WALTON PARISH MEETING
Minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting held in the Village Hall, School Lane, Walton
on Tuesday 17th April 2012 at 7.30pm
Present: Councillor E Fairclough (Chair); approx 25 Local Electors including
Cllrs: S Birkby, A Cottrell, G Glenn, J Mackley, E Prince, and K Shaw.
In attendance: Cllr H Massey (Walton Parish Council), Inspector Richard Clare, Cllr Cummings (WMDC), & the Clerk to the Council.
1. Apologies for absence received from Cllr A Manifield (WMDC).
2. To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 21st April 2011.
Copies of the minutes of the meeting held on 21st April 2011 were circulated before the meeting commenced.
The meeting accepted the minutes as a true record and they were signed by the Chair as such.
3. Matters arising from the minutes of the previous meeting.
There were none.
4. Chair’s report on activities 2011/12.
The Chair introduced and thanked the Parish Councillors for their efforts during the year, the Clerk for his work and Paul Readman for looking after the Village Hall and the Park.
She also thanked Ward Councillors Maureen Cummings and Albert Manifield for their support in all Parish matters.
She thanked and wished both Liz and Paul Halliday well for the future following their recent resignations from the Council.
In reviewing the year the Chair reported on one of the most interesting and eventful periods for a long time in the history of the village, a difficult period of negotiation, diplomacy and conciliation involving:
· The first meeting with the gypsy representatives in July to discuss their application for a traveller site on the land off the Grove.
· The formation of a powerful team of village residents, Walton Action Group, (affectionately known as the WAG’s) led by Mark Blount and David Rolinson who made it their priority to achieve the most positive resolution for the village despite having their own day jobs.
· The planning and immense amount of canvassing and leafleting deployed by the team leaders that all the foot-soldiers, Councillor Helen Massey and the Chair were involved with.
· The approval of the Continuing Care Retirement Community application on March 1st.
· The withdrawal of the gypsy site application on March 9th.
· The Chair’s insistence in the negotiations with the developer of ‘The Grove’ land that he provide 10 allotments to meet the requests for more allotment space in the village which now forms part of the application approval.
The Chair felt that the outcome is the best that could be achieved for that parcel of land and paid tribute to the efforts of David Rolinson, Councillor Massey, David Plaut and “The WAGS” asking the meeting for its thanks.
· In light of the passing of the Localism Act in November, the need to address the situation of residual land in the village (which would be further explained later in the meeting).
· The creation of a “Parish Council Charter” with Wakefield MDC which aims to create a framework of understanding about how Wakefield M.D.C. and the Town and Parish Councils in its area will work together for the benefit of local people. (It is available to see on the W.M.D.C. website.) The Chair said she was pleased to attend a signing Ceremony of the Charter in the Town Hall on behalf of Walton Parish Council in October.
· The Walton Arts Festival which was held over nine days in various venues in Walton in September, which was hailed as a great success and to which the Parish Council is happy to give continued support in the future.
· The continuation of the SAFE scheme in Walton now under the care of Inspector Clare who has taken over from Inspector Brear. (More about Police work would follow later in the meeting). The Parish Council has requested changes to the policing policy for Walton to try to improve the service. The contribution for 2012/13 of £8,000 remains the same as before.
The Chair then outlined plans for the future, including:
· A programme of refurbishment which will include the Village Hall floor, some parts of the kitchen and smartening up of the playground equipment.
· Working with the Community Payback Scheme to help doing some litter picking around the village.
· The arrival of hanging baskets which are Spring planting baskets given by way of compensation for the poor showing last Summer. The problem was caused by a virus in the Busy Lizzie plants which was not peculiar to Walton, but occurred nationwide.
· Continuation of the summer displays with thanks to all the previous sponsors and a welcome to anyone who would like to help with sponsorship in the future.
· Maintenance of pressure to retain the Library. Parishioners are encouraged to use the facility if at all possible as it is a case of ‘Use it or Lose it’.
· Commemoration of Her Majesty’s Diamond Jubilee this summer with a scheme to plant new trees in the Park. Having had to remove one or two diseased trees recently the Chair felt they should be replaced. The Parish Council has purchased 3 Jubilee Oak Trees which will be planted in the near future with a commemorative plaque. The Parish Council will also purchase a new bench to replace the old one on Greenside, also with a plaque, to mark this milestone in the Queen’s reign.
The Chair stated that all of this work is done by Councillors in a voluntary capacity and because of good housekeeping the precept has again not been increased for this coming year.
She asked if people would like to contribute to the work done in the village, or to join Walton Action, to please come forward.
The Chair said she valued people’s input at the meeting and thanked people for coming.
5. Financial Statements 2009/10 and 2010/11.
i) 2010/11 Copies of the Accounting Statements for the year ended 31st March 2010 were circulated before the meeting began. This page forms part of the Annual Return required by Audit and Accounting Regulations, was approved by the external auditor, and was publicly displayed as required last October.
ii) 2010/11 & 2011/12 Copies of a Budget and Accounts Summary were circulated. The Clerk drew comparison between the actual figures for 2010/11 and the draft figures for 2011/12. The budget for 2011/12 and the budget for 2012/13 were also included.
