West Dereham Parish Council - December Meeting

DRAFT MINUTES OF THE WEST DEREHAM PARISH COUNCIL MEETING HELD AT WEST DEREHAM VILLAGE HALL AT 7.30 pm ON THURSDAY 1 DECEMBER 2016 PRESENT (five Councillors): - Pam Bullas (PB), Claire Cann (CC) - Chair, Lorraine Hunt (LH), Paula Kellingray (PK), Claire Williams (CW). Clerk: Helen Carrier Three members of the public were in attendance. The Chairman welcomed everyone present and opened the meeting.

1. Apologies for absence. Apologies had been received from Tom Foy (TF) due to work commitments and Pam Walker (PW) due to scouting commitments.

2. Declarations of Interest. No declarations were made.

3. Use of social media, audio recording of meeting and invitation for public contributions. 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. CC advised members of the public that if they wished to comment on any item, before a decision was made, they should raise their hand and they would be invited to speak.

4. Minutes of the Parish Council meetings held on 3 November 2016. CC confirmed all Councillors had seen the minutes of the Parish Council (PC) meeting held on 3 November 2016. The minutes were agreed as a true record and signed by the Chairman.

5. Reports. 5.1 Chairman’s Report. 5.1.1 Cemetery Hedge CC advised that the hedge will be cut on Friday 2 and Saturday 3 December and CC will be around to supervise. The bigger logs will be stacked outside the cemetery for residents of West Dereham to collect, in reasonable amounts, to use. The Clerk will advertise the logs in the Notice and on the website. 5.1.2 Cemetery Sign The sign has now been installed beside the new gates. Thanks to Neil Mason. 5.1.3 Royal British Legion Annual Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall CC attended and TF attended as West Dereham Standard Bearer. A letter of thanks has been received from Andrew Francis Funeral Services thanking TF for his excellent service as Standard Bearer at two funerals this week. TF took annual leave to attend the two services. 5.1.4 CC welcomed WDPC’s new clerk, Helen Carrier, who is now in post and taking her first meeting.

5.2 Clerk’s Report. 5.2.1 30mph signs on Village Gateways Highways advised that the signs would be attached by the end of December. 5.2.2 SAM2 sign The signed Memo of Understanding has been received from Andy Wallace at Highways and has been forwarded to Linda McDermott for authorisation after which the SAM2 can ordered from Westcotec. 5.2.3 Meeting dates for 2017 PC meeting dates for next year will be the first Thursday of each month from February to December. The Annual Parish Meeting date has not yet been confirmed. 5.2.4 Location for Village Map Board on Station Road Highways have provided a map showing the location of all cables in the requisite part of the verge and the Clerk will liaise with the Handyman to reinstate the map board at the appropriate place. 5.2.5 Allotments A letter was sent to one of the Allotment holders about burning household rubbish; they had explained that it was actually netting from the allotment but apologised for any nuisance caused. 5.2.6 Grass Cutting Contract TOP Garden Services promised to send a quote for the extra cut of the long grass at the Garden of Remembrance before today’s PC meeting and was reminded that the PC are still waiting for the detailed contract for the grass cutting contract 2017. No quote had been received from TOP Garden Services and CC asked the Clerk to contact them to voice the Council’s concern at their lack of response to the quote and contract. 5.2.7 Clearance of small ditch on land of Ryston Road A letter has been received from Barry Hawkins confirming that the farmer will deal with the matter as normal part of maintenance. LH confirmed that the ditch has still not been cleared and residents are concerned about flooding in neighbouring properties. Nobody could remember when the last time the ditch was cleared. Given residents’ concerns about flooding, Councillors asked the Clerk to go back to BH to ascertain the regularity of what was meant by “normal maintenance”.

