Minutes 20 September 2016 - Charsfield Village

CHARSFIELD PARISH COUNCIL

Minutes of Meeting Held on Tuesday, 20^th September 2016

Present: Councillors Winkworth (Chair), Hedger, Murray, Owen Williams, Moor and Pam Hembra (Parish Clerk)

Attendees: Councillor Robin Vickery – sent his apologies



						Action
1.	Apologies and Approval of Absence
	Councillors Pedgrift and Newman The Chair will write to Councillor Ray Herring to ask why Mark Amoss is so difficult to get hold of.					EW
2.	Declarations of Interest
	None
3.	Approval of Minutes of the Meeting held on 19^th July 2016
	Minutes were approved and signed by Councillor Winkworth.
4.	Progress Reports for Information or Matters Arising on Minutes of 19^th July 2016
	The Clerk had written to the owner of the property on the turning to the B1078 from Church Street where the vision is being obscured by the hedge. This has not been cut back to date. Re the hedge on the south side of The Street – Highways said a hedge notice would be sent to the owner as soon as the bird nesting season was over. The Parish Council will also write to the owner. Several residents have complained about missing or broken road signs. These were reported to SCDC website and have not been replaced as yet. Parish Council to write directly to Tony Buckingham. The delay in the bus service recently had been caused by roadworks in Ipswich and more locally.					EW EW
5.	Points from the public – A chance for the public to raise matters of interest relevant to Charsfield
	Could a SpeedWatch notice be put near to Meadow View at the end of The Street.					Clerk
6.	Reports
6.1	County Council No report was received.
6.2	District Council No report was received.
6.4	Recreation Ground No report was received.
7.	HIGHWAYS
7.1	SAVID, SpeedWatch and B1078 Calming Update
	Martin Lyne sent a report which is attached to the minutes. It was asked if a roundel could be placed on the road at the top of Church Road coming from Hoo in towards the school. Highways to be written to. The Parish Council have now been asked to pay the invoice for £2,360 sent in July 2015 for the work of roundels and gates at each end of the B1078 in Charsfield. AECOM Report for B1078 – sent to the Parish Council by Martin Lyne It was felt the part of the report with deals with Charsfield is the worst reported section in the report with insufficient data and does not do justice to the problems. There are no photographs of the junction as in other areas of the report. It was suggested the PC write to the County Council including photographs to test the accuracy of the report. Vegetation has not been cut back reducing visibility to part of the road which is also a bus route. It was felt Charsfield has been poorly served by the report. Councillor Hedger is to draft a letter and attach some photographs which will be sent to the Head of Highways and copied to Councillor Vickery. It was also suggested the PC write to Councillor Vickery to request a change in the speed limit for the stretch of the B1078 which is still designated 60 mph.					EW GH EW
8.	Planning:
	There were no planning applications pending.
9.	Finance 9.1 To authorise payments as listed below:
	Date	Detail	Ref	Power	Amount
	19/07/2016 19/07/2016 19/07/2016 09/08/2016 09/08/2016 20/09/2016 20/09/2016	SALC – Clerk’s Network Day Westerfield Parish Council C Warman – SpeedWatch Signs SALC Internal Audit Anglian Water HMRC – tax P Hembra – July-September	100534 100535 100536 100537 100538 100483 100484	LA 2011 SS 1-8 LGRA 1997 S30 LGRA 1997 S30 LA 2011 SS 1-8 S125 LA 2011 SS 1-8 LA 2011 SS 1-8	£18.00 £75.00 £70.00 £148.80 £48.91 £66.40 £265.10
	9.2 To note receipt of income as listed below: Donation for Defibrillator from Suffolk County Council – £750 It was decided to put £3,000 into reserve for future road work and the notice board. We only have two signatories on the bank accounts – Councillors Winkworth and Pedgrift. It was agreed to increase this and Sarah Owen Williams proposed as the third signatory and all accepted.
10.	Defibrillator Update A grant of £750 has been receive via Councillor Vickery from the County Council. We have still not received the grant of £250 from our District Council. Clerk to write to CADs re the original donation they promised for this. Clerk to check with Community Heartbeat re insurance and electricity supply. The PC will cover the cost of the wiring.					Clerk Clerk
11.	To Discuss Standing Orders and Financial Regulations The Meeting was happy with the drafts submitted by the working group and therefore adopted these.
12.	Overgrown Land An email had been received about overgrown land but the PC felt this was a private matter and an aesthetic problem between the two neighbours.
13.	Correspondence

14.	Date of Next Meetings
	The following are meeting dates for the year 2016/2017 22^nd November 2016 – To discuss budget 17^th January 2017 21^st March 2017

REPORT FROM MARTIN LYNE – 12 September 2016

REPORT TO CHARSFIELD PARISH COUNCIL – SEPTEMBER 2016

COMMUNITY SPEED WATCH – UPDATE

General. In July of this year a group of volunteers from the village were trained in the use of Community Speed Watch (CSW) equipment. Completion of this training enabled Charsfield to be part of the Suffolk Police CSW initiative and also join a group of villages that share the use of CSW equipment on rotation. On average, Charsfield now is allocated two loan periods a month – with each period lasting approximately four calendar days.

