Minutes of the Deopham and Hackford Parish Council Meeting

in the Gralix Hall on Wednesday 18th April 2012

Present :

Councillors : Martin Skidmore, (Chairman) John Chilvers

Chris Coath Jayne Allan

Jason Marsh

Parish Clerk: Rowena Harkness

1. Apologies - Mark Howard, Jackie Phoenix, Cllr. Yvonne Bendle – South Norfolk District Council, Cllr. Steve Dorrington, Norfolk County Councillor,

2. Declarations of Interest in items on the agenda

2.1 No declarations of interest were made.

3. Minutes of Previous Meeting

3.1 The minutes of the meeting held on 14th March 2012 were agreed as a correct record.

Proposed Jason Marsh, seconded Chris Coath.

4. Matters Arising

4.1 Better Broadband for Norfolk – the first phase of registration is completed, with almost 14,000 registrations collected in the two and half months. Framework suppliers who want to bid for the Norfolk contract will submit their bids and Norfolk will evaluate these and announce its project partner in the summer 2012. The infrastructure will start being installed in early 2013. People can still register up until the summer at the Say Yes website.

4.2 St. Marys Church at Hackford was re-opened and used on Easter Sunday with a good attendance. The church will now be used again on a regular basis as well as for funerals, weddings etc.

4.3 Jackie Phoenix attended the Tiffey Valley Neighbourhood Board meeting in March. As yet the Neighbourhood Officer has not contacted the Parish Clerk about applying for a grant. She will follow it up if she doesn’t hear from him in the next couple of weeks.

5. Correspondence

5.1 The Parish Clerk has finally received a response from Rod Kelly, Highways at NCC re the situation of the B1108 Hardingham bends. He apologizes for the apparent lack of progress as they have been working behind the scenes to ascertain what is causing vehicles to leave the road. They are comfortable that the new surface is performing as it should and that the lining associated with the resurfacing works is also correct. The carriageway was reshaped to the appropriate design standard for the class of road which tilts the road to provide banked corners to assist vehicles with negotiating the bends. They are going to cut back the hedgerow on either side of the road to see if this will assist and help. They are also investigating the potential for additional signage in the form of chevron boards to help drivers identify the sharpness of the bends – but the lack of available highway verge to place the signage safely may prohibit this. After some discussion it was agreed that we will wait and see if these initiatives help and in the meantime Derek Clark will keep us informed of any further incidents.

5.2 A letter has been received from Lotus Cars Cycle Race League notifying us of a cycle event passing through the village on Sunday 10th June 2012. There will be a maximum of 100 riders participating and the route will be marked by arrows positioned prior to the event and will be removed shortly after the last rider has passed through.

5.3 The rest of the mail was circulated at the meeting as there was only a letter re the drought from Anglian Water.

6. Finance

6.1 The account balances as at 18/3/2012 were £551.89 in the current and £1493.96 in the

deposit. There are no outstanding cheques and so the end of year balance will be £2045.85

6.2 The payment of £527.03 to Parish Clerk for salary and expenses for the period of 1/1/12 – 31/3/12 was approved. Proposed John Chilvers, seconded Jason Marsh

6.3 The payment of £25 for membership for 2012/13 of Norfolk Rural Community Council Membership was approved. Proposed Chris Coath, seconded Jason Marsh.

6.4 The payment of £120.40 for the annual subscription for 2012/13 to Norfolk Association of Local Councils. Proposed Jason Marsh, seconded John Chilvers.

6.5 The payment of £20 for membership 2012/13 to Norfolk Playing Fields Association was approved. Proposed John Chilvers, seconded Jason Marsh.

6.6 The payment to South Norfolk Council of £69.30 for Dog Bin servicing for 2011/12 was approved. Proposed John Chilvers, seconded Jason Marsh

6.7 It was agreed to appoint Caroline Steggles as Internal Auditor.

6.8 The transfer of £500 from the deposit to current account was approved. Proposed John Chilvers, seconded Jason Marsh

7. Planning

7.1 Approvals have been received for the Barn at the Haven, Kings Head Lane, Hackford and for Hall Lane Farm, Hall Lane, Hackford, – Installation of a single small scale wind turbine (14.97m to hub, 5.5m diameter blades).

8. Deopham Playing Field

8.1 It was agreed to spend some time at the playing field / hut during the week of May 7th as Jason is off work and will have some time to try and waterproof the hut roof.

9. Any Other Business

9.1 Jayne Allen reported that her daughter has received a letter from South Norfolk/Saffron telling her that she will need to reapply to the Housing Options List as it is being changed and that she may not qualify for affordable housing. This was taken as another indication that local people will not benefit from any affordable housing in the village.

9.2 UK Power Networks are investigating why the electricity supply is interrupted by mini power cuts constantly. Dawn Marsh reported it.

9.3 Report from Cllr. Yvonne Bendle – had been e.mailed by Cllr Bendle to Parish Councillors.

10. Date of Next Meeting Wednesday 9th May 2012 - 7.30pm. This will be the Annual Parish Meeting followed by the Annual Parish Council meeting.

There being no further business the Chairman declared the meeting closed at 8.35pm.

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