Saltburn Ward Newsletter from Councillor Stuart Smith

COUNCILLOR STUART SMITH
stuart.smith@redcar-cleveland .gov.uk
Contact no. 07557540628

MR TREVOR COX COMMUNITY CHAMPION
My nomination for the Mayors Community Achievement Award 2013 was Mr Trevor Cox who was presented with his award at a ceremony in Redcar on Wednesday 20th November. Trevor who is a resident at the Victoria Lodge Residential Home for adults in Saltburn has been street collecting for the charity Zoë’s Place, Normanby for the past 5 years and during this time his endless efforts have raised a staggering amount of well over 22,000 pounds for this charity. Trevor’s day is occupied collecting for this charity and he can be found throughout the year, in all weathers stood in the Station precinct collecting. He also holds a car boot stall every Sunday to raise funds.

CLIFF LIFT PASSENGER RECORD
2013 was a record year for passenger usage of the Saltburn Cliff Lift. The lift carried 167,000 passengers over the season an increase of 27,000 from 2012 a record year.

FREE PARKING ACROSS BOROUGH DURING XMAS PERIOD
Shoppers and retailers are set to benefit from the introduction of free parking in the run up to Christmas and over the festive period.
Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council will not charge after 1pm each day at any of the borough’s council managed car parks from November 29 to December 31.
Free parking is restricted to council-run pay and display locations which include on street pay and display bays and off street pay and display car parks.
Motorists are reminded that normal parking charges apply from 8am until 1pm and should check the pay and display notices at each site.

STATION STREET TOILETS REFURBISHED
Saltburn Station toilets have been refurbished and are now open.

MILLIONS LOTTERY SUCCESS FOR SALTBURN THEATRE
Saltburn Community Arts Association were successful in their lottery bid for £50,000 to refurbish the theatre and install modern sound and lighting equipment. The People’s Millions is a grants programme run by the Big Lottery Fund.

SALTBURN SALE ROOMS CLOSE
Saltburn Sales Rooms, which has a history going back at least 84 years has closed following the present owner John Simmons' retirement. The final sale was on Tuesday, November 26. John’s father began working for the previous owner, Mr Dickinson, after he came back from the war in 1946. He took over the business in 1966 and eventually it was passed on to his son. Mr Simmons’ own two daughters have careers in the NHS and both had babies in the last year and have no plans to take the business on.

MAY I WISH YOU ALL A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND PROPEROUS AND HEALTHY NEW YEAR

Win, win, win...

Saltburn Theatre secures £50k in TV lottery fund giveaway.




The Saltburn Theatre Magical Transformation project can now go ahead with the refurbishment of the theatre and the installment of modern sound and lighting equipment after having secured a £50,000 Big Lottery Fund grant.

That means performers will no longer need to provide their own equipment - and will increase the range of productions the theatre can offer the community.

The project is one of four local groups celebrating a shared total of £192,128 this week after winning over the public with their inspirational ideas.

This is the eighth year that the Big Lottery Fund and ITV have given the public the chance to choose where the Lottery good cause cash goes in their region.

The People’s Millions public vote determines which deserving cause will win the contest and take the funding back to their community.

The competition first began in 2005 and has funded 596 diverse community projects UK-wide with more than £30 million in Big Lottery Fund cash.

The Royal Voluntary Service’s ‘RVS Men in the Workshop’ in Northumberland secured a £49,385 bonus award, as the runner-up with the most phone votes across the week.

The money will enable it to make a real difference bringing older men and young people together, to share skills and conversation through practical work and activities.

Dawn Austwick, chief executive of the Big Lottery Fund, said: “This is a brilliant result for the people of Saltburn and Northumberland and shows what groups can achieve when they have the support of their community behind them."

Christmas Light Switch On

The Christmas tree at The Bandstand is now in situ and is lit up at 4:00pm.

The Christmas Lights Switch On in Saltburn is Saturday 30 November.
Activities in the town during the afternoon include circus skills, facepainting, craft activities, mulled wine and hot chocolate (with a kick for adults if you want it!)

There are activities in the library and the community theatre from early afternoon. Plus brass bands all afternoon!

Music & Fun by the Tree outside Chocolinis from 4.30pm.

Brass Neck Comedy are delighted to be supporting the event and can announce that MC and host for the Christmas countdown and arrival of Santa’s procession will be comedian Steffan Peddie – aka Hebburn star Big Keith. You can catch him at the Christmas Tree opposite Chocolinis from 4.15pm onwards.

Santa lands at 5pm. Don’t be late.

