval of Minutes of Cttee Meeting on 18th February

Minutes were approved as a true record . No matters arising not covered elsewhere

4. Finance Report

AH gave a brief verbal report. There was no written report as there had been little change since last statement. The grant of £2.5k towards Welcome to Bevois Mount Sign had been received but only £520 spent to date. Further payment to artist due.

SS had also been reimbursed for Greening spending.

5. Membership Discussion:

BF reported there were currently 114 on the mailing list, of which 60 were paying/paid up members. BF also proposed that we should consider setting up standing orders or online payment to make collection easier. After discussion it was agreed that:

we should set up a trial system (standing orders and PayPal)
we should clarify membership payment with £5 as routine membership subscription with discretion for non-payment when needed.
some individuals/organisations would also remain on the mailing list as none paying contacts e.g. councillors.

AH reminded the meeting that all residents were automatically members with voting rights at meetings

There was also a brief discussion about the need to increase membership. whether through the postcards or new recruitment leaflet. To be continued at the OGM
Inquire from Webmaster what PayPal payment would entail

HJ to draft proposal for the OGM in May

6. Parking Survey: report. What next?

DH outlined the report from Geoff Hobbs about the outcome of the combined informal Parking Survey. An addional 32 replies had been received, meaning that overall 94 residents (51%) had voted in favour and 89 against. However, 60% support is required to proceed to a formal consultation. Some but not all streets achieved this.

Two options available: to proceed to formal consultation just in those streets who reached the 60% threshold or to seek or more customised solution for Outer Avenue as a whole, which was the preferred option. Thought that Rigby Road could go ahead separately as affected by arrangements on other side of Portswood Rd.

FB raised issue of problem caused to blind/visually impaired by on-pavement parking

DH to accept offer of further meeting with Geoff Hobbs to explore possibilities.

PD thanked DH for her doggedly determined work on this issue and proposed getting together a group to pool creative ideas once Dorothy had had meeting.

OARA/Committee Agenda and Minutes 190325 Committee Minutes 25 March 2019

7. Blue Door /Lodge Road Event

BF and Rachel from Blue Door outlined proposals for the event scheduled for the weekend of 10-12 May. This would be a community event with the opportunity to showcase the work that local artists and OARA and its groups do, and be a springboard/forum for taking forward the Lodge Road improvement project. Ideas to date are:

Friday evening – Art, Music and Auction of Promises

Saturday /Sunday (exact timings to be decided) –

Art continues, stalls for groups (outside if fine), Community Litter Pick in Lodge Rd, children's games, display/forum on Lodge Rd project, Tea and Cake

HJ suggested leafleting Lodge Rd to raise awareness/involvement beforehand, including businesses. Invite them to join in Litter pick and forum.

Ann Ridley is working on a poster to advertise the event.

Barbro and Rachel will continue with event planning, including initial email to members inviting promises for the Auction.

HJ presented update from Cllr Rayment on bid for funds for Lodge Rd Project.

SS to pursue what is happening re Lodge Rd funding, with FB and SW

Rachel also reported that that plaque for Rosy Maguire, near to Rosy's roses in in Clifford Dibbern Mews, was now in place. Thanks to R for organising this and to Blue Door for meeting the cost.

8. Shift Your Stuff- Student Clear-out Plans (see minutes of joint meeting)

HJ and JH outlined Shift Your Stuff planning meeting held with Council and Uni reps, as per minutes already circulated. A follow up was due on April 16th. Following discussion, it was agreed:

OARA would help deliver info leaflets to students
we would cover the cost of additional bin collection (approx. £350), subject to OGM approval
find out if Scratch, St James, 2Saints would be interested in recyclable items
inform other RAs via NSCF. SS to find out date

NB I forgot to ask if we would cover cost of printing leaflets as Uni was covering design. To agree next time?

9. OGM

Dates: As previously suggested dates clashed with SCC Council business, the following alternatives were proposed:

Tuesday 14 May (with Tue 28th as back up)
Monday 14th October

HJ to liaise with Councillors to confirm

Focus for May OGM: Membership Proposals, Lodge Rd Project, Street Cleaning

HJ to invite Dave Tyrie and/or Barry Stuttle to attend
OARA/Committee Agenda and Minutes 190325 Committee Minutes 25 March 2019

7. Other COMMON GROUND Updates, Proposals & Plans

(order of topics to rotate each meeting)

7.1 Communications

Bulletin: JH will do Spring Bulletin. Items and photos to him by Friday

Next Door: Discussion re Next Door- local social media network. Agreed it was useful means to promote activities but just need to be aware it is now a US company and people need to be aware that personal data can be collected.
Agreed to find out if area name can be changed to include Outer Avenue

7.2 Smart Streets

Easter Street Sparkle: agreed to request Easter Street Sparkle

Graffiti/Fake yellow lines: JH raised issue of new graffiti with two faces logo appearing locally, including on Telecomms boxes. He would be willing to repaint. Had reported some fake double yellow lines to the Council. Be aware.

7.3 Community Liaison / Social

Date for Street Parties: 2 June and 6 October

PPG: PD reported that Maggie had done poster for surgery noticeboard re greening opportunities in GP carpark. Soton volunteer group available for advice on setting up
Gazebo: BM would check if their gazebo could be repaired or if new one needed.

Drug issues: still a cause for concern. Important to report to 101 or PCSOs

7.4 History & Heritage

A Hay reported that: The Welcome to Bevois Mount should be ready soon Cllr Satvir Kaur to help with unveiling.

Good number of people had had come to successful Walk on the Common- two more planned 20th April and 29 Ma

Wendy would be giving talk on John Arlott on 10 April at Portswood Library

BMH History of Stag Gates event 15/16 June JH on cake duty

7.5 Planning

SS reported applications at 36 Lodge Rd,35 Portswood Road and 3 Spear Rd. To be followed up as appropriate

7.6 Greening

Tree at 88 Gordon had been partially broken but may survive. New tree ready for planting at 47 Avenue Rd. JH to liaise.

HJ proposed thanks to Sue for all her hard work, evident in the bulbs and blossom now in flower. PD also proposed thanks to History Group for also brightening up our area with Murals etc. Both heartily endorsed by the whole group.

8 AOB

BF reported that Southampton is bidding to become a City of Culture

HJ raised concerns re letter through doors from property investor. Agreed to draft letter.

JH asked SW if she would be willing to join the committee. Nominated by JH, seconded by PD. Agreed by all present.

SS reported another all night party at 61 Gordon. Complaints to Uni and landlord. JH showed us previous noise injunction on the same property from 2017.

9 Date of next meeting, venue and priorities for discussion:

Next Committee Meeting: Monday 29 April venue tba

Download Minutes of the OARA OGM 10th July 2023

Minutes of Outer Avenue Residents' Association (OARA) Ordinary General Meeting of Monday 11 April 2022

Present: as per immediately preceding AGM

The Chair introduced the session and the meeting was invited to contribute their ideas and to discuss the future work plan for OARA, considering priorities for the year ahead and identifying the most important things for making a difference. The document with proposed Plans for 2022 had been circulated at the start of the evening. It included both continuation of existing work and some new priorities. Thoughts and ideas from members were really welcome and important.

Additional ideas contributed included:

reflecting wider environmental concerns/matters relevant to our area e.g., supporting solar panels
the provision of electric car charging points

In general, the meeting was comfortable with the proposed plan subject to:

the removal of the term 'Active Travel Zone' which was a specific term not necessarily recognised by all
'working with other parties with similar aims to green our area and the city' needed to take cognisance that this was the Outer Avenue Residents' Association and efforts needed to be focussed internally on the area given the limited resources at its disposal.
the recognition of the need to support the development of other residents' associations by sharing OARA's experience
the local Councillors being able to access appropriate support in the Council for resident association development.

The plan was agreed in principle and is attached to these minutes. (see below)

PLANS FOR 2022

We've set out below ideas and priorities for the year ahead, continuing the work we have been doing and with new initiatives for 2022. These all aim to foster the idea of working together to improve and take responsibility the common ground we share.

COMMUNITY LINKS

Maintain and develop links with partners (such as the Council, the university, students' union, businesses, police, Alma Road Medical Centre, places of worship and the school).
Set up closer working links with neighbouring Residents' Associations e.g. IARA, HRA and Polygon.
Build up links with more landlords and lettings agencies, including SU's letting agency.
Produce and distribute a start of year Welcome / Information pack for students, in conjunction with the Council, Landlords and Universities, with guidance / expectations on waste, parking and noise.
Build up a profile of local population in order to forge better links.

SOCIAL AND CULTURAL

Carry on with social events to include a June Big-Lunch Thank-You Party, an October Meet-Your-Neighbours event and a Christmas / Winter gathering.
Continue to develop art and cultural events, sometimes combined with social events.
Hold an Open Studio Art Event in August in collaboration with Avenue St. Andrews.

COMMUNICATIONS

Continue membership drive, redistributing our leaflet and producing a welcome pack for new residents.
Carry out membership survey, to find out more about skills and interests.
Send regular bulletins, at least quarterly, to mailing list re activities / achievements.
Produce at least one hardcopy newsletter for wider circulation.
Make sure our website is fully functioning and up to date.
Develop our use of social media, including setting up local WhatsApp group.

SMART STREETS

Continue University / Student & Community Common Ground Meetings & extend to student landlords.
Campaign for parking / traffic / road improvements.
Continue monthly litter picks, increase number of helpers and look again at Street Blitz ideas.
Set up a Get Business / Landlords etc on Board initiative to encourage them to share local responsibility.
Lobby Council to enforce HMO licencing conditions and add addional ones where needed.

HISTORY AND HERITAGE

Continue with our programme of guided history walks.
Continue to give talks starting with 'Titanic Graves in the Old Cemetery' on April 20that Portswood Library.
Put up more blue plaques to celebrate people and places in Bevois Mount.
Finish writing 'A Walk Around Southampton Common' - the follow up to 'A Walk Up the Avenue' which was October Books' best seller of 2021.
Make plans for 2023 which will be the 300th anniversary of the Bevois Mount Estate - all ideas very welcome!
Produce a calendar to celebrate 300 years of Bevois Mount.

GREENING

Celebrate Ten Years of Greening and maintain existing projects: flower beds, barrels & tree planting.
Create map of existing OARA Greening (trees, beds, barrels & planters) and seek more sites.
Set up Tree Project, including a Tree Protection Person, to protect / increase number of local trees.
Seek to increase protection / development of greenery in rental properties, working with Council and landlords e.g. change in licensing and education / persuasion of landlords.
Work with other parties with similar aims to green our area and city.

PLANNING

Set up a planning sub-group to better monitor and respond to planning applications and issues & oppose overdevelopment.
Encourage site visits to understand local issues.

Minutes of Outer Avenue Residents' Association (OARA) Annual General Meeting of Monday 11 April 2022

Present: There were 28 attendees as identified on the attendance list:

Alma Road: Julia Clarke, Barbro Fitzjohn, Chris Jackson, Tim Knapp, Ian March, Paulina Ouzal, Heather Soper, Richard Soper, Julia Webb, Peter Wirgman
Avenue Road: Ally Hayes, John Hayward (Chair), Ann Woolnough (Minutes Secretary)
Gordon Avenue: Phine Dahle, Hilary Jackson (Secretary), Maggie O'Connor, Sue Swallow (Vice-Chair)
Other attendees: Cllr Mike Denness, Cllr Toqeer Kataria, Cllr Jacqui Rayment, Roger Felton (IARA), Beccy Gange (Avenue St Andrews), Tara Hayden (Polygon), Patrick Hayden (Polygon), Ruth Magennis (Inner Avenue), PCSO Georgi Berkov and PCSO Reyanne Broad, Wendy Stokes (Inner Avenue/Treasurer)

Welcome and Introductions

The Chair welcomed those present gave thanks to the Committee, members and supporters for keeping the Association active during the pandemic. All present introduced themselves.

Apologies

Michael Bell - Barbara Matcham - Jayanti Shah - Roger Brown, Highfield Residents' Association

Minutes of 2020 AGM

Minutes accepted.

Annual Report 2020/2021

Copies of the Annual Report had been circulated.

Since the last AGM a leaflet had been produced for circulation to all houses. It detailed the activities of the Association, its achievements and invited newcomers including students to join. Further copies were available.

With respect to membership and finances in 2020 membership donations were just £60.00 but in 2021 rose to £335.00.

Since the last meeting best efforts had been made to keep people in touch through communication means such as bulletins, emails, the noticeboard, etc.

Despite lockdowns three outdoor community/craft events had been the highlights of the community liaison, social and cultural agenda. In August 2022 OARA is planning to be part of the Hampshire Studios art event in collaboration with Avenue St Andrews Church. In addition, links had critically been maintained with the local police notably in respect of drugs nuisance.

Smart Streets continued to be a priority with liaison with the university in respect of student clearout time. The university will be funding extra rubbish collections this year which it will publicise to students alongside advice on best practice. Litter picks, abandoned in 2020, had been reinstituted with more residents encouraged to participate. This self-help served to build a reciprocal relationship with Council officers. Litter picking was an opportunity to spot instances of flytipping for report to the Council. Staff turnover at the Council left a need to rebuild contacts.

OARA also acted as an intermediary with respect to parties that caused a disturbance, reporting events to the university authorities and/ or the Chair visiting the properties concerned. Generally, OARA sought to work with landlords, one notable scheme involving payment for contacting and training up student houses and bringing in wheelie bins after collection of refuse had taken place.

In connection with Greening and the Environment the gardening group had endeavoured to maintain as many of its activities as possible. There were now over 50 cherry trees in Outer Avenue but more could be planted in front gardens if residents came forward. Residents were welcome to pick herbs from the new planters supplied by Balfour Beatty at the Alma Road planters. The group was maintaining around 20 half barrels. The greening was much appreciated by residents as evidenced by comments made to working parties and was generally perceived to be a lovely social activity in which to engage.

OARA had continued to respond to local planning matters/ applications. The trend continued for landlords to seek to expand existing HMO properties given that the number of HMOs is now so many that it is difficult to gain permission for new ones. This produces yet more competition for on road parking spaces with action to follow a site meeting with Transport and Planning officers and local councillors.

History and Heritage activities had resumed post pandemic lockdown(s) with more guided walks and the placement of illustrated plaques on buildings of interest. A particular achievement was the publication of "A Walk up the Avenue" (£10.00 on the evening) to be followed shortly by "A Walk Round Southampton Common".

There was some discussion of the impact of anti-social behaviour. Residents were encouraged to continue to report such incidents to the Police and or Environmental Health in order that the instances could be logged and fed into the allocation of resources.

OARA would follow up the role of environmental health in dealing with noise nuisance.

Councillors reported that the ward boundary review would see Outer Avenue become part of the Portswood Ward before next year's elections if proposals were accepted. Local councillors were thanked for being very positive in their supportive of OARA. Councillor Rayment is to be the 800th mayor of Southampton and the 31st woman to hold the post.

The report was accepted.

Financial Report and Approval of Accounts

Election of Officers and Committee Members

The Chair handed over to the Secretary for the election of the Chair. Nominations were sought and John Hayward, as the only nominee, was duly re-elected and resumed the chair.
The existing committee members had agreed to re-stand for election. However, it remained important that new Committee members came forward in order to refresh the committee with new ideas and to ensure the organisation's health and survival. There were indeed vacancies on the committee to be filled. Committee membership was also enjoyable and sociable. The Secretary indicated that she was happy to be shadowed in the interest of succession planning.

Officer Position	Nominee
Vice Chair	Sue Swallow
Treasurer	Wendy Stokes
Secretary	Hilary Jackson
Membership Secretary	Jayanti Shah
Minutes Secretary	Ann Woolnough
Committee Members	Phine Dahle - Barbro Fitzjohn - Ally Hayes - Chris Jackson - Barbara Matcham - Paulina Ouzal
Associate	Ruth Magennis, Inner Avenue

Appointments were endorsed by those present.

Proposed Changes to the Constitution

Dates and Venue of OGMs and 2023 AGM

Accommodation for future meetings should be sought at Avenue St Andrews
Future AGMs should be held in the more auspicious months of March/April depending on how Easter fell.
OGMS to be held in July and November with events in June, October and December.

Minutes of Outer Avenue Residents' Association (OARA) Ordinary General Meeting of Monday 27 January 2020

Present: as per preceding AGM

Councillor Rayment and Stephen Barnes were invited to update the meeting on relevant matters from the Council.
Councillor Rayment:

Local Plan Production:
- The Council is to start the consultation process for the production of a local plan, an action every 30-40 years, which guides how the city will develop over that time period. Production will take place over 18 months to two years. The format/content is largely formulaic and there are opportunities for appeal at various stages.
- The process will be launched in the first week of February with 15 events across the city for the public to attend. There will be different consultations for different sectors.
- There are surveys to complete online but the Council is keen to hear from people other than through digital means over the 12 weeks from 1 February. There will be other opportunities also to comment as the project progresses.
- The two consultation dates closest to Outer Avenue are 19 February 2020 3-7pm at October Books and West Quay on 4 March 2020 9am -5pm
Areas for housing and shops:
- The Council has started to look for these but outside the local plan process. The Mayflower Quarter/ Toys R Us zone came to mind.
- There are other sites in the City where there is developer interest
- On-line shopping was driving a change in the shape of the High Street but the future type of
- High Street needed to take into account that everybody did not want to do all their shopping online. Southampton was eligible for a government grant "Mobility of the High Street" for a Business Improvement District.
Funding for road works:
- £52- £125 million was anticipated to be available subject to a bidding process for more road works to transform the road infrastructure e.g. Shirley High Street and changes to the routing of buses to improve accessibility for more of the population, a new Northam Rail Bridge and for Portswood (St Denys)
Councillor Stephen Barnes:
- Budgets had been substantially reduced over the years and that for 2020/21 still needs to be approved at a Cabinet meeting and the full Council.
- The travel to work area (defined as 8 miles outside the city in every direction) showed a high level of economic growth but 40% of the children in the City are living in poverty giving a profile of a northern Midlands city such as Stoke. With this in mind the Council will take a risk in borrowing substantially for an ambitious programme of capital works related to the Green City agenda e.g. development of the Bitterne Precinct to provide a hub for activity on that side of the City. The idea is to earmark £12m capital for the redevelopment of the sports centre
- On a county basis the levy threshold for the police has been raised enabling a rise of up to 14% as against the norm of c2%.
A paper was tabled entitled "Provisional Plans for 2020". The paper proposed that in 2020 OARA focus its energies in 3 main areas namely:
- reaching out to and involving more people in the Outer Avenue community
- improving the physical environment
- achieving still more joined up thinking
Specific actions towards these objectives were set out under the following Common Ground headings:
- Community and Social
- Communications
- Smart Streets
- History and Heritage
- Greening
- Planning
Those present were invited to comment on the paper and to put forward additional and/or alternative ideas. Contributions to the discussion were as follows:
- OARA meetings were a wonderful source of practical knowledge
- The Chair required more helpers with the Big Lunch, etc
- The emergence of the OARA choir to be added specifically to the Community and Social section
- Build on the ihowz connection to build links with landlords, etc.; note that SUSU was not an actual letting/managing agent for student accommodation
- With reference to Smart Streets initiatives were required to alert students to bin collection days and storage protocols e.g. notices appended to inside of front doors of let properties, fridge magnets, a joint leaflet with SU at the beginning of October. The bidding process for charity recycling bins at end of year has recommenced.
- Under History and Heritage note the proposed exhibition at The Hawthorns 21/22 March in partnership with Friends of the Cemetery, the Common history walk on 25 March, talks on Titanic Graves on 15 April and others on the work being undertaken on Avenue St Andrews Church and notable residents of Southampton Old Cemetery, musical evenings. Wendy and Ally are guides for 'See Southampton' and will be leading 'Tudor Times in the Town' on the 3rd Thursday and 1 st Sunday of the month starting in April. On 2 February they will be talking at a 'Pride and Prejudice' event at the Nuffield City Theatre 12-4pm.
- OARA was very proud of its tree planting and it was suggested that it should be held up as an example to the rest of the City.
- Steve Leggett (Council employee) is responsible for both tree projects and one to support hedgehogs. OARA needs to apply through Steve Leggett for financial help for the new planter by the Alma Road mural.
- The move away from HMOs to conversion into less regulated 1 room flats had implications for the local community and OARA should continue to monitor planning applications and respond appropriately.
The provisional Plan was accepted.

