Annual Parish Council Meeting Minutes – Monday 20th May 2019
ANNUAL MEETING OF THE PARISH COUNCIL ON MONDAY 20TH MAY 2019 AT 8 PM IN THE PAVILION.
Present: Mrs Handley; Mr Dinsdale; Mr Oliver, Mrs Glasse, Mrs Mallows, Dr Watterson, Mr Prince, Ms O’Callaghan, Mrs Edwards and, in the Chair, Mr Dalton.
Also in attendance were Cllr Lina Nieto and Cllr Aidan Van de Weyer.
There were no apologies for absence.
- Election of Officers
The first order of business was the election of Chair. Mr Dalton put himself forward to continue as Chair and Mr Prince also expressed an interest. Mr Prince was seconded by Mrs Edwards. The Council were then asked to undertake a secret ballot to elect a chair. The Clerk collected the nominations and announced that by a 6:3 majority with one absention that Mr Prince was the new Chair. Mr Prince took the Chair immediately.
Mr Dinsdale was content to continue as Vice Chair. With no further nominations Mr Dinsdale remains as Vice Chair.
Mrs Easey and Mr Tony Richford continue as Responsible Finance Officer and Internal Auditor respectively.
- Election of Representatives
Nominations were received from Mr Dalton and Mrs Edwards for the Village Hall representative. Again the Council voted via secret ballot and Mrs Edwards was declared the new Village Hall representative by a 6:4 majority.
With no nominations within the Council, it was proposed that Mr Nicholson act as PCC representative as he was in attendance at all full Parish Council and the majority of planning meetings. Mr Nicholson agreed to act as PCC representative and this was proposal was carried unanimously.
Recreation Ground representatives were then sought. The Chair requested 3 members were required, however the Clerk read an email received form the Chair of the Recreation Committee informing the meeting that, according to the Charity Commission, the correct procedure had been followed in changing their constitution therefore only one representative was required. It was agreed that Mrs Glasse would be the Recreation Ground representative. Mr Prince will speak directly to Mr Blatch regarding the constitution.
Mr Blatch was nominated in his absence to continue as Village Sign representative. The Clerk will check that he is content to continue.
Mr Dalton agreed to continue as Footpaths representative.
- The minutes of 8th April 2019 were approved as a true and accurate record.
- Presentation by Mark Deas, Cambridgeshire ACRE on recent housing needs survey
Mr Deas explained that a Housing Needs Survey had just been completed for both Great and Little Eversden at the request of SCDC with regard to OSP148. In the cases of Rural Exception schemes a housing needs survey is required every five years and the latest one was out of date. The survey was in association with the sponsor Accent Nene.
Mr Deas reported the following findings:
- a 35% response which is significantly higher than normal;
- 8 in 10 homes in the Eversdens is owner occupied;
- Little Eversden has a higher proportion of social rent houses that Great;
- 60% of houses in both Villages are over £1/2 million;
- 80% of responses were in favour of affordable housing; 18% against and 2% no opinion;
- The main concerns were infrastructure;
- The survey highlighted a need for 14 homes for people with a current local connection to the Eversdens;
- The current proposal by Accent Nene is 10 houses on OSP148;
- Mr Deas said there were 240 houses in Little and 100 in Great Eversden
The full survey is available from the Clerk.
- Open Forum for Public Participation (10 minutes)
Members of the public were still experiencing problems gaining access to Eversden online. The Clerk will follow up with the administrator.
The Recreation Ground reported that they were having serious issues with rabbits. They are damaging the playing areas with holes and causing a H&S issue. As poisons and gases are unacceptable they have agreed that shooting is the best method.
Members of the public expressed concern about a campervan that was regularly parking overnight next to the Church and leaving sanitary waste. Cllr Van De Weyer was in attendance and the details of the member of the public were passed to him to respond directly.
- There were no declarations of interest.
The order of the agenda was moved around to accommodate both the District and County Councillor’s reports.