5.3 Handyman’s Report. The Handyman met the new Clerk and drove her around the village pointing out his areas of responsibilities. The Handyman had walked the length of Church Road cutting back branches; started preparing bridge at Hilgay Junction for painting; weeded the Garden of Remembrance and cut back yew bushes; strimmed all bridges; strimmed around the phone box and post box; and weeded planters. In December he will be removing the old cemetery gates and fencing the gap. The Handyman asked if the PC would like him to remove and dispose of the goals posts. PB advised that the Village Trust signatories are now in place so the new equipment can be ordered. As the goal posts could be deemed dangerous PB advised that the Handyman remove and dispose of the goalposts. The Handyman also asked if he could remove the low branches at Stotts Bridge and dispose at the Council tip. CC confirmed the Handyman could go ahead. The Clerk will ask the Handyman to refit the litter bin at the recreation ground and to remove the vandalised bin on the bus shelter. CC asked parishioners if they had any matters they wished the Handyman to attend to but no suggestions were made. 5.4 Police Report. PK advised that she heard reports of oil being stolen from Boughton. Tankers, which look genuine, are being used to remove the oil from tanks. If the tanker driver feels they are being followed by the same car they are supposed to return to the depot, however, cars are now working in teams using two or more different cars making it difficult for the tanker drivers to spot.

5.5 Village Hall Report. PK advised that the hall continued to do well with many events planned in December and over the festive period. The village hall is in good repair and the committee has not had to do any major maintenance this year.

5.6 Broadband Report. PW had emailed a report to CC as follows: Box 9 is apparently up and running. It seems that some people have had a small increase in Broadband speeds this last week and OpenReach have been busy in The Row for the past couple of days. However, speeds could be anything between 40mbs and 1.5mbs along a stretch of about seven houses. This fluctuates all the time and for us anything between 42mbs and 01.mbs. Residents are encouraged to contact their providers for more information on current speeds.

5.7 Glazewing Report. Keith Charlton (KC) from Glazewing (GW) had provided a report for the PC meeting. The report was read out by the Clerk: Issues Arising and addressed by Glazewing during November: site security system and fire prevention action plan that was reported in the previous months report has been moved to December, this will include new LED lights and cameras being installed and a upgrade to the site alarm systems after this has been completed. (AMR ltd have been contracted to do the work)

Both transport yard areas cleaned and sorted, skips in graveyard area have been moved to the correct place, we just have an old shovel to dispose of and we will have completed this project in-line with planning request.

New parking location have been found for some of the transport vehicles and are just waiting for conformation of the agreements and these lorries will be moved, this should reduce the early morning traffic.

Complaints received during the month of November 2016, (updates in bold)

Complaint about noise; Glazewing will going forward arrange an independent noise survey at the front of the site and on the road leading to the site, this will be in line with recommendation from the planning officer, if there is any noise issues these will then be addressed and appropriate action taken to reduce the cause of the noise. (This as now been sent to our planning advisor and he will arrange for this to be done as per the required Stannared)

Complaint about containers in the wrong area, all of these containers will be moved by the end of October as agreed with the planning officer and then the gates to that area will be kept locked and the key controlled so that no drivers can go / take containers into this area without us knowing why.(this is now completed and memo issued to the drivers about using these areas correctly, they have all signed to say they have received this and Glazewing will take the appropriate action against drivers that do not follow these rules)

Complaints raised direct with me;

Noise complaint raised by email in regards to the early morning noise made by the drivers in the container yard and accelerating through the village; memo sent to all the drivers in regards to this noise complaint and the complainant copied into this memo so they could see what actions were taking place. Container yard area had holes in that needed filling to prevent Lorries bouncing in these holes and there chains shaking and banging against the skips causing unnecessary noise. These holes have been filled in and will be checked and repaired as required, this yard as also been sorted so that containers are more accessible and less movements required for the drivers to get the container type they need . (Investigated and actioned the issue in a shorter time frame)

