Minutes of a meeting of the COMMUNITY & ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE of Coleshill Town Council held in the Town Hall, High Street, Coleshill on Wednesday 26July2017.

PRESENT:Councillor Farrell in the Chair

Councillors: Battle,Farrowand Wallace

In attendance:Cllrs. Gibbs and Wootton

16APOLOGIES

No apologies were received.

17DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

None were declared.

18PREVIOUS MINUTES

The minutes of the 31 May meeting were proposed by Cllr. Battle, seconded by Cllr. Wallace and AGREED unanimously.

19COMMISSIONING OF IMPROVEMENTS TO MEMORIAL PARK II

The Improvements to Memorial Park - Phase II was included in the 17/18 budget as a total figure of £75,000. At the 31 May committee meeting, members agreed to suspend the need for 3 quotations in order to commission one particular supplier but a more recent quotationhad been received from Warwickshire County Council to resurface the driveway and car park. This has come in at £17,275 in black tarmac, including marshalling and installing speed humps.

The Deputy Town Clerk was to check whether the JML estimate had been based on black tarmac as well. There were no drawings of the area to be surfaced: the Town Clerk suggested that the Warwickshire County Council contacts could create their planned surfacing drawing for member approval. Members were keen that the Park Road opening was widened by clearing back the hedge on the score-box side by a around a metre in length. Cllr. Battle, seconded by Cllr. Wallace and the committee duly RESOLVED to accept the County Councilquotation subject to the check on the JML estimate.

There would be an additional report and costing for white line parking space marking. On the other IMP II matters, more costs were required on dog agility and signage items. The signs needed to have office contact and historic /heritage information and include a “Welcome to Coleshill Memorial Park” sign at the Park Road entrance.

The ideas of children game markings and sunshades were to be held over until other project funding had been considered.

20POTENTIAL TRANSFERS OF LAND FROM NORTH WARKWICKSHIRE BOROUGH COUNCIL TO THE TOWN COUNCIL

Cllr. Farrell declared a personal interest as a North Warwickshire Borough Councillor. That council was looking to reduce its cost of grounds maintenance by agreeing to the potential land transfers to parish and town councils. It was noted that the latest situations were:

Land at the end of Chelmsley Avenue

Borough Officers will take the transfers of land to its 5 September Resources Board to formally transfer these areas to the Town Council. It might then go to the full Borough Council meeting, later in September.

Land at High Street (opposite the Town Hall)

As above. It was further noted that although the Town Clerk had ‘launched’ a crowd funding project on ‘Spacehive’ website, it had only cost £0.01 to web-launch and a further report would be produced before the Town Council would be committed to any further funding.

Land opposite the Green Man

This had been set back a few months because of the Borough Council tree officer’s concerns. However, the Borough Council still intended to repair the wall, carry out resurfacing works (to be disability-compliant) and providing fixtures. It would then be prepared to transfer the land to the Town Council sometime next year.

Brendan Close

See below.

21POSSIBLE TRANSFER OF BRENDAN CLOSE PLAY PARK

Cllr. Wootton declared a personal interest as she knew some nearby residents well.

Coleshill Town Council has been given the opportunity by North Warwickshire Borough Council to consider the acquisition of the Brendan Close play area. This would, however, be on the basis of a 90+ years lease as the land was actually owned by the Father Hudson Society.

It was proposed and seconded by Cllrs. Battle and Cllr. Farrow that the Town Clerk be authorised to write to the Borough Council Streetscape Director to state that the Town Council would be prepared to formally take on the responsibility for the ongoing maintenance of the play area. This was AGREED nem. con. In writing, the Town Clerk should ask whether any further additional or replacement play equipment was possible before the transfer was completed.

22COMMUNITY CENTRE REJUVENATION

Although in September 2016, RoSPA approved all of the equipment on site at the Community Centre play area to be ‘satisfactory’ with a medium risk factor, there had been comments raised with the office about the standard of some of the equipment and the existing play area looking tired.

