6/17/3
ELLISTOWN AND BATTLEFLAT PARISH COUNCIL
MINUTES of the Parish Meeting
Wednesday 22nd March 2017
Ellistown Primary School commencing at 7.00
Present Cllr Keith Merrie (Chairman) Cllr George Norley
Cllr James Pollard Cllr Ruth Willett-Marshall
In Attendance Clerk
9 members of the public
1. Apologies
Cllr Pollard - Accepted
2. Declarations of Interests
Cllr Willett-Marshall, item no. 8 as she helps out.
3. Minutes
The Council AGREED to accept as a true record the minutes of the meeting held on
22nd February 2017, PROPOSED by Cllr Willett-Marshall and SECONDED by Cllr Powell and signed by the Chairman.
RESOLVED
4. County Council Report
None in attendance
5. District Council Report
Cllr Merrie reported that since the agreement to allocate a portion of Section 106 monies to the Parish Council he has yet to receive communication as to when that will be paid to the Parish Council. After writing a substantial letter to the Police and Crime Comissioner, Lord Bach, Chief Constable, Simon Cole and Leaders of both the District and County Councils he received a telephone call from the Chief Constable’s office to say that there would be one final meeting to determine the allocation of the S106 money and would be receiving notification shortly.
Since the previous meeting where the Planning Consultation was received from Mick George to begin mineral waste deposits in to the landfill Cllr Merrie has met with their Planning Director to discuss the issues around the road safety plan, which he felt was inadequate. The Planning Director took Cllr Merrie’s points on board and has unofficially committed to installing a camera where the entrance/exit for the landfill is. Mick George will pay for and maintain this equipment and will ensure that HGV’s do not enter the village. The footage will be available to the Parish Council and the Police if any issues are reported and can be used in case a prosecution is brought by the Police.
Cllr Merrie also explained about the new Ellistown Traffic Safety Group (ETAG) in the village to the Planning Director at Mick George and he was told that they do have a Community Fund where they can donate to causes such as traffic safety. Cllr Merrie was advised to get a “shopping list” of items that would be most beneficial for ETAG to use in the village, he also asked if there would be any aggregate available to put on the roadway in the allotments as they are very rutted and after several phone calls Cllr Merrie is meeting with a Manager from the company on Friday 24th March at the allotments so they can assess how much will be needed. Cllr Merrie went on to explain that the Mick George vehicles have a 20mph speed limit in all their HGV’s when travelling through the village and this is monitored by sophisticated Satellite Navigation.
Storm Doris recently caused some further damage to the fence in the allotments which was awaiting approval for repair, the Clerk, under delegated authority got a quote and arranged for emergency repairs to take place. This was to ensure the site was secure.
The Police have come forward with some funding, separate to the S106 money, and on 29th and 30th April, 2017 they will be attending the allotments to mark tools and provide Smartwater to enable residents to mark their own tools, put shackles and locks on sheds to provide added security.
Cllr Merrie had been in touch with Leicestershire County Council (LCC) Highways regarding the proposed de-restriction of part of Beveridge Lane leading to Amazon, from 30mph to 60mph, to put forward his objections. He explained that there was a lot more traffic using the road and more people travelling on foot and by bike to and from the Amazon site, there are footpaths, bridleways and vehicles entering and exiting at the Mountpark roundabout. The LCC officer explained that when roads are widened and street lights are installed this automatically triggers something called a 201 speed limit increase and that objections should be directed to the Director of Highways at LCC and Cllr Osbourne who is in Highways Planning. Cllr Merrie had a phone call a few days after sending letters to both at LCC from a Senior Manager and he will be meeting them at the site to discuss the issues next week. Cllr Merrie said that people may not be aware but there have already been 4 reported RTC’s to the Police outside the Amazon site on Beveridge Lane and a very serious RTC where a vehicle was on its roof at the roundabout with Rushby Road. He went on to say that he will fight this proposal as the District Councillor and Chairman of the Parish Council and that it won’t automatically be de-restricted, objections will have to be considered. The Manager at the Amazon site is also against the de-restriction and he is on board.
At the last meeting residents queried what the green box with a flashing light on, in the Penny Wakefield Woodland, was. Cllr Merrie had investigated and found that it is an alarm system on the bottom pond for when the water gets too high and the alarm would sound to prevent flooding. However, the alarm needs to be reset as it is going off when the water is actually low. He was hopeful that someone would come out to reset it tomorrow. Point of contact is now in place with Cllr Merrie if it happens in the future.
Cllr Merrie informed everyone that he had written in to the Coalville Times and that a Traffic Safety Group meeting would be held on Wednesday 29th March at 6pm.
The Penny Wakefield Woodland Park has been put forward for an Urban and Community Forestry Award. Cllr Merrie congratulated everybody who had been involved with working on the woodland, including Cllr Powell, the Scouts and numerous residents planting the fruit trees. When it matures it will be really nice!
Cllr Merrie reported that he had been in touch with the leader of the District Council wanting to know why North West Leicestershire had no athletics stadium or track. His daughter is heavily involved in athletics and he has to take her to Loughborough as that is the nearest one. He requested funding from NWLDC who donated £50,000 to Newbridge High School in Coalville to start the ball rolling with installing new sports facilities. Cllr Merrie has since met with numerous funding bodies, including Sport England, who have agreed to donate half the money needed which amounts to a total of approx. £1.3 million. Therefore £650,000 will need to be raised to ensure the athletics facility is installed. A brochure will be distributed to every company in North West Leicestershire and they are looking for Gold, Silver and Bronze sponsors for the project. If a minimum of £1000 is donated then their name will appear on a plaque.
