New Alresford Town Council
Full Council Meeting
held at the Arlebury Park 7.30pm Tuesday 15th September, 2015 / Page 248
Present / Cllrs:- K. Barrett, S. Evans, L. Griffiths, B. Gower, S. Kerr-Smiley, B. Jeffs, E. Jeffs, S. Pinch, A. Saunders,
3275 / Apologies. Cllrs:- M. Power, I. Spencer County Cllr. Porter
3276 / Declarations of Interest on Agenda Items – Cllrs. Barrett and Gower declared a Personal interest in the Funding of Perins Fun Camp. Reason: Their children attend the Fun Camp. (See Minute No. 3283.2) Cllr. Pinch declared a Personal interest in the Storage at Arlebury Park. Reason: He is a member of the Rotary Camp who require storage space at the facility. (See Minute No.3280.1.1)
3277 / Minutes of Meeting - Minutes of Meeting held 21st July, 2015 Resolution: To approve the Minutes of 21st July, 2015 as true and accurate. Proposed: Cllr. Griffiths. Seconded: Cllr. Barrett (AGREED)
3278 / Meeting adjourned Public Participation
Mrs. J. Barker – Mrs. Barker addressed the council with queries relating to LPP2 and gave the clerk her queries in writing (see attachment). NATC – Cllr. Griffiths would formulate a response to Mrs. Barker’s questions and circulate to all Cllrs. prior to despatch to Mrs. Barker. Mr. B. Fowler – Asked for an update on the local plan consultation and stated he would send a written paper covering specific issues. NATC stated they would respond to his paper in writing. Mrs. J. Sanger queried the Council’s decision for removing the photo-booth stating it remains a community asset and asked that if they decided to stand by the original decision would they keep the booth in situ for a few months until all materials bought to sustain the service were used. She also stated she was not in a position to physically remove the booth and requested that should the removal take place that the Council either dispose of the booth or rehome it elsewhere possibly in Perins. NATC decided to make further investigation into the merits of retaining the booth. meeting reconvened
3279 / Finance
3279.1 / Payments
3279.1.1 / Resolution: To approve July 2015 payments of £61,560.50 Proposed: Cllr. Griffiths. Seconded: Cllr. B. Jeffs (APPROVED)
3279.1.2 / Resolution: To approve August 2015 payments of £34,945.34 Proposed: Cllr. Griffiths. Seconded: Cllr. B. Jeffs (APPROVED)
3279.2 / Yr. to Date – All outstanding ‘pledged’ funding to be requested together with outstanding Open Space Funds. The financial maintenance of land owned by other bodies to be reviewed. Calculations for all committee 2016/17 to be carried out. Cllr. Barrett had not yet met with Sporting Clubs regarding the cross charging of electricity. Council considered that it would be beneficial to employ a qualified accountant to carry out year end and asked for quotes to be obtain for the October meeting.
3279.3 / Adoption of Freedom of Information Policy – Resolution: To Adopt the Freedom of Information Policy.
Proposed: Cllr. Barrett Seconded: Cllr. Kerr-Smiley (AGREED) Thanks was given to Cllr. Spencer for producing this policy.
3279.4 / Adoption of Data Protection Policy – Resolution: To Adopt the Data Protection Policy. Proposed: Cllr. Griffiths Seconded: Cllr. B. Jeffs (AGREED) Thanks was given to Cllr. Spencer for producing this policy
3280 / Committee & Working Party Reports
3280.1 / Recreation Committee
3280.1.1 / Storage Space –Resolution: – To enter into discussions with external groups and organisations on their storage requirements, in order to start clearing space at Arlebury Park. Proposed: Cllr. Barrett. Seconded: Cllr. B. Jeffs (AGREED) Premises working party to convene to enter into discussions with groups who have approached the Council to supply storage space.