The Chairman thanked those who had contributed to the organisation and running of the meeting.

AOB: Matt who is OARA's webmaster, was thanked for his ongoing work. He has set up a 'Just Giving' page for the Wessex Cancer Trust, a cause close to his heart, and members were encouraged to give their support.

The Chair closed the meeting at 8.55pm

Minutes of Outer Avenue Residents' Association (OARA) Annual General Meeting of Monday 27 January 2020

Present: There were 24 attendees as identified on the attendance list:

Alma Road: Peter Clarke, Chris Jackson, Barbara Matcham, Richard Soper, Peter Wirgman
Avenue Road: Fiona Barnes, Liz Haslam, Ally Hayes, Des Hayward, John Hayward (Chair), Harald Reykowski, Ann Woolnough (Minutes Sec.)
Gordon Avenue: Phine Dahle, Hilary Jackson (Secretary), Sue Swallow, Linda Pritchard
Rose Road: Jane
Spear Road: Edwin Parsons
Other attendees: Cllr Jacqui Rayment, Cllr Stephen Barnes, Beccy Gange (Ave St Andrews) Rachel Simpson (Blue Door), Wendy Stokes (Treasurer), Francois Pretorius

Welcome and Introductions

Apologies

Minutes of 2019 AGM

Annual Report

Financial Report and Approval of Accounts

Election of Officers

Sue Swallow proposed John Hayward as Chair, seconded by Phine Dahle. John was duly appointed and resumed the chair. John was thanked for continuing in what was not always an easy position.
Other officers were proposed and seconded as follows and appointed:

Officer Position	Nominee	Proposed	Seconded
Vice Chair	Sue Swallow	Phine Dahle	Barbara Matcham
Treasurer	Wendy Stokes	John Hayward	Richard Oakford
Secretary	Hilary Jackson	John Hayward	Fiona Barnes
Membership Secretary	Barbro Fitzjohn	Barbara Matcham	John Hayward
Minutes Secretary	Ann Woolnough	Sue Swallow	John Hayward
Committee Members	Suzanne Wright - Fiona Barnes - Phine Dahle Ally Hayes - Barbara Matcham

Appointments were endorsed by those present.

The Chairman stressed again that others would be welcome to join the committee perhaps on a trial basis or as a 'trainee' for one of the named roles. This was an opportunity to contribute ideas and get to know people through having a chat.

Dates of OGMs and 2021 AGM

Minutes of Outer Avenue Residents' Association (OARA) Ordinary General Meeting of Monday 14 October 2019

Present:

As identified on the Attendance List

Apologies:

Hilary Jackson, Phine Dahl, Ann Woolnough, Jacqui Rayment, Becci from Avenue South Residents' Association

1. Welcome

2. Ratification of New Treasurer

Thanks were extended to Andy Haslehurst who had been with the Association since its establishment and had been responsible for putting the constitution together. He had been quietly super efficient. A card was presented with a gift to follow.

Fiona proposed and Barbro seconded the appointment of Wendy as the new treasurer.

3. AOB to be taken at the end of the meeting

Bevois Mount Events (Ally).

4. Speaker: Katy Adams

Katy explained that it was a long and involved process to enforce requirements with respect to bins on pavements and excess waste. Flytipping is a bit of a grey area.

Sue brought up the issue of students and others moving into properties and finding accumulated waste. Cases should be reported as found.

Dorothy asked about planning for waste facilities in new builds.

Suzanne asked about people who were unable to put out their waste bins. In such circumstances there is 'assisted collection 'if no one in the household is able to perform this task.

John asked about the liability of landlords. Residents bear the responsibility.

Barbara asked about rats. The responsibility lies with Environmental Health.

Peter asked if Katy was in contact with letting agents (eg Posh Pads) whom he
thought should be instructing new tenants in good practice because emptied bins obstructed the public highway. Katy replied that the Council was doing its best in this respect.

John praised the Community Payback Team.

5. Drugs

Regular drug drops are taking place on the corner of Gordon Avenue towards the Portswood Road which had been reported although no action appeared to have been taken.

Loiuse, the PCSO, will be doing a survey of anti social behaviour in that area. People should ring 101; CCTV coverage in other areas might move the problem into Outer Avenue. Wendy offered to put a message on Nextdoor about how to take action.

6. OARA What's Next?

OARA is already very active with respect to street cleaning and greening. It has University links which helps it follow up student parties which get out of hand. The Association also works on 'changeover' when students move out to reduce its effect and maintains links with Avenue St Andrews Church. Sue monitors planning applications. Communication with local councillors is maintained.

Attendees were asked for suggestions as to further initiatives:

A choir for Christmas (Barbro/ Hilary)

Lodge Road…more impetus to greening and improvement of air quality. Sue, Fiona,and Suzanne have walked round with Steve Legett, Environmental councillor.

More systematic ways of welcoming newcomers

More trees and tree preservation

Introduction of community compost bins

Compacting bins(happening)

7. Minutes of last OGM

Agreed.

8. Bevois Mount History Events

A Talk by Bevois Mount History, Portswood Library Wednesday 16 at 7.30pm

Lost or Not Pubs of Bevois Mount 3pm on 26 October at Horse Trough at Rockstone

Avenue St Andrews Fair, 7 December.

Minutes of Outer Avenue Residents' Association (OARA) Ordinary General Meeting of Tuesday 14 May 2019

1. Welcome, introductions and apologies.

Jon Hayward, the Chair, welcomed people to the meeting. Introductions were made

Apologies were received from:

Sue Swallow, Ann Woolnough, Barbro Fitzjohn, Councillor Kataria, Hayley Shepherd (SUSU).

Beccie Gange, who is the new Community Worker at Avenue St Andrews, introduced herself and explained her role and the community work that the Church does.

2. Ratification of new committee members/responsibility holders

JH reported that following the OGM Suzanne Wright had been co-opted as a Committee Member and Wendy Stokes had volunteered to become Assistant Treasurer.

The meeting approved these appointments.

3. Any other business to be taken at the end of the meeting

Heather Soper asked for an item on Swifts to be included as AOB

4. Speaker: Dave Tyrie Talking Rubbish!

Dave Tyrie, the Head of City Services, made a presentation to the meeting about his role and the work that the Council is doing to tackle issues. His role includes street cleansing, refuse collection, parks, pest control, tree surgery and fleet transport and much more.

Additional points included:

There had been a shortage of drivers but they had recently managed to recruit new ones to the team which he hoped would further improve the service.
His department had been working with RAs on student clearout plan
They were aiming to become self-sufficient by selling out services e.g. such as pest control and competing with private sector
Points raised by members included:
Query about what could be done about mess/sidewaste left after bin rounds e.g. at end of Earls Rd by the Guide Dog. DT reported that they had increased staffing in Street Sweeping team (manual and mechanical) and he was trying to get sweepers to follow up after bin rounds
Query re waste on private property behind shop in Earls Rd. Powers limited unless encroaching on the pavement but Environmental Health aware.
Request that street and pavement sweeping be actually programmed in for university holidays when streets more accessible. DT will follow this up.
Request for more care to be taken with grey glass boxes, which break if thrown. DT reported that grey boxes have run out and new ones are black and more rubberised. Therefore more robust.
Query about why more types of plastic can't be recycled. DT and Cllr. Rayment (JR)reported that our MURF (Recycling plant) was originally one of most advanced in the country but now needs updating for wider range of plastics. Millions required for upgrade and not available due to cuts. Market for recycling other than bottle plastics has collapsed. Most of our recycling is done in the UK. Glass recycling done in Belgium.to have tripartite arrangements.
Query re increase in fly-tipping following introduction of charges for commercial waste at the local "tip". JR reported that we are part of a tripartite agreement with Hampshire and Portsmouth. Southampton had fought against the charges. Had considered not charging but would then get Hampshire rubbish. There has been 40% rise in builders' fly-tipping. Decision is under review.
Query re who is responsible for bins/rubbish at in HMOs? DT confirmed it is tenants responsible in the first place. We can report houses that leave bins out. 92 penalty notices have been served recently. Some of the proceeds have been used to put up "Take Your Bin In" signs. Member suggested involving students more in recycling issue. Work already going on with Extinction Rebellion group to raise awareness.

5. Big Lunch Street Party – Sunday June 2

John Hayward reminded the meeting about the forthcoming Street Party and appealed for help with items such as setting up beforehand, children's games, clay plant pots for painting, transport for tables and chairs, putting up posters, inviting families, bringing food and clearing up after. SUSU was assisting as usual.

Dave Tyrie offered to help with table and chair transport.

6. Quality Streets Project

Parking and Traffic: Hilary Jackson outlined the results of the Parking Surveys and discussion followed. Main points were that:

The overall turnout was low – just 19%
There was a small overall majority in favour but only 6 roads reached the required 60% threshold
There was therefore a division of roads in favour v roads against, which were the 4 longer roads with large numbers of student HMOs – with implications for impact of displacement parking
OARA as a group did not have one fixed view on this
OARA group had discussed possible next steps with SCC

HJ outlined the committee's current thinking following that meeting:

We did not support the introduction of a scheme in only some roads, because of potential impact on remaining roads in ever-decreasing island of free parking
We did support the proposal to carry out further research into the actual reasons for people wanting/needing to park
We did support proposal to work more closely with the uni to deter students from bringing cars to the area
We proposed research into possibility of a chequerboard/pepper-pot scheme, with a combination of parking zone bays and free parking in each street to give choice and spread out parking.

This approach was put to and approved by the meeting.

NB A letter summarising local outcomes has since been circulated to all households by Balfour Beatty Lodge Rd Project: the event planned for 11 May had been postponed pending information re funding and would be rearranged at a time when not so many other events planned.

Cllr Rayment was pleased to report that funding had been approved for at least one solar composting bin, with 6 to 7 times capacity of standard bins, at Stag Gates end of Lodge Road. Additional locations may be possible at Tesco's and near JoJo's Gym. Consultations taking place.

7. Membership Proposal

It was proposed and agreed that, "This meeting agrees the proposal that there should be a £5.00 annual standard membership contribution, with discretionary waiver for those not able to contribute. Residents from the area are automatically entitled to attend and vote at meetings and to be included in the mailing list notwithstanding the membership contribution."

8. End of year Student Clear Out: Plans to prevent problems

HJ and JH reported on the joint meetings which OARA had initiated to apply joined-up thinking to student clear-out time. There had been three meetings involving the University, SUSU, the Council and the Police. Portswood Central RA had recently joined in.

Plans included: Uni/SUSU leaflet and social media circulation to student households with advice re their responsibility for clearing out efficiently and support about how to do this, where to take recyclable goods etc; RAs ready to assist with distributing leaflets; notices to landlords re their responsibilities; 3 additional bin collections to keep on top of waste and avoid on-street mess; notice from Dave Tyrie's team stuck on all student household doors with information and advice but also warning re penalties if mess left behind; HMO warden Payback team on hand to clear immediate issues; PCSOs to patrol to try and deter scavenging if bags left out. The group will meet again to review success and plan for start of new academic year. Planning will start early to try and achieve on street charity recycling tanks in summer 2020.

9. Forthcoming events:

Table Top Sale: Saturday 25th May 11-1 near Waitrose

Common History Walk: Wed 29th May 2pm at The Hawthorns

Big Lunch Street Party: Sunday June 2nd 1-4pm

Street Clean: Sunday 9th June 11.00am (2nd Sunday due to Street Party)

History of Stag Gates Exhibition: Sat 15th and Sun 16th June at Blue Door, Lodge Rd

10. AOB

Heather Soper informed the meeting of a scheme to install more Swift boxes on houses to encourage swifts and compensate for loss of habitat. Contact her if you are interested.

John Hayward thanked our speaker and all those attending. The meeting closed at 9.00pm

Minutes of Outer Avenue Residents' Association (OARA) Ordinary General Meeting of Monday 05 March 2018

1. Welcome, introductions and apologies

Sue Swallow, the Chair, welcomed those present and our guest speakers from the Council, Richard Alderson, Geoff Hobbs and Chris Hammond. She explained that the purpose of the meeting was to share information and views about current OARA projects to improve our local environment, particularly relating to parking, traffic, pollution, and to agree next steps.

2. Why "Quality Streets"?

Hilary Jackson, Secretary, outlined the reasons behind the "Quality Streets" name for our projects this year. She explained that we had used the phrase QS at our AGM in January this year to capture our plans and aspirations for the year ahead. It is built on our Common Ground Initiative – introduced over three years ago. What can we do this year to improve the quality of our streets, our shared environment – and therefore the quality of our overlapping lives? As well as our routine activities, we would be focussing on;

taking forward the work we have done so far on parking and traffic to look for solutions
linking that to the unloved Lodge Rd – where all the issues seem to coalesce.

3. The Story so far…

Dorothy Haslehurst, who has been leading the traffic/parking project, presented a summary of the OARA traffic & parking survey and proposals. Click here to see the whole presentation Quality Streets 2.ppsx.

4. … and Lodge Rd

Fiona Barnes, committee member, then also outlined the work that had been done, with IARA, to collect residents' and businesses views about Lodge Rd issues and how it could be improved. This included the results of NO2 pollution checks carried out along the length of the road (See Quality Streets presentation above for details)

5. Richard Alderson (Service Manager for Parking) & Geoff Hobbs (Senior Transport Planner)

The Council Officers made detailed presentations relating to parking and traffic issues in the city, schemes in other areas and what we would need to do if we wished to proceed with a consultation in our area.

6. Councillor Chris Hammond, the Cabinet member for Sustainability, then made a presentation about the environment in our city, particularly relating to pollution and including steps the Council are taking to tackle this.

7. Discussion and Questions

Points and questions raised included:

Southampton is currently the 9th most polluted city in the UK – so collective action is needed
A lot of pollution is caused by from ships and liners using the port. Pollution monitoring is now being carried out following liaison between SCC and ABP.
Council is liaising with bus companies re reducing use of diesel - but not straightforward as the City does not run the bus companies (unlike e.g. Reading)
Signs are due to go up in key locations advising drivers to cut engines and reduce fumes from idling.
Improving cycle routes and facilities is appreciated but there can be issues e.g. mutual respect awareness between cyclists & pedestrians on cycle paths/junctions. Also need for more bike parking facilities. Council is working with Yo Bikes and Bike Hub on this.
An additional point was raised about the impact on the environment of bins on the pavement. Noted that the council had issued letters explaining this is now an offence. Also noted that more enforcement is needed.

8. Summing Up. What next?

The meeting approved the following proposals:

i) To request the Council to carry out a formal survey in relation to extending the Zone 5 Parking Scheme

ii) To request formal consideration of a one-way traffic scheme in the Earls Rd/ Avenue Red area

iii) To establish a Lodge Rd Action Group

The committee will seek to meet with officers to discuss how to proceed with these proposals

9. AOB

Approved proposal to fund purchase of pull-down projector screen for the Community Room for future use.

Sue thanked all those present for coming and our speakers for their time and valuable input. The Committee would report back on progress at our next General Meeting on Monday May 14th.

Minutes of Outer Avenue Residents' Association (OARA) Ordinary General Meeting of Monday 22 January 2018

Present:

Alma Rd:

Barbro Fitzjohn(Membership), Peter Wirgman, Chris Jackson.

Avenue Rd:

Fiona Barnes, Ally Hayes, Des Hayward, John Hayward (Vice Chair), Ann Woolnough (Minutes Sec).

Cambridge Rd:

Colin Aubrey

Cedar Rd:

Emma Hawkins

Gordon Ave:

Phine Dahle, Jerry Gillen, Andy Haslehurst(Treasurer),
Dorothy Haslehurst, Hilary Jackson, (Secretary), Maggie O'Connor, Sue Swallow(Chair).

Spear Rd:

Ed Parsons

Other attendees:

Cllr Barnes-Andrews, Cllr Burke, Phil Collins (Inner Avenue RA), Gill Ghahouni (PPG), Manzoora Ashraf

1. Introduction

The purpose of the OGM was to identify what else OARA can do to create a clean, safe, attractive, healthy and welcoming environment for all residents to enjoy living in and share ie create "Quality Streets".

The aim was to share ideas and agree priorities for action with respect to traffic, parking, pollution, Lodge Road, litter, bins, overdevelopment, planting more greenery, being creative, digging up history, having fun, feeling well, being a proper community.

The circulated green sheet broadly set out provisional plans for the years ahead and those present were invited to help prioritise through discussion.

Below sets out suggestions and points arising for further consideration. These would be looked at by the committee to help them revise OARA plan and priorities for the year ahead.

General

Strengthen the committee by finding a Secretary and Treasurer designate to be elected at the AGM in January 2019 – Need to be publicised in the newsletter

Strengthen the committee by identifying someone with planning experience perhaps in an ex officio, co-opted capacity – Need to be publicised in the newsletter

Community and Social

Use the new link with the university to address distress caused to residents by student parties

Support initiatives to set up interest/ hobby groups – Help with publicity, support as part of the overall OARA structure, link to patient participation options, help if applying for agreements of any description

Promote cycling by residents – Organise a re- familiarising cycle round The Common for lapsed cyclists. Publicise new tool facilities on Common opposite church.

Dementia contact group at Mayflower Court – Join/ promote engagement with the new support group at the care home.

Organise a music group to parallel arts initiatives – A summer event?

Exhibition crossovers with Latin Dance Club

Help publicise exercise group at the church, cafe, scrabble afternoons, film club – Use OARA notice board, surgery notice board, OARA newsletter. Avoid a dated directory arising from maintenance difficulties

Revitalise the link with the local police

Nurture continued SU representation at OARA meetings

Support surgery patients away from expectation of a medical solution towards a social prescription – Engage with new surgery manager. Join with self care for life initiative

Getting a surgery fit for purpose – Panel consideration of Blockbuster site

Communications

Continue to raise profile of OARA in catchment area especially with the 'new generation' of residents – Leaflet to all in October with party notice to reach as many people as possible. A second leaflet per year?. Consider opportunities of Council's events website and 'Discover Southampton'. (Permanent) posters in the library, outlets such as fish and chip shop. A weekend of door knocking in pairs. Continue use of post cards to welcome and thank. Topic with speaker per OGM so people know what they are coming for.

