Wellow Parish Council

Minutes of a meeting of the Parish Council on Monday12th April 2010 held at 8pm in the Village Hall

Present: Cllrs Andrews, Betts, Colston, Halewood, Lewis, Martin (Chairman), Pike and Watson. Cllr Witty absent.

4 members of the public in attendance.

10.045 To accept apologies for absence:

None.

10.046 Declarations of interest in any matters on the agenda or in March 2010 minutes.

Cllr Colston declared an interest in item 10.049 2(b)

10.047 To confirm minutes of meeting held on 8^th March 2010:

It was unanimously agreed that the minutes were a true and correct record and accordingly

were signed by the Chairman.

10.048 To report matters arising from the minutes and not on the agenda:

None.

10.049 Planning

1. Decisions received:

(a) 10/00087/FUL Manor Lodge Farm Lane Wellow. Description of Proposal: Provision of external stairs and side dormer for access and fire escape. PERMIT

(b) 09/04545/FUL Bourne Farm, Double Hill Shoscombe Bath. Description of Proposal: Erection of a new steel framed apex building for agricultural storage. PERMIT

2. New Applications:

(a) 10/01085/TCA Wellow Farm The Square Wellow. Description of Proposal: Pollard semi-mature Ash at bottom of garden. A vote of NO OBJECTION was unanimously supported.

(b) 10/01089/TCA Hayes Lodge, Wellow. Descriptions of proposal Crown height reduce and reshape 2No Chestnut. A vote of NO OBJECTION was unanimously supported.

3. Updates:

(a) 10/00357//FUL Upper Baggridge Farm, Wellow. Erection of barns etc-from last month.

The Chairman advised that he had spoken with the case officer regarding the discrepancy with the drawings supplied and the detail regarding screen planting and had been reassured that everything was in accordance with the Parish Council views. He had therefore replied that the Council supported the application. This was agreed by the meeting.

(b) To receive information from the Chairman in respect of planning consent for adventure playground and holiday accommodation at Wellow Trekking Centre.

The Chairman advised that he had received an enquiry from a parishioner regarding details given on a website promoting Wellow Trekking Centre and offering holiday accommodation asking whether the appropriate permissions had been granted. He had emailed Development Control asking the question and reported that he had received a reply to an entirely different question. He is still attempting to get a response to the question posed.

(c) 10/00736/FUL Mount Pleasant, Wellow. Cllr Watson advised the meeting he had had a conversation with the applicant and gave advice on how the objection to this proposal discussed at last month’s meeting might be addressed..

10.050 Highways:

To receive updates on:

(a) Pot Holes: The Chairman advised that potholing had been done since the last meeting but more needed to be done.

(b) Fly tipping at the cemetery. The Chairman reported that a case of fly tipping at the cemetery had been reported by the Clerk and had been speedily attend to by B&NES

10.051 Finance:

In the absence of the RFO, the Chairman reported that we have still not received statements from the bank. This is particularly serious as we are required to produce the year end accounts. The Chairman had visited the bank and had been assured that the proper arrangements were now in place and that statements should be awaiting the RFO on his return from holiday. He had requested copy statements and despite initial refusal had been furnished with them. Accordingly, he had produced a year end reconciliation included in the financial report. He asked for approval of the financial report and payments due. This was passed unanimously.

Cllr Andrews requested that commas be inserted at the appropriate places to make identifying thousands easier.

10.052 Parish Plan

To receive updates on:

(a) Traffic calming: Cllr Watson reported on a meeting with Highways at which agreement was finally reached on the measures and their specifications for traffic calming in the village. It had been agreed that everything agreed could be covered within the monies available in the Section 106 Agreement. The contract for the works would be placed before the expiration of the time limit attached to the Section 106Agreement.The Chairman advised that in addition to these measures the advisory 20mph speed limit would become mandatory and we could then ask the Police to enforce it.

The Chairman referred to details of the Highways expenditure programme for the coming year in which it stated that the income and expenditure for the traffic calming measures as funded by S106 monies was £42k as opposed to £47k. Dist.Cllr Butters had spoken with Highways who claim that the difference is accounted for by their costs. The Chairman stated that this was incredulous having been advised on numerous previous occasions that the monies available were insufficient to cover all of the works and that Highways internal costs would be in the region of £20-£30,000. It was agreed not to pursue the matter as it appeared we were getting everything we wanted.

(b) Community minibus service: In the absence of Cllr Witty, no report was available.

(c) Play Area: Cllrs Betts and Lewis expressed concerns with the works recently carried out to the play area with work of a dubious quality. Cllr Lewis advised that the work was not signed off as acceptable yet and agreed to pursue with Mrs. Brown and B&NES. Cllr Betts referred to anti social behaviour on the playing field with many broken alcoholic beverage bottles been found on the field, These had been removed by the Parish Sweeper. It had not been possible to indentify the culprits. It had also been observed that children as young as two or three were playing unsupervised in the play area, It was agreed to raise the issue in the newsletter.

10.053 1, West End Cottages:

Cllr Colston reported that we still have not received a draft contract and it was proposed that we send another letter stating that if we have not received a draft contract by Friday 30th April 2010 the entrance would be blocked off but would be removed if it was subsequently received.

10.054 Chairman’s Report:

The Chairman reported on the following meetings attended since the last monthly meeting of the Parish Council:

(a) Planning forum run by Planning Aid which was found to be useful.

(b) Parishes on Line meeting held at the Bath Spa University and attended with the Clerk. An interesting presentation was given by the Clerk to Hinton Charterhouse PC but the Chairman reported that his experience with the system had been unsatisfactory which is a great shame as it could prove to be an extremely useful tool.

(c) PACT meeting at Newton St Loe where details of an improved performance by the police was given. Members were asked to note that the next scheduled PACT meeting is to be held in Wellow Village Hall in July.

(d) Parish Cluster meeting at Hinton Charterhouse where 4 presentations were given on: The Joint Local transport Plan; Feed in Tariffs for home/community energy generation; Tree works regulations and finally, composting of food waste to be introduced later this year.

(e) Special meeting of ALCA at Emmerson’s Green to discuss and agree membership rates the result of which is that small councils will pay less than last year and larger councils will have their rate pegged at last year’s level.

10.055 Any other business:

(a) Cllr Colston updated members with progress on the long running saga of the shop attached to the Fox and Badger and it was hoped that further details would be forthcoming following a meeting of the lease holders and their agents scheduled for tomorrow.

(b) Cllr Betts enquired if we had been told that the Police Community Vehicle was about to make its last visit to the parish. The Chairman confirmed that we had received no advance warning or reason for this but he would pursue with the police.

10.056 Date of next meeting:

The date of next meeting was confirmed as Monday May 10^th 2010 at 8pm in The Village Hall preceded by the Annual General Meeting of the Parish Council at 7.30pm. The meeting closed at 9.22pm.

AM 14.04.10