Denton a village in South Norfolk, England

Denton Parish Council

Minutes of the Meeting Held on 11th September 2007 at 7.30pm at Denton Village Hall

Present: Terry Hanner (Vice Chairman), Roger Gibson, Adrian Hipwell, Martin Sida-Page, Pauline Sandell (Clerk).
Also Present: Malcolm Skinner.

1. Apologies:
Clare Valori, Eddie Winter, Liz Cargill, Murray Gray, Tony Tomkinson.

2. Declaration of Interest:
Roger Gibson declared a prejudicial interest in item 6.

3. Minutes of the Last Meeting:
The minutes were agreed and signed.

4. Minutes of the Planning Appeal Meeting on 24th August 2007
The minutes were agreed and signed.

5. Matters Arising

a. Playing Field; Eddie Winter had completed the monthly report. Eddie was not present at the meeting, but had reported that the grass between the Millennium Wood and the Playing Field needed cutting. He was unable to do this himself as his topper was too wide. Terry said that he would speak to either James or Malcolm. Adrian will complete the report for September.

b. Composting; Liz Cargill was not at the meeting but reported that 12 tonnes of compost had been collected over a period of 20 weeks with a further 8 weeks before the end of the season. Ann and Richard Carden had produced a newsletter including dates for working parties and this had worked very well with up to 6 people at a time helping on a Monday afternoon. The shredder had made a huge difference to the management of shrubby material which can now be included in the mix. Two visitors from Trunch had arrived in August who are hoping to start a composting scheme. Eddie Winter had been contacted by Diss News, in the absence of Liz, to help them with an article about the composting scheme. This will appear in the newspaper at the end of this week.

c. Village Sign: Nothing further to report.

d. Cycle Racks: Nothing further to report.

e. Highways: A meeting had taken place in July with Bob Edwards, (Assistant Highways Engineer), Liz Cargill and Terry Hanner. The following work will be carried out:-
Verge by the Chapel; Highways will dig the verge out and put some hard core in to keep cars off the bank – this will be done within the next few weeks.
Pocket Park; Highways have already cleared it. They are looking into records to see if the responsibility is still Highways. The Clerk reported that she had spoken to BT regarding the branches on the line and had been told that BT does not trim trees. She has written to the head office of BT and is awaiting a reply. The Environment Agency had been contacted regarding the erosion of the bank and the Clerk had received a letter back to say that this was not the responsibility of the Agency but of Highways. She has contacted Highways again and sent them a copy of the letter from the Environment Agency and is awaiting a reply.
Roundhouse Hill; this has been repaired by Anglian Water
Marshalls Hill; the apparent leak mid way down the hill was noted
Post Box at junction; work here will be carried out within the next few weeks.

f. Postboxes: The post box on Norwich Road has a new plate. The Clerk said that both the Norwich Road box and the box by the Chapel will be emptied at 9pm.

g. Any Other Matters Arising;
None.

6. Travellers
Roger Gibson was pleased to report that the Contractors had worked on the site from Tuesday to Saturday midday and the site is now clear and has been seeded. It is understood that South Norfolk Council have taken a charge over the land in lieu of the cost of restoring the site.
Roger has written to SNC suggesting that if and when the land is sold, a covenant should be included to secure the land as garden/grazing and not for building use. The Clerk read out a letter from Cindy and Jules Greenway thanking the Parish Council for their efforts in the last three years. An e-mail was also read out from Clare Valori expressing her thanks to the Parish Council for its unswerving support. It was suggested that Denton Parish Council should write a letter to Murray Gray to thank him for all his help. It was agreed to do this. Proposed by Adrian Hipwell, seconded by Martin Sida-Page, unanimously agreed.

7. District and County Council Matters:
Murray Gray had sent an e-mail telling the Parish Council that it must look out for public consultation on suitable sites for gypsies and travellers. He also said that SNC is ‘rebranding’ itself with a new logo, although he was not in agreement with this as it costs money. SNC is reviewing its car parking charges policy and this may affect car parks which are currently free.

8 Questions from the Public:
None present.

9. Affordable Housing.
Following a change in government planning policy Murray Gray has informed us that Denton is in the frame once again for affordable housing. It was agreed that the first step would be to speak to Malcolm Skinner to see if the land is still available. All the relevant papers that were gathered last time will be passed to Liz Cargill.

10. Neighbourhood Car Scheme
No information at the moment. Terry will speak to Ann Carden.

11. Joint Parish Meeting
The Clerk informed the Councillors that John Fuller had agreed to speak at the meeting which will be held on Friday 16th November at 7.30pm. Now that the gypsy site in Middle Road has been cleared up, the Councillors considered other topics that might be of interest to the parishes. They came up with the following ideas;
Affordable housing,
What is South Norfolk Council’s view on the Norwich Council Unitary Status Bid,
Will this affect parish councils, will this affect rates?

12. Pocket Park
The Clerk said that Liz Cargill had asked for Pocket Park to be put back on the agenda, as last year’s project seems to have fallen by the wayside. Some wild flowers were planted last year, but these seem to have been overtaken by the nettles. Adrian asked if the idea of the project was to turn it into a ‘garden’ or a conservation area. The Clerk replied that it was to be a conservation area. Adrian suggested that planting more trees and keeping the area trimmed in the short term, should result in the area being self maintaining. After some discussion it was decided that the first step would be to talk to Malcolm to ask him what he had planted and where. The next step would perhaps be to advertise in the Parish Magazine for someone to take on the role of managing the site.

13. Planning:
Planning Appeal 2006/0276 – Beck Farm, Trunch Hill, Denton – Enforcement Notice requires removal in its entirety the building from the site.
After some consideration it was decided that no further comments would be made.

14. Track by Beck Farm/Vale Farm
Eddie Winter had told the Clerk that he had not seen Mr. Charnick yet, but will be seeing him later on in the week. The Clerk had heard nothing back from Footpaths Officer. Put on next month’s agenda.

15. Correspondence:
SNC: Copy of Tree Line – to be passed to Phillip Lazaretti.
CPRE - Copy of Fieldwork: Passed to Adrian.
NCAPTC: AGM on Saturday 15th September.
Training for new Councillors.
CCN: Workshop on 15th October – pass to Liz.
SNC: Review of Polling Districts and Polling Places. It was agreed that Denton is happy as it is.

16. Finance:
a. Pay the Clerk £83.87 for September 2007.
b. Pay Liz Frere Smith £27.00 for auditing accounts.
Proposal: Pay a and b. Proposed by Adrian Hipwell, seconded by Roger Gibson, unanimously agreed.
c. Received £280.71 VAT repayment.

17. Any Other Business:
Roger Gibson asked what further consultations there would be regarding gypsy and traveller sites. The Clerk informed him that we should be hearing from SNC sometime in the Autumn.
Terry Hanner asked the Clerk about the audit. The Clerk confirmed that the audit of the books went well and they will now be passed to the Audit Commission.

The meeting closed at 09.05 pm.

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