MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE NEWBOLD VERDON PARISH COUNCIL HELD ON MONDAY 7th DECEMBER 2015 AT THE PAVILION, ALANS WAY, NEWBOLD VERDON.

PRESENT: Mrs J Crooks (Chair), Mrs D Finney , Mr. M. W. Preston, Rev C Fox, Mr R Watson, Mr W Crooks, Mr J Cartwright, Mr J Cooper, Mr C Petcher and Mr R. Bell (Clerk).

Guests: Cllr B Sutton, Cllr M Surtees, 2 x Barlestone Parish Councillors

Parishioners: 2

15.191. APOLOGIES:

Apologies were received and accepted from Mr J Finney.

15.192. DECLARATION OF MEMBERS INTERESTS AND DISPENSATIONS:

Mrs J Crooks declared an interest in Newbold Verdon Community Action Group.

Mr J Cartwright declared an interest in Newbold Verdon Cricket Club.

Mr J Cooper declared an interest in Newbold Verdon Library.

15.193. MINUTES:

Resolved - The Minutes of the meetings held on 2nd November 2015 were approved as a true record and signed by the chair.

15.194. MATTERS ARISING:

·  The land at corner of Arnold Crescent had been cleared as requested. The clerk had pre booked a further visit by MT gardening services for early spring so that the ground adjacent to the shops could be prepared for planting as requested.

·  The raised kerbs at Heritage Walk had been restored prior to the clerk contacting highways as a result of the intervention from the County Councillor.

·  LCC had confirmed that a letter would be sent to the owner of the property on the corner of Main Street and Desford Road asking for the overgrown hedge impacting on the pavement to be cut back.

·  The clerk had written twice regarding Disabled access at the newsagents. Unfortunately although acknowledgements had been received no-one had had the courtesy to reply with an update. After escalating this a call had been received from their Health and Safety person who said that they had fitted a handrail and bell but would revisit again and get a price for a ramp.

·  The public footpath between the Cemetery and Hall farm had been cleared as requested.

·  Mr W Crooks asked if Councillors would consider any suitable projects for the Parish and Community initiative fund. A new notice board for the green space on Heritage Walk was a possible project.

·  Mr W Crooks advised that the amendments to the Hall Farm Solar Farm planning application had been passed.

15.195. PARISHIONERS’ QUESTION TIME:

None

15.196. ACCOUNTS:

Receive and approve payments for the November monthly schedule.

A late invoice for a donation to the Royal British legion 2015 poppy appeal for £50 was presented and it was suggested a cheque be signed and presented on next month’s accounts.

Resolved – These were unanimously approved and signed by the Chair.

Proposed Precept 2016 – 17.

The proposed precept was presented and queries taken. The precept is proposed at £61.765. As the council tax base has not yet been confirmed the precept will be presented for approval at the January meeting.

15.197. CORRESPONDENCE FOR DISCUSSION

a)  Cadeby Quarry – Liaison meeting Minutes – For information

Resolved – No further comments.

b)  LCC – Main Street Parking restrictions request – Decision by LCC

Resolved – The clerk was instructed to respond to LCC asking for a joint meet as they were not happy with the decision to not consider parking restrictions.

15.198. BOROUGH AND COUNTY COUNCILLORS REPORT:

Cllr B Sutton gave an update on Borough Council matters.

No County Council representative present and no written report received.

15.199. PLANNING

a)  15/01158/FUL – 31 Laburnum Avenue Newbold Verdon – Proposed new dwelling.

Resolved - Clerk to add comments expressing concern at the lack of amenity space.

b)  15/01163/TPO – 145 Main Street Newbold Verdon – Work to Sycamore Tree.

Resolved – No objections or comments.

c)  15/01053/HOU – 6 Sycamore Close Newbold Verdon – 1st Floor extension amended plan.

Resolved – No objections or comments.

d)  15/01087/FUL – Fircroft Barlestone Road, Newbold Verdon – Change of use amended.

Resolved – No further comment sat present but situation to be monitored.

e)  15/01206/OUT – Land to rear of 130 -136 Newbold Road Barlestone – Erection of 29 dwellings (Access)

2 x Barlestone Parish Councillors were in attendance and asked if NVPC would support objections to this application.

Resolved – The clerk was instructed to add comments objecting to this application.

15.200. NEWBOLD VERDON COMMUNITY ACTION GROUP UPDATE

Parish reps had not attended the recent meetings however 2 members of the group were present. The group were currently reviewing the situation regarding Dragon Lane in light of the failure of the funding applications.

