Minutes of the Meeting of the Friends of Nutsford Vale at the Bluebell Inn, Levenshulme on 9th May, 2018

Attendees:  Rita Edge, Barrie Edge, Bernie Cree, Steve Cree, Claire James, Mavis Holt, Christine Prunty, John Prunty
Welcome:

Main Meeting:
Rita began by explaining that the main purpose of the meeting was to see where we go from here.  She rang Cllr. Suzanne Richards this morning to see if she knew the procedure now that we have a new Secretary of State as Sajid Javid M.P. has moved to the job of Home Secretary.  Will the new Secretary start all the investigations again or will he just take over where Sajid Javid left off?  Would it be an idea to put our case to the new Secretary of State?  Suzanne said it would just roll over but it couldn't do any harm to write again to the new Secretary.  She said she would find out from M.C.C. prospective where things are up to and what the next step is.  She hasn't come back to Rita with this  but that is because she probably asked Luftner Rahman and we know what he is like.

Steve suggested telling the new Secretary of State about the chemicals found by the tests and emphasise the word "carcinogenic" because he has had lung cancer.  Rita explained he was a non smoker so it was environmental and he should be interested.  Bernie has volunteered to write a brief letter to him expressing why we are concerned and will share it with everyone at the meeting so they can either agree with the format or change it accordingly.  John felt we are still treading water and did not want to bombard them with letters but we are only writing one and we feel we have the right to know what is happening as we have been more than patient.  Barrie said it should be stated in the letter that if they needed more information that they should not hesitate getting in touch with us.  Rita said we should congratulate him on his new position as Secretary of State.  

Rita emailed Jane Dudley about the cutting of the verges.  She asked for a schedule for the Vale and then asked were we going to be overlooked like last year but as yet she has not got back in touch.  Everyone agreed that Nutsford Vale is looking very lush and a lot better than last year when the tests were ongoing.  The grass is really growing and although John and Steve have the mowers it probably would be too difficult a job for them but if they were mowed before hand they could keep on top of it.   There are blue and white bluebells and the tulips that Rita planted have bloomed but the grass has actually grown over them.
 
Alan had sent an email with his views which made good reading.

Claire said that there has been alot in the media about environmental effects on health particularly mental health.  Barrie said all the recent studies suggest that open space is beneficial to mental health and also combats lonliness as there is an opportunity to meet people whilst walking or sitting.  Steve said asthma is on the increase due to the environment.  

Godfrey Ermin Fields, who have been fighting the Council much longer that Nutsford Vale has, is now applying for Village Green Status as it was in the Planning Applications in the Manchester Evening News.  Steve met one of the members not long ago and they are still fighting the Council.

Everyone agreed that it could take a long time for the new Secretary to go through the information about the school build but Bernie said she had seen a post on the internet by Suzanne and she had said that the Manchester Council Officers advise the Planning Committee of what they should agree to and she presumed the new Secretary would have people advising him whether to agree to something or not as at the end of the day he is just like us, not up to date on toxic landfill sites and their problems.

Steve wanted an FOI on the third set of results.  Rita said the more information we get the better but Rambols would not be forthcoming on their own.  John wondered whether the decision to build or not had already been made but everyone thought not as they would begin the build as soon as possble after permission was given.  Rita believes it hasn't because Suzanne would definitely tell us straight away.
Steve wanted to know if ARUP knew about how the water was travelling and also the effects of the bedrock being eaten.  Everyone agreed ARUP would no longer be involved.  Bernie believes that ARUP were used as a tool by the Council to make us believe that as such a top company was involved we should be feeling that the build was wonderful and totally safe.  Claire said it felt democratic.  Bernie said yes at the time it did but in hindsight it wasn't.  It now seems a waste of money having them involved especially as Barrie reminded us when he and Rita met the Council they had implyed ARUP were doing additional testing when all they did was create more paperwork by going over Rambols work.

The Big Lunch is on 16th June, 2018.  We hope the weather will be fine on that date.  We will meet at Bickerdicke Entrance at 10.30 to begin setting up for 12 noon.  It will then last until 2 O'Clock.  We will all bring food and it has been agreed that for health and safety we will bring shop bought food rather than home made as now the Council requires people to have licences to provide food and we do not want to poison anyone.  Although the Easter Egg Hunt was extremely successful the Romanian children were extremely annoying and it was suggested to charge them 50p next year. The Big Lunch is food and games so hopefully this will prove as successful.

Bernie and Steve went through Crowcroft Park on Monday and the rubbish in there was an eyesore.  Steve said that the playground couldn't be seen due to the amount of rubbish.  Rita said it had been in the Manchester Evening News about the rubbish in Levenshulme.  Claire said that people tended to blame the council but it was the people who dumped the rubbish who were to blame.  Steve said although it might cost millions of pounds the Government needed to run a "Keep Britain Tidy Campaign" again and put it on every tv channel to make everyone aware.  Claire said that Cedar Mount pupils had been writing letters to the Council about the rubbish and they were the worst culprits with regard to Nico Ditch and the sweet wrappers on the Lane.  Christine got a bottle threw at her when she was feeding the birds on the Vale by three youths.  Rita said she should have got in touch with Cedar Mount as if she had done anything she would have been in trouble.

Gorton Carnival is on July 8th this year as the organisors want more schools involved and in previous years when it has been put on in September the schools claim they did not have time to help out because it is the start of term.  Mavis said if they keep the date to July in future it will eventually clash with the International Festival and in July it will clash with some other festival or function anyway.  

Everyone who has dog has to be aware of the rising incidences of Alabama Rot.  Rita said it is a virus that lives in the soil and from a small cut it goes straight to the kidneys and the dog is dead within a week.  As of yet Nutsford Vale has had no cases and neither has anywhere in the surrounding area but we must be vigilant.  We need to regularly check our dogs feet and legs and wash them down after each walk.

Events:                                   16th June, 2018 THE BIG LUNCH
                                                Bickerdicke Entrance 10.30 am
                                                for 12 noon start

                                                8th July, 2018 GORTON CARNIVAL
                                                Instructions to follow