Apologies were received from:
The Chairman's Report was accepted.
The Treasurer's Report was accepted after some discussion of the suggestion made by Alex Bunn, outlined in the last paragraph of the report. Discussion continued under Any Other Business.
Peter Walker asked the Treasurer to take the Chair while the post of Chairman was voted upon.
Peter Walker resumed the Chair
Alex Bunn had suggested that the remaining funds of the PPPS be used to get some trees planted in Priory Park. The feeling in the meeting was that on the face of it, this was a good idea, but on balance, the society should hold on to its funds for future campaigning. It was also pointed out that the society should not help the council with its costs for the road scheme to any degree, which the buying of trees for the park could be construed as. The AGM voted unanimously to retain the funds.
Several people expressed a desire to extend the Society's remit to include more general environmental campaigning across the borough of Southend, for example campaigning against the felling of healthy trees on roadsides and campaigning against the development at Fossetts Farm. However, it was pointed out that members are welcome to write to the council individually on the matter of tree felling and the issue of Fossetts Farm was already being dealt with by the KARERS group.
It was mentioned that research done by Parklife indicates that the F5 road scheme may well be the most expensive stretch of dual carriageway the country has ever seen. Further information is required, but a national media campaign highlighting this could be useful. The committee pledged support to Parklife in this if required.
Peter Walker raised the possibility of arranging a meeting with Alistair Darling to point out the opposition to the F5 scheme. He will see what he can do in respect to this.
The meeting was brought to a close with a request for members to write letters to G.O. East and Alistair Darling, emphasising that the F5 scheme is very expensive and would not achieve its objectives.
Eleven people attended the meeting, which closed at around 9.20pm.
Denis Walker
PPPS Secretary