Minutes of the Meeting of Freshford Parish Council

held on Monday January 8th 2007

Present; Stuart Campbell, Chairman Mary Stanhope, Hugh Delap, Ray Benfield, Pam Cobb, Rowena Wood, Betty Harris, Richard Blamey, Gitte Dawson, District Councillor and Stephanie Jenkins, Clerk. One member of the public was also present.

1 Apologies for absence ; advance apologies for late arrival were received from Richard Blamey and Gitte Dawson.

2 Minutes

With two small emendations, the Minutes of the meeting of December 4th were agreed to be an accurate record.

3 Planning Matters

Flat 5, The Old House; internal alterations; Application approved.Hermitage; failure to replace section of boundary wall; this matter is being taken to appeal by the owner. Councillors felt that their views on this had been clearly expressed and photographic evidence had been supplied when the original application was submitted.Village Pump Area; ongoing. Conservation Area Review; the question of county boundaries and liaison between Planning Departments is still outstanding. SC is to follow this up with Jessica Hunniset.Planning Details on Website; it was noted that these are not always updated as promptly as possible. The Clerk is to follow this up with Daniel Towner.Sharpstone Cottage/ Conservatory; following the recent refusal of the application for a sun room, a previously-approved scheme for a conservatory has been put under construction. Because this had been a part of a joint scheme for an extension and a conservatory, which had been approved some years ago, the extension element having been constructed at that time , there was no need for new permission, despite the fact that the present Planning Officers were not happy about the original design. Planning Officers have in fact negotiated some alterations to this design, but without any reference to the Parish Council. The Chairman felt that this revealed a worrying point of principle that could have much more serious repercussions. He asked Gitte Dawson if there were any guidelines for Planning Departments as to what would make an amendment a “minor” one and at what point they would be obliged to consult a Parish Council and local residents. She was not aware of any. RW felt that, if not for ordinary applications, a case should be made for those applications with Listed Building status or within Conservation Areas not to be subject to any alteration without reference back to Parish Councils and neighbours.New Planning System; SC warned Councillors that, as a result of the Government’s intent to devolve power to Regional Assemblies, major changes are underway. In Planning terms, the Regional Spatial Strategy would mean the end of the Local Plan. This would be subsumed for three years into B&NES’ Local Development Framework (LDF), into which Local Development Documents (LDDs) would be placed, each dealing with specific topics such as Development Plan Documents (DPDs), Supplementary Planning Documents (SPDs) and the Statement of Community Involvement (SCI). Proposed Phone Mast; RB reported that, after private negotiation, the applicants (Orange) had withdrawn from placing the mast on the Brown’s Field site.

4 Statement of Community Involvement

This is currently in draft form and needs to be responded to by January 17^th.The Chairman will do so. See comments under item 6 5 Parish CharterCouncillors were given copies of the final draft of the document which replaces the 1999 Joint partnership Statement and deals with working relations between B&NES Council and Local Councils in its area. This will be reviewed at the next meeting.

6 Parliamentary Policy Briefing from NALC

Copies of the NALC briefing had been circulated before the meeting and there was a clearly-voiced feeling that, increasingly, Councillors are being overloaded with paperwork that has very little relevance to Parish affairs. The consensus view was that, as volunteers, they are keen to deal with issues that impact directly on village life, but are not prepared to spend time wading through documents full of jargon and responding to consultation documents that will make no difference to Freshford.

The Chairman accepted these views and stated that, as far as possible, he has sheltered Councillors from the mountains of documents by reading them himself and just extracting relevant issues. He stated that this particular briefing did have some worrying implications buried in its depths; the possible side-lining of Parish Councils by the expressed intention to consult interest groups as well. The government intends to offer Parish Councils the opportunity to take responsibility for more services, but the Chairman stated that, in his view, it was asking too much of the voluntary sector. Individual Parish Councils would not have the power to influence Government policy. This would be better tackled by groups; Parishes Liaison and Parish Cluster groups are already in place. ALCA has the staff and finance to be able to offer guidance on such matters.

RJB stated that he was not prepared to take on the increased volume of paperwork.

PC felt that there was a need to prioritise exactly what Councillors needed to know and to ignore the rest.

