Author: templar

passionate about the new and the old, but only if it is any good

Initial residents group meeting

A few of us met at the Royal Mac on Thursday evening. Many thanks to those that could make it along. Its difficult to get along to evening meetings and many of you did report existing commitments and sent apologies and/or comments. Thanks to you too.

We had a fairly short but constructive and lively initial discussion covering quite a few issues. We dwelt longest on the proposed changes to High Street parking and the potentially negative impacts on residents at the Southern end and the potential for displacing parking problems elsewhere; there were mixed views about new High Street crossings and the uncertainty about the the possible introduction of one way traffic on certain streets. In particular we noted there is a gap between the Council’s strategic objectives and the measures apparently being implemented, not to mention rather inadequate consultation and communication between Council and residents.

We reflected that a unified voice for High Street residents had been hitherto lacking, making consultation more difficult. In this regard we noted the excellent progress made by new Shore and Harbour Neighbourhood Group, formed just over a year ago and the marked improvement in communications. If a group was constituted we’d be able to share experiences and strengthen the voice of town centre residents generally and network better.

However, we felt there wasn’t a sufficient number of us to decide much more than to continue the conversation. We agreed that an agenda for the next meeting might focus on:

  • developing some broad aims for the group and the area we should cover;
  • to look at and compare some possible models for the group, including what form of constitution we could adopt;
  • to identify initial roles and responsibilities and volunteers to keep things moving

In the next few weeks I will draft some proposals and bring these along to the next meeting, which I hope will be in around 3-4 weeks time, though it may be an idea to wait until the East holidays are out of the way.

Please feel free to continue to communicate your thoughts (whether burning issues or how we should go about organising ourselves) publicly on the website or by email if you prefer. Keep the ideas coming.

If you feel you have a little bit of time that you could devote to helping get this off the ground, then great – please get in touch with me. In fact, any help and moral support is good.

Meetup this Thursday at 7pm Royal Mackintosh Hotel

I’ve caught up with a good number of residents at our end of the town over the last week or so, by no means all of them and not necessarily a completely representative cross-section, but a good start.

It seems there is plenty of interest in developing some sort of grouping, a collective voice to help improve things at our end of the town.

So, I’ve reserved the upstairs room at the Royal Mac from 7:00pm (say til 9:00pm latest) for this Thursday the 15th March for an exploratory meeting. We can convene downstairs if only a few of us can make it and it’s quiet.

The purpose of this meeting is to decide whether there should be a residents association and how we go about setting one up, the area it might cover, and the organisation of a wider open public meeting.

We can also have a think about some (initial) aims and objectives, and best to keep in touch (I’ve kept the email recipient list private for now, but many of you are not on email). I will hand deliver this note to neighbours I’ve spoken with.

In fact because I don’t expect you’ll all be able to make it, please feel free to send in any initial thoughts you have by email, to the website or post. There will be plenty of opportunities to shape and influence what we do.

If we do chose to constitute as a “tenants and residents association” we should be able to tap into council supported facilities for creche and admin. I imagine we’ll also be able to bid for funds from Dunbar Community Council and other funding bodies. Importantly, DCC and ELC will have to take account of our views.

I’ll prepare a rough outline for the agenda before next Thursday, but lets keep it fairly informal for now.

If you have child sitting needs, I may well be able to offer a mature teenager’s services, let me know.

I hope I haven’t missed anything too important …

Many thanks

How to grow a tenants and residents group?

Most tenants and residents groups start with just a handful of people who are keen to do something for their area.

We are finding people by:

  • Talking to neighbours who share our concerns and may be willing to help;
  • We’ll be putting notices through people’s doors locally to see if others are also interested in setting up a group
  • Setting up this (free) website

If we find there are enough issues and strength of feeling, a small group will get together – an organising committee – to plan the next stages, which will include:-

  • public meetings to test our initial ideas
  • setup the group formally

And here’s a link to the Guide to starting a tenants and residents association.