Old Town Residents Association's AGM is open to all residents on 15 March via Zoom

It is now a year since we started living restricted lives and conducting our residents’ meeting on Zoom.

Hopefully, we might be able to meet in person sometime soon, but we have organised our AGM to be held on Monday 15 March, on Zoom at 7.30pm. Details for joining the meeting are on our Facebook page and you do not need to pay to join a Zoom meeting. On the agenda will be discussion about the installation of EV (electric vehicle) charging points in the Eastcott area, the upgrading of the railway path and the litter issue, for which we would like to initiate a campaign.

Access points to railway footpath, running from Old Town to the west, are worn, muddy and not very safe and the surface of the path has become eroded in places. We understand that there may be grant money available for improvements, including the introduction of hard surfaces at access points, so that they can be safely used by a wider range of people, including wheel chair users. However, your views are sought on the best ways of doing this without losing the character of the area and the path.

Much discussion has been generated on the subject of EV charging points in the residential streets in the Eastcott area. At present there is government grant money available to cover much of the cost and the points need to be available before people in the area can consider buying electric cars. However each charging bay would mean two less parking spaces in an area where there is already competition for spaces. One way to mitigate this might be to identify a few extra spaces which could be created, by replacing some double yellow lines with single ones, thus enabling the spaces to be used for night time parking. Your help in identify possible sites would be welcomed. It is anticipated that around 12 spaces in total, in zones D and H would be converted into charging bays.

During the last year the amount of litter in our open spaces has increased considerably and there is a number of people who regularly go out litter picking. We are very grateful to them, but they should not have to do this, if we all simply took our litter home with us, or put it in a bin. It is not just the untidiness, but the impact it has on the environment. Small animals get stuck in plastic bags and bottles and die and birds use the material in their nests and consume bits of plastic. People have been injured on vandalised steps on the Lawns and benches have been made unusable for people wanting to rest,  although the Parish has now replaced these. Ideas for a campaign to take pride in our environment would be welcome at our AGM.

Hopefully, by the time you read this we will be able to work on our gardens again and if you are interested in helping details of how to contact us are on our Facebook page, facebook.com/groups/oldtownresidents

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