Draft Minutes subject to Confirmation
MINUTES OF THE MEETING
Held in the Nicholls Hall on Tuesday 19th May 2009
51-2009 Present:
Cllrs J Gannon (Acting-Chairman), L Cole, S Holland, K Boyd, C Moriarty, I Hammerton;
Mrs A Martin (Clerk)
Parishioners and others in attendance: Cllr A Hosking (DCC). Seventeen members of the public were in attendance, and were welcomed by the Acting Chairman.
52-2009 Apologies for Absence: Apologies from Cllr McPhie (on holiday) were accepted .
53-2009
53.1 Election of Chairman: Cllr Gannon relinquished the Chair. She was proposed
as Chairman by Cllr Moriarty, seconded by Cllr Hammerton and unanimously elected.
Having declared her acceptance of the office she returned to the Chair.
53.2 Election of Vice-Chairman: Cllr Holland was proposed by
Cllr Moriarty ,seconded by Cllr Boyd and unanimously elected.
53.3 Election of Representatives: Cllr Moriarty indicated that she was willing to
continue to represent the Council on the DNPA Forum and Police Authority, and Cllr
Boyd on the Nicholls Hall Committee. There was unanimous agreement that all
should do so.
Cllr Boyd wished to step down from the Southern Parishes Link Committee and Cllr
Holland was unanimously elected to this position.
54.2009 Vacancy on the Parish Council: Councillors were saddened to have received the
formal resignation from the Parish Council of Ms Lorraine Ellicott, but pleased that
so many individuals had expressed support for her, both directly and through the
Council. There is now a vacancy on the Parish Council, and this will be advertised
on the Parish Notice Board, the Council’s website and the Parish Magazine. It was
noted that West Devon Borough Council has already been notified of the vacancy.
55-2009 Declaration of Interests: There were none.
56-2009 Parishioners and Visitors Time:
56.1 Support for the Parish Council: A number of the parishioners attending indicated that they had come to the meeting to express their support for the Parish Council, and the Chairman thanked them for this action.
56.2 SW Riders, through their local representative, drew the attention of the assembled company to the event they are holding in the Nicholls Hall at 7 for 7.30 on June 10th, and to which entry will be free. A particular invitation was extended to Parish Councillors to attend as an informative presentation will be given by an officer of the Devon County Council Footpaths and Rights of Way section.
56.3 A Parishioner had looked at the LydfordFS website and wished to complain about its content. This site, however, is run by an independent organisation and is nothing to do with the parish council. The complainant was advised that although he might not agree with the content of the site, nevertheless in our democratic society individuals and organisations have the freedom to express views that not all of us agree with. It was suggested that he contact the organisation running the site, which as an “org.uk” could be reasonably requested to reveal details of its chairmanship and committee, and the authorship of the articles on the website. It was noted that no minutes of any meetings are published on their website.
56.4 Granite Way A parishioner remarked that the “No Horses” sign had still not been reinstated, despite it being over two years since the Council first requested that Devon Highways do so. Cllr McPhie had been to chasing up the issue for us.
56.5 Cold Weather Payments The Clerk noted that eligible residents in both Bridestowe and Mary Tavy had received these, and that it could therefore be concluded from the geography of the area that Lydford residents should also have done so. Various categories of people are eligible, and as the DWP will not discuss individual cases with third parties, any individuals who believe that they are eligible and have not received their extra payment for the below-freezing temperatures this winter should ring the benefits advice centre at Jobcentre Plus on 0800 055 6688. This number is free to ring and is manned from 8am to 6pm on weekdays.
57-2009 To approve the minutes of the previous meeting:
The minutes of the meeting held on Tuesday 21st April were held over for signing until
the following month as councillors wished to give them careful consideration and did
not feel that they had had sufficient time to do this as the Clerk had been in hospital
for much of the time since the April meeting and they had only just become
available .
58-2009 Matters Arising:
58.1 Highways, Parking and Traffic Issues – A letter had been sent to Devon highways regarding the lines on the A386.
An unofficial roadsign had appeared in the village – it was thought that our community police officers must have seen it, and if action was required they would take it. No action was therefore required from the Parish Council.
The parish lengthsman will be in Lydford during the week commencing 29th June. His next scheduled visit is not until December – there have been cuts to the service! An item will be placed in the Parish magazine so that parishioners are aware of the forthcoming visit.
58.2 Parish Plan update – An e-mail had been received from Mr McDonald at DCC. He acknowledges receipt of our paperwork, but states that it might not be dealt with very quickly due to pressure of work.
58.3 Progress re: Emergency Plan – In the absence of volunteers no further action has been possible on the community emergency plan. Cllr Hammerton did, however, have details of a scheme that has been introduced by the emergency services for mobile phone users. When attending an emergency it is not always possible to discern which of the numbers in the phone’s directory would be appropriate numbers to call on behalf of the casualty. At the suggestion of a paramedic, members of the public are advised to put their emergency contact numbers into their list with the preface ICE1, ICE2 etc, ICE standing for “In Case of Emergency”. The Clerk pointed out that at least two numbers would be a good idea, as the person listed as ICE1 might be involved in the same incident, especially if a close family member.
