MINUTES OF PARISH COUNCIL MEETING - 9 MARCH 2010


MINUTES
of the Meeting of
CHIRTON PARISH COUNCIL

held in the School on Tuesday 9 March 2010

Present

Councillors Anthony Mather (Chairman), David Baker, Ian McKinnon, Jonathan Oliphant (Clerk), Stephanie Robertson and Sarah Withers. Apologies were received from Stewart Neale, Brigadier Hall, Wiltshire Council and Pewsey Area Board member and PC Robert Barratt our representative from Pewsey NPT. One member of the public attended.

Police Report

PC Richard Barratt had sent in a report on activities in Chirton which had been circulated to all members. The main points were:

  • A couple of antisocial incidents had occurred since the last meeting and those responsible had been spoken to.
  • There had been a general increase in the number of high value thefts, e.g. building materials, fuel oil, machinery and vehicles. He advised everyone to be on their guard.

Minutes of the meeting on 8 December 2009

These minutes having been circulated beforehand were agreed nem con.

Matters Arising

  1. Telephone Box/ Information Centre — This was to be called "Infopoint", and would be a public notice board open to all in Chirton, Conock and surrounding villages. There will be sections on the board for: Items wanted and for sale; Local Events; Lost and Found; Small Business and community ads. Internal alterations were being done by Richard Dunn and the project overseen by Stewart Neale. It would open on Saturday 10th April.
  2. Kissing Gates — Jonathan Oliphant reported that all the nine gates on public footpaths had now been installed. Thanks to grant aid from Pewsey Area Board and Community First and the supply of gates by Wiltshire Council's Rights of Way Department the net cost to the Council was only £115 for Postcrete. All the labour had been supplied by volunteers. The Chairman expressed the appreciation and gratitude of the Council for all the effort that had been put in on this project by the volunteers.

Finance

  1. The clerk said that the balance at the bank on 3 March 2010 stood at £2,584.02.
  2. Draft Accounts for the year ending 31 March 2010 — The Clerk pointed out that £134.44 was still owed by Marden Parish Council for their Kissing Gate. Once this had been received there would be an excess of income over expenditure of just £8.27.
  3. Budget for 2010/11 — The Clerk presented the draft budget and commented that this year we had donated £585 to charities, which was £100 more than we had done before and perhaps we should reconsider some of donations in 2010/11. There followed a discussion as a result of which it was decided to omit Youth Action Wiltshire, reduce CAB from £75 to £50 and give £25 to First Responders. The full budget figures are attached to the minutes. Items b. and c. above were agreed. Proposed, David Baker, Seconded, Stephanie Robertson.
  4. The following payments made since the last meeting were ratified. SEB for electricity to the Telephone Box; Postcrete £118.76; Wiltshire Council £860, both these referred to the Kissing Gate project; Chirton School £60 for meetings; Pewsey Area Partnership £26.60 for 30mph stickers.
  5. Grass Cutting contract for 2010 — The Clerk reported that he had had a quote of £326 from Wiltshire Council for cutting the village hall grass and that the Small Street grass would be incorporated free of charge into their programme for cutting the amenity grass. All this is presently cut by Rod Bridewell for £310 p.a. This quote had been requested in order to give us a yardstick with which to measure our obligations if we were to have the village's grass cutting devolved to us in the future. After some discussion it was decided not to take any action with Wiltshire Council this year. (After-note: Rod Bridewell has been asked to confirm that he will cut the grass again this year on the same terms).

Speed Survey Results

The Clerk reported that as a result of the lobbying of the Pewsey Community Area by Stephanie Robertson traffic surveys were carried out at three places in the village. On the A342, halfway down The Street and at the top end of Patney Road. The data from these three sites showed that while the majority of cars keep within the speed limit the number that would have been prosecuted does not make happy reading. They equate to the following daily figures. A342 - 21; The Street - 14; Patney Road - 15. During the discussion that followed everyone agreed that these figures emphasised that bare statistics could hide the real state of affairs. It was agreed that Stephanie Robertson would continue her excellent efforts to keep our concerns in the forefront of discussions at The Pewsey Area Partnership.

