Annual General Meeting – Ashefield Residents Association

The 2014 Annual General Meeting of Ashefield Residents Assocation will be held on Wednesday 11 June at 8pm in the Newbury Hotel, Green Bridge, Mullingar

All residents of the estate are welcome

Items for discussion

  • Presentation of the 2013 accounts – available on this website
  • Discussion of the maintenance and remedial works in the coming year
  • Election of the new committee for 2014

Dear Resident,

Thanks for your support in 2013 and we are sure that you will be as supportive in the coming year. As outlined above, we are holding our AGM on June 11th in the Newbury. We would welcome your attendance to bring you up to date on the work completed over the past few months.

With a view to continuing the work that your contribution has paid for, members of the Residents Assocication will be circulating in the coming weeks – requesting a contribution of €20 per household ( reduced from €30 in 2013 ). To make things easier, we can also accept payments via our Paypal account on this website.

It cost approximately €1345 to cut the grass and do other repairs to the common areas in the estate in 2013. Details of these and the full accounts are available on this website.

The collection has been well supported in the past and we are sure that we can rely on your support once again this year. We realise that we all have extra pressures due to Property Tax, etc. However, despite home owners paying this, the County Councils are not providing any additional services. It therefore requires us, the residents, to maintain the common areas and look after the upkeep of the estate common areas.

This request is being made to all residents; either renting their home or homeowner. However if you are renting your home and feel that this request is better directed to your landlord, we would appreciate if you forwarded this message to your landlord.

We would you can attend the AGM on June 11th and look forward to meeting you.

With Kind Regards,
Ashefield Residents Association

Illegal Dumping!

Thanks to JS for this report

There have been instances of illegal dumping of rubbish or ‘fly-tipping’ in the estate over the past couple of weeks. It appears that the incidents have occurred within the laneways. This is not only illegal but represents a potentially serious health hazard.

The environment section of Westmeath Co. Co. was notified and are investigating. Cllrs Ken Glynn and Avril Whitney were also notified – many thanks to them for their quick responses and help.

Westmeath Co. Co.’s advice is that if you see someone fly-tipping, try to take note of:

  • When and where it is happening
  • Vehicle registration ( if applicable )
  • Description of the vehicle – colour, make and model. Is there anything special about it? Does it have an insignia or contact numbers?
  • What sort of rubbish is being dumped?

Please report the details to Westmeath County Council Environment Section on Lo-Call 1890 320 005 . It will only take a few minutes to report but will be a big help to the community.

Dumping in the laneway

Dumping in the laneway

Dumping in the laneway

Dumping in the laneway

Residents Association – 2013 Financial Accounts Now Available

Happy New Year to all.

Ashefield Residents Association financial accounts for 2013 are now available to download. This document lists the collected donations from each house, bank transactions and a summary of the financial status of the association.

Many thanks to everyone who have donated and helped with association activities during the year. For 2014, we hope that you will continue to offer your much-needed support. If you would like to contribute towards the upkeep of the estate common areas or have not yet been able to do so, we can accept payments by Paypal. The link is on the right hand side bar of the website. The yearly household donation is €30. Thank you again and best wishes for the New Year.

Update on green area adjacent to C-Link road – Cllr. Glynn and Westmeath Co. Co.

One of the action items from the 2013 AGM of the Ashefield Residents Association was in relation to the green area along the C-Link road. In December’s meeting of Mullingar Town Council, Cllr. Ken Glynn submitted the following question:

2.7 Cllr.Glynn: To ask Westmeath County Council to provide funding in the upcoming budget to carry out extensive works on the green area along the Western By-Pass in Ashefield as once these works have been carried out, the residents association will be in a position to maintain the green area.

Reply:

Westmeath County Council has been liaising with Mullingar Tidy Towns Committee with a view to having areas such as these upgraded in 2014 by their workers.

Thank you again for following up on this action item, Cllr. Glynn.

Cllr. Glynn’s website:
www.kenglynn.blogspot.com

Wall repairs update

Repairs to the boundary wall adjacent to the apartments near the entrance to the estate have been carried out. As discussed in the recent AGM, the planned scope of work involved the repair of blockwork and replacement of pier cappings. Thanks to Cllr. Ken Glynn, Westmeath County Council is also carrying out repairs to the sunken footpath sections next to this wall.

