|
COMMUNITY TRUST
PARISH COUNCIL
Agendas
& Minutes
Accounts
CHURCHES
LOCAL
GROUPS
|
Minutes
Thursday 16th July 2015
7:15pm in the Craster Memorial Hall
Present
Chair Bryn Owen
Parish Clerk Geoff
Newcombe
Parish Council Members Elizabeth Pearson, Joyce Shaw (left
20:50),
Pauline Baird, Margaret
Brooks, Martin Smith,
Alan Punton, John
Gallon. Michael Craster
Members of the public
In Attendance:
Pam Owen
Cllr Kate Cairns (NCC)
THE MEETING WILL OPEN WITH PUBLIC QUESTIONS
1844. Declaration of interests.
Margaret Brooks declared
an interest in Consultation on Options for the Alnwick Schools
Partnership as Chair of Vincent Edward, Embleton School Governors.
1845. Apologies received.
None
1846. Minutes of the previous meetings.
The minutes of the 21st
May and 18th June 2015 were accepted as a true record of the meetings
and were signed accordingly, and it was proposed that correct procedure
in future would be to hold an annual Meeting in May.
Proposer: Michael Craster
Seconder: Martin Smith
Unanimous.
1847. Matters arising from the minutes not covered
elsewhere on the agenda.
a. Grit Bin Maintenance
No response from NCC
b. Obstructive Road Signs
No response from NCC
c. Allotment Request
Cllr Alan Punton to
advise applicant of available private plot
d. Private sector housing policy
•
Response received from NCC to the PC’s representation:-
“Thank you for your
response to the consultation on the Private Sector Housing Strategy.
The matter of holiday and second homes, and the effects on local
markets will form part of the Strategic Housing Market Assessment, as
part of the supporting documentation that makes up the Core Strategy.
New housing provision for private sale sits outside the remit of the
Private Sector Housing Strategy, but also forms part of the work of the
Core Strategy and the supporting documents, and I have shared your
comments with planning colleagues.
The Strategy will be
considered for adoption at the Cabinet meeting in September and will
subsequently be published on the Housing webpages”.
•
Vice-Chair will contact NCC regarding local housing statistics. It was
felt that it would also be useful to compile a list of people who would
like to come back to the parish, now and in the future (if they could
afford it). All information for list to be sent to the clerk for
collation; then the Chairman will compile a letter of concern regarding
effects of re-sale of Council Houses; and will be circulated to members
for discussion. Chair to write to local MP Anne-Marie Trevelyan to
raise the matter.
e. Consultation on Options for the Alnwick Schools
Partnership.
Cllr Margaret Brooks
reported that recently the Vincent Edwards School, Embleton had
undergone a change of Head, Secretary and Staff and had opted for the
3-teir system. They then found that the report had recommended that the
School be Closed in 2016. In response a Parent Action Group had been
formed. There is a petition in Mick Oxley’s Gallery, Craster plus a
response form. I is requested that Craster PC respond strongly and fill
in the forms to support creating a Primary School and Partnership plan
with Swansfield Park School, Alnwick. Craster PC is part of the Vincent
Edwards School catchment area. Members after discussion felt that they
wanted to study the figures in the report and the Embleton PC response
and discuss their response at the next PC meeting.
1848. County Councillor's update.
Cllr Cairns gave a
reports on the following topics (copies attached).
•
Satellite Broadband
• The
Northern Area Committee
•
Consultation on Options for the Alnwick Schools Partnership
•
Family and Children Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee submission
• The
Arriva bus Consultation.
1849. Footpath – Arch to Craster
There are two possible
routes for a potential footpath between the Archway and Craster
village; North or South. Cllr Michael Craster has approached the
interested parties; the Grey’s, the Coastguard and the Howick Estates:-
The Coastguard would be
agreeable if the path was routed around the building.
Howick Estates would not
permit the path across the pasture but may consider pathway along the
wall.
Funding may be possible
from the Leader Fund or NWL and the PC may be able to fund the fence or
stream bridging.
To await response from
Grey’s and discuss further.
1850. Local Transport Plan 2016-17 consultation
Members discussed the
report and as requested nominated the top three priorities:-
1st – Dunstan Leak
2nd – 30mph zone to
start at Dunstan and the Avenue and the 30mph sign to be removed
in the village to make the whole area a 30mph zone.
3rd – Footpath – Arch to
Craster.
Proposer: Bryn Owen
Seconder: John Gallon
Unanimous.
Clerk to inform NCC.
1851. Planning Matters
a.
Bark Pots 9 West End (14/04120/OUT) – (Pending 16/07/15)
b. 5
Heugh Road (15/01545/FUL) – Granted
c.
Training Session by NCC on 14/7/15 @ Alnwick; Cllr Pauline Baird
attended and said that it was very informative on how the planning
process worked and what could be commented on; case studies were
undertaken.
No response on the
request for a Core Strategy Briefing by NCC had been received. Members
requested that copies of the Planning Training papers be obtained for
the use of all PC members and a further request for the Core Strategy
briefing be made by the clerk.