PB provided an update on activity at GW. With regard to the noise & disturbance from early morning traffic leaving the haulage yard, KC had been told by Jon Miles, one of the GW Directors, that he had acquired another yard for parking some of the lorries that are kept in the WD yard, so this would reduce early morning traffic & skip movements. (CC commented that the Miles brothers had made precisely this claim some years ago but it had never resulted in any discernable reduction in early morning traffic & GW had consistently refused to quantify it.) KC had also been informed by Steven Halls (NCC) that GW had until 8 December to reduce the illegal stockpiles & the parking of skips in unauthorised areas. PB reported that at the time of the PC meeting traffic in the haulage yard still exceeded the legal limit & a lorry had been sighted loading & unloading plastic wheelie bins in the recycling yard on 3 and 16 November at 04.25. Reports were also received of skips parked on the road near the GW entrance. Residents had also reported constant noise from the plant and are advised to phone the Community Safety & Neighbourhood Nuisance Team on 01553 616200. 6. Finance. 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 September 2016 had now been confirmed and estimated figures for October had been inserted based upon invoices received. Payee Cheque No Net VAT Gross Sarah Thorpe (outgoing clerk) salary, expenses for November – 50 hours 100916 708.89 708.89 Helen Carrier (incoming clerk) salary, expenses for November – 44 hours 100910 396.87 396.87 Handyman’s contract, expenses plus 18 hours for November 100911 188.30 188.30 Helen Carrier salary for December – 60 hrs (no January meeting or payments) 100912 515.20 515.20 Handyman’s contract, 18 hours for December (no January meeting or payments) 100913 154.00 154.00 CGM Ltd – ground maintenance October 100914 77.93 15.59 93.52 Post Office Ltd - PAYE 100915 266.68 266.68 CGM Ltd – recreation ground maintenance 100917 280.00 56.00 336.00 Total 2546.39 71.59 2659.46

The payments were considered and approved. Cheques to be signed at the end of the meeting.

6.2 Budget for 2017/18. Copies of the draft budget for 2017/18 had been circulated to Councillors and was on display on the overhead projector at the meeting. Members of the public were advised that this was the last month of the four month process when the PC would be considering whether any additional items should be added or removed for 2017/18. Some budgets had been decreased to accommodate other increases; these figures were discussed. It was agreed that Open Spaces heading would be retitled more specifically to cater for all waste bin purchasing and emptying and would be reduced to £500. Water connection at the Allotments would, for the time being, be removed. Admin/professional fees would be reduced to £500. Members of the public were invited to comment on the budget for 2017/18. One parishioner commented that they believed an increase, in line with inflation as of today’s meeting, would be acceptable. Members were aware that the current rate of inflation was 0.9% and felt that if the PC could manage its finances by increasing the Precept by 0.9% then this was the preferred option. It was agreed by all to set the Precept at £16,532.92 plus £300 Council Tax Support Grant.

7. Planning. Applications. 7.1 C/2/2016/2021 Glazewing House, Station Road, West Dereham, King's Lynn, Norfolk, PE33 9RR: Variation of conditions 3 of planning permission ref. C/2/2011/2024 The application was displayed and discussed. No comments were received from the public. Council have no comments on this application. Decisions. No comment.

8. Parish Council Assets. 8.1 One off cut of Cemetery long grass. No quote has been received. Council agreed to spend a maximum of £200. The Clerk will continue to chase TOP Garden Services for a quote and action taken before the weather became too cold.

8.2 Vandalised litter bin and dog bin on Church Road. Glasdon had provided a quote for replacing the bins (£320). It was decided not to submit an insurance claim as the excess is £250. It was agreed to order a new litter bin and dog bins.

9. Review of PC Policies and documents. 9.1 Cemetery Risk Assessment. The current document was reviewed and it was agreed to add Garden of Remembrance; new gates, low hedges, stone benches and the bird bath to the document. 9.2 Community Engagement Strategy. The document was reviewed and it was agreed that no amendments were necessary.

10. Correspondence. Letters had been received from Anglian Water and Community Action Norfolk – Thinking Fuel. Both letters were for information only.

11. Other Business – Any additional reports and items for inclusion on the next Agenda. 11.1 CW asked if consideration for a sign for the Millennium tree could be added to the agenda in February. The official meeting concluded at 9.10pm, and was opened to the floor for general comment.

Open Forum. No matters were raised by the public.

Closure. The Chairman thanked everyone for attending, and final closure of the meeting was at 9.10pm.

Next PC meeting is on Thursday 2 February 2016 at 7.30pm with Open Surgery from 7.00pm. Clerk: Helen Carrier Email: clerk@westderehamparishcouncil.uk Telephone: 01366 387443

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