Minutes of the Meeting of Freshford Parish Council

held on Monday February 1st 2010

Present; Hugh Delap, Chairman

Stuart Campbell, Claudia Towner, John Adler, Nick Stevens, Rowena Wood, Mandy Knowles and Stephanie Jenkins, Clerk.

District Councillor Neil Butters was present towards the end of the meeting.

Martin Walker, in his capacity as Chairman of the Village Hall Committee, was present to discuss items 4 and 5

Please note that these Minutes have yet to be ratified as accurate. This will be done at the March meeting

1. Apologies for Absence; Mary Stanhope and Guy Ritchie.

2. Declarations of Interest; there were none.

3. Minutes ; the minutes of the meeting of January 4th 2010, 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 Future of the Memorial Hall

HD outlined ideas put forward for improvements at the Memorial Hall, including remodelling accommodation with a designated Pre-School area, a surgery, improved parking and Affordable Housing in the shape of apartments. As a development of this size might well involve encroachment on the playing field, Gitte and Stephen Dawson had been approached about the possibility of extending the playing area into Galleries Field, behind the shop. They had no objection to this, provided the area is left grassed.

As Chairman of the Memorial Hall Committee, Martin Walker explained that the fabric of the hall, built in the sixties, was nearing the end of its working life; the roof, the external joinery and the heating system would all shortly need to be replaced. The car park was also in need of improvement. Because of this it might be sensible to consider a rebuild rather than a renovation. One of the rules of the Charity Commission stipulates that land cannot be disposed of, but, if additional adjacent land was available, it might be possible to overcome this obstacle. He emphasised that, whatever additional facilities were added on, the building’s main importance must be as a Village Hall. A redevelopment scheme would not be a short-term plan and could well be contentious with neighbours. He felt that the existing hall would have to remain in place whilst the new hall was under construction, because of the needs of existing users. There would also have to be a very different management structure in place.

RW felt that it would be important to involve the school, as major users of the Hall, in plans right from the start.

HD reported that a meeting was due to be held, later in the week, with Louise Davidson of the English Rural Housing Association (EHRA) and their architects (BBA) with a view to discussing what might be possible on the site. He felt that the next stage, shortly after that, would be to hold a public meeting to test the views of residents.

5. Affordable Housing

NS told Councillors that a meeting with local authority representatives, EHRA and Community First had been set for March 23^rd. As yet the Planning Departments had not been able to scrutinise and assess the potential of the sites submitted.

The main purpose of the February meeting mentioned in the previous Agenda item would be to focus on the possibilities for affordable housing.

6. Planning Matters

Decisions: none

New Applications; none

On-going Items

Sharpstone House, (09/02697/CA); alterations to damaged boundary wall; RW reported that she was awaiting a reply from Lisa Bartlett clarifying the procedure adopted by B&NES Planning Officers over consultation when amended drawings are submitted for an application, after the PC has commented on the original application.

The Clerk stated that she had been informed by Paul Cobham, of Sharpstone House, that he intended to submit a further application for change of use of the summerhouse to ancillary residential accommodation.

Bristol Airport expansion scheme (09/02339/CONSLT); North Somerset Council 09/P/1020/OT2; RW reported that she had sent a further email detailing the Parish Council’s objections to the latest proposals to B&NES, North Somerset and Don Foster, MP.

The Inn/ internal alterations; ongoing

General Items

Guide to Councillors on background and system for Planning Applications; ongoing.

Solar Panels; ongoing

7. Finance

Payments approved

Ian Croker, Street Cleaning, £210.97

CPRE, Annual Membership, £29

Southern Electric, Supply Oct-Dec, £339.68

Stuart Campbell, repair of wooden bench, £9.96

Hugh Delap, print costs for Bulletin, £158.20 + parking £2.80= £161

Freshford Memorial Hall, room hire £160, Donation towards running expenses £1040

Pre-School, PC share of contribution for field gate, £51.03

SEC, payment for repairs to lamp damaged by lorry, £37.32

Receipts

B&NES, Street Cleaning Funding, £303.49

Purchase of grave plot, £390

James Long, Masons, headstone, £60

Limpley Stoke PC, share of printing costs for Affordable Housing maps, £17.30

Street Lighting; SEC, having repaired the damaged lamp on The Hill at a cost of £32.45, have been requesting payment urgently. Councillors agreed that it would be necessary to settle the bill to avoid a threatened county court summons. It is still hoped that the money might be recovered from SCP Products, whose driver caused the damage.

Bollards on the Tyning; Quote received from HL Mills, £251 +VAT for softwood. . Quote from James Lock, £240.60 for softwood and £879.95 for hardwood. The Clerk to pursue the matter of a comparative hardwood quote from HL Mills.

Precept Request; Councillors discussed the details of the precept budget documents prepared by the Chairman and Clerk and agreed to a request sum of £13685. The Clerk was asked to notify B&NES.

Bank Reconciliation October-December 2009, completed by Clerk and Chairman was viewed by Councillors.