Cllr Merrie then moved on to the Gladman Land planning application. He advised that he had been to 3 meetings with the Planning Department, including one with the Head of Planning since the last PC meeting. They had received many objections from residents and they were of very good quality and contained legal reasons for the application to be refused. NWLDC are now in the consultation phase, but reiterated that the development is outside of scope in the current and new plan plus not happy with the traffic issues. They have taken on points from Cllr Merrie about Dr’s and schools being full. The Clerk has drafted a letter from Cllr Merrie, on behalf of the Parish Council raising the objections discussed.
Cllr Merrie has since received information on the application via email which he read out giving a summary of reasons why the development should not go ahead. He explained that with all developments the developer is required by law to donate money to the community using the Section 106 agreement. With a development of this size a donation of around £150k would be an average amount. A letter had been received from the department that deals with S106 money for schools stating that if a developer were to build on this land then for schools alone a donation of around £867k would be required. Roman pottery has also been found on this particular site many years ago and points to there being a possible Roman settlement in the area. This basically means that Gladman Land would be expected to undertake archaeological reports, including a geophysical survey to discover any articles of interest, of which they’ve yet to do. Cllr Merrie has been advised that both Civil Engineering and Archaeological work may be needed to carry out the necessary surveys and that the application should be refused under certain regulations if these are not completed. This work, if Gladman Land decided to go ahead with it, would take at least 10 months Cllr Merrie was advised. The new District Plan which comes in to force, hopefully, in September doesn’t allow for any development of this land anyway and it is unlikely that all necessary studies required would fit in to that time frame.
The Urban Planning department’s reply to the application was that they grade them on a traffic light system; Gladman Land had graded themselves green on all 12 areas that the Urban Planning team use. However, the Dept found 5 of the areas as red, 5 as amber and two yet to be decided. Cllr Merrie gave a brief overview of what this meant and it looks at the whole design which includes parking, hedges, footpaths, etc. Their advice would be to refuse the application on design grounds alone.
Finally, Cllr Merrie said it was his opinion from the meetings he had had and the feedback he’d been given that the application would not get permission and that the recommendation from the Planning Dept to the Planning Committee was to not approve the plans.
6. Police Report
None in attandance
The meeting was adjourned to allow for public questions.
7. Public Recess
Resident queried about there being large boulders on the proposed development site, would that affect it and had there been previous mining on that site. Cllr Merrie said that previous mining sites were not a barrier for development.
There was a discussion around how best to proceed with the funding of the older generation’s outings/events and that the lengthy process of filling out a Community Fund Application each time and providing written quotes was perhaps too long-winded and drawn out to be practical. It was AGREED that the Clerk would look in to viable ways for this to be organised quicker and more efficiently.
Parish meeting reconvened
8. Community Fund Application
It was AGREED that the Parish Council would support the application for £500 and it was PROPOSED by Cllr Willett-Marshall and SECONDED by Cllr Norley.
RESOLVED
9. Electronic Agenda/Information
It was AGREED that the Clerk was to send out all Agendas and other information/correspondence electronically. Cllrs can opt in/out at any time by giving or withdrawing consent in writing to the Clerk. The Clerk asked the Cllrs to sign an agreement form if they wished to be included in electronic communication. This was signed by all Cllrs present and the Clerk would contact Cllr Pollard on his return.
RESOLVED
10. Allotment Gates & Fencing
The quote given from LRP was AGREED and it was AGREED in retrospect for the emergency repairs to the fence as authorised by Clerk under Delegated Authority. This was PROPOSED by Cllr Merrie and SECONDED by Cllr Powell.
RESOLVED
11. Electricity Supply
It was AGREED that a new 1 year fixed contract should be taken out with Eon as they’re the existing supplier and were the cheapest in comparison. It was also AGREED that to save 7% the Clerk should set up a monthly Direct Debit for payment, also. This was PROPOSED by Cllr Willett-Marshall and SECONDED by Cllr Powell.
RESOLVED
12. SCRIBE Accounting Package
It was AGREED to renew with SCRIBE as supplier of the accounts package due to their recent improvements and also being based specifically around Parish Councils makes it more suitable. This was PROPOSED by Cllr Merrie and SECONDED by Cllr Willett-Marshall.
RESOLVED
13. Bin Stickers
It was AGREED to go ahead with the purchasing of 500 stickers at a cost of £220 but rather than have 30mph on them it was decided that 20mph would be more beneficial. This was PROPOSED by Cllr Merrie and SECONDED by Cllr Powell.
RESOLVED
14. Website Provider
It was AGREED that the Council continues with 2Commune as provider of the website. This was PROPOSED by Cllr Powell and SECONDED by Cllr Willett-Marshall.
RESOLVED
15. Meeting Dates
It was AGREED that the meeting dates for May-December 2017 would be:
ANNUAL PARISH MEETING – Wed 10th May
MEETINGS OF THE PARISH COUNCIL
17th May (Annual Meeting of the PC)
28th June
July & August – No Meeting scheduled
13th September
25th October
22nd November
13th December
16. Litter Picks and Fly Tip Removal
It was AGREED in retrospect the removal of fly-tipping and large amounts of litter/dog waste from the village in December 2016. This was PROPOSED by Cllr Willett-Marshall and SECONDED by Cllr Powell.
RESOLVED
17. Traffic Working Group (ETAG) – For Info only
The group are looking at carrying out surveys with regards to signage, kerbs, bollards, etc. and will be delivering these around the village.
18. Leisure and Recreation Consultation
It was AGREED that the consultation was appropriate and should be carried out for the minimum six week period.
RESOLVED
19. Planning
No Planning Applications were received by the Clerk prior to the distribution of the Agenda.