Please be aware that these Minutes have yet to be approved as an accurate record.
Minutes of the Meeting of Freshford Parish Council
held on Monday January 4th 2010Present; Hugh Delap, Chairman
Stuart Campbell, Claudia Towner, John Adler, Nick Stevens, Guy Ritchie, Rowena Wood, Mary Stanhope, Mandy Knowles and Stephanie Jenkins, Clerk.
District Councillor Neil Butters was present towards the end of the meeting.
1. Apologies for Absence; there were none.
2. Declarations of Interest; there were none.
3. Minutes ; the minutes of the meeting of December 7th 2009, which had been already posted on the website in draft form, were agreed to be an accurate record and were signed by the Chairman.
4 Finance
Payments needing to be made in JANUARY approved
Ian Croker, Street Cleaning, £210.97
Bath Preservation Trust, annual subscription, £15
SEC, Routine Street Lighting Maintenance, Oct-Dec, £177.49
SEC, non-routine maint., tree pruning, £12.44
Claudia Towner, Padlocks for new gate, £16.62
Retrospective Approval
Stephanie Jenkins, Clerk’s Salary, October-December, £750
James Lock, Grass Cutting and Cemetery Maintenance, £750.
British Legion wreath £15.00
Jon Bennett, webhosting fee, £70
Receipts
B&NES, Street Cleaning Funding, £303.49
CS Bowyer, Cemetery Fees, £180
Street Lighting; the damaged lamp on The Hill had been repaired by SEC at a cost of £32.45.The Clerk reported that she was still chasing SCP Products Bristol, who had admitted liability, for a cheque.
Bollards on the Tyning; one quote to replace two damaged bollards and install six new ones had been received from HL Mills. A further quote from James Lock was awaited.
Precept Request ;this is due to be submitted by mid-February. The Clerk , Chairman and Vice- Chairman are to meet to draw up the budget for 2010-2011 and will present it for approval at the February meeting.5. Correspondence
Digital Switchover Community Outreach Pack
Clerks and Councils Direct, Newsletter
AONB, NewsletterALCA, Newsletter
Allotments Regeneration Initiative, newsletter
Avon & Somerset Police Authority, newsletter
CPRE, Newsletter
B&NES Electoral Services, Electoral Register 2010
B&NES Legal Services, notification of new rules on Dispensations
English Rural Housing Association, Annual Report and Newsletter
West of England Partnership, Joint Waste Strategy
The Army presentation Team, invitation to reception
6. Planning MattersDecisions; Rosemary House 09/03701/FUL; Refused on the grounds of inappropriate development within the Green Belt, development outside the Housing Development Boundary and an incongruous and inappropriate built form which would be harmful to the character and appearance of the area and the natural beauty of the AONB.
New Applications; none
On-going Items
Sharpstone House, (09/02697/CA); alterations to damaged boundary wall; RW reported that she was still awaiting an explanation from Lisa Bartlett, B&NES Planning, as to why the Parish Council had not been consulted on the amended drawings.
Bristol Airport expansion scheme (09/02339/CONSLT); North Somerset Council 09/P/1020/OT2; B&NES had formally objected to the scheme and subsequently Bristol International Airport had put forward revised proposals. The Parish Councils Airport Association had written to all parish councils asking them to make further representation, objecting to the revised proposals. Councillors agreed that RW should write reiterating the original objections, making particular note of the fact that these revisions still made no mention of funding a bus connection between Bath and the Airport.
The Inn/ internal alterations; ongoing
General Items
Guide to Councillors on background and system for Planning Applications; ongoing.
Solar Panels; ongoing
7. Core StrategyPrior to the meeting, SC had presented Councillors with the final draft of the proposed PC response to B&NES’ Core Strategy Spatial Options Consultation document. Councillors thanked him for the time and effort which had clearly gone in to the production of this impressive response, in which all sections with any degree of relevance to Freshford and its environs had been carefully analysed and suggestions for improvement or emendation made. The concluding section, Additional Comment, dealt with the question of Housing Development Boundaries and the Green Belt. Councillors strongly agreed with the main thrust of the argument, which supported the continuation of the restrictions on development imposed by Housing Development Boundaries. They felt however that the final point, requesting that policy should be put in place to enable these rules to be set aside for schemes providing specialist housing for the elderly in the same way that the Rural Exception Site Policy operates for Affordable Housing, should be even more strongly worded, asking for the principles applied to Affordable Housing to be clearly extended, to include housing for the elderly or disabled, so that these groups are able to remain in their communities. SC to include this statement before the response is finally sent in to B&NES. 8. Parish CharterNS reported that the completed questionnaire form had been returned to B&NES by the response date, January 31st. Councillors had all received a copy and it had been agreed that, because of the space restrictions imposed by the nature of the document, concerns over two items, Planning Development Control Functions and Conflict Resolution, should be dealt with at greater length within an addendum. NS had circulated this document before the meeting and its criticisms of current procedure and suggestions for future improvement were discussed at some length. Councillors authorised NS to forward these views to the local authority, sending copies to the Chief Executive of B&NES and to Peter Duppa Miller. They also thanked NS for his extensive work on the Parish Charter Survey.
