Cymdeithas Trewyddel

CYMDEITHAS TREWYDDEL (MOYLEGROVE COMMUNITY)

Cymdeithass Trewyddel is the village committee established by common consent to provide a resident's voice to represent the views and aspirations of the community in furthering its community interests, fostering community spirit and supporting any joint representations to authority.

In an age of what can be sudden and rapidly changing environmental, social, economic and demographic forces, any community - even one as small as Moylegrove - needs to have an organised voice if it is to keep up with, take advantage of or protect itself from the shifting patterns of the circumstances that affect its well-being.

Suffering from a shrinking population due to the economic forces that have affected small rural communities throughout the country, with no longer any community essential such as a pub, shop or post office, the village was faced with the loss of it's final heartbeat, that of the school. So it was that in 2002, the community organised itself with the creation of Cymdeithas Trewyddel - (C.T.) to fight against the school's proposed closure. In this endeavour, as with so many other small villages around the country, it was doomed to be unsuccessful and the school was eventually closed in July 2003. C.T. however, survived as a representative voice and began to take on further responsibilities as the need for an organised body to represent the community grew. For grant qualification purposes it became a registered charity bound by the rules of a constitution established by the Charity Commissioners. It has a bank account established for village funds raised for the benefit of the village with annual reporting accountability to the Charity Commissioners, thereby ensuring its affairs to be a matter of public record.

It is made up of ten annually elected full members who are the registered trustees of the charity for the duration of their elected term. The Committee has three registered officers, Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer, it has no powers and can wield only goodwill
and consensus.

The Committee meets six times a year at bi-monthly intervals and minutes are posted on the village notice board in the car park and hopefully in the near future on this website. Meetings are open and copies of the minutes available upon request to anyone who may be interested. An AGM is held in May when the annual term of office ends and a new one begins. New blood is always welcome.
What does it do?
Pretty much anything required of it connected to the welfare of the village. It is for instance responsible for having organised and seen through the long winded legal processes - (three years in total) - associated with the acquisition of title to the school as a community asset and construction of an appropriate trust after which it became the principle trustee.

Following two years work alongside Broadband Wales - the Assembly's body responsible for coverage of the most difficult reception areas in Wales - through a concentrated and persistent effort of representation including attempts to establish our own private system, Moylegrove became the first of the country's 35 black spots to be Broadband enabled - a huge boon to local businesses. Amongst other things it won a village speed limit and winter opening for the walkers to the facilities in the car park and it keeps a watching environmental eye on Ceibwr Bay - our village beach - for the National Trust as the number of visitors continues to grow.

Cymdeithass Trewyddel maintains a close working relationship with the two principal community support groups - PAVS (Pembrokeshire Association of Voluntary Services) and PLANED (Pembrokeshire Local Action Network for Enterprise & Development). Grant money was successfully applied for through PAVS to originally set up the much admired village newsletter and the acquisition and subsequent renewal of computer equipment to publish it, a job carried out by a dedicated editorial team of volunteers. Modest funds were also acquired to buy furniture for the school. The acquisition of grant money is an on-going process as the need for it arises and funds for rural applications become available from either the Assembly, the EU or other relevant sources.

Why We Need Your continuing Support
The funds raised from all village events and raffles go towards covering the running costs and maintenance of the school as an essential village amenity for us all to use.


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With the volunteer help of willing villagers, C.T. organises such annual events as the Raft Race, the Beach BBQ, the village Car Treasure Hunt, Bonfire Night - which has grown into an area attraction and now needs the services of a pyro-technician - Christmas carol singing in the Bethel Chapel followed by wine and mince pies at the car park gathering and Father Christmas with presents for the kids. It also now organises the growing number of social events held in the school and if we could find the necessary folk to organise it we would happily resurrect the tradition of the village carnival.
Significantly, it provides an under-used forum to discuss, debate, air or publicise concerns, suggestions, problems, disputes, and ideas. It is hoped this forum will grow now the school has become village property. It exists for the benefit of everybody and welcomes involvement. More recently it was responsible for commissioning the PLANED village survey to assess opinion on a community direction and to help us qualify for further possible grant money.
Through Cymdeithas Trewyddel, Moylegrove is able to show that it does have a voice, a heart and a structural core and we hope the foregoing gives a sense of what the community is about. Thankfully there are still some willing folk quietly working to keep our community spirit going and trying to foster awareness that the real essence of any community is involvement, without which it would be difficult to survive as a unit.
To Moylegrove residents we say, with your continued support we aim to keep this community alive and if we are to achieve this, your involvement in community activities is vital. For the moment, as a small community Moylegrove punches above its weight and we need to keep it that way. No one has yet come up with a solution to the nation-wide problem of properties in beautiful places falling into the hands of holiday home buyers and the de-personalisation and withering of small communities that results.
For Moylegrove the most positive way to combat the process is to actively support the community events that we can and do promote and encourage holiday home owners to do the same. Your visible support makes our efforts worthwhile, maintains our enthusiasm and that of those who help us and is both welcome and significant in keeping the village heart beating. After all, the more attractive and vibrant our community the more likely we are to attract permanent residents to live here.
To visitors we say, you are very welcome and we aim to make your stay as pleasant and rewarding as possible. We hope you will join in the activities we promote, enjoy the peace and tranquility of the area and respect the quality of our environment.

