Wellow Parish Council
Clerk
Geoff White
Myrtle
Cottage, Wellow, BA2 8QS
Tel: 01225 830159
Minutes of a meeting of the Parish
Council on Monday 11th July 2011 at 8pm in the Village Hall.
Present:
Cllrs Andrews, Betts, Caudle, Clarkson, Doman, Wheeler, White and Witty.
Fourteen members
of the public in attendance including retired Councillor Mark Watson was
co-opted in respect of planning matters.
Agenda:
11.090 To
accept apologies for absence.
Apologies had been received from
Cllr Prentice. District Cllr. Butters
had indicated earlier that he might not be able to attend.
11.091 Declarations of interest in any
matters on the agenda or in June 2011 minutes
Cllr. Clarkson declared an interest in Item
11.095 (b), the planning application in respect of Weavers Barn.
Cllr Doman declared an interest in item
11.102 but it was felt that he did not need to leave.
11.092 To confirm minutes of meeting
held on June 13th 2011.
The minutes of the Parish Council
Meeting held on June 13th were approved unanimously.
11.093 To report matters arising from
the minutes and not on the agenda.
None
11.094 Traffic calming
a.
Update from Mark Watson
Mark said that all the
funds previously held by B&NES in respect of traffic calming had now been
exhausted and any further work will need to be funded by Wellow Parish Council.
Cllr Betts mentioned the
possibility of installing large planters but Mark said that he would have to
discuss this with Mark Jeans at B&NES before we could take any action.
The designs for the
village signs have been passed to Cllr Witty and Cllr Andrews suggested that
they be displayed at the Flower Show in September for public comment.
Cllr Doman remarked that
gates which give the impression that private property is being entered are
effective and wondered whether the existing village gates could be made to give
this impression too.
During discussions the
question of having different coloured surfaces as proposed in the original
plans was brought up repeatedly.
It was suggested that we
might be able to lease electronic road signs which showed drivers’ speeds. The Chairman referred to the brochures which
had been received from CA Traffic Ltd and asked whether the Council would like
her to look into this further. Cllr
Witty supported this plan and the proposal was agreed. HA
b.
Pavement along Hungerford Terrace
The Chairman referred to an earlier
email from District Cllr Butters and said that she would contact him about the
matter raised. HA
c.
Village Hall
Cllr Betts said that the Village
Hall will be closed for some time during August for renovation.
There is a possibility that the
Youth Club will be disbanded because of a lack of numbers.
Stuart Dowell, from the floor, said
that was waiting for more volunteers to join the youth club committee as a
number of existing members were due to retire.
d.
Ownership of trees and open spaces
Cllr Betts reported that trees at
Combe Hay Bridge were overhanging the road, that trees in the car park were
also in need of trimming and that the trees along the Village Hall driveway
were also in need of attention.
Cllr Witty observed that any trees
are the responsibility of the landowner on whose property they are and the
Chairman said that she talk to Peter Duppa-Miller, the Parish Clerk of Combe
Hay, about it. HA
e.
Playing field invoice
The Clerk reported that
he had been in touch, yet again, with Gerard Perry at B&NES’ Environmental
Services Department about the outstanding invoice to us in respect of our
playing field grass cutting contract. Mr
Perry promised to resolve this urgently and to send us an invoice but, at the
time of the meeting, had not done so.
11.095 Planning
1. New applications
a. 11/02528/TPO: Work to various trees along
Wellow Brook
Councillors
had been unable to access further information from B&NES website and so no
meaningful discussion could take place. The Clerk agreed to contact B&NES
accordingly. GW
b. 11/02418/FUL
(Resubmission) and 11/02418/LBA: Weavers Farm.
Extension and conversion
of existing barn to a holiday let. (NB. There are two applications as the barn
is listed)
Cllr
Clarkson withdrew having declared an interest.
Mark
Watson was again consulted for his advice.
His view was that, while he had no objection to holiday lets, he felt
that the current application made the barn too dominant.
The owner,
Mrs Jean Horler, said that making it smaller would mean that the project would
not be viable. Mr Andy Hamilton, who lives at 1 Weavers Orchard, commented that
he would lose privacy as the barn overlooks his house and he would also lose
light in winter when the sun is low. There is an existing holiday let which
results in noise disturbance at times.
Mr Colin
Maxwell, who lives at 4 Weavers Orchard agreed about the problems associated
with noise because of holiday makers’ parties. There was also a problem with
parking caused by the track to the bungalow but the Chair ruled that this was
irrelevant to the current application.
Ms Jane
Rees, another` resident, felt that the proposed planning represented
over-development and also highlighted the parking problem.
Mrs Horler
said that all the houses in the estate had their own garage but that residents
did not always use them and so cars could be parked in the road.
Cllr
Wheeler said that we should seek further clarification with respect to the
second barn.
The Chair
asked for a proposal and Cllr White moved that we should seek further
clarification from B&NES. Cllr Caudle agreed and asked that we see the
proposals regarding the original application.
Following
some discussion regarding existing covenants held by the current residents Cllr
Wheeler seconded Cllr White’s proposal which was agreed unanimously. HA
c. 11/02428/FUL Manor Farm, Farm Lane. Provision of manege adjoining
existing dwelling house, stable block and other farm buildings.
