West Dereham Parish Council - December Meeting

DRAFT MINUTES OF WEST DEREHAM PARISH COUNCIL MEETING

HELD AT WEST DEREHAM VILLAGE HALL at 7.30 pm

THURSDAY 4 DECEMBER 2014

PRESENT (6 Councillors): - Pam Bullas (PB), Claire Cann (CC) – Chairman, Lorraine Hunt (LH), Paula Kellingray (PK), Claire Page (CP), Pam Walker (PW)

Clerk: - Sarah Thorpe

6 members of the public were in attendance.

Papers presented to Councillors:  (i) Financial Management Report (spreadsheet); (ii) expenditure (for approval);

(iii) Glazewing Report; (iv) budget 2015/16 calculations for precept decision.

The Chairman welcomed everyone present and opened the meeting.

1. Apologies for Absence.  Apologies had been received from Cllr. Tom Foy, as he was away on holiday, and Cllr

Trevor Manley, due to a prior commitment.

2. Declarations of Interest. No declarations were made.

3. Use of social media and audio recording of meeting. CC asked “Will anyone present be filming, recording,

blogging or tweeting during this meeting?” No member of the public present at this stage advised that they would.

4. Minutes of the Parish Council Meetings held on 6 November 2014. The Chairman confirmed all Councillors had seen the minutes of the Parish Council (PC) meetings held on 6 November 2014. These were agreed as a true record and signed by the Chairman.

5.1         Chairman’s Report.

5.1.1      Woodland Trust Community Trees (WT) - planting by Community Payback Scheme (CPS). Planting of the hedging at the cemetery and village hall took place on 9 & 16 November. Additional work was also completed at the village hall including hedge trimming, edging and weeding. The PC and Village Hall Committee (VHC) were both delighted with the work that had been done and it was agreed that a letter of thanks should be sent to WT and CPS.

5.1.2      “The Big Tree Plant” Scheme. The PC has been awarded 700 more free hedging from The Conservation Volunteers (TCV) under a scheme funded by DEFRA called “The Big Tree Plant.” TCV will also provide volunteers to plant this hedging in the cemetery at the start of next year.

5.1.3      Royal Mail Post Boxes. The Church Road box has now been straightened and both boxes to be painted shortly.

5.1.4      Report from Environment Agency (EA) on dumping of waste in the Old Lime Pit. A summary of the report has now been received from the EA. CC read out this report:

5.2         Clerk’s Report.

5.2.1      Letter regarding static caravan at property on Church Road. The Clerk advised that she had spoken to the owner of the property concerned and he had advised that he did not have a static caravan.

5.2.2      NALC/SLCC Autumn Conference. PB, PW and the Clerk attended the recent conference at Knights Hill Hotel in King’s Lynn. Points to note were a talk by Stephen Christopher from Mazars—External Auditors to local councils in Norfolk—on recent developments for the External Audits from 2016/17; Gemma Walker from Norfolk Wildlife Trust gave a very interesting talk on Living Landscapes; Borough Council representatives spoke about the forthcoming Elections in 2015 and the new recycling arrangements.

5.2.3      Pear Technology.  Final draft of cemetery plan now received. This is awaiting discussion and approval.

5.3         Handyman’s Report. A report produced by the Handyman was read out by the Clerk.

In summary he has received the anti-graffiti paint, but unfortunately the bus shelter is now to damp inside to apply it and fresh foot prints are on the walls meaning the inside will need cleaning and possibly painting again before the anti-graffiti paint can be applied, once the weather improves.

Repointed the brickwork on the village sign in Church Road and also repointed the loose brickwork on Hudson’s Bridge.

Put the public footpath sign back up in Station Road which had been lifted out of the ground and laid down.

Collected all the litter along Church Road, from the corner of St Andrews Walk to the start of Station Road.  There is still fresh dog fouling along Church Road, within a few yards of the dog waste bin. Cleared the weeds from the two planters in Church Road. Inspection of the cemetery and allotments reveal no issues.

The only jobs left on the list to complete are the anti-graffiti paint in the bus shelter, the painting of the NCC sign adjacent to the old School House and taking down of the village signs for repainting, all of these to wait until the spring.

A discussion took place on which public footpath sign has been put back up as Councillors reported that more than one sign had been removed. Clerk to advise Handyman when situation is established. List of the jobs given to the Handyman to be forwarded to all Councillors.