1852. Parking.
It was reported that the
quarry car park was much improved with the new layout minus coach bays.
However there was still felt to be excess overspill parking on the
Bogie Road and it was suggested that to make out a case members should
take photos and log problems for compilation at the end of the year.
1853. EJBC.
Terms of Reference,
Standing Orders and Task Force/Sub Group Report –
The EJBC decided that
further consideration is needed on how to resolve the differences
between the suggested terms of reference proposed by the three
constituent Parish Councils (working group).
Funeral discount for
residents –
All funerals services
would now be charged the same price as at current prices
the cemetery now breaks even.
Turfing of graves –
Complaints about when
graves were turfed and headstones erected, resulted in a project to
research and draw up an operational policy.
1854. Craster Community Trust.
No Report
1855. AONB
• The
latest minutes had been circulated.
• The
next meeting to which PC Chairs’ were invited would take place in
September 2015; Cllr Michael Craster to attend.
• It
was noted that Bamburgh had decided to adopt a minimalist road traffic
sign policy.
1856. Dunstan water leak.
See Minute 1850
1857. Fixed asset maintenance.
a.
Contractor Maintenance
Quarterly report received from Contractor on bin and notice boards.
1858. Missing Streetlamp – Dunstanburgh Road.
The County Councillor
was asked to enquire about the lack of response to the request for a
repair.
1859. Tourist Fingerpost.
Prices for the
installation of finger sign posts made of several materials; wood,
plastic and brownie style were obtained but all were felt to be of
inferior quality. The NCC metal post with 8 fingers would cost
£1,450-£1,800 fully installed. Several local businesses had stated that
they would be willing to donate some money towards the cost. Cllr Alan
Punton will ask if the businesses would be willing to donate to the
price list cost; results to be considered at a future meeting.
1860. Parish Clerk
It was formally
confirmed that Geoff Newcombe has completed his probationary period and
the Cllr John Gallon is no longer acting Clerk.
Proposer: Michael Craster
Seconder: Martin Smith
Unanimous
A vote of thanks was
given for John's excellent work as acting clerk.
1861. Job Descriptions
Formal Job Descriptions
for the Council Officers (Chair and Vice-Chair) to reflect and act in
accordance with the Standing Orders were presented to the members and
proposed for acceptance, and that Cllrs Michael Craster and Gordon
Coxon (Embleton PC) act as the working group for Human resources and
Pay Review matters.
Proposer: Michael Craster
Seconder: Pauline Baird
Unanimous
1862. Transparency and Smaller Parish Councils
Northumberland NALC
reported:-
“In recent days, we have
heard from our National Association, with a little detail about the new
support arrangements to enable smaller parish councils to comply with
their ‘Transparency Code’. This is the Code which will require councils
that raise and spend less than £25k pa to place key information on an
accessible website, such as the agendas and minutes of meetings,
councillors and their responsibilities, expenditure items greater than
£100, and council land and buildings.
National ALC is
initially undertaking a scoping exercise to ascertain the likely need
and demand for support. However, from October, grants should be
available to individual councils, to meet costs such as:
-
Buying hardware (e.g. laptops and scanners)
-
Setting up and hosting a website
-
The additional cost in staff time to implement and run the new
transparency regime
We in NALC will be
providing advice, training and other support. In the meantime, please
note the following message from National ALC: ‘Officials from the
Department of Communities and Local Government attended the March
meeting of our National Council to provide an update on both the Code
and Fund. They acknowledged the problem with the timetable and
confirmed that the Department views compliance with the Code as an
incremental process, being aware of the variation in capacity to meet
compliance.”
Members accepted the
advice and would await further NALC training.
1863. Defibrillator training
Training for all who
wanted to attend would take place on Monday 20th July 2015 at 7pm. In
the Craster Memorial Hall.
1864. Grass on Tower Bank
Situation is now resolved
1865. Financial matters.
a)
Current Account Balance - £3723.35 @ 13/7/15
b)
Spent & Received – Since 18/06/15
Defibrillator - £1,000 –
Stephen Carey Fund (£1,000 to Stephen Carey not presented)
NALC 2015/16
Subscription - £84.23
Clerk’s pay May 2015 -
£300.69
HMRC May 2015 - £69.20
c)
Cheques required –
•
Donation to Craster memorial Hall - £200
• NALC
Chair & Clerk Training - £20
•
Clerk Pay & Expenses – £190.01
• HMRC
-
£36
Acceptance of financial
transactions:-
Proposer: Martin Smith
Seconder: Michael Craster
Unanimous
1866. Correspondence received.
• Blue
Badge Tourist Guide Coach Liaison – Members suggested a reply was sent
advising coaches to turn at the Car Park and use “lay-by” area as drop
off and pick up point. This to be advised to Blue Badge by clerk as
summer visitors imminent and confirmed at September meeting.
1867. Items for Next Agenda
• FOI
Statement and Policy
• Dog
Fouling
1868. Date and Time of Next Meeting
17th September 2015 @
7:15pm in the Craster Memorial Hall
The meeting closed at
9:30pm.
|
