CALDBECK PARISH COUNCIL
Minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting held at Caldbeck Parish Hall on Monday 13th May 2015 commencing at 7pm.
Councillors Present: Norman Atkinson, Alan Tyson, Colin Smithson, Angela Glendinning, Tim Cartmell, Alastair Macfadzean & Ian Shaw.
Also Present: Elizabeth Clark (Clerk), Duncan Fairbairn (District and County Councillor), Antoinette Ward, David Ward (Northern Fells Group Parish Representative), Pat Shaw (PCC & First Responders), Ron Davie (History Society), Helen Sturges (Northern Fells Group Village Agent) & numerous parishioners.
Apologies for absence were received from Paul Doherty (Northern Fells Broadband Parish Representative), PCSO Kerry Harris, Reverend Riches & Anne Armstrong.
MINUTES
The minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting held on 12th May 2014 were agreed and signed as a correct record.
CHAIRMANS REPORT and PARISH PLAN
The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting and gave his report as follows: Welcome everyone and thank you for coming tonight. For those of you who do not know me, I'm Norman Atkinson and I am Chairman of Caldbeck Parish Council, having held the post for the last year. Using the Vicar of Dibley analogy, I should be David Horton, however if you fall asleep after 5 minutes, then call me Frank. Hugo, Jim and Owen, might be joining us later.
The Chairman's report is the opportunity for me to give you a summary of the Parish Council's work over the last year, which as I hope you'll see, has been quite productive.
However, before I highlight this it is worth pointing out that for this coming year there will be considerable change in the make-up of the parish Council, due to 6 councillors not standing for re-election. This together with the recent retirement of the Parish Clerk and the appointment of her successor, as well as the appointment of 3 new councillors, means a few fresh faces for you all.
Therefore, I am particularly pleased to welcome our new incoming Parish Councillors, who probably are already known to you, having all been resident in the locality for over 30 years. I would like to introduce you to Tim Cartmell, Alistair Macfadzean and Ian Shaw, who kindly agreed to stand for election and like the remaining Councillors were elected unopposed, as there were insufficient nominations to hold a ballot. In total 7 councillors were elected without contest, leaving a total of 3 vacancies to be filled in the near future. This will be done by co-opting 3 willing parish residents who are prepared to serve their local community. Although elected Councillors represent the whole parish, I feel it would be beneficial if there was some representation from Hesket New Market residents, to help maintain a balance in the council make up. Hesket New Market residents, your community needs you!
Also fresh to the table is our new Parish Clerk and Responsible Financial Officer, to give her, her full title and that is Elizabeth Clark, who already has several years experience as a Parish Clerk. On behalf of the Parish Council and the local community, I would like to welcome you to the parish and to your new role, and we all look forward to working with you in the future.
I would like to take this opportunity to formally thank our out-going Clerk, Antoinette Ward, who has been in post for almost 8 years. She has provided the Council and the members of the community with sound advice and guidance but always in a courteous and business like manner. So Antoinette, a big thank you, enjoy your retirement from the post and I hope the extensive building alterations you and David are having done go smoothly.
Before moving on to summarising the Parish Council's activities I would also like to take the time to thank those Parish Councillors who have recently stood down from their posts. In particular Wiiliam Cowx who served for approximately 35 years with 8 of those as Chairman. Audrey Noble - 25 years, Anne Cartmell - 12 years with 6 of those as Chairman, Roy Knowles - 12 years, Alan Armstrong - 8 years, and Anne Armstrong - 2 years who unfortunately had to give up prematurely due to competing interests. Thank you to you all for the service you have given to your local community.
I do appreciate those remaining Councillors who continue to serve their local community and provide the Council with a useful corporate memory when discussing issues that have been raised several years earlier. Again thank you to Alan Tyson who has served for 22 years, 2 of those as Chairman, Colin Smithson - 8 years and Angela Glendinning - 4 years. Besides it would be a little bit lonely up here on my own.
So now to the years events.
One of the Council's responsibilities is scrutinising and commenting on planning applications. The Council supports most applications but having voted on the issue sometimes decides to object, having taken into account local views, correspondence and any other material factors. Planning applications are advertised on the National Park website, in the local papers, on statutory notices and are on the Parish Council Agenda for each meeting. Residents can give their views to both the Parish Council and to the National Park Authority, either in support or to object to a particular application.
Over the last 12 months the Council dealt with 26 planning applications, of these 19 were supported, 4 were objected to and the remaining 3 required no action. There were a variety of applications, which amongst other things, included minor extensions, new buildings, barn conversions and windmills. It goes without saying that the length and variety of debate on these varied considerably, depending on the application under discussion.
The National Park amended their Local Occupancy Policy regarding the locality where you must live in order to be classed as local. This new amendment is now based on their 4 'Distinctive Areas', which for Caldbeck comes under their Northern Area. This would be fine for parishes in the centre of the distinctive area but it was detrimental to those on the fringes, which included Caldbeck. In simple terms for us, it meant that the local residency criteria now included parishes as far away as Keswick and St Johns but did not include parishes immediately adjoining Caldbeck, such as Mungrisedale, Sebergham or Westward, because they were not within the Northern Distinctive Area. For Caldbeck Parish this seemed a nonsense, as those parishes adjoining us have a close affinity to us through employment, shopping, health and leisure. Following strong representations by Caldbeck Parish Council to the National Park, both orally and in writing, the policy was amended to include specific adjoining parishes when requested by the Parish Council or an applicant. For a small Council such as ours, this was a significant success.
