EVESHAM TOWN COUNCIL
Minutes of the Meeting of EVESHAM TOWN COUNCIL held at 6.30 pm on MONDAY 12 JUNE 2017 in the Council Chamber, Town Hall, Evesham.
Those present:
Chairman: Cllr R S W Jones (Town Mayor)
Vice Chairman: Cllr M S Goodge (Deputy Mayor)
Councillors: Cllr Mrs S Amor, Cllr A Barlow, Cllr A P Booth, Cllr M D Elliman,
Cllr G Hale, Cllr Mrs L S Jakeman, Cllr Mrs J Johnson, Cllr F Kaler,
Cllr Mrs D R Raphael, Cllr R W Raphael, Cllr Mrs M Sale,
Cllr Mrs J E Sandalls, Cllr Mrs F S Smith, Cllr J H Smith OBE,
Cllr C Tether, Cllr Mrs J Tucker, Cllr N Tucker, Cllr Mrs R Whiting
Officers: Mr S Carter – Town Clerk
Also present: 1 member of the press, Rev Andrew Spurr, Mr Robin Walker and Cllr Anthony Hopkins (Worcestershire County Council)
37. Apologies for Absence
Apologies for absence were received from Cllrs Bowers, Bulman and Miss Haynes
38. Declarations of pecuniary or other interest (if any)
Cllr Mrs J Sandalls declared a non-pecuniary interest in Minute 46, Planning Application, as she is on the Wychavon District Council Planning Committee.
39. Announcements by the Town Mayor
There were no announcements.
40. Minutes of the Previous Meetings
The Clerk had circulated with the agenda the Minutes of the Meetings held on 8 May 2017 and 15 May 2017. It was noted that Cllr Mrs D Raphael was listed as being present on 8 May 2017 when in fact she had given her apologies. With this amendment, it was RESOLVED that the Minutes be adopted as a true record.
41. Committee Minutes
a) The Clerk had circulated with the agenda the Minutes of the Town Place Committee held on 22 May 2017. It was RESOLVED that the Minutes be adopted as a true record. Cllr Tether added that the lighting project was moving ahead and that WDC would be making a presenation to the Town Council shortly.
b) The Clerk had circulated with the agenda the Minutes of the Planning and Estates Committee held on 1 June 2017. It was RESOLVED that the Minutes be adopted as a true record.
c) The Clerk had tabled at the meeting the Minutes of the Finance and General Purposes Committee held on 5 June 2017. It was RESOLVED that the Minutes be adopted as a true record.
42. Update from Worcestershire County Council (WCC) and Wychavon District Council (WDC Councillors if present
Cllr Anthony Hopkins of WCC introduced himself as a recently elected Member of WCC for Harvington (which includes the north of Evesham in its boundary). Cllr Hopkins had succeeded Mr Clive Holt who had stepped down as a Councillor following long service to his ward.
Cllr Hopkins stated that he was from Inkberrow and had lived all around this area which he was very proud and fond of. He had previously been a Parish Councillor for 14 years and was well aware of how Parish/Town Councils worked and their importance in the local government structure.
The handover from Mr Holt to Cllr Hopkins was going well and there were many projects that he was looking forward to working on. Initially he had been contacted by residents around Rynal Place about double yellow lines and road markings pertaining parking by users of the railway station in Evesham. It was very early in his term of office so there was little more to report but was very grateful to be asked to attend Town Council meetings and was looking forward to working with the Town Council.
Cllr Goodge asked a question regarding the Traffic Survey and when it would be published. Cllr Hopkins said he had chased the results and was awaiting information from Officers at WCC. Similarly Cllr Hopkins was asked about any developments he knew of regarding the A46 and he said again that he had chased Officers at WDC but had not yet received any information.
Cllr Jones thanked Cllr Hopkins for his contribution and suggested to Town Council members that in future it would be a good idea that if they had a specific question for WDC/WCC councillors that they feed the questions to the Town Clerk who would forward them on. This would give our guest councillors time to research the answers to the questions and feed back useful information.
43. Finance – payments and receipts for May 2017
Evesham Town Council’s payments and receipts and bank for the month of May 2017 were tabled. In response to a question it was explained that the payment of £163 to SME Solicitors was for the faculty to install the information board regarding the work to the porch to go up at St Peters closed churchyard. Another question was regarding the grant that appeared in the receipts from Iron Bridge. The Town Clerk explained that this was to do with a project that the Almonry were running and that payments from the grant had also been made.
It was RESOLVED that the Town Council payments for the month of May, as attached at appendix A, amounting to £80,698 (NET) be approved and the receipts be NOTED.
44. Green Plan Framework
Mr Robin Walker who is a non –voting member of the Evesham Town Plan committee gave a presentation on “An Intelligently Green Framework for Evesham”. Circulated with the agenda were the draft plan and the slides. The presentation had already been made to the members of the Town Plan committee and they had requested that it be presented to the Town Council.
Mr Walker explained that there were significant green threads running through the town plan and this framework was a product of this. The idea of the framework was that its constituents had a benefit for the environment and the community and/or financially benefit the town. Mr Walker emphasised that this was a framework rather than a plan. A framework was like a guide and less prescriptive than a plan and could be amended more easily and would evolve as time went on.
