PC Minutes – Monday 27th November 2017
MINUTES OF THE PARISH COUNCIL HELD ON MONDAY 27TH NOVEMBER 2017 AT 8 PM IN THE PAVILION
Present: Mr Dalton, Mr Dinsdale, Mr Handley, Mrs Glasse, Ms O’Callaghan, Dr Sinnett-Smith, Mr Watterson, Mr Parmar, Mrs Mallows and in the Chair, Mr Prince.
There were no Apologies for Absence received.
Open Forum for Public Participation (10 minutes)
To approve minutes of 16th October 2017.
Paragraph 7: Mr Parmar requested his name be spelt in full for purposes of the minutes
Paragraph 15: “not in attendance” as opposed to “no in attendance”.
Declarations of Interest. Mrs Glasse expressed an interested in Item 8.
Presentation by Cambridge Water re Wimpole Road Water Main Renewal
Nathan Harper from Cambridge Water attended the meeting to inform the village of the upcoming renewal of the water main in Wimpole Road. They will be renewing the 8” trunk main, which is the main feed into the Village as well as the 3” service main which feeds the properties as the same time. The pipes will be offset and laid on top of each other.
The work will take place the length of Wimpole Road and will begin soon as Christmas with the Highway Section first, working from the top towards Cam Spice 40-50 metres at a time. After that, weather permitting, they will move into the field and up to the reservoir.
Early December residents of Wimpole Road will receive a booklet from Cambridge Water outlining the works. There will also be a customer information vehicle positioned in village beforehand and a media vehicle telephone number will be available.
The work is due to start on the 8th January with the sub-contractor partner, Onsite Ltd, taking 12-16 weeks to complete. Work will take place from 8 am – 5 pm. The new pipe will be laid offline, then pressure testing and water sampling will take place with the switch over carried out during night hours.
The Clerk will liaise with Mr Harper re where to position the information vehicle.
Matters Arising & Clerks Update
- Purchase of Arnold Baker – This has now been received.
- S106 Update – The Clerk informed the meeting that S106 monies can be used towards architects fees and planning for the new pavilion.
- Auditor Notification – PKF Littlejohn will be the auditor for 201/2019. The main change being the return can be completed on line.
- Update on Village Questionnaire – Dr Sinnett-Smith, Mrs Mallows and the Clerk and working on the questionnaire, it would be helpful to have results by the 2nd Feb Village Hall meeting.
- Footpath 15 – The Clerk has dealt with the matter via SCDC.
- Winter Health Packs – It was agreed we did not require any Health Packs.
- 2018 Meeting Dates – The Clerk will circulate the final version.
Acceptance of Office: New Councillor
Mr Parmar signed his Declaration of Acceptance of Office and took his place as a Councillor.
Acceptance of Councillors to the Recreation Ground Committee
Mr Parmar and Mrs Mallows volunteered and unanimously voted onto the Recreation Ground Committee, alongside Mrs Glasse as the 3 Parish Councillors on the Committee.
Request to establish a committee to advise the Parish Council about the proposed new Village Hall
Cllr Dalton had requested item on the agenda. However after discussion it was RESOLVED that we did not currently require a separate Committee and this would be revisited after the questionnaire results were available.
The Clerk will send information on Village Hall and the Rec Committee constitution to Mr Parmar.
Connections Bus
The Clerk will email the Connections Bus asking exactly what day and time slots are available. We will also publish the times of the bus online in case young people are unaware. The Clerk will contact Harlton and Haslingfield regarding their experience with the bus and also Kingston to see if we can recruit any young people from there. A report will be given at the 11th December meeting.
Budget and Precept
The Councillors will let the Clerk know if there is anything further to be included in the Budget and Precept by 11th December.
The Clerk will contact Mr Blatch, Mr Wilkinson and Mr Patmore for a quote on the Village Pump
Planning
S/3956/17/LB: 17 Wimpole Road, Great Eversden, Cambridge, CB23 1HR
Move location of bathroom, remove existing sanitaryware and install inclusive ground floor wc
Following discuss it was RESOLVED to unanimously OBJECT to the plans as they are not consistent with the approval.
Finance: The payment below to Tailcorn was authorised.
Tailcorn £250.00 LG 1972 s.142
Correspondence – No further correspondence other than circulated received.
Report from County and District Councillors
Cllr Joseph was not in attendance at the meeting.
Cllr Cattermole gave the following report.
SCD Council meeting on 23rd November
Local Plan
Leader of the council apologised for misleading PC’s and constituents. He had announced in a press release and media appearances that the inspector had no major concerns. This was not the case and the inspector insisted that a letter be put on the South Cambs website. He did not apologise to the Inspector but got officers to do so even though the communications were sent out by him.
There will be a consultation on the changes recommended by the Inspector starting in late November or early December, going into the New Year. Once that is complete, the Inspector will sign off the plan and we will once again have a full set of local policies to base planning decisions on. When this will be finalised is currently unclear.
In the meantime, there is huge uncertainty about which policies apply to current applications and speculative applications are rife.
The draft South Cambs Local Plan was submitted for inspection in March 2014, over three years and eight months ago. This makes it the longest running local plan process ever.
Planning continues to be a real issue for many residents. Most recently an Appeal for a live/work unit at the old GPO building in Arrington was granted – an appeal made because the District Council had failed to determine the application within the time permitted. This is happening more and more. In the financial year16/17 South Cambs spent £250,000 on appeals. This year we are heading to double that figure and there are several very long appeals yet to come. At the same time all the speculative applications – nearly all outline – will start lodging the very detailed reserved matters applications and the Planning Department will struggle.
Local Democracy
A motion was put forward that Portfolio holders should hold at least three meetings a year. Currently three do not hold any meetings. This does not allow for any scrutiny of decision making and raises the question about what the PH is actually doing. The motion was amended from three meetings a year to ‘as appropriate’ though if no meetings were held then a report would need to be made to full Council.
This comes at a time when the County Council has introduced 5 new Area Champion roles. One for each District. These are Councillors paid an extra £5,000 per year to champion their area. The South Cambs representative is Lina Joseph.
Community Chest
Community Chest applications may be made for grants of up to £1,000. These grants are for voluntary and community groups, charities and parish councils for improvements to community facilities, repairs to historic buildings, and hedge planting schemes, equipment and materials and project start-up costs. Grant applications are accepted at any time, until the funding runs out, and can completely or partially cover the costs of a project, equipment or work. Decisions about which projects are awarded funding are made every month. For application forms and full details about the fund, plus guidance on eligibility, visit www.scambs.gov.uk/communitychest
Greater Cambridge Partnership
At the GCP Executive meeting on 22nd November, there are two recommendations on the agenda. One is to undertake a business case into the development of a new P&R to the NW of J11 of the M11 (Hauxton). The other is top drop the idea of a P&C facility at Barton.
Consultation started on 13th November on the Cambourne to Cambridge bus route.
Next Meetings: Planning and Full Parish Council, Monday 11th December 2017
The Chair closed the meeting at 21:45 pm.
