BAYDON PARISH COUNCIL
Minutes of Meeting held at the BYPA Hall on 9th February 2009
(Draft copy. Subject to approval at the next meeting)
PRESENT: Cllr Tony Prior (Chair), Cllr Alison Tomkins, Cllr Tamsin Witt, Elizabeth Carmichael (Clerk), and 6 members of the public.
Before the meeting commenced the chair welcomed everyone and reminded the members of public that there were still 3 vacancies on the Parish Council. The Council would welcome anyone who would like to join.
1. APOLOGIES
Cllr Ian Timms,
2. DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST
None.
3. MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS PARISH COUNCIL MEETING
The minutes of the meeting on 12th January were amended as follows: Paragraph 6.7, an action was added for the clerk to place the notice on the notice board and an action was added for TP to put notice in Scene in Baydon. The sentence “It was agreed that 3 quotations be sought for the 2009 contract” was added to paragraph 6.10. The words “submitted to” were removed from the final sentence of paragraph 6.12 and replaced with “submitted and accepted by”. Paragraph 7.3, an action was added for the clerk to place notice on the notice board
The minutes were subsequently approved as a correct record and were signed. The minutes from 1st December that had been re-typed were also signed as a correct record.
It was noted that Cllr Prior had sent the neighbourhood watch notice to Scene in Baydon. Mr Austen asked for a copy of the Tree Warden Launch notice for the website. It was noted that the deadline had passed.
4. SUSPENSION OF THE MEETING FOR PUBLIC QUESTION TIME
The meeting was suspended so that members of the public could speak to the Parish Council.
5. PLANNING
5.1
The Parish Council had no objections to application E/09/0006/TPO for
works to 2 lime trees at Shalom,
5.2 It was noted that no planning decisions had been received since the last meeting.
6. Finance
6.1 It was noted that no payments had been made between meetings.
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6.2 The Council approved payment of £8.63 to reimburse the chair for money spent on the printing of the vacancy leaflets.
6.3 The clerk confirmed that an invoice for £1146.33 had been paid and that the second invoice for £1146.33 was still outstanding as she had not received a settlement figure from Sodexho for the work actually done. The clerk brought to the Council’s attention the fact that Sodexho had stated that they had done 4 cuts on the Parish field but had only been contracted to do 2 cuts. She also advised the meeting that at the start of the contract the Sodexho team were not cutting the new areas that had been added to the 2008 contract. It was noted that the draft 2008/2009 budget had an allowance of £2330 for grass cutting. Councillor Tomkins, referring to the minutes of the meeting on 7th January 2008, pointed out that the Parish Council had consider the budget prepared by the clerk and had agreed that the amount for grass cutting be lower to £1950 to reflect the Sodexho contract. The clerk advised the meeting that it looked like the ex-VAT figure of £1951.20 had been used as the basis for this decision.
It was noted that Ermin Close which was being cut by Kennet District Council & Sodexho had been removed from the scope of the 2009 contract and that the Parish Council needed to be aware of what land Highways was responsible for.
6.4 The Parish Council reviewed the Annual Returns for 2006-2007 and 2007-2008. The only query that arose related to the clerk’s salary. It was agreed that Cllr Prior sends his breakdown of the figures to the clerk for her to review and to clarify the situation.
Send report to clerk Action: TP
Investigate salary payments Action: Clerk
7. ITEMS FOR CONSIDERATION
7.1 Cllr Prior referred to the Freedom of Information (FOI) publication scheme and suggested that the Annual Return should be published on the website as well as the notice board. The Parish Council discussed this proposal. It was agreed that, in addition to the approved budget, the Annual Return should be published on the website.
It was noted that since approving the FOI publication scheme, the Council had approved an Administration Policy and a policy covering access to the Parish field and that at a future meeting the Parish Council should review the FOI publication scheme and consider whether these new policies should be added to it.
7.2 The Parish Council decided not to submit a response to the consultation on the draft Wiltshire Council Sustainability Appraisal Scoping Report.
8. ITEMS TO NOTE / ITEMS FOR NEXT MEETING
It was noted that members of the public had raised issues
regarding the clearing of snow during the recent bad weather. The tractor
working on Friday 6th February was moving so quickly it was compacting
the snow rather than clearing it. Side roads had not been cleared and an
ambulance had been unable to get through to the village on Saturday morning. It
was suggested that the grit box on the corner of
It was noted that concerns had been raised by the public regarding the parking of cars on the corner of the road e.g. on the Aldbourne road/Ermin street junction
It was noted that Cllr Prior did not attend Wiltshire Council’s Development Control meeting on 3 February due to the bad weather.
A vote of thanks was given to Kevin Barnes for producing the ‘No access’ sign for the Parish field.
A vote of thanks was given to Tony Topp for clearing snow on Ermin Close and other areas in the village and to Roger Forster for allowing him to do the work.
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It was noted that the schedule of meeting for the year needs to be placed on the notice board. If practical, this should be combined with the Parish Council contact details in order to save space.
It was suggested that the Parish Council should discuss what goes into the village magazine.
The meeting closed at 9.10 pm
Signed : ________________________________ Date : _______________
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