The Gavel falls for the last time

John Simmons calculates he has sold an average of 400 items a week, 48 weeks of the year in his career - about 864,000 objects in total, but now the
Saltburn Salerooms auctioneer of 45 years will lower his gavel one last time tomorrow (Tuesday, November 26), and so close one of the region’s most famous auction rooms.







Saltburn Salerooms, officially known as JC Simmons & Son Ltd, has a history dating back at least 84 years and will also close with Mr Simmons' retirement.

Mr Simmons said the most memorable item he has sold was almost exactly one year ago. His team were cataloguing a house clearance, with nothing of particular value, when they noticed some old James Bond books by Ian Fleming.



Seven of them were first editions, but one, a copy of Live and Let Die, was even rarer.

After the first few copies of the book were printed, the press was stopped in order to make changes to information on the dust jacket in order give Ian Fleming credit for helping design the imagery.

The book in Mr Simmons' auction room was one of the very few printed with the original information and was eventually sold for £13,800.

“It could easily have been overlooked,” said Mr Simmons, “but after 45 years I suppose you start to get a little knowledge. Every now and again something crops up. It’s been a very interesting job, there’s something different all the time.

“I announced we were going to close several weeks ago in the auction room and everyone went silent but I had to explain 45 years is a long time. It’s not just me, other people are also retirement age."

“We’ve had a tremendous number of well-wishers. One lady who is 94 came in who said she first visited when she was ten years old, so it’s been going at least 84 years.”

Mr Simmons explained his father began working for the previous owner, Mr Dickinson, after he came back from the war in 1946. Mr Simmons’ father took over the business in 1966 and eventually it was passed on to his son.

Mr Simmons' two daughters have their own careers and family commitments so have no plans to take the business on.

“We plan to see our grandchildren a lot and I enjoy sea-fishing and walking,” said Mr Simmons, who went on to pay tribute to his wife, Victoria, company secretary, “who has been with me since day one.”

The final sale will be held at the Diamond Street auction room on Tuesday, November 26.

Britain's Oldest Fitness Instructor (probably)

The following article written by Helen Pidd appeared in this weekends Guardian

Not nearly enough exercise classes have a teabreak halfway through. But Margaret Allen's does. After a gentle warm-up and a few pulse-raising numbers, the 93-year-old great grandmother lets her charges rehydrate with a cuppa and a quick sit down.




Some of the eight-strong class look as if they need it more than others. Allen herself, wearing a thick turquoise shirt, navy knitted waistcoat, black slacks and sensible shoes, has not broken into a sweat. Despite an "excruciating" trapped nerve in one leg and a knee in need of replacement, she looks as though she could go on for hours.

The general rule is that eating directly before sport is not the best idea, let alone part way through. But on the afternoon I visit Allen's class at the methodist church hall in Saltburn-by-the-Sea near Middlesbrough, slices of rather dense fruitcake are being passed around during the break. The cake has been baked in honour of Allen's recent birthday by her 89-year-old sister, Joan, known locally as the "scone queen of Saltburn".

The ladies have barely swallowed their last crumb when Allen is up again, leading the group through a jaunty Scottish number involving lots of toe pointing and leg kicking. Forty-five minutes later the class is finally over.

Allen, a former volunteer with the Red Cross, has been leading classes in the north-east seaside town for 45 years. Not particularly sporty at school, she started playing the piano for a keep-fit class during the second world war – "just for something to do during the blackouts, really" – and eventually took over in her 40s when the previous instructor retired.

At its peak, Allen's class had more than 18 regulars, each paying £1 subs. But these days her flock is diminishing fast – during the teabreak, the ladies discuss a funeral that most of them had attended that week for one of the younger members of the group who had just died, aged 68, from motor neurone disease.

Allen is the oldest, followed by her sister. The baby of the group is 60-year-old Jean Cunion, who credits the group with supporting her through a difficult time when her mother died. She is somewhat embarrassed to admit that she is perhaps the least fit of the cohort. "I remember the first time I came, Margaret said: 'Who's that huffing and panting?' and I had to admit it was me."

Ruth Steere, 76, marvels at how Allen never misses a trick despite always having her back to the class: "She always shouts at us if we go wrong. She's remarkably good at knowing what we are doing."

Allen, a keen dancer, has never done any formal training to be a fitness instructor. Instead, she choreographs her own moves based on five cassette tapes from the BBC's first ever fitness guru Eileen Fowler – who died in 2000 when she was 93, Allen's age now.

