Chairman: Acting Hon. Sec.

:
Andrew Riley Roz Lester
23 Winchester Road 18 Winchester
HA6 1JG Road
aandmriley@sky.com HA6 1JF
nhra@hotmail.co.uk

NORTHWOOD HILLS RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION

at Fairfield Evangelical Church

MINUTES of the Committee Meeting held on

WEDNESDAY 17th July 2013, 7.30 PM
(Subject to approval)
PRESENT
Andrew Riley (ARly) Chairman
Leo Mindel (LM) Vice-Chairman
Maxine Goswell (MG) Temp. Minutes Secretary
Anila Hashim (AH) Planning
Joan Butfield (JB) Member Pikes End
Cllr Andrew Retter (AR) Ward councillor
Graham Mann (GM) Police Rep
Herbert Levinger (HL) Transport
Pauline Sherman (PS) Resident
John Morgan (JM) Ward councillor
Jonathan Bianco (JB) Ward councillor
Lucy Hall (LHL) Committee Member
Alan Lester (AL) Editor, Hills Echo
Trevor Dixon (TD) Committee Member
Gill Peters Resident
Kobra Browne Resident
Lesley May Resident
If your initials are in BOLD, then you have an outstanding action
from the meeting to report on at the next meeting. Thank you.

1. Apologies for Absence received from:

Christine Bushell (CB) Events

Fiona Morgan (FM) Treasurer
Tony Lane (TL) President
Lesley Crowcroft (LC) Environment

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Sgt Alison Jeffrey (AJ) Met Police
Roz Lester (RL) Acting Hon Secretary
Paul Akers (PA) Senior Road Steward
Lynne Halse (LH) Events Organiser
Jane Clayfield (JC) Committee member

2. Minutes of Meeting held on 26 June 2013: approved.

3. Matter Arising (not tabled as Agenda Items): none.

4. Chairman’s Report
The Chairman started the meeting by reporting he had been
advised that the Northwood Hills Conservative group have
now made their candidate nomination list ahead of next
year's election. As such it is appropriate that NHRA, as per
last time around, set a policy regarding political candidates
attending NHRA Committee Meetings, to ensure that we are
not simply overrun with people seeking political office. The
meeting approved, based on 4 years ago, the following;
1) We allow all three elected Councillors to attend meetings
up to the time of the elections provided that they are not
using the meetings for political gain.
2) We allow any candidate who lives in the Ward of
Northwood Hills, and their household is a member of NHRA,
to attend meetings, again on the proviso that they do not
use the meetings for political gain.

The Chairman reported that due to a holiday and this

meeting being a week earlier than normal he had little to
report;

He had attended the Hillingdon Chamber of Commerce’s MPs

Business Breakfast Meeting which none of the 3 local MPs
were able to make, due to illness and a three line whip
requiring the other 2 to be in Parliament for a vote on
Europe!

He had attended the Northwood Hills Forum which was

jointly organised by NHRA with Nick Hurd and Northwood
RA (see 5 Events)

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5. Events
a) The Northwood & Northwood Hills Forum: 27th June –
Lucy Hall reported that this had gone well, with good
feedback. Items discussed included:
Cottage Hospital; with the Health Centre, pharmacists &
Northwood@Home reps all meeting for the first time.
Young volunteers, paired up with older volunteers visiting the
elderly was to be progressed at a meeting next week.
Joining of youth and elderly in the community: Aural History
project involving Haydon School Students interviewing older
residents. Hillingdon Borough Education dept may be able to
help co-ordinate it as funding is not available for it to be run
by a school only. Eileen Bowlt was suggested as someone who
may wish to be involved. LHl to progress.
Community Choir & Gardening: a leader would be required for
these to get off the ground. ARly to research Groundforce,
Hillingdon Rural Activities Centre and other options.
b) The Big Lunch: 14th July – 300 residents attended and the
singing competition went well. There were posters and
flyers available, it was on Facebook, though some felt it had
not been well publicised. Agreed that the email lists in
NHRA and ERA do cover a lot of residents these days.
Thanks to CB for her organisation.
c) Supper Quiz – 21st September: AL reported that all the
questions were prepared. ARly to discuss organisation with
LH.
d) Northwood Hills Clean Up Day –Sat 28th September at
10am.
e) Christmas Lights – 16th November: LBH budget still needs
confirmation. Bennet Holmes have kindly agreed to sponsor
the colour printing of the Carol Sheets. LHl to progress
Haydon School involvement.

