The meeting was organised by a steering committee with the intention of forming a residents association for the improved environment of Mow Cop. There had been a few meetings by the steering committee in order to draft a constitution for the committee and also to begin action to obtain custodianship of the the waste ground opposite St. Thomas Church.
The piece of land in question was owned once by George Harding who had a shop there, however due to the layout of the road at the junction of the Church it was becoming dangerous, so the council made a compulsory purchase of the land and demolished the buildings with a view to road improvements.
30 years later planning permission was being saught to build a chip shop on the land, this is when the people of Mow Cop said no. A petition was set up in opposition to building work in the nearby local shop "Castle Stores" which was well supported. A public meeting was called and members of the council attended; there was an initial success and planning permission was refused. Due to the massive local support that this dispute had generated, group of locals decided to see if a residents association could be formed, a steering committee was gathered which is where I pick up the story.
The meeting was chaired initially
by Chris Budd and would have the following objectives.
- The update the residents as to where we were with regard the disputed land.
- The elect a committee
- To see what other areas for improvement there might be
- And to propose a constitution
There were several guests in
attendance including Rob Bateman of Newcastle-under-Lyme Housing
and PC Matt Lovatt, Mow Cop's new Local Community Beat Officer.
Once the talking was over a committee was elected and the public meeting
bought to a close, the committee remained and roles were within the committee
were appointed.
Hopefully by the next committee meeting on October 10th we will have more information concerning the wasted land opposite St. Thomas Church.
None of the above would have been possible if it were not for the help of Noshin Flynn from Newcastle CVS who talked to the steering committee and helped to write our draft constitution, we hope Noshin and Newcastle CVS will continue to help in this way and continue to offer advice.
