Denton Parish Council
DRAFT Minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting held on Tuesday 18th March 2011.
at 7.30pm at Denton Village Hall
NB These are draft minutes and are subject to correction before approval at the next meeting.
Present: Terry Hanner (Vice Chairman), Roger Gibson, Peter Hill, Adrian Hipwell, Annie Whiteman, Eddie Winter, Pauline Sandell (Clerk).
Also Present: Murray Gray (District Councillor), 16 members of the public.
1. Welcome by the Vice Chairman
Terry Hanner welcomed everyone to the meeting.
2. Apologies
Liz Cargill, Adrian Hipwell.
3. Minutes of the Last Meeting
The minutes were agreed and signed.
4. Chairman's Report
Copy attached. The Chairman was corrected by Peter Hill – funding for the Play Area also came from Calor and Pride in Norfolk Awards.
5. District Council Matters
Murray Gray reported the following matters:
Affordable Housing; Murray was pleased to report that five of the affordable houses will be occupied by people who are either currently living in Denton or have a connection to the village. He was also pleased that at last Denton has its much wanted speed limit, due to the affordable housing.
Gypsy and Travellers; the ownership of the site in Middle Road that had been illegally encamped on by the Gypsies and Travellers has now been settled to the advantage of the village. The neighbouring site at Grove Farm had an enforcement order served on it last year because of illegal residential occupation of the buildings, but at the public enquiry the inspector threw it out because of incorrect wording on the enforcement notice. Another enforcement order has now been served by SNC.
Local Development Framework; this replaces the Local Planning Document for the area and covers Norwich and Broadland as well as South Norfolk. It has now reached a stage where the core strategy is approved by the Planning Inspectorate. A meeting is to be held next Tuesday where the Council is expected to adopt the joint core strategy. There are five different levels of settlement and Denton comes under ‘other villages’. The minimum that can be expected is that Denton will get its development boundary back and will be allowed to develop some infill, probably between ‘Watch House’ and ‘Sawyers’ and to get the Middle Road/Trunch Hill junction improved. SNC had pinpointed two sites for Gypsy and Travellers, one of which was The Old Harleston Road, Earsham. Murray had argued at the time that the process that the Council had gone through to identify this site was unsound and when it went to the Inspectorate the process was criticised and SNC has now withdrawn the plan having spent 4 years on it.
Government Cuts; SNC has been able to absorb the cuts this year without compulsory redundancies, but cannot continue to do that. Therefore it has been suggested that SNC share services with another district council by having one chief executive, one chief planning officer, etc. SNC talked with Breckland Council but decided not to progress with that and is now talking to Gt Yarmouth about sharing services. Nothing will happen before the election, but once May has passed serious discussions will take place with Gt. Yarmouth.
Murray concluded by saying that he had been a District Councillor for 20 years in May and has found it a privilege and joy to be Denton’s District Councillor as Denton is a remarkable village. He thanked the Parish Council for their fantastic meetings and the residents of Denton.
Members of the public at the meeting thanked Murray for his hard work and Terry Hanner also thanked Murray on behalf of the Parish Council.
Q. How much of the Council’s budget is spent on salaries?
A. Not sure of the percentage, but most of the budget goes on paying staff. Cuts have been made this year because of early retirement and voluntary redundancies.
Q. Is it a good idea to share services with a Council like Gt Yarmouth which is not very rural?
A. Gt. Yarmouth is much more experienced in tourism and cultural events and SNC can take advantage of this experience.
Q. Because of Government cuts do you see council tax going up?
A. SNC’s part of the council tax has been frozen for the last 3 or 4 years and this year nearly all councils have frozen their tax. Government has given Councils extra money if Councils freeze their council tax. Denton Parish Council has also kept their precept frozen at last year’s rate and the parish council’s part of the council tax is related to how many houses in that parish are paying council tax. Therefore the more houses paying tax the lower the rate.
6. Royal Wedding
At the last village hall meeting the Royal Wedding was discussed and whether the village wished to celebrate in some way. A number of the public at the meeting said that they would like the village to celebrate the wedding and 9 people said they would be happy to help. It was agreed to have a meeting the following week to discuss ideas.
7. David Gibson – How to Use the Chapel as a Community Building
The Reverend David Gibson introduced himself to the public as the Methodist minister for the Chapel and serves on the Joint Church Council. He explained that Church buildings are part of our heritage but although wonderful resources they can be a great millstone as they need constant maintenance and repair. The Chapel needs a new roof and the cost has been estimated at £60,000. It is foremost a place of worship and is there to serve the community but, in order to serve the community better, can it be used for other community activities? It is central to the village, light and non-threatening, has good acoustics and is attractive inside and out. Some suggestions are a shop, a static art venue, a performance venue, a cinema ‘Flicks in the Sticks’, or music venue. There could be a meeting place for a cup of coffee and a chat, a small library or a computer facility for online shopping. Parish records could be kept in the Chapel and made accessible to residents. It is important not to compete with the village hall but could be sensibly developed each to its own strengths. If the community would like the Chapel adapted to provide other facilities then they must be prepared to pay for it. With regards to funding, if a grant is requested as the Chapel stands now it would be difficult to get, but if the Parish takes a risk and increases its usage by adapting it to provide other facilities, then a grant is more likely to be forthcoming. A singing group was suggested and David said that that would be helpful in gaining a grant.
A great deal of discussion took place about using part of the Chapel for a village shop. Some people thought that a shop with volunteer helpers would be a good way of serving the community. However, some people thought that people would only use it to purchase a pint of milk which they had forgotten to buy at the supermarket and would therefore not be viable.
It was agreed that this was not the venue to make firm decisions about the future of the Chapel but had been useful to get options and opinions aired. The views of the planners and also the lack of car park facilities would have to be taken into consideration when finally deciding the future of the Chapel.
9. Open Forum
Speed limit; the new speed limit signs had been put up and there was a great deal of concern that the signs were too close to the road and large vehicles, in particular agricultural vehicles, would find it difficult to get past them.
Annie and Peter were thanked for all their hard work on the redesign of the play area. The children love it, but the adults like it too!
10. Any Other Business
None.
The meeting closed at 8.55 pm.