In addition the Council have been pressing the National Park to improve their planning website so that all documents relating to an application, such as letters of objection or support, are available to be viewed on-line, as is the case with Allerdale Borough Council. A positive response was received from the National Park's Director of Planning, who hopes that the site can be upgraded in the near future to accommodate this.
The Parish Council liaises regularly with County Highways Department, reporting potholes and other damage to roads, drainage problems and damaged or broken signs. Where necessary Councillors will meet with Highways Engineers onsite to ensure the problem is fully understood. Over the past year a number of drainage issues affecting local roads have been resolved. These include the stretch of road from Parkend to Longlea, which regularly flooded across the road. At Green Close, Caldbeck (back of village green) the small bore drain that ran under the road regularly used to flood when there was excessive rain. This was replaced by a much larger drain which alleviated the problem.
Currently we are waiting for drainage work to be carried out on School Hill, which is causing problems for residents on Commercial Row and are also looking for improvements to be made to Wath Brow, which can be particularly dangerous in winter when the excess water freezes across the road. The County Council also agreed to provide cycle stands in both Caldbeck and Hesket New Market but as yet they have not been installed. The Council continues to push for all these works to be completed.
The Parish Council had been informed that work to improve the road surface on the back of Caldbeck Village Green, would be completed before winter 2014, however despite considerable contact from us, we are still unable to get a firm date for the works to be completed. Rest assured we will continue to press the issue. Similarly resurfacing work is scheduled for the Upton Road in Caldbeck during the current financial year, again we continue to press for a start date.
The grass cutting around Caldbeck Pond was an issue of concern for some local residents. The area around the pond is common land and is owned by the County Council but managed by the Parish Council. During the growing season last year opinions were put forward about leaving the grass to grow longer and not cutting it until all the wild flowers had finished flowering. Conversely some residents thought it was too long and untidy and needed to be cut sooner. Views were sought from residents and responses were equally mixed. Having debated the issue the Council concluded that the current arrangements of two cuts per year in June and August would remain but with some flexibility on the first cut with the contractor, depending on its growth. We also have responsibility for the grass cutting on Hesket New Market Green. Each year the contracts for cutting both Greens are put out to tender.
The Council continues to work with the Lake District National Park and in September Kath Johnson took over from Pete Barron, following his retirement, as National Park Ranger covering our area. Kath guided us through the process of obtaining a grant for over £750 from the National Park Communities Fund to purchase a strimmer and associated safety equipment for use by volunteer local residents, in maintaining public areas in the parish. The National Park are also in the process of marking out parking bays in Hesket New Market car park, which should increase the number of cars being able to use it. These improvements are much appreciated.
Having reviewed the Parish Plan there was one item that had remained outstanding for a number of years, this was the creation of a public footpath and cycleway from Caldbeck to Hesket New Market. This was the one item that overwhelmingly, most residents wanted. Following on from the previous Chairman, Alan Tyson, who had received positive responses from the landowners after initial informal consultation, a more formal structure through a Working Group has since been established to build upon this. It comprises of 3 Parish Councillors, including myself, the Clerk and representatives from the National Park and Cumbria County Council Highways, together with two retired solicitors, both resident in the parish, Tim Cartmell and David Ward as well as local Land Agent, Alick Grieve. I must say all the last 3 aforementioned have done a great deal of work to move the project forward, which is greatly appreciated. The cooperation of the affected land owners is also to be applauded. The group meets when necessary and although it is still early days and the project is by no means a 'done deal'. There is still much detailed work to be done in formalising agreements and planning the scheme or works. For a small Council like ours, this is a considerable project and will take a concerted effort to achieve it. We do however remain optimistic for its success. Thanks must also go to Doreen Steadman for providing the funding for the project.
The Parish Snow Clearance Scheme, which was agreed three years ago, was successfully implemented at the end of January, following a request from a Fellside resident after heavy snow.
Paul Docherty and Andrew Ward continue as our representatives on the Northern Fells Broadband Group. It has been a frustrating year with solid information being slow in forthcoming from the contractor. Currently 67% of homes in Cumbria have high speed broadband and take up is good by 17% of eligible homes. Once this reaches 20%, BT will repay grant money to Cumbria County Council to be used for second phase funding. The overwhelming responses to the County Council's consultation asked for the final 3% of Cumbria households with no broadband access, to have the money spent on them, with wireless or satellite connections possibly being the answer. Although the Caldbeck and Hesket cabinets have been installed they are not yet enabled, which will probably be in July this year. Fingers crossed.
Cumbria Association of Local Council's Allerdale meetings, National Park Forums and the Local Neighbourhood Forum are regularly attended by members of the Council, which allows us to get a better perspective on issues affecting Allerdale parishes, as well as those county wide. One item where the Parish Council has expressed its concern is over the proposed charges to be made by Allerdale for parish street lighting. It is proposed that parishes pay for the energy and maintenance of lights, currently approximately £60 per year. Our parish has 50 street lights, which would mean a £3,000 per year charge and would have a significant impact on our annual budget of approximately £10,000. Following complaints from Parish Councils, Allerdale is currently working on a formula to cap the amount smaller parishes would have to pay. Discussion with Allerdale continues but they are looking to implement their policy in the 2016 financial year and I still anticipate a cost to the parish. Hopefully it will not be too excessive.