Horncastle Matters Group

 Notes from the Horncastle Matters meeting held on Tuesday 18^th July 2017 at 5pm in The Stanhope Hall meeting room

In attendance: Cllrs Brian Burbidge, Angela Birchall and Rose Williams (HTC), Amanda Bushell (Town Clerk), Bill Aron (HWMC), Jean Shaftoe (JBC) and Mary Silverton (HHHS)

1. 1. Apologies – apologies were received from Linda Patrick. 
2. Agree notes from meeting on 19 January 2017 – agreed.

Amanda was asked to check that the Terms of Reference had been approved by the Town Council. 

3. To discuss the action points in the notes not covered on the agenda –

Mary clarified the situation with the buildings at risk register because it had been stated at the previous meeting that the register was produced by the HHHS and this had never been the case. Mary explained that Heritage England checked and updated the register every October, and a copy of the register was held by ELDC and was also available on the Historic England website. Anything that the HHHS spotted wrong with buildings in the town was reported to ELDC who tended to deal with it or report it to Historic England.

The issue of coach parking in the town was discussed and it was agreed that a coach park was needed, but first a suitable location had to be identified. It was suggested that the Town Council should raise this issue with ELD Cllr Grist when he attended the September Town Council meeting.

 

4. Update on current projects: 

Walking map and information boards – Mary reported that not a lot of progress had been made since the previous meeting. The locations for the information boards had been worked out, but the project was being delayed because the person helping Mary kept leaving. Work had been done on the walking map, but help was needed with this. Bill told the meeting that the War Memorial Centre had agreed to fund one information boards to go at the centre. 

Brown signs – Bill had spoken to the Tourist Office who was reluctant to go forward as there was a cost involved for applying for Brown signs. It was suggested that this matter should go back on the Town Council agenda for it to decide if it wanted them, but before this happened it would be necessary to have a good idea of what attractions in the town the signs would be promoting. The previous information on Brown signs needed to be looked at and costs needed to be established.  

5.  Update on enhancing the Horncastle section of the Love Lincolnshire Wolds website – This was now complete, so this item was no longer needed. 
6. Update on forthcoming events/activities/projects in the town and any help required supporting/advertising them:

The following events were mentioned and discussed: 

– Christmas Festival – Sunday 10^th December – new members were needed on the organising committee. A separate event to switch on the Christmas lights was discussed, and this would be something for the Town Council’s Christmas Light Working Group to consider. The Church’s Christmas Tree Festival would be taking place the same weekend.

 – National Heritage Day weekend and open churches weekend – Saturday 9^th and Sunday 10^th September – lots of activities taking place in the town. 

–  Town Council surgery on the market on Saturday 22^nd July. 

–  The 200^th anniversary of the death of Sir Joseph Banks would be taking place in 2020. The JBC will be organising several events to commemorate Sir Joseph Banks and it was hoped that other organisations would also hold events to raise the profile. They were currently looking at organising 5-10 days of concentrated activities in September 2020, which would hopefully attract people from further afield. Organisation of events was at a very early stage.

 –  2018 would be the centenary of the end of World War I – HWMC has started work on something, and it was hoped that the HHHS would work with them.

7.  To consider the Town Council Draft Forward Plan and to suggest items to be included in the plan – It was explained that the Forward Plan was an opportunity for residents to feed into the Town Council ideas for projects/changes in the Town.

The following items were suggested:

–   Enhancing the river banks

–   Improving the appearance of the pump on Boston Road. New fencing needed to go around it.

–   Animal statues to go in old cattle market pens

–   Brown tourism signs to attract more visitors to the town 

8. Any other matters

Angela mentioned that the Church was producing a quarterly magazine, and were proposing to name it “Horncastle Matters”. It was suggested that the Church be asked to change the name of the magazine.

To check if the Cityscape maps are up to date – Amanda to find out how often they are updated and ask them to send a copy of the latest maps being sold in the machines.

9.  Date of next meeting – Thursday 28^th September at 5pm at the Stanhope Hall 

Meeting closed at 6.15pm.

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Horncastle Matters – Thursday 3rd November 2016 

Present: 

Bill Aron, Angela Birchall and Rose Williams (Horncastle Town Council)

Mary Silverton (Horncastle History and Heritage Society)

Linda Patrick (St Mary’s Church)

Paul Scott (Joseph Banks Centre) 

1. Apologies – apologies were received from Chrissie Chapman (HHHS) and Luke (Tescos)

2. Agree notes from meeting on 8th September – noted 

3. To discuss action points in notes not covered on the agenda – Gillian asked about how best to inform other groups about Horncastle Matters and invite them to get involved.  It was agreed everyone would help compile a list of groups and email addresses for an invite to go out. 

