Minutes of a Meeting of Sapcote Parish Council held at 7.30pm on Thursday 1 December 2016 in the Pavilion at Sapcote Playing Fields.
Present: Mrs A Davies (Chairman),
Mrs Robinson-Smith, Mrs Rogers Mrs Brannan and Mrs Twitchett
Messrs Howell, Taylor and Towers
Also Present Mr E White CC. Mrs S Scott DC. Miss D Woods DC.
Mr M Guntrip, Clerk to the Council
PC Darren Goddard , Jill Stevenson BDC.
161/16 Apologies for Absence
Mr I Hewson
162/16 Declarations of Interest
Mrs Davies declared an interest arising out the employment of her daughter in the cemetery.
Mrs Rogers declared an interest arising out of her membership of the Sapcote Recreation Ground Management Committee for whom she is treasurer and as a member of the Sapcote Good Neighbour Scheme where she is also treasurer. Mr Taylor declared an interest in Granitethorpe quarry as a prospective purchaser.
163/16 Presentation on Hate Crime
PC Darren Goddard , Jill Stevenson BDC attended by invitation to make a presentation on hate crime. PC Goddard appraised the meeting of the ‘Don’t Hate Educate’ campaign and circulated and expanded on details of the various initiatives which comprised the campaign and the bodies which were taking part.
PC Goddard advised that of the 968,000 young people nationally who voted for the hate crime initiative 950,000 voted to extend its scope to include race and religious hate. Leicestershire has now extended its scope further to include all aspects of hate crime. He said that a number of events had now been held to reinforce action against hate crime and he described the work that had been done to date which included school initiatives and online hate crime. The meeting discussed a number of aspects of hate crime with particular reference to online hate crime which very often manifested itself as bullying through abusive emails, tweets and the like.
The Chairman thanked PC Goddard and Mrs Stevenson for a very interesting and presentation which gave an insight into the problems experienced by young people dealing with hate crime.
164/16 Minutes of the Meeting of the Parish Council held on 3 November 2016
Resolved that, the minutes of the Meeting of the Parish Council held on 3 November 2016, a copy of which had been circulated to each member, be accepted as a true record of the proceedings.
165/16 Public Participation
No members of the public were present.
166/16 Information Update
The Clerk reported that the National Association of Local Councils (NALC) had managed to effectively procure external audit services for parish councils. This follows the abolition of the Audit Commission which, in effect, left parish councils to fend for themselves in procuring these services. Three auditors had now been appointed to provide the service nationally. It was estimated that this national approach to procuring external audit services would result in a collective savings of millions of pounds over the next five years which was the life of the contract. The annual cost of individual audits had yet to be advised.
Hallam Associates would be holding a public consultation event at the Pavilion on 14 December between 3pm and 7.30 pm to explain their proposals for the proposed development on Hinckley Road. Leaflets were being distributed to every house in the village.
167/16 District Councillors
Mrs Scott reported as follows:
Blaby District Council had been awarded a Councillor Development Charter for the third time to reflect its excellent partnership working between councillors and officers.
The Fosse Park jobs and skills fair attracted 39 companies and organisations with some 2,500 job opportunities on offer.
A spot check of road vehicles had taken place at East Midlands airport and out of 147 stopped, 104 had no mechanical defects.
The Blaby District Council annual report for 2016 had now been published and could be accessed on line.
The Wheels summer project had generated £3,000 profit whilst engaging with over 400 young people.
Blaby’s Health and Leisure Services Team had been approved by the Royal Society of Public Health to deliver courses on a range of matters dealing with health and physical activity.
A Dog Control Public Space Protection Order had been placed Fosse Meadows car park and picnic area. This required dogs to be kept on leads at these locations.
Three major incidents of fly tipping had occurred at sites in Blaby including one at Fosse Meadows.
Huncote Pavilion was offering a range of events over the Christmas period. In addition, a number of classes would be starting at this venue in the New Year.
Finally, Mrs Scott, on behalf of the District Councillors, offered her best wishes for Christmas and the New Year.
Miss Woods highlighted the need for parishes to prepare a plan for emergencies in their communities and referred members to the LLR Emergency Planning online site which provided guidance on measures that could be taken for a range emergency situations.
168/16 County Councillor
Mr White referred to the library heating and a meeting that had been arranged between Alberto Costa MP and the leader of the County Council. (The meeting was advised that the Chairman of the Parish Council had written to Mr Costa requesting that action be taken on the heating). Mr White said that he would lend his support but was mindful that the County Council was reluctant to create a precedent with meeting the demands for additional funding.
Mr White also referred to Adult Social Services and Care in the Community. He advised that each of NHS England’s 44 footprint areas was required to draw up their own local plan for accelerating the implementation of the Five Year Forward Review. These blueprints, called Sustainability and Transformation Plans, will be placed-based multi-year plans built around the needs of local populations and will help drive the transformation in health and care outcomes between 2016 and 2021. Locally, this will include the future of Hinckley hospital and the most effective way of providing services which may be through other locations.
