CHARSFIELD PARISH COUNCIL

 

Minutes of Meeting Held on Tuesday, 19th July 2016

 

Present:          Councillors Winkworth (Chair), Pedgrift, Owen Williams, Newman, Pam Hembra (Parish Clerk)

           

            Attendees:     

 

     
     
    Action
1. Apologies and Approval of Absence  
  Councillors Hedger, Murray and Moor

 

 
2. Declarations of Interest  
  None

 

 
3. Approval of Minutes of the Meeting held on 10th May 2016  
  Minutes were approved and signed by Councillor Winkworth.

 

 
4. Progress Reports for Information or Matters Arising on Minutes of 10th May 2016  
   

Item 4.2           Purchase of Telephone Kiosk  The Clerk has been in contact with both BT and SCDC.  There have been no telephone calls made from the Telephone Kiosk for the past 12 months.  We therefore have to start the 90 day consultation period again.

 

Item 4.3           The Queen’s Birthday Celebrations took place and were well received and considered a success.

 

Item 17            Laptop – This has been purchased and Steve Moor has been setting it up.  He has encountered a few problems and he may therefore charge us for some of the hours he has spent on it.

 

 

 

 

 

Clerk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 
  The vision is being obscured by the hedge on the turning on to the B1078 from Church Street. Clerk to write to owner and ask if they can cut that section.

 

There have been further complaints about the hedge along the south side of The Street, this is becoming even more dangerous, especially for pedestrians and around the bus stop.  The Clerk will write again to Highways.

 

Several residents have complained about missing or broken road signs.  Reports for signage needs to be sent to SCDC website.

 

The 12.29 bus service on Monday was nearly an hour late and the same thing happened on Tuesday.  Councillor Pedgrift has written and is awaiting a reply.

 

Clerk

 

 

 

Clerk

6. Reports

 

 
6.1 County Council

Elections have taken place for a new County Councillor and Robin Vickery was duly elected.  An agenda has been sent to him but no reply had been received.

 

 
6.2 District Council

No report was received.

 

The PCC understand there is a generic report written for District Councillors and wondered if Mark Amoss could send this periodically.

 

There had been a previous request for information on what Basic Allowance District Councillors receive.  This is £5,693.24 for councillors without special responsibilities.  The attendance allowance for meetings was deleted this year.

 

 

 

 

6.4 Recreation Ground

Charsfest this year was considered the best ever.

 

 
7. HIGHWAYS

 

 
7.1 SAVID, SpeedWatch and B1078 Calming Update  
  Martin Lyne sent the following report:

 

1. After approval by the Parish Council in March of 2015 to a works proposal by Suffolk Highways to install ‘gates’ and 30 mph painted roundels on the B1078 running through the parish, the project was completed in the first week of July 2016.  The impact of this work on reducing excessive speeding along this residential stretch of the Ipswich Road can only be assessed by conducting an unmanned traffic survey and comparing the data with that we already have from a similar survey carried out in March 2015.  A request has been made to the police to install this monitoring equipment and the Parish Council will be updated as soon as information is available as to the date this will be deployed.

 

2. We have now completed formal Community Speed Watch Training for over 15 volunteers.  The first CSW deployment in Charsfield will take place from a number of approved locations, at various times, over the period 21-24 July 2016.  The next CSW deployment will take place between 6-9th August and again from 22-25th August inclusive.  More volunteers are always needed – so if there is anyone who would like to be trained and be part of the Charsfield ‘team’, please pass them my contact details directly.

 

3. Since meeting Dr Dan Poulter in February this year, I am still waiting for a formal response via him from SCC as to the reason why the works in our village were so delayed in completion.  In addition, I am still waiting for information from SCC as to how they intend to respond to the independent review (carried out by external consultants (Exec Summary available on request) and provided to SCC in early April of 2016.  If our new County Councillor is at the Parish Council meeting, I would recommend that he is asked to look into this matter – and specifically identify to the Parish Council how and when the SCC Road Safety Strategy will give operational instructions to Highways to implement the clear recommendations made in the report that refer to and/or impact Charsfield.