2013-08-09 13.51.17

2013-08-09 13.52.42

Boundary wall repairs

 

 

 

Green area adjacent to C-Link road

One of the action items from this year’s AGM was to invite a Westmeath County Council staff member to examine the green area adjacent to the C-link road to help find out who is responsible for this area and to discuss what measures can be taken. Thanks to Cllr. Ken Glynn, he and members of the residents association brought a Westmeath Co. Co. staff member to examine the area. We’ll post any further updates and outcomes on this website when available.

Laneway clean-up

Volunteer members of Ashefield Residents Association recently carried out a clean-up of a closed-off laneway within the estate. Many thanks to Joe, John and Dave who kindly gave up some of their spare time to do this. If anyone has some spare time to help with similar efforts, it would be greatly appreciated – feel free to get in contact by email if you might be able to help [info@165.227.235.101]

Joe and John working on the laneway

Joe and Dave after cleaning up the laneway

Laneway after the cleanup
Laneway after the cleanup

2013 Ashefield Residents Association AGM Report

Thanks to all the residents who attended the 2013 AGM of Ashefield Resident’s Association. We also want to thank Cllr. Ken Glynn who also participated in this meeting and provided valuable input.

Joe Gettings, Chairperson of Ashefield Residents Association, chaired the meeting and shared a presentation outlining the agenda items as follows:

The points discussed at the meeting were as follows

  • Budget and expenditure

Accounts summary 2013

The 2012 accounts were presented and all expenditure items were detailed [see the presentation for details] . Projected expenditure for 2013 was also discussed ( primarily grass cutting and upkeep of the estate common areas ). The main works carried out during 2012/2013 to date involved the maintenance of the green areas within the estate and replacement of missing signage.

  • Boundary wall at apartments

It was agreed that the boundary wall adjacent to the apartments near the entrance of Ashefield requires attention. Through the Chair, the committee took an action to seek quotes from potential contractors for the repair of the blockwork and pier cappings for the wall only. It was noted that any proposed additional work inside or outside the boundary wall could not be undertaken as it would be the clear responsibility of the apartment owners or Westmeath County Council. It was also agreed that following a review of the quotes received by the committee, the contractor offering the best value would be selected to undertake the work.

  • Annual Collection

Volunteers were identified to help collect this years contributions towards the upkeep of the common areas of the estate. A note regarding this year’s collection was distributed in the fortnight before the AGM and also posted on ashefield.com .  In addition to this, Credit Union and Westmeath County Council grants have been applied for. It was noted that the €30 annual contribution / household  in Ashefield is low compared to Petitswood Manor (€100), Lakepoint (€100), and Sherwood Park (€50).

  • Grass cutting 2013

It was agreed to retain the services of the existing contractor to the high quality and value of the work carried out.

  • Committee – election

No new nominations for the 2013 committee were received and the existing committee members were re-elected.

Joe Gettings (Chairperson)

David Conroy (Secretary)

John Scales (Treasurer)

Maria Colvert (Collection of contributions)

Martin Tourish (Collection of contributions)

Keith Nolan (Web admin)

  • Westmeath County Council

Concerns regarding  the green area adjacent to the C-Link road were discussed. In particular,  it was pointed out it is unclear who has responsibility for this area. A number of potential uses for this area and immediate actions regarding grass cutting were outlined. Cllr. Ken Glynn offered to ask a representative from Westmeath County Council to meet him and committee members at the estate to assess this area.

  • Access lane between Ashefield and Abbeylands

Issues regarding the access lane between Ashefield and Abbeylands were raised. It was agreed that no action could be considered until the views of all residents in Ashefield regarding the lane access could be surveyed.

  • Dogs and dog litter

It was agreed that dog fouling is a growing problem in the estate. Dog owners must remove their pets’ waste from public places and dispose of it in a proper manner.  Signage  advertising the law regarding this is clearly displayed at the entrance of the estate. It was also noted that dog littering does not only have to be witnessed to be reported; dog owners that do not carry a litter bag/pooper scooper when walking dogs can be reported also.

  • Closing

The meeting attendees were thanked and the meeting was adjourned at 8.45pm.