GREATWORTH PARISH COUNCIL
MINUTES
of a meeting held at Halse Mission
at 8.00pm on Monday 7 March 2016
Present: Cllrs Gibbs, Masser, Bingham, Tinkler, Cross, Stageman, Peart and Ward
In attendance: S Loake (Clerk)
Mr A Leighton, NCC Highways, attended for items 3 and 4
17 members of the public were present.
1: Apologies: There were none
2: Declarations of interest: There were none
3: Open discussion re traffic calming in Halse
The Chairman welcomed Mr Leighton to the meeting.
The Clerk explained that Mr M Ogley of Barrett Homes had also been invited. In spite of confirming his attendance by email, he neither showed up or sent apologies. Members of the Council requested that the Clerk should contact him to express their displeasure. In addition, a representative of SNC Planning Enforcement had been invited, but had felt that there was little further that they could do at this stage.
Cllr Tinkler gave a resume of the situation – in 2014 it had been a planning requirement of the development that traffic two points of traffic calming should be installed in Halse before the first houses in the Radstone development were occupied. After much procrastination by the developers, SNC issued a notice of non compliance in December 2015.
Mr Leighton then presented plans of the traffic calming scheme that has been agreed, and reported that the Developers shad finally submitted their application for a S218 licence, which is required for the installation of the traffic calming. He assured the meeting that his department would process this as soon as possible, and that there would be no impediment to the developers booking “road time” for the work to be undertaken. He is therefore optimistic that the work should be completed within the next couple of months.
The Chairman stated that, now that the notice of non-compliance has been issued, this will be revealed in the searches undertaken for prospective purchasers, so selling the properties may become considerably more difficult for the developers until the work is completed and ythe notioce is revoked. It was agreed that the Clerk would write to the developers expressing the dissatisfaction with their failure to be represented at this meeting, and that a copy of this letter should be sent to the Planning Enforcement section of SNC.
4: Open session: Residents were pleased t o have the opportunity to inform Mr Leighton of the damage that is caused by drivers through Halse ignoring the edge of the road. In particular, the recent meet of the local hunt had parked heavy vehicles on the verges, causing considerable damage to the verges. A number of photos had been taken of the irresponsible parking of hunt vehicles. Cllr Tinkler will collate these and send them to the Clerk, so that a letter can be sent to the Master of the Hunt to complain about this and to see if reparation can be achieved. It was noted that only soft soil had been used by Anglian Water to make good the verges after their recent work, and this had soon been washed away. Mr Leighton explained that there was unlikely to be sufficient funding available to install kerb stones.
The Chairman thanked Mr Leighton for attending the meeting, and both he and the members of the public left.
5: Minutes of the meeting held on 1 February 2016 were approved as a true record of the meeting and were duly signed by the Chairman.
6: Matters arising
6.1: Parcel of land at Westhorp: It was agreed that unless there were an adequate covenant included in the contract to protect against future development, the Council would not sell the land. The Clerk reported that he had been informed by the Housing Association that they were in danger of losing their preferred contractors if the exchange was not completed in the very near future. The Clerk undertook to give appropriate instructions to the solicitor.
6.2: Website: The Clerk assured the meeting that he would have the relevant documentation on the existing website before the end of the financial year. He also reported that Jonathan Cobb ( who has designed websites for several other Parish Councils) had quoted £300 for the design and implementation of the new website for the village, which would represent village organisations as well as the Parish Council. It was agreed that the Clerk would approach Lisa Phipps to see if she would assist with the updating of the new website.
6.3: Parish Meeting, 18 April 2016: The Clerk was instructed to invite NCC Councillor and SNC Councillor Rebecca Breese. The Clerk said that he had invited the organisers of 2 Dering Cottages to make a presentation about their plans for the property, as discussed at the previous meeting. The Clerk also confirmed that there is a balance in excess of £17000 on the New Homes Bonus which could be used for upgrading the facilities at Happylands. Residents are to be invited to make suggestions as to what equipment and facilities should be provided. The Chairman will ask village organisations to present short reports to the meeting.
7: Report from Halse: Cllr Tinkler stated that all current matters had been covered in points 3 and 4 above.
8 Reports from working parties:
8.1 HS2: Cllr Ward reported that it was unlikely that HS2 would give further consideration to the points raised by Mr N Ward on behalf of the Parish Council. Greatworth is the only party to have raised such points, and HS2 appear to be terrified of setting a precedent. Mr Ward will give a short presentation to the next meeting.
8.2 Playgrounds: The possible upgrade to Happylands had already been discussed. Cllr Bingham reported that he new signage would be installed in the very near future.
8.3 Planning Cllr Masser reported that three applications had been received
8.3.a: The Cottage, Marston Road – erection of enlarged entrance porch. No objections were raised.
8.3.b: Bungalow Farm, Welsh Lane. Demolition of existing dwelling and erection of new dwelling, continued use of portacabin. No objections were raised.
8.3.c: Cockley Hill Farm: Determination re erection of agricultural building: No objections were raised.
9 Financial matters
9.1: The Clerk presented a finance report foe the 11 months to the end of February 2016. A copy of the report is attached to the file copy of these minutes
9.2: The list of payments presented by the Clerk was approved, and cheques were duly signed.
9.3: The clerk reported that there had been no receipts during February
9.4: The Clerk reported that he has arranged for the new online bank account to =become operational for the beginning of the 2016/17 financial year.
10 Correspondence: The Clerk presented a list of correspondence, a copy of which is attached to the file copy of these minutes. He drew particular attention to correspondence from Mr Moody of NCALC, requiring the staging date of the Council for pension purposes. The Clerk reported that Mr Moody had stated that his is a legal requirement. This is not true, as it is only an HMCR recommendation that the Clerk be an employee rather than self employed. The Clerk confirmed that when he first became a Parish Council Clerk he had contacted HMRC and his professional association, both of which had agreed his self employed status. He w stated that he would be likely to resign from his post if he was required to become an employee. All members of the Parish Council supported the self employed status of the Clerk.
11: Councillor questions
11.1: Cllr Stageman enquired if payment had been made for the cleaning of the bus shelter. The Clerk undertook to make this payment before the next meeting.
11.2 In response to a question from Cllr Stageman, the Clerk confirmed that he would remove her email address from the PC website.
There being no further business, the Chairman closed the meeting at 9.56pm
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