CSW is an educational component of a process to try and reduce the prevalence of speeding in the 30mph zones of the village to:
Reduce the likelihood of a serious or fatal road accident in the parish.
Make our village roads safer and more accessible for all road users – in particular pedestrians and cyclists.
Reduce the noise and environmental pollution associated with speeding traffic and thus improve health and quality of life for parishioners.

Activity. At the time of writing, Charsfield CSW group has completed three deployments, with a fourth currently in progress. Patrols have been conducted from all five police approved sites within the village (a map showing these approved locations is attached at Annex A) and operated at various times between 06.00 and 20.00hrs. In planning the times for patrols, particular attention has been given to known ‘peak’ traffic flows through the village where police data shows that the most significant and persistent speeding occurs.

Outcomes. From the three CSW patrols completed in Charsfield, the following outcomes should be noted:
The details of 253 vehicles have been sent to the Suffolk Police.
Initial Warning Letters were sent out by the Suffolk Police to 157 (62%) vehicle keepers.

Four registered keepers were sent second Warning Letters.

Two registered keepers were recorded speeding in the village on a third occasion and these both received a warning visit to their home address from the Police Safer Neighbourhood Team (SNT).

23 (9%) were found to have data errors recorded (wrong details etc.) and the Police could therefore take no action. 73 (28%) were recorded as being company lease or hire vehicles. For this group there is no named individual keeper held by the DVLA, so the police only pursue when enforcement action is required (i.e. recorded speeding by a road side Safety Camera or police Traffic patrol).

Enforcement Action. The Suffolk Police conducted further traffic speed data collection exercise in the village in July of this year. The data provided further evidence of the extent and scale of speeding in Charsfield. As a consequence, a mobile Police Safety Camera Enforcement team will be deploying (unannounced) to Charsfield twice a month for the foreseeable future. It should be noted that this team use a road side camera to take photographs of speeding vehicles (and their drivers) and use this as evidence for prosecution – resulting in fixed penalty fines, attendance at Speed Awareness courses or Penalty Points added to driving licences. In more severe instances of recorded excessive speed, drivers will be pursued through the Courts and, if found guilty, fines can be significant and driving bans imposed

Planned Next Steps. As a consequence of the Police designating our village as a site that warrants the deployment of the Safety Camera Enforcement Team I am pursuing the following two actions:

SatNav Warning Notifications. I am seeking to get the providers of UK SatNav technology (e.g. Tom Tom, Garmin etc). to automatically display warnings on SatNav devices advising drivers that, as they enter Charsfield, they are driving through an area where the police periodically deploy mobile speed cameras. These automatic alerts may help remind drivers of the need to comply with displayed speed limits.
Safety Camera Signage. I am liaising with the police as to the process for getting Safety Camera Signs erected in our village. There appears to be some confusion between Highways and the Police as to who holds responsibility for doing this, but I will establish the situation and advise in due course.
Summary. The Parish Council should note that we have successfully launched CSW in Charsfield, with a significant number of patrols conducted in the first two months of operation and a large and growing volunteer base to support the initiative going forward. The data collected from CSW patrols has added to and made current the evidence base as to the extent of the speeding problem in the village. In turn this has helped further focus attention on the vital need for enforcement action and we now have a firm commitment from the police to actively target speeding drivers in the 30mph zones of our village. The police are actively supporting our CSW work by acting on the information CSW provides to them. Drivers who speed through our village are gradually, but surely, finding out that there are consequences to them personally of driving too fast through Charsfield. Habits will change as a result – but for the determined fool, there will always be the option to challenge Highway Law in the Courts and now, more than ever before, there is a very real prospect they will get that opportunity.

Tackling the speeding problem in Charsfield is a process, not an event. CSW is proving to be an important part of this process and I am most pleased that we have been able set up an effective scheme in our village. I thank the Parish Council for their support and encouragement.

Point of Contact. The Point of Contact for any query in relation to this note is the undersigned.

Martin Lyne

Orchard Cottage

Mobile: 07954 341972

HeHHhhhh