PC Meeting Notes 10th February 2009

 Flooding and weather related issues

There was a large attendance from Salcott on the back of flooding concerns.  Alex Graham and his neighbour had also been flooded.  Phil and Kevin Bradshaw and others did an excellent job in helping out and getting CBC and Highways involved.

A full examination of ditches in the Wigboroughs (and Peldon?) had taken place and Roger Went would be writing to land owners reminding them of their responsibility to keep ditches clear.  He will also deal with the flooded ditch problem at the entrance to Peldon Hall.  It was good that Roger had come out while the water was still lying and running so that he could really see the impact and extent of things we have complained about before but which he had never seen for himself.  As a result it looks as though there will be some action taken.

Roger and Alan Bligh(?) will meet with Kevin Bradshaw within a few days re the flooding at Salcott.  Subsequent note from Terry Simmons:

Today  (12/02/09) a  meeting  took place in Salcott village to discuss the flooding problem .

Three members of the village and three from highway’s ie -Martin Parminter ,Dave Whybrow, and Myself from Salcott Plus Alan Blyth, Roger Went ,And Simon High, from highway’s  they also  brought with  them a jetting machine .

The drains from the crossroad’s to Mill lane were jetted and the finding’s are as follows.

1. Broken drain at crossroad .
2. Blockage on right between The Well House (big house on c/road’s) and Number 1 Sharlands Row.
3. All pipe work/ditch’s on  right in front of house’s are Clear from blockage to the bungalow (Willow brook).
4. Length of ditch from bungalow to the barn on right to be dug out and cleared.
5. Pipe work from end of ditch to Mill Lane Clear.
6. Length  of ditch from top of the street (by the bungalow on  the left) to the pipe work to be dug out and cleared.
7. All pipe work on left from end of ditch to concrete slab clear.
8. Length of ditch from slab to field entrance near Waterslye Lodge (first house on left) to be dug out and cleared.
9. Irrigation pipe that runs under road in the pipe work from field entrance to ditch to be removed.
10. Blockage in above pipe work. (Two pipes)
11. Drain outside Waterstyle   Lodge to be piped across the road into the opposite ditch.

Highways will repair broken drain and pipe work across road number’s 1 and 9

Simon High will write to home/land  owners to request for work to done for number’s 2.3.4.5.6.7.8.10.11.

appended.

The mood at the start of the meeting from the Salcott section of the public was fairly antagonistic but when they heard what had been done and was still to be done they went away well pleased.

Emergency Plan

There were new telephone numbers for the CBC Emergency Team (which they had changed without telling us!) and we were urged to investigate and make emergency provision related to any hazardous activities which regularly take place on our patch.  We decided that there was nothing of particular note which we should include in our Emergency Plan.

Jinny to update the Plan and arrange with Sue for amendments to be circulated.

Salt bins

CBC would not supply an additional salt bin free of charge for the Turf Farm area of Salcott but one could be provided and kept filled for a charge of £350.   The mood of the Council was receptive to this idea but it needs to be formally proposed and voted on at the next Council Meeting.

Abberton Liaison Group

The Abberton Liaison Group will be meeting on 9^th March.

Communications Committee

The council approved the Communications Committee’s work to date on the website, agreed with the proposal to abandon formal computer training and institute a self-help approach and agreed in principle with the e-mail protocol which needs to be formally submitted and voted on at the next meeting.

We recruited four more people to the e-mail experiment, bringing the total number of people on that list up to 36.  This service was rated as well worth keeping.

The Freedom of Information document was referred back to the Communications Committee for further discussion, in particular with Sue about what records she holds.  The council agreed that access to information should normally be free although, at the Clerk’s discretion, a charge not exceeding the cost of producing the information could be made.  This to protect the Council against repeated frivolous enquiries and to reclaim any expenditure should any enquiry require a large effort or incur incidental significant costs.

The Council was happy for the Communications Committee to progress consideration of the short list of four possible website designers.