- Matters Arising & Clerks Report
- The Clerk had pursued a change in time and day for the Connections Bus, unfortunately nothing else was able to be offered currently. The bus had requested a decision on the Autumn term by 8th Mr Dinsdale proposed that we continue, this was seconded by Mr Prince. It was resolved to unanimously continue with the bus until December 2019.
- Bikeability Training – at the last meeting the Council had agreed a payment of £80 for bikeability training. However on contacting Cambridgeshire County Council to send the payment they had informed the Clerk that it was just to guage expression of interest and payment was no required at this time. The cheque was therefore voided.
- In response to the Council’s last email to the Fossey Trust they have confirmed that the rent will be £10 for the duration of the lease. The Parish Council would need to give 6 months notice to terminate the lease and they would allow direct access from the Recreation Ground on the proviso that this is reinstated on termination of the lease. Taking all of these details into account the Council agreed unanimously to accept the offer. The Clerk will contact the Fossey Trust and accept and move forward with the legalities.
- The Clerk reported that the first £14k of the precept had been paid into the bank account.
- The letter was sent regarding the problem of the dogs and copied to all Council members for information. There was no response received to date.
- The Clerk reported that on 22nd June 2019 there will be a vintage car rally through the village form 10 am onwards towards Kingston.
- Approve Annual Governance Statements for 20198/2019
In line with regulations the Clerk read out the Annual Governance Statements. The Council agreed that all measured had been adhered to and approved the statements.
9.Planning
S/1226/19/FL
Merry’s Farm House. 17 Wimpole Road, Great Eversden, CB23 1HR
Mr Tom Jack
Following discussion it was unanimously RESOLVED to Object to the plans in line with layout and density in line with the Historic Building comments
10. Finance
CVC Swimming Pool £50 PHA 1936 s.221
SCDC Car Park Rental £50 LGA 1972 s.133
CAPALC Affiliation Fee £351.55 LGA 1972 s.142 (i)
This includes a payment to cover GDPR
Clerks Payment & Expenses £545.71 LGA 1972 S.111
11. There was no further correspondence received other than that circulated.
12. Cllr Lina Nieto – County Councillor Report
This month I seconded a motion for putting in place an Environment and Climate Change Strategy. My full speech was sent to all of you and you can find on my Facebook page. We had extinction rebellion in the public gallery which made the meeting very interesting and entertaining. It’s great to see people who care passionately and who express so emotionally their beliefs.
Clean Air in motion: Letter sent to all contractors
Following on from recent concerns raised in the National Press around high levels of vehicle emission pollution which is affecting the health of the public particularly around young people, the council has recognised that it must play its part in trying to reducing this risks where possible. Therefore as a council we wish to ensure that our contracted transport provision is setting the best possible example regarding vehicle’s operating in and around our Schools and Day centre facilities.
We are therefore requesting that when contracted transport vehicles are stationary on or near a School/Day centre site the vehicle engine is SWITCHED OFF, however short any wait may be. This is aimed to reducing emission levels at the point Children/ Service Users are boarding or alighting vehicles.
We thank you for your support in reducing emitted emissions levels around these facilities.
Broadband
Cambridgeshire County Council has announced plans this week to extend the Connecting Cambridgeshire superfast broadband rollout to 5,300 more homes and businesses in harder to reach rural areas of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. The Connecting Cambridgeshire superfast rollout has already reached over 97% of the county and is on track to achieve over 99% coverage in the next two years.
Openreach won a competitive procurement process to deliver the Phase 4 rollout contract and will use the latest Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) technology, capable of speeds of up to 1Gbps (Gigabit per second), which is future proof and more reliable. The work will be funded partly by over £10m gainshare – generated by higher take-up of faster broadband in the early stages of the programme – together with grants from the Government’s Rural Broadband Infrastructure fund and the European Union.
Cambridgeshire libraries could take the national lead
Cambridgeshire is taking a lead role working in partnership with global social enterprise Civic to develop a ‘Cambridgeshire Model’ of future libraries across the county, aligned to our ‘Think Communities’ and Demand Management approach.