The Clerk showed that receipts for 2011/12 were once again greater than payments, and better than budget, so that the resultant cash funds of the Parish at the end of the year had increased against last year.
These funds would reduce in the financial year 2012/13, however, because planned spending is budgeted to be greater than planned receipts.
He pointed out that the precept is being held at £30,000 for the fifth year in succession.
6. Neighbourhood Planning.
Cllr Massey presented information about Neighbourhood Planning:
· The recent applications at the Grove demonstrated that the village is currently vulnerable to unpalatable planning applications.
· The Localism Act, which became law in November 2011, provides some protection with the introduction of Neighbourhood Planning.
· A Neighbourhood Plan is different to a Parish Plan. A Parish Plan is a plan that encompasses all aspects of a village. A Neighbourhood Plan concentrates on development and how to plan development for designated areas of the village.
· Neighbourhood Planning requires input from the residents of the area to which it applies.
Cllr Massey then asked David Rolinson to speak on the topic:
· David Rolinson introduced himself as a resident of the village who got together a group of interested people to defeat a development that was not wanted and to support a development that was wanted as an alternative.
· Neighbourhood Planning gives the opportunity to proactively own the future of the village.
· Walton Parish Council has decided to proceed down this path and is the first Council to put forward its views to WMDC and possibly the first in West Yorkshire.
· The Act states that where there is a Parish Council in an area, it is the Parish Council who leads the process on behalf of the residents. The ‘area’ in Walton’s case is easily defined by the Parish boundary.
· However, it is the residents themselves who must own and support the plan. There are a number of active groups in the village, who together with businesses need to come together to focus on what the village wants.
· The local planning authority (WMDC) can, although it isn’t obliged to, help guide and provide information to the Neighbourhood Planning process.
· In preparing a plan, the type of issues which need to be considered are the demographics of the village; the job opportunities or lack of them; what facilities the village wants (for example sports facilities and Multi User Games Areas); what protection of the landscape is wanted (for example the trees); how to protect the environment (for example the parks and nature reserves); where development, if any, should take place; the traffic infrastructure (for example traffic calming measures, buses and road traffic flows); and also consider what is deficient in the village.
· It can be helpful to formulate a vision of how the village is to look in the future and to involve the local businesses such as Walton Hall, Walton Manor, Walton Golf Club, the shops and other businesses.
· Having considered all the issues, the issues need to be prioritised.
· The Neighbourhood Plan should help shape where money goes to from schemes such as the new homes bonus and community infrastructure levy.
· The first steps in preparing the plan are to get as many people involved as possible, to engage with the village, to spread the word. Ideas for doing this were given.
· The Neighbourhood Plan costs money to prepare, but there are opportunities that can be explored for getting help with this.
The Chair thanked David Rolinson for his presentation and, on behalf of the village, for his efforts in ensuring the gypsy site application did not succeed.
Questions were asked:
· Whether there are any milestones set in the process? - the process could take more than a year.
· Whether rumours that the High Speed rail link HS3 would come through Walton were true and could the process be used to prevent that? - the route of HS3 will be published in the autumn.
· Whether there is any news about the road access to The Grove for the approved development? – the planning permission is outline only and the detail of where everything will be placed will come for approval later.
· Whether there is a need to plan for housing in the event that Walton has to take a share of any development forced by imposed targets – the Neighbourhood Plan can set out rules for development, but it is to be hoped that the 129 units will go towards any requirement for development.
· Whether Neighbourhood Planning could include plans for land currently used by the private allotments – a Neighbourhood Plan would not include what private people legitimately decide to do with their land. The allotment society is a group from whom input into the plan would be welcomed.
7. Report by Police Officers.
The Chair introduced Inspector Richard Clare who talked about policing in Walton:
· The SAFE scheme is a way for the village to provide more policing. Whilst neighbourhood policing is already paid for, the team involved in that is subject to the priorities of the district and, since statistics show Walton to be a relatively crime free area, not much allocation of time is given to Walton.
· The SAFE scheme offers a way of ensuring extra policing is dedicated specifically to Walton.
· Inspector Clare announced changes to the scheme to improve its accountability. The scheme will be run by a local sergeant and instead of being staffed by a pool of officers from the whole division it will in future be staffed only by officers from Rural and Wakefield Central neighbourhoods. There will be more contact with the Parish Council which already publishes a monthly SAFE scheme report and statistics on the Parish website. People can contact police individually or through the Parish Council.
· Inspector Clare drew attention to the “jingly bells” being given to clip to a purse, keys or wallet to provide a warning if someone tries to steal them.
· He also reported that lead was stolen from the Methodist Church the previous evening and appealed for information from anyone who may have seen the thieves.
Inspector Clare then answered questions:
· What can be done about people going on to property and collecting scrap metal – legislation has now been introduced for anyone transporting metal to have a licence and insurance. This has given the police more power to catch unauthorised scrap metal dealers.
· What influence does the police have with the highway authority where safety or similar issues are raised – the police work in a group including the highway authority to identify traffic issues such as where heavy lorries are using inappropriate routes, where bollards are required, signage needed, calming measure requested etc, and there has been some success, but it all requires money.