Minutes of Parish Council 28th February 2018

Minutes of Parish Council Meeting

Held in the John Lampon Hall on 28th February 2018 at 7.30 pm

Chair: Chris Stevenson
Parish Councillors Present: Harry Stone, Andrew Savage, Brian Butcher, Murray Harlow, David Short, Jenny Church, Phil Spencer, John Gili-Ross
Parish Clerk: Laura Walkingshaw
Borough & County Councillors: Cllr Lewis Barber
Present: 0 members of the public

 

18/19

Receive/accept apologies and welcome to the Public

  RESOLVED – Apologies were received and accepted from Cllr Crichton, Cllr Tyrrell, Borough Cllrs Jarvis and Willetts.

18/20

Questions from registered electors

No questions were received from registered electors.

18/21

Declarations of Interest

  DECLARED – Cllr Stevenson declared an interest in items relating to Essex County Council, particularly Highway issues.

18/22

Minutes

 

 

RESOLVED – the Minutes of the Parish Council meeting held on Wednesday 24th Jan 2018 were approved and signed by the Chairman, with no amendments. (Link to Minutes P10 Jan 2018)

18/23

Report from Colchester Borough & Essex County Councillors

  Borough Cllr Lewis Barber sent his report:

  • Broadband – The Borough Councillors hope to have some exciting news to announce in a couple of weeks regarding broadband in the village, following a meeting with Cllr Barber, Anne Brown and the Superfast Broadband team.
  • Erle Havard Park – CCTV has now been requested for the park near the Doctor’s surgery to help with issues there. Awaiting CBC to allocate funding but Cllr Barber would like Parish Council support before any installation is confirmed. Cllr Stevenson replied that the Parish Council has no problem with CCTV in the area and would support the installation.
  • Proposed Housing Developments – Currently there are no updates on any of the proposed housing developments. The Borough Councillors “In Touch” newsletter will discuss these and be circulated to houses in the area before the election in May.
  • Repairs to Bergholt Road – likely to be a mixture of surface treatments in the summer following completion of the patching works. Pre-patching will be happening in March along Bergholt Road and in April on the blue bridge. A range of complete resurfacing will then take place in July:
    o   surface dressing at the West Bergholt end of the road;
    o   hot rolled asphalt along Bergholt Road (Braiswick end);
    o   microsurfacing near the station.
    Cllr Stevenson has persistently requested that ECC notify the Clerk of highway maintenance works in the same way that frontagers are warned by letter or leaflet drop, currently to no avail.
  • Argent’s Lane – Improved signage application has been put in. Cllr Barber spoke to the farmer, who has now completed a lot of work clearing the ditches, presently waiting for Highways to do their part.
  • Chitts Hill – Cllr Barber and Anne Brown are working with Highways on the surface run-off issues in this area. The work was originally meant to be undertaken in December, but Network Rail delayed it. Are now waiting for another date.
  • CBC Zone Warden Policy – Cllr Barber is currently lobbying CBC to change its policy on zone wardens and ECC on highways maintenance. He would like to see Parish Councils provided with the funds to take over these roles & responsibilities. It is not the fault of the workers, they are under resourced. There will be trials carried out in a few parishes in the meantime.

18/24

Finance

a)

Statement of accounts for Jan 2018

(Link to P10 Jan Summary)

The final accounts for Jan 2018 were presented as follows:

83% of the way through the financial year. The Parish Council Account showed 101% income, 62% general expenditure, 82% environment expenditure and 67% expenditure overall, when the categories of general expenditure & environment are totalled together.

b)

Payments

  RESOLVED – To approve the following payments in accordance with 2017-18 budget. Proposed by Cllr Savage, seconded by Cllr Butcher. All in favour.

 