Visit mosque – Meet the women after prayers on a Friday 1.30/1.45pm

Smart Streets

Address litter from late night takeaways – CCTV role, litter bin provision

Continue to promote litter pick to get more helpers – Allow individuals to pick their day of the week? However lose 'branding' of activity if not a core group and social element if not a set routine? Need to keep in contact to report serious messes. Start earlier in morning as days lengthen? Have a text group? Formalisation of coffee or pub visit afterwards?

Re educate each wave of students – Publicise Council approach to bins

Influencing student behaviour at changeover – OARA rep as a catalyst to meet student rep soon/ before Easter. Poster campaign on recycling? Liaison with charities? Sorting on campus? Dissemination of bulk collection rules?

Continue via photos to highlight to Council serious messes

Parking issues – Hold a well prepared OGM in March on this issue and Lodge Road Survey.

Potholes/ flooding – Sink hole in Earls Road, flooding at sliproad at Lodge Rd/ Portswood Rd lights. Also at the Gordon Arms.

History

Continue to raise funds for projects

Repeat craft fair held before Christmas.

Blue Plaque for Thomas Lewis

Repeat some walks( church asked for dedicated walk)

Talks to primary schools

Welcome to locality sign – Identify how Highfield one funded. Need a grant and permission.

Celebrate suffrage centenary and Soton's role

Publish 5th calendar

Continue to update facebook and website

Greening

Publicise trees still available for planting

½ barrels still available for frontages

Pursue planted pot scheme for students

Involvement of greening group in Lodge Road improvement

Maintenance work … weeding, planting and cutting back

Planning

Continue to monitor and comment on applications and petition in respect of unauthorised development

Funding

All groups need money and/or volunteers.. Speak to local businesses

The chair thanked everyone for coming and contributing their support.

Meeting closed: 9.05pm

Minutes of Outer Avenue Residents' Association (OARA) Annual General Meeting of Monday 23rd January 2017

PRESENT:

Alma Road:

Chris Jackson, Barbara Matcham, Heather Soper

Avenue Road:

Fiona Barnes, Ally Hayes (Minutes Sec), Des Hayward, John Hayward (Vice Chair), Liz Haslan, Harald Raykowski, Ann Woolnough

Earls Road:

Suzanne Wright

Livingstone Rd:

Ismail

Gordon Avenue:

M Ashraf, Elizabeth Bailey, Phine Dahle, Barbro Fitzjohn (Membership), Jerry Gillen, Andy Haslehurst (Treasurer), Dorothy Haslehurst, Hilary Jackson (Secretary), Maggie O'Connor, Sue Swallow (Chair)

Other attendees:

Cllr Barnes-Andrews, Cllr Rayment, Joan McGauih, Susanne Dawson (Ave St Andrews), Viv and Richard Harris (Ave St. Andrews), Phil Collins Inner Ave RA, Clara Sandys Winn Rd, Dan Varley SU Students' Union, PCSO Becki Johnson, PCSO Jake Critchley, Wendy Stokes Inner Ave RA, Manzoora

1. WELCOME AND INTRODUCTIONS

Sue Swallow opened the meeting by welcoming all of the attendees, who then introduced themselves.

2 APOLOGIES

Petrina Boddington, Cllr Burke, Mary Hockey, Tim Knapp, Rosie McGuire, Pat Oliver, Jay Shah

3 CHAIR'S ANNUAL REPORT

The report had been emailed to members prior to the AGM and also circulated at the start of the meeting. The Chair introduced the report and summarised the main points, which were backed up by a slide show related to events throughout the year. Additional information was provided by the Committee member or project leader for each section. The report and slide show will be posted on the website.

4. TREASURER'S REPORT

Andy presented the report which had also been circulated at the start of the meeting. He reported that the accounts had now been audited. It had been a good year and the association was in good financial health. The Greening Group and History Group finances are kept in separate pots from the main OARA funds.

5. ELECTION OF OFFICERS AND COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Sue handed over to Hilary Jackson, Secretary, for the election of the Chair.

Chair and Vice Chair

Phine Dahle proposed Sue Swallow as Chair and Fiona Barnes seconded. Sue indicated that she would be willing to stand. This was agreed by those present. Sue then resumed the Chair. Sue Swallow proposed John Hayward as Vice Chair and Andy Haslehurst seconded.

Other Officers

The following were proposed and agreed:

Treasurer: Andy Haslehurst (Proposer Barbro Fitzjohn, seconder John Hayward)
Secretary: Hilary Jackson (Proposer Sue Swallow, seconder Phine Dahle)
Membership Secretary: Barbro Fitzjohn (Proposer Maggie O'Connor, seconder Dorothy
Haslehurst)
Minutes Secretary: Ally Hayes (Proposer Fiona Barnes, seconder Phine Dahle)

Committee Members

Sue asked if other committee members would be willing to stand again and they agreed. The following were therefore elected to the committee:

Phine Dahle
Barbara Matcham
Fiona Barnes

There are 3 potential vacancies on the committee. Sue encouraged others to come forward and made a special plea for someone with planning experience.

It was noted that Petrina Boddington had decided to not stand again for the Committee due to work and family commitments, and Ruth Kibble, who had set up and maintained our Facebook page, had now moved out of the area. Both were thanked for the work they had done. Fiona Barnes would be taking over responsibility for the Facebook.

6. Amendment to the Constitution

One constitutional issue had to be put to the meeting and that was to raise the amount of expenditure that could be authorised by the committee (rather than having to be agreed by an OGM) from £100 to £250. This had to be agreed by at least two thirds of those eligible to
vote and was duly passed.

7. Dates For Meetings

The next AGM will be on 22nd January 2018. OGMs will take place in May and October. Special meetings can be called over and above these if deemed necessary.

Sue thanked everyone for attending and explained we would be moving on to the Ordinary General Meeting, which then followed.

Ordinary General Meeting

Sharing ideas and priorities for the year ahead.

Proposed priorities for the year ahead were set out in the OARA Plans 2017 which had been emailed prior to the meeting. Hilary explained that whilst it was understood that there were many issues which got residents down we hoped to focus in this part of the meeting not on the problems but on solutions – or at least what we could do to try and carry on making things better. She shared on screen a list of the problems which are frequently raised - which were recognised by those present. Everyone was then invited to join one of 6 groups – Greening, Smart Streets, Community, History, Communications and Traffic/Planning – to look at ideas already put forward and to contribute any new ones. There were lively discussions and each group then fed back – including with some really positive new ideas e.g. an OARA post card for new residents and a Police Drop-In. The revised plans were approved by those present. The amended plans will be posted on the website and circulated to members.

The meeting closed at 9.15

Minutes of Outer Avenue Residents' Association (OARA) Ordinary General Meeting of Monday 17 October 2016

Present:

Alma Rd:

Barbara Matcham, Pat Oliver ( Avenue Stn . Andrews) Heather Soper, Richard Soper

Avenue Rd:

Fiona Barnes, Petrina Boddington, Ally Hayes, Des Hayward, John Hayward, Ann Woolnough

Cambridge Rd:

Tony Machado

Cedar Rd:

Emma Hawkins

Clifford Dibben Mews:

–

Earl's Road:

Miles Brown, Emma Pruce (Soton Uni)

Gordon Ave:

E. Bailey, Phine Dahle, Hilary Jackson, Sue Swallow (Chair)

Lodge Rd:

–

Portswood Rd:

Diep Page

Rigby Rd:

–

Spear Rd:

Edwin Parsons

Inner Avenue:

Phil Collins, Roger Felton, Wendy Stokes

Other:

M Maguire

In attendance:

Sam Fox & Sam Ings SCC – Speakers

1. Welcome & Introductions and apologies

Jerry Gillen, Andrew Haslehurst, Dorothy Haslehurst, Des Hayward, Cllr. Barnes Andrews, Cllr, Derek Burke, Cllr. Jacqui Rayment (all Cllrs. at Council Meeting)

2. Minutes of last OGM on 16 May 2016

These were agreed as a true record. No matters arising.

3. Notice of AOB to be taken at end of the meeting Common Forum

Phine

4. Guest speakers on Planning and HMO Licensing

Sam Fox – Planning and Development Officer SCC

In Southampton we have 42,000 students grafted on to a base population of 247,000 so problems and tensions are inevitable. In this context, positive community action by OARA is respected by the council.

HMOs are a necessary part of the housing stock but certain areas (like ours) have become saturated. Using planning legislation to encourage purpose built accommodation leads to less pressure on HMOs and in the long term, some may revert to family homes. Article 4 direction gives more control over HMOs but it only addresses new applications. Sandwiching, for instance, is not allowed for new applications.

Planning enforcement legislation is seen as weak but often landlords know how to play the system and the legal enforcement toolkit is not very effective. Sam and Sam liaise and their actions are as joined up as they can be.

Sam Ings – Principal Environmental Health Officer SCC with responsibility for HMO licensing

Nationally HMO licensing applies to any property of three or more people unrelated who are not a household for more than 30 days. It differs locally because in 4 central wards every HMO must be licensed. There are 3,500 HMOs in this area. There is more active enforcement to identify unlicensed HMOs. Court actions have been successful. Barry Olsen uses City Pay Back Scheme to remove rubbish from streets. Letting boards problem is improving. Some HMOs don't reach the standards that they should e.g. fire precautions - so this vindicates the scheme. The HMO licence is to ensure that properties meet appropriate standards. What powers do they have to ensure that frontages are maintained? Resources are being reduced so it is difficult. Section 215 act can be used but threshold is quite high.

A wide-ranging Q&A session followed.

5. Traffic and Parking Survey – progress report

Members had been sent a summary of the views and problems submitted in response to the OARA survey, with proposed next steps. These included a meeting with council representatives. A special meeting for members would be arranged in due course, once the research phase had been completed. Responses could still be sent to OARA and would be included. A sheet had been put out if anyone wanted to leave comments or they could speak to someone from the committee at the end.

Those present were asked if they were happy with the direction and progress of this initiative to date and they indicated that they were.

6. Grant applications - ideas to take forward

Sue explained that we had been looking at ideas for projects we could apply for grant funding for.

Possible sources of funding included: The Local Authority Community Chest, Tesco Community Grant & National Lottery Awards for All.

Ideas for grant projects so far included:

Developing the Alma/Gordon planters' area to make more enclosed community space
Raising the identity and developing the community spirit of our area with related actions e.g. better signage, newsletters, information , community events
Garden frontage pilot – showing landlords or others cost effective and attractive alternatives to concreting frontages which we could share as good practice and present at eg Southern Landlords
Making the area more dementia friendly – as suggested by local dementia support group met at the Uni Freshers' Fair.

Pat Oliver, who has a lot of experience of such grant applications, advised that sometimes applications for smaller grants are more manageable and have a greater chance of success. More noticeboards, and more public bins and another mural were also suggested.

There was interest in exploring the options put forward and the committee would investigate further.

7. Common Ground Progress Report

A progress report on the Common Ground plans was circulated (and is attached with these minutes).

8. Forthcoming Dates:

Next Committee Meeting: Monday 7th November
Winter Art Fair: 25-27th November at Blue Door
Christmas Party: Sunday 4th December at The Guide Dog??
AGM/OGM: Monday 23 January
PACT Meeting: Thursday 27th October 7.30 Bevois Town Primary
Street Cleans: Every first and third Sunday at 11.00
Greening Group Sessions: Every first Monday and third Friday afternoon

9. AOB

Phine had attended the Common Forum. There will be volunteer clearing near Northlands Rd - November 10th 1.30 - 3.30 and Nov. 16th 10-12.30.
A vote of thanks was given to the History Group for the completion of the Bevois Mount Mural which had already become a local landmark.

Meeting closed at 9.00pm

Minutes of Outer Avenue Residents' Association (OARA) Ordinary General Meeting of Tuesday 10 May 2016

Present:

Alma Rd:

Chris Jackson, Tim Knapp, Barbara Matcham, Heather Soper, Richard Soper

Avenue Rd:

Fiona Barnes, Petrina Boddington, Gordon Gillies, Ally Hayes, Des Hayward, John Hayward, Rosy Maguire

Cambridge Rd:

Tony Michado,

Earl's Road:

Miles Brown

Gordon Ave:

Phine Dahle, Jerry Gillen, Andrew Haslehurst, Dorothy Haslehurst, Hilary Jackson, Maggie O'Connor

Lodge Rd:

Rachel Simpson,

Rigby Rd:

Charlotte Sunley,

In attendance:

Cllr. Barnes Andrews, Cllr, Derek Burke, Cllr. Jacqui Rayment, Becky Farminer SCC, Dean Lewis SCC

1. Welcome & Introductions (Signing in /Offers of help)

Sue welcomed everybody. Those present introduced themselves (see attendance list). Hilary explained the idea of building up a list of helpers to help share the workload and circulated a sign-up sheet, asking people to indicate areas they would be willing to help with from time to time

2. Apologies:

Barbro Fitzjohn.

3. Minutes of last OGM on 26 January 2016:

Agreed

4. Notice of any other business to be taken at end of the meeting.

Aroma Café licence application.

5. City Councillors' Report and Q&A

– Sue welcomed Becky Farminer from SCC. Becky joined the Refuse and Recycling team in September and has now taken over some aspects of Jason Evans' work whilst he is seconded to another role in the Council. Becky also introduced Dean who will be helping with shifting/driving. Becky has been working with the university on the 'shift your stuff campaign'. Sorting stuff and upcycling for charities takes place on Sat 11th June, Friday 1st and Saturday 2nd July from 10-6 each day and volunteers are welcome. (You can register at http://goo.gl/forms/hUzR9xijn7). She will also liaise with Solent University. She will liaise with Barbara on bin audit. Stickers will eventually be available for Avenue Rd. The rubbish at 70 Gordon Avenue has been cleared. Please report mis-use of bins to Becky by email or to Action Line. There is a SCC recycle app. Particular problems with house on corner of Alma and Earl's - Council aware and are dealing with this. -Jacqui Rayment addressed the meeting on behalf of the councillors, who also provided a written report. They try to support us on planning issues. With regard to HMO licensing, they are beginning to see small results. There have been two prosecutions of land lords. Four million is spent on the roads p.a. There has been a temporary fix of the problem at Blockbusters and 13 potholes in Avenue Rd have been patched up. Southampton's share of government hand-out for repairs was £80,000- totally inadequate.

Cleaner cities- working towards cleaner air e.g. green walling. Plug in ship to shore will help air quality.

The notice board is up!

HCC household waste recycling sites may close. This could have knock on effects for local sites.

The issue of cycling on the Common was raised and this resulted in a lengthy discussion of pros and cons.

Cllr Burke commented on the efficacy of the bin buddy scheme.

6. The History Mural - final presentation and consultation

John gave a summary of the development of the mural and the fundraising that will make it a reality. He stressed that the money had been raised independently of OARA funds although he thanked Barbro and Rosy for their support of the fund via their very successful art exhibition. Some questions were asked e.g. could the mural be defaced? - No, it will be protected by anti - graffiti paint. Rosy asked if any further changes could be made e.g. the border around the middle section. It was suggested that once the main mural is painted the question of whether it would be better with or without a border could be considered. There were some queries about whether the project had been properly ratified by OARA. Fiona raised the point that it had been presented at two OGMs, an AGM and several committee meetings. However, it was decided to put it to a formal vote and this was passed almost unanimously.

7. Ongoing Parking Issues – where next?

Discussion of proposal to hold a special meeting.

As parking is a perennial problem, with no easy solution, the Committee proposed that there should be a special meeting to properly hear the facts and air all the issues and concerns. It was agreed that people need to know the options and therefore some analysis has to be done. The parking permit zone could be increased but we know views are divided on this. Difficulties of ascertaining the opinion of residents is exacerbated by the transient nature of the population. The committee will do some preliminary work and propose a meeting to which Richard, the Parking Man will be invited.

Impact of increased surgery numbers?

There was a discussion about the closing of the Newtown Surgery and concerns re the impact it will have on the Alma Rd. Surgery, including increased numbers and a commensurate increase in parking problems. The committee will discuss this and seek a meeting with the staff at the Surgery.

8. Future Plans & Speakers

The meeting was asked if there is there anything else members think we should be doing or speakers they would like to invite? There was particular support for a speaker(s) linked to planning and HMO Licensing, possibly Sam Fox and Sam Ings, and some interest in finding out more about Smart Meters. Members were also keen that we should be represented at other Residents' Forums and develop links with them.

9. Common Ground Progress Report

The Common Ground Progress report had been circulated by email prior to the meeting and extra paper copies made available at the meeting. (It will also be available on the website along with these minutes)

10. Forthcoming Dates:

Greening Group Table Top Sale: Saturday 14th May 11.00- 1.00
Plant Swap: Friday 10th June, 5.00pm
Big Lunch Street Party: Sunday 12th June
Next Committee Meeting: Monday 20th June
SUSU Shift Your Stuff: Sat 11th June, Friday 1st and Saturday 2nd July from 10-6 each day Next OGM: Monday 17th October

11. AOB

Jerry Gillen raised the issue of a late license application which he thought was for the Aroma Café. It was established this was for the new bar to be opened in the former Dentist's practice near Trago's. It was understood opening hours would be no later than other nearby premises.

Meeting closed at 9.10

Minutes of Outer Avenue Residents' Association (OARA) Ordinary General Meeting of Tuesday 23rd February 2016

Sharing ideas and priorities for the year ahead.

Proposed priorities for the year ahead were set out in the OARA Plans 2016 circulated at the start of the meeting. New ideas for the year ahead were presented and discussed.

1.Greening Group

The main focus of the coming year will be the Bloomin' Concrete Project which will aim to transform the Portswood end of Gordon Avenue. The issue of trees causing leaves, and therefore a potential mess/hazard, was raised and it was agreed to mention it to the Street Cleansing Officer.

2. History

The first draft of the history mural was unveiled. It will be painted on the wall of Bitter Virtue next to the Alma Road planters. The middle panel still needs some 'tweaking'. There is a space at the top of this panel which will be for a quote/ line(s) of poetry relevant to Bevois Mount. Suggestions would be welcome.

The cost will be in the region of £2,500 and the History group plan to raise the money through fundraising and sponsorship. The profit from the 2015 and 2016 calendars is already earmarked for this. The response of the meeting seemed positive.

3. Communications

We will be looking at what members feel is the most useful form of communication. Most agreed that the monthly bulletin/newsletter was effective. There was also support for another Common Ground type newsletter to all households. The possibility of a designated phone line was raised and will be discussed by the committee. Cllr Jacqui Rayment said that money for a notice board would be made available in the next financial year.

4. Community

Parties at the beginning of the academic year caused problems for many residents (although not exclusively caused by students). John Hayward, in collaboration with SUSU, the police and Environmental Health, has drawn up some guidelines and strategies for residents to use in these circumstances. These include a letter which can be given to the perpetrators the day after a disturbance.

5. Smart Streets

Regular street cleans will continue but there will also be focused street blitzes. We will also monitor and report local properties whose frontages have a negative effect on the look of the area.

6. Planning

We will respond to the forthcoming Local Plan Consultation.

There was general approval for the proposals which had been made.

