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 Minutes of the Meeting of Freshford Parish Councilheld on Monday December 1st 2008 Present, Hugh Delap, Chairman, Stuart Campbell, Mandy Knowles, Guy Ritchie, Mary Stanhope, Rowena Wood, Nick Stevens, Ray Benfield, Claudia Towner and Stephanie Jenkins, Clerk. District Councillor Neil Butters was present for the later part of the evening. 1 Apologies for absence ; none 

2  Declarations of Interest; None

 

3 Minutes    

The Minutes of the meeting of November 3rd were agreed to be an accurate record and were signed by the Chairman.

 

4. Finance

Payments needing to be made in DECEMBER

Ian Croker, Street Cleaning, £203.78Mr Dewings, Annual Grass Cutting 2008, £1600Mazars, Annual Audit Fee, £158.62Clerk’s Salary, October- December, £747.50Hugh Delap, printing of Bulletin, £121.50Steph Jenkins, present and refreshments for Mr Dewings’ retirement, plus Christmas biscuits for Ian Croker, £42.60

Receipts

B&NES, Street Cleaning funding, £292.91Maintenance work on Cemetery WallThe Clerk told Councillors that she had been approached by Andrew Daniels (member of L. Stoke PC) who had expressed an interest in tendering for maintenance work. She had suggested that he might like to look at the wall, list what he felt needed to be done and give the Parish council a price. She had explained that the job spec would then need to be put out for tender, obviously without revealing his firm’s quoted price.

 Grass Cutting/Maint. Contract

Not all quotes had been received, so no decision was made.

Donation to Village Shop

SC stated that the sum of £5000 agreed on as a donation would need to be made available within the next two months. The Clerk was authorised to request that the money be released from the Council’s Scottish Widows 60 day Tracker account. She stated that it should be possible to pay the initial £2K from the current account if it was needed before the end of the 60 day period.

Christmas Box

The Clerk had bought a tin of biscuits (£4.99) for Ian Croker, which she will wrap and deliver nearer Christmas.

War Memorial Funding

RW to inform English Heritage and the Friends of Freshford that the work on the Memorial has been completed and request payments of their promised grants. 5 CorrespondenceB&NES Waste Services; refuse and recycling arrangements over Christmas/New YearStop the Drop; anti litter campaign literatureClerks and Councils Direct; newsletterB&NES Adult Social Services and Housing; notice of publicationsCotswold Conservation Board; notice of Hedge-Laying CoursesALCA; newsletterB&NES Chair of the Council; invitation to tree plantingB&NES Planning Services; Community Facilities Audit  

6  Planning Matters

B&NES DecisionsGalleries Shop; 08/02993/RES ; erection of new timber building for use as a community shop (reserved matters relating to external appearance and landscaping) PERMITTED.New Applications none

On-going Items

Freshford Mill; Variation on Condition 32 (Provision of Bat House); permission still awaited.Signage; SC to approach the owners of Downside Nursery about their wish to have a directional sign off the A36 for reconsideration by the PC. NS suggested that the PC should formulate a policy about signage around the village and Councillors agreed.New Planning Guidelines; RW to set up a meeting with the Planners.Gas Pipe on Wall/Dark Lane; RW to approach Ian Lund again about this matter.

Planning Obligations

SC briefed Councillors on the implications of the draft supplementary planning document (SPD) dealing with Planning Obligations currently out for consultation, (response due by December 10th). Its intention is to provide clearer guidance to the drafting of Section 106 orders and related agreements between developers and B&NES Development Control. He and the Chairman had attended a presentation and discussion session at the Guildhall and had identified three areas of concern which would form the major element in Freshford’s response·        no mention had been made of Parish Plans and their relevance to the decision-making process.·        Insufficient weight given the role of Parish Councils.·        No mention of the criteria to be applied by the PlannersNS queried the absence of any time-frame for the process.Councillors agreed that the Planning Development Control Sub-Committee should respond to the consultation document along those lines.  

7  Freshford Mill

RW reported that the remaining rubber waste uncovered at the site is awaiting removal to the specialist landfill site. YRD have received the necessary certificates for this.Ann Ross is in the process of copying all the drawings relating to the development, borrowed from Hinton Charterhouse PC.SC to continue pursuing the Ecology Officer for a response on the bat issue.RW to set up a meeting with Nick Jeanes of B&NES about Rosemary Lane/ site access.  8. Affordable HousingNS reported that Louise Davidson has been invited to address Limpley Stoke PC in January, where the idea of a joint scheme will be one of the subjects discussed. Hinton Charterhouse PC have said that they do not wish to take part in any joint scheme.LD has indicated that she sees a review and update of the Freshford survey of sites and housing needs as the next step; meanwhile several possible options are under consideration. 

