Attendees: Tony Newton, Stephen Messenger, Heather Flaherty, Jan Kaya, Simon Beirne

Apologies: Sophia Sinnos

1. Minutes of last meeting: Agreed

2. Actions from last meeting(s):

AP5.1	Simon actioned to write to NHBC regarding as built drainage plans	Simon has still not done this, and promised to do so this weekend
AP5.4	Steve to arrange for installation of standpipe.	Steve advised that Fairclough have now stated they will definitely not pay for this. We agreed that we probably do need a communcal water outlet for watering of the common areas. After discussion we decided we would instigate this following hand-over from Fairclough, and make it an inclusive part of the overal charges.
AP5.9	Steve to contact his planning consultant	Done. Steve has received detailed information regarding planning guidelines for play areas, and used the principle of this in the letter he wrote to Fairclough, Tandridge and the MP.
AP5.10	Steve to erect speed signs	Tony advised that Mike May was happy to contact the insurance company to advise we wanted to erect speeding signs. However, we decided to wait until after handover, when we would be able to dealwith the insurance company direct.
AP5.12	Heather to forward contacts details to all residents	Heather said she had sent the details to all residents via e-mail, but would print and distribute again.
AP6.1	Steve and Jan to write to Councillors and MP re. Play Area	Done
AP6.2	Tony to solicit opinion on closing discussion group on web site	Done. Agreed that even though many do not contribute, people do look in on the site. Discussion group to remain, though Tony to look at an alternative, simpler site.
Outstanding Mike May actions
1.	As built drainage plans	Status: Still no sign of these. Tony to write to Mike May next week.
3.	Drain cleaning	Done.
5.	Landscaping	Done.

3. Management Company

Steve again advised that he was unhappy to take over the Management Company, as the Section 106 has not been signed off. He feels this will not happen for several reasons:

* The planting has not been completed as per the original plans, and several of the residents had contributed to this by not allowing Fairclough (Waltons) to complete this work as per the plans - especially in not allowing hedging to be installed. We discussed this, and agreed that it was clearly an important issue, but Simon and Jan felt that there may be scope for common sense with regard to this, and the council may not refuse to sign off the Section 106 just because of a few hedges. Steve vehemently disagreed, as his experience of dealing with Councils is that they apply absolutely no retrospective common sense when dealing with this sort of thing, and will insist on every single element of the planting plan being correct. Tony agreed that this was probably the case, and we agreed an appropriate course of action would be to contact the council to see what they would object to in terms of plantings. Jan agreed to contact Mrs Salmon, as Steve and Tony have already had several dealings with her, and felt she would not deal impartially with them!
We also agreed that it was a possibility that if Tandridge now insist that extra work is required Fairclough may well say "tough - you'll have to pay for it yourself"
AP7.1 Jan to contact Mrs Salmon at Tandridge to assertain current view on sign off of Section 106
AP7.2 Tony to contact Mike May regarding detail of who prevented Waltons from doing their work.

* The Play Area, which as we all know is still on hold. We all agreed it was obvious this would prevent sign off of the Section 106. Steve cited a report he has received (which he has subsequently copied to Tony) which suggests the Council are enforcing a type of play area innapropriate to the type of site the Close represents. This type of descrepency, combined with Faircloughs assertion that they have installed the right equipment and the correct sized base, will ensure an impasse for some time. Tony agreed this was clearly an issue, but questioned whether Fairclough would see that as a reason to postpone handover of the Management Company. There was obvious concern that Steve was suggesting Fairclough could say they've done their best, and say we would have to complete the Play Area at our own cost after we have accepted handover. Tony disputed this would be the case and agreed to contact Mike May first thing on Monday morning to seek clarification, and if necessary assurances that this is not the case.
AP7.3 Tony to contact Mike May regarding completion of Play Area and its bearing on handover.

Steve went on to describe the consequences of the Section 106 not being completed (as we were already aware from previous meetings). These include; we would be in breach of our mortgage conditions, and technically could be forced to rectify things by our mortgage companies. We would find it almost impossible to sell our houses, as the Section 106 is a legal document which could prevent proper completion of a sale. If this happened and hold-ups were attributable to an individual, the rest of the Close would have to force the person to rectifiy the problem, or sue them to force the issue.

With this in mind Tony suggested we need to formally record, aside from the clauses already detailed in the Management Company section of the Report on Title all residents should have copies of, a "charter" for the Management Company detailing such items as delegated authority, to both the committee and the Directors. We agreed to discuss this further after the handover meeting.

