Last Night's AGM - OurBiggest Yet!!!
- Mar 11
- 3 min read
The Epping Society Committee would like to thank everyone who turned up last night for our AGM.
It was certainly the biggest turn out we have ever had with approximately 60 people attending to the point that it was standing room only for latecomers. We apologise for not having enough chairs for those who had to stand and will certainly consider using a bigger room next year or at least have extra chairs on standby.
We were delighted that our MP for Epping Forest, Neil Hudson was, able to attend and chat with people afterwards.
The meeting was opened by our President John Batchelor who welcomed those present and gave a flavour of some of our successes and issues over the last year and particularly highlighted the contribution of our 'newish' website has made to our 'comms'.
Roger Lowry, our Vice Chair then stood in on behalf of our Chair Christine Burt who could not be with us on the night. Roger highlighted our success with the prevention of the demolition if the 'Great Redwood' tree in Tidy's Lane.
We managed to get aprox 1,200 signatures in less than 3 weeks and resulted in our Planning Officer, Charles Geddes being invited onto BBC Radio Essex on 2 occasions. The Epping Society were well represented at the council meeting and the proposal was unanimously rejected.
Roger highlighted that more recently we have taken the council to task over the non-release of last years 'South Epping Masterplan Consultation' which ran at over 300 pages and was only released after we made a 'freedom of information' request. Reading the report it became obvious why it was not released as over 3/4 residents reject the plan. We were pleased the the Epping Forest Guardian chose to feature our work on the front page and page 3 of their most recent edition.
The accounts were then presented by our treasurer, Cliff Mitchell with news that membership had risen quite considerably over the last year thanks mainly to the ease of joining via the website. Overall the accounts are in a healthy state.
Further short presentations were made by Charles Geddes on Planning and Richard Mathams on IT / Comms issues.
Finally, we were treated to a fascinating talk by out guest speaker, Eddie Vickranges on the Epping / Ongar Railway who detailed the fascinating history of the Railway and the contribution it makes today offering fun days out where you can experience travel from days of old. In addition to the Christmas train which is decked out in lights they also offer fish and chip or Cream Tea journeys and much more besides.
For more information click on the link below. We highly recommend as it makes for a unique experience.
The meeting then closed and everyone was free to stay for wine / soft drinks and nibbles and enjoy each others company.
We would once again like to thank everyone who came along and look forward to seeing you again soon we hope.
Just as a final request. We have 2 openings to help us if you are able to.
1/ The first is to assist our Planning Officer with planning issues
2/The other is to look after membership issues.
Neither required a great deal of time commitment bit if you would like to help, simply email us at info@eppingsociety.org
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