6. Redevelopment of Northwood Hills

The Green Spaces team had recently provided flower

baskets on the lampposts along Joel St. These would be
migrated to the new ones as they were installed. The
Improvement works were due to start on 29 th July, with a
Steering Mtg to be held on 24th July. Please see appendix
‘Northwood Hills Improvement Scheme’.

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7. Environment-

Arens Wine Bar and Restaurant (formerly the Woodman)

was still causing problems to residents, beyond just the
opening weekend. The Friday/Saturday licence until 2am
was granted in 2005, but has never been used before. The
noise and unacceptable behaviour in the early hours of the
morning have been referred to LB Hillingdon and the Police
but a case load of evidence and issues has to be built before
action beyond just the current warning to the new owner,
Chris Arens, can be taken. All residents were urged to take
notes of any unacceptable patron behaviour. It seems to be
pulling customers from a wide area, posing as a nightclub
without going into the West End, but there is a lot of
outside drinking and car noise as people both arrive and
leave. It was noted that the natural land contour causes a
dip, so the noise travels a long way, disturbing many
residents. The building is Grade 2 listed. Should there be
crime and serious disorder, then residents should call the
police.

8. Health – No report as HL was not able to attend the last

Community Voice meeting. There was to be a meeting at the
Civic Centre with Dr Goodman on 31 July.

9. Planning – a further application to convert the restaurant at

the top of Northwood Hills roundabout (123 Joel St) into a
dentist had been submitted. The previous one had been
withdrawn when the negotiations had fallen through.

114 Pinner Road application for change from commercial to

residential use had been refused and was going to appeal.

104 Pinner Road has been given permission for occasional

night working, (funeral directors).

129 Tolcarne Drive had submitted extension plan but

measurements across all the elevations did not match. AH
hoped that the planning officers would pick this up.

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65 Hillside Road extension was approved but the roof being
lifted was rejected.

AR reported that there had been a number of unannounced raids on

‘Beds in Sheds’ accommodations recently.

NORTHWOOD SCHOOL POTTER STREET NORTHWOOD. JM

reported that contrary to ALs understanding NO Planning
Application had been submitted for the Heathrow UTC
development.

POST MEETING NOTE: LBH Planning Web Site -Submitted on 1

July: Application for demolition of existing 2-3 storey teaching
block; construction of new 3-storey University Technical College
(UTC); car parking; landscaping; retention of existing pedestrian
and vehicular access; and ancillary development.

JM reported that the proposed changes to domestic

Permissible Development Guidelines had been dropped by
central government and LBH could not alter these.

POST MEETING NOTE: please find below Planning Law

Update issued confirms changes have been made to
domestic Planning Policy.

This note is based on the briefing given by the Hillingdon

Head of Planning regarding the recent changes to planning
introduced by the government: Cllr Eddie Lavery: 29 June
2013.

Household Permitted Development

Detached properties can build an 8 metre single storey rear

extension and other properties a 6 metre extension without
applying for planning permission.

It cannot cover more than 50% of the garden and must not
exceed 3 metres in height within 2 metres of the boundary.

The applicant must notify the council who will write to the
immediate neighbours. If no objections are received within
21 days of the application being lodged the proposal is

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 deemed to be permitted development. If objections are
received the council have 20 days to assess the impact on
residential amenity.

The deadlines cannot be extended and there is no right to

have a planning committee hearing or for petitions to be
lodged.

The right does not apply to conservation areas or where

permitted development rights are withdrawn.

Extensions must be completed by 30/05/16.

Shops.

For a 2 year period it is not necessary for shops to seek

change of use permission to change the use from A1.

Offices

These can be converted to residential properties. The

council has 56 days to consider the proposal but only on
transport and highway grounds.

10. Transport – GATEHILL ESTATE ROAD RESURFACING

A schedule of remedial work to be carried out during the
month of July has now been drawn up with the help of an
expert and hopefully this will be the basis of an agreement
with the contractor for finally completing this project.

HILINGDON MOTORISTS FORUM

The representative of Hillingdon Council raised the issue of
the extra traffic which will be cause by the HS2
construction. 800 heavy earth moving vehicles per day will
be moving through Ruislip.