He also explained the problems with bed blocking, not only in respect of the required improvements to care in the community but also in regard to its adverse effect on the ambulance service delivering patients to hospital. In respect of the reduction of hospital beds, it was recognised that this could not take place until provision of care in the community was improved.
169/16 Correspondence
LCC: Clearance of overgrown hedges
BDC: Fly Tipping*
BDC: Christmas Carol Service*
Police: Coffee Event at Sapcote Pavilion Friday 9 December 12.30 to 3.00 pm*
LCC: Licence for installation and operation of seasonal decorations
BDC: Castle Acres development approved*
Resident: School parking*
LCC: Parish Clerk’s Highways News*
BDC: Granitethorpe Quarry
NALC: Procurement of collective external audit services
* Copied to Members
** Circulated to Members
170/16 Parliamentary Seat Boundary Proposals
The Clerk referred members to the letters from Alberto Costa MP which had previously been circulated. He advised that the Boundary Commission had recommended adjustments to the Leicestershire South constituency area around the Lutterworth Area. Additionally, the Labour Party had submitted a counter proposal which called for other substantial adjustments including the transfer of the ten western parishes which comprise the Fosse Villages Neighbourhood Plan Area, into Hinckley and Bosworth constituency and this would of course include Sapcote. Mr Costa was anxious to receive support from the local parish councils for the original Boundary Commission proposal which largely kept the present constituency intact. The Clerk had written to members for their comments and received responses from the Chairman and Vice Chairman. Following a consultation with the Chairman, the circulated response, supporting the Boundary Commission proposal, was sent in response to the consultation.
171/16 Phone Box Removal
The Clerk referred to correspondence he had received regarding the decommissioning of a number of phone boxes in Blaby, one of which was located outside of the Post Office on Stanton Road. He reported that he had contacted BT but was awaiting a response.
The cost of purchase would be £1, the electricity supply would remain and BT would continue to be responsible for the electricity supply and any payments to the electric company for that supply. At the point of adoption BT would ensure that the light was working but from then onwards, BT would only be responsible for the supply to the kiosk to the point of the fuse box. Any future faults beyond this point would be the responsibility of the phone box owner.
Once the ownership of the phone box was secured a defibrillator would be acquired for installation in the box.
Mr Howell agreed to take on the adoption of the telephone box and the procurement of a defibrillator.
172/16 Car Parking
The meeting discussed the lack of public parking in Sapcote and wondered if the Sapcote Club would consider some sort of scheme that made spaces available to the public at certain time. Clerk to action.
173/16 Grounds Maintenance
The Clerk reported that a working party had met to discuss the maintenance of the Grace Road public open space and a number of issues had been identified which would now be discussed with David Wilson Homes at meeting arranged for next week. One concern was the drainage of the site which continued to be problematic.
It was noted that DWH had again approached the Parish Council asking for reconsideration of the decision on the adoption of the balancing ponds. It was agreed that the decision would remain the same.
174/16 Delegates Reports
The Clerk referred to previous discussions on the proposed capping of parish council precepts to a maximum of 2% and advised that he and the Chairman had written to Alberto Costa MP to enlist his support to fight the proposal. He had now received a House of Commons briefing paper from Mr Costa’s office which suggested that the proposal would only affect those parishes with a precept of over £500,000. This had yet to be confirmed.
175/16 Exclusive Rights
Resolved that Exclusive Rights to grave spaces be granted in respect of Michael Brown, Kathleen Brown and Trevor Jones.
176/16 Planning Matters
No applications or decisions received
177/16 Finance
Resolved that a grant of £225 be made to Sapcote Youth Club for the purchase of activity material.
Resolved that the revised burial charges circulated at the meeting be approved to become effective from 1 April 2017 with the following amendment; no charge will be made for burials of persons under 16 years of age.
Resolved that the following items of expenditure be approved
Cemetery Grass Cutting £ 247.20
Playing Fields Grass Cutting £ 174.00
Peak Cash Flow (Brian Mee Assoc.) £ 421.20
Web site consultancy £ 517.00
FVNP Room Hire (Mr M Lee) £ 30.00
Youth Club Grant Bid £ 225.00
Society of Local Council Clerks £ 177.00
(Annual subscription)
Plants for cemetery £ 54.00
PWLB (Pavilion) DD £ 3,104.90
PWLB (Cemetery extension) DD £ 916.30
Resolved that, the following items of income be noted
Memorial: Baum £ 55.00
Burial: Simpson £ 275.00
Burial: Hextall £ 420.00
Burial: Brown £ 345.00
Reserved Grave: Brown £ 255.00
Burial: Davis £ 140.00
Reserved Grave: Jones £ 185.00
Burial: Clarke £ 140.00
FVNP Grant £ 9,000.00
178/16 Items for the Next Agenda
Grounds Maintenance Contracts
Precept
Signed………………………………..
Chairman
Date………………………………….
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