Apologies Were Received from Councillors K Armstrong-Braun and W P Jones

MINUTES OF A MEETING OF THE SALTNEY TOWN COUNCIL held at the ODDFELLOWS HALL, 65 HIGH STREET, SALTNEY on WEDNESDAY 12 OCTOBER, 2011

PRESENT: Councillor T R Lloyd (Mayor) Councillors H D Beddow; T J Elliott, D Evans; T A Evans; V Gay; D A Hope; A C Lloyd; R N Lythe; B J Marshall, A V Moran and the Town Clerk.

69. APOLOGIES

Apologies were received from Councillors K Armstrong-Braun and W P Jones.

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70. MINUTES

RESOLVED: That the Minutes of the meeting of the Council held on 14 September, 2011, be confirmed as a correct record.

71. MAYOR’S COMMUNICATIONS

The Mayor reported that since the last meeting of the Town Council he:

·  had attended the 25 Anniversary Tea to celebrate the founding of the Saltney and Saltney Ferry History Group;

·  had attended the Oddfellows Coffee Morning as their guest speaker;

·  had attended the Chairman of the County Council’s Casino evening where over £860 had been raised to be divided between the MacMillan Nurses and Gt Ormond Street Hospital;

·  had worked with Members of the Allotment Society to create a flower bed under the new ‘Welcome to Saltney’ sign and he thanked them for their sterling efforts;

·  attended a social event arranged by Deetex to distribute over £2,600 to local worthy causes;

·  reminded Members that the Christmas Parade would be held on 1 December and supported by PC Ian Millington, he appealed for volunteer stewards to assist on the day;

·  had attended the speed awareness classes set up by Pc Ian Millington and PCSO Dan Hughes for the children of the 3 local primary schools. He thanked Ian and Dan for their efforts and Councillor Alan Evans who had acted as official photographer.

72. POLICE MATTERS

PC Ian Millington was present and reported as follows:

·  that the children from each of the primary schools within the Town had assisted with an action plan to cut speeding. He felt that the day had been most effective for the children as well as the motorists who had been challenged about their speeding by the children and warned against excessive speed;

·  he was pleased that the latest action plan had reduced to the enforcement of the now waiting areas outside the shops on Victoria Road. This matter would be dealt with in a sensitive manner;

·  the ‘Halloween Season’ would shortly being celebrated and he expected that local shops would continue to support the action not to sell eggs or flour to children during this period. Unfortunately, because of the budget cuts, his time was limited and he had not yet been able to go into the local schools to re-enforce the message about anti social behaviour during this period;

·  that PCSO Dan Hughes was on secondment to Project 2011 during this month and so the team was one man down for the next few weeks;

·  there had been the arrest of a local drug dealer during the past few days and this had come about from intelligence passed to the police from local informants; he encouraged Members and members of the public to keep the police informed of any suspicious incidents;

·  as Christmas time approached thefts of high value bikes began to increase and he asked that the public should remain vigilant at all times. Morrisons had been approached to upgrade their cycle racks;

·  reminded Members that Police strength was at an all time low and although a police presence had been agreed for the Christmas Parade the necessity for the street closures was dependent on the required number of stewards being available

Councillor Hope referred to the derelict state of the old farmhouse on Flint Road and informed Members that a lady had been squatting there. In the absence of Councillor Armstrong-Braun he asked County Councillor Gay if she would take up the matter of the security of this building with the owners, Flintshire County Council.

RESOLVED: That the report be received.

The Mayor invited Councillor Moran to retire from the meeting during the debate on the next item but Councillor Moran declined.

73. COMPLAINT TO THE OMBUDSMAN RE CLLR A V MORAN

Further to Minute 142 the Town Clerk reported the receipt of a letter from the Public Service Ombudsman for Wales informing the Town Council that he had decided not to investigate the Town Council’s complaint against Councillor Moran. Although he had conceded that Councillor Moran’s comments on facebook might be deemed to be a breach of the code of conduct, in that they could be regarded as bringing the Council into disrepute he was not persuaded that the breach was sufficiently serious to warrant investigation as he felt that it would not be likely to lead to a sanction being imposed by a Standards Committee.