Minutes of Outer Avenue Residents' Association (OARA) Annual General Meeting of Saturday 23rd January 2016

Present:

Alma Rd	Chris Jackson - Barbara Matcham - Olav Schluter Dave Rounce - Richard Soper - Pat Oliver (Ave St.Andrews)
Avenue Rd	Fiona Barnes - Richard Hill - Petrina Boddington - Gordon Gillies Ally Hayes(Minutes Sec.) - Des Hayward - John Hayward (Vice Chair) Lynn Murphy - Liz Hallam - Harald Raykowski
Cambridge Rd	Tony Michado
Earls Road	Miles Brown
Gordon Ave	Liz Bailey - Phine Dahle - Andy Haslehurst (Treasurer) Dorothy Haslehurst - Hilary Jackson (Secretary) Ruth Kibble - Sue Swallow (Chair)
Other attendees	Cllr Barnes-Andrews - Cllr Burke - Cllr Rayment Hannah Gilbert (SUSU) - Emma Pruce (SUSU) Susanne Dawson (Ave St Andrews) - Richard Harris (Ave St. Andrews)

1. Welcome and Introductions

Sue Swallow opened the meeting by welcoming all of the attendees, who then introduced themselves.

2. Apologies

Maggie O'Connor, Mike Bell, James Norton, Barbro Fitzjohn (Membership Secretary), Rosie McGuire, Patricia Cosio-Bigotes, Miles Edwards, Barry Olson (HMO Warden)

3. Chair's Annual Report

The report had been emailed to members prior to the AGM and also circulated at the start of the meeting. The Chair introduced the report and summarised the main points.

4. Treasurer's Report

5. Election of Officers and Committee Members

Sue handed over to Hilary Jackson, Secretary, for the election of the Chair.

Chair and Vice Chair

Phine Dahle proposed Sue Swallow as Chair and John Hayward seconded. Sue indicated that she would be willing to stand. This was agreed by those present. Sue then resumed the Chair. Sue Swallow proposed John Hayward as Vice Chair and Petrina Boddington seconded.

Other Officers

The following were proposed and agreed:

Treasurer: Andy Haslehurst (Proposer Hilary Jackson, seconder John Hayward)

Secretary: Hilary Jackson (Proposer Andrew Haslehurst, seconder Phine Dahle)

Membership Secretary: Barbro Fitzjohn (Proposer Barbara Matcham, seconder John Hayward)

Minutes Secretary: Ally Hayes (Proposer Andrew Haslehurst, seconder Petrine Boddington)

Committee Members: Sue asked if other committee members would be willing to stand again and they agreed. The following were therefore elected to the committee:

Phine Dahle
Barbara Matcham
Fiona Barnes
Petrine Boddington

Sue encouraged other members to come forward and Ruth Kibble agreed to take a lead on Press and Communications. One vacancy remains.

6. Consideration of membership fee

Sue Swallow initiated a discussion on whether the membership fee should be raised. It was felt that it should be a 'suggested contribution' of £5 according to people's means. There was also a discussion about whether organisations should be able to join and This will be put on the agenda for the next committee meeting.

7. Dates for 2016

Problem of pot holes was raised. Action Line should be notified of problems.

Shift Your Stuff will happen again but no date as yet.

An art exhibition will take place at Blue Door Estate Agency on 23 & 24 April.

Clean for the Queen to celebrate Queen's 90th birthday - SCC will put in resources.

Sue thanked everyone for attending and explained we would be moving on to the Ordinary General Meeting, which then followed.

Minutes of Outer Avenue Residents' Association (OARA) Ordinary General Meeting of Monday 19th October 2015

Present:

Alma Rd:

Barbro Fitzjohn
Chris Jackson
Tim Knapp
Barbara Matcham
Pat Oliver (Avenue St Andrews Church)
Heather Soper
Richard Soper
Peter Wirgman

Avenue Rd:

Fiona Barnes
Petrina Boddington
Liz Haslam
Ally Hayes
Des Hayward
John Hayward
Rosy Maguire
Harald Raykouski

Cambridge Rd:

Mary Hockey
Tony Michado

Clifford Dibben Mews:

Patrica Costo-Bigores
Miles Edwards

Gordon Ave:

Phine Dahle
Jerry Gillan
Andrew Haslehurst
Dorothy Haslehurst
Hilary Jackson
Ruth Kibble
Linda Pritchard

Lodge Rd:

Rachel Simpson

Rigby Rd:

Jon Harris
Charlotte Sunley

In attendance:

Cllr. Barnes Andrews
PCSO Carrie Samson
Emma Price (SUSU)

1. Welcome and Introductions

Sue Swallow welcomed those attending the meeting, who all introduced themselves (see Attendance list).

2. Apologies

Hannah Gilbert (SUSU – on Freshers' Week duties)
PCSO Michaela Newbold
Cllr. Jacqui Rayment (Council meeting)
Dean Spencer

3. Police report (Taken early in the agenda in case called out on duty)

PCSO Carrie Samson presented a police report on behalf of PCSO Michaela Newman. She reported that current priorities in our area are burglaries and anti-social behaviour and reminded residents to be vigilant about home security. There is a specific Op Studious patrol in student areas.

JH requested that the crime reports we receive should identify if a burglary is at a student household.

Action: Carrie agreed to request this

Concerns were raised re increased drinking on street corners and on benches in centre of Portswood. There was a discussion about what was acceptable and/or intimidating. The police use their discretion on each occasion. There was also concern about student late night/party noise. The 101 line can be called in cases of nuisance, noise or disturbance or we can call Michaela with specific questions.

The next PACT Meeting is on 26 November. Members were asked to let OARA know if they have any concerns they would like us to share with the police.

Speaker: Application for new micropub in old book shop

Jon Harris, a local resident, presented a proposal to open a community-based micro-pub, to be called "The Bookshop Ale House” (similar to the Butcher's Hook at Bitterne Triangle) in the former Peter Rhodes Bookshop on Portswood Road. The proposal was generally well-received after questions were answered about opening hours, the type of service being offered and preserving the character of the building. Residents were invited to view and respond to the planning application on the council website.

4. Community Mural at the Planters

JH and the History Group shared preliminary ideas for a community mural on the wall of The Bitter Virtue near the planters. The mural would depict key local events, people and landmarks and provide a welcoming and interactive gateway to the area. A local artist with experience of large scale works would be willing to help.

PD and DH inquired if residents, including those living close to proposed site, will be involved and JH reassured them there would be proper consultation and involvement. There was discussion including about protection from graffiti, durability and how the funds needed for this project (possibly £3000) would be raised. Suggestions included paint companies, Awards for All and the Ordnance Survey as well as community arts grants.

5. How can we protect our local heritage and our trees?

Fiona Barnes reported on recent communications with the local Conservation Officer who felt that there may have already been too many changes for us to become a designated conservation area. Fiona reminded us of the extent of the historical connections in our area, both architectural and social. She and the History Group will continue to explore what can be done to protect that heritage, including the mature trees on our patch. She asked members to let OARA know if they are aware of any significant trees which they think need protecting.

6. Parking issues

SS explained we had been asked to raise the issue of parking problems, following a member’s recent distressing experience when trying to park near home. There was a consensus that parking remains an issue. Views were expressed both for and against a residents’ parking scheme : pressure on parking in certain roads; white vans; pavement parking; cost of permits; residents' parking only applying in daytime, not evenings/weekends; parking for our own visitors if a scheme were in place; the number of student cars causing a problem in term time. The Committee agreed to discuss the issue further at its next meeting and report back.

7. Kingsley House – update and issues

SS gave an update about Kingsley House hostel in Alma Road. This has recently reopened and is offering short term accommodation, for example to contractors. OARA has met with the new owners and our Councillors and will continue to monitor the situation.

Concern was raised that an incident of soliciting had since been observed near the planters. The Police have been informed.

8. Minutes of the last OGM on July 6^th & matters arising

4. The Pact meeting had been well attended and a report will be available on the website.

7.2. We were still waiting for news of the new noticeboard. SBA agreed to follow up

Notices of OGMs and other meetings/events would be posted on the new board.

7.5. JG reported that he had attended a meeting with Sam Fox the new Planning Officer. He was pleased with his positive and practical response and felt that he was mindful of residents' concerns. He was looking into reinstating quarterly liaison meetings with residents' groups which would be welcome. JG also reported that HRA had won a significant court case against a large local landlord, as a result of which a previous planning approval had been overturned.

SS reported that development of post-grad student housing seemed to have started on the rest of the Sainsbury's site even though it had been understood that some affordable housing was to be included as part of the original proposal but this had not been tied in by the Council.

9. Committee and Common Ground Reports

The Committee presented a written report on the work of the Common Ground sub-groups: Greening, Planning, Community Liaison, Smart Streets, Communication and Bevois Mount History. A copy of the report would be circulated to members and put on the website.

10. AOB

There was no other business.

11. Date of next meeting

AGM Tuesday 26 January 2016

The meeting closed at 9.10.

You can find lots of information about Bevois Mount History and all their fascinating projects
- murals - blue plaques - books - walks and talks -
at bevoismounthistory.weebly.com
Also see Useful Links on our Home Page.

Minutes of Bevois Mount History Meeting - Tuesday 30 January 2018

1. Welcome

Present: Ally Hayes, Fiona Barnes, Wendy Stokes, Pete Shawyer, Ken Lymer

Apologies: Barbro Fitzjohn

2. Minutes of Meeting Held 6th February 2017

Hidden Treasures Exhibition was very successful, although ultimately unable to borrow Bridell art from Art Gallery.

We were unable to get a contact for Lucy Box refurbishment, although the Earl mural was completed and the Guided Walk Up the Avenue took place.

Email list still needs to be set up, will have a contact sheet available for our library coffee morning.

Art in Storage still needs tracking down. Ally will email Maria Newbury again. SEE Southampton have arranged a visit, so we should be able to.

We interviewed Pete Shawyer and continue to collect school photos of Bevois Town pupils

We are now members of Southampton Heritage Federation and took part in the event in September 2017.

3. Accounts

Th accounts can be viewed in the attached PDF.

Calendar Update:

Bitterne Local History have sold six.

They are now reduced to £3

We need to check: Fish and Chip Shop, Dentist on the Avenue, October Books, Bitter Virtue

The 3AC centre in Cranbury Terrace could be a useful contact for future sales.

4. Plans for the Future - Blue Plaques and Titanic commemorations

Our scheme for putting up Blue Plaques to notable Bevois Mount residents was mentioned at the OARA AGM and the Southampton City Councillors present did not object.

Slam has been asked to get a quote for the fabrication of the Blue Plaques, and Ally will remind him

Suggested People:

Tommy Lewis (Alma Road)

Will need to contact Smart Homes to find out who owns the house in order to get permission to put up the plaque. Also will ask for support from the local Labour Party and Tommy Lewis's Trade Union in their present form (Ally to find out what union it is)

Could also ask City of Southampton Society if they will make a monetary contribution.

Mr Halestrap (25 Cedar Road)

One of the last tommies standing. Was on the Titanic but got off before it sailed. Survived WW1 and WW2. Need to check the physical state of the house

John Arlott (114 Lodge Road)

Southampton policeman for ten years, poet and world-famous cricket commentator

Sir James Lemon (11 the Avenue - Stockwell Lodge)

Introduced sewerage system, Mayor and MP for Southampton)

Charlotte Marsh (95 Livingstone Road)

Leading Suffragette, member of WSPU, imprisoned and force fed. Later chauffeuse to Lloyd George

So the Blue Plaque Plan is:

Get Costing

Get Permission from House Owners

Check with Southampton City Council in the form of Andy Russel

Titanic Commemoration

Southampton City Council are planning to put blue plaques on the original houses of Titanic victims. Fiona has a list of the houses in our area and will contact the council to check they are going to put plaques on the correct houses.

5. Walks, Talks and Coffee Mornings

Fiona was interviewed by Radio Solent as a result of her excellent article on Women's Suffrage on Bevois Mount History Website and following on from this we are doing a number of suffrage events:

Coffee Morning in Portswood Library Tuesday 6th February to commemorate the centenary of some women being given the vote.

Will repeat the presentation one evening in the library so working people can attend.

Suffragette presentation to primary pupils Thursday 8th February.

Further suffrage presentations as and when requested. We have applied, through the good offices of OARA, for a few hundred pounds from the Women's Vote Centenary Grant Scheme. This could enable us to put on other suffrage activities - eg Suffragette plays.

We are extremely grateful to OARA committee members for being so supportive and helpful with the Grant Application. It would have been impossible without them.

We are doing another Walk Up the Avenue on 19th April at the request of Ave St Andrews Social Club, and we will do it again on a Sunday in June.

Pub walk in August, and hopefully John will give us his talk on history of beer at the Bookshop Alehouse.

Ally is giving a talk to the City of Southampton Society on 23rd April and Bitterne Local History in October. Her topic will be the Earl of Peterborough, his descendants, and other notable Bevois Mount residents.

Other talks that we can put on:

Frederick Lee Bridell - Ally

John Arlott - Wendy

6. Fundraising for Bevois Mount Signage

We propose putting up a sign that shows the Stag Gates with a tram coming through. Tentative costings are £2000 for the actual sign, and further costs entailed in erecting the sign. Proprietor of Stag Gates garage may well be willing to have the sign put up on his forecourt which would negate the need for planning permission. However, it is still a lot of money and probably too much for us to raise on our own.

Ideas for fundraising included:

Asking OARA for a possible contribution, and raising the matter at the Lodge Road improvement meeting on 5th March at Bevois Town School. OARA had an Art Exhibition 2 years ago where the silent auction was to raise money for improvements to Lodge Road - so maybe we could ask for some of that.

Applying for a grant from Community Chest.

Ask Businesses in Lodge Road to contribute

Ask Waitrose to put us as one of their green token causes

Craft Fair - now booked for the 2nd/3rd June at the Blue Door. Thankyou Fiona.

Pub Quiz

Ticketed Music Event (Ken)

Poetry Evening

7. Murals for 2018

Alexander Pope is already in situ in the window of 22 Lodge Road

We have permission to do a mural of the Bedford Brewery on Small Fries Fish and Chip Shop. There is a problem in that there is a large unsightly bin that takes up a lot of space.

We would like to do Anastasia Robinson on the wall of JoJo's Gym. Need to contact the owner Dorian Holloway.

These are relatively small murals and we have the funds to go ahead.

8. AOB

Pete suggested that during the Heritage Weekend the vintage buses could have a drop-off point in Lodge Road so that people could see the murals, and possibly visit an exhibition in the Blue Door.

Ken suggested we should put a list of our events on the website and Facebook page.

PLANS FOR 2022

COMMUNITY LINKS

Maintain and develop links with partners (such as the Council, the university, students' union, businesses, police, Alma Road Medical Centre, places of worship and the school).
Set up closer working links with neighbouring Residents' Associations e.g. IARA, HRA and Polygon.
Build up links with more landlords and lettings agencies, including SU's letting agency.
Produce and distribute a start of year Welcome / Information pack for students, in conjunction with the Council, Landlords and Universities, with guidance / expectations on waste, parking and noise.
Build up a profile of local population in order to forge better links.

SOCIAL AND CULTURAL

Carry on with social events to include a June Big-Lunch Thank-You Party, an October Meet-Your-Neighbours event and a Christmas / Winter gathering.
Continue to develop art and cultural events, sometimes combined with social events.
Hold an Open Studio Art Event in August in collaboration with Avenue St. Andrews.

COMMUNICATIONS

Continue membership drive, redistributing our leaflet and producing a welcome pack for new residents.
Carry out membership survey, to find out more about skills and interests.
Send regular bulletins, at least quarterly, to mailing list re activities / achievements.
Produce at least one hardcopy newsletter for wider circulation.
Make sure our website is fully functioning and up to date.
Develop our use of social media, including setting up local WhatsApp group.

SMART STREETS

Continue University / Student & Community Common Ground Meetings & extend to student landlords.
Campaign for parking / traffic / road improvements.
Continue monthly litter picks, increase number of helpers and look again at Street Blitz ideas.
Set up a Get Business / Landlords etc on Board initiative to encourage them to share local responsibility.
Lobby Council to enforce HMO licencing conditions and add addional ones where needed.

HISTORY AND HERITAGE

Continue with our programme of guided history walks.
Continue to give talks starting with 'Titanic Graves in the Old Cemetery' on April 20that Portswood Library.
Put up more blue plaques to celebrate people and places in Bevois Mount.
Finish writing 'A Walk Around Southampton Common' - the follow up to 'A Walk Up the Avenue' which was October Books' best seller of 2021.
Make plans for 2023 which will be the 300th anniversary of the Bevois Mount Estate - all ideas very welcome!
Produce a calendar to celebrate 300 years of Bevois Mount.

GREENING

Celebrate Ten Years of Greening and maintain existing projects: flower beds, barrels & tree planting.
Create map of existing OARA Greening (trees, beds, barrels & planters) and seek more sites.
Set up Tree Project, including a Tree Protection Person, to protect / increase number of local trees.
Seek to increase protection / development of greenery in rental properties, working with Council and landlords e.g. change in licensing and education / persuasion of landlords.
Work with other parties with similar aims to green our area and city.

PLANNING

Set up a planning sub-group to better monitor and respond to planning applications and issues & oppose overdevelopment.
Encourage site visits to understand local issues.

PLANS FOR 2020

This coming year we plan to focus our energies in three main areas:

Reaching out to and involving more people in our community
Improving the physical environment
Achieving still more 'Joined-Up Thinking'

We've set out below some of the ways we aim to do this, continuing the work we have been doing and with some new ideas for 2020. These all aim to foster the idea of working together to improve the Common Ground we share.

COMMUNITY AND SOCIAL

Maintain and develop links with partners such as the Council, the university, students' union, businesses, the police, Alma Rd Medical Centre, places of worship and the school
Carry on with social events such as Big Lunch, Meet Your Neighbours and the Christmas party.
Continue to develop art and cultural events, including OARA singers
Build up links with more landlords and lettings agencies, including SU's letting agency

COMMUNICATIONS

Carry out membership drive with new leaflet to reach out to more residents
Send regular mini bulletins to mailing list re activities / achievements
Produce hardcopy newsletter for wider circulation, as well as mailing list and notice board
Continue to provide information more widely through our website, Facebook, new business cards and local networks

SMART STREETS

Continue termly Student & Community Common Ground Meetings, including RAs, university, students, police, Council and landlords
Continue to work with the Council re parking / traffic / road improvement proposals, including possible Active Travel Zone
Take forward the Lodge Road improvement project, depending on funding
Continue litter picks, increase number of helpers and look again at Street Blitz ideas
Get Business on Board. Contact businesses to get them to take responsibility in the vicinity of their premises.

HISTORY AND HERITAGE

Commission an art project
Put on an exhibition about the history of the Common at The Hawthorns in March
Recommence Common History Walks in March
Repeat our 'Walk up the Avenue' and 'Lost pubs of Bevois Mount' walks, and introduce our 'History of the Common' walk, with an exhibition at the Hawthorns. 1st monthly walk on 20 March
Continue to give talks on a variety of topics, at the Portswood Library, Southampton Arts Society and God's House Tower. First talk at the Library will be Titanic Graves April 15
Continue work with Avenue St Andrew's Church on lottery project about Isaac Watts and James Cubitt
Put up more blue plaques to celebrate people and places in Bevois Mount
Publish our 7th history calendar.

