CHACOMBE PARISH COUNCIL
Minutes of the Parish Council Meeting held on Monday, 7th June 2004 at 7.30pm in the Village Hall.
Present: Cllrs. Harper, Woolley, Coates, Wyatt, Jones, White and Clerk.
Apologies: Cllrs. Reid and Jenkins
Public Time.
Nigel Folker and Mike Offers had expressed an interest in filling the casual vacancy and both had been invited to attend Public Time. Each candidate was asked questions about their past experience, how long they had lived in the village and what was it that they felt they could contribute to the activities of the Council.
Sarah Wyatt was representing the Village Hall Management Committee and informed the Council that the Village Hall had received the promise of £10,000 from Banbury Charities and £21,000 from SNC subject to it being spent by 1st January 2005. A lottery application for £30,000 had been completed and there was also the possibility of some funding from the Land Fill Tax Credit Scheme. NCC also had funds ear-marked for helping organisations conform to the DDA. The availability was subject to the money coming from all sources. The Committee will have a reply by the end of October and anticipate that building will start before Christmas.
Bookings for the Village Hall are up and the monthly auctions cover the annual running costs which, in turn allows for the Hall to be let at a cheaper rate to local groups. Although many Village Halls have applied for lottery funding it was felt that Chacombe¹s application had a fair to good chance of being successful.
County Councillor Malcolm Mildren who had been unable to attend the Annual Parish Meeting informed the Council of NCC¹s current financial situation and the demands from other areas, such as Health and Social Care, but the Council was particularly keen to hear about what was going to be done about the current state of the roads. There are approximately 182 kms of B, C and unclassified roads that need to be re-surfaced and Northamptonshire has a backlog of spending 98 million and has recently been criticised for its lack of maintenance.
South Northants is the third least deprived area in the country. There has been an increase in the number of cars using the roads in South Northants because of the A43 link from the M1 to the M40 but 75% 80% of the roads are beyond their useful life and are considered to be the worst in the County. NCC has £10 million to spend but how much of that will be spent on the roads in the south of the county?
Mrs Evans gave her petition to Malcolm Mildren. Mrs Evans was invited to address the committee meeting on 17th June when the petition would be passed to NCC. This she agreed to do.
Speed limit signs are better displayed and it is hoped that Chacombe¹s signs will be moved further out of the village. Chacombe is still waiting for one sign to be re-erected in Thorpe Road. The campaign to get a 20 mph speed limit introduced will also continue. Speeding in villages is a problem that has been acknowledged and Cllr Mildren will attend any future meetings when these issues are raised again.
Minutes of previous meetings on 5th April and 10th May: adopted and signed.
Matters arising
1.1 Chacombe Brook. It was agreed that the next stage was not within the scope of the Parish Council and it could not do anything more to resolve the issues. The riparian owners could address the issues either individually or as a group.
1.2 Closure of Post Office. There had been no response to the flyer in May¹s Chimes asking whether anybody would be prepared to provide a Post Office counter service from their home.
1.3 Footpath warden. Cllr. Barry Coates has volunteered to take on this role.
Finance
Internal control needs to be completed as of end of May.
Expenditure Income
101117 David Cochrane £169.84
101118 NPFA £100
101119 Jeffs Coaches (April) £120
101120 Allianz Cornhill £582
101121 Architec (domain name renewal) £9.40
Authorise: Jeffs Coaches (May) £80 and Sophie¹s Silver Lining Fund £50
Clerks & Councils Direct
Winged Fellowship Trust. Thank you letter
CPRE Countryside Voice
Shaw & Sons publications
The Countryside Agency. Registered Common Land and Open Country
Charity Commission. Annual return. Ian Woolley will become a trustee if Ron Wintersgill does not wish to continue
Cherry Large. Information re: Sophie¹s Silver Lining Music Festival
Village Hall Management Committee. Acknowledgement of £1500 received from the Parish Council. Set of keys will be available at the end of October
NALC ³Update² May 2004
Powers and duties of Parish Councils
New measures to tackle illegal working
Risk Assessment sample guide
Improving your patch
³Village Viewpoint
CPRE ³Fieldwork²
NCC i) Major changes in Rights of Way department
ii) Northamptonshire Area Committees and agenda and papers for 19th May
iii) Northamptonshire Roadshow Programme re: Children¹s Playgrounds
iv) Community Scrutiny Committee Minutes from 6th May and agenda for 10th June
v) S Northamptonshire Area Committee. Next meeting on 7th July NOT 8th July
SNC i) European Parliamentary Election Notice
ii) S. Northamptonshire¹s Housing 4U bi-annual publication
iii) Northamptonshire Partnership. Redundant Rural Buildings Grant
iv) Planning applications e-mailed week ending: 12/5/04, 19/5/04, 26/5/04 and 2/6/04
Agenda
3.1 Conservation Verge
Since Cllr. Jones agreed to take over the management of the Berry Close verge 6-7 years ago it is now an established conservation verge. When the County Council appointed a full time officer to promote bio-diversity the aim was to resurrect a scheme to protect these verges. Backed by English Nature, it is the only recognised conservation verge within any village confines within Northamptonshire and new marker posts have been erected as a means of identification.
3.2 Annual Parish Meeting Review
This meeting had never been well attended and it was felt that very little could be done to increase the attendance level; however, it would be discussed again prior to next year¹s meeting.
3.3 Casual Vacancy
See Public Time. A discussion followed and it was agreed that Mike Offers should fill the vacancy on this occasion and the Clerk agreed to inform him of the Council¹s decision.
3.4 Traffic calming Petition
This was handed over to County Councillor Malcolm Mildren during Public Time.
3.5 Sophie¹s Silver Lining Fund request for donation
The Council had received the request from Sue White on behalf of the fund. The Council agreed to make a donation of the same amount as last year - £50. The Clerk was asked to write a letter expressing the Council¹s support for the Music Festival.
3.6 SNC Planning Applications
S/2004/0630/P Demolish garage and construct single storey side extension at 64 Thornhill. The Council had no observations
S/2004/0659 Embankments to form temporary flood storage area to alleviate flooding and an Environmental Impact Assessment on land north of M40 by A361. The Council had no observations.
S/2004/0686/P Demolish existing farmhouse and agricultural buildings and construct new dwelling and garage at Chacombe Hill Farm. The Council was pleased that the proposed new access in Thorpe Road had been withdrawn and that this application had scaled down the size of the dwelling, otherwise, no observations.
3.7 Grass-cutting
This has recently caused many residents to express their concerns. The cut by County Highways in early May, when the grass was very long, was done on a very wet day and we could all see the poor result. This was followed by a cut by David Cochrane in late May when the grass had continued to grow at a phenomenal rate. David is contracted by the Parish Council to carry out a cut approximately three weeks after the Highways cut, otherwise the grass would only be cut every six weeks! Two cuts in less than perfect conditions resulted in the sorry looking state of many of the grassed areas in the village. Hopefully, the appearance of these areas will improve within the next few weeks.
David Grainger had experienced problems in gaining access to the Playing Field since building work had started on the new school classroom.
AOB
1. The Council was informed that two stiles had been added to the footpath across Berry Close.
Meeting closed at 9.30 pm.
The next meeting will be held on 5th July 2004 at 7.15pm.
pcmn082/ss 28/06/04