 

 





 
You can use the "Contact Us" facility on this website to communicate with us about anything concerning Moylegrove
or just to establish a dialogue -We would like to know what you are thinking.
You can contact your committee directly through the Secretary - Kingsley Chesworth, on 881391
or by e-mail kac.chesworth@fsmail.net

Current Chief Officers
Chairman……Peter Fletcher.
Secretary…….Kingsley Chesworth.
Treasurer…….Hazel James.

ENTERTAINMENTS COMMITTEE.
(Formally the Carnival Committee)
C.T. is keen to maintain an Entertainments Committee to have the responsibility for organising village events. Disbanding of the old entertainments committee was pretty much organic as members either left the village, suffered illness, grew old or felt they had done enough. Since then the job has been done by volunteer members of the Committee on an ad-hoc basis with help from anyone willing and available at the time.

Meetings of the old committee were very social and informal affairs regularly held in the St Andrews church hall involving the consumption of modest quantities of wine for ceremonial purposes - (most brought a bottle, not mandatory but a charming custom) - and going on for some time after village entertainment matters had been efficiently and quickly sorted. Its members regularly amounted to numbers between 16 and 20 depending on rehydration requirements and the state of the weather.
The passing of these gatherings is to be regretted, they were not only fun but things got themselves done easily, willingly and in high good humour! We would love to hear from anyone with the organising ability and time to take on the job of resurrecting an entertainments committee and we now have the rather more congenial surroundings of the school in which to gather and commune.
 

 

Cymdeithas Trewyddel

AGM Minutes, 11th May 2010 Village School

Those present – Peter Fletcher, Margaret Anthony, Hazel James, John Roberts, Ann Roberts, Ken Barnaby, Kingsley Chesworth, Dorothy James, Mike James, Ian McCarthy.

Apologies – Robert Anthony and Keith Matthews

Minutes of Last AGM 19th May 2009
Ken Barnaby proposed that these minutes were accepted as a true record of last years meeting. Margaret Anthony seconded this proposal. There were no matters arising.

Chairman’s Report
Peter Fletcher emphasised that it had been a busy and successful year and presented the attendees the following report on the events and achievements of the past year and outlined plans for the future.

Co-operative Committee
Peter thanked John Roberts and all the Co-operative Committee for organising a wide range of social events throughout the year. Each of these has made a significant contribution to Cymdeithas Trewyddel (CT) funds. Considerable time and effort was invested in arranging and catering for all these events which were enjoyed by the attendees, and as usual excellent food and refreshments were provided. The events include a German night, Quiz Evening and Christmas Party. The Christmas Party was packed out; we may need to sell tickets next year!
Thanks again to John and Ann who with the help of the rest of the Co-operative committee hosted the Open Garden at Glanawen last July, this enabled many people to explore their amazing and extensive garden.

Other Events
The expected annual events have also been held during the year and all have been well attended these included, Beach BBQ/Raft Race and Hymn Singing at Ceibwr bay.
The Bonfire and Firework Display, held at the school for the first time, still had 200 people at the event. Unfortunately, an excellent night was disrupted by torrential rain.
The Carol Service was held followed by a visit from Father Christmas to village school. The school was packed with over 30 children lined up waiting to see Father Christmas and full of adults drinking mulled wine and eating mince pies.

Village Newsletter
Margaret and the editorial team have maintained a high standard in every edition throughout the year. We have obtained a new printer thanks to a grant from PAVS. Peter thanked those people who had made donations to the Newsletter but said that we still have many outstanding. We need all the financial support we can get as each copy costs about £1.80 to produce; we have reduced the number of editions from 4 to 3 per year to help with this.
Peter thanked Ray and Judy Hartland for doing the layout and production work on the Newsletter since it started and thanked Pam and William Ashcroft who have now taken over responsibility for this work.

Village Website
Peter reminded the meeting to check the village website. It was launched in March 2008; it is easy to use, looks good and packed with information.
Peter thanked David Burns for his good work in maintaining the website.