GREENING

Set up Tree Project - with Council and others - to increase number of trees and quality of environment
Develop greening ideas, e.g. planters and hedging, linked to Lodge Road project, and to counter pollution
Maintain existing projects, including flower beds, barrels, tree planting and Plant Swap
Develop community area, including wooden planter, at junction of Alma / Gordon by the planters / Mural
Hold two more Table Top Sales to raise funds for greening

PLANNING

Continue to monitor and to respond to planning applications and issues.

OARA Plans for 2019

This coming year we plan to carry on trying to achieve more "joined up thinking" across out patch and partners and to continue the work we have been doing for several years under the headings below. These all aim to foster the idea of working together to improve the Common Ground we share.

COMMUNITY AND SOCIAL

Maintain / develop links with partners such as the Council, students’ union, businesses places of worship and the school.
Liaise with police on issues of concern on our patch.
Carry on with social events such as Big Lunch, Meet Your Neighbours and the Christmas party.
Follow up ideas from OGM to deter/tackle anti-social behaviour
Try to build more links with our diverse local communities and make events more attractive to parents and children.
Continue to develop art and cultural events such as Blue Door Art Exhibitions.
Continue links with Alma Road Surgery to help promote the well-being of local residents.
Build up links with more landlords and lettings agencies, including SUSU’s letting agency

COMMUNICATIONS

Carry out membership drive with new leaflet
Send mini bulletins to mailing list re activities/achievements
Produce newsletter for wider circulation, as well as mailing list and notice board
Increase use of Nextdoor and other local networks
Use our postcards to welcome people moving in and raise profile

SMART STREETS

Organise special meeting to plan for student summer clear out time, inviting Council, Uni, SUSU, RAs and landlords
Follow up outcome of Parking Survey and traffic/road improvement proposals
Take forward the Lodge Road improvement project, depending on success of funding bid
Continue litter picks, usually on 1st Sunday of the month, allocate individual patches and implement our Street Blitz ideas.
Continue trying to get the Council to carry out more timely cleaning, eg in student holidays, including leaf removal
Dog mess: take up council offer of No Fouling signs and pilot yellow spray to highlight the problem!
Contact businesses to get them to take responsibility in the vicinity of their businesses.

HISTORY AND HERITAGE

Continue to raise funds for our projects.
Put in place the 'Welcome to Bevois Mount' sign.
Paint our next mural.
Repeat our 'Walk up the Avenue' and 'Lost pubs of Bevois Mount' walks, and introduce our 'History of the Common' walk.
Continue to give talks on a variety of topics, beginning with a talk about John Arlott at the Portswood Library on March 14th.
Put up more blue plaques to celebrate the lives of notable Bevois Mount inhabitants.
Publish our 6th history calendar.
Continue to update our Facebook page and website.

GREENING

Develop greening ideas linked to PPG wellbeing initiative
Develop greening ideas, e.g. planters and hedging, linked to Lodge Road project, and to counter pollution
Maintain existing projects, including flower beds, barrels, tree planting and Plant Swap
Develop community area, including wooden planter, at junction of Alma/Gordon by the planters and Mural
Hold two more Table Top Sales to raise funds for greening

PLANNING

Continue to monitor and to respond to planning applications and issues.

OARA Plans for 2017

This coming year we aim to continue the work we have been doing for several years under the headings below. These all aim to foster the idea of working together to improve the Common Ground we share. We will also consider, prioritise and apply for grants to carry out proposed projects. New suggestions for this year are shown in green.

COMMUNITY AND SOCIAL

Maintain / develop links with community partners such as students’ union, places of worship and the school. This could involve more opportunities for student volunteer activities.
Liaise with police on issues of concern on our patch. Investigate setting up regular police drop-in sessions for OARA residents, IARA residents and students.
Carry on with social events such as Big Lunch, Meet Your Neighbours and the Christmas party.
Try to build links with our diverse local communities. This could involve making our social events more multi-cultural and more attractive to parents and children.
Continue to develop art and cultural events such as Blue Door Art Exhibitions.
Continue links with Alma Road Surgery to help promote the well-being of local residents.
Investigate setting up a local information bank which could include names of local tradespeople, lists of local events and activities such as what is on offer at Avenue St Andrew’s and other venues.
Keep the notice-board interesting and informative, changing the displays regularly.
Build up links with more landlords and lettings agencies including SU’s letting agency

COMMUNICATIONS

Find more locals with the skills/enthusiasm to help with writing, design and production of leaflets, publicity etc.
Produce another Common Ground newsletter delivered to all households and continue regular bulletins.
Complete our Welcome to Outer Avenue pack for people moving in.
Produce a new general What is OARA leaflet and an OARA postcard for new neighbours.
Apply for grant to install Welcome to Bevois Mount signs.
Make sure website and Facebook are kept up to date.

SMART STREETS

Continue litter picks and implement our Street Blitz ideas – with relevant leaflets, including thankyous, to go through doors.
Set up Street Rep system and recruit more helpers, including students.
Extend bin audits and bin numbering to more roads.
Try and get the Council to carry out more timely cleaning, including leaf removal, and install No Litter signs
Dog mess: take up council offer of No Fouling signs and pilot yellow spray to highlight the problem!
Work on some landlords to take more care over state of their gardens/frontages and give them ideas about how
Contact businesses to get them to take responsibility in the vicinity of their businesses.
Consider a project to improve Lodge Rd in liaison with IARA and Council. Investigate TESCO community grant.
Respond to Council's bin collection proposals & link up with other groups re joint approach with Council to bin/ litter issues.
Improve traffic/parking by following up 2016 survey.

HISTORY

Raise funds for and execute a 2nd mural, 'Putting the Earl back into Earls Road', using similar costing and funding model as for first Mural.
Look into restoring two Lucy boxes.
Organise a guided 'Walk up the Avenue' from Asylum Green to the Cowherds.
Put on 'Art on the Mount' exhibition of original art and prints by artists who lived in Bevois Mount in times gone. by, supplemented by some contemporary art portraying the area.
Investigate the possibilities of producing a book/booklet - 'Memories of Bevois Town School'.
2018 Calendar - hopefully even better than the 2017 one!
Continue to research and update our Facebook Page.

GREENING

Maintain existing projects, including tree planting, Plant Swap and Gordon Avenue Bloomin’ Concrete project
Develop community area at junction of Alma/Gordon by the planters and Mural.
Hold two more Table Top Sales to raise funds for greening.
Help with new planting at St Barnabas Church., including trees
Develop suggestion to lend out planted plant pots to students for 1 year.

PLANNING

Continue to monitor and to respond to planning applications and issues.

OARA Plans 2016

These plans were adopted at the AGM on 26 January 2016. Some are ongoing or carried over from last year. Those marked * are new proposals.

GREENING

Carry on maintaining existing plots, planters and barrels and holding plant swaps
*Launch Bloomin' Concrete Project to improve the lower part of Gordon Ave, given it is a gateway to the area and a route to the Common
Recruit new helpers for gardening sessions
Find new plots and sponsors for cherry trees
*Monitor and try to protect mature trees in the area
Hold Table Top sales at new Saturday venue to raise funds for new planting.

COMMUNICATIONS

*Build up a group who can pool their talents to develop new resources and contacts
*Decide on best ways to communicate with members and the wider community e.g. newsletters, bulletins, Common Ground Newsletter and including residents whose first language is not English
*Increase press and social media coverage
*Make use of new notice board due to be installed by the Council
Update general OARA leaflet and produce Welcome to Outer Avenue pack for new residents.
Distribute student leaflet again for start of new year

COMMUNITY

Continue current social events e.g. Big Lunch, Street Welcome and Christmas Parties
*Provide moral and practical support for those residents suffering from anti-social behaviour and noise , by developing our own guidelines and strategies and working with other agencies to tackle this problem.
*Find ways to build links with neighbours whose first language is not English.
Meet and work with 2015/6 student officers
Develop links with more landlords, including possible garden schemes
Keep in regular contact with local police team re safety etc, including through PACT meetings
*Increase the involvement of the local business community, including sponsorships and fundraising

SMART STREETS

Continue regular street cleans and Bin Buddy Scheme (except in August) and encourage more to join in
*Introduce "Street Blitzes" – with programme of targeted deep cleans on one of our Sundays
Encourage people and businesses to adopt a street or stretch of street near their home or premises
Extend bin numbering project to Alma Road and at least one other
Continue meetings and liaison with Council officers re overall service and continue campaign to get bins put back off pavements and bins removed from houses with no suitable frontage
*Support specific events such as the SUSU “Shift your Stuff” campaign, Student Volunteer Week Litter Pick and "Clean for the Queen"
Continue to work with others ( Council, SUSU, other RAs) to regulate/reduce lettings boards
*Monitor and report properties/frontages in poor state and walls at risk of removal

HISTORY

Continue with Bevois Mount History Facebook Page
Continue researching and adding to Bevois Mount History Website
*Produce 2017 full colour Bevois Mount History Calendar- if costs allow
*Develop a Community Mural
*Link with a local artists' event as “living history” recording their work
Get togethers to encourage others to join and suggest ideas for research

PLANNING

Continue to monitor and respond to house sales and planning applications
*Respond to the forthcoming Local Plan Consultation

Introduction

Dear Members and Friends,

This will be our first AGM and "annual" report for two years. It has been hard time for all of us, but the OARA committee and OARA members have done our best to keep things moving during the lock-downs and restrictions caused by Covid 19. After a pause in activities during the early part of lockdown, we resumed committee meetings as well as we could using Zoom, and were gradually able to meet face-to-face, initially outside and then indoors, observing the latest Covid guidelines. One committee member resigned due to other commitments, one moved out of the area and one was co-opted. There remained two vacancies. Our links with local Councillors and the Council have remained active, particularly with regard to planning and maintaining tidy streets. Greening activities have also continued and the efforts of 'The Greeners' have been much enjoyed and appreciated by local residents. We have also maintained our links with Southampton University, local businesses and local organisations. We have produced an attractive leaflet, detailing the scope of our activities, designed to be informative and to aid recruitment to the membership. You will find a summary of what we have achieved, or are still working on, in the reports below.

Membership and Finances

Finances have remained in a reasonably healthy state in spite of not being able to hold some of our usual fundraising events. Membership contributions, donations and income from the Bin Buddy Scheme have helped maintain our balances. There has been a slight increase in membership following distribution of our new leaflet, with many members paying the £5 membership contribution, plus a generous donation in some cases. For more detailed information see the separate Treasurer's/Membership report at the end of this document.

Communications

In the absence of actual meetings for much of the past two years, emails and Bulletins have been important for keeping in touch with members. We have sent eight Bulletins during that time. To add to our existing OARA Welcome postcard, in November 2021 we produced 4000 copies of a new general OARA leaflet to provide easy information about the organisation, to raise awareness and hopefully recruit new members. It was distributed to every household in the OARA area. It was well-received, with feedback that it looked professional and attractive (and a neighbouring RA commenting they should get one like it!) Regularly changing displays on the Alma Rd notice board have also helped keep in touch. We are gradually building up more posts and likes on our Facebook page.

Our website has been a bit on hold, following the sad passing of our dedicated Webmaster in 2021, but we are aiming to be back-on-track before too long in 2022.

Community Liaison, Social and Cultural

We have striven to maintain valuable community and social links over the past two years, although some have been understandably curtailed. Nevertheless, we have:

run three outdoor community /craft events (see full report in Arts, Craft and Culture);
maintained Police links, including promoting and attending two outdoor Beat Surgeries on our patch and passing on drug-dealing reports from local residents with at least one arrest and one household being moved on as a result;
coordinated with Southampton University and the Council at student clear-out time, with the University paying for extra rubbish collections;
acted as an intermediary when complaints have arisen because of a particularly noisy or difficult student household, sometimes talking to students directly and sometimes referring matters on to the University, using the local2U@soton.ac.uk link, which residents can also use to report concerns. Lockdown and social restrictions meant a lot less late-night noise but it has of course been a very difficult time for students too;
continued to work with some landlords to help guide students through the rubbish collection processes in Southampton and help keep bins off the pavements. The landlords pay us a small fee for this Bin Buddy service and this goes towards OARA funds. We have continued to try and get messages to landlords through the HMO Warden about their responsibility when it comes to keeping their properties tidy;
maintained our links with fellow Residents' Associations, including Highfield, The North Southampton Community Forum, and NORA, The National Organisation of Residents' Associations. A number of local RAs have gone into decline so such links are even more valuable for sharing information and solidarity.

Art, Craft & Culture

After a pause in activities during the strictest lockdown period, we managed to organise three outdoor fairs, involving some combination of music, craft and enterprise. Stalls have included cards, books, craft, pottery, soaps, textiles, bric-a-brac, plants, climate awareness and of course cakes. The events proved a valuable opportunity for friends and neighbours to meet up again in a spontaneous, socially-distanced way after a lot of enforced isolation and caution.

The first fair was on a crisp cold December day 2020 and organised as an innovative craft trail where makers set up stalls outside the front of their houses. Nearer to Christmas Maggie and Mike led a carol singing by the Planters. Friends and neighbours came together with sparklers, candles and lanterns, bringing a bit of cheer at a dark time.

The next fair took place in Summer 2021 mainly in The Alma Surgery Carpark. As a thank you several OARA members undertook a complete tidy of the area by removing weeds, rubbish and sweeping the car park clean the week before the fair. The following Sunday seven stalls shared the carpark and five more stalls were in nearby streets

On Saturday 4 December 2021 we were all back together at the Alma Road Mural for a Winter Fair. Maggie and Mike led the singing and Maggie played on her majestic accordion despite the cold, supported by Avenue Singers from Avenue St Andrews Church. Given the hard times, we invited people to make donations to the local food bank and collected a large wheelbarrow-load of over 100 food items and toiletries. In a new departure, Bitter Virtue had a licence to sell beer by the glass and free mince pies and snacks went well with the beverage. Bevois' three ward Councillors also came along to give their support. A chilly but welcome and happy event.

Smart Streets

Our regular first-Sunday-of- the-month Street Cleans were suspended in 2020. Some members gallantly continued their individual efforts, for which we were very grateful. Sessions started up again in the Autumn of 2021 and we have gradually been building up a small crew of helpers. More are always welcome and needed. In 2020 on the whole there was less street mess and bin issues due to much reduced student numbers and less people out on the streets. However, Covid and Brexit-related staffing issues meant backlogs with bin collections and fewer staff able to respond when specific problems have arisen, including for example flytipping, excess waste and contaminated bins. We have, however, continued to liaise with and lobby the Council, and successes included a major end-of-the-student-year Council Street clean up in the summer of 2021.

Greening and Environment

The gardening group has endeavoured to maintain as many of our normal activities as possible.

The three new boxes, installed for us by Balfour Beatty at the junction of Cambridge Road and Alma Road, have been kept planted and flowering this last year; this includes the eating box! We were very pleased to receive these containers to add them to our efforts to keep this area an attractive place to meet.

We have planted shrubs and bulbs where landlords have been accepting and tried to maintain the half barrels. Another flowering cherry 'Prunus Spire' has been planted in Gordon Avenue, sponsored by a student landlord. There are now at least 50 OARA trees and 20 barrels brightening up Outer Avenue.

We have also purchased a strimmer to tackle overgrowing patches.

The Winter Fair brought us a very generous gift of many plants. Some of these we sold to raise nearly £55 for the greening funds and some will be planted around the area.

The removal of established greenery, including mature trees, when properties are developed is an increasing cause of concern. We all know the importance of such greenery to the environment, nature and human wellbeing. Some trees have even been removed in anticipation of a successful planning application. We have contacted landlords and owners to urge them to protect and preserve this vital resource and to replace where removal has been essential. We have also sought and continue to seek Tree Protection Orders on significant mature trees in our area.

We look forward to an even greener and more social year for 2022!

Planning Matters

We have continued to be advised of, to monitor and respond to planning applications in our area. When we feel that an application will have an adverse effect on neighbours, e.g., because of overdevelopment, increased density, strain on already overloaded services and parking and intrusion into privacy, we have objected to that application, including making representations in person at Planning Committee. The trend continues to be for landlords to seek to expand existing HMO properties, given that the density of HMOs is now so high it is difficult to gain permission for new ones. Some seek to circumvent this with applications for retrospective permission for a licence. Some work cleverly within the parameters of the loosened permitted development legislation - which leaves us powerless to object.

In the past year, of 10 applications/appeals we were aware of, seven were approved, one refused, one pending and one withdrawn following vigorous objection from OARA, neighbours and Councillors. A full list of these is available on request to info@outeravenueresidents.co.uk email.

We also opposed the licensing application in January 2021 for the new corner shop at the junction of Earls Road and Avenue Road. Local residents will have realised that the licence was granted. We have not been made aware of any ensuing problems - and they now have an OARA plaque!

Given the relentless problems caused by excessive HMO development and parking, we organised a walkabout at the start of this year with Council Officers from Transport and Planning and two of our own Councillors. This proved very valuable in seeing first hand the impact of overdevelopment in our area. We have been invited to make a submission based on our evidence as well as issues observed on the day - and we will continue to pursue this as a priority in the coming year.

History and Heritage

Covid inevitably constrained our activities in many ways - a whole programme of walks and talks for 2020 was wiped out with the first lockdown - but looking back over the last two years, we have achieved some things that we might otherwise have not. We have:

put up more plaques, now up to 11 in total, and having had the inspired idea of illustrated plaques (Old Co-op and Honest Lawyer), we look forward to doing more this year. You can find more details on http://bevoismounthistory.weebly.com;
managed a few walks when weather and Covid have allowed, including a walk around the murals and plaques of Bevois Mount, and look forward to an expanded programme in 2022;
taken part in the craft trails and the Winter Fair, and have taken our heritage story over the river to the Trifest and the Peartree 400 event;
found time on our hands during the 3rd lockdown and challenged ourselves to write a book about our famous and much photographed local road: 'A Walk up the Avenue' was published last October and became October Books' bestselling book of 2021;
continued to maintain and update our Facebook page and website.

Conclusion

As you can see from the previous reports, we have not been idle during Covid! There remains a lively community spirit and sense of helping one another which we can build on as life returns to some sort of normality. Thank you to all our members, friends and neighbours for your continued interest and support.

John Hayward (OARA Chair)
March 2022

Annual Report 2019

INTRODUCTION

In 2019 OARA continued to be a positive force for good in our area through our usual activities and having strong links with the council and the university. We are grateful to local residents who support us and our initiatives and this all helps to encourage a developing community-spirit on the OARA patch.

There have been several occasions this year when we have been able to provide support and take positive action on behalf of local residents who are put under duress by what is happening in their neighbourhood. It is very gratifying to have the policies and the ability to call in support to help and find solutions. We work together to find answers to problems once they are identified. Outside agencies recognise this and are usually more than willing to give us their support.

In the course of the year we held two Ordinary General Meetings in addition to the AGM/OGM. In May we were pleased to welcome as our speaker Dave Tyrie, Head of Services for SCC and in October Katie Adams from the Waste Compliance Team.

FINANCES

This year our long-standing and greatly respected treasurer, Andy Haslehurst, stood down because he and his wife Dorothy are moving out of the area. We thank him for all of his hard work and guidance on our behalf and Dorothy for her informed persistence with traffic and parking. We wish them both all the best as they move on. Andy is in the process of handing over the role to Wendy Stokes who has kindly stepped in. The first finance report and accounts will be tabled early in the new year.