Internal Auditor; the Clerk reported that there had been no response from Paul Reynolds of Fair Account and Councillors agreed that the PC should no longer consider itself tied in to a three-year contract. It was agreed to approach local contacts to find a replacement auditor. (CT and the Clerk to action)

8. Emergency Planning;Councillors discussed the template issued by B&NES Emergency Planning Department. At the Chairman’s suggestion Councillors agreed that an Emergency Committee should be formed from the community, with one Parish Council member. JA offered to be that member and to begin formulating a plan for Freshford.

9. Correspondence

Clerks and Councils Direct, Newsletter and Yearbook

B&NES Heritage Services, events leaflets

B&NES Waste Management Services, compost bins/water butts for sale

B&NES Chairman, invitation to Annual Civic Reception

B&NES Transport & Highways, newsletter

Severnside Community Rail Partnership, Progress Report

Wilts Council; Draft Waste Site Allocations

ALCA notice of Special General Meeting, February 18th, to discuss a proposal to reconsider the approved increase in subscription levels. HD to follow up on Freshford’s behalf 10. Updates

Freshford Mill; RW reported on a very useful meeting with Mark Reynolds, B&NES Planning Officer, to discuss the discharge of conditions. From a planning perspective, he saw no problem with the PC's suggestion, previously discussed with Phil Desmond of YRD, of an angled entrance to the site with a chicane.
Roads and Traffic; NS stated that he had heard nothing from the Highways Department about when the HGV signage would be put in place, nor when work on the Park Corner improvements would begin.

There had been no progress in setting up a meeting with Glen Chipp to discuss the Highways Group’s “Getting About Report”. Glen Chipp had stated that he would only wish to become involved if the Highways Group/ Parish Council had been unable to come to any kind of agreement with Adrian Clarke, B&NES Highways Dept. He had asked Adrian Clarke to arrange to meet the PC, but, as yet, he had not done so.

Communications ; GR had advised that the website database, advertised in the recent Bulletin, had not received many subscribers. It was suggested that a weblink, on the front page of the village website, might prove more productive. JA felt that there should be a meeting, attended by Dan Towner and Candy Harrison as well as GR and himself, to decide exactly what would be needed on the improved website.

Councillors expressed their thanks to Bob Wood for his work on the new notice boards, freeing the doors which had swollen and jammed.

Footpaths, Walls and Trees; SC had been asked by a resident to alert the PC to the fact that the surface of the upper entrance to the cemetery had become very muddy and uneven. It was agreed to ask MS to contact Stuart Ballard to see if some gravel could be spread.

Paul Cobham to be reminded of the need to remove the fallen tree on the Tyning woods footpath

Street Cleaning , Dog Issues, The Pound; Dog Fouling still causing problems in several areas. MK asked NS to contact the school to arrange for the Dog Warden to talk to the children, many of whom walk family dogs, about the dangers and responsibilities. The first three bins for dog waste have been delivered and will be installed by B&NES at the High Street end of the Tyning, at the phone box by the church and at the junction of the Stanley Hill footpath and Ashe’s Lane. Two further bins, generously paid for by the Friends of Freshford have been ordered for the playing field and the Hall car park area. The possibility of B&NES providing grit bins for the area outside the shop and for Pipehouse, as requested by residents is not at all likely under the criteria issued by Highways. Councillors agreed that a sum of money should be earmarked from the precept for this.
Public Transport; RW told Councillors that Phil Affleck had generously offered to do the revised graphic work on the Village Poster without charge and that Heart of Wessex Partnership will pay for the printing of the three new posters at the station. Friends of Freshford have been approached to pay for the printing of the poster beside the main notice board in the village. RW is to meet with the Station manager to discuss the siting of the old Freshford Station sign , permission from First group for its erection and any insurance implications arising. RW to approach Catherine Phillips of Heart of Wessex to see who will insure the sign. The Car Park extension and the new shelter on the Bath platform both seem to be slipping from the current financial year’s budget at B&NES. RW reported that NB is in discussion with Councillor Gerrish about the funding and with Network Rail. Gordon Edwards had confirmed the continuation of the 94 Bus Service until March 2012 and had advised the PC to start lobbying for a low floor bus from summer 2011.
Green Energy; HD reported on a well-attended meeting about the proposed hydro-electric scheme at Freshford Mill. The community would be kept informed of any progress made. Candy Harrison had identified a number of people sympathetic to the aims of the “10:10” Campaign which seeks to reduce the carbon footprint of the community by 10% by the end of 2010. Once registered to take part, it would be important to identify activities where reduction would be possible. Councillors agreed that a public meeting to assess support and commitment might be combined with the Annual Parish Meeting in April.
Parish Online; CT reported that B&NES were still in the process of preparing the licences to allow Parishes to access the online mapping service.

11 AOB

Avon Valley Parishes Alliance

HD reported on a further meeting of the group and Councillors were asked to approve the payment of £100 as an annual subscription. One year’s trial funding out of reserves was agreed on with some doubts expressed about additional levels of bureaucracy and the fact that the alliance had no democratic mandate (SC, MK, CT). HD felt that the cross-boundary nature of the group would provide advantages.

12 .Date of next meeting; MONDAY MARCH 1st

Freshford Village Website (PC Minutes 1st February 2010)