Work had already been approved for changes to be made to the rubber surfacing. Lattice meshed surfacing was to be installed during August. Members supported the need to install some disability-friendly swings, to varnish the wooden elephant and repaint the other metal apparatus. In addition, the Deputy Town Clerk was to obtain prices for other additional or replacement itemsfor consideration.

A 2017/18 budget existed for CCTV. In view of the high frequency of anti-social behaviour in this park, the Town Clerk was requested to purchase a CCTV camera for the Station Road lamp post on the current basis for image monitoring. In addition, the Town Clerk was asked to provide a report to the next meeting to discuss the CCTV monitoring service used by Atherstone Town Council.

23COMMUNITY ORCHARD

The Deputy Town Clerk had provided costs for the Community Orchard, as requested by Ms. Leanne Carr on behalf of the Community Orchard group. The total cost of the project was to be in excess of £2,000 although £1,480 of this cost would have been incurred to just clear the site. The community group had received voluntary offers from Warwickshire and Tame Valley Wildlife Trustto clear the site and Mr. Simon Lowe of the trustto ‘lay’ the hedge that borders the site.

The Deputy Town Clerk was asked to obtain costs for green metal fencing (rather than wooden) and for clearing the hedge between the southern end of the allotment site and the planned dog agility area. The amended scheme was proposed by Cllr. Wallace, seconded by the Chairman and CARRIED unanimously.

24CHURCHYARD ENTRANCE

A request has been made by the Parish Church project team to widen the churchyard entrance by altering the stone wall. Options suggested were to remove a section of the stone or to relocate the existing wall structure to the right of its current location.

Members wished for the Town Clerk to obtain more details from Rev. Nick Parker, if known by him, or the Parish Church project team:

  • was it known if the wall was covered by the same listed status as the church?
  • was Borough Council planning permission required /had it been sought for the parking area?
  • had the County Highways department been asked if it had objections to the opening being put into greater use as a vehicular access?
  • was the Parish Church project team expecting the work to the wall to be funded by the team itself or the Town Council?

25WEEKLY MARKET

Cllr. Farrell and the Town Clerk met with representative ofCJ Events of in early 2016.

This operator provides a number of weekly markets in the West Midlands and believed it could deliver a weekly market in the town, using Sumner Road.

It was understood by Cllr. Farrell that Love Coleshill traders were in favour of a weekly market. Cllr. Wallace felt it was imperative that stalls were not to compete with current offerings in the town. There were other concerns expressed about the cost of road closure applications and risks associated with emergency vehicle restriction. It was unanimously AGREED that the Town Clerk be authorised to book CJ Events but they should have responsibility for road closure applications and risk assessments and also control stall selection to minimise competition with the regular shop traders of the town.

26ALLOTMENT OPERATION UPDATE

A report had been produced by the Deputy Town Clerkwith a summary:

Blythe13 allotments in total - all allotments well attended

Gilson43 allotments in total - 4 allotments have had reminder letters

Stonebridge44 allotment in total - 5 allotment holders have had reminder letters

12 people were on the waiting list, 4 specifically for Blythe only.

It was proposed by Cllr. Wallace and seconded by Cllr. Farrow and RESOLVEDthat the annual charges be raised (at the time of the AGM) for the forthcoming year to be £25 for residents and £35 for non-residents per plot, per annum.

27WARWICKSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL CONSULTATION ON FAMILY HUBS

Members considered a response to the Warwickshire County Council consultation on Family Hubs (ages 0 – 5). It was outlined that the services currently at the Children’s Centre (alongside the Coleshill C of E Primary School site) were already much reduced in session availability and services offered, when compared to 3 years ago. The consulted proposal was to offer them in future at Atherstone unless an alternative provider could be found in Coleshill.

Issues raised by members were the effect of the reduced service, the continued need for ante- and post-natal support in the town itself, the lack of capacity at the GP surgery in order to offer services that might be lost to the town, the lack of bus service from Coleshill to Atherstone and the fact that the consultation was taking place over the school holiday period when young families were away. The Deputy Town Clerk was asked to respond on behalf of the Town Council, including such views.

There being no further business, the Chairman closed the meeting at 9.25 p.m.

…………………..…………………

Chairman

Community & Environment Committee26July 2017