The Town Clerk reported that together with Councillor Alan Evans he had attended a meeting of the Flintshire Standards Committee where, without identifying any individual concerned, he had submitted the Ombudsman’s comments for their consideration. They had not agreed with the Ombudsman’s reasoning and would be commenting direct.

Members discussed the comments in the Ombudsman’ response which had been circulated. They did not agree that the comments were posted on Councillor Moran’s private facebook page. Furthermore Councillor Moran had, since the receipt of the Ombudsman’s letter, opened jointly with another, another Facebook page entitled ‘Saltney Town’ inviting members of the public to make comments about the Town; one of the first of which was inaccurate and misleading.

RESOLVED: That the Ombudsman be informed that the Town Council totally disagree with his decision and consider that Councillor Moran breached paragraphs 2 (1) (c); 4 (b) and (d) and 6 (1) (a) and invite him to review his decision on the basis that the facebook page was not private but open to public view.

74. TOWN COUNCIL ELECTIONS 2012

Members received a copy of the election timetable for the elections to be held on Thursday 3 May, 2012 and noted that the moratorium for any casual vacancies would begin on 3 November, 2011.

RESOLVED: That the report be received.

75. STREET LIGHTING – SALTNEY FERRY ROAD

The Town Clerk reported that although he had written the relevant Senior Officers in the County Council’s employ with regards to the lamp standards that were causing an obstruction on the pavement in Saltney Ferry Road he had received no positive response.

RESOLVED: That the Town Clerk be requested to forward all correspondence with regards to this matter which began in April 2009 to the Chief Executive of the County Council asking him to act in this matter and to copy the correspondence to the Health and Safety Executive.

76. LAMP STANDARD – FLINT ROAD, SALTNEY FERRY

The Town Clerk reminded Members that the lamp standard on the corner of Flint Road adjacent to the footbridge over the river had been demolished twice during 2010. The Council’s Insurers, Zurich Municipal, had successfully recovered the second £100.00 policy excess from the third party insurers.

RESOLVED: That the report be received.

77. ROAD TRAFFIC REGULATION ACT 1984

A5104 and B5125 Broughton to Saltney Speed Limit Order 201

Members received a copy of the Notice in connection with the above proposal. The reason given for proposing to make the Order was to reduce the risk of traffic accidents and improve the road safety for all road users.

RESOLVED: That the proposed Order be fully supported by the Town Council and the Town Clerk be requested to write to the internal police officer at Airbus asking him to remind all staff of the speed restrictions that apply to this road.

78. PLANNING APPLICATIONS

(1) The Town Clerk reported that the following applications had been approved:

·  Erection of single storey rear extension to provide bedroom and en-suite at 1 Salisbury Avenue, Saltney, Flintshire CH4 8TF;

·  Erection of single storey side and rear extension at 40 Mainwaring Drive, Saltney Ferry, Flintshire CH4 0AZ

(2)Members considered the following planning applications:

·  Ref: 049049

·  Proposal: Erection of a garage

·  Location: 20 Cwrt y Terfyn, Saltney

·  For: Mr J Griffiths

·  Grid ref: E338432 N364802

·  Ref: 049057

·  Proposal: Erection of ground floor extensions to front and rear to extend existing porch and create larger kitchen/dining room area with velux windows;

·  Location: 31 Alyndale Road, Saltney, Flintshire, CH4 8UG

·  For: Mr M Rathbone

·  Grid Ref: E337897 N364583

RESOLVED: That the approvals at (1) above be noted and the County Council be informed that the Town Council have no observations to make on the applications referred to at (2) above.

79. WINTER PREPARATIONS

(1) The County Council were asking the Town Council if they wished to nominate someone to receive daily details of the proposed gritting actions together with an accurate weather forecast for the area. This would allow the nominee to pass this important information onto other interested parties within the community.

