2023 Annual Parish Meeting

NOTES OF PUBLIC MEETING HELD ON 9TH NOVEMBER 2023
Held in Pointon Village Hall at 7pm.

To note that this a public meeting and not a Parish Council meeting. Cllr Wesley to Chair the meeting and along with the other Cllrs answer any questions.

Cllr Wesley welcomed everyone. He stated things were looking positive after having a meeting with the football club and appreciated their offers of help to repair the Pavilion but legalities still had to be met. The PC had received copies of one tradesman’s documentation at the present time.

The initial compliance audit had been carried out in July 2020 at the request of the Parish Council on the then know Sports & Social Club. The building was then leased in March 2021 to the company Aliro Ltd who took the building on at a reduced rent to complete the faults found on the report. The Pavilion was handed back to the Parish Council in June 2023 due to the ill health of the company director.

The questions that had been emailed to the parish clerk are as follows:
Do the PC support activities – Yes
Do the PC support the FC – Yes
If the building was condemned would any future building have the same facilities as present – Yes it would and the PC would be happy to lease out again.
At present the PC have requested a structural report. Have the PC obtained the 3 quotes that are required? – Yes, the clerk has followed standing orders. 
Have the PC been supportive to the FC – Yes but in recent dialogue the FC have been very rude.

Further questions were taken from the floor.
Cllr Green expressed that a new building would meet current regulations and could also be opened up to the school, brownies and children of the village. The PC do not want to compete against the village hall and want to work with the local pub.
A member of public stated that grants not being available for refurbishment was false. CDM regulations did not need to be followed if there were less than 5 contractors on site and if there were more then they were ways to get around this. The FC had many qualified tradesmen in their teams and they were ready to repair the building for free. There is a need for a brick and block structure for the changing rooms now. The want for a social club could come at a later date. All the mouthing off on social media needed to stop and both sides work together.
A gentleman said that a lot of historic conversations over the building had happened. The fact was that the building had come to the end of its life. No money had been put into the building for the last 20 years at the least, either by the PC or the previous tenant of the social club. 
A member of the FC felt that the quotes of between £600 - £1000 on a structural engineer’s survey were steep and the FC had a competent builder that could happily take a look and sign the roof as safe. The FC want to use their building and changing rooms now.
It was reminded that the documentation around the FC having an agreement with the PC were still outstanding even though promised a number of PC meetings ago.
Cllr Green commented that the working group had carried out some research and were looking at pushing ECO friendly and French companies were being looked at.
A resident stated that they had been part of a previous working group and the group had secured around £800,000 of various grants for a new Pavilion but the FC had been as nasty then as now and the group had disbanded due to this. 
A resident stated that in the lease it was mentioned that another compliance audit would be carried out when the building was returned to the PC. Why had this not happened as the PC would see that most of the work had been completed. In the initial report it stated that a SE report should be carried out. If the SE report comes back ok then a further compliance audit report can be carried out. At the present time it would be more cost to the PC.
A member of the FC said that the planning application in 2006 for a permanent building still stands and this would give a permanent home to Pointon FC. They questioned if it would be possible to lease the current building to the FC whilst obtaining grants for a new build.
A resident spoke to say that the remarks that are being put on Facebook must stop if the 2 groups are going to work together. It was felt that by improving the infrastructure of the village it would help gain more money to improve a sports facility that would benefit the whole community rather than one club.
The final comment was made by a FC member who stated that the building would not be demolished unless it was written in a report.