It was suggested that Horncastle needed a development plan outlining where it was hoped the town would be in the future and different projects that would help it achieve this.  It was decided to discuss this further at the next meeting alongside feedback from Paul Scott on his presentation for the town to the Town Council. 

4. To discuss and develop the Terms of Reference for the group – amendments to the current terms of reference were suggested.  Gillian to send out amended version for comments.

5. Update on current projects:

Walking map and information boards – Bill, Angela and Linda were working on this.  A report was circulated for comment.  The report outlined the range of tourist attractions that town had to offer and possible symbols that could go on the brown signs.  Quotes were also provided from Sprint Signs for finger posts in the town which could be used to signpost attractions.  The group supported the report moving forward to help source funding.

Brown signs – Mary and Gillian were working on this.  It was suggested that there could be 8 boards around town tying in with the town walk leaflet.  Possible help with funding might come from the War Memorial Hospital and Linda suggested that the church might be able to fund one in their grounds.

Examples of the sort of boards they were looking at could be seen at Woodhall, Wilksby Church and in the Wolds.  These would now be contacted for details on costs and manufactures.  It was agreed that the Town Council would be approached to ask if they would apply for planning permission for them.  

6. Update on forthcoming events/activities/projects in the town and any help required supporting/advertising them – upcoming events included the Christmas market, Christmas tree event in the church, a gallery opening in town and the launch of the Lincolnshire Wolds website and Destination Plan. 

Mary reported that the HHHS would be refurbishing the tubs at the top of West Street and Gillian reported that the baskets on the bridge had been restocked for winter by HHHS volunteers and the hanging baskets were due to be done soon.

7. Any other matters – concerns were raised again about pigeons in the town and the state of some of the buildings. 

8. Date of next meeting – mid January 

 Three Way Meeting – 3 February 2016

In attendance: 

Town Council

• Cllr Bill Aron
• Cllr Angela Birchall (Chairman)
• Cllr Rose Williams 

Horncastle History and Heritage Society 

• Mary Silverton 
• Chrissie Chapman

Horncastle Federation for Trade, Commerce and Industry

• Ben Smith 

1. Apologies – none 

2. Notes from 4 November 2015 meeting – noted

3. Update on action points from last meeting not covered as an agenda item – none

4. Update on options for signpost advertising businesses on West Street and brown tourist signs – other prices had been obtained for the West Street sign and brown tourist signs.  Neither worked out much cheaper than the quotes previously obtained and it was noted that if they did not go with LCC to do the brown tourist signs then there was a lot of work involved. 

Agreed – leave the West Street sign at present and take the brown tourist sign back to the town council as it was felt that this was beneficial for the town.  The group would prefer to see the Roman symbol on it though rather than the antiques one and then work towards improving signage to the sections of the Roman walls. 

5. Update on re-launching the Business Federation – Ben reported that the group really wasn’t in existence at present but if he could get a couple of businesses involved it might be possible to resurrect it.

6. Update on Lincolnshire Wolds Tourism meetings and conference in April – this was developing well. There was a conference taking place on 20 April and it was hoped that this would be a success.

Rose reported that she had met with Magna Vita to discuss the Wolds Words event which Horncastle had not been included in last year.  Magna Vita confirmed that the town would be included this year. 

7. Draft press release regarding pigeons in the town – Gillian had finally drafted a press release and circulated it for comments.  It was agreed that this would now go to the paper from the group. 

8. Ideas for publicizing local shops and shopping locally – Gillian provided details on a scheme she had seen up and running in Newark called Totally Locally.  It was a national scheme and it was down to businesses in each town to get it up and running and make it work for them.

Ben offered to take the paperwork away and see if it was something he could use to get the Business Federation up and running again. 

9. Update on joint projects in the town – heritage trail (artwork around the town), updating the town trail, floral displays – the floral displays were working well.  The Town Council was providing the funding for planters and plants and volunteers from the History and Heritage Society were putting them together and maintaining them. 

The town trail extension was being worked on by the History and Heritage Society and there was an idea to tie this in with the heritage trail (the black and white artwork) and then put in a funding bid for both. 

10. Any other matters – it was suggested that the vicar’s wife be invited to a future meeting as she had a background in communications/tourism

11. Date of next meeting – 13th April at 5.30pm