 

4. Funding for CSW – The Parish Council has been asked to pay 50p per household in Charsfield for the use of the equipment.

 

5. Chris Warman has – at his own expense – had some CSW signs made for the village.  These have been smartly positioned on the new ‘gates’ into the village on the B1078 and we have a number of others to put up around the parish on 30 mph roads.  He took steps to have this signage made as the central CSW management working with the Police failed to deliver on our request for these items after three months of asking.  Quite why getting things like this made was beyond the capability of the CSW Management Team is quite extraordinary – but having these up now is all part of the wider plan to raise awareness of the CSW initiative and give fair warning to motorists who insist on speeding in our village that there is an increasing possibility that they will get caught.  Mr Warman is ‘out of pocket’ personally – and though he and others are willing to share the cost, would the Parish Council consider part or full reimbursement?  The total cost was around £70.  This action was proposed by Councillor Pedgrift and seconded by Councillor Owen Williams and agreed by all.

 

6. In summary, we have made some tangible progress since the last Parish Council meeting.  We now are starting to see some physical changes to the road environment and CSW will help to raise the profile of speed awareness in the village.  It is essential however, that pressure is relentlessly maintained on the Police and Highways to continuously support speed reduction and enforcement in our village. This is just the end of the beginning…..

 

The Parish Council would like to thank Martin Lyne and his team for all his efforts and organisation skills in getting this “off” the ground.

 

The Parish Council will write to Suffolk County Council Highways Department to find out when the recommendation in the Executive Summary will be carried out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Clerk

8. Planning:

 

 
  There were no planning applications pending.

 

 
9. Finance

 

9.1        To authorise payments as listed below:

9.2

           

 

  Date Detail Ref Power Amount  
30/06/2016

30/06/2016

30/06/2016

30/06/2016

30/06/2016

07/07/2016

19/07/2016

19/07/2016

19/07/2016

The Three Horseshoes Queen’s B/d

Mrs F Moor – Queen’s Birthday

HM Revenues & Customs

P Hembra – Salary and mileage

Mrs J Pedgrift – Queen’s B/d

John Lewis – Laptop & Office 365

SALC – Training

Westerfield Parish Council

C Warman

100528

100529

100530

100531

100532

100533

100534

100535

100536

S137

S137

LA 2011 SS 1-8

LA 2011 SS 1-8

S137

LA 1972 S111

LA 2011 SS 1-8

LGRA 1997 S30

RTRA 1984 S72

£150.00

£35.00

£66.20

£299.05

£64.95

£339.90

£18.00

£75.00

£70.00

   

9.3        To note receipt of income as listed below:

 

First Precept Instalment 2016/2017 – £2,107.65

 

 
10. Defibrillator Update

Mark Amoss had sent us a part completed application form for funding for £250 which we have completed and returned.

 

We have also applied to Robin Vickery our new County Councillor for funding.

 

 
11. To Discuss Comments from Internal Audit Year Ended 31st March 2016

 

The Clerk had previously emailed the Internal Audit Report for Councillors to look at and comment on.  It was decided to have a Sub Committee to go through the Standing Orders and Financial Regulations to present to the next Parish Council meeting as these needed to be updated.

 

 
12. Update from Clerks’ Networking Day

 

–        This year’s internal audit was a lot stricter than normal because of the changes taking place next year,

–        SALC have started a service to provide temporary clerk services for local parish councils

–        Neighbourhood Plans – it seems local councils will not be taking any notice of new ones, the emerging SCDC Plan will supersede all previous NPs.

–        SALC can help with ideas, examples, cases of Neighbourhood Development Orders for specific sites if helpful.

–        Funding is available for moving Category 1 Paths.

 
13. Correspondence  
   
14. Date of Next Meetings  
  The following are meeting dates for the year 2016/2017

 

20th September 2016

22nd November 2016

17th January 2017

21st March 2017