MEMBERSHIP

At the beginning of 2019 there were about 200 members, including 5 landlords and 15 organisations and local businesses. Over 100 were regular residents. In the Spring new data protection rules were introduced and OARA invited all members to give their consent to stay on the mailing list and those who did not were removed from the list. At present there are 113 members on the mailing list; of these 1 is a landlord, 12 are organisations or businesses and the rest are residents, including 10 committee members.

New members are encouraged to join at any time and an active membership drive is planned for 2020.

COMMUNITY LIAISON

Working with and in the local community continued to be an important part of our work.

Community Events and Links

We held two successful street parties in June and October, combining with The Students' Union who provided performance groups, games and promotional support.
We also held a very successful Christmas party at The Guide Dog Pub which included the first performance of the OARA singers!
In November we held our first event in the community room at October Books, an art and history craft fayre, which proved a warm and welcoming occasion.
We continued our links with Avenue St Andrews Church, supporting their successful bid or the repair of their historic bell tower and contributing some church history research from our Bevois Mount historians, And as ever A St A's were generous in their support of OARA events.

Social Issues: there have been a couple of serious drug-related issues in the area that we and members brought to police attention. One ended in a large police raid on some flats in Gordon Avenue. We encourage residents to ring 101 to report any suspicious activities, drug or crime related. All information adds to police intelligence. The more consistent reports, the more likely they are to take action.

We have several strategies to respond to consistent nuisance or over-the-top parties which have proved reasonably effective. Actions this year have included reporting incidents to the university, the environmental health team, landlords and the HMO licensing team as well as calling on households post-party with our OARA letter and encouraging more neighbourly consideration . Contact us if you need some support.

COMMUNICATIONS

We have communicated regularly with our mailing listees - keeping them informed of OARA events and activities through emails, bulletins and the notice board. The postcards have continued to prove useful for letting people know about OARA, whether handing out to curious passers-by when we are out on a task or welcoming new neighbours. Our Facebook page and website have reached wider than just the membership and we are very grateful to Matt, our webmaster, for his continued support in spite of illness. Those we meet are usually very appreciative of the efforts we make. The Council rates us as one of the best RAs in the City but we still have work to do in order to reach and involve more members of our community

SMART STREETS

We set about continuing our theme of joined-up thinking, trying to combine efforts to get the best results.

Street Cleans: we moved to a new pattern of street cleans, with one on the first Sunday of each month (except August) plus some individuals keeping a particular eye on the stretch near their homes. The efforts of a small but stalwart band of helpers have helped to keep the worst of the litter at bay but we are in serious need of new recruits! We have continued to receive invaluable support from the HMO Wardens' Community Payback Team, who clear any excess mess and fly-tipping that we report and/or contact landlords to hold them to account.

We also lobbied successfully for the Council sweeping machines to make two visits, one in the summer and one at the end of the Christmas break, to give a good clean to gutters and pavements. We continue to make the case for these to happen in university holidays when there are many less cars and much better access. One aim is to deter the weeds which staged a bit of a takeover last summer - causing us to put out a special plea to the Council to come to the rescue.

Shift Your Stuff - Mark 2: we organised a joint Shift Your Stuff Meeting in the Spring to try and pre-empt the problems caused by the student summer clear-out, with representatives from the University of Southampton, the Students' Union, the Council Cleansing and HMO Licensing Teams, the Police, OARA and Portswood RA. The initiative has been successful on two fronts: firstly, all involved agreed that the collective efforts resulted in more effective collections and less on-street rubbish at the end of the Summer term; and secondly the group now meets termly with a wider remit of community/student liaison, including such issues as parking, safety and late night parties, and has grown to include Solent University and a representative of Southampton Landlords.

Parking Survey and Traffic: we continued to lobby for improved parking and traffic schemes in our area. However, the result of the of the Council's informal Parking Scheme Survey showed respondents split roughly 50/50 on whether they favoured a parking scheme or not. It would have required 60% in favour to move to a more detailed, legal consultation. We continue to liaise with the Council re possibilities, including inclusion in a bid for government funds to become an Active Travel Zone with related improvement to the look and feel of the area, including traffic management.

The Lodge Road element of the improvement project is similarly on hold, pending further funding.

Overall, we made good progress with doing the things we said we'd do - apart from following up dog-fouling signs and encouraging businesses to take more responsibility for any litter outside their own properties. Two for next year's list!

HISTORY AND HERITAGE REPORT

The Bevois Mount History Group continued to go from strength to strength, with a rich programme of events. In the course of the year they:

Erected a 'Welcome to Bevois Mount' sign at the Avenue end of Lodge Road.
Gave talks about 'Southampton Policeman and Poet: John Arlott', 'Painting the Town; artists who recorded the changing face of Southampton' and 'Portswood and the Italian Connection' at Portswood Library and other venues.
Established a monthly (March to October) 'Common History Walk'.
Celebrated the centenary of the demolition of Stag Gates with an exhibition at Blue Door in June. Sadly this was the last OARA/Blue Door event as the blue door closed later in the year. We are very grateful for all the support Rachel and Greg (and daughters!) gave us over several years.
Published our 6th Bevois Mount History Calendar.
Repeated our 'Lost Pubs of Bevois Mount Walk'.
Gave a private walk for Friends of Avenue St Andrews.
Wrote several heritage articles for the Echo.
Participated in the first Southampton Heritage Federation Day to be held in West Quay.
Continued to maintain and update our Facebook page and website.
Published a book - 'Southampton's Story - The Highlights'.

GREENING

The Greening group has continued to maintain the areas already planted and endeavoured to find new sites for half barrels and tree planting spaces.

There has been some vandalism which has meant replacing damaged very young trees; we are hoping that the new ones will survive. We have 3 sapling flowering cherry trees available for planting now. If you are interested contact seswallow@gmail.com. Please also contact me at this address if you would like to take part in our Community gardening.

This coming year we plan to replace some of the woody lavender with young plants and aim to develop the cul-de-sac at the road block Alma /Gordon Avenue. We are still involved in efforts to improve Lodge Road.

We were fortunate with our fund raising at the Spring and Christmas table top sales, the latter at Avenue St Andrews Church, and the raffle at the Christmas Party. Thank you to all those who contributed and supported the events. We look forward to a 'floriferous 2020'.

PLANNING

We have continued to receive notice from the Council of any planning applications in our area. We monitor these closely and are also watchful for any other unannounced developments. In principle, we are likely to oppose applications which seek to unreasonably increase the density of population and the pressure on services, parking and the environment in this already crowded part of town, as well of those that are out of keeping with the character of the area. Of the applications notified, 8 were approved, six refused and four are awaiting a decision. A full list of these is available for members wishing for more detailed information.

And finally... a big thank you to all of you who have supported us and helped us move closer to our aim of making our area a positive and welcoming place for all who live and stay here.

John Hayward, Chair
January 2020

Annual Report 2018

INTRODUCTION

In 2018 OARA kept up our regular efforts to maintain and improve the quality of life in our neighbourhood through our cleaning, greening, social and creative projects. In addition this year we've explored ways of developing more "joined up thinking" with partners such as the Council, University, Students' Union, landlords, the police, the local school, doctors' surgery and places of worship – to achieve better "quality streets". This has become ever more important to help counter the effects of significant cuts to local government funding, as well as being a really positive way to develop relationships and community spirit, regardless of funding. OARA has built a reputation as a Residents' Association that looks for solutions and is prepared to work with others to achieve them; this has stood us in good stead when seeking support.

In the course of the year we held 8 committee meetings and four Ordinary General Meetings, in January, March, May and October, with 25-30 residents attending each time. We continued our policy of inviting speakers to give our meetings particular focus, and these included officers from the Planning and Traffic departments & the Cabinet member for Sustainability in March, a representative of the HMO Licensing Team in May, and from the University Public Relations Department in October.

You will find a summary of what we achieved – or are still working on – in the reports from each of our Common Ground areas below.

MEMBERSHIP

This year we reviewed our membership database and practices to ensure that we complied with the government's new GDPR- General Data Protection Regulations. By 25 May 2018 everyone on the email list was asked to opt in if they wanted to continue to receive information from OARA. In the summer the whole committee shared the responsibility of knocking on doors and contacting members personally, as well as encouraging more residents to join, as part of a move to a single annual renewal date. As a result, we now have around 100 on our mailing list. This was a reduction from the previous total but is an up-to-date and active list. 54 members paid the voluntary fee of £5 and a handful of members gave extra donations. 7 were new members. A total £330 was raised. We also approved a Data Protection/Privacy Policy. We will continue our drive to make more contact and increase our membership in the year ahead.

COMMUNITY AND SOCIAL

Social:- we have continued to organise social events throughout the year, primarily two street parties in June and October, and a Christmas gathering. For the street parties we have had a lot of support from Southampton University Students' Union. They have supplied games and laminated promotional mate-rial and put the events on their calendar. Music and dance societies have performed plus other groups providing close-up magic and cake decorating. We have also had the SU Rag fund-raising group in-volved. The street parties attract local students plus local residents and are a great opportunity for the two to mix and find out more about each other. Our local Councillors, the police and the local church also came along to give support.

Arts Events:– on the creative side we held three arts events this year in collaboration with the Blue Door Estate Agency: a Spring Art Show in April, dedicated to the work of a much-loved OARA member, Rosy McGuire, who died tragically earlier in the year; a Bevois Mount History Craft Fair in June; and a Christmas Craft Fair in December – all showcasing just how much talent there is in our area.

Police links:- we attended the Police and Community Team meetings and are also in constant contact with our local neighborhood police team. For example, a resident contacted us about a sudden upsurge of drug dealing in the neighbourhood. We sent in numerous reports and there was a large drugs raid which resulted in a number of arrests. Since then, drug activity has greatly reduced. It still goes on, how-ever, and we need to be constantly vigilant to help keep our area safe.

We encourage local residents to use 101 to report any police-related concerns. The more reports that go in about a specific problem, the more likely that action will be taken. You can also contact OARA directly and we can pass information on.

Nuisance parties / anti-social behaviour: We have established some very good contacts to help re-spond to incidents of late-night noise. These include: the Council's environmental health/locality team; the community relations department at the university; and a recently developed link with one of the major local landlords. This is an approach we hope to extend to other landlords. We also have our own letter that we can deliver to student households in response to nuisance parties. Contact OARA if you need support. Issuing joint information and advice about considerate behaviour, to help avoid and de-ter such incidents, is an ongoing project.

Links with local organisations:- we continue to liaise with Highfield and Inner Avenue Residents' Associ-ations, to attend the North Southampton Community Forum and to maintain links with Bevois Town Primary School, the local Mosque and with Avenue St Andrews Church.

PPG- Patient Participation Group – at Alma Road Medical Centre:- this year we’ve focussed as usual on how we can support the surgery generally. We now have our own Notice Board!

Nikki Judd, from the Red Cross and the independent living service manager for Southampton and the New Forest, spoke about the support work in progress to combat loneliness. How can we, OARA, help address this growing issue in our community? We would welcome your ideas.

COMMUNICATIONS

Keeping in touch:- we have used regular emails and the notice board at the planters to keep members and residents informed, plus occasional Bulletins and Facebook postings. Have you seen the delightful map of the area, showing where OARA has made its mark? We also delivered a Welcome/ Good Neighbour leaflet and Street Party invite to every household in early October, timed to catch the new student intake.

OARA postcards: these have proved really useful in several ways – welcoming new neighbours, giving to curious passers-by when we are out litter-picking or greening, giving to Estate Agents to include in packs for prospective buyers, popping a message through a letter box about bins or saying thank you. We have plenty if you would like some to spread the word.

SMART STREETS

Street Cleans:- we have continued our twice-monthly litter picks, with breaks in August and December. This means we've had an OARA group out on about 20 Sundays, removing about 200 bags of rubbish from our streets. We have stuck with first and third Sundays and over the year 24 different members have joined in at some point, plus Finn the rescued greyhound, a canine first. A new set of equipment has also been purchased. After each session we have reported any fly-tipping and bin/rubbish issues to our contacts in the Council – who have responded practically and positively, including weekly Tuesday pick-ups by HMO Warden Barry Olson and the Community Payback Team. Overall numbers at each session have, however, declined meaning we have not always managed to tackle every street or individual street blitzes. We are reviewing tactics, including a proposal for individual members to take over designated patches and how to recruit more helpers.

Joint effort on recycling:- the University, Council and OARA joined together to produce and deliver blue indoor recycling bags to every household at the start of the academic year, encouraging students to collect and bin loose items. The signs are that this has reduced the number of contaminated bins.

Traffic/Parking/Pollution:- a special meeting in March focussed upon issues of improved parking and traffic flow arrangements in the area. There was general agreement that improvements were needed, with a variety of views on how these could be achieved. A significant number of residents as well as Councillors and officers attended and a subsequent meeting of OARA Committee representatives with the Senior Transport Strategic Planner and an area 'walk-about' by the Transport Delivery team leader did result in consideration being given to various proposals and actions. These included resurfacing of the pavements in Alma Road, promising advice about the possible location of another planter, some other minor works and further re-assurances about resurfacing of Avenue Road and carrying out a parking permit scheme survey. However, overall the ambitions of many residents, which included the possibility of a 1-way system that included Earls Road together with significant upgrading of roads and pavements in Avenue Road and Gordon Avenue (in particular), have not been met. OARA will also wish to consider the imminent results of the parking survey and has concern that original assurances about the ineligibility of student HMOs to vote (on the basis that such properties do not pay Council tax) have not proved valid.

Lodge Road improvement project-: we have made a little progress with this but need more person-power and funds to make real headway. Bevois Mount signage is going up at the Stag Gates end thanks to the History Group. We have also put in an application for Council funds to improve bins, install planters and hedges (as a way to improve air quality and the street scene), upgrade pavements and other signage. If this bid is successful, more evident progress should follow.

Council Street Cleaning: we were successful in negotiating two Council Street Cleans in student vacations, one at Easter and one in the summer. The Easter one included the pavement cleaning machine, which made a big difference. We are still lobbying to get a team out to deal with leaf fall and resulting blocked drains and gutters.

HISTORY AND HERITAGE

During the last year we have:

continued to raise funds for our projects
won a grant from the Community Chest Fund to design, create and put in place a 'Welcome to Bevois Mount' sign
completed murals in Lodge Road featuring Alexander Pope and Anastasia Robinson
put up plaques commemorating politician, Thomas 'Tommy' Lewis, poet and cricket commentator, John Arlott, artists, Eric Meadus, Roland and Frank McFadden, and Bevois Mount House itself
given a series of suffragette presentations to schools, churches, guide groups and libraries in the centenary year of partial female suffrage
given talks at a variety of venues, including Portswood Library, about Bevois Mount and other local history topics
repeated our 'Walk up the Avenue' and 'Lost Pubs of Bevois Mount' walks
published our 5th history calendar
continued to update our Facebook page and website
posted the story of local young men who lost their lives in WW1, on each day leading up to centenary of the Armistice
produced two maps showing historic buildings and events in our area

GREENING

We have continued to maintain the established areas of gardening such as the Cut, the planters, 25 various tubs and containers, Clifford Dibben Mews, the rear of garages off Earls Road and the tree pit near to Waitrose, where we have recently planted more bulbs ready for spring.

In addition, we have:

sited 4 more tubs of plants outside individual houses, including a large half-barrel in Cambridge Road for a group of students who expressed a wish for one at the Big Lunch Street Party
planted three more Prunus Amanogawa: two small new ones at 90 & 92 Gordon Avenue after approaching landlords, who agreed to take up our offer, and one for a landlord house in Avenue Road to match an existing tree at the front of the property
planted two replacement trees: a new Prunus Cistena in the Avenue Road planters and a Prunus Spire at 46 Gordon Avenue
planted daffodils at the front of a student house in Gordon Avenue that needed brightening up after the tenants expressed interest - and are looking for more similar plots to brighten up
raised around £300 funds for greening through a Table Top sale in April, a stall at the Ave St Andrew's Christmas Fair and a raffle at the Christmas Party, as well as through contributions to trees and barrels from landlords and residents.

PLANNING

We have continued to monitor planning applications and to respond as needed, including speaking at the Council Planning Committee. We have objected to those which are inappropriate or seek to further increase the density of HMO and student accommodation, on the basis that the density is already too high, local infrastructure and services already do not cope and any increase will have a detrimental effect on the overall balance in the community. A number of applications have been refused, including for a large purpose-built student block on the old Blockbusters site which the developers are appealing against. Full details of applications are available. Several applications have been submitted under Permitted Development which does not give other residents consultation rights on the application.

We are kept informed of changes to planning regulations by the National Organisation of Residents' Associations (NORA) of which we are members e.g. a lifting of restrictions on change of use from ‘Fast Food’ outlets to residential use, meaning planning permission will no longer be required, and sharing how other areas are addressing air pollution.

And finally…

As we hope you can see, a lot has been achieved in the course of the year thanks to the efforts of members and OARA partners who want the Outer Avenue area to be a decent, attractive and safe place. Frustrations still arise but the consensus seems to be that those efforts do pay off and that we need to keep on making them! We will continue to support and instigate measures to improve the quality of life in our area.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed in any way to making our area a better to place to live in the past year; please do carry on or come and add your efforts in the year ahead. The more of us there are, the more we can achieve.

Sue Swallow
Chair January 2019

Chair's Annual Report 2016

I hope the following report shows you our efforts to carry out the goals we set ourselves last year. As you will see, we have carried on working away at our Common Ground core activities relating to greening, cleaning, planning and developing community links and spirit but we have also achieved some success with fresh projects and taken on some new challenges.

The very visible achievement is the Mural at the Alma /Gordon junction. The History group worked very hard to raise funds to finance this project and were supported by those people listed next to the Mural plus many, many more. A spin off from this has been the discovery of the artistic talents within our community with the success of the two Art Fairs at Blue Door. The changes to our local Medical Centre have led to OARA also becoming involved with the centre and its future. The problems of parking have been raised leading to liaison with the Council about how to move forward. Many thanks to our Councillors and Council Officers for the support and advice they have given us during the year.

It is encouraging to see membership continue to grow and to see healthy numbers, usually over 30, attending General Meetings and joining together to discuss what else we can do to improve our area in the future and how to get more residents offering hands-on help.

MEMBERSHIP

At present, there are 150 email recipients who receive OARA news and of these 93 are paid up members. The paid-up members are mainly permanent residents but there are also students, landlords, police, City Council, local business, churches, voluntary groups and private individuals living outside the area included on the email-list. All residents are welcome to join the mailing list and the £5.00 is voluntary. The mailing list is only for OARA correspondence and can't be used for other purposes.

A breakdown of the membership shows that 85% of members are residents of Avenue, Alma, Gordon and Cambridge roads. Other roads have four or fewer members per road. In the attached PDF is a breakdown of where members live in the area.

GREENING

The Greening Group has continued to maintain our existing planters, beds and barrels, ensuring an attractive display for most of the year, with very positive feedback from other residents. The group has aimed for a twice-monthly get together, not always possible but we have tried. The core group of around 8 people is unchanged and varies in who is available on a given date. There was great relief when we recovered the lost /stolen small tree and ½ whisky barrel which had been taken (we think in mischief rather than malice) from two locations in Avenue Road and which we will soon re-home.

