Minutes of the Great Staughton Parish Council meeting held on 22 March 2018 7.30pm in the Village Pavilion
Present: R Jewell (RJ) (Chair) H Duberly (HD) D Moore (DM) A Withers (AW) N Yates (NY) J Bowen (JB) G Gilbert (GG) W Mumford (WM)
R. Braddick PCSO – (RB) I Gardener (IG). J Russel (JR) (clerk)
a) Residents’ Forum – Parking Problems – Lauras Close – P. Rowe, D. Chapman – The Clerk has written to local businesses and the Doctor’s surgery asking them to politely advise their customers/users of the parking restrictions as raised by the Lauras Close residents.
She has also contacted the police asking them to enforce. The PC has also written to CCC Highways about the possibility of putting yellows lines in place which road users are more likely to adhere to perhaps but as yet there has been no response. Mr Rowe has already placed an article in Life Magazine, but RB has also kindly agreed to write an article for Life which may carry more weight. RB has spoken to his Sgt who has agreed the police will visit to do some enforcement. RB has also spoken to local businesses.
The traffic police need to give the parking ticket not a PCSO. There is a fine for the offence and 3 points on a licence. RB will keep monitoring the situation. He also did some speed work in the village and the average speed recorded was 28mph on The Highway. The highest speed he recorded was 34mph. He also reported that statistically Great Staughton was a safe place to live and it was on par crime figure wise with The Offords.
1. Apologies for absence J Gray (JG) K Fisk (KF)
2. Minutes of the meeting held on 25 January 2018 The minutes were agreed as a true record and signed by the Chairman.
3. Matters Arising Footpaths – JR has requested a new footpath map from CCC. HD and WM will then prepare a list of the footpaths in GS showing who is responsible for each footpath. Ditches – Cage Lane – JR to chase CCC again. WM has now cleared some of the ditches. One of the ditches that are blocked is overflowing onto the nearby road. IG kindly agreed to help raise this issue with the relevant department at CCC. Missing County sign – Clerk has again reported as it has not been replaced. Time bank – HWPC has responded and JR will ask Perry PC and K&S PC about this issue again. Transparency Fund Grant – JR reported that CAPALC has indicated that all applications were successful, and we hope to be in receipt of the grant shortly. Overgrown hedges/foliage – 1 Moory Croft and 4 Smiths Yard have been cleared. 14 The Highway needs to be cleared and the Clerk will write to the homeowner.
4. Attendance at other meetings Clerk attended GDPR Training run by CALPAC. Further advice is to be issued by CAPALC shortly to assist small parish councils with this issue. They will also be announcing a scheme to provide a Data Protection Officer for parish councils for a small charge.
5. Planning Update on: 17/00764/FUL to build new warehousing at Orchard Farm – the DMC meeting took place on 19 March and BJ and JG spoke at the meeting against the granting of the application which was unfortunately approved by 9 votes to 6. IG voted against the application. IG suggested that once the development is up and running it would be advisable to ask CCC Highways to look at the volume of traffic that is created. The traffic survey relied upon took place in January when there are very few pedestrians, which is unsatisfactory. 18/00172 – 32 Vicarage Walk – extension – no comments 17/0128/HHFUL – Crown Cottage, The Town – planning appeal – GSPC is not required to comment
6. Highways – the footbridge on Footpath 3 is damaged and the Clerk reported this to CCC Highways back in January, but it has still not been repaired. JR to ask that this is repaired as soon as possible. Lauras Close parking issues – DM will ask one of the technical officers from CCC to visit the location to see what action they would advise. The Causeway parking issue – PCSO has advised that people parking their cars in front of a pedestrian gate thus blocking access could be an offence. Renee Ellis has raised an issue regarding speed limits in the village. She has been asked to attend the resident’s forum at a PC meeting to discuss further. WM asked if David Hoenig could be asked to cut the hedge in the village hall car park by hand as he has found access difficult and so has been unable to do this. Water leak on Perry Road – clerk is to report this to Anglian Water. WM reported that the road at Dillington is in a very bad state. This will be reported to CCC Highways and IG will assist in this issue if he can be cc’d into any emails to Karl Brockett.