The proposed ‘Cambridgeshire Model’ programme offers a unique opportunity for the County Council to help boldly re-imagine and re-design the UK’s 3,000 libraries, piloting it right from the heart of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.
A report will be presented at the Communities and Partnerships Committee on 30 May and will recommend a shortlist of 5-10 libraries across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough where ideas will be designed, tested and refined before being rolled-out to all libraries over the three years of the project.
South Cambridgeshire
South Cambridgeshire District Council has removed the SPORT grant given to young people from across the district who wanted support to pursue a career in sport. Very sad news.
Combined Authority: Agri-Tech Growth Fund
Cambridge-based Xampla, a global leader in the creation of natural plastic alternatives made from plant protein, has been awarded a £60,000 grant by the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority.
The grant, which is part of the Agri-Tech Growth Fund, will aid the development of an entirely new class of biomaterial made from pea protein plants which is organic, clean label, natural, food grade, with no synthetic crosslinking, is biocompatible and biodegradable. Xampla aim to design and manufacture the pea plant protein to supply the food and drink industry.
Xampla has developed an entirely new material, made from plant protein. It’s totally natural, with no synthetic ingredients, biodegradable and biocompatible. Based on ground breaking research at Cambridge, Xampla’s UK based team has developed innovative processes to create products and solutions based on Supramolecular Engineered Protein (SEP). This is really exciting! I am not saying this because I am a vegan…well maybe a bit bias…
Meeting local businesses:
This year I will be going around and visiting more local businesses. I believe we should buy local and support them. Otherwise, local businesses will close down and will be dearly missed. They play a very important role in our communities and it’s a responsibility of all. However, it is also about sustainability. Local businesses are much more sustainable than larger corporations. If you haven’t heard about Cambridge Sustainable Food than please take a look at their website. I am involved with them indirectly and they are fantastic! https://www.cambridgesustainablefood.org/directory/
I met with the owner of COFCO, Duncan, and they do a fabulous job in promoting food sustainability, buying local and being simply green with their electric vans! I buy from them a box of fruit and veg but you can get other things as well from producers across Cambridgeshire. Take a look: www.cofco.co.uk
Local proposals/events:
Strawberries and Cream Festival – Saturday 15th June 2019
Most of my parishes now have defibrillators. If you are in the process, I am sure one of your neighbouring parishes can help with information and advice on what has worked for them.
Local Natural Partnership Board
As you may already know I represent the Council in this outside body. You have over 10 organisations represented and it’s always active, trying to push the natural agenda forward and upwards.
Recently we have been able to launch a new website, please take a look at it. This is a very exciting milestone. www.naturalcambridgeshire.org.uk
Events
Please take a moment to review the diary and contact me if you have any questions in regards to any of the events listed or if you are aware of any other events that are taking place that are not listed.
All events can also be found on our webpage at https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/residents/travel-roads-and-parking/roads-and-pathways/highway-events/
Funding portal
Please do share this link with community groups that wish to find funding pots.
http://www.idoxopen4community.co.uk/supportcambs
Highways
A reminder that you can report road maintenance issues here:
Hedges
If you have an issue with hedges then they would be advised to log their complaint on our website
Roadworks
I had calls from residents regarding roadworks. If you would like to know what is happening in your area you can check in this website. www.roadworks.org
Cllr Aiden Van De Weyer – District Councillor Report
Zero carbon grants fund set up
South Cambs has set up a new Zero Carbon Communities grant scheme to encourage ideas in support of our aim of making the whole district zero carbon by 2050 if not much earlier. The scheme, to be launched later in the summer, will provide funds for local groups to spend on ambitious activities that reduce carbon emissions and reliance on fossil fuels, as well as helping communities spread awareness and promote behaviour change towards low carbon lifestyles.
We will give grants of between £1,000 and £15,000 each for projects such as: energy-saving improvements to community buildings; community energy projects like solar panels, wind turbines and battery storage; community tree planting; cycle paths and stands; projects that tackle fuel poverty; and whatever people can come up with!
