SAPHRA
The Residents’ Association for Sopwell Lane, Albert Street, Pageant Road, Hart Road, The Ryder Seed Mews Estate, Saracens Head Yard, Pearce’s Walk and Keyfield Terrace
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Minutes of Annual General Meeting held on Tuesday 13 January 2026 at 8pm
at the White Hart Hotel, Holywell Hill, St Albans
1. Present: Officials: Chair, Vice Chair, Minutes Secretary
And: 4 residents of Pageant Road
1 resident of Albert Street
1 resident of Hart Road
2. Apologies for absence: Treasurer, Cllr Voisey, 4 residents of Sopwell Lane, 1 resident of Albert Street, 1 resident of Pageant Road.
Arriving later: Cllr Fisher
3. Minutes of previous meeting: The minutes of the annual general meeting held on Tuesday 6th January 2025 had been circulated by email, and a copy was made available at this meeting. The minutes were approved.
4. Matters arising: None
5. Finances: Our Treasurer was abroad for family reasons so the Chair presented an account of the Association’s finances for the period from 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025. Our balance with Metro Bank at the year-end was £517.83
6. Election of officials: The Chair, Vice Chair, Treasurer, Minutes Secretary and Webmaster were all willing to continue for the coming year. The meeting agreed, unanimously, that the key officials and holders of other roles going forward would be as follows:
Key officials
- Chair Roger Morton
- Vice Chair Angela King
- Treasurer Prof Tim Boatswain
Other roles
- Minutes secretary Cathy Jones
- Webmaster Richard Barran (Working from his home in France)
7. Representation on the City Neighbourhoods Committee of St Albans District Council:
The meeting agreed that the Chair would continue to represent the Association at meetings of the City Neighbourhoods Committee, with the Vice Chair as alternate if the Chair was unavailable.
8. Representation on the Central St Albans Combined Residents Associations:
The meeting agreed that the Chair would continue to represent the Association at meetings of the Central Combined Residents Associations, with the Vice Chair as alternate if the Chair was unavailable.
9. There being no further business the AGM was declared closed.
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SAPHRA
The Residents’ Association for Sopwell Lane, Albert Street, Pageant Road, Hart Road,
The Ryder Seed Mews Estate, Saracens Head Yard, Pearce’s Walk and Keyfield Terrace
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Notes of SAPHRA meeting held on Tuesday 13th January 2026
at the White Hart Hotel, Holywell Hill, St Albans
Present: Officials: Chair, Vice Chair, Minutes Secretary
And: 4 residents of Pageant Road, 1 resident of Albert Street, 1 resident of Hart Road
Apologies for absence: Treasurer, Cllr Voisey, 4 residents of Sopwell Lane, 1 resident of Albert St, 1 resident of Pageant Rd.
Arriving later: Cllr Fisher
The subjects discussed in the meeting were:
- Finances and banking arrangements:
Our current balance with Metro Bank stands at £517.83.
Metro Bank will charge us £3 per month from January 2026 so we will need to move our account, on our Treasurer’s return from abroad. It was suggested that we might try Nationwide or Monzo.
- Sopwell Lane Green Oasis:
After two and a half years of waiting, a row of wooden posts has now been installed along the front of the green oasis (to stop vehicles parking on the grass).
We will be holding another gardening day at the beginning of March. An email will go out with details nearer the time. Meanwhile an assessment will be made of the works to be done.
- Local Government Reorganisation – (LGR) the move to Unitary Authorities:
All Councils in Hertfordshire submitted a joint response to HM Government on 28th November (within the required timescale). But they could not agree if Herts should be split into 2, 3 or 4 unitaries, so left it to the Minister to decide. The final decision will be made by HM Government in 2026
- Community Governance Review: (CGR) - the proposal to set up a St Albans city/parish council:
SAPHRA is working with the CCRA and St Albans Civic Society in support of a Parish Council for the unparished area. Together we encouraged people to respond to the Community Governance Review’ (CGR), Stage One consultation and they did, with 1,708 responses in favour of a Parish Council and 5 against.
A further consultation / indicative referendum is now in progress. The question posed is Parish Council Yes or No? Unfortunately, St Albans District Council are simultaneously running an online opinion survey about some details regarding the establishment of a city centre parish council. This is causing confusion – only the formal vote, either by post or online using the personal codes on the ballot paper, counts. The Civic Society is distributing another 10,000 leaflets encouraging people to vote YES.
If you would like to vote but have misplaced your ballot paper you can ask for a replacement by sending an email to CGR@stalbans.gov.uk. You need to include your full address in the email.
- Local Government reorganisation – Elected Mayors in charge of strategic authorities:
Strategic Authorities, led by an elected Mayor, serving a population of 1 million or more will be responsible for planning, housing, transport, health, environment etc. Whilst a proposal for the whole of Herts to be a single UA was on the table the area to be governed by the new mayor was uncertain. Once it becomes clear that Herts will have at least two UAs it may be possible for HM Government to move forward with proposals for a Mayoralty covering the whole of what is currently Hertfordshire.
- Combined Central Residents Associations (CCRA):
- Continuing to work closely with Civic Society on the CGR
- Travel & Movement Group (TAMG) are still working with HCC and SADC on a travel strategy
- TAMG also working with HCC and SADC on proposals for Victoria Street improvements
- Local plan:
This is progressing well. The plan is currently being examined by Government inspectors. The inspectors have concluded that the draft local plan is sound and legally compliant. The examination continues
- Parking in Zone M:
The proposed changes to residents parking hours in Zones M and N have now been implemented. Residents’ parking bays are now restricted to permit holders 7 days a week from 8.30 am until 10 pm. New parking signs have gone up in both Zone M and Zone N.
In addition, voucher parking (non-residents being able to pay for one or two-hours parking by buying a voucher from a machine or online) is no longer available. This will curtail the actions of a local business that was gaming the system by parking vehicles in resident’s bays all day but only paying online for a one-hour voucher if a parking warden came into view.
Two motorcycle bays have been removed from Keyfield Terrace resulting, so far, in one extra parking bay for a car.
- Former Ryder Exhibition Hall / new Moka restaurant:
The restaurant has opened and, so far, their opening hours are significantly less than their licence allows.
Some nearby residents are unhappy with the number of red refuse bins that are lined up along the side wall of the restaurant in Albert Street. The opinion is that they are taking up too much of the pavement area and that they are unsightly.
Another question raised was whether Moka had planning permission to install the two internally lit signs at the front of the building.
- SAPHRA’s next meeting): Tuesday 31st March 2026 at 8:00 pm in The White Hart Hotel, 23-25 Holywell Hill.
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