Apologies Were Received from Councillora C Lloyd

MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE SALTNEY TOWN COUNCIL held at the ODDFELLOWS HALL, 65 HIGH STREET, SALTNEY on WEDNESDAY 15 APRIL, 2015.

PRESENT: The Mayor, Councillor Alan Evans; Councillors H D Beddow; C Evans; V Gay;M Green; E E Greensmith; B R Gregory; C Gregory; T R Lloyd; B J Marshall;A J Pearson; J Shallcross; M S Streeter; T Walkerand the Town Clerk.

169. APOLOGIES

Apologies were received from CouncillorA C Lloyd.

170. MINUTES

The Minutes of the meeting of the Council held on 11 March and the Special Meetings held on 18 and 25 March, 2015were confirmed as a correct record.

PCSO Hughes attended the meeting and reported as follows:

• that District Inspector Jolly had been replaced by Divisional Inspector John Bowcott;
• a formal Working Group had been set up cross border with Cheshire Police from the Lache and Blacon; meeting monthly and exchanging information regularly;
• there had been some ASB particularly around the shops in Victoria Avenue - also a large amount of graffiti in and around Saltney Ferry - the culprits names appeared amongst the graffiti and a meeting was being arranged between the police, parents and the County Council's Housing Officers with a view, if necessary, to use their housing tenancy agreements;
• there had been some damage to parked cars in Woodall Avenue and Victoria Road; investigations were continuing;
• in response to a question from Councillor Gay, he would investigate the costs of bringing the Cheshire Panna Cage to Saltney for use during some times during the summer.

171. POSITIONING OF THE CCTV CAMERAS

Members were reminded that the CCTV camera that had been removed from the Carlton Avenue play had been placed in Larch Way to cover a problem of criminal damage that was occurring in that area. This had only been intended as a temporary move and some residents in the Carlton Avenue area were asking for its return. The Town Council own 3 CCTV cameras, although there are others in the Town and Members considered whether these should be redeployed.

PCSO Hughes was asked for his advice as to whether any of the cameras should be moved and he suggested that the present deployment was probably the best.

RESOLVED: That at the present time a CCTV camera be not redeployed to Carlton Avenue but the Town Clerk be requested to investigate the cost of providing another CCTV within the Town.

172. STREETSCENE

Mr Wayne Jones, from the County Council's Streetscene attended the meeting and discussed various matters with Members:

• dog fouling signs for affixing to lamp standards were made available to Members;
• the tenders for the demolition of the former refuse site on Sandy Lane were awaited;
• some Members had attended the new waste disposal site at Sandicroft and were much impressed by the service they had received although they were still concerned about the necessity for public using vans and holding the necessary permits having to travel to the other side of Mold to dispose of their rubbish and that may lead to an increase in fly-tipping;
• Members reported various sites throughout the Town where bags of rubbish had been dumped and he agreed to remove the same as soon as possible.

173. MAYOR’S COMMUNICATIONS

The Mayor reported that since the last meeting he had:

• attended a 'Memory Cafe' run by the Alzheimer Society at the Airbus Social Club. He had invited a representative to attend this meeting of Council but due to a confusion of dates they would attend a future meeting;
• attended the Chairman of Flintshire Councils' Annual Dinner;
• opened the pharmacy at Morrisons;
• attended St Mark's Church where they had been discussing the next 5 years programme/expansions;
• met with members of the Youth Club at camp in Bala where they had been sharing an exchange with a Youth Club from Dublin. The youngsters had really been enjoying the fellowship and it was expected that there would be a request for a grant to enable the Saltney group to visit Dublin in the autumn;
• collected over £300 in Morrisons in aid of Macmillan Nurses fund;
• enjoyed the first Saltney Civic Dinner held at the Beaufort Hotel on 10 April. The auction and raffle had raised over £2,000 for his chosen charities;
• received an invitation to attend the Buckingham Palace Garden Party on 12 April. Members congratulated him on receiving the invitation!