The Parish Council expressed no qualms about the proposal but would want to stress in their supporting letter to B&NES that there should be no artificial lighting. This was agreed unanimously. HA
d. 11/02666/FUL: 1 West End Cottages. Erection of detached residential
dwelling within the grounds of the existing property
Mark Watson said that he proposed development was not viable as it was too large and would involve the demolition of parts of the wall on to the road. A stream runs under part of the wall affected. The proposed building would dominate the view from Station Road.
The owners of 2 and 3 West End Cottages said the proposed house was 50% bigger than the existing ones and that none of the existing properties had dormer windows at the back.
Mr Alex Martin, former chairman of the Parish Council said that Wellow is a R3 village and so infill is permitted but the result in this case would be that 1 West End Cottages would have no garden and that the Council should, therefore, oppose the plans.
Mr Charles Everitt, who lives opposite, said that the proposal did not blend in with the existing terrace and Cllr Caudle agreed saying that the whole proposal looked like an urban, rather than a rural, development.
Mr Andrew Chivers felt that the parking problem was the biggest issue. Cllr Witty agreed as there is no footpath on the opposite side of the road and the current plan would entail removal of part of the existing footpath. Cllr Clarkson expressed a similar view.
Cllr Betts was concerned that the development would entail the lopping of trees along the Village Hall driveway.
On a show of hands, everyone opposed the development and Cllr Wheeler proposed that we should write to B&NES accordingly. This was agreed unanimously.
HA
2.
Decisions received
11/01294/FUL Corner House, Station Road. Erection of a front extension to
existing garage and
conversion to kitchen, construction of an oak framed
porch and installation
of replacement doors and windows, omitting glazing
bars.
The Council was
informed that planning permission had been granted.
11.096 Village Wear and Tear
·
The waste paper bin by the cemetery is overflowing. The Chair said she would look into it.
·
There is a lot of ivy growing on stakes in the Play
Area. Mr Stuart Cole, the village
sweeper, said he would remove it and the Council agreed that he should.
·
Cllr Caudle mentioned the overgrown nature of the path at
the end of the Playing Field adjacent to the next field.
·
Cllr White said that she had been in touch with Nick
Sperring at B&NES about the alignment of the road signs at the bottom of
Mill Hill. He has agreed to put them on
his list of things to be done.
·
The drain outside the main school gate is still not
effective and this has been added to B&NES 28 day order.
·
Hinton Hill is out of warranty but the faults there are not
caused by the recent piling works to lifting caused by frost damage. B&NES are aware but nothing is likely to
be done before next year.
·
Cllr White reported on her progress re the overhanging and,
possibly diseased tree on Bulls Hill.
Denise Hart from Highways has promised to look into it but has not
reported back yet.
11.097 Finance
·
The financial report for July was approved.
·
Outstanding payments were approved and the cheques and
invoices duly signed.
·
The Council approved the payment of a £100 grant to the
Wellow Community Minibus Group so that they could continue to allow holders of
bus passes to use them on certain runs.
The Friday run to Radstock and Tesco’s has been stopped due to lack of
support and has been replaced by a weekly run to the new Sainsbury’s at Odd
Down. Holders of bus passes will be able
to use them on that trip.
·
Approval was given for the internal audit documents, signed
by Richard Holland, to be sent to Mazars, our external auditors.
·
It was agreed to ask Cllr Prentice to oversee negotiations
regarding the shop adjacent to the Fox and Badger. He has already indicated
that he would like to do this.
·
It was agreed that we should engage the services of Payman
Ltd to run our PAYE scheme as required by the latest regulations from HMRC.
·
The Clerk reported that arrangements had now been made for
four of the newly elected Councillors to be able to sign cheques along with the
three from the previous council. He also
said that we were making progress in our quest to have the Millennium Fund
money released as he had been able to identify the original authorised
signatories. They have all been given
the appropriate forms to sign and, as soon as this is done, NatWest will be
able to move on to the next stage. GW
11.098 Speeding in Manor Close
Cllr Clarkson said that there had
been no further developments.
11.099 Shop adjacent to Fox and Badger
This was dealt with under Item
11.097.
11.100 Olympiad Arts Funding
The Council decided not to pursue
this as we would be involved in the Jubilee celebrations.
11.101 Chairman’s Community Awards
The Chairman drew everyone’s
attention to the earlier correspondence, copies of which they had received, and
asked that any suggestions be directed to the Clerk.
11.102 Logging at the Trekking Centre
The Chair referred to comments and
emails from parishioners complaining about the logging activity being
undertaken at the Wellow Trekking Centre. Cllr Caudle wondered whether this
should have been subjected to planning permission.
Ms Erica Smith, the Sustrans Ranger,
said that an additional problem was that parked trailers on the layby that had
been developed by Wellow Trekking Centre obscured the signposts regarding cycle
routes.
Cllr Betts suggested that we should
engage the help of District Cllr Butters and this was unanimously agreed. The
Chair said she would contact him. HA
11.103 Any other reports
None
11.104 Date of next meeting
The next meeting of Wellow parish
Council will be held on September 12th at 8pm in the Village
hall. The meeting closed at 9.30pm.
Geoffrey
White
Parish
Clerk
July 19th
2011