9. Parish OnlineHD told Councillors of a new mapping service to be offered to Parish Councils via the Geographic Information System department within B&NES, Bath Spa University and a company called Getmapping Ltd. The cost would be low and, for the first year at least, B&NES would pay the annual £10 fee. Individual parishes would work with university students to create a map of the parish, which could contain details chosen by the parish, such as the location of grit bins or litter bins. The maps would then be held on a central server and could be printed out without the need for a license or fee. Councillors agreed to join the scheme and CT offered to work with the Bath Spa students to create the Freshford map.
10. Updatesa. Freshford Mill; RW reported that a meeting with Mark Reynolds (B&NES Planning) to discuss the discharge of conditions had been arranged for January 19th.
b. Affordable Housing; nothing to report.
c.Community Shop ; RW suggested that the Galleries Shop be nominated for one of the B&NES Chairman’s Business Awards as it would seem to fulfil all the criteria. Councillors agreed and RW was asked to liaise with NS and GR on filling in the necessary forms.d. Communications ; GR reported on the activities of the Communications Group who are in the process of creating an email database which will be used to provide subscribers with more immediate news and notices. The database will be held securely by the Parish Council and will not be made available to any other groups or individuals in accordance with the Data Protection Act. Residents will be notified of the scheme in the next edition of the Bulletin and invited to sign up. The village website is currently being improved and the site-hosting is to be moved from the US to the UK because of concerns about data protection.
e Facilities and Funding; GR told Councillors that, prior to making an application for funding, it had been agreed to investigate possible sources of income for a new community hub in addition to those activities currently funding the Memorial Hall.f. Police Matters; HD told Councillors that Neighbourhood Beat Officer Matt Bendall had written an article for the forthcoming Bulletin, dealing with a number of perennial problems.
g. Footpaths, Walls and Trees; MS reported on an uncontroversial application to remove two Leylandii at West House, growing too close to a neighbouring garage. She also suggested that the Cotswold Wardens might be asked if they could reinstate the fallen saddle stone on the footpath by Hermitage Cottage. Councillors agreed.
h. Street Cleaning , Dog Issues, The Pound; following discussion about the various options suggested for the future of The Pound it was agreed to adopt a combination of ideas, incorporating an explanatory notice board, some native planting and a space for sculpture. NS will discuss with the school their possible involvement. MK reported that she had contacted B&NES Highways to ask that the Grit Bins be refilled as stocks were extremely low. She also reported renewed problems with dog-fouling on the Stanley Hill footpath. It seemed that this might be the work of a repeat offender and she hoped that her article in the forthcoming Bulletin might shame the owner into action.
i.Public Transport.; Station parking; NB stated that he had been unable to discover any precedents for residents-only parking and that such a scheme would be difficult to enforce. HD suggested that a means of achieving this would be to levy a charge on all vehicles parking, with residents then able to claim a refund. It was agreed to investigate further. Gritting the station environs; there had been complaints about the icy condition of the platform, the footbridge and the exit route from the car park during the current icy weather. RW to investigate arrangements and pass on concerns. j. Roads and Traffic; NS reported that a broad measure of agreement had been reached between the PC and B&NES over the precise placement of the new HGV restrictive pictorial signage. Councillors agreed with his view that the sign to be placed past the Mill entrance at the north end of Rosemary Lane should not be removed once the Mill development is finished, but should remain in place. NS to pursue with Highways.A response to the Highway Group’s report, “Getting About in Freshford –the safe integration of people and vehicle” from B&NES Adrian Clark had not, in NS’s view, taken the report seriously enough and had not attempted to address its concerns. Councillors agreed with this and, once the Freshford Highways Group has had a chance to consider Mr Clark’s views, NS was authorised to ask for a meeting with him to discuss matters. The issue of Satnav systems was again under discussion and Councillors stressed that, if they were to be associated with a letter to NavTech which NB was helping to draft for Don Foster’s signature, urging them to remove Ashe’s Lane from their systems it should acknowledge that the problem within the parish was so much wider than this would indicate. NB suggested that the PC propose a number of roads that they would wish to see embargoed as through routes. (Post meeting note: NB was informed of six unsuitable lanes, which should be included in any letter asking for their deletion as through routes) He stated that Somerset County Council are in the forefront of attempts to tackle the problem and offered to pass on contact details to NS. NS will also approach a contact in the regional office of the Road Haulage Association for advice.
k. Children and Youth; CT reported that the Pre-School had applied to B&NES Early Years for funding to develop an outdoor play area at the rear of the Memorial Hall. The outcome would be known by the end of March. The new pre-School sign, would be installed shortly.
l. Green Energy; HD reported that a small group had been formed, headed by Graham Jenkinson, to investigate the potential for the generation of electricity at Freshford Mill. A lunch-time meeting is to be held on Friday, January 15th for anybody interested. HD stated that he felt it important that the PC be seen to be supporting green initiatives and he had approached Candy Harrison who had said she would be willing to set up a group to work on green ideas.
10 AOB
Avon Valley Parishes Alliance; HD and NS briefed Councillors about the meeting held on December 7th at which questions about the aims and aspirations of such a grouping were discussed and levels of support from the eight parishes involved were assessed. Common issues identified were; housing targets, affordable rural housing, the A36, Park and Ride schemes, Green Belt/AOB, bath Transport Plan, Core Strategy, Cross county border issues. Leadership and Administration of an alliance group pose the most immediate problems. HD proposed that Freshford continues to be involved at this stage and Councillors agreed to this proposal. A further meeting is scheduled for January 13th.
Emergency Services Draft Plan; it was agreed that discussion of this should be delayed until the next meeting.
11.Date of next meeting;