174.COMMUNITY ASSET TRANSFER

The Town Clerk reported that he had received notification that all the EOIs submitted had been approved to proceed to Business Model Stage 2. In view of the number of requests submitted, the Officers from FCC and FLVC, dealing with the requests, wanted to arrange a meeting with the Council.

Members were asked to consider whether they wished to form a small Working Party to progress the matter or whether they felt that the full Council should be involved at every stage.

RESOLVED: That the full Council be involved at each stage and arrangements be made for the Officers from FCC and FLVC be informed accordingly.

175. REFORMING LOCAL GOVERNMENT : POWER TO LOCAL PEOPLE - THE WILLIAMS REPORT

The Council had been considering this matter at two Special meetings and a third was planned for 25 April. One Voice Wales was preparing a response on behalf of Town and Community Councils and to this end had been conducting consultation events throughout Wales. In view of the responses they had received an additional event was to be held on Monday 20 April at Mold Town Hall between 1-3pm. The Town Council was invited to send a representative to attend.

RESOLVED: That Councillors Greensmith; Gay; Streeter and Walker be appointed to attend.

176. CO-ORDINATION OF ROAD WORKS IN AND AROUND SALTNEY

Town Clerk submitted a letter sent to the Chester MP Stephen Mosley by the Highways Agency setting out their consultation processes prior to the roadwork commencing.

RESOLVED: That the report be received.

177. GREEN LANE LEVEL CROSSING

Members considered the situation at the Green Lane level crossing now that Network Rail had almost completed their works. The safety of pedestrians using the crossing was now far worse than it had been in the past and no consideration seemed to have been taken in the Council's concerns for safety on this crossing

RESOLVED: That a meeting between the Leader of CWAC, their Highways Manager, Network Rail, Stagecoach, Rail Safety Executive and the new Councillor for the adjacent Chester ward be arranged as soon as possible after the LG elections are completed.

178. ONE VOICE WALES MOTIONS FOR ANNUAL CONFERENCE.

The Council were invited to propose a maximum of two motions for debate at the AGM on Saturday 3 October, 2015. The motion(s) were to be sent to OVW Office no later than noon on Thursday 30 April for consideration by the Conference Agenda Committee. Each motion had to reflect a national issue or problem - OVW could not take forward motions that applied to only one area.

RESOLVED: That the Town Clerk prepare two motions to be considered; the lack of dredging of our rivers and the subsequent dangers of flooding and the practice of funding authorities reducing their spending by cutting or removing subsidies for rural bus services.

179.REVIEW OF STANDING ORDERS AND FINANCIAL REGULATIONS

The Town Clerk asked for a small Working Group to be established to carry out the abovementioned review.

RESOLVED: That a Working Party consisting of The Mayor; Deputy Mayor and the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the two Committees be charged with this task.

180. INTERNAL AUDIT

The Town Clerk reported that he had received notice that JDH intended to carry out the Council's Internal Audit commencing Thursday 23 April, 2015.

RESOLVED: That the report be received.

181. ST DAVID'S HIGH SCHOOL VEHICULAR AND PEDESTRIAN ACCESS

The Town Clerk report that following the last meeting of Council, he had written to the County Council, under the Freedom of Information Act, asking for a copy of the recent risk assessment undertaken with regards to vehicular and pedestrian access to the school. The response he had received was that no recent risk assessment had been undertaken but that a study of the problem had been commissioned and a report would be issued to the Governing Body in due course.

The original report had been made in March 2014 and now in April 2015 little, if any, progress had been made. Children's lives were at risk.

RESOLVED: That both County Councillors be requested to work together to pressurise those responsible into making progress.

182. HIGH STREET CROSSING

Following several near accidents, Members considered requesting the County Council to provide a crossing of the High Street at the point where children and adults from the Brook Farm Estate were crossing to access the Morrisons supermarket. There was already a dropped kerb on the Chester side of the stone bridge which encouraged crossing of the road at that point.. Incorporating the traffic lights at the entrance to Morrisons would alleviate the problem to some extent. Extending the barrier and/or the yellow lines might also improve matters.

