Great & Little Gidding Parish Council
Parish Council Office, Village Hall, Main Street, Great Gidding,
Huntingdon PE28 5NU Tel 01832 293068 email giddingspc1@btinternet.com
Minutes of the Parish Council meeting held on Tuesday 15th July 2014 at 7.30pm
in the Village Hall
Present
Chair: Andrew Alexander
Councillors: Rachel Giddens, Robin Hayden, Paul Hodson, Chris Howden,
Lydia James, Michael Trolove,
Clerk: Caroline Bradley
C Councillor: Darren Tyscoe (late arrival)
Members of the public: 2
360.14 Chair’s Welcome
361.14 Apologies and reasons for absence
None.
362.14 Member’s declaration of Disclosable Pecuniary Interests
Ref: 368.14 Planning Application 1401066FUL, 87 Main Street.
Cllr Trolove declared his interest, given that this was his property. Chair requested Cllr Trolove leave the room when this item was discussed. It was also recognised that all Cllrs were friendly with Cllr Trolove, however, given the nature of a small PC, it was agreed that all other Cllrs would remain to discuss this planning application and verbally declared that they would not personally gain from the decision made by the PC regarding the planning application.
Ref: 368.14 Planning Application 1401099FUL, 48 Main Street. The PC recognised and discussed the fact that they all had an interest in this item because they were all Trustees of the village hall. A Cllr proposed and another seconded that, again, given the nature of a small PC, all Cllrs would remain and discuss the planning application. This decision was unanimously agreed.
363.14 Public and press participation session with respect to items on the agenda
None.
364.14 To confirm and accept minutes of 17th June 2014
Agenda item 347.14 (also 326.14, 20/5/14) –Cllr Howden should replace Cllr Hodson’s name as seconder.
Agenda item 349.14 – Aaron Murphy is a Police Sergeant at Cambridgeshire and Paul Richardson is a Police Constable at Northamptonshire.
Agenda item 359.14 – “Clerk to write letter advising the owner of the bungalow…”, should read, “A discussion was had suggesting the Clerk write a letter advising the owner of the bungalow… It was unanimously agreed not to go ahead with this, at present. To be reviewed.”
Agenda items were amended and initialled by the Chair.
365.14 Matters arising from minutes (information only)
None that were not already on the agenda to be addressed.
366.14 Clerk’s Report
Clerk informed that she had attended CAPALC training on Friday 11th July which she found informative. She suggested she put together a report and forward to the PC.
Clerk advised that she had arranged a meeting with CATALYST for the coming Thursday to obtain administration rights to the Community Pages of the website, therefore, encouraging more effective communication within the village. She added that she had communicated with the school and was now in receipt of the school newsletters from which she would edit information for use on the website. A discussion then came about regarding whether a member of the Parish Council could sit in on school governance meetings to additionally improve communication between the Parish Council and the school and the Clerk followed that she would investigate this. It was also suggested that the Clerk write and thank the school for parents using the village hall car park and to ask the school to remind parents of the additional parking on the other side of the village hall. Clerk to action.
Following a conversation with one of the Cllrs, the Clerk suggested she contact CGM, the maintainers of the field grass, to obtain a grass cutting schedule to avoid clashes with school use, however, it was decided that the recent clash of use would not be expected to happen again.
Clerk requested clarification regarding communication from the National Grid regarding a field and was advised that the communication was correct. Clerk to respond.
367.14 Correspondence received inc:-
Notification from CCLA (investment management) – Clerk to request Parish Council’s details be removed from their mailing list.
Solar Panels advertisement from Beechdale Energy – Cllr took ownership to pass to the Village Hall and Recreation Ground Charity Committee.
Empowering Parish Councils to sell electricity from Steve Shaw – Clerk to respond that the Parish Council have nothing that creates electricity.
Questionnaire regarding parish views on rural housing – previously emailed to Cllrs, no action to be taken at this time.
Request for donations from EACH charity – Clerk to respond that, the Parish Council would only be donating to their nominated charities, this year.
Local Highway Improvement Scheme – the Parish Council discussed, however, no action was to be taken at this time.
368.14 Planning inc:-
Application 1401099FUL 48 Main Street – NOT APPROVED by either Parish Council or Trustees of the Village Hall and Recreation Ground Charity
Application 1401066FUL 87 Main Street – APPROVED
Application 1401103FUL 83 Chapel End – APPROVED
Clerk to communicate decisions and reasoning back to Huntingdonshire District Council. Reasoning attached.
