Willoughby House Group
Minutes of the meeting held on 28 April 2009 at flat 106 Willoughby House
Attended by:
Committee members
Tim Macer (chair), Caroline Swash, Steve Grimwood, Simon Ebbins, Nik Mehta
1. Apologies for Absence
Valerie Mills, Susan Hosking, Petre Reid
2. Minutes of Previous meeting on 4 March 2009
These were agreed.
3. Matters Arising
2.a. Milton Court
Tim Macer reported that construction on the site had been postponed until January 2010. He added that in consequence of this delay, Nazar had still not been able to evaluate the different methods of dealing with the concrete base. If further delays occurred, problems might arise with the renewal of the planning application scheduled for 3 years only. The City is said to be offering to lend the company money providing there are off plan sales of flats. However, no information about such flats could be found on any of the relevant websites. The Guildhall School of Music’s Annual Report revealed that the school needed to raise eleven million pounds to fulfil their contribution commitment. It was noted that David Graves had recently been appointed as one of the Governors. The question of safety was raised, Nik Mehta pointing out that neither mirrors nor lighting had been installed to make vehicle and pedestrian movement safer around the enclosed site.
2.b. St Alphage
Tim Macer reported that there had been no changes, and none were likely for some time.
3. Election of Officers and Committee Representatives
3.a. Co-opted committee members
Nazar Sayigh, James Prentice and Valerie Mills, who were not present at the AGM, but had served at committee members in 2008, had indicated to the Chair the would like to continue to serve the committee as co-opted members. The chairman proposed that these individuals be co-opted to the committee for the year. This was agreed by the meeting.
3.b. Election of Officers
Petre Reid had agreed to continue to serve as treasurer, Caroline Swash as Secretary and Tim Macer as Chairman. Simon Ebbins propsed and Nik Mehta seconded their continuation in office for another year.
3.c. Residents Consultation Committee
Representatives were also selected to attend relevant meetings within the Barbican. These included the Residents Consultation Committee (RCC) which provides representation for residents to the Barbican Residential Committee of the City of London, on landlord and tenant matters. As chair, Tim Macer was nominated as the preferred representative with Steve Grimwood as his deputy.
3.d. Barbican Association General Council
Simon Ebbins was nominated to act as the group’s representative on the Barbican Association General Council, with Nik Mehta or Caroline Swash acting as deputies, if Simon is unable to attend. Tim Macer is an elected BAGC member, so attends BAGC in his own right. Tim reported that Dafne Ter-Sakarian, who stood down from the committee at the recent AGM, was elected to BAGC at the previous week’s AGM of the BA, which means that Willoughby House is well represented at BA.
3.e. Barbican Centre Residents Liaison Committee
It was agreed that this consultative group, dealing with proposals for events at the Barbican Centre that might affect residents, would continue to be attended by Tim Macer with support from Nik Mehta and Caroline Swash. Tim spoke of the Barn Dance at St Giles’ in process of being organised in association with the Barbican, an example of good liaison between the Centre and the estate.
3.f. Social Events Co-ordinator
Tim had spoken with Susan Hosking prior to the meeting. Susan had indicated she was willing to continue in her role as committee member who oversees the arrangements and orchestrates social activities, and the committee was pleased to confirm this.
3.g. Other committee roles
Tim observed that last year, specific roles had been designated for publicity and for environment/noise and planning. He proposed leaving first two roles in abeyance for the time being. There was virtually no planning activity at present, due to the economic situation. However, Nazar Sayigh had indicated that he would be willing to continue to monitor planning for the committee, and this was agreed.
4. Social events
4.a. Summer party
The Summer Party was discussed and a tentative date suggested of July 15. The committee was in favour of repeating the same format as in recent years, as it had been very successful and was not to difficult to organise. Volunteers would be required to prepare some food, also to purchase wine and soft drinks. Tim would organise the loan of three tables from St Giles.
4.b. EatMeet
EatMeet takes the idea of getting together for dinner at a restaurant at Christmas, and repeats this throughout the year. Susan is proposing to organise and publicise a time and a restaurant every month or two months. The first EatMeet gathering was suggested for Thursday July 2 at Moshi Moshi. Susan Hosking’s offer to arrange this event was also thankfully accepted.
Tim has spoken with John Bailey, chair of Brandon Mews House Group to extend the invitation to Brandon Mews residents too, which John had welcomed.
5. Any Other Business.
5.a. Willoughby House Website
Simon Ebbins suggested the creation of an interactive website which would allow residents to find out what was going on and to contribute items of interest or concern themselves. This idea was greeted with enthusiasm and plans were made to develop the idea further.
5.b. Noise
Both Simon and Steve had been disturbed during the night by noise from the taxi drivers displaced from their usual ranks by road works. It was agreed to wait until the roadworks were completed, which had caused the temporary closure of the taxi rank from Ropemaker Street, before taking any further action.
5.c. Lake
Caroline Swash commented that the Lake had lost all the Golden Orf to the Heron and that the duck and moorhen population were fewer this year. Tim explained that responsibility for the lake was divided by the City (Open spaces), Barbican Estate and Barbican Arts Centre.
6. Date of next meeting
Tim Macer observed that when he knew the date of the next RCC meeting he would arrange a date for WHG two weeks in advance, so that our representatives could bring forward any issues for that meeting.
Despite the vagaries of the British climate, it is rare for the Willoughby House summer party to be rained off. Yet it was a close call this year, as the sunshine falling on the lawn when we were setting out the tables at 5.30 was replaced by rain and a chill wind at 6.30. Nevertheless, a steady stream of Willoughby residents and guests arrived, and in all there were 60 attended the party – which we think is a record. The rain was, in fact, intermittent and was confined to three fairly limited showers.