CHARSFIELD PARISH COUNCIL

 Minutes of Meeting Held on Tuesday, 23rd September 2015

 

Present:          Councillors E Winkworth, J Newman, G Hedger  F Moor, D Murray, S Owen Williams

Attendees:      11 Members of the Public

 

     
     
    Action
1. Apologies for Absence  
  Cllr Jan Pedgrift

 

 
2. Declarations of Interest  
   
3. Welcome to New Clerk  
     
4. Proposal for Housing Development behind Springfield House, Chapel Lane, Charsfield by Beanland Associates  
  A proposal has been sent to the Parish Council for four houses to be erected behind the two houses already being built in Chapel Lane.   Mr Beanland, the architect, who was present at the meeting, said the owner of the property had previously submitted a planning application on this site and it had been refused in February 2015. His client was told by Suffolk Coastal that in the future they might look favourably on two affordable houses. However, the reasons for the previous application in February 2015 being refused are still applicable to this new proposal. It was also pointed out that the Building Inspector’s decision for refusal of a previous application on an adjacent site was still pertinent to this site and this new proposal. Permission has already been granted for 20 houses in the village of which 6 would be affordable or rented houses. It was pointed out that Housing Associations do not usually want to take on two houses in isolation – the management costs being prohibitive.

 

Concern was expressed regarding the two houses where planning permission was granted and are currently being built on the Springfield House site, that no drainage has been considered. Rainwater run-off from the site is potentially causing an increase in flooding in an area already prone to such problems. There appears to be no channel for the water to flow or trees being planted. The Parish Council was asked to contact SCDC to find out why.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PC

5. Points from the public – A chance for the public to raise matters of interest relevant to Charsfield

 

 
   
6. Approval of Minutes of the Meeting held on 28th July 2015  
  These were signed by the Chair.

 

 
7. Matters Arising  
  Re Item 3 the cost of moving the 30 mph signs at the entrance to the village is likely to be in the region of £6,000.

 

The broken drain in Item 3 needs to be followed up.

 

Nothing more has been heard re roundels and gates and Tony Buckingham is unfortunately now on sick leave.

 

Item 10.1 – Insurance – £153.31 – see later.

 

Item 10.2 – the bill for business rates for the Village Hall has now been reduced to £0.

 

Item 13.1 – a letter has been delivered to the first four homes on each side of the St Peter’s Close. No feedback has been received.

 

Item 14 – all students who were originally refused school transport to Thomas Mills have now been allowed this. This situation needs to be resolved for the future of any pupil wishing to attend Thomas Mills School.

 

 

 

 

PC

8. Reports

 

 
8.1 County Council  
  The chair has contacted Councillor Burroughes to ask if he could pass on any information whilst Peter Bellfield is ill.

 

 

 

8.2 District Council  
  No contact has been received at all despite contact from the Parish Council.

 

 
8.3 Police  
  No police report has been received.

 

 
8.4 Recreation Ground  
  No report

 

 
9. Speeding

 

 
9.1 SAVID Update  
  No information has been received from Martin Lyne.

 

 
9.2 SpeedWatch Update  
  Nothing has been heard since the meeting.

 

 
9.3 B1078 Calming Update  
  This is on-going – the plans are with Keir. We have received a bill for £2,360 but this has not been paid.   Cllr Moor suggested we pay this so we will be on much firmer ground and can ask for information.

 

Cllr Winkworth had spoken to the County Council who informed him Tony Buckingham had produced the invoice at Easter time but asked for it to be sent out at a later date, it was subsequently sent in June. When Cllr Winkworth said he was delaying paying this because no work had started the Council had been quite understanding.   It was decided to continue to withhold payment unless a reminder was sent.

 

We need to write another letter to Mr Chenery at Highways (asking what their complaints procedure is) in the hope a complaint would help to find out what is happening.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PC

10. Planning: Kings Farm planning application  DC/15/3423/LBC  
  Kings Farm is a listed building. The roof of the house is spreading and the application is for a new roof design. Part of the roof was originally flat and was subsequently tiled and the weight of these is making the roof spread. The Parish Council have no problem with this application. Cllr Winkworth will respond to the Council.

 

 

 

 

PC

11. Finance

Invoices paid since last meeting:

 
             

0/07/2015        – Anglia Water £40.19 – 100479

02/09/2015      – Suffolk Coastal Uncontested Election £100 – 100480

 

The Parish Council insurance of £153.31 is to be paid. The insurance is through Community Action Suffolk (underwritten by Zurich). This needs to be paid straight away.

 

It was asked if the Parish Council should purchase a separate hard drive to store the minutes and other Parish Council letters and documents as it would be easier to pass this over in the event of changes in Clerk to the Parish Council. JN to look into this.

 

The BDO telephoned Cllr Winkworth to ask where the accounts where.   These were eventually received from the previous clerk who said they had been held up at the auditors. Cllr Winkworth had also sent the BDO the current bank statements. The BDO pointed out the expenses were higher than previous years. The Chair explained for the year 2012/2013 the clerk had not charged for his services. The next clerk felt there was a need for three hours per week so when the last Clerk took over for 2014/2015 the expenses were higher. Cllr Winkworth is to ask the BDO for copies of what had been sent to them as we have not received these back from the last clerk.

 

A letter needs to be written to Zurich to ask when the next Village Hall insurance is due as we do not have a copy of this policy.

 

The police have suggested to EW we write a recorded delivery letter to Sally to ask for all the relevant paperwork back.

 

 

 

 

 

PC

 

 

 

 

JN

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PC

 

 

 

PC

 

 

 

EW

12. Defibrillator  
  A fund is to be started (Charsfield Defibrillator Fund) to raise money to purchase a defibrillator. A separate bank account is not needed for this.

 

JN
13. Public Telephone Box  
  It was reported a survey had been undertaken in the village to determine whether people wanted to keep the telephone box. Cllr Pedgrift had previously contacted BT who were quite happy for us to adopt it, but the SCDC Planning Authority said the Village wanted to keep the telephone. Cllr Pedgrift is to be asked to write a letter to SCDC Planning Authority to ask what the current situation was, the telephone is not used much but the PC would like to adopt it and buy the telephone box for £1.

 

 

 

 

 

JP

14. Correspondence  
  Mr C Kindred has asked the Parish Council to look into two trees at South View. Someone from the council visited some time ago. A lorry recently damaged the tree and some branches are now considered dangerous. Cllr Burroughes to be written to re this to tell him Highways originally came out but nothing was done about it.

 

 

 

 

PC

15. Any Other Business  
  The Risk Assessment has been discussed, this had been asked for last year but the previous Clerk had not done anything about it. Cllr Moor has produced a sample to be sent around to everyone.

 

The Minutes of the meetings should go on the Charsfield Website after they have been approved.   These will be emailed to David Woolf.

 

 

FM

 

 

PJH

16. Date of Next Meeting  
   

24th November 2015 7:30 pm – the Committee Room has been booked.

 

 

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