5.4         Police Report. PK advised that PCSO Jane Edwards had sent her apologies for not being present at the meeting and had provided a report. There have been nine calls; four relating to ASB—unknown person jumping over fences, person being harassed and the other two for quad bikes riding in the fields between Hilgay Road and Basil Road; three Suspicious Circumstances—thought unknown person was kicking someone’s front door, turned out to be fireworks going off, other two calls for the quad bikes being ridden around; one Burglary—persons reporting door of a house open, this turned out to be all in order NO BURGLARY; one Civil Dispute—quad bikes on fields with no permission. There have been no crimes recorded. Also details of the priority areas from the last SNAP meeting; none of these related to WD. It was agreed that a letter should be sent to the Police Commissioner stating the concerns of the PC that staffing levels of PCSOs has been reduced to a level that there is currently no attendance at PC meetings.

5.5         Village Hall Report. PK expressed thanks to all the volunteers who run the bar and help out at events. There are lots of events taking place prior to Christmas including several private bookings. Financial position continues to improve.

5.6         Broadband Report.  PW advised that a letter had been issued to Elizabeth Truss MP (ET), as agreed at the last meeting, and that she had replied by contacting Annette Thorpe (AT) – BT Regional Partnership Director (East of England).  AT had sent the following reply which PW read out to the meeting:

“I have contacted the Openreach Programme team to investigate the background and solution to this.

You will already be aware that the methodology adopted under this partnership, was to deploy service in as fair and equitable manner as possible, to ensure that we enabled as many communities as possible across Norfolk.

As far as West Dereham is concerned, we had always included it within the programme.  However once we got to the survey stage, it was apparent that the green cabinet serving this community would not give sufficient benefit to the end users to justify its enablement, and in turn would have been a considerable waste of money to do this.

In our efforts to ensure we served the community, we had to consider an alternative option which involves providing a completely new connection and deploying a very long length of fibre.  Such extensive network activities do take time, and as such means we have had to slip the enablement of this community back to later phases.

It is unfortunate that we have had to slip the date, but the Better Broadband for Norfolk website has always caveated that deployment plans are subject to change.

I would hope that whilst the delay in deployment is regrettable, (but unavoidable), the community will actually derive the benefit of a better service than would have otherwise been available, by deferring the timescale for deployment in favour of a more robust solution.”

It was agreed that another letter would be issued to ET stating that the view of the PC is that because the work is difficult for WD we have been put to the bottom of the list. Residents are selling their homes and businesses in the village because of the poor broadband service. Is she satisfied that the government’s expectations are being achieved in this area? The village has other disadvantages for residents which include a very poor signal for mobile phones. LH to provide some information on this to the Clerk to include with the letter to ET.

5.7         Glazewing Report.  Glazewing had issued their December report by email, it covers the period from 2 November to 28 November. It advised that there had been one reported incident in the period. The details are:

• 3 November – a call was received to comment on a “Hippo” lorry driving along Ryston Road (unsuitable for large lorries) towards West Dereham. The Hippo lorry did attend site to deliver some material however Glazewing were unsure if he was making deliveries/collections within the area requiring the necessity to travel along this route. Glazewing have contacted Hippo to request where possible drivers travel along Glazewing prescribed route.

PB advised that she had followed the lorry through the village and it had not stopped to make any deliveries or collections. CC commented that there was no mention of the recent court case involving Glazewing in their report. She advised that a press release from the EA on the Gov.uk website gave full details of the case which involved Glazewing being fined £3600 for selling 3910 tonnes of contaminated waste which was then spread on farm land, off West Dereham Road, belonging to Glover Farming (West Dereham) Ltd in August 2013.

6.1         Accounts.   Accounts for approval and the monthly financial management report were submitted by the Clerk. She advised that the income and expenditure for October 2014 has now been confirmed and that estimated figures for November have been inserted based upon invoices received.

* a cheque for £37.50 was received from Nick Cann towards this cost, due to this amount being added to the total cost caused by a printing error.

The above payments were considered and approved. A payment of £150 was also approved to cover the contribution to the costs for the work done by the Community Payback Team. An invoice has not been received for this yet but it was agreed to issue a cheque when it is received. An invoice will then be raised by the PC for the Village Hall Committee to recover 50% of this cost, as one of the two days provided by the team was spent doing work at the Village Hall.  Cheques to be signed at the end of the meeting.

6.2         Precept for 2015/16.  The Clerk spoke about the revised draft document that had been produced and given to all Councillors. The draft budget had been drawn up to include all of the items in the budget for 2014/15 with no items added or removed. Some adjustment had been made to allow for the increased costs of the Clerk’s salary, due to a national pay award, and payment of mileage expenses. Members of the public were invited to comment on the budget for 2015/16. No comments were made. CC suggested that she believed the £100 budget for additional spraying at the Village Hall should be removed and redistributed by adding £50 to the Village Hall Support budget and £50 to the Training budget; also that there should be a provision for considering a salary increase for the Clerk and the Handyman when these reached the annual review. It was noted that this would involve an additional £235 based on suggestions of possible increases. It was confirmed that all of this could be achieved within the budget if an increase of 1.3% (the current rate of inflation) was made to the precept. The Chairman noted the precept had been discussed at the September, October, November and December meetings and all household in West Dereham had been individually invited, by way of the PC notice in the village magazine each month, to contact the Clerk with comments or to attend the meetings to discuss the precept. It was agreed by all councillor therefore to make the above adjustments to the budget and set the precept at £15932.00 which represented a 1.3% increase, in line with inflation.