(2) In an attempt to assist the local community to help themselves during any periods of heavy snow, the County Council would be offering basic equipment in order that the local community could take on some localised footway snow clearing work to supplement the County Council’s own snow clearing operations.

If the Town Council or any other groups nominated by them, requested equipment, they would receive:

8 bags of rock salt and applicators;

Shovels for snow clearing;

Instructions and indemnity notices for those people carrying out the work.

Storage for the equipment would be required.

RESOLVED: That the Town Clerk be requested to ask the Scout Association and the Youth Club if they would be prepared to assist in this matter.

80. VISIT OF THE COUNTY COUNCIL’S CHIEF EXECUTIVE

The Town Clerk reported the receipt of a letter from the Chief Executive of the County Council asking for the opportunity to visit a Council meeting. The purpose of his attendance would be to discuss the priorities of the Council and hear member’s views on priorities and issues and members thoughts on improving further the working relationships with the County Council.

RESOLVED: That the Chief Executive be thanked for his offer and he be invited to a special closed meeting of the Town Council on a date to be announced.

81. FLINTSHIRE COUNTY SUMMER PLAY SCHEME PROGRAMME 2011

Members received a report on a very successful Summer Play Scheme run by the County Council at Billy’s Park, Saltney Ferry during the school holidays.

RESOLVED: That the report be received and the ‘team’ be congratulated on their effort.

82. CHRISTMAS LIGHTS – SALTNEY FERRY – EWART ST AND NORTH STREET

The Town Clerk reported that estimates had now been received for the replacement of the Christmas lighting in Saltney Ferry. Consultations had suggested a ‘like for like’ lighting scheme with the lights remaining in situ permanently.

RESOLVED: That the estimates from Blachere in the sum now indicated be accepted and, subject to the approval of the County Council’s Housing Department the ‘eye bolts’ and the stability cables be replaced.

83. SCULPTURE

The Town Clerk reported that the offending tiles had now been replaced successfully and he asked the Town Council to formally adopt the sculpture as had previously been agreed.

RESOLVED: That the ‘sculpture’ adjacent to the Morrisons store be formally adopted and included on the Town Council’s insurance schedule.

84. AUDIT OF ACCOUNTS

The Town Clerk reported that he had been in correspondence with the Town Council’s external auditors about the outstanding audits for 2009; 2010 and 2011. The Auditor cannot report on them until the matter of Councillor Armstrong-Braun’s mayoral allowance had been settled following the Ombudsman’s report and the referral to the Adjudication Panel for Wales. If the matter was not settled before the 31 December, 2011 the Town Council would have to issue a Notice to the effect that the Audit had not been completed within the statutory time limit and publicise the reasons for the non-compliance.

RESOLVED: That the report be received and the Auditor be reminded that the circumstances were beyond the Town Council’s control.

85. NOTICE OF MOTION

The Notice of Motion standing in the name of Councillor Elliott was withdrawn.

86. INFORMATION FROM THE LOCAL COUNTY COUNCIL MEMBERS

Further to Minute 210 Local County Council member present Councillor Gay reported as follows:

·  she had consulted with the relevant Officers at County Hall and they had confirmed that there was no statutory minimum width for a footpath and therefore she was continuing her researches into the possibility of landscaping the footpath between Larch Way and Park Avenue;

·  BT were to open their new faster fibre optic broadband service on 19 October;

·  she referred to the announcement of the Northern Gateway plan for the development of the former RAF Sealand estate of over 400 acres. It was expected that it would result in over 5,000 jobs in the next 5 years;

·  reminded members that it was Flintshire Business week;

·  referred to the appeal raised by Boots, Chemists and Vittoria Chemists against the plans to put a pharmacy in the Morrisons store. She asked for the support of the Town Council in a petition to Carl Sargeant asking him to support the decision of the Betsi Cadwaladr Health Board and reject the appeal;