WINSTRED HUNDRED PARISH COUNCIL
Peldon Great Wigborough Little Wigborough Salcott Virley
Draft minutes of the meeting of Winstred Hundred Parish Council held at Peldon Village Hall at 7.30pm on Tuesday 12th May 2009
The Annual Parish Assembly
The chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting.
Present: Sam Knill Jones, Kevin Bradshaw, Phil Gladwin, Robert Davidson, Jinny Gale, Nicky Ellis, Jane Banks, Frances Fergus, Lynne Simmons, Kevin Bentley and 7 members of the public.
Apologies for absence: None
The public were invited to speak on any matter they wished.
The Chairman’s Report was read out beginning with expressing our sadness at losing Peter Crowe and welcoming Andrew Ellis. The Gold Edition of the Parish News will be again, delivered to every household in all the villages in our parish and will give a full version of the chairman’s report and a financial report that is now being internally audited. Thanks were given to all those people that have had an input into the day to day running of our proceedings; the clerk, Steve Copeland for internal auditing, our handy men, Borough Councillors, County Councillor and the public who have attended our meetings or assisted us in any way. The parish council has made a number of achievements this year. We have reduced our council tax and increased our insurance public liability. The Communications Committee has commissioned a website, provided an email service of general local information, has also dealt with other important matters such as revising our Emergency Plan and Freedom of Information Act policy. A Village Design Statement is in progress and certain long standing issues have been resolved, the resurfacing and signage of this main road perhaps being the most important. We have made responses to consultations, particularly the Local Development Framework, and attended many meetings on various matters. Planning applications have been dealt with, Abberton Reservoir expansion being the largest and most time consuming. The parish council has obtained two additional dog bins, one at Little Wigborough and one at Salcott, an additional salt bin at Salcott, helped with the Salcott field gate widening and the recent flooding problems and obtained grants for play equipment at Peldon.
Kevin Bentley expressed his thanks to us all. He also spoke of his sadness at losing a good friend and colleague in Peter Crowe but that Andrew Ellis was proving to be an equally valuable partner. He also spoke of the achievements we have made together such as the main road improvements, certain requests with regard to the Abberton Reservoir Expansion application and the hard work involved in trying to resolve the Bellwood situation which is still on going. Kevin will also make a request to the police again to attend our meetings occasionally.
Parish Council AGM
Phil proposed, Robert seconded and all agreed for Jinny to be in Chairman for the next two years. Jinny then thanked Robert for being chairman for the last two years bringing to the meetings his wide knowledge of our patch and the wider area in and around Colchester. She hoped with our the ‘Way We Work’ initiative we will become a more efficient parish council giving us greater job satisfaction, therefore enabling us to have fun along the way and encourage our existing parish councillors or any new ones that join in the future.
Phil proposed, Robert seconded and all agreed for Nicky to be Vice Chairman for the next two years.
Phil proposed, Robert seconded and all agreed for Sue, the clerk, to be the Financial and Responsible Officer for the next two years.
Jinny and Nicky signed our Declaration of Acceptance of Office book. The chairman’s medal was handed to Jinny from Robert.
Minutes of the last meeting were agreed and signed by the chairman with an alteration of cheque numbers which should be as follows: 101469 EALC for annual subscription – £262.51 and 101470 Terry Simmons for play area inspection and repairs plus 2 grass cuts – £140.40.
Borough Councillors: There is a meeting at Peldon on Wed 13th May for the parish and borough councillors of the Reservoir Liaison Group to hear Sue Jackson from CBC Planning Department explain about 106 agreements and how this can be used with regard to this application. 106 agreements are about money that can be obtained and used for closely connected projects.
The situation at Bellwood is being closely monitored and the Chief Executive will be approached if necessary.
ECC Highways will be requested to resurface The Street at Salcott.
Public – Have Your Say: Benches on Moss Hay have been installed and Kevin Bradshaw was thanked for making them. We had previously obtained a grant for these.
We were asked to speak more clearly as sometimes the public found it hard to hear all that was said which we will endeavour to do.
Items for Discussion
- Village Design Statement – completed questionnaires are still coming back and will be expertly evaluated. So far we have had approximately 33% of the adult and 17% of the children’s ones returned. The prize draw will be at the May Festival with the use of a tombola kindly leant to us by a Salcott resident. Also the May Festival photo competition will, hopefully provide us with photos for the VDS.
- Peldon Church Green – Phil proposed, Jane seconded and all agreed for Terry Hedger to cut this grass for us for another year.
- Flooding at Salcott – the meeting with Environment Agency was attended by Environment Agency Officers, parish councillors and land owners. The EA have no actual responsibility with regard to homes flooding other than to inform people. A contour map of the area has been requested and other matters will be looked into by them. ECC Highways are responsible for roads and pipe work and land owners and householders are responsible for ditches who ECC will contact where necessary. A full report of the meeting has been made.
- Improving Moss Hay – rubbish has been cleared and more is to be done. A certain householder will be asked to remove an offending pile. A suggestion of wild flower planting was put forward.
- Play grounds annual inspection has been completed and copies of the required maintenance jobs have been given to our two inspection and repair men.
- Grant obtained of £15,000 from Cory Environmental Trust for a Highland Structure piece of equipment if funding is obtained for the whole project for new equipment and surfacing. Robert will investigate further funding. Although new equipment is expensive the old is in a poor state of repair due to the wood rotting and it was considered that it would be a constant drain of resources in the not too distant future. Next month we will consider a breakdown of the costs of new equipment and reassess how to go forward with this.
A grant was obtained a while ago to improve the footpath on Moss Hay. Now is the right time for this job and so a quote has been obtained and more will be sort with hopefully the chance to dig out the adjacent ditch at the same time. - Planning Process Review – training with the help of CBC is being looked into and we will report back on the matter next month.
- Changes to Standing Orders – owing to the quantity of other work this is deferred to next month.
- Old Village Hall, Great Wigborough will be boarded up by us, Phil proposed, Jinny seconded and all agreed, although this hall and land is not owned by the parish council. The Charities Commission own the hall for the people of Wigborough. All the original trustees are thought to be now dead so we will possibly, in time, be seeking new trustees. The car park appears to have an abandoned car in it, ownership of which will be investigated for further action. Also, the car park is used generally as a car park which will be a problem when the portacabin arrives for voting at the forthcoming election.
Planning Notice:
080194 Proposal: Construction of new Wormingford Pumping Station (WPS). New pipeline from WPS to Abberton Reservoir. Expansion of Abberton Reservoir works to B1026. The application includes an Environmental Statement.
Location: Land from Wormingford to Abberton including Abberton Reservoir, Abberton Reservoir scheme, Peldon Road, Abberton, Colchester.
This application has been approved. Details can be viewed on the Council’s website or at their offices between 08.30-17.30 Monday to Friday.
090322 Proposal: Extensions and alterations at Beckton House Farm, Barnhall Road, Salcott – Permission Granted
Finance:
101471 A Moore – play area inspection £25.00
101472 R S Pullen – clerk’s fee for May + back dated increase £350.40
101473 Peldon Village Hall – hire £90.00
101474 Anglia Inspection Services – playgrounds annual inspection £155.00
101475 J & N Bradshaw – 4 benches for Moss Hay £552.00
101476 T Simmons – play area insp. and 2 x grass cuts £105.00
The next meeting will be held at Salcott Village Hall on Tuesday 9th June 2009 at 7.30