PLANS TO OVERHAUL CENTRAL LEGISATION

GOVERNING TRAFFIC SIGN DESIGN AND USE
Review process for major changes to signage to begin
shortly. Local traffic and transport chiefs will be given the
chance to respond to the reforms through a peer review
process.
Included among the proposals are:-

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 Local authorities could have sole discretion over signing such
matters as speed limit changes rather than having to repeat
the signs at regular intervals. Highway authorities would
have sole discretion over sign lighting removing the
mandatory requirement for direct lighting on certain signs
altogether and allowing them to be lit by reflectivity only.

Pothole filling in Highland Road had now been completed. The

Yellow lines by the allotments had also now been completed.

Noted that petitions by residents, for instance for filling of

roads pot holes may not all be heard at LBH committee now,
if the road in question is already due to be resurfaced, they
will be told of the scheduled date.

The Croxley Rail link surveys have now started and work is
expected from 2014-2016. This will be the link from
Northwood Hills to Watford High Street and Watford
Junction. The Watford station at Cassiobury Park closing.
There will be a new station at Vicarage Road and the old
print works, by the Travelodge.

11. Finance - No update. However the Chairman reported that

he had been advised by FM that this year’s subscription
income was above that of the previous year.

12. Police -The Home Secretary announced the launch of a

public consultation on stop and search from 2nd July until
13th August. The purpose of the consultation is to provide
the public with an opportunity to have their say about the
future use of stop and search. This is attached as an
appendix and is also available online on the GOV.UK website.

GM reported that under Section 19; 5,000 Police Officers

with over 30 years’ service will be likely to be made
redundant next year, seemingly due to their expensive
salaries in comparison to younger officers.

The extra demands put on the Force last summer has meant
that many officers are taking extended holidays this July
and August, to make up for those lost last year.

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 It was noted that there had been a petition submitted by
residents regarding the speed of traffic on the Pinner Road,
requesting traffic calming measures. It was recognised that
implementation was difficult due to it being an A route. Joel
St & Fore St were also seen as having too much speeding
traffic.

There was only one CCTV car in LBH and it was currently not
in use. Although speeding crimes have to be dealt with by
the police, it would be helpful if LBH could identify the
problem cars re speeding/bad parking, especially outside
schools. The suggestion of residents being trained to use
speed trap equipment, though not able to issue tickets, was
to be taken by ARly to AJ.

Motorbikes/scooters seemed to have moved up to the

Hillside area and were now causing a nuisance there.
Residents were urged to note colours of bikes/helmets and
registration numbers if possible,

2 cars had recently been stolen from Highland Road where

the thieves had taken the keys through the letterboxes.

13. Councillors Report – it was reported that the Green Waste

collection was moving from fortnightly to weekly. In August
purple bags will be provided for textiles/leather weekly
collections with the money raised being passed by LBH to
charities. A leaflet is due to be distributed to households
with the next Hillingdon People Magazine. More items will
also be recyclable in the recycling bags from the summer,
again details in the leaflet. Boxes for Food Waste recycling
can also now be requested, one for weekly collection, one for
daily use in the kitchen.

JM agreed to talk to the shop neighbouring Cartridge World

to ensure their rubbish collection is improved.

14. The Hills Echo - AL hopes that the next issue will be full
colour if sufficient advertising is achieved. All present were

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 asked to consider submitting articles, news, diary items for
the print deadline of 1 September. ALL

15. Web Masters Report – LHL reported that she had ben in
contact with the Web Master and that Haydon 6th Formers
were to undertake a project to investigate the look and feel
of the website during the Autumn term.

16 Road Stewards - PS requested that all Road Stewards have

a list of all the Road Stewards and their contact nos. A
section on the website may be useful. PS was arranging a
meeting for the residents in her local area to discuss
pertinent issues. Haydon School reps would attend.

17. Dates of Next Meeting – Wednesday 25 September at

Fairfield

18. Any Other Business – the frequency of the meetings was to

be put on the agenda for the next meeting. Rather than
monthly meetings, perhaps move to 6 a year, every six weeks
(or every half term) instead of the 9 currently held. The
AGM would be an additional meeting each year as it is now.

Will all those who submit reports please submit a written

report before the next Committee meeting.

Appendix: Diary Dates for 2013

1st Sept Copy Deadline for The Echo
Saturday 21st September Quiz Night
Wed 25th September Committee Meeting @ Fairfield
Wed 23rd October Committee Meeting @ Fairfield
Saturday 16th November Christmas Lights
Wed 27th November Committee Meeting @ Fairfield
Wed 18th December Christmas meal

Appendices

Northwood Hills Improvement Scheme

Police Public consultation on stop and search