April 2019 Minutes
Minutes Of The Meeting Of Welbourn Parish Council Held On Wednesday 10th April 2019 In Welbourn Village Hall At 7pm
Present:
Mr. Robert Cross (RC) Chairman
Mr. John Storer (RS)
Mr. Stephen Spedding (SSg) Mrs. Maureen Lunn (ML) Mrs. Harriet Huntsman (HH) Mrs. Katie Stark (KS)
Mr. Jake Beaty (JB)
Mr. Robert Gibson (RG) Mr. Stephen Short (SS)
District Councillor – Mrs. M Overton (MO)
Parish Clerk - Miss Sarah Brown
04.01.00 Chairman’s Welcome Action
04.01.01 The Chairman, Councillor Robert Cross, welcomed everyone to the meeting.
04.02.00 Public Forum
04.02.01 No parishioners had attended.
04.03.00 Acceptance of Reasons for Absence.
04.03.01 No apologies have been received.
04.04.00 Declarations of Interest
04.04.01 No interests to declare.
04.05.00 Minutes of the Previous Meeting
04.05.01 The notes of the previous council meeting held on the 13th March 2019 copies of which have been circulated previously to members were accepted as minutes.
04.05.02 Councillor John Storer and seconded by Councillor Maureen Lunn. The Chairman duly signed the minutes.
04.06.00 Matters Arising
04.06.01 A parishioner was not happy with the decision regarding the streetlight on Castle Hill at last month’s meeting (03.14.04 The Parish Council decided as it owns over 20 street lights. If we set a precedent, it could be very costly. We would be prepared to have a timer fitted if the parishioner was prepared to pay for it themselves.)
04.06.02 The parishioner asked for the item to be put on the Agenda again as they were unable to attend the last meeting and put forward their argument for the PC to get a timer fitted at their own cost.
04.06.03 The Parish Council decided to stick with the original decision as some parishioners preferred the streetlights on as it was extra security at night.
04.07.00 Police Update
04.07.01 There were no crimes reported and no police attendance.
04.08.00 District and County Matters
04.08.01 Cllr Marianne Overton gave an update.
04.08.02 Concerned about health services being centralized and that G.P services maybe reduced.
04.08.03 Leadenham’s development allowance was increased to 15% from 10% due to no development happening in previous years and a call for affordable housing. Planning permission has been granted for 20 houses by one developer on a single site and 14 houses over another two other sites.
04.08.04 The lesson to be learned from this planning processes is that Parish Councils need to have their own consultation on perspective developments, as the developers pass on comments and you need to know that they match the general consensus.
04.08.05 District Councillior Cat Mills is not standing again. Both Kay Johnson an Independent candidate and Lucille Hagues a Conservative candidate is standing as well as Cllr Marianne Overton, so we have three candidates standing for the two seats.
04.08.06 When asked Cllr Overton said that she was not aware of a Planning application for change of use of property, being received for the Car Sales on the A607by the end of March.
04.08.07 The Clerk was asked to contact the enforcement officer to find out about this case and to get information on the progress with The Hall Nursing home new boiler system.
04.09.00 Code of Conduct
04.09.01 NKDC have emailed all Parish Councils a Code of Conduct which you can adopt if you wish.
04.09.02 Do we want to adopt this new Code of Conduct?
04.09.03 Cllr R Cross proposed the Parish Councilors review the NKDC Code of Conduct and compare with our existing Code and decide later which we prefer to have.
04.10.00 Clerks Report Appendix A
04.10.01 The Clerk verbally gave her report.
04.10.02 All Parish Councilors accepted the report.
04.11.00 Financial Report, Appendix B and C – cheques paid and to be paid.
04.11.01 The Financial report had been reviewed and accepted, after the Clerk highlighted the new additions from invoices received earlier today.
04.12.00 Street Light
04.12.01 Please see Matters Arising 04.06.01 to 04.06.03.
04.13.00 Castle Hill
04.13.01 1) Who are we getting to remove the rest of the fallen tree?
04.13.02 Cllr R Cross volunteered to clear the rest of the fallen tree if no one objected, free of charge.
04.13.03 No one objected.
04.13.04 2) Who and how will we fix the fence damaged by the tree?
04.13.05 The Clerk was asked to contact the village handyman and ask him to repair the metal bar.
04.13.06 3) Are we replacing the rest of Castle Hill’s fencing?
04.13.07 Due to the trees being checked for free (see Clerks report for details), it was decided we could afford to replace the rotten wooden fence near the causeway as it helps protect children from running straight onto the road and stops people walking into the moat/drainage channel at night or when obscured by vegetation.
04.13.08 The Clerk was asked to get numerous quotes to compare.
04.14.00 S106 Money
04.14.01 The Parish Council hold £4837.16 of the S106 monies, £3000 has already been allocated to the Ridges and Furrows project. That left £1837.16 that was not allocated already to anything.
04.14.02 It was agreed to give the remaining £1837.16 to the Welbourn Play and Leisure Project.
04.15.00 How can we stop verges being damaged by cars and help stop inconsiderate parking?
04.15.01 The Clerk was asked to get a sign to say “Please do not park on grass verges.
04.15.02 Cllr R Cross and the Clerk are to investigate other ways to elevate the problem.
04.16.00 Items for Next Month’s Agenda
04.16.01 Co-opting new members of the Parish Council.
04.17.00 Dates for future meetings
Wednesday 8th May 2019 at 7.00pm (Annual General Meeting)
Wednesday 8th May 2019 at 7.30pm
Wednesday 12th June 2019 at 7.30pm Wednesday
10th July 2019 at 7.30pm
There being no further matters to discuss, the Chairman duly closed the meeting at 8.30pm.
Signed…………………………………………………………… Date…………………………
Chair, Welbourn Parish Council.
Copies to: District Councillors Mrs. M Overton. Mrs. C. Mills. All Parish Councillors Parish Website