369.14 Health and Safety matters
None
370.14 Communication from District and County Cllrs
No Cllrs present
371.14 Communication from Parish Councillors and Great Gidding Charity Trustees
Cllr responsible for Trees had nothing new to report.
Cllr responsible for Rights of Way reported that she was continuing correspondence with Simon Bywater re Cambridgeshire County Council bridleway off Winwick Road, who were in the process of levelling it.
Cllr responsible for Highways/Police/Public Transport reported that she had attended the recent Cambridgeshire Future Transport(CFT) meeting, where she was pleased to feedback that comments made in previous meetings had been taken on board and several options were being investigated. A decision was still to be made and Cllr to keep PC informed.
Trustee responsible for the Jubilee Wood reported a need to review the winter maintenance for the Jubilee Wood and Chapel End Pond. Clerk to add this to the next agenda.
Trustee responsible for Allotments reported a concern with tenants not working the plots and causing nuisance seed spreading. Cllr to provide Clerk with details of concerning plots and Clerk to send a polite letter to allotment holders. Agenda item for next meet.
The Trustee responsible for Farm Business Tenancy/Grazing Land had nothing new to report.
372.14 Anglian Water, continued discussion regarding water pressure issues
Clerk reported that following the last meeting, she had emailed Anglian Water on two occasions requesting more specific data regarding this issue. She advised that she had had no communication to date and would continue to chase.
373.14 Gains Lane resurfacing
Clerk informed that she had been communicating with Tony King re this issue and had been reassured that Gains Lane had been scheduled to be ‘made good’ once the build had been completed, however, the PC were keen to know whether this meant the whole of Gains Lane. Clerk to enquire and report back.
At this point District Councillor, Darren Tyscoe, joined the meeting
374.14 Internal Audit report and discussion of action points – report attached
The Chair read through the action points and the PC discussed each, in turn.
Clerk to keep aware of action points as the PC progresses through the year.
PC decided to review the Risk Assessment document and requested Clerk to investigate Declarations of Interest with regards to discussing planning where a Cllr is the property owner and discussing the Village Hall where all Cllrs are also Trustees. Clerk to address and add this to the next agenda.
375.14 Siting of benches on recreation ground
To be reviewed once a discussion with the Village Hall and Recreation Ground Charity Committee had been had. Agenda item for next meet.
376.14 Bank reconciliation and payment of accounts
PC requested the Clerk to identify in the accounts, the income of £79.35, (Recycling – HDC), to be used for the benefit of the village.
Expenditure was agreed and cheques were written and signed by two Cllrs.
Cllr to action setting up a login so that the Clerk may view the accounts, on-line.
PC requested Clerk to provide them with the Financial Regulations for the Village Hall and Recreation Ground Charity Committee. Clerk to action.
377.14 Staffing matters
As requested, the Clerk put together a letter of confirmation which included her date of starting in the position. This was signed by the Chair.
Clerk informed the PC that she had some information regarding pension schemes, however, she suggested she put a report together ready for the next meeting. This was approved.
378.14 Items for the CLARION
SPEEDWATCH and volunteers, feedback from Cambridgeshire Future Transport, Village Show, Connecting Cambridgeshire. Clerk to log items.
(370.14) Due to his late arrival, the PC invited Darren Tyscoe to update them on any relevant issues. Darren offered to send Cllr Trolove a copy of a relevant Tree Policy, to be returned to Darren when finished with. Darren informed that there was a potential new development on Gidding Road, Sawtry, wind turbine consultations re-opened at Hammerton Zoo, Sawtry College had gone into ‘Special Measures’ following an Ofsted Report. The PC asked Darren for help with the Hammerton Road where there is substandard road work – the top layer, ‘peels up’, in hot weather. Darren to investigate.
Meeting closed at 9.35pm
The following items were amended at the Parish Council meeting, 19th August 2014:
Darren Tysoe was referred to, incorrectly, as County (“C”) Councillor and not District
(“D”) Councillor and his name was spelt as “Tyscoe”, incorrectly. The Clerk had also
reported in agenda item 371.14, that the Rights of Way Cllr had been corresponding
with, “Simon Bywater”, when it should have read, “Simeon Carroll”.
Agenda items were amended by hand and initialled by the Chair and the PC unanimously
agreed these to be a true record of events.
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