HD warned that, unless the paperwork was addressed, Councillors might not be aware of their powers or of moves to curb them.

7 Freshford Mill

SC reported that he is still trying to ascertain the position with regard to ownership of The Mill, beyond the fact that Mr Desmond, spokesman for Ypres Development, claimed before Christmas that contracts had been exchanged.

Traffic Mitigation; SC had copied to Councillors part of the original report presented to the Planning Committee, giving Highways’ arguments against the Planning Application, stating that these were still extremely relevant for future approaches to traffic and access problems, particularly those on Rosemary Lane.

RW stated that she felt that any examination of traffic problems should be part of a “whole village” approach, rather than looking at smaller areas.

The Chairman agreed, as displacement has to be a consideration in each case. There are a number of perceived problem areas in the village; the High Street, the centre by the School crossroads, Rosemary Lane, Dark Lane and Church Hill, Sharpstone, Park Corner. Problems involve parking issues, excessive speed of vehicles and pedestrian safety.

HD suggested an approach to Ben Hamilton Baillie, a Traffic Consultant responsible for the innovative Julian Road scheme in Bath, using the idea of “shared space”. He could be asked to look at the problems in the context of the whole village. Councillors agreed that it would be worth approaching him and establishing what costs would be involved for an initial consultation. HD said that Hamilton-Baillie had carried out a study for Norton St Phillip for £2000, but that this should only be considered as indicative. RJB agreed to make this approach.

Rosemary Lane; Gitte Dawson felt that it would still be good to try and get a solution to this problem before development of the Mill site begins, particularly as there had been such a positive response from B&NES’ Highways. She agreed to approach Rosemary Lane resident, Mike Collier, and B&NES’ Nick Jeanes. PC warned that any solution which involved displacing traffic along Sharpstone could be problematic and that effort must be made to involve residents on both lanes in the consultation process. There is a need to examine all the traffic problems as a whole.

8 Parish Plan

HD reported that, at the last Steering Group meeting, it had been decided to add a working group to deal with Employment Matters within the village. As yet a leader and members have not been recruited. Alan Dodge is preparing the Landscape Character Assessment and Susannah Duval-Smith has agreed, with Alan’s assistance, to prepare the Village Design Statement. A meeting of all Working Group leaders is scheduled for January 24^th at which progress and compatibility can be assessed. Whilst each group has its own modus operandi, the format of the eventual document will need to follow a single pattern. An editor and editorial panel have yet to be chosen.

9 Village Shop

GD reported that investigations of several solutions are still in progress.

10 Affordable Housing

HD reported that, at the meeting with Gary Ward and Jon Mutter (Western Challenge Housing Assoc.) on December 6^th the following points were discussed;

The planners have said that until all options within Freshford proper and the Housing Development Boundaries have been eliminated, they would not be prepared to consider others such as Rhaniket Farm (site 16), recently up for sale.
The exception to the “not outside the HDB rule” is Site 1,which would be an extension of the existing Glebe development. Jon Mutter approached the owner, Mr Aldred, shortly before Christmas and as yet has had no response, but in a conversation with Gitte Dawson Mr Aldred has made it clear that he would not be willing to release the land.
Reviewing the sites within the HDB, it was clear that with owners’ refusals and planners’ objections in principle very few possibilities remained. However an approach to John Macdonald about Site 5 was still to be made and it was agreed to look at the potential of the land immediately to the west of the lane leading to Beech Cottage and Site 5. This would be a new consideration, but could well raise the same objections to the other proposals which would depend on Station Road for access.
There was discussion about which member of the Planning Department might be brought in to replace Anthony Hollingsworth. It was agreed that any candidate needed to be seen to be part of the Affordable Housing Team and to take at least part-ownership of the project. (Gitte Dawson told Councillors that Ludek Maier would be taking on the role)
There was also discussion on the formula used to assess the value of agricultural land qualifying as an exception site. £5000 per housing plot is a typical amount allowed and so the half-acre site required for Freshford’s six affordable houses could command £30,000.
HD asked whether there was an accepted time limit on the validity of the information gleaned from a housing-needs survey such as the one conducted in Freshford more than two years ago. He was told that a new survey would not be needed for five years after the previous one; which is to say, not before mid-2009.

