Forest Town Community Council (FTCC)

Meetings held in 2011: AGM Chair’s Report

It has been noticeable this year that the meetings have been better attended by the Community and also by our local Councillors from Mansfield District Council and Notts County Council. It has been disappointing though to see the attendance from the Police and Neighbourhood Wardens drop to only 2 meetings in the year as a whole.

A lot of issues have been raised with a mixed success rate. Almost every meeting there are complaints about dog fouling, illegal parking, illegal dumping of rubbish and speeding in the village. Every few months the priorities for policing are discussed and they are usually the same. Anti social behaviour has declined since the Youth Group was formed but there are still sometimes hot-spots of problems.

On a nositive note the regular attendance by the Councillors has resulted in successfully getting a new bus route for the Stanley Road area as well as answers to lots of queries from members such as grit bins, permit parking on George Street, signage for Crown Farm Way, school crossing patrols, maintenance of the narrow and wide backs, road repairs, etc. – unfortunately we have not always had the answers we wanted, but at least we did have some answers.

Local planning issues have been raised, discussed and monitored for the Community Council by Jim Pugh and Shlomo Dowen and objections raised where appropriate.

We have been kept informed of the Incinerator issue at Rainworm by Shlomo and I understand we are still waiting for a final decision there.

The Christmas Lights Committee again managed to raise more funds for extra Christmas lights at the main cross roads, and a Light switch on ceremony and Carol Service was held at both St Albans and the Methodist Chapel in November,  followed by a social evening. My thanks to all involved with that project which brought together a lot of members of the Community.

Also a lot of work has been done by the Youth Steering Group, which Phyllis will report on shortly.

At the recent Chad Pride Awards 2011, FTCC was awarded the Community Group of the Year award, which rounded off the year very successfully. I would like to thank my fellow Committee members for their support and hard work during the year to reach this achievement and hope that we can continue this success in the future.