58.4 Beating of the Bounds – The event took place on 16th May, and was enjoyed by the participants. Seventeen adults and two children completed the entire route, buoyed up by the promise of tea and scones in the Waterfall Tearooms at the end. The Clerk was requested to send letters of thanks to Ms Ellicott for organizing the event, Messrs Brooks and Barkell for leading and Mr Powne for marshalling, Messrs Colin and Tom Friend for efficiently arranging the evacuation of an exhausted walker from the high moor, the National Trust for supplying tea and coffee at the end and Mrs Martyn for baking a pile of her delicious scones. Rumours of snow on the walk were not substantiated!
58.5 Granite Way It was reported that some work appeared to have commenced at the Bridestowe end of the “missing link” on the Granite way. The “No Horses” sign remains missing as reported earlier.
58.6 The Council’s Website The Council’s current website had been running for several years. Cllr Hammerton explained that the Information Commissioners Office requires information to be available in a different form from that which is existing, and suggested that new tenders be invited for an ICO compliant website. He will prepare a tender document for approval at the next meeting.
58.7 Ancient Spring Ongoing Maintenance – Mr Pettitt was present at the meeting, and members were extremely happy to authorise him to continue with the maintenance of the site.
59-2009 Receive Reports from Councillors on respective outside bodies:
45.1 DNPA Consultative Forum Meets on Friday 22nd May.
45.2 Police Authority No meeting this month.
45.3 Southern Parishes Link Committee The minutes of the last meeting and the extraordinary meeting had been received. Officers of the DCC Highways department had attended the meeting, and had noted that there is currently a backlog of two hundred and five million pounds worth of work needing to be done. As nothing approaching this amount is actually available the road network is prioritised for work as follows:
1. A Roads
2. Links from A roads to communities with 500+ people
3. B Roads
4. Main links through urban communities and industrial estates
5. Minor, residential and rural roads.
45.4 Nicholls Hall Committee The May Bistro Nite was well attended. Minor refurbishments are planned for the WI room where the walls have become scuffed.
45.5 WDBC No report this month.
60-2009 Finance:
46.1 Invoices for John Pengelly and the Nicholls Hall were received, and having been pre-authorised, were paid in time to be included in the annual accounts for the year to which they related, and the financial statement for March was updated accordingly.
46.2 A small amount of expenditure was authorised to meet expenses incurred by the Beating of the Bounds, including advertising, scones for the finishing tea, £2 coins for the young walkers and certificates for all participants.
46.3 The following balances were reported:
Current account – £1393.26
Deposit account - £5134.41
Parish Plan - £1204.23
Ancient Spring - £327.10
The April Precept amount of £3075.00 and Burial Grant of £84.00 had been received from WDBC. The following cheques were authorised from the general budget: Clerk salary & expenses £249.06: HMRC £52.26.
61-2009 Correspondence
61.1 Correspondence requiring action or decision:
A letter regarding council business had been received by Cllr Boyd personally, with a different letter having been sent to all councillors. It was deemed that the two letters should be taken together should be considered by the whole council, and this was deferred to the next meeting as it had not been included on the agenda for the current one.
61.2 Correspondence for Information Only
1. L Ellicott resignation from Parish Council
2. DNPA Agenda and Reports
3. From DCC re School admissions 2010-11
4. Agenda for DNPA Forum on 22nd May 2009
5. Brian Greenslade (DCC) re: Highway maintenance
6. Important information about the ICE scheme
7. Commons Registration Act – statutory information re Chagford.
8. West Devon Connect Magazine
9. WDBC re: Flooding and Sandbags
10. DCC re Parish Lengthsman service- lengthsman due end June
11. New car allowances for local Govt officers and members
12. Ancient Spring Management plan
62-2009 Planning Applications
62.1 Decisions Received: Consent (some conditional) had been received for the minor amendments at Widgerey’s.
62.2 Application for Minor Amendment at Lot Cottage (former builder’s office): An
application to have a wood
burner flue coming out through the roof was considered as non-contentious,
and it was unanimously resolved that the Council will raise no objections.
63-2009 Items raised at the previous meeting for inclusion on this agenda:
The vacancy for a councillor was dealt with earlier in the meeting.
64-2009 Items raised for inclusion on the next Agenda
The Chairman had indicated that she would be resigning from the Council at the end of the meeting, and so the process for recruiting a new councillor was put forward for the next agenda.
65-2009 To agree the date of the next meeting:
The date of Tuesday 16th June 2009 was agreed commencing at 7.00 pm.
There being no further business the meeting was formally closed by the Chairman at 7.50 pm.
Annie Martin
Clerk to the Parish Council 17th May 2009
Signed as a true and accurate record…………………………………… (Chairman) Date……………….