RAINHILL CIVIC SOCIETY

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2005

Minutes of the meeting held on Tuesday, 26^th April 2005 in the St Ann Millennium Centre.

1.0 Apologies for absence. Mike Carter, Mike Doyle, Sigrid Brown, Ann Veronica Howitt.

2.0 Election of President. Christine Scott was proposed by Jill Dagnall and seconded by Angela Wilkinson. Her re-election was carried. She then took over the chair of the meeting.

3.0 Minutes of the 2004 AGM. These were approved and signed. Proposed by Anne Slater and seconded by Angela Wilkinson.

4.0 Annual Report by Gill Harris, Chair of the Society. Again Gill was able to report another successful year. On behalf of the Society she thanked John Harris for finding excellent speakers for the meetings. It was often a difficult job, constrained by the amount we can afford to pay and the availability of suitable speakers. She pointed out that we were again able to maintain the level of subscriptions, aided by the proceeds of raffles at the meetings, which help considerably towards costs. Gill thanked all who help in this way. Rainhill in Bloom had received a few more entries than last year, although we would still like to see more. Mrs Collette Wright had been the winner, with Mr John Evans as runner up. The trophy was presented by Councillor Mrs Catherine Kedge at the first meeting of the season on 29^th September. We had sent letters of commendation to the police shop for their display of baskets and to Mr Bispham and a colleague who had created a small garden at the entrance to the Ex-services Club. While neither of these had been eligible for the competition, we felt that they deserved thanks for helping to brighten up the district. Unfortunately, the police display had been vandalised. We were sad to record the death of Helen Carns, who had been a committee member and had provided refreshments at many of our meetings. The committee had continued to monitor planning applications and had been pleased to note that St Helens Council seem to be of the same mind as us in trying to maintain the character and history of our town. We had been extremely concerned to see applications which we felt constituted over-development, in some cases involving demolition of characterful old properties and which are not in keeping with the surrounding areas. We were very pleased to be involved with the Rotary Club of Rainhill and the Parish Council in the provision and erection of new plaques commemorating the Trials and hope to arrange for more in due course. Gill said she hoped that members would agree that the new plaques looked very good. Reflecting on the very high turnout at the AGM Gill asked those present to try to persuade others to join the Society, as we are keen to attract new, and younger, members. Anyone who had ideas for events or speakers, or who wished to join the committee should make themselves known to her or a committee member. Finally, Gill thanked all the committee for their support and hard work and in particular David Whitley, for his work as secretary and for maintaining the web site.

5.0 Treasurer's report. Keith Ashall presented the accounts, which he had circulated to those attending. He pointed out that there was a deficit, albeit a small one. In 2004 we had changed our strategy and created a special projects account. The interest on this account was £45.30. In the past this would have gone into the general account If we had done this the deficit this year would have been £23.67 – less than 5p per member. There were no questions about the accounts and it was proposed by Angela Wilkinson and seconded by Beth Beswick that they be accepted. This was carried.

6.0 Membership Secretary's report. Elaine Wood said that membership was slightly down on last year. This was partly due to difficulties experienced by some committee members in finding people in when they called to renew membership. There were 68 double and 40 single members, a total of 176.There had been two new members, five had resigned and four had died.

7.0 Membership Subscription. There was no proposal to increase the subscription this year.

8.0 Election of Vice-Presidents. Monte Worthington and Mike Doyle had agreed to stand again. Monte’s appointment was proposed by Angela Wilkinson and seconded by Beth Beswick while Mike’s was proposed by Anne Slater and seconded by Gill Harris. Both were carried.

9.0 Election of Auditor. Gus Jackson was again willing to perform this role. A proposal by Keith Ashall, seconded by Gill Harris was carried.

10.0 Election of Committee. Most of the committee who had served during the past year were willing to stand for re-election. Marje Massey had indicated that she wished to stand down. Moira Dickinson had been co-opted to the committee during the year. David Thornton proposed that the committee be re-elected en bloc and this was seconded by Alan Jones. This was approved. Anne Slater proposed Judy Lowe for election to the committee. Seconded by Angela Wilkinson and carried.

11.0 Suggestions from members. No ideas were put forward.

12.0 Any other business. Gill Harris welcomed Councillor Stephen Glover to the meeting. She also read out a letter from St Helens Council about urban regeneration. The Secretary again drew the meeting’s attention to the web site. In 2004 there had been 5,096 page views from more than 56 countries. The UK was predominant with USA second. Again the history page had been most popular with the “About Rainhill” page second and the latest news page third. The Secretary invited any members to contact him by email to arrange for email reminders and updates to be sent to them.

The business meeting was followed by a talk from David Innes about historic and listed buildings in St Helens.