7. Location of two additional dog waste bins. An item had appeared in the December village notice inviting residents to comment on the suggested locations. No comments had been received at this stage. It was agreed that time should be allowed for residents to comment and that the provisional locations that had been agreed at a previous meeting should be used if no comments were received by the end of December 2014. Clerk to ask Handyman to install in the New Year.

8. Planning Applications.

8.1         14/01582/F – First floor extension at Lime House, Lime Kiln Road. This application was discussed and it was agreed that the PC would SUPPORT this application.

8.2         C/2/2014/2026 – Temporary (10 years) change of use of land for top soil recycling at Cornerways Farm, College Road, Stoke Ferry. This application was discussed. It was agreed that the PC did not want to object to the application but felt that it needed to raise concerns over the increased traffic that this proposal would involve on the

A134 and the junctions with Lime Kiln Road, Bath Road and the A1122. According to the application the existing volume of vehicles visiting the site is 50 per week. This would increase to 105 in January; 110 in March; 200 in April; and 115 in May. The PC felt that consideration should be given to a reduced speed limit on this stretch of highway or a roundabout at the junction of the A134 with the A1122 to reduce the inevitable congestion during the months of January, and March to May. A reply from NCC to be requested to these concerns.

9.1         A letter had been received from the BC advising the PC of its plan to hold briefing sessions in December prior to the consultation period for the Local Development Framework Site Allocations and Development Management Policies Pre-Submission Document. The Clerk confirmed that West Dereham had been classed as having no sites for development.

9.2         Letters had been received from Norfolk Age UK and Norfolk Accident Rescue Service requesting a donation from the PC. It was agreed that the usual reply would be issued to such requests stating that the PC made no provision for charitable donations in its budget but giving information on the fish and chip charity evenings held at the village hall.

1. Parish Council policies and documentation.

10.1       Cemetery Risk Assessment. The current document, which had been circulated to all prior to the meeting, was reviewed. It was agreed to specify the Handyman’s monthly inspections and that no further amendments were necessary. It was noted that the Clerk is booked to attend a training course on Cemetery management and that this course could be suitable for the Handyman to attend if it proved useful.

10.2       Community Engagement Policy. The current document, which had been circulated to all prior to the meeting, was reviewed. Minor amendments were agreed to clarify that the Annual Report was delivered to every household and the wording of “youngsters” was amended to “young people.” It was agreed to adopt this new document.

1. Parish Council Assets.

11.1       Decorative Village Gateways. A quotation had been received for £340 per gate. It was agreed to apply for funding from the NCC Parish Partnership Scheme for three sets of gates (to be installed on Lime Kiln Road; Hilgay Road; and Church Road); depending on the outcome Councillors would look again at the project.

11.2       Norfolk Parishes website. The Clerk had recently attended a training course on the Norfolk Parishes free websites for PCs. It was agreed to have one of these websites as they would be easier for the clerk to administer than the current PC website and that the Clerk should begin the process of transferring information across to the new site when it had been set up.

LH agreed to be the Liaison Councillor with the Clerk on this matter.

2. Other Business – Any Additional Reports and Items for Inclusion on the next Agenda.

12.1.      PB advised that the Lime Kiln Booklet will soon be available. She also mentioned that the information from the Wildlife Trust at the recent NALC/SLCC conference included the facility for a representative to attend the parish and give a talk on this subject. It was agreed that this was a matter that could be considered in the New Year.

The official meeting concluded at 9.10pm and was opened to the floor for general comment.

Open Forum.

• Recent accidental damage to the recreation ground was raised. Photos had been taken and given to the PC. It was agreed that the PC would have a look at the site to see if the repair work undertaken was sufficient or if further action was needed.
• A sunken manhole inspection cover in the verge near to Hudson’s Garage was mentioned. It was agreed that this was a health and safety issue and should be reported to Highways for action.

Closure. The Chairman thanked everyone for attending and final closure of the meeting was at 9.15pm.

Next ordinary meeting of the Parish Council is on Thursday 5 February at 7.30pm with Open Surgery from 7.00pm.

Clerk: Sarah Thorpe

Email: clerk@westderehamparishcouncil.com

Telephone: 01945 430930

Chairman’s signature ……………………………………             Date ……………………………