 
PAYMENTS LIST

February 2018

Parish Council Account
DD CBC Garage Rent 50.58
GA170217 Zurich Municipal Car Insurance – Kubota & Focus 642.82
GA170218 J & M Payroll Services Feb – Wages, Tax & NI 3832.30
GA170219 Countrywide Grass Cutting – Feb 155.50
GA170220 J & M Payroll Services Payroll Services – Jan 27.00
GA170221 WBFC Grass Cutting – Feb 40.00
GA170222 Kent Blaxill Drill Bits x 3 5.28
GA170223 TVC Queens & Lexden Road Ponds 480.00
GA170224 George Browns Kubota Service 408.49
GA170225 Tree & Lawn Company Willow – Queens Head Pond 696.00
GA170226 Norhurst Landscapes Debris Clearance – Ponds 400.00
GA170227 Phil Spencer 15 x Bare Rooted Beech & Hawthorn 44.70
GA170228 Printerland Toner 129.60
GA170229 Laura Walkingshaw Postage, Web Plan/Domain Renewal, Stationery 129.97
GA170230 EALC Training – Data Protection Sept 45.00
GA170231 Petty Cash Reimbursemt. (LW) Grasshopper Service of Stihl H/Cutter 97.96
GA170232 Jacqui Kibby Village Bulletin Editor Remuneration 180.00
GA170233 SLCC Membership 31/03/18-31/03/19 185.00
GA170234 K W Smith (Paid 21/02/18) Garage Doors 1976.00
GA170235 Harry Stone Expenses – Toner 25.00
GA170236 Andrew Savage Expenses – Toner 15.75
GA170237 David Hewitt Petrol for Focus 50.02
Tfr PC to Hall Account Door Brushstrip – New Storage Unit 5.36

 

c)

Approval by the Trustees of the Village Green of the £800 quote for a survey & management plan of the Heath was noted by the Parish Council.

RESOLVED – To approve the £800 quote for a survey & management plan of the Heath.

d)

To approve the Parish Council’s grant awards to WBFC (German twinning event) & Family Worker (attached to St Mary’s Church) as recommended by the Finance Committee

RESOLVED – To approve the £250 grant to WBFC and £500 grant towards the Family Worker. Proposed by Cllr Savage, seconded by Cllr Stone. All in favour.

ACTION – Clerk to arrange payment next month, source the presentation cheques for Annual Parish Meeting and request each party to speak at it about their use of the grant.

e)

To approve the Hall servery refurbishment composite quote for approx. £2,500 as recommended by the Finance Committee

RESOLVED – To approve the composite quote of £2,500 for a like for like refurbishment of the server as budgeted for in last year’s Projects. Proposed by Cllr Savage, seconded by Cllr Butcher. All in favour.

18/25

Council Documents

a)

To approve West Bergholt Parish Council’s Health & Safety Policy

b)

To approve West Bergholt Parish Council’s Lone Worker Policy

c)

To approve West Bergholt Parish Council’s Grant Award Policy

RESOLVED – To approve all three new policies. All in favour. To be reviewed in May 2018.

ACTION – Clerk to make minor amendments and circulate her CiLCA & Local Council Award timetables to Councillors.

18/26

Planning

a)

The minutes from the Planning Committee meeting held on the 21st February 2018 were received and the decisions made on following applications were noted

(Link to Planning P11 Feb 2018):

 
  • 180055 – Orchard Cottage, Chapel Lane CO6 3EF – Support – The Parish Council has no comment.
  • 180199 – St Clair, Bourne Road CO6 3EW – Support – The Parish Council has no comment. Cllr Tyrrell re-declared an interest in Planning Application 180199 and took no further part in the discussion
  • 180016 – 18 Albany Road CO6 3LE – Observation – The Parish Council supports the principle of an extension, however has concerns over the design and the inaccuracies between the plans and the elevations with regards to the first-floor window? Especially as the drawings provided are of poor quality thus open to misinterpretation when built.
  • 180274 – 3 Sackville Way CO6 3DZ – Support – The Parish Council has no comment.
  • 180164 – Patterns Yard, Nayland Road CO6 3DQ – Support – The Parish Council has no comment.
  • 180380/180381 – Pond Farm, Bures Road CO6 3DN – Observation – 180380 – The Parish Council agree in principle to the conversion of the barn into habitable space, however subject to the condition that the annex is solely for use of only close family of the owners and never sold as a separate dwelling. 180381 – Concerning the alterations to a building of listed status, the Parish Council would defer to the Borough Council’s greater knowledge in this regard.

b)

The recommendation from the Planning Committee meeting held on the 21st February 2018 for late planning application was discussed for approval by the Council:

 
  • 180419 – Squirrels, 29B Mumford Close CO6 3HY – Object – The Parish Council has no problem with an extension to this property in principle but feels that the design makes the building too dominant. The current plans contravene DG7 of the CBC approved Village Design Statement, which states that dwellings must be in harmony with the surroundings in respect of proportion and scale. The Council would like to see the proposals re-designed.
  • 180428 – Homecroft, The Avenue CO6 3HD – Support – The Parish Council has no comment, except that the drawings provided are of a very poor quality.

