Minutes of the Meeting of Freshford Parish Council

held on Monday June 21st 2010

Present; Hugh Delap, Chairman

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

Present for part of the meeting was Neil Butters, District Councillor.

1. Apologies for Absence; there were none.

2. Declarations of Interest; Item 8,Planning, School application; NS as school governor and SC both declared an interest. Item 11a, Glebe land, MK.

3. Co-option of new Councillor; Jonelle Daniels was warmly welcomed to her first meeting.

4. Minutes ; the minutes of the meeting of May 17th 2010 were agreed to be an accurate record and were signed by the Chairman.

5, Finance

Payments needing to be made in JUNE; approved

Ian Croker, Street Cleaning, July 5^th, £215.57

Chloe Alexander, Internal Audit, £100

Valley Parishes Alliance, Annual sub., £100

James Lock, Grass-cutting (six months), £1040

Candy Harrison, publicity boards, £10

SEC, Routine Maintenance April-June, £186.79

Retrospective Payments (made since previous meeting); approvedBroker Network Limited, Annual Insurance premium, £721.91B&NES Council, Cemetery Rate, £60.03

Receipts

B&NES, Street Cleaning, £310.10

Audit Documents

The Clerk reported that she had spent the day with Chloe Alexander going through the accounts for the financial year 09-10. Chloe had been happy to agree all the safeguarding conditions set by Mazars.

Councillors examined the Annual return and the Accounting Statement before approving the Annual Governance Statement, which was then signed by the Chairman and the Clerk. The Clerk is to send off the completed documents to Mazars by recorded post, having first taken photocopies.Insurance

The Clerk had paid the Annual Insurance premium (cover by Aviva, through Came and Co. Parish Council Insurance and Broker Network) and, after consultation with the Chairman, had taken up their 3-year option, which reduced the premium by 5% and fixed it for the three-year period.

6. Correspondence

Sonia Follows; copy of letter to B&NES Planners objecting to development proposal on the top end of the Tyning; letter thanking the PC for a gift of plants to mark the end of her service to dog-owners.

B&NES, Council Connect newsletter

Open Spaces Society; notice of AGM, Annual Report and Accounts, Newsletter

B&NES Waste Management; Guide to Recycling and Waste Services

Avon and Somerset Police Authority; Strategic Policing Plan 2010-2013

7. Recruitment of new Parish Clerk

The Chairman and Clerk had met Andrea Griffiths to discuss terms and conditions for the job and had agreed on an annual salary of £3K, representing a total of 300 hours to be worked over the year. Andrea asked to be paid on a monthly basis.

Councillors agreed to this appointment and the Clerk is to formalise it in a letter, to be agreed with the Chairman.

Because Andrea will also be Clerk to two other Parish Councils, one in Wiltshire, Councillors raised the question of confidentiality and security of information. The situation is not uncommon and it was agreed that the Clerk and Chairman would investigate the existing protocols and report back. On the positive side, it should be possible to share expenses for training courses and equipment between three councils.

8. Planning Matters

Decisions:

3 The Old House, The Hill; 10/01711/LBA, internal and external alterations to improve acoustic separation; REFUSED

New Applications;

None for consideration at the meeting.

Responded to since last meeting

Freshford Memorial Hall; 10/01569/FUL, installation of new door at the rear of the hall to provide direct access to the new pre-school garden; the PC had discussed the matter informally at the last meeting and the formal response, having been circulated to Councillors, had been sent in stating that no objection had been raised.

On-going ItemsHillside Farm, Church Lane; 10/01569/FUL, installation of a row of 60 solar panels to generate electricity for The Galleries Shop; RW stated that there was a possibility that this application might be withdrawn and resubmitted with enhanced drawings.

Sharpstone House, (10/00674/FUL), Change of use of existing detached store/summer house to ancillary residential accommodation; RW reported that, following the Development Control Committee meeting on June 9^th, the application had been sent back to officers for further study.

Freshford Primary School; 10/01435/FUL, change of use of land adjacent to the school from agricultural grazing land to Use Class D, external play space;

RW told Councillors that, according to the Case Officer, the application would be brought to Developmental Control Committee on July 7^th, with officer recommendation to approve (with a condition that permitted development rights be removed). This decision had been taken largely due to the number of letters supporting the perceived need for play space for the children. RW had pointed out that the majority of the parents supporting the application were not village residents and that notice must also be taken of the letters from residents opposing the scheme. RW reported that further correspondence from the applicant’s agent to the case officer had appeared on the planning website and had included a copy of the PC’s Village Green Policy document of 2003. The PC had not been informed of this. Furthermore, within that document, a plan of the area for which change of use permission was being sought had been altered to indicate a larger area than had been the intention of that document. Councillors asked the Clerk to write to the applicant to express their concern at the use of the document without reference and, more importantly, the misleading alteration.

Enforcement Issues

The Inn/ internal alterations; ongoing.

10/00093/UNDEV – Hermitage Cottage; RW had looked through the original drawings and correspondence; as part of a larger application, permission had been granted for a three-bay garage with storage at the end alongside the road. Additional storage in the roof space would be accessed from an external staircase on the cottage side of the garage.