Allen thinks her good health is largely down to keeping busy, especially since her husband Joe died in 1997. She took up writing poetry when she was 80. "I write poems about everything – some naughty ones, about boobs and bloomers – knickers to you," she says. "I'm a prolific writer. I just can't stop," she says, phoning me a few days after the interview to read out a ditty she has written about the joys of exercise.

One of the class, 84-year-old former teacher Winnie Robertson, thinks the secret to staying fit is never letting yourself go: "Use it or lose it, that's what I say."

Allen still plays the piano and gives speeches. She is president of the Women's Fellowship at the local methodist church, and is one of three 90-plus-year-olds at the Scrabble club of the University of the Third Age (U3A). She did a computer course when she was 88 and tried to get online, but it didn't work out.

Ageing is no fun, she admits, reading me a few lines from a poem she has written called That Beast Called Age. She happily recalls a doctor who saw her for the first time a few years back who said she couldn't possibly be more than 78: "I said, 'Thank you, doctor, you can go now.'"

She also has a no-nonsense attitude to weight gain: "I just think people shouldn't eat too much. Whenever I hear someone saying: 'Oh, I can't lose weight', I say: Sellotape." She mimes taping her mouth shut. "I said this just the other day to a big fat man. Everything in moderation is my motto."

Earlier this year, Allen was watching the news and saw a woman being given the British Empire Medal. I think she means Margaret Chartwood from Horley, who was given the honour in January this year, at the age of 77. "She was saying: 'I'm 80 and I'm the oldest fitness instructor in the country!' I was thinking: 'No you're not.' But I shan't be writing to Buckingham Palace."

Free parking across the borough

Shoppers and retailers are set to benefit from the introduction of free parking in the run up to Christmas and over the festive period.

Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council will not charge after 1pm each day at any of the borough’s council managed car parks from November 29 to December 31.

Free parking is restricted to council-run pay and display locations which include on street pay and display bays and off street pay and display car parks.

Motorists are reminded that normal parking charges apply from 8am until 1pm and should check the pay and display notices at each site.

Steven Goldswain, cabinet member for community safety, said: “We realise that retailers in the borough are facing tough economic times and we want to help. By offering free parking we hope we can tempt people back to our high streets where they can see for themselves the wide range of retailers on offer.
High streets offer a mix of big name retailers and independent stores that you will not find anywhere else as well as a unique and enjoyable atmosphere. We also believe high street shopping is an opportunity to support the local economy as well as the jobs within the retail sector and we hope people in the borough will get behind us."

The future of Saltburn Arts hangs in the balance.

The future of Saltburn Arts, the charity which runs the Community Theatre and Hall and The Old School, hangs in the balance after it was revealed that it is now insolvent amid claims of financial mismanagement and irregularities.

Saltburn Community and Arts Association (SCAA) has made a loss of £60,000 over 12 months, which has completely cleaned out its cash reserves of more than £55,000.

At the annual general meeting it was revealed that the charity’s accounts were incomplete and the Charity Commission had warned one board member about making inappropriate payments to a company he owns.

Angry trustees called for a police investigation to be launched if there was any illegal activity connected to the charity’s financial crisis after it was revealed that it was board member Peter Neal’s company that was involved in a questionable £3,500 worth of payments.

A packed meeting, held at Saltburn Community Centre, voted to accept a decision for all of the board to resign and elect 12 members in an attempt to save the group from collapse.

Acting chairman Veronica Boland outlined the perilous state of the association when she gave the annual report, telling members that meeting notes and company records had been kept by a former secretary and it was proving difficult to retrieve them to compile an accurate record of the charity’s spending.

She said: “As a result of intensive investigation into the finances of SCAA it has become apparent that SCAA was insolvent. Strict control has been introduced and payment arrangements have been made with creditors.

"The Charity Commission have been consulted and written to. Advice has been taken from an insolvency practitioner and a recovery plan is under consideration and will shortly be promoted."

"During the financial investigations it became apparent that payments had been made to a company owned by a trustee. As these payments were apparently not authorised by the board, requests for repayment have been made. In addition, payments have been made to a company owned by a relation of a trustee and investigations continue in this respect.”

Acting treasurer Philip Thomson, who is also a Redcar and Cleveland Borough Councillor, told members that he had spoken to several creditors in an attempt to keep the charity going and said they were going to have to close down the arts centre they opened at the former Saltburn Junior School.

A Charity Commission spokeswoman confirmed that it had been alerted to a concern about payments to board members.

She said: “At that time (July 2013), we wrote to the charity to remind the trustee body of the rules of their governing document which contains an express prohibition against any member of the trustee body being employed by the charity. We received an acknowledgement from a representative of the trustee body that they accepted our advice.”

Mr Neal has yet to comment.