BAYDON PARISH COUNCIL
MINUTES OF MEETING HELD AT THE BYPA HALL ON
1st December 2008 (Subject to approval at the meeting on 12th January 2009)
PRESENT: Cllr Tony Prior (Chair), Cllr Ian Timms, Cllr Alison Tomkins, Cllr Tamsin Witt, Elizabeth Carmichael (Clerk) and 4 members of the public.
Before commencing the meeting the chair read out the letter of resignation from Oliver Bond. The number of vacant seats on the Parish Council is now 3 and resident were again invited to consider joining the Parish Council.
1. APOLOGIES
2. DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST
Cllr Tamsin Witt, Cllr Ian Timms and Cllr Tony Prior all declared personal interests in agenda items 6.1. They also all declared a prejudicial interest in agenda item 6.3 as they are allotment holders.
3. MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS PARISH COUNCIL MEETING
The minutes of the meeting on 27th October were approved and signed as a true record.
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. CLERK’S REPORT (FOR INFORMATION ONLY)
The clerk’s report (appendix a) which was sent around with the agenda was noted by the Council. The Clerk advised the meeting that the Planning Officer had advised that the application for the Red Lion pub did not include a smoking shelter and consequently the Parish Council’s comments about the location of the shelter were not being put forward to the committee. The clerk agreed to double check the plans as some members were sure that the plans that they had reviewed had included a smoking shelter on the side of the building.
6. ITEMS FOR CONSIDERATION
6.1 The clerk advised the meeting that she had chased the NALC solicitor for a response to the Parish Council’s latest queries and its request for a conference call or site meeting but there has been no response. It was noted that there had been no responses to the notice in the parish magazine asking residents who were councillors in 1994 to contact the Clerk. Councillor Prior advised the meeting that Mrs Janet Rees had indicated she would consider signing an affidavit.
6.2 The Parish Council agreed that a letter be sent to Withy King advising them that the Parish Council would like them to do the following:
- Establish the ownership of the lane and confirm what responsibilities are attached to this ownership.
- If no owner can be found, the Parish Council would like confirmation that adopting the default convention in these circumstances; the Parish Council owns and is responsible for the section of lane along the boundary of the Parish field up to the middle of the lane.
- To define the rights of access enjoyed by the Parish Council
- To provide an estimate for the above work
Send letter to Withy King to get estimate for establishing ownership & responsibility for maintenance of the lane by the Parish field. Action: Clerk
6.3 The resolution that “an area of land on the Parish Field, west of a line formed by the west boundary of Willow House and extending south to the Ermin Street boundary, considered to be no longer required
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as recreational land, be appropriated to allow the Parish Council to exercise its statutory duty to provide allotments" could not be considered as the Parish Council did not have a quorum due to the declarations of prejudicial interests by 3 members. It was noted that under section 91 of Local Government Act 1972, where a Parish Council has so many vacancies that it is unable to act, a district council may appoint people to fill those or all of the vacancies on a temporary basis. The clerk advised the Council that she had spoken with Janet Lee from Kennet District Council’s Legal and Democratic department and that they were both of the opinion that this applied to instances where the Parish Council did not have a quorum and therefore could not hold any meetings, and that it could not be applied to an individual matter that is not quorate. Janet Lee had also re-iterated that the Parish Council should be doing everything in its power to fill the vacant seats and suggested that the Parish Council consider doing a leaflet drop. The Parish Council did not consider this necessary as Scene in Baydon goes to every household and, as it had adverts for the vacancies, everyone in the village should already be aware of the situation. It was noted that Janet Lee is investigating what can be done to resolve the current situation where the Parish Council cannot progress matters due to a lack of a quorum.
6.4 The Parish Council agreed that it would investigate the options for providing a playground for young children in the village and that in order to secure the S106 money from the Fiveways development a letter should be sent by Tony Prior, on behalf of the Parish Council, outlining the plan to use a section of the cricket field.
Send letter to KDC outlining proposal for play ground on cricket field. Action: TP
6.5 Version 2.0 of the Administration Procedure, dated 21 November, was approved by the Parish Council
6.6 The Parish Council resolved to adopt the Freedom of Information Act Model Publication Scheme
6.7 The guide to the information from the Parish Council that would be available under the FOI Publication Scheme was approved.
6.8 Cllr Witt advised the Council that there had been 2 meetings of the Traffic Calming Working Group and that she had spoken with Highways regarding traffic calming measures. As a result of these conversations it had become clear that traffic calming would take place through a series of steps and achievements. A draft letter to be submitted to Highways will be presented to the Parish Council for approval at the January meeting. It was agreed that the target end date for the working group be revised to 30 November 2009.
It was agreed that the agenda be altered so that Planning was discussed next, followed by Finance.
7. PLANNING
7.1
The Parish Council considered planning application K/59682/F for two
dwellings with garages at Dacre,
The Parish Council did not support the application and had the following comments:
i) The development which is considered to be overbearing is in an area of outstanding natural beauty,
is on agricultural
land and would be creeping ribbon development along
ii) The access sighting is poor and the claim that the drive is in constant use is considered an
overstatement of the actual situation.
iii) It is also noted that all of the low carbon home data provided is simply a summary of options and there is no statement of which technologies will be used.
iv) Squeezing two large houses onto the plot and providing no garden space is not appropriate nor is it in keeping with the location or village as a whole. Is a ground source heat pump possible when there are no grounds/garden?
v) The development is neither in keeping with the village nor the stated aims of Kennet District Council’s Local Plan.
