Findon Valley Residents' Association
Protecting the interests of our community and the countryside around us
Tuesday 12th November: Findon Valley Free Church
Chair's Welcome
We send our best wishes to Colin Edwards who has recently been in hospital.
In attendance
Lorraine Taylor (LT) Neil Worsfold (NW) Terry Field (TF) Clive Sanders (CS) Sean Philip (SP) Richard Moore (RM) and Paula Barnes (PB) remotely
Apologies
Matthew Ward (MW) Chloe Paddock (CP) Denise Edwards (DE)
Minutes of last meeting and Matters Arising
The Minutes from September meeting were not received by everyone, so were resent and will be signed off next time.
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Webmasters Report
· Over the last 90 days we have seen 1,059 unique visitors (or in other words, just over 1,000 different people) to the website, contributing 1,765 sessions. So, many of those 1,000 people are coming back more than once. On average, visitors spend just shy of 5 minutes on the website (4 minutes and 57 seconds to be precise!) - that's a really strong statistic; 5 minutes is a long time!
· The best week we've had since we've had access to Wix analytics at least, was the 7 days after the 8th September when we hosted the FV5K. That week saw 350 unique visitors, spending 6 minutes and 16 seconds on the website.
· On average, over the last 3 months we've had around 76 people visit the website each week, but over the last 3 weeks that's grown to 162 unique visitors per week - so engagement with our new website is really growing.
· Most Viewed Pages
· Over the last 30 days the most viewed pages were the Homepage (unsurprising - this is always going to be the top). But we are also seeing a lot of interest in the Christmas Extravaganza page - I'd suggest really we should build out more content around this as we have stall holders confirmed...it'd be nice to have a little blurb on each of them that we could potentially also post across social media to drum up interest?
· Visitors to website is steady around 100 per week, this jumps significantly when there is an event. Dog show 280, 5K 350.
· Most visited pages 5K, 5K positions and times, 5K impacted roads.
· Facebook 640 followers, the best to date.
Treasurers Report
· Current Account £2,645.84
· Gross Total £14,784.82
Membership Report
· Current membership, as at end October, 351
We received 7 renewals and 3 new members last month.
MailerLite email marketing
As of today, we have 516 Subscribers of which 331 are members
Emails distributed by MailerLite
Date sent recipients opened
Road Closure 22/10 329 75%
Market October 21/10 515 56%
History group October 20/10 330 65%
Hate crime 16/10 215 60%
Prostate Cancer Awareness 15/10 515 59%
MP at Halloween Market 11/10 514 66%
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School Liaison
Thank you Matthew for hosting a small group of Vale children - November 5th. They always enjoy coming along to help.
I have asked Vale School to share our CE poster with the school community through November and early December.
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Friends of Findon Valley
· Six people attended a work party in the Community orchard where we cleared around the tree bases and prepared planting sites for new hedging plants.
·At the library a small party weeded and cut limbs overhanging the memorial Sorbus near the library.
·I am finishing a plan for the Quiet Garden at Vale School which I hope will be approved so that work can commence.
·Next work party is on Saturday 16th when we will be clearing a bramble clump which is growing across the path up to Cissbury Ring, meet at Storrington Rise car park at 10am.
·I met with a couple of people from Worthing Larks Morris dancers and they have agreed to wassail the community orchard on Saturday 4th January, details to be finalised.
· I am happy to help at the Christmas Event and to ask other Findon friends to.
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Highways update
· LT has approached Elizabeth Sparks, WSCC councillor and Adam Bazeley to arrange a meeting to discuss a Community Highways Scheme for Findon Valley.
Local History Project
· October meeting welcomed local historian and authors Colin Read and Mary McKeown. There were more than 60 people in attendance.
· Next meeting Friday 29th November.
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Chairs Report
· Markets
Market attendance in October was at an all time record of 507 boosted undoubtedly by the lovely sunny weather. The stallholder raffle was a success and raised £70. The Halloween Scavenger Hunt was very popular, thank you to Paula for organising that. The visit of Tom Rutland MP was well received and he was attentive and complimentary of our efforts. The next Market is Sunday 24th November and Sharon has suggested having another raffle. Sue Lanceley will not be having her stall again so only one gazebo will be required. Can set up team please use the market crib sheet to only take items needed from the store, the big black box should not be being lugged around, we have the trolley for transporting what we need and we don't want anyone to hurt themselves.
· Community Garden
Matthew and Maggie welcomed the Vale School children to the Community Gardening session on Tuesday. The garden is looking tidy and still colourful as we approach winter. Jeff has now repaired and repainted the first trough.
· Store
Finally, the second recycling hopper is in place but each time I have gone by since there have been bags stacked up! I saw the operatives emptying them yesterday and the larger one had plenty of room, I will remind Dan H re signage. We are now waiting for Adam Bazeley from WSCC to arrange the moving of the two planters from Kings Parade.
· Offington Panel Meeting
Next meeting 14th November 10am if anyone has anything for me to bring up or if you would like to attend.
Cissbury Fields Working Group
I have still not received minutes from the meeting held in September and it seems the meeting schedule is being rethought. I am going to suggest that AWC present a Cissbury Fields update at our AGM in March.
VSCE Session Town Hall 14th November
Adur and Worthing Councils are reviewing how they support voluntary and community groups and social enterprises. I have been invited to be part of the discussion and analysis group . This piece of work will influence how the Council fund and support local groups.
Christmas Extravaganza Thursday 12th December 2024
· Plans are coming along well, there have been a number of regular stallholders who have booked and payments are now starting to come in. Thanks to PB and Sharon for their help.
· Neil has issued a planning document accessed via DropBox, some of us could and some of us couldn't!
· Clive presented the draft Risk Assessment, RM has a copy of this, any amendments please let CS know.
· Richard has background music sorted for the event.
· Entertainment has been arranged with Vale School (PB has small gift for those participating), All Saints, Singers Rechoired and Mark Bassey all booked.
· Terry will check and charge the Walkie Talkies for use on the day. The inflatable snowman and singing snowmen have been checked.
· PB has not heard from Findon Vale Garden Centre regarding a tree or number of small trees. RM kindly offered to try and source trees to borrow for the event.
· It has been suggested that we offer a number of hamper style prizes in the raffle. The stallholders will be asked to give something which will be the first prize. LT has several items from previous events that can be used to make up others.
· PB has bought and prepared cracker making, magnet making resources for Christmas Crafts PB has prepared signs and sent them to RM
NW will source Father Christmas outfit
LT will order green father Christmas hats for FVRA to wear at Event, FVFC will be in purple. We will then be easier to locate during the event.
LT will get batteries for 6 x sets of string lights and check tea lights.
AOB
· A tree has been removed from the Central Ave end of Hazlehurst Cresecent and the curbing has been damaged leaving a dangerous trip hazard. LT will investigate.
· There is a low loader constantly parked in Limetree Avenue complete with old car aboard. It belongs to a resident on the corner of Limetree and Cissbury Drive. Sadly it is taxed and MOT'd but LT will bring to the attention of Elizabeth Sparkes and PCSO
· The troublesome BMW parked for long enough for it's tyres to perish in Cissbury Gardens is now on the owner's drive!
· SP clarified email forwarding procedure .
Date of next meeting
Tuesday 3rd December 7pm OR Tuesday 10th December 7pm FVFC
Please let me know which is best.
AOB suggestions to chair by Friday prior to the meeting for inclusion in this meeting. To ensure we finish promptly, some issues may be deferred to the next meeting.
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