As well as the upkeep of our existing areas this year we have worked at implementing our aim to improve the bottom of Gordon Avenue with more colourful containers and window boxes. We have had some success with containers but the window boxes have only been partly successful for various reasons, including the need for regular watering and a couple being too attractive to passers-by! In addition, we teamed up with a local student-letting company, which supports OARA, to improve the front garden at one of their properties.

We had a really good event for planting our 50th cherry tree with Roy Lancaster, the well-known Plantsman, who came to formally plant the tree. We aim to continue our tree planting and hope that more people will come forward to host our chosen tree 'Prunus Hillieri Spire.’ Please contact us if you would like a tree in your front garden.

We held two Table Top Sales, raising a total of £270.76 to fund our planting, and tried out frontages at Portswood Church and the former Blockbusters as alternative venues. We also had a successful Plant Swap in June, with more plants being shared around gardens and gardeners in the area.

COMMUNICATIONS

We have continued our efforts to let more people know about the work that OARA does and to keep our existing members and supporters informed about activities and events. We have:

continued to send regular mailings out to members and supporters. In 2016 this included a strong reaffirmation of our commitment to respectful community relations;
produced four bulletins which have been circulated to all members and our wider mailing list;
raised our profile through positive local press coverage of the planting of the 50th cherry tree and the completion of the Mural;
revised our Welcome leaflet, which includes offers of help from us, encouragement to be a good neighbour and guidance on bin "etiquette". This was delivered to every household on our patch in early October, to catch the new student cohort, and with an invite to the "Meet Your Neighbour" party. We managed to reach a lot of new residents as a result – and remind others we are still here battling away;
continued to use our Website and Facebook to enable a wider audience to find out more about OARA and our activities. Thank you to Matt and Ruth for their work on these and our best wishes to Ruth who has now moved out of the area;
set up an OARA mobile phone contact for emergencies and members without the internet. The number is 07501 176922.

COMMUNITY LIAISON

Developing positive community links, and often having fun in the process, has remained an important focus this year. As part of this we have:

held three community events: ‘The Big Lunch’ and ‘Meet Your Neighbours’ street parties, plus the OARA Christmas Party;
continued to attend PACT meetings and to liaise with the local police and send out police alerts. The neighbourhood team supported both our street parties;
offered support for those residents suffering from anti-social noise and nuisance with a certain amount of success. Produced, in liaison with the Students’ Union and SCC Environmental Health, a standard letter to be given to student and any other households in response to parties held at unreasonable hours;
liaised with the manager of Kingsley House, now the Alma Road Hostel, to help facilitate good working relations with local residents;
w worked closely and very successfully with The Students’ Union to encourage student societies to get involved with our community events;
used the new OARA community notice-board to let locals and other passers-by know what is happening in the area;
worked closely with the local community, including local businesses, in the production of the history mural. Spent three weeks in Alma Road explaining to people passing what was happening during the painting of the mural and the reasons behind it;
held two successful art events, in partnership with the Blue Door Estate Agency in Lodge Road, which showcased the work of some talented local artists and raised more funds for OARA projects. The Blue Door Estate Agency offers very good facilities and are excellent hosts.
attended meetings of the Southampton Common Forum to contribute to consultations about its care and plans for the future;
liaised with other residents' groups, including attending meetings of NORA, the National Organisation of Residents' Associations), the North Southampton Community Forum and the Inner Avenue Residents' Association;
held a "Lantern Walk" in December on the shortest day of the year and left a card to thank all the households who had brought some festive cheer to the area through their lights and decorations;
became involved with Alma Road Surgery and their Patient Participation Group (PPG) to help strengthen the link between the local community and this key facility in our area. As part of the re-organisation following the closure of the Newtown Surgery Alma Road now has its own revived PPG. It is early days for this newly constituted group. One of its interests is the number of patients who visit the surgery who might benefit from social facilities and interventions in the community rather than a traditional medical or pharmacological intervention. If you are a patient registered with the Alma Road Medical Centre and have an interest in linking up this medical facility with the community in which you live, you would be very welcome to join the group. You can contact us via the OARA email for more information.

SMART STREETS

Trying to keep our streets clean and pleasant to walk along remains one of our most important activities. We know from comments that other residents really appreciate this and that it makes a difference. In the course of the year we have:

held 21 street cleaning sessions with 10 -12 people helping each time and a total of 24 different members helping at some point during the year. During these we have picked up over 200 bags of rubbish off the streets and moved countless bins off the pavement;
sent regular follow up reports to the Council, resulting in prompt pick-up of any fly-tipped items/excess rubbish and in some cases removal of misused recycling bins – we are very grateful to our HMO Wardens, putting to good use services of the Community Payback team, and our Refuse and Recycling Officers;
requested No Dog Fouling/Pick up Your Poo signs- agreed with Council, locations tba
continued the Bin Buddy Scheme in Gordon Ave with the Student No Fee agency, encouraging students in those houses to have good bin habits, making sure bins are moved off the street and raising money for the greening project in the process;
put house number stickers on bins in Alma Rd (a sterling one-woman effort from Barbara);
organised a successful Student Litter Pick event in February as part of Student Volunteer Week, which we hope to repeat. We also supported the SUSU Shift Your Stuff initiative at the end of the uni year, although this seemed to be used by fewer students in our area this year. We have offered our help to publicise it more widely in future;
met with Council Officers to discuss what could still be done, separately and jointly, to improve the state of our streets. As a result there has been more targeted street cleaning by the council during student holidays - although this is something we would like to see still more of – and we have had better links and responses when issues such as overflowing bins occur; we also assisted the Council with providing more information to student houses about proper use of bins and recycling.

HISTORY AND HERITAGE

The History Group has continued digging into local history in a number of ways:

planned and raised funds for the 'Welcome to Bevois Mount' mural including a pub quiz, a fayre at Avenue St. Andrews and input into the first Art Fair;
held a successful guided walk with emphasis on local artists;
regular updating of our Facebook Page with research, facts and photos about the local area. (We have 465 likes on Facebook and 66 followers on Twitter);
were interviewed by the Echo and Southampton TV;
ran a stall at the Heritage event at St Denys Church;
Produced a very professional looking 2017 Calendar with colour photos front and back;
painted a mural!

PLANNING

Planning has been an ongoing activity as we keep up to date with new applications coming forward. We have regularly made our views known to the planning department, including to the Head of Planning and the Environmental Health Office when they accepted our invitation to meet members at our October OGM.

Many of the applications are for modifying existing HMOs to house extra tenants, resulting in an increase in the density of occupation, which we oppose because of the impact on local infrastructure and services.

The planned block of flats between Westwood Road and Cambridge Road was refused and the appeal upheld the refusal so that there is no change for now.

There is a move within the City for more purpose-built blocks for student accommodation and we will have to wait and see what impact this has in our area.

The Council agreed changes to the Article 4 directive, under which change of use requires planning permission, but currently this has little impact in our existing area.

TRAFFIC AND PARKING PROJECT

Parking and traffic issues are constant issue in our area and frequently raised by members. The OARA Committee therefore decided, with the backing of the OGM, to find out if there were ways of improving our community experience through the introduction of customised traffic or parking schemes. In August, residents were invited to let us know of any problems they were experiencing. A dedicated e-mail address was set up for comments and Dorothy Haslehurst agreed to act as project officer for the initial survey and future action. A significant number of residents made very detailed and thoughtful suggestions for improvements. These have been communicated to the relevant Council Officers and there is a commitment by the Council to carry out relevant feasibility studies during the early part of 2017. Any significant changes, e.g. 1-way systems and /or an extension of the Zone 5 parking scheme, would be subject to further detailed consultation with residents.

All in all a busy and eventful year! Thank you to everyone who has contributed to what has been achieved. We'll look forward to carrying on working together in 2017.

Sue Swallow OARA Chair
January 2017

Chair's Annual Report 2015

INTRODUCTION

The past year has been an interesting and challenging one for OARA, seeking to consolidate and build on past achievements as well as finding new ways to protect and improve our neighbourhood. Membership continues to grow steadily and, although numbers fluctuate because of people moving in and out of the area, there are currently 120 members and more people have become involved in a range of activities.

In this report we have summarised the progress we have made with the plans we set out last year, as well as covering new developments. The reports below all come under our Common Ground umbrella, the initiative we launched in late 2014 to encourage all those who have a stake in the area to work together to improve the area we share and live in.

COMMUNICATIONS

We have made reasonable headway on the communications front, helping to raise our profile in the community, get our messages across and involve more people in what we do.

The completely revamped website and new Facebook page have both provided a visually attractive and informative means to let people know about OARA. Thank you to Matt and Ruth for their skill and time in organising these.
The new student leaflet, which was delivered in October to every student household we could identify, offered a welcome to students as well as encouraging them to be good neighbours. We were able to make personal contact with a number of households who responded positively to this initiative.
A new display board has gone down well at various events, giving a quick snapshot of our aims and a visual record of the cleaning, greening and history teams in action as well as successful social events. It has helped explain "who are these people?" to puzzled passers-by!
We are in the process of contacting all estate and letting agents with our Common Ground leaflet, encouraging them to adopt the Common Ground Charter and explaining why the Outer Avenue is a proper community for people, including families and others seeking a long-term home, to live in.

COMMUNITY LINKS AND LIAISON

We have been building up links with different parts of our community, as we set out to do.

We worked with SUSU, the Southampton University Students' Union, to support their end of year re-cycling scheme for students and also worked with them on the ‘Meet Your Neighbours’ street party on October 4th. We are also looking for support from them regarding noisy student parties.
Three major social events took place this year: the ‘Big Lunch’ street party in June, the ‘Meet Your Neighbours’ party in October, and the OARA Christmas party in early December. All of the events were very successful, with the Christmas party raising £70 for the Greening Group.
There were two well-organised PACT meetings held by the neighbourhood policing team at Bevois Town School which helped set police priorities for our area. We also have an on-going dialogue with our team over immediate local policing concerns.
We have been promised a notice-board by the Council at the Alma Road planters.
We liaise regularly with our ward councillors to seek their advice and support and have called on their services and advice a number of times during the year. A recent meeting between some of the OARA committee and Cllrs. Rayment and Burke has resulted in useful contacts being made with senior council officers responsible for Planning, Environmental Health (which also covers anti-social noise), Parks & Street Cleansing and Waste & Sustainablity. We will be meeting with them to raise residents' concerns and hope to invite one or more to future OARA meetings.
We have maintained links with one of the large student landlords and are still working to bring others on board.
We have had good support from ‘Blue Door' Estate Agents who are offering their facilities for meetings and for an art exhibition we hope to run in April. We have also built links with the new micro-pub which is opening in Portswood Road. Avenue St. Andrews Church has worked well with us, supporting our street parties with tables and chairs. One of us will be representing OARA on their community management group. A local business has supported the production of our history calendars.

GREENING

The Greening Group has continued regular sessions throughout the year, including sometimes in the rain! The resulting displays have brightened up the area, making it look more attractive and cared for, and earned some really appreciative comments from residents and passers-by.

As put forward in our plans last year we have continued to maintain the existing planters and half barrels, with the petunias being especially colourful this year. We are currently contacting people with a view to plant more flowering cherry trees in the area. This becomes more difficult as many interested parties already have a tree and many of the houses are in transient multiple occupancy. But every little helps and there are now 42 OARA cherry trees and 14 barrels around the area.
We have been very lucky to have been the recipients of one of the Waitrose Green tokens events. This has been important for our finances and has especially helped in our project to clear and plant the verge along Clifford Dibben Mews. Thanks go to Tim Knapp who installed the wooden backing to the verge to protect the damp proof course of the adjacent house wall. The planting is finally completed and we will see how well the plants and bulbs grow over the coming seasons. Thank you also to the Council who, when asked, came up with a pile of wood chip mulch.
We have held two Tabletop Sales, raising a further £283.58 for greening group activities, a plant swap and a red and white plant-in for St George's Day.
We now have a water butt at no 14 Gordon Ave which will make watering the now flourishing flowerbed in the adjacent cut much easier in the summer months. Thanks to the Student-No-Fee landlord who agreed to supply and install it.

If you would like to help with our gardening we have 1 or 2 hour sessions the first Monday and third Friday afternoons of each month.

HISTORY AND HERITAGE

Last year we planned a number of activities and are pleased to report that all but one have taken place.

We held a successful cemetery walk in early July in partnership with the Friends of Southampton Old Cemetery, finding many links with past residents of our area.
We set up a visit to the city art archives to look at the work of the Artists of Bevois Mount.
We produced the 2016 Bevois Mount History Calendar, with 200 sold to date and others distributed to places such as local care homes and supportive businesses to raise the profile of the area and OARA.
We produced and sold postcards of our area through the years.
We weren't able to hold the Edwardian picnic in the summer but we did have a stall at an arts event at St. Denys Church to share our research and local history.

In addition we have been building up a following on social media and our website. We have 58 Twitter followers, 353 Facebook likes and 4,300 unique visitors to our main history site. Our Facebook page sees people reconnecting and reminiscing. We share posts, have our posts shared and receive support from other local history groups on Facebook.

PLANNING

We have continued to be vigilant and active with regard to planning matters: monitoring planning applications as we are informed of them; alerting members to applications causing concern and providing information to help with responses; meeting with the Planning Officer to learn more about Council policy and make clear our concerns and attending the Planning Panel.

The really noticeable trends are to squeeze more people into existing HMOs and a rush to build more student dedicated accommodation, usually without associated parking provision. People may have noticed work taking place on the Sainsbury site. This is for Post grads and overseas students, some 300 or so of them. Lowman's bakery site has been granted planning permission to erect two buildings (one 5-storey glasses and white construction) and a smaller 3-storey one on the site. Both of these applications went to the Planning Panel and were opposed by ourselves and Highfield RA but permission was granted. What happened to the condition to provide affordable housing on the Sainsbury site?

The application for another tower at 14 Westwood Road after demolishing the Victorian house and 90/92 Cambridge Rd to build a five storey block of 18 flats was rejected. The objection that Cambridge Road would become the vehicular access for this development did not get the consideration we felt it deserved. The Planning Panel turned it down for other reasons especially amenity space and occupation density on the site.

We recently had a meeting with the new city Planning Officer to hear about the Council's plans and policies and to put our strong views about planning issues which affect our area. We were encouraged by his response and will report more fully to members.

SMART STREETS

Overall the efforts of the Smart Streets team, (combined with the Greening Group) have continued to ensure that our streets are more pleasant to walk down than many in similar areas. We continue to battle the same frustrations about litter dropped, bins left on the pavement and bin overflow and contamination but it is all much better than if we didn't bother at all.

Regular street cleans have continued with around 20 sessions taking place last year – two a month excluding an August break and a couple of washouts.
Some of the funds from the bin-buddy scheme are being used to purchase additional equipment.
After the successful Gordon Avenue bin-numbering pilot we are still aiming to complete at least two more roads, including Alma. Progress has stalled because of lack of council funds but a landlord donation and OARA funds are enabling us to continue the project.
The Bin Buddy Scheme has entered its second year, with a letter delivered personally to most of the student houses involved, explaining the scheme and what they should do to keep their bins in order. This included the offer to text them with weekly reminders about which bins to put out when and several households took up this offer. This has definitely helped reduce the number of contaminated bins and ones left on the pavement. Thank you to the OARA bin-buddies who turn out each week for bin duties. Contact was made with two other landlords but sadly with no uptake.
We joined in with the SUSU "Shift Your Stuff "Campaign at the end of the university year, which resulted in far less clear-out rubbish on the streets in June and July.
We have continued to work closely with Council Officers, particularly Jason Evans, the Waste and Recycling Officer, and Barry Olson, the HMO Warden, who have been proactive in tackling houses where there are issues, from bad bins to lettings boards, and also responded to OARA reports about fly-tipping and refuse/ rubbish-related problems at individual houses . They provide us with excellent support for which we are very grateful. Government cuts to local government funding continue, however, to have an impact on the services the Council can provide, for example with regard to leaf sweeping this year, which we have done more of ourselves as a result.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to OARA's efforts to make the Outer Avenue a nicer place to live for us all. There is still plenty to keep us busy and we look forward to working together in the year ahead.

January 2016

TREASURER'S AND MEMBERSHIP REPORT

AUGUST 2019 TO END 2021

I took over as OARA treasurer on 29th August 2019, when the association funds stood at £4343.92.

Income and Expenditure

Income and expenditure are organised in the following categories:

Membership, Greening, Smart Streets, Community/Social, Other

Membership donations

In 2020 membership donations were just £60, but in 2021 this rose to £335.

This was due to a very successful email appeal which enabled OARA members to transfer their contributions by BACS. This approach is being continued in 2022 and is already being well used.

Greening, Community/Social

Activities in these areas were extremely curtailed during 2020/2021, but some funds were received from residents to cover the purchase of plants. Two craft trails raised money to go towards purchasing a strimmer. The open-air craft fair held in December 2021 also raised a small amount.

Smart Streets

The Bin Buddy scheme, which involves student landlords making a regular donation per household in return for supporting students with good bin habits, continues to provide a source of revenue for OARA. We are grateful to the landlords who take part in this scheme and the volunteer bin buddies.

Other

The main expenditures in this area are insurance and National Organisation of Residents Associations membership. In addition, OARA paid for information leaflets to be designed and printed.

Income in this category is from residents who kindly made one-off donations to the association.

Summary

Expenditure has slightly outstripped income during 2020/2021

On 1st January 2022 association funds stood at £3676.37

Wendy Stokes, Treasurer
March 2022

OARA Treasurer's Report for period ended 31 December 2018

The Year Gone By and the Year Ahead - A report from the AGM

We were pleased to welcome 34 members and friends to our 2017 AGM on Monday 23 January - including representatives from the police, the Students' Union, the church, the mosque, landlords and our local Councillors. The Annual Report was well received. All of the existing committee members and officers bar one indicated they would be willing to stand again and were duly elected. Petrina Boddington felt she needed to stand down because of work and family commitments but will still be supporting OARA events.

The second half of the meeting saw lively discussion in groups (Greening, Community, Smart Streets, History and Traffic/Planning) about plans for the year ahead with some excellent new ideas being put forward, including by our student representative and our PCSOs. These included:

OARA post cards for new neighbours
Working with the Inner Avenue RA to "do something about Lodge Road"
A regular PCSO drop in for residents, bringing in students too
Involving students in our litter picks as well as during Student Volunteer Week
Working with the Council to ensure we do not suffer if two-weekly bin collection is approved
Ensuring we play a part in the Common Forum to protect this precious amenity on our doorstep
Setting up a Lend-a-Planter scheme for students
A scheme to share information about skills and activities in our area

These were added to the proposed plans already circulated and then approved. A copy is attached. There is certainly plenty to keep us busy in the year ahead – and there was a plea for more members to come along and join in! The minutes of the meeting, the annual report and accompanying slide show, the 2016 accounts, the list of committee members and officers and, importantly, plans for the year ahead will all be on our website at www.outeravenueresidents.co.uk. Provisional dates have also now been set for members' meetings this year – Tuesday 9th May and Monday 16th October.