The Council felt that we should explore fully the costs of sponsoring another Gold Edition of the Peldon and Wigboroughs Parish News this year to ensure that our Annual Report was delivered to every house in the Parish.  Nicky had asked Bill for quotes for up to four pages extra.  The estimate is a maximum of £100.  Last year we felt that we could do a circular ourselves for £84 but we preferred the marginally more expensive Parish News approach as being more community-minded, provided the costs did not exceed the quote.  Nicky pointed out that we could probably split the cost with the Five Parishes group who were pleased to take advantage of the initiative last year.

Nicky suggested and all agreed that we should make sure that copies of Minutes put into the Parish News should be clearly marked as being Draft Minutes not yet agreed by the Parish Council.

Village Design Statement

The council was pleased to hear of very good progress with the VDS.  The questionnaire was finalised, CBC had agreed to be the receiving point for our returned forms and Nicky had applied for a grant.  The Council made sympathetic noises about possibly deploying excess money budgeted for the VDS (should there be any) to the website development if required.  It was noted that the website would benefit a number of Parish Council initiatives.

Essex Speed Management Consultation

We agreed to respond to the Essex Speed Management Strategy consultation commenting that we supported the strategy and welcomed the greater emphasis on speed limits on rural roads.  We had been asking for limits on roads which we know to be dangerous and accident prone and look forward to receiving a more sympathetic response in future

Moss Hay

We talked about Christine Nash’s thoughts about tidying up Moss Hay.  The Parish Council supported the idea of a community initiative to progress this with the thought that there might be funds available if required once a clear plan of action had been set out.  Frances and Christine will get together to work out what might be necessary and possible and bring back a proposal to the next Parish Council meeting.

Mr Fellowes’ e-mail

From: <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, February 08, 2009 7:19 PM
Subject: Local Development Framework – Peldon
>
> The February 09 edition of the Parish News called for further views on
> the ‘preferred sites for possible future development’ within the
> village.   I should be grateful for my view to be passed to the Parish
> Council.   I object to any further development/building on the farmland
> (Davidson’s I understand) along Mersea Road which would increase the
> ‘strip’ style development of the area and is outside the ‘envelope’.
> Given that a further ‘estate’ will soon be created on the site of the
> old garage and adjacent land, I do not consider any further development
> is likely to value the village.  However, if needs must then there is
> ample space off Peldon Road (a ‘private playing field’!!?) adjacent to
> the top end of the Public Footpath.  This would not increase ‘strip’
> development.
>
> The minutes of the Winstred Hundred Parish Council of 13 January 09 re-
> produced in the same edition of the Parish News,under the heading
> ‘Local Development Framework’  indicate that “Discussions will take
> place between us from now until our next meeting……”   Presumably
> these ‘discussions’ are between councillors and will therefore
> themselves be minuted and available to the community.
>
> At the Public Meeting on 7 October 08 volunteers were called for as
> being urgently needed to help create a village statement – despite
> providing name, telephone number and email address I have not been
> contacted during the past four months.   Presumably the need was either
> not as urgent as stated or perhaps there are other reasons???
>
> K R Fellowes

Sue had acknowledged Mr Fellowes’ e-mail saying that he had not been contacted re the VDS and with comments about LDF sites.  Nicky had replied to the VDS part and   Jinny would reply to the section of his e-mail referring to the LDF consultation.

LDF Public Consultation

Jinny to draft a reply along the lines that we noted the non-selection of all the sites in our parish except for possibly affordable housing.  We supported the decision to restrict the site at Pantiles since although it is technically outside our area any change to traffic to and from the site would affect Peldon.

We would repeat the gist of the comments made earlier to CBC, since these are not carried forward into the conclusions of the Public Consultation.  These to include the strong desire for the return of a shop and that there was some support for small and sympathetic residential development if that would bring more families into the community.

Rural Housing Association

We agreed to respond to a letter from the English Rural Housing Association asking whether they could present at one of our meetings to the effect that if the possibility of development on one of our ‘affordable housing only’ sites looked possible we would be pleased to have  presentation from them but until such a possibility loomed we would decline their kind offer.

Peldon Fireworks

We noted the independent  report by Robert Kean which satisfactorily addressed the issues which arose from this year’s event and thanked Robert for producing it.