Bohemia Village Voice

Report on the April AGM by chairperson Peter Holland

The Association’s Annual General Meeting for 2007 began with Chairperson Peter Holland’s report on the business of the last twelve months. The committee bemoaned the permission given by Hastings Council for the opening of another off-licence in Bohemia Road, despite the firm opposition of local councillors and the committee. The gyratory-system plan had been unveiled, but the business community had shown little interest in the scheme, so without their support the idea had been abandoned.
 As for the various subcommittees, the Upper Park Road subcommittee has held meetings with representatives of the Council and the Co-op, and the situation regarding deliveries is improving though still not ideal. Terry Foord’s immaculate record-keeping helped enormously in this enterprise. Meanwhile, the alleyways subcommittee will soon be approaching the Council to adopt, maintain and light the various alleyways and twittens. The Bohemia Bygones exhibition was to take place on the weekend following the AGM, and the committee wished it every success. The BAA News editorial board, which produces the quarterly four-page newsletter, continues to promote Bohemia and takes a careful and considered line on our area and its future.
The BAA continues to be represented at the HVA and the Gensing and Central St Leonards Forum meetings. Councillor Daniel Poulter’s resignation has placed an extra burden on the shoulders of Councillor Vivienne Bond to attend these meetings, and the committee expressed their gratitude for her efforts. County Councillor Trevor Webb has also attended meetings and followed up several issues, and thanks were also given to him for his support.
 Looking to the future, in the absence of the gyratory-system proposal, the Chairperson offered the following as suggestions for new campaigns: Bohemia Road to be a target of the Council’s ‘Grotbusters’ scheme; attention to be paid to the Bohemia entrance and boundaries of Alexandra Park; sympathetic architectural improvements to be made to those retail premises converted to domestic or office use in this area; reinvigoration of the ‘Don’t be a moaner, be a phoner’ campaign, which has had success in the past; extra effort to be put in to getting residents to renew their membership of the Association; a ‘down with the anodyne’ campaign to be started, championing higher aesthetic standards for new buildings in the area; as a flight of fancy, Gensing and Central St Leonards to be granted ‘Initiative-free Zone’ status so that existing problems could be tackled without constant intervention from central government; BAA meetings to become more inclusive; and the BAA’s area of influence to be widened in line with findings by the Bygones committee that Bohemia once occupied a much greater area than is currently recognised under the name.