GREAT AND LITTLE EVERSDEN PARISH COUNCIL
A meeting of the Parish Council was held in the Village Hall on Monday 10th December at 8 pm.
Apologies: Mr Huddleston, Mr White.
Present: Mrs Handley, Mrs Glasse, Ms O’Callaghan, Mrs Pritchard, Mr Tebbit, Mrs Spencer, Mr Dinsdale Cl Kindersley and, in the Chair, Mr Dalton.
Minutes of the meetings of 29th October2012 were approved and signed following two minor alterations.
Matters arising from the Minutes.
1 Road at St Helen’s. The deeds for the land at St Helen’s have been lost and therefore a map is required. The Chairman asked for consent to spend £475 to have a map produced by CJSurveys, the successors to Hurst Land Surveys. This was agreed.
2 Eversden/Comberton Cycle Path Progress. A map had been supplied to Saville’s who had presented it to St John’s College. The answer returned was the College had a policy of not improving footpaths. Mr Dalton and Mrs Handley will pursue with the argument that the cycle path is necessary as a safer route to school for children.
3 Emergency Planning. Mr Dalton advised the meeting that Cambridge Insitu have agreed to be the daytime contact if an Emergency arose.
4. OSP 148 State. This is now awaiting Counsel’s Opinion, likely to take months.
5 Liaison with Harlton re A603. Mr Dinsdale asked whether the Council thought it was appropriate for him to seek professional advice from the Highways Department. It was unanimously agreed that he should. A member of the public reported that there is currently a vehicle count in operation across the road.
Clerk’s Contract
6 It was agreed to that Mr Dalton and Mr White would form a sub-committee to look at the Clerk’s contract in discussion with Mrs Easey.
Training Courses
7 Correspondence had been received from Harlton Parish Council offering training for new councillors. Mrs Pritchard, Ms O’Callaghan, Mr Dinsdale and Mrs Spencer would like to attend. The Clerk will inform Haslingfield Clerk.
Dates for next year
8 The revised list was agreed.
Agenda posting and minutes circulating
9 The Clerk confirmed that
SCDC were happy with the circulation of agendas and minutes via email so long as
they were freely available to the public. It was therefore agreed that agendas
would be circulated to the Parish Council, including the District and County
Councillors, via email, that paper copies of the agenda would be posted on the
four notice boards and that agendas would be posted on the Eversden on-line
Yahoo Group.
Unconfirmed minutes would, as now, be posted on Dave Farnell’s Eversden website.
Paper copies of both to be available at Eversden Church School and at the
Clerk’s.
Bus Subsidy removed
10 This was raised for the Council to think about the possible consequences. Demand Responsive Transport has been a development elsewhere and we were interested in hearing about experiences with it. Mr Dinsdale is to check if there is any information available on line.
Highways
11 The Chairman thanked Mr Dinsdale for the 30 mph warning notices. Mr Dalton asked if the Council should purchase 30 mph bin stickers. The idea was initially favourable but it would be helpful to find out cost. Mrs Easey will investigate.
12 Mr Dinsdale will approach Karen Nunn at Highways regarding the roundabout at the High Street junction.
13 The chairman had put a figure of £4000 into the budget for the 40 to 30 mph project but this was corrected by Mr Kindersley pointing out that the sum was 10% of the total only, about £400. The Minor Highways grant competition is being repeated this year again.
Recreation Ground
14 Mrs Glasse reported that the Recreation Ground had been looking at a Youth Project and were brainstorming ideas for the lower, northern area of the ground. The report also informed the Council that the subsidy for the Connexions bus was being removed in April and unless a sponsor was found, each visit by the bus would cost £240. Therefore the cost for one financial year would be £7,200. The Committee were prepared to fundraise but felt it would not be enough and asked if the Parish Council would be prepared to fund the full amount. It was suggested that as there was goodwill within the Village that donations could be asked for. It was agreed to discuss at the next meeting in more detail. If the PC were to meet the whole cost ,it would add a little over £20.00 per household,to the local rates. Also the cost per visitor to the bus is about £20 per person per visit.
Planning
15 Merry’s Farm was approved by the planning committee. However it was then listed as a development opportunity the following week in the Cambridge News.
Finance
16 The following cheques were agreed.
£2000 Connexions Bus: LG(MP)A 1976 S 19
£475 Map from Hurst Land Surveys Approved: LGA 1972 S 139
£29.64 Cambridge Insitu for copying: LGA 1976 s 133
£113.14 Mayola Music for Handbell Insurance: LGA 1972 S 111
£30 ACRE Renewal of membership: LGA 1972 S 143(1)
A letter had been received correcting street light payment timings.
Budget Items
17 It was agreed that, in general, training would be underwritten. Mrs Pritchard asked whether the Clerk had been offered training. Mrs Easey said that she had been signposted towards training by, amongst others, the Cambridgeshire County Support Officer for new clerks.
18 The mini-roundabout at High Street and Harlton Road would be discussed at the next meeting.
Councillors Report
19 The future of Barrington Quarry once again rears its head. A meeting is being organised by Barrington Parish Council on January 11th to ascertain what, if any,is the local view for the future of the quarry given that CEMEX clearly wish to develop the land for housing. Cl. Kindersley indicated he would campaign hard against even a single house on the site. It is not sustainable in any context whatsoever and if anything is built there it should be for employment. One house potentially opens the floodgates.
20 Cl. Kindersley informed the meeting that he had campaigned against the opening of the traveller site at Mettle Hill in Meldreth and the application had since been withdrawn. However there is a planning meeting next when SCDC are in discussion with landowners with no Parish Council involvement.
21 The grant budget is being reduced from £800,000 to £500,000 as well as by £70k from the Arts Development Managers at the Village Colleges, who drive over £400k of investment into the community every year. Cl Kindersley found this incredibly frustrating as SCDC announced £45k expenditure on new furniture for its meeting chamber at the same time. CAB funding is also to be cut, which again in these difficult times, was frustrating. Cl Kindersley did offer help in the way of self-provision for youth services if the Connexions bus project disappeared. He suggested contacting his colleague, Bridget Smith, for advice.
22 Cl. Kindersley did not think that Cl. Page was aware of the meeting despite an emailed agenda from Mr Dalton. Mrs Easey to send to both Mr Page’s e-mails in future and request a receipt.
23 Correspondence in circulation.
24 Next Meetings Planning 17th December 2012 & 7th January 2013 in the Village Hall at 8:30 pm
Full Parish Council meeting 21st January 2013 at 8:00 pm in Pavilion.