7. Report from County & District Councillors IG reported that as from 1 April the £1 fee will be removed from the Park & Ride sites in Cambridge. CCC is also looking to move from Shire Hall – very early stages but potentially the savings might be £55 million. Great Staughton did not apply for a LHI bid this year but all bids were approved. The Police Commissioner is holding a surgery on 9 May 2018 at Police Headquarters from 9am to 11am.
8. Correspondence – SENT
Head GS Primary – Orchard Farm Drs Surgery – Orchard Farm Nicki Bland – Orchard Farm Piglets – Orchard Farm D Wildbridge – CLT N Orchard – streetlights Ross Goody – Orchard Farm HWPC – Orchard Farm Rose Klemperer – CLT Ashley Smith – CLT Renee Ellis – Speed Limits Doctors Surgery – Lauras Close Ian Gardener – Orchard Farm J. Gray – Orchard Farm J Lloyd – Planning -Orchard Farm R. Braddick – PCSO – Lauras Close CCC – Lauras Close Jo Reid – parking issue St Neots Police – Lauras Close
RECEIVED
N Orchard – faulty streetlights HWPC – Orchard Farm HWPC – time bank Rev N Bland – Orchard Farm Piglets – Orchard Farm Doctors Surgery – Orchard Farm Balfour Beatty – street light Dillington Debbie Wildridge – CLT CAPALC – Transparency Fund application James Lloyd – Planning – Orchard Farm Renee Ellis – speed limits CCC – Lauras Close Jonathan Gray – Orchard Farm Ian Gardener – Orchard Farm Doctors Surgery – Lauras Close Richard Braddick – PCSO Lauras Close
9. Cashbook, Cheques in and out
Income: n/a Expenditure: Clerk January salary – £215.15 Lockwood Litho – CLT leaflets £62.40 Anthony Collins – CLT legal fees £130.20 Highways Search (NY) – £27.60 ACRE – payroll services – £36.00 Clerk February Salary – £215.35 CCC LHI B661– £238.04 Arthur Ibbetts – mower service £70.37 GS Playing Field – hire charges £45.00 GS Village Hall – work to village hall – £500.00 AmeyCespaEast – village hall work – £2750.00
Total £4290.11 Balance in Community Account £18,469.95 Cashbook was reviewed and approved.
10. Affordable Housing BJ reported that as of today there are 77 paid up members of the CLT. A Board has been formed and they will have a detailed discussion on the allocation policy at the next board meeting on 4 April. Ashley Smith has written to the PC about the project expressing concerns about the CLT project. BJ advised that this project in GS does not set a precedent and all planning regulations apply to any applications and each application is considered on its merits. The CLT development proposed by the Parish Council is under a specific planning provision called the rural exception scheme, which is not widely available. Normal planning rules will apply to all other applications.
11. Report from: Village Hall Committee – BJ reported that work is nearly complete, and it is hoped the hall will reopen on 26 March.
Playing Field Committee – NY reported that WM has done an excellent job on the groundworks in preparation for the new play equipment. Wicksteed will install the equipment within the next two weeks. JR to check that Bradgate are cutting the playing field this year.
Neighbourhood Watch No report.
Speed Watch No report
12. Parish Matters The milestone is damaged. Suggest the clerk contacts the Milestone Society for advice how to repair. BJ wanted to pass on his thanks to Hugh Duberly, Anthony Withers, Geoff Gilbert and Kevin Fisk for their time on the Parish Council. Particularly Hugh, who served on the council, including time as Chairman, for 30 years and Anthony and Geoff who also have many years of service between them. They will all be a great loss to the Parish Council.
Dates of meetings for 2018 Parish Assembly 19 April, AGM 10 May, 5 July, 27 September, 15 November