MINUTES OF THE ASHURST RECREATION GROUND TRUST AGM HELD ON
THURSDAY 2nd DECEMBER 2021 AT 7.00PM HELD AT ASHURST VILLAGE HALL
Trustees Present: Cllr Fischel - Chairman
Cllrs Hammond, Hedley, Nicholson, & Russell.
Also Present: David Fischel - Chairman of Ashurst Cricket Club
Steve Nyahoe - Chairman of Partridge Green Football Club
In attendance: Elizabeth Leggo – Clerk
3 members of the public were also present.
The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting.
Apologies were received from Cllr Jesse.
None for this meeting.
The minutes were agreed and signed by the Chairman as a true record of the meeting.
The Clerk has completed the Annual Return for the Charity Commission for 2020/21. The income for the year was £4,560.00 and expenditure £3,359.96.
Income was received from West Sussex County Council on behalf of Ashurst Primary School, Partridge Green Football Club and Ashurst Parish Council for the financial year 2020/21. The principal item of expenditure once again was the grass cutting at £1,836, water and electricity came to £328 and the play equipment inspections, £144.
In this financial year the electricity has been billed at £4 per month as the Trust is in credit.
Steve Nyahoe, Chairman of Partridge Green Football Club (PGFC) gave the following update:
Covid has made it difficult for the Club. A lot of games could not be played. For some games, club facilities were not being used. The first and second team managers had also both resigned.
The Club still carries on, but Mr Nyahoe could not commit to a long-term agreement. However, he suggested that he would telephone the Clerk and offer to pay £40-50 per game, which would likely be when the weather is wet. The Club could give 24-48 hours’ notice on this match-by-match basis.
Cllr Fischel advised that the water has been turned off to the John Eaton Hut due to inactivity.
The Chairman advised that the Trustees had recently met up on the Recreation Ground in order to inspect both the Ground and the Buildings.
The Ground -
The planted trees were doing very well but would need some attention next summer – clearing round their roots, weeding and watering. It was to be hoped that the Residents and school children may be called upon to assist in a Spring Recreation Ground clear-up.
All the trees on the Recreation Ground have been inspected and, where necessary, had had the dead wood removed.
It was agreed that some time would be needed for the Cricket and Football Clubs to assess what their future usage might be - so for the moment we would be expecting limited income from these two sources and this would be on a match-by-match basis.
One of the benches on the Recreation Ground is in a poor condition and the Trustees have agreed to arrange for this to be replaced.
Buildings - Meanwhile the Trustees had inspected the 2 buildings and have decided that it makes sense to combine the two existing buildings into one, on the current site of the John Eaton Hut. The question now is whether we can adapt the John Eaton hut to suit our needs or, failing that, we would plan to build a simple Sports Building on roughly the existing footprint. It needs to be easy and inexpensive to maintain (eg no showers). We are anxious to follow as environmentally friendly a rebuild as possible.
In the meantime, we will try, with minimum outlay, to make the pavilion as user friendly as possible for this year’s Dog Show. This will include a coat of paint prior to the show!
A member of the public had raised a question about the holes where the football goal posts are. Mr Nyahoe from PGFC agreed that he would organise covering over the holes with fitted caps.
No other matters were raised.
The Chairman of the Trustees closed the meeting at 7.30PM
Signed: ____________________________ Dated: _____________________________
Appendix 1. Primary School
Thank you for giving us the opportunity to contribute to tonight's meeting even though we are not able to be there in person. We are pleased to report that the school is enjoying a little normality, we are however mindful that that could change at any time. We have really enjoyed strengthening our links with the church, the parish and the locality and have been able to meet with people once again at 'Harvest', 'New Beginnings' and most recently 'Advent' services. 'Open the Book' have been able to come into school this term and I am delighted to report that further dates have been set for next year. We have been developing our 'Growing Partnerships' agreement with the local Parishes and this has been the subject of several discussions as to how the school and the community can support and work together for the common good.
We are, as always, grateful for the opportunity afforded to us by the Parish Council and the residents of Ashurst to use the recreation ground. We continue to use it for sports provision as well as playtimes and were fortunate to have the use of it for our sport's day last year, which although somewhat strange without any spectators, allowed us to return to some sense of normality for the children. It is a wonderful space and the children have a greater connection with it following the successful tree planting venture early last year. We at school hope that this good partnership between our school and the Parish Council will be able to continue long into the future.
with kind regards
Mrs S Smith
on behalf of everyone at Ashurst CE Aided Primary School
Appendix ii. Cricket Club
David Fischel, Chairman of Ashurst Cricket Club attended the meeting. Mr Fischel reported as follows:
The last cricket played on the recreation ground was a few games in 2019.
Since then, COVID issues have made it unrealistic to revive regular cricket in either 2020 or 2021.
The cricket square has however been maintained and with relatively little extra work could be brought back to a useable state.
We reported in 2019 the difficulties of attracting sufficient players to traditional village cricket in Ashurst .
We are not alone in the village cricket world in facing this issue.
An increasing trend has been for villages to merge their cricket activities with another village and/or let out their ground to larger clubs to provide them with additional capacity for matches or training.
We propose to investigate the above possibilities , in the first instance with Steyning cricket club.
I believe it would be positive for the village and the recreation ground if we could get some cricket going again in 2022 .
As per the minutes of the last meeting , the realistic approach to payment for use of the Recreation Ground is a per game basis until more regular usage is re-established.
The pavilion itself is a separate agenda item for this meeting. Cricket equipment is stored in the pavilion all year round , particularly in the winter to free up the John Eaton hut for football , with use of the John Eaton hut for matches and some equipment in the summer.
David Fischel
Chairman , Ashurst Cricket Club