Howgate and Distington Partnership
To Members of the Steering Group
Steering Group Meeting
6th August 2013
Lowca Village Hall
Note of Meeting
Present:
John Bowman (Distington)
Alan Lawson (Moresby)
Frank Hollowell (Lowca)
Suzanne Cooper (Area Support CCC)
Benny Quayle (Parton)
Sue Hayman (County Councillor Howgate Division)
Nick Troughton (Moresby)
Jackie Bowman (Distington)
Stan Peel (Parton)
Charlotte Brown (Locality Officer Copeland B C)
Julie Betteridge (Copeland B C)
Claire Heskett (NCYP)
Sophie Skinner (NCYP)
Elliott Batey (NCYP)
Matthew Rogan (NCYP)
Chris Shaw (Coordinator)
1. Apologies
Apologies were received from Elaine Wilkinson, Brian Ennis, Colin Harding, Helen Conway (CVS), Julie Wilson (ACT) and Kevin Young
2 Note of last meeting Chris said that the note had been circulated and a number of matters were to be updated to be taken at item 4
3 Copeland Locality Officer The chairman welcomed Charlotte Brown to the meeting. Charlotte said she had only been in post for a short time and had previously worked in local government and in the third sector in West Yorkshire. She said she was looking forward to supporting the group as the locality and regeneration officer for the area.
4 Issues arising from the meeting of the 7th May 2013
a) Home Group Neighbourhood Plan Chris said he had asked Kathryn Clark who he believed was the customer service partner for Home group in the Howgate Distington area to the meeting but had received no reply He said he would now contact Lorraine Thornley as was originally intended.
b) Broadband. The chairman referred to a recent note from Nick which set out the current position. Nick said he believed the whole area was within the 93% but may be in different phases. Sue said that by registering an interest on the Connecting Cumbria website individuals would be kept up to date of events and the timescale.
c) Neighbourhood Forum/ County Councillor Capital Fund Suzanne said it had been agreed to continue with two forums each year and she was planning the first of the year at Parton in October followed by one in March 2014. She said that no decision had been taken as to whether grant requests would be dealt with at these forums or by a Copeland grants panel. She said that the 0 to 19 fund had been reduced in order that more could be awarded for strategic and central projects. She said that the design of the meeting need not remain as before and if the grants request section was removed it gave an opportunity for the forum to adopt a different format. Sue said that the member’s scheme continued with £10k available to be spent on capital projects together with the balance from last year.
5 Youth Engagement The chairman welcomed members of the North Copeland Youth partnership to the meeting. Matthew said that forthcoming activities included a beach clean at Parton on the 7th August 2013, a coffee morning on the 10th August 2013 in Whitehaven at the St Nicholas church tower, a trip to Light water Valley and a residential course at Keswick before the end of the holidays. He said plans were in hand for a McMillan Big Coffee morning and that various fund raising activities had been undertaken to promote health and well being projects. Claire said that the group continued to work with young people from Moresby and once the schools returned the weekly session at the Moresby Parks rugby clubhouse would start again. She said that a cheerleader’s course was being held at Parton with Moresby girls involved. Transport to bring them to the village hall had been arranged. A show was planned for the autumn. Chris referred to the papers from ACT about an energy champion’s toolkit pilot project and asked whether the youth partnership might be interested in taking part. He said that he was not asking for a decision but if they were agreeable he would ask a representative from ACT to discuss the matter with club members. This was agreed.
6 Lengthsman Chris circulated the final accounts for the lengthsman scheme. He said that he had completed the final monitoring report required by the Leader programme. He said that he had been discussing a follow on scheme with Chris Pickles and Charlotte from the district council. He said that the new project would be a joint programme with the North East Copeland locality board. An application for £15k had been made to Copeland Homes Internal Investment Fund. £6k had been requested from the Cumbria Homes Sense of Place fund and £40k from the Big Lottery (Reaching Communities) fund. He said that application is at the first stage and if it is successful before taking the application further set up sessions in the area would be useful looking at what benefits would accrue. The chairman asked whether the county councillor capital fund could be used. Sue said that the officers had said it would not be appropriate other than to plug a gap between agreed funding streams.