RESOLVED – It was agreed by the Parish Council to accept these recommendations as decisions. Proposed by Cllr Butcher, seconded by Cllr Savage. All in favour.

18/27

Environment and Highways

  The minutes from the Environment Committee meeting held on 8th February 2018 were received. (Link to Environment P11 Feb 18)

18/28

Premises and Recreation

a) The minutes from the Premises Committee meeting held on 5th February 2018 were received. (Link to Premises P11 Feb 2018)

The chair of Premises, Cllr Butcher, just wanted to note to the Council:

  • Item 3.2 Hall Borders – will be applying to Tescos for a grant for this project.
  • Item 5 Hall User Group – first meeting when well.
b) The disapplication for the requirement of a Designated Premises Supervisor in respect to the Premises Licence for the Orpen & John Lampon Halls was noted.

18/29

Communications

To receive a verbal update from the latest meeting of the Communications Working Party

The Communications Working Party’s recent meeting was a catch-up where several items were discussed, those of note:

  • Will review the current policy for the Local Council Award and check the Action Plan in the coming months.
  • Bulletin – the first all colour edition will be out on the 1st June. Cllr Spencer will be joining the editorial board as a lay member.
  • Noted that the Council had gone out of its way to speak to more village groups this year, e.g. Hall Users Group
  • NALC have produced a 60-page toolkit for the changes to Data Protection and how to implement it.

ACTION – Clerk to use Action Plan of toolkit as a checklist for WBPC.

18/30

Community Special Constables

Cllr Butcher updated the Council on the recruitment of a Community Special Constable for West Bergholt.

Cllr Butcher and the Clerk had a meeting with Les Hawkins of the Police 3-4 weeks ago. There is currently new management in the Police dealing with Special Constables and they are reviewing how to manage them. The scheme is still up and running, although it has stalled whilst some of the practical issues, such as where the Constables keep their CS Spray when not in use.

West Bergholt’s adverts are still up, however there have been no applications so far.

18/31

Annual Parish Meeting 2018

To discuss any ideas for the Annual Parish Meeting on Wed 25th April 2018

A discussion of the full council resulted in the suggestion of a history-themed Annual Parish Meeting. The History Society and the Old Church will be invited to be guest speakers as well as the Bulletin editor and an update from the Police.

There will also be an update from the Neighbourhood Plan Group and the presentation of the grant awards.

18/32

Training

  It was noted that the following training/networking was undertaken during the last month by the Clerk or Councillors:
 
  • Finance Essentials for Trustees – 3rd Feb – Clerk
  • Councillor Training Days 1 & 2 – 10th & 17th Feb – Cllr Short

18/33

Items to Note

Available on table at meeting:

  • RCCE Essex Warbler – Vol 6 Jan 2018
  • Clerks & Councils Direct – Mar 2018 Issue 116
  • Good News – St Mary’s Parish Magazine – Feb-Mar 2018
a) Correspondence Log – Feb 2018

  • Groundwork/Neighbourhood Plan Grant – £4623 remittance received today
  • EALC Local Services Fund – £15,000 cheque received for 3-year grant.

Project will begin on 1st April, currently in the recruitment phase of the Village Warden role.

ACTION – Clerk to arrange a contract for the temporary Handyman.

  • Mobile Library Consultation – Public Event Tues 13th March Wilson Marriage Centre 7-9pm.

Cllr Short will be attending.

  • Essex Highways Stakeholder Survey – complete by 6th April –

ACTION – Cllr Gili-Ross will complete and inform the Clerk.

  • CBC Emergency Plans – new resilience officer wants to update all plans.

ACTION – Cllr Stone will work with the Clerk to update this.

  • Methodist Church – wish to have a meeting with Parish Council.

ACTION – Clerk to arrange meeting in March with CS, HS & MH and Church.

  • Facebook Enquiry – Practice Goal – Environment Committee.

ACTION – Clerk to send a reminder of the different quotes to Cllr Gili-Ross.

b) Crime Statistics – Dec 2017 (16 Crimes) (Link to Crime Statistics Dec 2017)

18/34

In Committee

  Matters taken in the absence of Press and Public (Public (Admissions to Meetings) Act 1960) as the item contains exempt information as defined by the Local Government Act 1972 Sch. 12a Pt (1).
No matters discussed

18/35

Date of Next Meeting

  Parish Council Meeting, Wed 28th March at 7.30pm in John Lampon Hall, Lexden Rd, West Bergholt
  Meeting closed at 9.20pm
Signed: Date: Position on Council:

 

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