General Planning Matters

Development Control Committee Procedure;

Events of the past few weeks have made the Parish Council aware that, in the case of an application where the PC response is likely to run counter to officer recommendation, it is essential to contact the District Councillor as soon as possible with a request for the matter to be taken to the Developmental Control Committee. The District Councillor needs to bring any such request to the Chairman of the Development Control Committee within four weeks of the official announcement of the application for it to be considered. If the PC’s District Councillor is not available, the matter can be taken on by another District Councillor. B&NES have also drawn attention to their guidelines for the manner in which Parish Councils must respond to planning applications; these guidelines do not pose problems for Freshford, with its experienced and knowledgeable Planning Committee, but a number of other Parish Councils have expressed dismay at the level of expertise demanded of non-professionals in the planning field

9. Parish Charter Review WorkshopsAs part of the review procedure, two workshops on planning, Developmental Control on June 23^rd and Planning Enforcement on July 27^th, are to be held, at which frank exchanges of views on current working, with identification of problems and possible solutions have been promised. The revised Parish Charter is to be issued in February 2011. RW to attend the first workshop and present the PC’s views. 10 Updatesa. Freshford Mill; following contact by RW, Phil Desmond (YRD)had stated that work would be resumed at the site towards the end of June or early in July.

b. Valley Parishes Alliance: HD reported on a very satisfactory official launch of the VPA earlier in the day, which had been attended by the Chairmen of B&NES and Wiltshire Councils, amongst other dignitaries. Councillors had been given the opportunity to comment on a Q&A document, drawing together the aims of the alliance.

c. Roads and Traffic; NS reported that little progress had been made subsequent to the meeting with Adrian Clarke of B&NES Highways Department. Freshford, with Limpley Stoke and Freshford School are examining possibilities for implementing the School Travel Plan without relying on local authority funding, by approaching organisations like Sustrans. NS is to meet the Wiltshire Highways Officer, Dave Bullock, to gauge what common ground exists between the two authorities. He stated that Wiltshire have already expressed commitment to a 20mph speed limit through Limpley Stoke.

No progress on the installation of the “No HGV” signs at the top of Church Hill and in Rosemary Lane, along from the Mill site.

d. Communications; GR reported that Dan Towner is willing to work on the re-design of the website. Candy Harrison and, possibly, Loulou Brouard are also prepared to be involved. New Councillor Jonelle Daniels offered her experience with running the Iford Arts Website and was interested in joining the team. e. Footpaths, Walls and Trees; GR told Councillors that July 11^th had been fixed for the second Village Ramble, to be organised by Alan Dodge and Candy Harrison. This will be advertised in the Bulletin and on notice boards. Refreshments after the walk will be bought from the Galleries Shop, apart from scones which will be made by volunteers.The perennial problem of hedge-cutting was raised again; HD had already drawn Gitte Dawson’s attention to the problem caused to pedestrians by the hedge bordering her field along Freshford Lane and MK is to approach Tim Aldred and Barbara Elliot and Penny Harward about theirs. It was agreed that it should be raised in the Bulletin again.The Cotswold Wardens have said that they will fix the large stone back into place on the “squeeze-stile” by Nurlton field.f. Children and Youth Affairs ; the matter of fostering a closer relationship between the School and the village, a topic which featured in the Parish Plan, was discussed.g. Street Cleaning , Dog Issues; MK reported that she had managed to find a contact at B&NES for Gully-emptying, who would be providing a timetable. She was asked to arrange for the clearing of the vegetation round the 20mph sign on Church Lane.

h. Public Transport;. RW reported that the old station sign would finally be installed in early July with an official opening on July 15^th, involving Friends of Freshford, various B&NES officials, representatives from The Heart of Wessex Partnership, First Group and the Railway Heritage Committee. HD stated that this would also involve re-siting the brass plaque, commemorating the efforts of the Miss Vaiseys with the garden.

The last 95 bus will run on July 27^th.

i. Emergency Planning; JA was asked to contact a number of people involved in local emergency planning for information/templates; Richard Look of B&NES, Bil Bailey, Limpley Stoke PC and Brian Parkes of Hinton PC – all of whom have responsibility for emergency planning.

11 AOB

a) Glebe Land; NB had alerted the Parish Council to the fact that a parcel of land at the rear of the Glebe had been flagged up as available by B&NES Property Services. It was agreed that HD should express an interest, in case the land might prove suitable for allotment ground.

b) Summer Bulletin; HD asked Councillors to have articles ready by July 5^th

c) Parishes Liaison Meeting; HD reported discussion on the effect on B&NES Core Strategy, of the new government’s scrapping of the Regional Spatial Strategy. The housing figures to be used will now be B&NES’ own, rather than the unrealistic figures imposed by RSS.

The review of the Parish Charter is underway (see item 8)

Papers on Highways topics failed to materialise in the unexplained absence of Adrian Clarke

12 .Date of next meeting; MONDAY JULY 26th 2010

Freshford Village Website (PC Minutes 21st June 2010)