MINUTES of the 55thANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

of

KIRBY LE SOKEN VILLAGE PRESERVATION SOCIETY

Held at Kirby Village Hall at 8.00 p.m. on Wednesday 24 May 2017

Present: Officers: David Wood, John Beale, Chris Heal

Committee: Julia Haig-Thomas, Victoria Burgoyne, Chris Byford Smith, Martin Jenkins, Ben Parker, Robert Bucke and 10 members.

An introduction was given by the Chairman, David Wood, explaining the order of the meeting.

  1. No apologies were received.
  1. Minutes of the54thAGM dated 18 May 2016wereread and agreed as being a fair record. Adoption of the Minutes was proposed by Martin Jenkins and seconded by Chris Byford Smith.
  1. Hon. Chairman’s Report – David Wood gave a brief summary (copy attached) of the Society’s efforts over the past year.
  1. Hon. Treasurer’s Report –John Beale presented Accounts for the year to 1 May 2017 copieswere provided to the meeting. Roger Parker queried the annual payment to Woodland Trust.RB said the village appreciated the Millennium Woodwhich was supported by the Trust. DW saidthe Society had recentlyagreed to continue with annual donations to Woodland Trust and Hamford Water. DW said that maintenance of the wood will be discussed at the Society’s next meeting. Adoption of the Accounts wasproposed by John Anderson and seconded by Julia Haig-Thomas.
  1. Election of Officers – Election of the existing Officers en bloc was proposed by Martin Jenkins and seconded by Julia Haig-Thomas.
  1. Election of General Committee –DW had received notification that Chris Byford Smith wished to resign from the Committee. This was disappointing but DW thanked Chris for his long and valuable service to the village since 1988. Election of the remaining Committee en bloc was proposed by Mrs John Beale and seconded by Roger Parker.
  1. Any Other Business – No notices had been received in advance of the Meeting. The attendance register was passed round to everyone for completion and signature (copy attached).

DW said that the Attendance Register was being passed round the Hall for signature by everyone.

DW thanked everyone for attending and donations in the sum of £121 were collected.

At this point formal business of the meeting was closed.

Signed……………………………………….Dated ……………………………………….

David Wood, Chairman

Victoria Burgoyne and Robert Bucke gave the following general updates about village matters:

After the massive amount of work done by Victoria and her helpers on the Village Plan, she attended a meeting with the Planners in January 2017 hoping that it would be accepted and that our views were included as part ofthe Local Plan. TheCouncil advised that Village Plans were now only considered for supplementary guidance and villages were nowbeing asked to produce a Neighbourhood Plan but this could only be done when the Local Plan was finalised. A Neighbourhood Plan requiresmuch more informationabout issues such as flooding, traffic, employment and environmentinvolving a huge amount of research and we do not have the resources for such a project. Villages such as Arlesford are paying a Project Manager to produce theirsdue to the amount of workinvolved.Robert said Neighbourhood Planscarry weight in themselves, as has been proved in St Ives where holiday homes are now prohibited by their Local Authority. Victoria saidGovernmentwants to involve local communities but, aswe still have no Local Plan,we can do no more. Halstead Road development was approved largely because we have no Local Plan. Robert added that Village Plans became desirable and popular when we had no Local Plan and were once the way forward. Over the last two or three years Neighbourhood Plans have gained importance because they carry more weight, however, in Tendring, once the Local Plan is finalised, a Neighbourhood Plan would not be a way of reducing housing development as it would be overruled by the Local Plan which has already included a 5-year housing supply. The Local Plan will be adopted next year.

Victoria saidit cost about £100 a year to run the new website. There had been 1323 hits on the site so even though many residents had no Internet she felt it was the way forward for the future and a good way to communicate our aimswith Petitions, News, Views,Articles, Kirby Key and Notices. A volunteer was still needed to run the website which would not involve a lot of time. Victoria had set up a petitionasking Neil Stock at TDC to refuse further mass development which had 245 signatories and she would run the petition until the end of June and then send it to TDC. Residents were urged to spread the word to get as many signatures as possible. We have also registered with and signed their petition on behalf of the Society. The organisation covers the whole country and lobbies Government with similar issues as our own.

The Society were considering setting up a Parish Council (“PC”) in Kirby-le-Soken. There were currently 27 PCs in Tendring doing good work for their communities. If the village decided to proceed, the application would start after the next local elections in 2019. Robert referred to a Briefing Note on Community Governance Reviews (attached)said that PCs have powers over such things as street lights and highway maintenance. We have not joined in with Frinton & Walton PC as they havemany issues of their own in that large area and our PC should be a separate entity. Robert said that TDC used to maintain our highways but this is now done by ECC from Chelmsford and PCs are also subject to the superior powers of TDC and ECC. One example is that it is illegal for a resident to fill a pothole but it is not illegal for ECC not to repair that pothole. Robert was personally pursuing an action under Section 56 Highways Act against ECC and Alan Eldret of Frinton was also pursuing a Class Action against ECC. A PC could apply for funding from ECC, for example: £235K is spent on PCSOs in Frinton & Walton. New PCs were being formed all over the country and Robert was supporting Clacton with theirsas they had not had a PC since 1974 and he felt it would be far better for the town if they had their own Town Council.RobertsaidTDC have Highways Rangers to maintain our roadways as ECC is not responsible for the A120. Robert said there was an application to build 9 houses in Chartwell Drive and David said we write objection letters from the Society but it wouldhelp if individuals also wrote objecting to these applications. Robert said building had not commenced on the 240 home development at Kirby Cross or the 210 at Turpins Lane because developers had not been able to find suitable builders. In Martello the 60-bed Nursing Home had been completed andconstruction of houses would shortly commence involving bringing in landfill to the site. Robert had complained to ECCabout increased HGV traffic passing through Kirby-le-Soken and bringing inlandfillto Martello would cause even more HGVs. Unfortunately we have no powers to stop this nor are we able to insist thatvehicles are directed along Walton Road rather than through the village.