Minutes of annual meeting held on Thursday, January 17, 2008
in the library at Uckfield Community Technology College.
These minutes were approved at a meeting of Lime Aid on Thursday, April 24, 2008, at 7.30pm.
Present:
Martyn Stenning, Chairman – Lime Aid
Andrew Ledward, Treasurer – Lime Aid
Mike Benians, Secretary – Lime Aid
John Chaplin, Prince Edward’s Road, Lewes
Mr and Mrs Dade, Bedford Place
Peter Fordham, Oak Tree Court
John Gorrie, Browns Lane
Barry Knights, Town Co-ordinator
Ian Martin, The Lodge, Hempstead Road
Cathy Watson, Cathy Watson Associates (Minutes)
Apologies:
David Bracey, Hempstead Road
Jo and Bob Burchett, Pine Walk, Manor Park
Rupert Clubb, Director of Transport and Environment, ESCC
Gerry Gunn, Uckfield Community Technology College
Ron Hill, The Mount
Cllr Jim Molesworth-Edwards, Vernon Road
Brian Phillips, Manor Way
Andrew Seaton, Children’s Services, ESCC
Cllrs Paul and Dorothy Sparks, Hempstead Meadows
1. Welcome by Chairman
Martyn Stenning welcomed those attending the meeting and read out the list of apologies.
2. Approval of minutes
Minutes of a meeting held on September 20, 2007, were approved and signed.
3. Matters arising
Dr Stenning said he still aimed to compile a five-year management plan for the trees. It would include:
• yearly epicormic growth task days,
• annual monitoring of the trees for safety purposes,
• clearing leaves from the road so that it is safe and firm under foot,
• progressing with projects to enhance the avenue like re-planting where necessary, getting decent street lighting and maybe doing something about the surface,
• Keeping under review the question of ownership and responsibility for the avenue.
Any management plan would need to incorporate flexibility to allow for unforeseen circumstances like trees falling down, he added.
Mike Benians reported that the Charity Commission had requested further proof of ‘public benefit’ resulting from the work of Lime Aid before it would proceed with our application for charity status.
John Chaplin, who has set up charities himself said Lime Aid should have no difficulty in proving active charitable work had been carried out or in showing that there was no discrimination in who should benefit.
Dr Stenning said the benefits included health and safety because when Lime Aid was formed the trees in Lime Tree Avenue were in a neglected state. The organisation had commissioned a detailed tree survey and safety check which ultimately led to the trees being pollarded. It had cleared the driveway of obstacles and litter and made it more passable for the general public.
The epicormic growth ‘which was once enormous’ and provided a hiding place for potential attackers had been cut back so improving both health and safety of children walking to and from school and preservation of the trees.
John Chaplin warned of a risk that Lime Aid could be seen to be taking on responsibility for the management of the trees which could also lead to an assumption of liability.
Dr Stenning said that Lime Aid was a pressure group. It was clear that both East Sussex County Council and Wealden District Council had some responsibility for the trees and the group was putting pressure on them to carry out work. Lime Aid supporters had carried out voluntary work in terms of clearing the ground, picking up litter and removing epicormic growth but that did not make them responsible for the trees, or result in their liability.
‘We hope that the result of our work is that we have an avenue of trees that looks good and is a credit to the town, somewhere safe for our children to walk up and down to get to and from school.’
Barry Knights said it would be worth making a note of the number of volunteers involved in the task day and the length of time they worked because that could be taken into account when the organisation applied for any grants which involved match-funding. He added that it must not be forgotten that the Lime Aid work was contributing to the regeneration of Uckfield and was recognised as such by the Uckfield Regeneration Partnership – that showed another example of the ‘public benefit’ the Charities Commission was requesting.
4. Financial review
Treasurer Andrew Ledward said secretary Mike Benians had introduced a volunteer (John Brazier, of Hempstead Meadows) who had not only volunteered to do the book-keeping for Lime Aid but had also prepared the accounts, in association with Accountants: Richard Place Dobson Accountancy Limited, Edenbridge. The turnover of £1,545 was money which came in through grants and donations. The costs of £994 included expenditure on a tree survey. The administrative expenses of £400 related to setting Lime Aid up as a Company.Limited by Guarantee with related expenses, part of which were covered by a grant from Uckfield Town Council.
The accounts and Directors’ Report, for the year ended December 31, 2007, were received and approved by the meeting.
5. Any other business
Mike Benians said he had not been able to secure public liability insurance for the task day on Saturday, January 19, 2008, and so Dr Stenning said he would make it clear to volunteers at the start of the event that they would be working at their own risk and if they were concerned then it would be better if they did not join the work party.
Ian Martin said thank you for the illumination of a section of the avenue which seemed to be successful. He had noticed an improvement when he walked along the avenue in the evenings. Twenty-two ‘pedestrian cats eyes’ were donated as an experiment by their inventor, Phil Lancaster, in September. Mr Lancaster lives locally and is marketing the lights with his colleague Mike Upton through their business NiteSafe.
Barry Knights reported that the Uckfield Regeneration Partnership was putting together a Then and Now pictorial publication. They were looking for old photographs taken in Uckfield so that photographer Ron Hill could re-take the pictures now, to show how scenes had changed. Mr Knights asked whether they could borrow any old pictures of Lime Tree Avenue.
Ian Martin said he had heard of a photograph being published in a national newspaper in the1960s of the Queen in Lime Tree Avenue when she visited Rupert Nevill at Uckfield House. Mr Knights said he would check to see whether the preservation society knew anything about it.
8. Date and Time of next meeting
The date of the next meeting, was fixed for Thursday, April 24, 2008, at 7.30 pm, (subject to UCTC availability).
Speaker sets challenge using tree cuttings People attending the January meeting of Lime Aid were challenged to identify a selection of tree cuttings placed before them by speaker Martyn Stenning.
Dr Stenning, chairman of Lime Aid and an ecologist based at the University of Sussex, also tested listeners to see how they would define a tree, and courted controversy by displaying a list of the only 33 species of tree accepted as being native to this country.
He reflected on the difference in growth of trees in this country and in eastern Poland where 40 sq km of forest has never been managed.
The trees there hav
e self-seeded and been allowed to grow to their full height. Dead trees are allowed to fall and re-cycle naturally, providing nutrients for the other trees around them and a home for a wide and rare variety of wildlife.
In contrast, he said, at the meeting at Uckfield Community Technology College on January 17, 2008, almost all the forests in Britain were managed with very few trees being allowed to reach their full height and any dead ones being cut up with chain saws and carried away. Even where, say, an oak reached its full height it was only half the size of a Polish oak.
Martyn said there were two reasons for that. One was the lack of nutrients enjoyed by Polish trees gained from the wood lying around them. The other was that our forests were thrashed by prevailing winds off the Atlantic.
Martyn talked about work he had been involved in for the Woodland Trust at Lake Wood in Uckfield and about task days organised there on the first Saturday of every winter month. The next is to be held between 10am and 4pm on Saturday, February 2, 2008, and another is to be held on March 1.
He also gave advice to those preparing to take part in a task day in Lime Tree Avenue, Uckfield, held on January 19 where epicormic growth, or suckers, was to be removed to prevent nutrients being diverted from lime trees causing them to die from the top. Martyn is pictured, left, during the Lime Aid task day.