4. CPM

We discussed (again) the competence of CPM. Heather has now received a set of accounts, but nobody (including Steve) has received copies of invoices and receipts to prove where the money is being spent. Steve advised that he has now paid CPM, as he feels we should not now replace them as agents. This is partly based on the inceased workload which running the sub-contracts ourselves would entail, and partly the potential difficulty in getting agreements, and payment from all residents when there is a disagreement regarding spending. Tony also felt this could become an issue, and cited members of the committee's own examples of not paying CPM. People on the Close could come to the same conclusions when the committee was running the contracts, and refusal to pay would then have to result in legal action being taken against fellow residents. We discussed this, and while agreeing that it was a concern, the prevailing opinion was that this would not become an issue for this Close, as all are sensible people, and charges are not that high for anybody to take real issue. We agreed we would not precipitously remove CPM, and need to have a general meeting of the Close before deciding on this as a course of action. Steve gave notice that if we decide to remove CPM he would resign from the Committee.

5. Play Area

Discussion Tony described the latest issues surrounding the Play Area, with Fairclough responding to Tony's letter and on-site meeting, and Steve's letters regarding the unsuitability of the equipment and base areas being installed. Heather pointed out that the current state of the equipment presented a considerable danger to children playing on it.

Steve felt that as in the Section 106 situation regarding planting detailed above, Fairclough may say they have done their best to comply with the clauses relating to the Play Area, and we will have to pay for it's completion ourselves. We all disagreed this could happen, but agreed it needed to be confirmed with Tandridge and Fairclough before the Management Company handover meeting on Tuesday. (combine action with 7.3, above)

6. Website and discussion forum

Address for Website: http://www.tony.newton.btinternet.co.uk/brockwood/

Email address: brockwoodresidents@btinternet.com

Please contact Tony with any suggestions.

7. Reminder of committee/household "ownership"

Name	Tony (6)	Stephen (5)	Sophia (11)	Simon (14)	Jan (19)	Heather (20)
Households	2,6,7,8	1,3,4,5	9,10,11	12,14,15,16	17,18,19	20,21,22,47,49

8. Other issues.

In light of the importance of the Management Company handover meeting we discussed how we could ensure as full an attendance as possible at the meeting. These minutes constitute part of this, and Tony agreed to distribute paper copies to all residents instead of the usual e-mail.

Simon suggested each committee member consider the key issues which need to be addressed (it was getting late by this time!) on Tuesday, and these be summarised and compiled by Tony and Simon and a separate circular be prepared for distribution to all, advising how we feel attendence is important, and also to take the opportunity after the meeting to hold a more general meeting to discuss the committee's concerns regarding managing the contracts ourselves, removing CPM in the process
AP7.4 All to consider issues for discussion on Tuesday
AP7.5 Tony and Simon to summarise and distribute.

9. Date of next meeting:

Not set at this meeting

Tony Newton

Chairman, Brockwood Residents Association

22 April 2001

Disclaimer:
Committee efforts: It should be noted that these minutes reflect the best efforts and current opinions of the Committee. While they sometimes include statements of what we are trying to do on behalf of the Close, these statements must be taken in the context of being our best intent, and not a legally binding commitment to resolve any issues on residents' behalf. If you have a burning issue you feel needs to be resolved, the committee will seek to assist in any way we can, but residents must seek their own legal advice and opinion on any issue before conveying anything the committee has reported in these minutes to any third party.

