PC Minutes 14th September 2010

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 14th September 2010.

Present: Nettie Knill Jones, John Walker, Lynne Simmons, Phil Gladwin, Jinny Gale, Charles Dymond, Jane Banks, Nicky Ellis, Kevin Bentley, Terry Sutton and 8 members of the public.

Apologies for absence: None

Nettie was co-opted on to the parish council and welcomed in joining us.

Minutes of the last meeting were agreed by all with the correction at Item 2 which should read ‘12p per household’, and signed by the chairman.

Borough Councillors: All parish councils will have their grants cut.  Double taxation on maintenance work will be looked into more closely as with council tax villages pay the precept part which they do not in town. The spending review takes place next month when we will find out what grant cuts there will be.  ECC’s Transformation Plan is already addressing the spending cuts issue. Senior positions are not being filled following retirement and other personnel not replaced when people leave.

Bellwood woodland application has been deferred. The proposed location and size of the building was questioned and the necessity for a toilet on the site.  The chicken business plan was considered to be flawed.  The caravan has been empty for some weeks now calling into question the concern of making the occupant homeless.

The next Reservoir and Water Company meeting will take place tomorrow.  The construction works for the new road will probably cause problems to some but work so far has not resulted in many complaints and the small number there has been have been sorted out immediately.

The meeting with the professionals on the flooding issue, we were assured, will take place soon but it is proving hard to get the appropriate bodies co-ordinated.

The police have been out in our area with a speed gun for which we are always grateful.

Missing chevrons and sign will be chased up but because of cuts in personnel things will take longer to happen in future.

Failing to get a 40mph speed limit on our main through road a 50mph was requested and will be looked into further.

Public-Have Your Say: The owners of two properties in Church Road, Peldon came to apologize for any disturbance, particularly smoke form a fire, they may have caused during the last week or so while carrying out clearance work on the properties at the back of the gardens. They explained that no badger set had been found on the land or indeed any endangered species. They have the intention of extending the gardens to pasture land possibly for grazing horses.  They expressed their desire to work with the community and the parish council and not against them.  The cleared land was heavily overgrown and needed this work. They said they would be pleased to hear of any advice with regard to replanting, hedging, etc. They said that they have no intention of putting in planning permission for a number of houses.  CBC had instructed them to wait until after the end of July before starting this work which they did. They had experienced a great deal of trouble with a number of services, such as the police and fire brigade being called out, but no problems had been found.

Declarations of Interest: Phil and Jinny for item 2.

Items for Discussion

  1. Bellwood – as above in Borough Councillors.
  2. Wigboroughs Village Hall – the volunteers will get together soon for their third meeting.  We have had lively debates at meetings and in emails as to the way forward but forming a Management Committee is the first step.
  3. Affordable Housing survey and letter – has been circulated to all houses in all the villages which should to be returned in the envelope provided by 1st October 2010. This is purely to establish if there is a need to begin with and nothing more.
  4. Salcott vacancy – we have had one person from Virley interested and so Phil proposed, Lynne seconded and all agree for the clerk to approach this person with a view to co-opting him on to the parish council.
  5. CALC meeting minutes say that courses for parish councillors to attend nearer home will be requested and organised.  A budget workshop will be attended by the CALC chairman where he will enquire about the cuts of grant funding.
  6. Edward Gittins & Assoc. – CBC LDF – was explained. We have submitted our response. One resident in Salcott objects to our objections.  The Inspector’s decisions will probably be published at the end of this month.
  7. Salcott flooding – some ditch clearance work has been carried out and more will be done soon.  Also see above in Borough Councillors.
  8. Playgrounds – the filling out of the official maintenance sheets from RoSPA are considered to be necessary, especially in these times of spending money wisely. Rotten posts at Salcott should now be repaired or replaced as required.  The work deemed necessary or advisory on the annual inspection report also needs to be carried out fairly promptly.
  9. Moss Hay goal posts – Nicky proposed, Phil seconded and all agreed for the old ones to be repaired without further delay. Clerk to activate this and Jinny to follow up if necessary.
  10. Salcott crossroads bus shelter alterations cost will be ready hopefully in time for a decision at the next meeting.
  11. Individual jobs for individual parish councillors – was discussed at length and agreed as a good idea with one exception.  We will explore and make a list between us of suitable jobs that could be allocated to certain parish councillors, although we probably, to some extend, do this already.
  12. Actions and Reminders list – up dated

Planning applications:

101417 Proposal: Temporary use of mobile home as monitoring accommodation for free range chicken egg unit at Bellwood, Colchester Road, Great Wigborough

101423 Proposal: Loft conversion, new porch and alterations to attached garage at Longacre, School Lane, Great Wigborough

101433 Proposal: Demolish existing garages, build single store granny annexe at The Bungalow, Colchester Road, Virley

101612 Proposal: Replacement house at Grove Bungalow, Maldon Road, Gt Wigborough

101837 Proposal: Removal of condition 2 of planning permission 072151 restricting the use for overhaul and repair, sale and maintenance of contractors’ plant, sale of associated spare parts and associated offices, all as stated in the application and for no other purpose at St Ives Farm, St Ives Road, Peldon

Notice of Planning Decisions:

100854 Proposal: Erection of single storey kitchen extension, insertion of new doors and internal alterations at The Old Rectory, Mill Lane, Virley – Permission Granted

101423 Proposal: Loft conversion, new porch and alterations to attached garage at Longacre, School Lane, Great Wigborough – Permission Granted

101372 Proposal: Double storey side extension and front porch at 2 Fourreleet Cottages, Whitehouse Hill, Salcott – Permission Refused

Finances:

101563 Colchester Association of Local Councils – annual subs                                £35.00

101564 Suffolk Acre – insurance for Wigborough Hall                                            £60.37

101565 CBC – election costs                                                                            £598.23

101566 Audit Commission – external audit                                                         £158.63

101567 R S Pullen – clerk’s fee for August and September                                   £707.06

101568 R S Pullen – clerk’s expenses                                                                £240.22

101569 Barry Gooding – play insp x 3 months                                                      £90.00

101570 Rural Community Council of Essex – photocopying survey                           £54.00

101571 Terry Simmons – 4 x grass cuts, 2 x playground insp, hedge trim               £240.00

The next meeting will be held at 7.30pm on Tues 12th Oct 2010 at Salcott Village Hall

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