A total of just over £90,000 is being made available for the scheme for 2019/20. The money comes from business rates from renewable energy sites in South Cambridgeshire that are retained by the Council and earmarked for use in green initiatives.
South Cambs offers homes to five families of Syrian refugees
South Cambs had now decided to help support up to five refugee families who have come to the UK as part of the government’s Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme, in particular those who require urgent medical treatment or who are survivors of violence and torture.
We will work with an existing resettlement team at Cambridge City Council to ensure families have practical support in place to help them to integrate and thrive in their new homes and communities. The City Council has recently surpassed its target to resettle more than 100 refugees.
South Cambs invests to support council services
Having recently adopted a robust investment strategy, South Cambs has now made it’s first significant property purchase. We have bought an office building on the Science Park (number 140) for £13 million, giving us an initial net return of around 6%. It is in a prime location with a lot of future potential and it has a solid tenant (DisplayLink).
In order to maintain our current level of services in the face of ongoing government cuts, we reckon that we need to be earning about a quarter of our revenue – nearly £5 million – within the next five years.
South Cambs and Combined Authority CEOs
The CEO of South Cambridgeshire District Council has taken early retirement. Mike Hill who was the director responsible for Environmental Services is acting up as interim while a new permanent CEO is recruited – adverts have just gone out. The council is also undertaking a review of all of its operations to make it more efficient and to greatly improve the services it gives to the residents. This is a big piece of work which will take a long time to implement fully but which you should start to see the benefits of quite quickly.
The Combined Authority has also been without a CEO for quite some time and interviews took place earlier this year for a replacement. No appointment was made and instead the interim chief execs, one of whom is also running East Cambridgeshire District Council, have been given the role semi-permanenly. This is far from satisfactory as the CA has a very ambitious number of extremely expensive projects to deliver and it is difficult to see how they can make real progress without first class organisational leadership.
Cambridge Metro
The high profile CAM Metro project which aims to run largely off road using wheeled, tram style vehicles out to the furthest reaches of South Cambridgeshire and beyond (St Neots, Haverhill) has been costed at a staggering £4 billion. Who knows what that cost will be when and if it finally gets built! The really expensive part is the tunnelling under Cambridge City and the creation of an underground station somewhere under the historic city centre. Critical to this is a new Cambridge South Station to serve Addenbrookes and the Bio Medical campus both of which are growing at significant rates and which will have tens of thousands of new employees before long. The CA agreed to spend up to £100,000 to do a feasibility study into whether there is currently capacity in the timetable to create an extra stop at Cambridge South with a view to putting a temporary station there while to finds the money – along with Government – to build a permanent station. This money is in addition to £5 million already spent on the Cambridge South Station project some of which came from businesses in that area.
New developments around Cambridge
In the last few weeks, there have been two really significant announcements about huge new housing and employment areas to the North and East of Cambridge.
Firstly, an application for over £200 million to Government from Cambridge City and the Combined Authority to move the existing sewage/water works from North Cambridge has been successful. Moving this quite smelly facility will free up a significant site for some 7,000 houses. The next big decision is where will the new sewage/water works go. It will be in South Cambs and has to be close to the river and not in the flood plain which greatly restricts the options. The plan is further complicated by the need to process ‘sludge’ from outside our area which involves significant lorry movements.
Secondly, Marshall’s has announced that they will be moving their defence and aeronautics business from Cambridge Airport and putting it in the Local Plan for building 10,000 houses and lots of office space. They had proposed this previously, and it had been included in the last but one Local Plan, but they couldn’t find a suitable site to move to. They are currently looking at Duxford, Wyton or Cranfield as a new home by 2030.
13. Next Meeting: Monday 3rd & 17th June, Planning if required, and Full Parish meeting on Monday 8th July (this meeting has changed from 1st July as the Clerk is away).
The Chair closed the meeting at 9:28 pm.