Allotments

The Clerk reported that there had been no new developments either from applicants for allotments or from land being offered. It was decided to put it on the agenda for the Annual Parish Meeting on 13 April.

Report from Pewsey Area Partnership

Stephanie Robertson said that apart from the continuing discussion on speeding issues there was nothing to report.

Chirton School

  • Parking — The Clerk reported that there had been a site meeting on 23 February attended by three parish councillors, Mr Dunn, a school governor, Mr Bollen, the Highways Engineer and Mrs Lloyd-Jones, the head teacher. The Clerk explained that everyone was keen to improve the parking conditions for parents dropping off and collecting children from school. He had made some preliminary investigations into various methods of reinforcing the surface without losing the grass. There appeared to be three options:
  • Install a honeycomb type structure below ground level to the area north of the telephone box, fill with earth and grass over. This could cost about £7,000.
  • As above but restrict it to the area nearest to "The Barracks". This could cost about £3,000.
  • Construct a "staff parking" area inside the gates on the left. Mrs Lloyd-Jones indicated that she was willing to consider this as it would remove up to six staff cars from roadside and she might be able to commit around £3,500 from her school funds.

    • The Highway Engineer was supportive of our plans but said that he would not support an enlargement of the layby. Wiltshire Council Planning Department indicated that they were concerned about any detrimental effect the plans would have on the general appearance of the village's green verges and it was clear that any final plans would need to be discussed with them beforehand. Further discussion in Council considered that the first option was not cost effective bearing in mind that the problems only occurred twice a day during school terms and was most destructive in wet weather. They favoured the second and third options and it was decided that the Clerk should explore Option 2 more fully and also pass their views on to the school regarding staff parking.

  • Future plans for the Village Hall — Although the village hall is not strictly Parish Council business David Baker gave a resumé of the current position because of the bearing it had on future plans for parking at the school. The plan is to sell the present hall and use the money to enhance the facilities in the old school building, which is not used as much now that there is a new classroom on the other site. Progress is hampered by the current financial situation but the Head Teacher is in favour of greater use by the community.

Planning Applications Received

The following applications were considered and no objections were raised against any of them. [JBO]

  • E/10/0189/FUL — 34 The Street
  • E/10/0227/FUL — Pericles Cottage, Conock
  • E/10/0236/FUL — 19 The Street

Correspondence

  1. Post Point — Sarah Withers and Jonathan Oliphant had attended a presentation of this project which was aimed at giving communities a post collection point where other members of the community could drop off their letters and parcels. This basic service could be expanded with the addition of scales, stamps and franking machines, but even the basic setup cost was £500. The recommendation was that it was not worth pursuing and the meeting agreed.
  2. Making tracks — A community First initiative to give people over 16 who were unable to get to work or interviews the ability to obtain the loan of a motor scooter. We have agreed to publicise the scheme in our newsletter and David Baker agreed to hold some leaflets. [DB]
  3. Best Kept Village Competition 2010 — The chairman, who had not been at a previous meeting when it was decided not to enter this year, asked those present to reconsider this decision. He felt that as it did not cost anything and had the effect of encouraging people to smarten up the village we should not decline just because we felt that some of the judges comments were ill-conceived. A discussion followed after which it was agreed to enter and review our decision again next year. [JO]

Dates of next meetings

  • Tuesday 13 April 2010 at 7.00pm. Parish Council Meeting
  • Tuesday 13 April 2010 at 7.30pm. Annual Parish Meeting
  • Tuesday 11 May 2010 at 7.30pm. Annual Parish Council Meeting

There being no further business the meeting closed at 20:45.

The Chairman then asked Mr Conbeer, who was attending as a member of the public, if he wished to raise anything and he declined.

Posted: 27 March 2010