Unconfirmed Full Parish Council Meeting: Monday 10th April 2017

FULL PARISH COUNCIL MEETING ON MONDAY 10th APRIL 2017 AT 8 PM IN THE PAVILION

Present:, Mr Clive Dalton, Mrs Sue Glasse, Ms Kieran O’Callaghan, Mr Steve Dinsdale, Dr Sinnett-Smith, Dr Russell and, in the Chair, Mrs Carol Handley.

1. Apologies for Absence were received from Matt Prince due to illness. No apologies received from Ms Alexander.

2. Open Forum for Public Participation (10 minutes). There were no items from the public gallery.

3. The minutes of Monday 20th February 2017 were approved as a true and accurate record.

4. Declarations of Interest: Mrs Glasse declared an interest in Item 9.

5. Matters Arising & Clerks Update
a. Emergency Planning
Dr Sinnett-Smith will circulate for final telephone numbers to be added. The short form can be published in Tailcorn. Mrs Handley expressed thanks and gratitude to Dr Sinnett-Smith on behalf of the Parish Council for taking forward and completing the Emergency Plan

b. WEEE Recycling
Unfortunately Wiser Recycling is unable to arrange a collection for 12/18 months due to the fire damage at their St Ives plant. The Clerk will source another WEEE Recycling company.

c. Village Hall Request for Storage – Update
Mr Dalton will discuss the request for storage with the Village Hall Committee and report back.

d. Litter Picking Update
Mrs Handley reported that Mr Prince and herself attended from the Parish Council along with another 8 volunteers. The Clerk will inform the next meeting of the number of bags collected.

e. Pothole Update
Due to large number of reports on the County website, Highways had written to the Clerk requesting a meeting to look at all areas of the Village. It was RESOLVED that Mr Dinsdale would research other problem areas further and arrange a meeting with Evan Laughlin, Highways Officer in the near future. The Clerk will email in the meantime with a holding reply.

6. Approval of Annual Governance Statement
The Clerk read the Annual Governnance Statements 2016/2017 to the Parish Council. The Council RESOLVED to approve the Accounting Statements as being carried out correctly and were signed by Mrs Handley.

7. Parish Council donations or grants to churches
In terms of donating or making grants to churches there is nothing in the legislation for parish councils that allows them to make grants or donations for the improvement of church property or infrastructure whether for religious, recreational or social purposes. The Clerk wanted to ensure that monies being paid to Eversden Churches was being used solely for the churchyards. Both Mr Nicholson and Rev. Fraser, in the public gallery, assured the Parish Council this was the case. It was RESOLVED that the accounts would accompany the payment as these showed the £1200.00 separately and the spending incurred.

8. Response to Dualling of the A428 Consultation
Following discussion it was RESOLVED that the Clerk would complete the questionnaire on behalf of the Council. The Council preferred the plan to improve the present route (orange) to making new roads across unspoiled countryside. They had no views on the Black Cat roundabout.

9. Recreation Ground/Pavilion Update
Mrs Glasse informed the Council that Derek Blatch and Peter Mallows had met with the Planning Officer at SCDC and a number of issues were being discussed.

The Recreation Ground are holding an open afternoon on Sunday 23rd April from 2:30 pm – 4:00 pm in the Pavilion for villagers to come and look at the plans and comment. Refreshments will be available.

Mrs Glasse also reported that Cam Spice are now using the Cricket Pitch this season and there will be a Quiz Night on 21st April.

It was discussed that before plans could be finalised the Village Hall Committee, Recreation Ground and Parish Council needs to discuss the way forward with regards to the new Pavilion and the Village Hall. This should be arranged in May, if possible.

Ms O’Callaghan arrived 8:45 pm.

10. Cleaning of Village Signs
At the Little Eversden Parish Meeting, Barbara Sach informed the meeting that David Sutton, Window Cleaner and regular cleaner of the public telephone box, was prepared to clean the Village signs in the same way as he had recently cleaned the main Eversden/Harlton sign on the A603. He would be paid for the work and could then, if he wished, donate the money towards the new Pavilion Fund

Following discussion it was RESOLVED that the Clerk would make a list of the signs requiring cleaning, Mr Sutton would then be asked for a quotation and his remittance would be paid directly to him.

11. Correspondence
Three requests for payment had been received since the agenda had been posted, these were approved as follows:

Connections Bus £2525.00 LGA 1972 s.19 Approved Mr Dinsdale, seconded Ms O’Callaghan
Zurich (Insurance) £1629.86 LGA 1972 s.111 Approved Mr Dalton, seconded Mrs Handley
CAPALC Affiliation Fees £264.12 LGA 1972 s.142(i) Approved Dr Sinnett-Smith, seconded Dr Russell

12. Report from County and District Councillors

Doug Cattermole – District Councillor
SCDC Meeting
Meeting on 29th March was cancelled. The main item of business was the appointment of a new CEO and the candidate withdrew. A second candidate has now been lined up and a further meeting to approve has been scheduled on 13th April.

Local Plan
The Inspector has asked the Council to review all local green spaces in the draft plan as they don’t think the correct criteria have been applied.

Combined Authority
First meeting on the new Combined Authority on 20th March. This is the new body operating under the mayor and is made up of representatives of the local authorities and the Local Enterprise Partnership. The representative for South Cambridgeshire is Peter Topping, the Council Leader. Portfolio holders were appointed for Public Service Reform, Economic Growth, Communities, Skills & Training, Fiscal, Transport & Infrastructure and Housing. Recruitment is on-going for a Chief Executive at a salary of £150,000.

Housing strategy is to build 100,000 new homes by 2037 with 40,000 of these to be affordable. There is a £100m Housing Capital Fund to deliver over 2,000 affordable homes and a separate £70m fund for housing for Cambridge. Lead Partner for housing will be SCDC. Transport funding will flow through the new Combined Authority.

Greater Cambridgeshire City Deal
The City Deal board met on 1st March and decided on a variety of matters including:

• Investment is being put into electric charging points for taxis in Cambridge.
• Development of 12 greenways (cycle routes) was agreed with funding of £480k in 2017-2019. This is for feasibility and approvals. Funding for implementation is targeted for 2020-2024.
• Feasibility work will start on the South Cambridgeshire Travel Hubs – £100k in 2017/18
Sebastian Kindersley – County Council
Unfortunately Cllr Kindersley was unable to be with us for his last meeting. Mrs Handley made the following statement on behalf of the Parish Council:

There is for us one very unfortunate result of the coming boundary changes. The Eversdens will no longer be attached to Gamlingay and this means that Sebastian Kindersley will no longer be our County Councillor.

We shall miss him greatly. He has been a most regular attender and has kept up fully informed about all the matters that might concern us, and he has given us excellent advice whenever we needed it.

Not only has he done all this, but he has done it in the most captivating manner. He is succinct, elegant and witty and I think we have enjoyed his manner of speaking almost as much as we have valued his wisdom.

So I would like to say a very big “Thank you”, to you, Sebastian, from all the members of the Eversdens Parish Council and our very best wishes for all your future enterprises. You will always be welcome here.

13. Next Meetings
Planning, if required on 24th April; 22nd May and 5th June. The Annual Parish Meeting will take place on Monday 8th May 2017 and the next Full Parish Council is 19th June 2017.

The meeting closed at 9.23 pm.