The consensus seemed to be it was a good meeting, with a positive atmosphere and a will to work together as a community to protect what we have, to tackle the things that still get us down and to have some fun in the process.

We look forward to keeping in touch and working together in the year ahead.

Hilary Jackson (Secretary) on behalf of the OARA Committee

OARA Treasurer's Report for period ended 31 December 2016

There have been no changes to the OARA constitution during 2016. The membership card scheme introduced in 2O12 was retained in 2016, but the suggested annual fee was raised to £5.00. Cardholders are entitled to various discounts negotiated with local stores. Holding a card is not mandatory for membership which was and continues to be based on residence within the OARA area. Membership fees of £477.OO (£449.00 in 2015)were collected during the year. The OARA Committee membership was elected for the year to 31 December 2015 at the AGM on 25 January 2016. There have been three ordinary general meetings and eight committee meetings during 2016. Membership of the Committee and minutes of all meetings are available on the OARA website at: www.outeravenueresidents.co.uk.

During 2016, the Greening Group has concentrated on maintaining the planters in Avenue Road and Alma Road, the cut-through from Gordon Ave to Westwood Road and the border in Clifford Dibben Mews. The Group has also supplied a number of planted half barrels sited on various property frontages without full front gardens. Some have been co-funded by landlords. The Group planted its 50th signature tree during 2016.

A fifth ‘Big Lunch’ street party event was held in the summer. OARA also held a ‘get to know each other/soup party in October for residents and students. The weather was kind to both events. A Christmas party was held at the Guide Dog Public House. All three events were well attended and benefitted from live music from locally based bands including the Ukofonics. OARA has organised twice-monthly litter collections around the area throughout the year to improve the appearance of the streets. The local police Community unit continues to support OARA. OARA has taken a keen interest in local planning issues, but these have not had financial implications in the accounts.

The Common Ground charter developed by OARA in 2014 aims to maintain the positive aspects of the area to make it a better place for all to live through the identification and promotion of common values amongst residents, local businesses, landlords and the students and others who rent their properties. One landlord has made donations to OARA in return for members keeping the bins of his houses tidy.

In 2013 OARA launched the Bevois Mount History Group which has produced calendars for 2015, 2016 and 20L7 with historic photos and pictures of the area. It’s 2015 project was to raise funds to finance a locally themed mural on the side wall of “Bitter Virtue’, which was completed in July 2016. Fundraising included the “Blue Door” Art Fair in the spring which raised f588 towards the total cost of the mural of f2,981. A second Art Fair was held at the Blue Door in November which raised net funds of f469 for a future project. The Group’s Facebook page may be found at: https://www.facebook.com/bevoismounthistory.

OARA starts its seventh year of operation and will agree its priorities for 2O17 at the AGM on 23 January 2017. OARA holds sufficient reserves to allow it to make bids for grants which require some match-funding.

Andrew Haslehurst,
Treasurer

The accounts can be viewed in the PDF accompanying this article.

OARA Treasurer's Report for period ended 31 December 2015

There have been no changes to the OARA constitution during 2015. The membership card scheme introduced in 2O12 was retained in 2015 as was the £3.00 minimum annual fee. Card-holders are entitled to various discounts negotiated with local stores. Holding a card is not mandatory for membership which was and continues to be based on residence within the OARA area. Membership fees of £449.O0 (£452.50 in 2014) were collected during the year. The OARA Committee membership was elected for the year to 31 December 2015 at the AGM on 20 April 2015. There have been three ordinary general meetings and eight committee meetings during 2015′ Membership of the Committee and minutes of all meetings are available on the OARA website at: www.outeravenueresidents.co.uk.

During 2015, the Greening Group has concentrated on maintaining the planters in Avenue Road and Alma Road and the cut-through from Gordon Ave to Westwood Road. lt also gained permission to plant and maintain a border in Clifford Dibben Mews; the preparation and initial planting for this was funded from a Waitrose Community Grant. The Group has also supplied a number of planted half barrels sited on various property frontages without full front gardens. Some have been co’ funded by landlords. The Group plans to complete its signature tree planting project during 2016.

A fourth ‘Big Lunch’ street party event was held in the summer. OARA also held a ‘get to know each other soup party in October for residents and students. The weather was kind to both events. A Christmas party was held at the Guide Dog Public House. All three events were well attended and benefitted from live music from locally based bands including the Ukofonics. OARA has organised twice-monthly litter collections around the area throughout the year to improve the appearance of the streets. The local police Community unit has continued to support OARA, but changes in personnel and base have meant they attended fewer OARA meetings. OARA has taken a keen interest in local planning issues, but these have not had financial implications in the accounts.

ln 2013 OARA launched the Bevois Mount History Group which has produced calendars for 2015 and 2015 with historic photos and pictures of the area. Its current project is to raise funds to finance a locally themed mural on the side wall of “Bitter Virtue”. The Group’s Facebook page may be found at: https://www.facebook.com/bevoismounthistory.

OARA starts its sixth year of operation and will agree its priorities for 2016 at the AGM on 26 January 2016. OARA has now built up sufficient reserves to allow it to consider making bids for grants which require some match-funding.

Andrew Haslehurst,
Treasurer

The accounts can be viewed in the PDF accompanying this article.

Councillors Report for OGM on 10th May 2016

As your local City Councillors ,Jacqui , Derek and Stephen work hard to support many Residents Groups in the Ward. Bevois Ward includes Northam, Newtown, Inner and Outer Avenue up to Waitrose in Portswood. We work with many Residents Groups and Diverse Communities to ensure their concerns are heard. The main issues are:

PLANNING

Objected to many Planning Applications and provided support at the Planning Meetings.

WASTE COLLECTIONS

Jason Evans from the Council has attended Residents' Meetings listening to concerns, and offering advice. Waste bins left on street Pavements is considerable problem in the Ward. (Jason has now moved on)

HMO LICENSING

The Scheme has been extended to include more Wards in the City. Landlords have been the subject of Legal action by Southampton City Council resulting in significant fines. The Council continues to pursue Article Seven regarding Agents to Let Boards

INVESTMENT IN ROADS

The Council has doubled its investment on roads and Cllr Rayment as Cabinet Member, has worked with Balfour Beatty to ensure Potholes and road surfaces are actioned. The crossing at Blockbusters in Portswood is having a short term repair. All Potholes should be reported via Southampton City Council Website or by phoning Action Line.

Other developments include improving Air Quality, the Late Night Levy, and protecting areas from anti-social behaviour .As a Labour Council we froze Council Tax, kept Surestart children Centres open. Worked with a cross section of organisations to keep the Libraries open.

We managed to get Balfour Beatty to help with the installation of a new notice board for the area. As your local Labour Councillors we look forward to continuing to work with you and hope you have a good productive year.

Common Ground Progress Report

Below is a brief report on the progress made since our OGM in May with the Common Ground Plans approved at the AGM/OGM in January 2016 and any other new activities since that date.

MEMBERSHIP

There are currently around 130 people on our mailing list, with about 100 of these being paid up members. The membership secretary aims to visit new and renewing members each month and to keep the list up to date. This is also an opportunity to meet and listen to residents about any ideas or problems. Fees are paid in monthly to the Treasurer for checking and banking.

GREENING

Carried on maintaining existing plots, planters and barrels. Regular greening sessions on the first Monday and third Friday of each month have started to become more established. Plant Swap took place on 10th June. The two cherry trees in the Avenue Rd planters have been ailing as not ideal conditions. They have been removed to nurse back to health and then replant in more suitable location. They have been replaced with a smaller ornamental cherry.
5 window boxes and 4 barrels were installed at properties at the lower end of Gordon Avenue as part of the Bloomin' Concrete Project and with the support of some landlords and tenants. Almost all survived intact, although two window boxes disappeared at the end of September. Replacement ones will have an OARA notice on them to act as deterrent. We also tackled some of the street weeds which seem to flourish at a greater rate than any organised greening!
Table Top Sale took place on Saturday 15th October, in new location on ex- Blockbusters forecourt, and raised £130 for future greening activities.

COMMUNICATIONS

Two newsletters have been circulated to the mailing list since the OGM, one in July and one in October.
New notice board at the Alma Road planters is now installed and in regular use. Several people have made contact as a result of seeing items on the notice board.
OARA now has dedicated mobile phone to help members make contact, particularly those who do not have internet/email. The number is 07501 176922
New leaflet circulated to all households at the start of October, inviting residents to the Meet Your Neighbour Party and encouraging good neighbourliness, including good bin habits.

COMMUNITY

Two Street Parties have taken place, the Big Lunch Street Party on 12th June and the Meet Your Neighbour Party on 9th October. Both well attended, including by council reps and the police. Also well supported by the Uni Students' Union who helped with organisation and entertainment. Good contact made with a number of students in the area, some of whom have volunteered to help with litter-picking and greening.
Attended and reported back on PACT meetings. Circulated police reports. Next one due 27th October.
Provided support for residents affected by party noise and music, liaising with Police and Council.
Meeting held with Practice Manager at Alma Road Surgery to discuss issues including impact of closure of Nicholstown Branch and parking. OARA committee member is now chairing the Patient Participation Group and helping organise patient survey.
Representatives attended the Southampton Common Forum meetings and are due to attend North Southampton Community Forum.
£550 was raised towards the Mural Project as a result of the Art Show in April and following that success a mid-winter Art Fair is now planned for the 25-27 November.

SMART STREETS

Twice monthly Street Cleans have continued, with 10 sessions since the last OGM. There about a dozen regular volunteers but we do need more. Extra pairs of hands very welcome. Follow-up reports now sent to the Council who arrange a prompt pick up of dumped items using the Community Payback Team
Street Blitzes planned but suitable time not yet found. Spear Road likely to be first one in the autumn.
The bins in Alma Rd have been numbered and more numbers due from the council to do at least one more road.
OARA members assisted the Council at the end of September in relabelling all the recycling bins and the Council has provided us with some spare grey bottle boxes for houses whose boxes have gone walkabout.
The Uni “Shift your Stuff” campaign took place again in June/July this year, providing a recycling scheme for students moving out at the end of term. There seemed to be less uptake on our patch this year with many students unaware. Those we informed and gave red bags to were very keen. We will volunteer to distribute leaflets and red bags to all student households next year to increase uptake.

HISTORY

The magnificent Mural has been started and finished since the last OGM and has already become a local landmark. There a was a large piece about it in the Echo on October 14th.
The 2017 Bevois Mount Calendar, in colour this year, is already on sale.
A local history walk took place on 4th September and attracted over 20 participants.
Bevois Mount History Facebook Page and website frequently updated with new
finds.

PLANNING

Continued monitoring of and response to house sales and planning applications.
Responded to planning appeals both in person and in writing.
Took action re the concreting over of garden frontages, including contact with the council over what is/is not permitted, and offered to advise on more attractive and manageable solutions.

TRAFFIC PROJECT

We have initiated a project to research the traffic and parking issues which affect local residents and which encompasses several of our Common Ground areas above. Views are being collected and a preliminary meeting has been held with one of our Councillors to seek further factual information. Once all the information has been collated a dedicated meeting will be organised to share information and progress with residents.

Common Ground Progress Report

Below is a brief report on the progress made with the Common Ground Plans approved at the AGM/OGM in January 2016 and any other new activities since that date.

GREENING

Carried on maintaining existing plots, planters and barrels. Plant Swap planned for 10th June 5pm TBC
Bloomin' Concrete Project, to improve the lower part of Gordon Ave, taking shape, including plans for window boxes and contacting relevant landlords for permission
Found 8 new plots and sponsors for cherry trees and 50th tree planted at Posh Pads property in Gordon Ave
Table Top Sale planned for May 14th. Please look out any items we could sell

COMMUNICATIONS

Ruth Kibble has taken on Press Officer role
Bi-monthly newsletter set up. Two sent since last OGM
Increased use of Facebook
New notice board at the Alma Road planters due to be installed on 3rd May by Balfour Beatty

COMMUNITY

Big Lunch Street Party booked for 12th June
Noise nuisance letter agreed by OARA, Police, Council and SUSU for personal delivery as needed. One delivered so far
Met and worked with 2015/16 student officers on letter above and Student Volunteer Litter Pick
Attended and reported back on PACT meetings. Circulated police reports
Held Blue Door Art Exhibition weekend in April raising £518 for the Mural project
Contact made with Alma Road Surgery

SMART STREETS

Held 8 Street Cleans and continued Bin Buddy scheme. Follow-up reports now sent to the Council who arrange a prompt pick up of dumped items using the Community Payback Team
Street Blitzes planned but suitable time not yet found
Bin numbering project now extended to Alma Rd. Council provided list and numbers
Met with John Horton, in charge of Street Cleansing, for Patch Chat and Walkabout. As a result, Street Sparkle took place in Easter holidays with more planned. Also met Gale Williams, in charge of Refuse and Recycling, re continuing bin/rubbish issues. Agreed list of helpful actions, Alma Road bin numbering included
20 people turned out for Student Volunteer Week Litter Pick in February; we missed Clean for the Queen; we are booked to help with SUSU “Shift your Stuff” campaign at the end of term. Responded to "How do you do it?" request for advice from Inner Avenue RA

HISTORY

Bevois Mount History Facebook Page and website frequently updated with new finds
Community Mural plans well under way and hoping for a June start, weather permitting, after final consultation. Funding raised thorough Pub Quiz, Bazaar, Art Exhibition and pledges/donations

PLANNING

Continued monitoring of and response to house sales and planning applications, including vigilance re situation at Kingsley House, now known as Alma Road Hostel. See below.
Response sent to the SCC Local Plan Consultation, particularly in response to HMO licensing

KINGSLEY HOUSE HOSTEL

Kingsley House hostel, which caused years of anti-social behaviour in Alma Road was sold last year to a consortium of new owners from outside the area who are running it as a small hotel. They continue to call it a hostel, as this is the current use allowed by Planning law.

The hostel is now in full operation and although there has been a dramatic decrease in anti-social behaviour emanating from the building, there are still some issues that need to be addressed. These include the number of guests who are allowed to stay in the hostel and the attendant parking issues caused by those guests in and around Alma Road. The Kingsley House Working Group are in discussion with the new owners, the Council and our Councillors to try and resolve these issues.

If anyone wants to know more then please contact Gordon Gillies.

3 Year Impact Review

What members are pleased with and proud of

That we created OARA at all

And that we're still going strong

Positive environmental impact on the area

The Greening Group
Planting/greening the area
Litter picking

Togetherness

Getting to know people / neighbours
Social events - street party / table top sales / Christmas party / drinks
Working together to get things done

Council links and action

Jason Evans link

Links and reaching out to SUSU

History - letting us know our heritage
Giving us pride in the area

Efforts to resolve the Kingsley House issue

Quick actions and responses

The website

Less noise at nights

Support by the police - particularly Holly Knight

What members are disappointed with and bugged by

Environment

Constant battle with litter

Bin disorganisation
- Bins still on the streets
- Blue bins being contaminated

Not encompassing the whole community

Lack of contact with landlords
Lack of involvement/integration with students

Landlord aggression

HMOs

Proliferation
Licensing - lack of council enforcement
Lack of support from the council - BIG TIME!
Increase in Lettings boards

Inappropriate modernisation

That the membership is not larger

Memberships not being renewed

Not enough members coming to street cleans

Kingsley House

What we want - future priorities

Strategies for promoting OARA in the area

Increase membership
Continued/increased number of events
Change the perception of the area
Press officer

Increase information / leaflets / newsletters

Leafleting roads which have been cleaned
Advertise our achievements

Build links on a wider scale

Hold an event that brings people from different interest groups together - OARA / landlords / lettings agencies / students / businesses /council
Engage with the Polish community / others - maybe through their children
Other like-minded organisations
Student feedback - realistic

Reports, Minutes, Meetings, Plans, Outer Avenue Residents' Association, OARA.

Notes of an informal meeting of the OARA Committee - Thursday 21 January 2021

1. Administration

2. Finance

3. Squirrels

4. Student No Fee and works at 46/8 Gordon Avenue

5. City of Culture

6. Committee Membership

7. Windows of Hope

8. AOB

Notes of an informal meeting of the OARA Committee - Friday 4 December 2020

Notes of an informal meeting of the OARA Committee - Friday 27 November 2020

Notes of an informal meeting of the OARA Committee - Friday 21 November 2020

Minutes of OARA Committee Meeting - Monday 25 November 2019

Minutes of OARA Committee Meeting - Monday 16 September 2019

Minutes of OARA Committee Meeting - Monday 22 July 2019

Minutes of OARA Committee Meeting - Wednesday 17 July 2019

Minutes of OARA Committee Meeting - Monday 25 March 2019

Minutes of Outer Avenue Residents' Association (OARA) Ordinary General Meeting of Monday 11 April 2022

PLANS FOR 2022

COMMUNITY LINKS

SOCIAL AND CULTURAL

COMMUNICATIONS

SMART STREETS

HISTORY AND HERITAGE

GREENING

PLANNING

Minutes of Outer Avenue Residents' Association (OARA) Annual General Meeting of Monday 11 April 2022

Welcome and Introductions

Apologies

Minutes of 2020 AGM

Annual Report 2020/2021

Financial Report and Approval of Accounts

Election of Officers and Committee Members

Proposed Changes to the Constitution

Dates and Venue of OGMs and 2023 AGM

Minutes of Outer Avenue Residents' Association (OARA) Ordinary General Meeting of Monday 27 January 2020

Councillor Rayment:

Councillor Stephen Barnes:

Minutes of Outer Avenue Residents' Association (OARA) Annual General Meeting of Monday 27 January 2020

Welcome and Introductions

Apologies

Minutes of 2019 AGM

Annual Report

Financial Report and Approval of Accounts

Election of Officers

Dates of OGMs and 2021 AGM

Minutes of Outer Avenue Residents' Association (OARA) Ordinary General Meeting of Monday 14 October 2019

Minutes of Outer Avenue Residents' Association (OARA) Ordinary General Meeting of Tuesday 14 May 2019

Minutes of Outer Avenue Residents' Association (OARA) Ordinary General Meeting of Monday 05 March 2018

Minutes of Outer Avenue Residents' Association (OARA) Ordinary General Meeting of Monday 22 January 2018

Present:

1. Introduction

Minutes of Outer Avenue Residents' Association (OARA) Annual General Meeting of Monday 23rd January 2017

PRESENT:

Alma Road:

Avenue Road:

Earls Road:

Livingstone Rd:

Gordon Avenue:

Other attendees:

1. WELCOME AND INTRODUCTIONS

2 APOLOGIES

3 CHAIR'S ANNUAL REPORT

4. TREASURER'S REPORT

5. ELECTION OF OFFICERS AND COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Chair and Vice Chair

Other Officers

Committee Members

6. Amendment to the Constitution

7. Dates For Meetings

Ordinary General Meeting

Sharing ideas and priorities for the year ahead.

Minutes of Outer Avenue Residents' Association (OARA) Ordinary General Meeting of Monday 17 October 2016

Present:

1. Welcome & Introductions and apologies

2. Minutes of last OGM on 16 May 2016

3. Notice of AOB to be taken at end of the meeting Common Forum

4. Guest speakers on Planning and HMO Licensing

5. Traffic and Parking Survey – progress report

8. Minutes of the last OGM on July 6^th & matters arising