Mr Walker touched on the vision which was the stewardship of our natural environment, the pursuit of a thriving, sustainable economy and building a just and vibrant community. Mr Walker then talked about “What do we mean by Green”:-
• A quieter, cleaner, healthier place for people to live and bring up families
• Low carbon sources of energy /transport, goods and services
• Lower emissions and energy usage
• Sourcing a high proportion of our food and non-renewable resources from the local area
• Going green means to live life, as an individual as well as a community, in a way that is friendly to the natural environmental and is sustainable for the earth
• Maintaining the natural ecological balance
• Taking steps to minimize the harm we do to the environment including the carbon footprints we leave behind
• Reducing our use of Earth’s limited resources and the emission of harmful pollutants
Mr Walker then talked about “what will a Greener Evesham look like in twenty years”:-
• A more beautiful town, quieter and cleaner, more trees, less concrete, less carbon energy-dependent, that attracts green entrepreneurs, creates green jobs, adds to town’s reputation as a progressive green town
• A town with measurably lower energy consumption
• A community that embraces the circular economy in which nothing is wasted
• A supportive culture that enables organisations, individuals and communities in Evesham to shift towards a greener future
• A town with a strong sense of environmental stewardship, celebrating our heritage and culture, protecting our natural environment, preserving a high quality of life and well-being that meets our present needs without compromising the needs of future generations
The framework was set into 6 categories:
· Energy
· Transport
· Housing & Construction
· Local economy, tourism and enterprise
· Food
· Waste
The Town Council were central in helping to deliver this framework and indeed were already doing so. There were a number of key interest groups that were reporting to the Town Plan delivery committee, for example regarding local economy, tourism and enterprise, Transport, and the anti litter group. Regarding energy, there was a current Transition Vale energy group which was working with WDC to look at that subject. With reference to Housing and Construction there was a Housing Stakeholder group which would be reconvened (it was originally set up to help form the Town Plan). Regarding food, again there was a current Transition Evesham Vale group. Therefore a lot of the work was already being done and these groups could be used going forward.
Mr Walker wanted the framework to be adopted by Evesham Town Council but also become an
information source used by Wychavon District Council and Worcestershire County Council when formulating decisions and policies.
Cllr Raphael stated that the framework was an excellent document and Mr Walker was praised for his work on it. Cllr Raphael asked how it would be measured whether the framework was a success or not and what it had achieved, or not. Mr Walker replied that the steering group would meet very soon to consider how they were going to measure it.
Cllr Smith OBE echoed Cllr Raphael’s sentiment regarding the quality and content of the document. However he did seek clarification on what was meant by housing and construction and also highlighted that no reference had been made to building development and loss of green space and a lot of that had happened in Evesham. Mr Walker agreed that there had been no specific reference to this and that was something that they will look at in terms of the framework and would look to add something specifically related to housing development and loss of green space.
Regarding tourism and economy Cllr Tether was keen to state that the framework should also include VECTA and engage with them. Making reference to attracting environmentally friendly developers Cllr Mrs Smith wondered how this would be achieved. Mr Walker stated that this was an ambition and may not be achievable but it was good to have ambition. He stated that developers wanted to sell houses and accordingly we could influence developers if enough customers stated that they wanted to be environmentally
friendly as they could be. If we lobbied enough that this was our priority things may start to
happen. In response to a question from Cllr Elliman regarding tourism Mr Walker stated that
tourism was on the rise and that eco tourism was especially on the rise and if we could bring
people it would bring money to the town.
Cllr Mrs Smith left the meeting at this stage as she had another engagement to attend of which she had already notified the Mayor and Town Clerk.
Cllr Mrs Sandalls also agreed that the framework was an excellent document and it was great to
see that the town plan was moving forward.
Referring to the idea of encouraging environmentally friendly developers and builders not planning for the future, Cllr Kaler was concerned that builders did not plan for future life for example those who developed physical impairments, by not providing wide doors. In response Mr Walker stated that if enough pressure was put on the builders they would listen.
Cllr Robert Raphael formally proposed that Evesham Town Council adopt the green framework
as a key component of the town plan. Cllr Raphael added that the plan should come back to the Council once it has been through WDC and WCC as it may be amended. The proposal was seconded by Cllr Mrs Sandalls and it was unanimously RESOLVED to adopt the Green Plan.
The Town Mayor commented that it was great to see the Town Plan being acted upon and making progress.
45. It was RESOLVED to change the order of business in accordance with Standing Order no.
10(a) vi.
46. Planning Applications
a. 17/00934/HP – Mr M Rea – 7 Simon de Montfort Drive – front entrance porch. It was RESOLVED to recommend that this application be approved.
The Mayor suggested if there was a third way in which planning applications could be considered
whereby smaller applications like this were considered in a different way. The Mayor thought that a lot of time was taken up dealing with less important applications like the one above. In response Cllr Smith stated that it was important that every application was considered by members as there was no knowing what was important to people and they should be considered equally.
47. Annual Return – Annual Governance Statement
The Town Clerk had circulated with the agenda a report to advise Members of the Town Council accounts for the year ending 31 March 2017 which formed part of Annual Return including the Annual Governance Statement 2016/17.
The report explained that the Annual Governance Statement was managed by the systems in place with the risk management policies, recently reviewed by Council, the reporting of payments and budget control, the independent internal audit carried out by Kevin Rose CPFA, and subsequent action on the Clerks recommendations and the recent review of the Council’s insurance.
The Town Clerk advised that Members needed to approve the annual governance statement (section 1) if they were happy that it had met all the statements laid out. It was RESOLVED To approve the annual governance statement as detailed in section 1, page 2 of the annual return (attached at appendix B).
48. Annual Return – Accounting Statement
The Town Clerk had circulated with the agenda a report which explained any large difference in the income and expenditure when compared to the previous year which formed part of the accounting statement.