Minutes of Shevington Parish Council
General Purposes Committee Meeting
Held Thursday 2 June 2011
7.30pm Shevington Library
Present: Councillor J Ball (Chairman), Councillors Horridge, McKnight, Chadwick and Bridge, Mr J Haynes, Mrs E Longmore and Clerk (Pilkington).
9 members of the public.
- Apologies
Cllrs Miles, Whiteley, Bland and Shaw.
Mr B Lomas, Mr B King.
These apologies were accepted.
- Declaration of Interests
None.
- Minutes of the Last General Purposes Committee Meeting (3 March 2011)
The previously circulated approved Minutes were received.
- Committee Constitution & Terms of Reference
Following a discussion, it was resolved:
‘That the Committee would recommend to the Council that the status quo with respect to its Constitution & Terms of Reference be maintained.’
(Co-opted Committee members were not eligible to vote on this issue.)
- Village Issues
Library Consultation
An email in which the Council were asked if they would be willing to meet with WLCT to discuss possible means of support for Shevington Library had been received. The Clerk was asked to write to WLCT and suggest Tuesdays and Thursdays as the best evenings for such a meeting.
Cass Associates
The Clerk had received an email from Cass Associates proposing Tuesday, 14 June as the date of the meeting and was asked to reply to Cass to let them know that this date was acceptable.
Misuse of Bowling Green Car Park
The Clerk had been contacted by a resident who wished to express concerns about children playing on BMX bikes at the Bowling Green car park. The activity was causing damage to the low wall along the western boundary of the car park. The resident also had concerns about the misuse of the car park in relation to drug related activities and had asked the Council to consider putting gates on the car park entrance to prevent unauthorised usage. The Council would consider the wider issues raised and the Clerk was asked to write to the resident to advise him of this.
Village Fete
The Village Fete Committee put forward a request that the Parish Council car park should be closed to the public on the day of the fete. This would have to be tabled at the Council meeting and the business community would need to be consulted.
Verbal Dispute
A councillor reported that there had been a verbal dispute after the May Council meeting. It had taken place outside the library and had involved two members of the public. The Chair advised that such events were matters for the residents in question only, not matters to be brought before the Council.
6.New Councillors’ Training Session
The Clerk reported that, as yet, she had not been advised of any possible dates.
7.Alternative Venues for Council Meetings
This subject would be revisited at the June Council meeting in order to clarify the frequency with which such meetings would occur.
8.Joint Parish Council & Community Association Three Year Plan
The subject had been discussed, taking a more informal approach, at the most recent meeting of Shevington & District Community Association. A councillor requested that any working party formed should consist of people from other areas of the parish as well as those from the centre of Shevington. A councillor suggested that Appley Bridge and Shevington Vale could benefit from having a notice board. The Clerk advised that the existing notice board in Woodnook Road was shortly due to be replaced by a larger one.
- Shevington in Bloom
Mrs Longmore explained that the project would span three years, with the centre of Shevington being the focus in the first year. She reported that:
- The working party would be asking residents to nominate other areas for the second and third phases.
- The take-up of plants from the spring planting of the planters had been excellent and a vote of thanks was due to the Library Staff, who had provided bags.
- The painting was almost complete and planting up would begin soon.
- St Bernadette’s and Miles Lane Primary Schools had both agreed to come on board with the project. Crooke Village’s project was going to be judged the same day as the one in Shevington.
Councillors took the opportunity to
- raise issues with regard to the quality of the maintenance of grass verges;
- report that people were ruining the grass verges by parking their cars on them, leading to the fear that they could be surfaced with tarmac and be lost to the community;
- report the lack of street lighting in Stockley Park, which was providing a further area of concern.
The Clerk would raise these issues with Wigan Council by writing to the appropriate departments.
- Summer Edition of the Newsletter
The following suggestions for inclusion in the July edition of the newsletter were agreed:
- election results;
- photographs of councillors;
- Shevington in Bloom update;
- new bins;
- opening of raised bed allotment;
- Crooke Village Heritage Day;
- Shevington Moor notice board consultation results and new notice boards;
- station improvements;
- Shevington FA twinning event.
- Facebook and Twitter Pages
Cllr Chadwick presented his proposals, advising that, in his view, the idea of a Twitter page should be shelved for the time being. However, there was quite a large Facebook audience locally and a social networking page would help to raise awareness of the parish council.
In response to concerns raised by other councillors about possible abuse, he replied that the page could be policed and that abusive comments could be removed and even blocked. Any security issues could be dealt with easily.
During the discussion issues were raised about the design of the current website. The Committee agreed to revisit the suggestion of a Facebook page and the subject of the design of the website at their meeting in September. Cllr Chadwick was invited to carry out more research into the matter.
- Orica
Mr B King had attended the Drop-in organised by BAE Systems. Production was due to finish in August. BAE Systems were carrying out the remediation work and were very open to queries. They provided the answers to most of the questions asked by the Parish Council in a letter sent to Wigan Council earlier in the year.
See Appendix A.
During the discussion that ensued the following concerns were raised:
- that the felling of trees under a preservation order had been allowed by the LA;
- that it seemed that no testing for contamination had been carried out outside the perimeter of the area.
- Planning Applications
- A/11/75619: 4 Broad O’th Lane, Shevington ~ Change of Use of existing office to hot food takeaway together with installation of flue
It was resolved that a letter of objection should be sent to the Planning Department on the grounds that:
- there are already too many takeaways in the area and
- the introduction of another takeaway would increase pressure on an
already congested situation in relation to parking.
The district councillors were to be approached and invited to make representations.
- Dates of Next Meetings
23 June (Council); 4 August (Policy Committee’s Annual Inspection of Property)
There being no further business the Chairman closed the Meeting at 9:23 pm.
Chairman
Page 1 of 3 Shevington PC – General Purposes Committee – 2 June 2011