Peace FM Street Party

More local events for jubilee weekend. Details of the Peace FM Street Party on Sunday 3rd June here.

Jubilee Weekend

Looks like there will be lots going on over the jubilee weekend in our area. As well as the street party on Beresford St. on Monday afternoon, Cranswick Square Residents' Group are also running a number of events. See the details here.

The next meeting of the Bowes Street Residents' Association will be on Tuesday 12th June at 6.30pm at Fallowfield Library. It was great to see some new faces at the last meeting so please do come along and see what we can do to get the best out of the local area.

Minutes of the last meeting will follow shortly but in the meantime here are some of the things we are working on or involved in:

• Environmental improvements - planting in the alleys and 'empty' plots
• Tackling the problem of littering/dumping rubbish
• Funding a community notice board
• Getting local businesses involved
• Making alley gates secure
• Growing project on the former bus depot site

Future plans for the bus depot

Thanks very much to Matt for attending the latest meeting about the 'meanwhile' project for the site of the former bus depot.
I've attached the latest plans for the temporary use of the bus depot site here, you might be interested to take a look.  These are only a starting point and the project steering group are looking for input from the community. We will be discussing this further at tomorrow's meeting - come armed with some ideas!

Adult Learners' Week 12th - 18th May

For further details of Adult Learners' Week events see this flyer.

Meeting Agenda

Here is the agenda for the next meeting on Tuesday 15th May, looking forward to seeing you all there!

1. Welcome and Chair's update, to include:
     a. Community noticeboard
     b. Bank account
     c. Involving the whole community
2. Guest speakers: Phil Dodd (What can a residents' association achieve?)
                              Tom Cass (Working with the Council and other organisations)
3. Ratifying our constitution
4. Bins and litter - improving the environment (open discussion)
5. Bus depot update
6. Issues to raise at Moss Side TARA
7. Street Party for Beresford group
8. Electing additional committee members
9. A.O.B (to be notified before the meeting please)

Constitution

At the meeting we agreed to adopt a constitution based on this model and modified to the needs of our Residents' Association. Here is a draft of the proposed constitution, if you have time please have a look at it before the meeting. I've listed the main changes, most of which we discussed at the last meeting, below. If you have any concerns they can be raised at our next meeting, when we will ratify the constitution.

• Removal of 'youth forum' clause.
• Membership: Everyone living in the area is automatically a member but only those present at meetings may vote.
• Committee: Minimum five members, maximum seven members. Election of additional members and their roles will be on the agenda for the next meeting.
• We need to define the geographical boundaries of our association - I've also added this to the agenda for the next meeting.

Please share this information with anyone who might not be able to view the blog. We can arrange for hard copies for anyone that can't view the online versions easily. I'll also ask our street representatives to raise the issue of the constitution with their neighbours. 

Progress report from the committee

Thanks again for the great turnout at our first meeting. Since then we have been working hard to get our association off the ground. We are developing some great contacts in the community, local Councillors are very supportive of our association and will keep us informed about funding opportunities and issues which might affect our community. At our next meeting Tom Cass (Manchester City Council) and Phil Dodd (Cranswick Square Resident's Association) will come and share their experiences and expertise and provide us with some inspiration! By the time of the meeting we should also have our inital 'startup' grant from the council in our bank account and we can decide how best we can use this funding.

We are aware that we need to work hard to ensure that all members of the community have the opportunity to engage with the Residents' Association. Creating a community notice board is a priority, but in the meantime we have street representatives for Rosebery and Cowsby streets who will spread the word about the meeting to their neighbours. We are still in need of representatives from Hartington and Beresford streets - please let us know if you would like to volunteer!

From next month our Secretaries, Natalie and Adele, will take charge of the blog - thanks Ben for getting it set up. The blog is intended to spread the word about our activities but it is also a space where we can share and debate our ideas. We are bound to have some differences of opinion, however we hope that you can all find some common ground in the desire to make sure that this is a great place to live.

The next meeting is Tuesday 15th May, please send any items for the agenda as comments on the blog or email me at laycock.jo@gmail.com. I'll circulate the agenda on the blog and via our representatives next week.