11 Footpaths, Walls and Trees

Cemetery Matters; the Clerk is to follow up tree-felling and gravestone levelling with Alan Duck.

Allotments; the Chairman reported that Alison White of B&NES’ Property Services had confirmed that the land behind The Glebe is registered under Council ownership and that, as an interim measure, Somer Housing and individual house owners are to be offered 5 year leases. Therefore the land will not be available for allotments.

Cotswold Wardens’ Seat; all Councillors were asked to think about possible sites for this before next meeting.

Limpley Crest Footpath; PC reported complaints from walkers about the state of this footpath. MS to investigate.

12 Highways and RailwaysThe Old Forge/; RJB informed Councillors that he had received a letter from Mrs Tait on the subject of dangerous parking at the junction and immediately outside their new home. As this matter is directly connected with issues of parking at the surgery and is clearly outside Parish Council jurisdiction, it was agreed that any complainants should be encouraged to approach B&NES’ Highways for arbitration. RJB to pass this information on to the Taits and to let them know of the proposed Village-wide traffic and access survey.Contact List; RJB had supplied the chairman and the Clerk with a list of contacts within the Highways Department. He was thanked for this.Ashe’s Lane Roadsigns; RW reported that these had been removed.Dark Lane/ Wall Collapse; David Richardson had informed the Clerk that the repairs had been completed and that he was awaiting inspection by B&NES’ Highways before the lane could re-open.

Station Flowerbeds/ Planting; RW reported that a new scheme was being planned which would come within the budget of £3K. There would be no raised beds or use of sleepers.

13 Correspondence

B&NES Planning; acknowledgement of representations made to the Consultation on Proposed Modifications to the Local Plan.

Cotswold Conservation Board; Agenda and Minutes of Board Meeting

Wiltshire County Council; Minerals and Waste Planning Newsletter.

CPRE; Fieldwork Newsletter.

B&NES Electoral Services; updates to Electoral Register.

Clerks and Councils Direct; Magazine and Yearbook.

B&NES Planning Services; reply to Chairman’s letter (16/10/06) concerning development of telecommunications mast at Freshford Football Club.

B&NES Area Group of ALCA; Agenda and Minutes; Double Tax working party report.

ALCA; Newsletter, Minutes, Legal Briefings, Conferences.

SWLCA; Elections Pack

14 Finance

Payments needing to be made

Ian Croker. Street Cleaning , £189.37

SEC ; Routine Maintenance, October-December, £176.06

Southern Electric, Supply , Oct-December, £261.17

Income

B&NES, Street Cleaning Funding, £272.2

Street Lighting

The cost for fitting a new timer to Lamp 1, by Woodside Cottages, Staples Hill will be £142.72 +VAT. This was not done at the time the new lamp was installed (as requested by residents and agreed by the PC) as the cabling then in place allowed for a part-night burn. The cabling has recently needed to be replaced and new cabling is “bundled” in such a way as to require separate timing devices to be fitted to individual lamps. It is what they call progress!

Precept 2007-08

The Chairman and the Clerk will meet later in January to review spending and to forecast needs for next financial year. Councillors will all then receive a breakdown of financial commitments and, based on this, a figure for approval before the next meeting. This figure has to be with B&NES by mid-Feb.

15 May Election

This will take place on May 3^rd and the final date for nominations is April 4^th (by noon). The Chairman asked Councillors to consider two matters; the first was whether they were prepared to stand for another four-year term of office and the second was to approach individuals within the Parish whom they felt could make a positive contribution to the work of the Parish Council and urge them to stand for election.

Pam Cobb informed the meeting that, after over 16 years as a Councillor, she was not intending to stand again. The Chairman and Councillors accepted this information with regret. It means that there will be at least two vacancies and, if a valid election is to be held, six or more new candidates will be needed. Methods of publicising the Election and the need for candidates to come forward were discussed and RJB offered to approach the editor of the Bath Chronicle to see if he might be prepared to feature this. If not, a mailshot will be used. The Clerk asked Councillors to keep her informed of any individual approached.

16 Date of Next Meeting

Monday February 5^th.

Freshford Village Website (PC Minutes - 8th January 2007)