Possible funding opportunities may be available from Biffa, Tesco Community Scheme and Community Safety Partnership.

15.201. NEWBOLD VERDON LIBRARY

Date for handover was still on target for January 18th 2016 subject to approval by the Big Lottery for approval of hand over of the lease.

2 volunteer sessions had been held with 22 in attendance across the 2 events. These went really well and everyone seemed very enthusiastic. Training courses were set for the 2 weeks prior to handover and initial indications were that there were enough volunteers to covers all current opening sessions. Feedback from other Libraries was that more volunteers had come forward once the handover had taken place.

15.202. ALANS WAY

As instructed after the meeting on 2nd November I contacted Sanjiv Kholi at HBBC regarding possible funding and loans towards the Pavilion extension. After exchanging a couple of emails I was then contacted by Graham Chilvers, Health & Recreation Manager for HBBC who requested a meeting to discuss possible loan applications.

Myself & Roger (I did inform all the finance sub-committee) met with Graham and we went through the business plan for the pavilion funding. He was confident that we have a good case for a Sport England inspired facilities application for £75,000 and I have almost completed this application which I will send to Graham for comments before it is submitted. Closing date is January 11th 2016.

I have also re-submitted the bid to Lafarge Tarmac for £100,000 and received an acknowledgment and a decision is expected late January 2016.

Subsequent to this I then received further communication from Sanjiv Kholi asking if he could meet with myself and representatives of the council. Myself and Roger attended a meeting at HBBC offices but unfortunately Sanjiv was unable to attend and we ended up meeting with Bill Cullen and Malcolm Evans. This meeting did actually turn out to be very useful as not only did we again review the business plan but it gave me a far better understanding of what need to happen to now take this forward. Their thoughts on loans required for any shortfall are that they could not achieve anything better than the PWLB but did say they would investigate.

Although we have planning permission we also need building regulations approval from Building Control which is something that needs addressing urgently. We also need written approval for the materials that we will be using (Bricks, roof tiles etc.). Once we have this we can look to get tenders and subject to finances being in place as long as the work is started prior to the planning permission expiring mid-August 2016 then we do not have to re-apply.

We have also been advised that it would be OK to do it in phases as long as the work has started. For example Phase 1 could cover the extra changing rooms and Phase 2 the larger community room, storage area and office.

This will obviously involve some considerable amount of managing and may well require some form of project management to ensure costs are kept within budget and any ongoing problems are sorted quickly and efficiently.

Resolved – The clerk was instructed to contact HBBC so that preferred contractors could be instructed to tender for Building regulations which were required prior to starting any work.

15.203. PARISH CLERKS MONTHLY REPORT

The clerk had been in contact with Bloors regarding the handover of the green space on Heritage Walk. Once a letter was received from them stating the y were ready to hand over the Parish had 15 working days to inspect the site. After speaking with HBBC S106 team and Green Space Team their recommendation was that we arrange for a ROSPA inspection before accepting the site. Once Accepted HBBC would contact Bloors for the S106 money tied into this part of the development.

All the necessary registration process had been completed for the Auto Enrolment Pension scheme for which our target date is March 2016. We were now registered with NEST a government approved scheme.

Compulsory microchipping of dogs was to become law in April 2016. HBBC had asked if a microchipping event could be held in Newbold Verdon and had booked the Pavilion for 3rd March where the Dog Warden will be in attendance and perform the service for £10.

The grounds maintenance contractors had also asked about the possibility of a shed to store their equipment at the Cemetery. The clerk was asked to add this as an agenda item for the next meeting.

15.204. CHAIRMAN’S QUESTION TIME:

Mr Preston reported that the trees on Alan’s Way were getting so big that the roots had begun to lift the concrete pathway. It had been reported that a parishioner had tripped resulting in a broken bone due to this. The clerk was asked to write to HBBC and copy in County Cllr Camamile.

Mr Watson commented that the grounds maintenance contractors had done an excellent job on Mallory Close raising the branches of the trees on the green space.

Mrs Crooks asked if HBBC Dog Warden could be contacted regarding persistent dog fouling on both corner of Hornbeam Road/Main street and Rush Close/Arnold Crescent.

15.205. DATE OF NEXT MEETING:

The date of the next meeting of the Parish Council will be on Monday 4th January 2016 at the Alan’s Way Pavilion at 7.30 pm.

THERE BEING NO FURTHER BUSINESS, THE CHAIRMAN DECLARED THE MEETING CLOSED AT 8:26 pm.

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