7 Traffic and Highways Chris referred to the e-mail message from the Highways Agency. It was agreed to take up the offer of a meeting about the five junctions study. Chris said Atkins who was preparing the POPE report had said that the draft report is due to be submitted to the Highways Agency by the end of the month. Once Atkins had addressed HA comments they would be in a position to issue the report. Atkins said they expected that will be sometime in September. Sue said that the county council had arranged a workshop for councillors next week and this matter would be discussed. The chairman said that the community needed to have an opportunity to discuss the draft report before publication. Sue agreed that the parishes should be consulted on the findings. Chris said he would ask for a meeting to discuss both the junctions report and the draft POPE report.
8 Fairfield Wind Farm Community Benefit Scheme Grants Chris said he was not aware that any applications to the fund were pending. He said the grant panel next meets on the 4th Sept. 2013
9 Coastal Path Chris said that the Parton website gave details of progress. He circulated the August update which he said he would post on the website in the next day or so. Frank said that he believed there were still concerns about the route through Lowca. He said he would contact a Lowca councillor who had raised the issue. (Note The Harrington to Fox pit Gill map and the Fox pit to Micklam Farm map have been added to the website)
10. Keekle Head Repository and Lillyhall Repository Chris said the appeal against the decision not to permit a repository at Keekle Head had been heard at the end of June 2013. Sue said she had attended and along with others had complained that the venue (Kendal) was too far from the site in question. She said that the Inspector had indicated that his report would take some 6 to 8 weeks to write. (Note. The senior planning officer at the county council has advised that they will receive the decision by 2 December 2013. The Inspector will make a recommendation to the Secretary of State, and it will be the Secretary of State who makes the decision in this case.) The chairman said so far as the Lillyhall application was concerned he believed that FCC the developer would take no action until the wind turbine application had been determined.
11. Wind Turbine Applications. Chris said that current information was as below:
i) Land at Potato Pot Branthwaite. The application is still outstanding with the planning inspectorate.
ii). Lillyhall Landfill site. The application is still outstanding with the county council
iii) Middle Gill Farm The application is outstanding with the planning inspectorate. No date has been set for the inspector’s site visit
iv) Blackwood Beck Wind Farm The application for a five turbine wind farm is planned The developer is in the process of agreeing the terms of a scoping report
v). Land near Bonny Farm Moresby The planning panel has refused the application
vi). Land at Castlerigg Farm The application is outstanding with the planning inspectorate. The district council failed to determine the matter within the time limit
vii) Wind farm at Weddicar Rigg The appeal has been heard and the decision will be published on the 7th November 2013
viii) Land at Watch Hill Moresby The application for a single turbine had been granted but the work to erect the turbine had not yet started. An application to extend the life of the turbine from 20 years to 25 has been made.
ix) Land at Stubsgill Farm Distington The application will be determined on the 14th August 2013.
10 Other Business
i) John said that the steering group for the big Lottery funding scheme at Distington were meeting monthly but they were still in the getting started phase.
ii) Julie outlined the present growth strategy for the borough and Cumbria. She said that the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) for Cumbria were looking at four main areas a) the M6 Corridor b) Barrow skills work c) Maximising the West Coast industrial base d) Tourism . She said locally growth hubs at Millom and Cleator Moor were envisaged and action was being taken to reduce the number of unemployed young people which was twice the national average. Julie referred to the existing plans for the area, the British Energy Coast and the Economic blueprint which aim to encourage growth
11 The date and place of the Next Meeting
The next meeting will take place at Moresby Social Club on the 22nd October 2013 beginning at 7.00pm
J C S August 2013