Denton Parish Council
Minutes of the Meeting Held on Tuesday 9th November 2010
at 8pm at Denton Village Hall
Present: Liz Cargill (Chairman), Terry Hanner (Vice Chairman), Roger Gibson, Peter Hill, Adrian Hipwell, Annie Whiteman, Eddie Winter, Pauline Sandell (Clerk).
Also Present: Murray Gray (District Councillor), Two Members of the Public.
1. Apologies
None.
2. Declaration of Interest
None.
3. Minutes of the Last Meeting
Under item 11, line 3; change 'Eddie' to 'Peter'. The minutes were agreed and signed.
4. Matters Arising:
a) Playing Field: Peter Hill reported a badly split post on the wobble board, badly rusted and worn set of chains on the swing, bark under swings holing out and puddling, head of the chicken badly damaged, hedging around the recycling centre needs trimming, hopper of the SCOPE bin full.
Liz Cargill had received and read the Playing Field Inspection Report and said that problems were medium risk and not high risk. It was agreed that most things would be dealt with when the Play Area is refurbished, but a maintenance working party will be organized after Christmas. The Clerk was asked to ring SNC regarding the hedging around the recycling area. The report was passed to Annie Whiteman. Roger Gibson to do next report.
b) Play Area Project: Liz Cargill reported that a leaflet had been written about willow sculptures and will be very helpful. An order for the willow will be placed shortly. Hedging for the Play Area was due to arrive later on in the week and a working party had been arranged for Sunday morning. Annie had answered the concerns of people who thought the hedge would restrict the view of the playing field and no further concerns had been voiced. Before Annie and Peter had finalized the proposal for the bid for Lottery Funding for the Play Area they received news that the Playbuilder funding would be forthcoming after all, although it would only be £25,000 instead of £47,000. The money must be spent by the end of March 2011 and therefore they wished to get the three tenders in place as quickly as possible. A playbuilder meeting will take place on Friday and more information will be received then.
c) Allotments: Liz Cargill is planning to visit the Harleston Allotment site. Eddie gave Liz a copy of an old agreement that the Rogerson Trust had for allotments.
d) Bus Service: A meeting has been set up with Mr Limbach, Assistant Operations Manager of Travel and Transport Services, Anglian Buses, Alburgh Parish Council, Peter Hill and Liz Cargill at Beccles on 17th November. Murray Gray said he would like to attend as well. Residents would prefer a later bus and would prefer the taxi bus to run Wednesday and Friday rather than Tuesday and Friday as Wednesday is a market day and Tuesday clashes with the mobile grocer. In general residents would still prefer a bus to run twice a week to Bungay rather than every week day to Harleston. If people need to attend doctor or dental appointments they will have to rely on other people with cars.
e) Any Other Matters Arising: An email had been received from Thanksgiving Cottage stating concerns about the height of the new affordable housing. Councillors thought that there were only marginal differences between the new housing and existing buildings.
Eddie reported that the Clerk had passed on a registration pack from the Land Registry as it is the owners of the playing field, i.e. Rogerson Trust, and not the Parish Council who has to register the land. Eddie said that David Sprake will not charge the Parish Council for the work carried out on the new lease. The Clerk was asked to write and thank him.
The Clerk informed the Councillors that the Speed Limit Order will be published in the EDP on the 17th November.
5. District and County Council Matters
South Norfolk District Chief Executive did a quick tour of Denton as part of her tour of the wards, and visited the affordable housing site, the playing field, Grove Farm and looked at the Middle Road site. The Council is facing significant cuts of 7% in the next four years amounting in total to over 28% and to help with this SNC will be sharing services with other councils and will have to look more seriously into tree wardens, leisure services etc.
Hempnall Crossroad on the A140; this is a very dangerous junction and Murray is about to put a motion to SNC to try and put pressure on NNC to build a roundabout at this junction. NCC is planning to build a by-pass at Long Stratton and the roundabout could be linked to that. Murray asked DPC if it would support this scheme. The Councillors unanimously said they would do so and would write a letter of support if necessary.
6. Questions from the Public
Richard Carden asked if a set of the annual accounts plus the budget could be put on the Denton web site. Adrian proposed, Annie seconded, unanimously agreed. The Clerk was asked to liaise with Richard. Annie thanked Richard for an excellent village web site.
7. Sites for Development at Denton Consultation
Peter Hill had proposed a set of answers to the consultation questionnaire. Some alterations were made to the proposed answers. (Answers to questionnaire attached). Proposal: Reply to the questionnaire as set out. Proposed by Annie Whiteman, seconded by Peter Hill, unanimously agreed.
8. Planning Applications/Decisions
Planning Application 2010/1830 and 1831. The Old Rectory, Danacre Road, Denton - Retrospective Application for Erection of Extension, Conservatory and Garage Block not built in accordance with permission 2009/0141/LB. Peter Hill took the application to compare it with the old one. A planning meeting was arranged for Saturday 20th November at The Village Hall at 9.30am.
Grove Farm: SNC has decided to ask for a new enforcement notice to be drawn up with different wording. Liz Cargill will write to SNC as agreed at the last meeting.
Approval has been given to Fir Tree Farm planning application.
9. Correspondence
A summary of correspondence had been circulated.
Notification from SNC to say that in future SNC will not be organizing play area inspections. Parish Councils will have to deal with RosPA directly. The Councillors agreed unanimously to do this.
13. Finance
a. Accounts summary: circulated.
b. Discuss budget for 2011/12 and decide on precept. There was some discussion about the £300 allocated in the budget for playing field maintenance and it was suggested that maintenance would be covered by the refurbishment work that will be done next year. However, it was decided to keep in the £300 as on going maintenance will always be required. Due to Government cuts and Councils trying to keep costs down, the Parish Councillors felt that it was their responsibility to also keep costs down and therefore proposed that the precept should not be increased and should be kept at £3231. Proposed by Liz Cargill, seconded by Adrian Hipwell, unanimously agreed.
c. Pay the Clerk £89.19 for November and December.
d. Pay Adrian Hipwell. Adrian was unable to find the bill for the repair of the cricket nets and said that he would donate the cost.
Pay SNC £75.20 for Play Area Inspection (Not on the agenda but cannot wait for payment until January).
Proposal: pay c and SNC. Proposed by Eddie Winter, seconded by Annie Whiteman, unanimously agreed.
13. Any Other Business
Terry Hanner: a trench has been dug across The Walk. The Clerk was asked to speak to the Footpath Officer.
Liz Cargill; Compost figures – 15.47 tonnes which should amount to £741 in recycling credits. Cash sales have amounted to £136.50. It has been suggested that composting money be used to fence the allotments, although there are grants available.
The Clerk; asked the Councillors to give some thought to next year's election. She said that it should not be left until close to May before anything is done and suggested that adverts in the Parish Mag should be done early in the year in the hope that more than seven people are nominated so that an election can take place. She asked that if anyone was planning to resign that it would be helpful to know early on next year.