Denton Parish Council
Minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting held on Friday 3rd April 2009.
at 7.30pm at Denton Village Hall
Present: Liz Cargill (Chairman), Roger Gibson, Peter Hill, Adrian Hipwell, Eddie Winter, Pauline Sandell (Clerk).
Also Present: Murray Gray (District Councillor), 20 members of the public.
1. Welcome by the Chairman
Liz welcomed Murray Gray and the members of the public to the meeting.
2. Apologies
Apologies were received from Terry Hanner.
3. Minutes of the Last Meeting
It was proposed by Rosemary Gibson and seconded by Peter Hill to agree the minutes. The minutes were signed.
4. Chairman's Report
Copy attached.
5. Questions on Denton�s Societies and Clubs
None.
6. Denton Parish Council
a) Affordable housing: Q) Who is the organization involved? A) Saffron Housing Trust. Q) Will the credit crunch likely to have an impact? A) No, the funding is in place as the Government is keen to promote building schemes.
b) Play Area; A lot of discussion ensued regarding the proposed new equipment for the play area. A draft drawing had been submitted by Produlik and some of the residents were unhappy with the design. They preferred a more traditional design, suggesting all wooden equipment. The Chairman explained that a meeting will be arranged once all the quotes have been received so that the residents can put forward their points of view. She also said that she would like to arrange a visit to other play area sites, such as Bracken Ash and Ashwellthorpe. The public said that there were good play areas at Ditchingham and Homersfield. One member of the public said that he thought the play area was little used and there were not enough children in the village to achieve grants for the new equipment. It was answered that there were a number of children coming up to the age when they would be able to use the play area and also a number of grandchildren that would use it. However, other people thought that the reason for it not being used a lot was that mothers would not use it because it was not fenced. The Chairman pointed out that on the survey form the matter of fencing was 50/50. The public said that fencing between the play area and the car park was essential for safety reasons. The existing fencing at the front is damaged and falling into the ditch, this could be hedged. Liz Cargill suggested that the mound could be reduced so that children could climb it more easily and roll down it and the pipe reinserted. It would then be easier to cut with a flymo. With respect to the pipe, it was suggested that plastic tubing is used. Little houses with steps up for adventure was suggested.
c) Denton Directory; the Directory has now been circulated and the public were very pleased with it. Liz Cargill asked them to let the Parish Council know during the year of any additions or alterations to be made so that it can be updated. It was suggested that it would be a good idea to put it on the website. Some of the information is already on, but might be possible to put it all on. Bridget Hill said thank you to Johnnie Carslake and Liz Cargill.
d) Calor Competition; Peter Hill explained that the judges had arrived the day before and spent two hours in the village. Peter had had a look at the competition in this region and discovered that other entrants were much bigger than Denton, some as much as ten times as big. If Denton does win this round, the next judging will take place between the 6th and 17th July against 4 others from each region which take us to the England final, and after that it would be the UK final, but will not know the results until the end of the year. A member of the public said that Jill had given a wonderful presentation and thanked Peter for his hard work.
7. County and District Council Matters
Murray said that he had been at Denton during the Calor judging and he was the only person from outside of the village. He said he was very impressed and congratulated Denton for getting this far.
Murray Gray read out his report – attached.
He added that at the next joint parish meeting on the 15th May at Wortwell the guest speaker would be a representative from Neighbourhood Forum and they give funding to clubs, societies, parish councils, etc. of up to £2000. A question was raised about the Unitary Authority and Murray replied that at the moment there are two proposals, one with one council for the whole of Norfolk and the other proposal for a council for Greater Norwich and another council for the rest of Norfolk. Although Murray liked the idea of Unitary Authorities because there would be savings in the long term, he was concerned that the proposals being considered at the moment would create too large an area to cover for one council and it could mean full time councillors. Q) Would they do away with Long Stratton? A) Possibly but they would still need to have district offices. Q) Do the public have a vote? A) Consultations going on at the moment, but mainly with existing councils.
8. Open Forum
A member of the public did not agree with Highways regarding the speed limit through the village as he thought it was necessary. Points raised; a lot of traffic between 6 and 7am; playground is right next to the road; bus drivers drive through the village quickly; Peter Hill had counted 30 vehicles in one hour; if someone legally drives 60mph through the village then children and the elderly are at risk; very bad down Trunch Hill because it is narrow; more and more vans and small lorries delivering. Action; send a petition from the village; county council elections are due in June, make them aware of the problem.
Q) There is a deep ditch outside the Chapel Post Office and the reflector posts have gone from there. The posts did denote that a ditch was there, could they be put back? The Chairman explained that these were not removed by Highways, but they could be reinstated. It was suggested that a proper lay by there would help on post office day when a number of cars are parked along there.
9. Any Other Business
Pocket Park; The nettles are a problem, difficult to get rid off and they grow across the path. They would need to be cut 6 or 7 times a season and the cuttings removed and then planted with shrubs. There was discussion regarding managing and planting. Adrian Hill said that it should not be gardened but managed as a wild area. It was agreed that the nettles should be removed from the path and it was noted that this is the responsibility of SNC; DPC were asked to put this on the next agenda. Liz Cargill was keen to get a small group of people to manage the Pocket Park area and Ron suggested that something could be organized through the Garden Club in conjunction with the Parish Council. It was agreed that this was a good idea as long as it was managed as a wild area and not a garden.
Millennium Wood; some of the trees have been badly damaged by deer. The Chairman said that she had been in touch with the Woodland Trust and asked them to come out. They said that much of the damage is to Ash trees, however, they were sure they would survive. They have also called in warreners to control the rabbits.
Denton Sign; Could daffodils be planted around it? After some discussion it was agreed that the small wild variety of daffodil could be planted. Adrian suggested that the Denton snowdrop could be introduced there.
The branches of a willow tree at the bottom of Pocket Park are lying on the telephone wires. The Clerk said that she had spoken to BT about this and it was not their policy to trim trees. It was suggested that DPC contact County Council to ask them to deal with this.
The meeting closed at 8.45pm.