Environment
After Keith Matthew’s dialogue with the National Trust, signs have now been replaced at Patchin glas and Ceibwr warning visitors about camping, lighting fires, litter and cleaning up after dogs.
The old tractor, trailer and boat have been removed from Ceibwr bay by the National Trust after pressure from CT. After complaints by CT the Environmental agency has addressed the issues with cloudy water coming down the river by the car park.
We are planning to install a new village notice board in the car park that will also include information about the village and the area. We will need to obtain planning permission for this and a grant from PAVs
.
Village School
The following points summarise the current situation.
The school was transferred to the village two years ago and we have managed to raise sufficient funds from our programme of events to cover the costs of maintaining the school e.g. electricity, water rates, insurance, heating, maintenance.
We have also had a series of professional surveys carried out on the state of the school, these have identified that while the basic building is sound a number of significant problems exist with damp, heating, insulation and electrical standards.
A quantity surveyor has also carried out a full assessment of our proposed plans for the refurbishment of the school and identified all the work required and estimated the total costs to be about £130K
We have started to prepare a business plan, this will contain all the information we will need to supply to the funders that we approach for grants for the school refurbishment.
We held an open village meeting last month to obtain the communities views on possible future uses of the school. This information essential for our business plan
A buy a brick scheme has been introduced, to help raise money for the refurbishment of the school. Money raised will help convince possible funders that we are committed to the project
.

Looking Ahead
Peter then provide the following summary of our plans for the next 12 months

Ensure that the village Newsletter has sufficient financial resources to continue
Complete the School Business Plan and apply for grants to refurbish the school
Identify and implement ways to obtain money to maintain the school
Set up CT as a limited company, within its charitable status
Install a new village information board (if we obtain planning permission).
Encourage other groups to use the school
Organise a wide range of village events throughout the year

Finally Peter thanked all the members of CT and the Co-operative sub-committee for the hard work and time they have contributed during the year.

Treasures Report
The audited balance sheet circulated by Hazel James was accepted by the meeting. This covered the year ending 30 April 2009 and identified a positive bank balance of £4530.
It was suggested that we check the electricity meter reading as we have had a series of estimated readings. Ian said that he would look to see if we could save water by stopping the constant flushing mechanism in the gents.

Election of New Committee
Ken Barnaby, the election officer, listed the 9 nominations he had received for the executive committee for the coming year. Ken proposed that they be elected and that Peter Fletcher be Chairman, Hazel James Treasure and Kingsley Chesworth Secretary. John Roberts seconded these proposals. All the nominations were accepted by the meeting.

Therefore the full list of elected members is

Peter Fletcher, Chairman, Erwlan (881295)
Margaret Anthony, Penffynnon (881340)
Ken Barnaby, Fferm -y- Cadno (881684)
Ian McCarthy, Swn y Nant (881654)
Dorothy James, Pwllcregyn (881262)
Kingsley Chesworth, Secretary, Bryn-y-Mor (881391)
Hazel James, Treasurer, Fagwreinon Fawr (881336)
Keith Matthews, Brynaber (881293)
John Roberts, Glanawen (881322)

End of Meeting



Cymdeithas Trewyddel

Minutes of the meeting held on Tuesday May 11th 2010, 8.30pm at the Village School, after the AGM

Those present - Peter Fletcher, John Roberts, Kingsley Chesworth, Margaret Anthony, Hazel James, Dorothy James, Ian McCarthy, Ken Barnaby

Apologies – Keith Matthews

Minutes of last meeting – were accepted as a true record of the meeting held on March 9th

Matters Arising
Kingsley said that he had attended the ‘Hub’ meeting in Newport organised by Planed. The approach being taken by this project is to ensure that communities are better linked and that maximum use is made of facilities and services within the ‘Hub’ area. This should be beneficial to the village and we will continue to be involved with the project. A key subject the project is addressing is how the communities communicate with each other so that there is greater awareness of events and activities within the ‘Hub’ area.

School Project
The village open meeting was attended by 45 people and with the help of Kevin Shales from PCC the required information was generated by the attendees on what they would like to see the school used for in the future. The lists generated by the work groups were circulated in the meeting This information will enable us to ensure that the improved facilities are in line with our community’s requirements. The attendees at the meeting also demonstrated their support for the former school and its future use by the village.
Peter said that the evening was also enjoyed by the attendees as a social event, the food organised by the Co-operative Committee was excellent and the archive films shown of past village events generated a lot of interest and amusement. Peter thanked all those involved in arranging the evening.
The Business Plan subgroup members said that they would continue preparing the business plan over the summer period so that the document can be reviewed by this meeting and by Kevin Shales.

Village Information Board
Kingsley confirmed that he had just received a quote from a local joinery company to build a notice board to the agreed specification. This will be used in our approach to PAVS to obtain funding for the project, he said that we will also find out if the cost of the planning application could be recovered in the grant.

Newsletter
Margaret reported that there were still some donations for the Newsletter outstanding, the request was included in the last edition. A reminder will be included in the next edition. It was agreed that we will have the bonfire and fireworks at the school on Saturday 6th November.

Co-operative Committee
John reported that so far £111 had been raised by selling bricks to raise money for the school improvements. He also said that they needed to understand how many people would be coming to the proposed Barn Dance.
John also said that we need more chairs for the school, currently we need to bring in additional chairs from the Garden Centre for most of our events. It was agreed that we should purchase an additional 20 chairs. We will talk with PAVs and Planed to see if they can provide a grant for these

Financial Report
The Schedule of Balances, supplied by Hazel was discussed during the AGM.

Next Meeting
The next meeting will be at the School on Tuesday 14th September at 8.00pm.

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