RESOLVED: That the Traffic Services Manager be consulted and the coments of the Town Council be communicated to him.

183. DEFIBRILLATOR

A request had been received for the town to have an emergency defibrillator installed in an agreed high visibility location. Members were asked to consider the request and where it could be situated. The Town Clerk reported that automatic defibrillators themselves cost around £1,000 and a suitable alarmed case around £500.

RESOLVED: That the Town Clerk be requested to further investigate the costs.

183. FLOOD PREVENTION SOCIETY REPORT 2015

Members noted that the Flood Prevention Society had issued a new report which could be obtained from their website

Of particular interest was the foreword by Lord Plumb of Coleshill and his references to the decision to stop dredging.

RESOLVED: That the Town Clerk be requested to draw the report to the attention of his colleague Clerks asking them in turn to put an item on the agenda for their meetings.

184. BUS SHELTER

Members were reminded that at the last meeting in his reporting back item, Councillor Richard Lloyd had referred to the fact that the bus shelter on the Chester Road opposite his house was to be replaced and the County Officer in charge had offered to move the old shelter, which was still in good condition, to a place suitable to the Town Council.

At the meeting in January, the Council had agreed to put money in this year's budget to fund a new bus shelter adjacent to the sheltered accommodation on Boundary Lane and Members wererequested to consider if this was the place to resite the one from Chester Road.

The land was Housing Committee land and their permission would need to be obtained. Planning permission was not required and the County Council would write all those in the adjacent area to see if there are any objections.

RESOLVED: That subject to the proviso referred to above the bus shelter be resited on Boundary Lane.

185. INFORMATION FROM THE LOCAL COUNTY COUNCIL MEMBERS

Further to Minute 210 of 2008/9 Local County Council members, Councillor Richard Lloyd and Councillor Gay were invited to give any feedback they might have received from County Council meetings that might or would affect Saltney. Members of the Town Council who had attended meetings as representatives of the Town Council since the last meeting were also required to report back.

Councillor Lloyd referred to the temporary closure of Bridge Street whilst a collapsed manhole was repaired; graffiti in Saltney Ferry; his visit to the Sandicroft recycling site and his disappointment that there was no facility for licensed vans to empty there - the nearest facility being the other side of Mold; the lack of attendance at the Police Surgery held recently in the Community house in Ewart Street; the fact that the school Governors at Saltney Ferry School were disappointed not to have been invited to the opening of the coastal path; parking to the rear of 140 High Street and the problems with the root anchors on the newly planted trees on the coastal path.

Councillor Gay referred to her attendance at the NEC of OVW; the newly launched OVW website; the new training programme; FCC cabinet meeting with reference to the use of the mobile library in Saltney; the future of the Saltney Library; the changes in the payments to FCC - no bank and the inability to use the Post Office; changes in the Betsi Cadwaladr Health Service; consultation on the Environment Input Assessment (WG) and that she had been invited to join the Allotment Society Committee.

185. PAYMENT OF ACCOUNTS

RESOLVED: That the following accounts be authorised for payment:

PayeeInvoiceAmount

A ThornileySalary + Office (£50.00) April £991.86

HMRCTown Clerk’s IT£235.40 NI£74.01 £309.41

A ThornileyStamps £21.24

Deeside LdgeRoom Hire £25.00

FCCRent of Bradshaw Ave playing field £5.00

In accordance with Minute 163(2) of the last meeting the Town Clerk reported that he had asked the Chairman and the Deputy Chairman of the Finance and General Purposes Committee to authorise the following payments so that they could properly be charged to the 2014/15 financial year:

FCCLighting and Maintenance x2 £468.00

FCCRecharge Youth Club Friday night £1092.00

RESOLVED: That the report be received and the Town Clerk's action be confirmed.