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vi) There has been considerable change/development to this property which was sanctioned after the event by retrospective planning permission.
7.2 The Parish Council had no objections to application K/59774/F (The Downs Equestrian Centre, Russley road) for the erection of 2 on-site residential units to accommodate pupils and others. It did however have a query regarding how many people would be accommodated and what facilities had been made for fire exits.
7.3 It was noted that no notifications of planning permission had been received since the last meeting.
9. FINANCE
9.1 The Parish Council endorsed the following payments made between meetings:
- Invoice from Melba Swintex for £74.85 in payment for litter bin.
- Invoice from the Society of Local Council Clerks for £52.88, ref. clerk’s regional conference.
- Invoice from Baydon PO & Stores for £130.07 for Christmas tree lights.
9.2 The Parish Council endorsed the booking of the BYPA Hall for the first meeting of the Traffic Calming Working Group and approved payment of £12 hire fee.
9.3 The Parish Council agreed not to make a donation to Victim Support.
9.4 The Parish Council reviewed the draft budget for 2009/2010 and agreed to the following revisions: Insurance was corrected to £176, Audit costs were increased by 5% rather than 15% and as it was considered unlikely that any money would be spent on allotments before the end of March 2009, the anticipated expenditure of £1900 for 2008/2009 was set to zero and the associated spending was put into the 2009/2010 budget. The budget for 2009/2010 was approved subject to the above amendments.
The clerk handed out copies of a financial statement that showed how money in the Parish Council’s accounts had been set aside for payments owing or had been ring fenced for a particular purpose e.g. play ground, unused litter grant, unspent grant for Parish plan. It was noted that this included £1900 for allotments and £1000 for projects, and that the total amount of unallocated funds was £3341.44. The Parish Council had some concerns about using some of the unallocated money held in reserves to lower the precept as if this pattern continued the Council would have no unallocated funds left. It was also noted that the precept for Baydon was low in comparison with other Wiltshire villages. The clerk reminded the Parish Council that the £1900 for allotments had already been set aside in the bank account and that it was not necessary to raise this sum again. The Parish Council discussed the likelihood of needing additional money for a playground or for traffic calming measures and decided that the total budgeted amount for 2009-2010 should be raised from the precept. It was acknowledged that the resultant increase would be nearly 50% and the precept was set at £12460.
9.5 The Parish Council approved an increase to the clerk’s salary in line with the interim pay settlement for 2008 -2009.
9.6 The Parish Council approved payment of £2356.03 for the clerk’s remuneration for 18th February 2008 to 30 November 2008.
9.7 The Parish Council approved additional spending of up to £20 on litter picking equipment to cover price increases.
9.8 It was noted that the Christmas tree had already been put up but the lights would not be switched on until the posts supporting the electricity point on the green had been fixed. It was agreed that the tree should come down the weekend of 3/4 January. The Parish Council noted that carols around the Christmas tree would be held on 19th December. It was agreed that up to £50 could be spent on providing mince pies & mulled wine for the carol singers.
The Parish Council agreed to extend the meeting by 15 minutes.
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6. ITEMS FOR CONSIDERATION
6.12 The Parish Council agreed that a copy of the notice of councillor vacancies should be placed on the website
6.13 The Parish Council approved the schedule of meetings for 2009.
6.10 The Parish Council decided not to respond to the “Communities in Control: Real people, real power: Codes of conduct for local authority members and employees” Consultation.
6.11 The Parish Council agreed that speeding traffic in the village was the one traffic issue of concern within the Parish that it should be put forward to the Marlborough Pilot Area Board (MPAB). If MPAB only want one specific street, Ermin Street will be put forward as the main area of concern.
6.15 The loss of Parish Council minutes between 1955 and April 2001 was noted and has been duly recorded via these minutes.
6.14 The Parish Council approved the clerk’s request for time off from 22nd December 2008 – 2nd January 2009. It was agreed that this time should be taken as annual leave and not time off in lieu. The clerk was asked to put together a summary of the additional hours that have been worked so that at the next meeting the Council can consider payment of those hours. Cllr Timms asked for a copy of the clerk’s signed contract.
6.9 This agenda item, “To consider what action to take regarding the shortfall in contracted grass cuts by Sodexho during the 2008 growing season”, was deferred to the next meeting.
6.16 This agenda item, “To consider forming a policy regarding access of disabled residents to the Parish Field”, was deferred to the next meeting.
8. CORRESPONDENCE FOR INFORMATION
All items of correspondence on the list distributed with the agenda were noted by the Parish Council. The list is attached as appendix b.
9. ITEMS TO NOTE / ITEMS FOR NEXT MEETING
A vote of thanks went to Trevor Dominy, Jim Grove, Steve
Dawson, Martin Norman, John Woodwards,
Cllr Tomkins volunteered to obtain the pins and barrier tape.
The meeting closed at 10.30 pm
Signed : ________________________________ Date : _______________
Click here for the
Appendix of Action Points
Click here for the
Appendix of Correspondence
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