Attendees: Tony Newton, Stephen Messenger, Sophia Sinnos, Jan Kaya, Simon Beirne

Apologies: Heather Flaherty

1. Minutes of last meeting: Agreed

2. Actions from last meeting(s):

AP5	Tony and Stephen to write to MP, Fairclough, and local Councillors re play area.	See action 5.8 Jan.
AP5.1	Simon actioned to write to NHBC regarding as built drainage plans	Not done. Ongoing for next meeting
AP5.2	Drain cleaning. Tony to chase with Faircloughs.	Done. Update: Drains cleaned and jetted during March.
AP5.3	Tony to get details of pump warranties	Done
AP5.4	Steve to arrange for installation of standpipe.	Not yet done.
AP5.5	Jan to write to Mike May, threatening legal action if all issues not resolved in sensible timescale	Decided not to write specific letter, but clauses included in separate letter Tony wrote to Richard Prynne. Received letter back promising action on all issues by the end of March
AP5.6	Tony to complain to CPM about lighting problems.	Done (but see below for more details of further problems)
AP5.7	Tony to talk to Clifton Hill School	Not confirmed. They have expressed an interest, but need to confirm their intentions.
AP5.8	Jan to contact local Conservative Councillor, and try to arrange a meeting.	Done, and we now have their tacit support
AP5.9	Steve to contact his planning consultant	Not done. Steve no longer works with said planning consultant. Ongoing with different source.
AP5.10	Steve to erect speed signs	Steve advised by insurance company that we cannot do this, unless Fairclough agree, and authorise it. Tony has since spoken to Mike May, who said he'd happily do this.
AP 5.11	Jan to write flier re speeding	On hold until we can resolve the speed limit sign issue
AP5.12	Heather to forward contacts details to all residents	Not done. Heather not at meeting. Ongoing
Outstanding Mike May actions
1.	As built drainage plans	Status: Still in hand.
3.	Drain cleaning	Action still not complete.
5.	Landscaping	Status: As at 15 Feb. nothing further had happened. Tony has been assured by Mike May that this will all be completed before the end of March.
7.	Standpipe	AP5.4 - Steve to arrange for installation of standpipe.

3. Management Company

Steve advised that he was unhappy with the fact that our Insurance Policy specifically states we will not do anything to any of the main tress on the development, when we already have done so. The tree to the front of no. 49, and the tree to the right of no. 9 have had potentially material changes made to them which could invalidate any insurnace, especially liability insurance. We will need to seek guidance on this when we take over the control from Fairclough.

We discussed general issues surrounding take-over and agreed we could not prevent this happening for much longer, especially as Fairclough are now resolving most of the issues we had previously raised with them. We agreed that once all the issues raised are resolved we would have to take on the Management Company.

We discussed the matter of legal action and Steve was clear that he felt we had to be sure we could back it up if we did decide to threaten. Jan agreed, and we discussed costs - which could be in the order of £2000 if we had to go to Court. Steve felt this was high, but again pointed out we need to uphold any threat.

4. CPM

Tony detailed all he had done to get the lighting problems resolved. As of the meeting nothing had been successful. (Following the meeting Tony wrote to Fairclough and CPM threatening legal action if the problem was not resolved - see the web site for details).

Aside form this issue, we again discussed some of the defficiencies   of CPM, and again agreed that we should take on the running of all the contracts when we take over the management company. There was some discussion about this, however, as we are now starting to realise how much work it might entail, and there were also concerns expressed about getting payment out of everybody. For further discussion at next meeting.

5. Play Area

Discussion around what to do regarding the Play Area centered on petitioning Councillors and MP's. Jan and Steve both agreed to write to the afformentioned. (AP6.1) Tony advised he had now spoken to pretty much everybody in authority in the Council, and also several Concillors. It seems we will have to have the equipemnt in before we will get anyone to actually commit to supporting us.

6. Website and discussion forum

As nobody is using the discussion forum (apart from Jan and Tony) Tony suggested that he may as well turn it off. All agreed we should keep it, but that Tony should put a note on the website to check peoples' thoughts. (AP6.2, Tony)

Tony pointed out that he had set up a web page that detailed some of the tress and plants that are to be planted in the common land area.

Address for Website: http://www.tony.newton.btinternet.co.uk/brockwood/

Email address: brockwoodresidents@btinternet.com

Please contact Tony with any suggestions.

7. Reminder of committee/household "ownership"

Name	Tony (6)	Stephen (5)	Sophia (11)	Simon (14)	Jan (19)	Heather (20)
Households	2,6,7,8	1,3,4,5	9,10,11	12,14,15,16	17,18,19	20,21,22,47,49

8. Other issues.

None.

 

9. Date of next meeting:

Thursday 19 April 2001, 8.00pm 11 Foxon Close.

Tony Newton

Chairman, Brockwood Residents Association

12 March 2001

Disclaimer:
Committee efforts: It should be noted that these minutes reflect the best efforts and current opinions of the Committee. While they sometimes include statements of what we are trying to do on behalf of the Close, these statements must be taken in the context of being our best intent, and not a legally binding commitment to resolve any issues on residents' behalf. If you have a burning issue you feel needs to be resolved, the committee will seek to assist in any way we can, but residents must seek their own legal advice and opinion on any issue before conveying anything the committee has reported in these minutes to any third party.

Attendees: Tony Newton, Stephen Messenger, Sophia Sinnos, Jan Kaya, Heather Flaherty, Simon Beirne