 

9.   Parish Plan Implementation

RB reported on a meeting with B&NES, the outcome of which was a scheme centred  on the crossroads by the School, using special funding available to improve safe routes for walking to school. The Shared Space Group would be meeting with the School and some of the Governors to ensure that the aims of the School Travel Plan and the Shared Space initiative are fully compatible.The Shared Space group continue to be involved in the Bradford on Avon’s “Taming the Traffic” exercise (now renamed “Priority to People”). Noticeboard/ Midford Lane; NS reported that grants are available from Quartet for projects with Parish Plan connections. It was agreed to apply for a notice board with a bus shelter on Midford Lane (if the bus shelter was not acceptable, then just a notice board) and a further replacement board for the Sharpstone area of the village. NS to action.Neighbourhood Watch; RB reported that details of the scheme had appeared in the recent Bulletin, but as yet there had been no volunteers to take on areas of the village. It was suggested that there could well be ways of sharing Neighbourhood Watch information on the village website and it was agreed to look into this.Communications Group;. GR reported that, having discussed the matter with the rector and established that a new village magazine, free and distributed to all households would be acceptable to the producers of the existing Parish Magazine, the Group would aim for a quarterly publication. The Parish Council’s Bulletin would be inset, and the Chairman agreed that this section could continue to be funded from precept until the generation of advertising revenue made this unnecessary. The immediate need is to find an editor.Website; the calendar of events is now operational and local groups and societies can be encouraged to use the facility.Development Trust; The Chairman asked for and was given Councillors’ approval to investigate the proposed Limpley Stoke Valley Development Trust with a view to Freshford becoming a member. This would involve up to seven parish councils joining forces to preserve and promote all that is best about the valley. “Getting About” ; cycle stands; it was suggested that the installation of these at the Memorial Hall might possibly be undertaken and paid for as part of the playground improvement work. CT to investigate.Low level entry buses; ongoing/RW Pre-school Project; CT reported that arrangements were going according to plan, with interviews for the post of Leader to be held early in December. Ofsted application forms are being filled in and supporting documentation prepared.Grant for Children’s Play Area; CT had circulated the latest site plan for the playground, but she assured Councillors that the exact location of the equipment would be agreed on site. She hopes to set up a meeting with the designer, the contractors and Martin Walker for this purpose. Installation will be carried out between January and the end of March (2009).Councillors expressed their approval of the plans and thanked her for all the work involved in getting the scheme to this stage. HD reported that Candy Harrison, instrumental in producing the relevant section in the Parish Plan, had written a piece in the Bulletin, encouraging people to consider becoming involved in Hugh Fearnley- Whittingstall’s “landshare”  idea. He hoped that this might spark interest in other recommendations from that section of the Plan.  10. Village Shop SC reported that detailed quotations had been received from builders, key layout and space usage factors had been agreed and the soil and land survey had not revealed any potential problems. Staffing was currently under consideration.The Parish Council’s donation (see item 4) would provide the important indication of support from a local body, independent of the applicant, FLiSCA. 

11.   Footpaths, Walls and Trees

Footpath at Staples Hill; Stuart Ballard, B&NES’ Foootpath officer will inspect to seeif the fencing is now safely in place.Notification of work on Trees ; MS reported that B&NES’ response to her query as to why the PC had not been asked for a response about work on trees at Sharpstone House was that, under new guidelines, parishes are only consulted over “something fairly major”. Councillors agreed that this statement was too vague to be satisfactory. MS to ask for a policy statement from David Trigwell’s office.

Hedge on Freshford  Lane; SC reported that Community Policemen, Dave White had requested that the PC approach residents along the small private road about the overhanging hedge, which he felt constituted a hazard. Councillors argued that residents might respond better to a visit from their Community Policeman than to yet another request from the Parish Council. SC to ask Dave White to do this.

  

12. Street Cleaning

Dog Fouling Problems;  MK was asked to investigate the area outside The Brewery, following complaints about regular fouling.The Pound; ongoing. 13. HighwaysPothole Survey; SC stated that he intended to institute a twice-yearly survey of the state of the roads in the parish, which he would then pass on to Highways to assist them. 14. Railways

Timetable; the new timetable will run from December 14th. One of two morning trains (9.02 and 9.12) into Bath will be dropped.

Cycle Stands; there was discussion about the positioning of any further cycle stands. On balance it was agreed that the platform area was preferable to the car park, in order to avoid reducing parking spaces. RW to discuss with First Great Western.Parking; NB had provided details of a new contact, network Rail’s Community Relations Manager, Kristian Alexander, who would be prepared to set up a site visit  with First Great Western to look again at the problem and the possibility of extending parking into the Network Rail’s working area to the west.  

15.PACT Meeting

The Clerk and MK had attended the recent meeting at Hinton Charterhouse and, with the four residents of Freshford also present, had put the case of the nuisance currently being caused by large commercial vehicles following satnav instructions and attempting to access tiny lanes with disastrous consequences. Peter Duppa Miller, Chair of the meeting, agreed to ask for Rosemary Lane, Dark Lane and  Ashe’s Lane to go onto the B&NES list which would be forwarded to Commercial Satnav companies as “no go” roads. He stated that this had been successful in the Combe Hay area. Subsequently it appeared that a similar request had been made for the Freshford lanes earlier this year, unfortunately with much less success.The state of the road surface on Staples Hill was raised by resident, Geoff Edwards and, along with similar complaints from two other parishes, the issue of road surfaces was placed amongst the three priorities in the vote at the end of the evening.   16.Freedom of Information ActNS advised Councillors about the details and implications of the new model publication scheme for the Freedom of Information Act which must be adopted by December 31st. The “Guide to Proactively Published Information” has to be completed and returned. In simplest terms, the scheme is designed to make sure that any information held by the Parish Council can be accessed by any member of the public for a reasonable fee. As much information as possible should be made available on the internet, where it would be not be charged for. NS, together with the Chairman and Clerk had collected the relevant information to enter into the Guide and had put in place a number of changes to make information more accessible.Councillors agreed unanimously  

17. Pre-Advised AOB

None  18. Date of Next Meeting;  Monday January 5th 2009  
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