3280.2 / Environment Committee
3280.2.1 / The Environment Committee reported that they expect that the Committee 15/16 budget will be exceeded. The question of parking on East Street was not approved but it was considered that signage could be more visable and possibly extended. There was to be a West Street ‘walk around’ on 15th October to identify snags. An email from D. Ingram (WCC) had been received by Cllr. E. Jeffs confirming that the outstanding unpaid invoices in respect of dog waste collection would be reduced by 50%. Future billing remained an issue but it was reported that the collection of Dog waste was scheduled to stop on the 1st April 2017. The Environment Committee would discuss the way forward regarding replacements for the dog waste bins. Steve Brine would be attending the proposed meeting with Watercress Salad proposed on 23rd September 1500 hrs. HCC had carried out a survey on traffic movement and Cllr. Porter to be asked for a copy of the survey. HCC needed to carry out a revised survey showing traffic movement as it related to Watercress Salad as it was considered that only a third of the total movement reflects the movement from and to the Watercress depot.
3280.3 / Tourism Committee – Nothing to report
3280.4 / Planning Committee - There was concern that the Council had not received notification of Laurel House planning application for a proposal to change the use of the premises from commercial to residential. Objections to be raised on the grounds that Laurel House is employment space and no consultation regarding this change had taken place.
3280.4.1 / Resolution: To write to WCC Planning objecting to the Laural house change of use application. Proposed: Cllr. Kerr- Smiley Seconded: Cllr. Pinch (AGREED) Chair of Planning Cllr. Saunders to write to WCC in respect of this application and to investigate why the Council were no longer receiving change of use applications.
3280.5 / Facilities Working Party
3280.5.1 / Bar Flooring Bar flooring quotes remain outstanding due to inconsistency in quoting specification. To ensure like for like quotes are received clerk to issue a specification.
3280.5.2 / Building Survey Resolution: To get quotes for the services of a building surveyor in order to have full building surveys carried out on all NATC buildings and utilise these services when required. Proposed. Cllr. Pinch. Seconded: Cllr. B. Jeffs (AGREED)
3281 / Website - The Website will go live once access details are made available. A notice will be displayed on the old website stating that this is no longer the official site as the new site is now live. Thanks were given To Cllr. Gower for creating this new site.
3282 / LLP2 Update - An informal meeting was held with Seaward on the 28th August for which the Council was unaware. WCC had invited specific Cllrs. It raised the question as to why Cllrs. were not adhering to Standing Orders as they relate to meetings with developers and why Minute 3272.1 (21st July) was ignored (Resolution: For all communication regarding Council matters to and from third parties to be directed initially to the Town Clerk to facilitate the official response. Proposed: Cllr. B. Jeffs. Seconded: Cllr. Spencer (AGREED)) In order to conform to transparency it was felt that minutes of this meeting must be published and the public should have the opportunity to respond to what Seaward suggest. It was stated that some residents might be concerned about perceived bias in decision making by councilors attending unauthorised meetings with developers. The prime importance inherent to the next stage of LPP2 was to review the soundness of the WCC document. A separate LLP2 meeting must be scheduled for the 1st week in December. It was agreed that the Council needed a process to be in place prior to the LPP2 review and adoption to ensure deadlines were met as the timescale was very narrow.
3282.1 / Resolution: All notes and/or minutes of meetings with developers taken place over the last 12 months to be published. The Clerk must be notified of all future meetings which must be clerked. Proposed: Cllr. Kerr-Smiley. Seconded: Cllr. Pinch (AGREED)
3282.2 / Resolution: To research what Cllr. training was available. Proposed: Cllr. Sauders. Seconded: Cllr. Kerr-Smiley (AGREED)
3283 / Closures
3283.1 / Bank Closures – Council considered that it was imperative for the town to retain a cash point. Resolution: To write to Barclays objecting to the closure and in particular the loss of the Cash point. Informing them that a second accessible machine was vital to the town. Proposed: Cllr. Kerr-Smiley. Seconded: Cllr. B. Jeffs. Cllr. Kerr- Smiley to draft a letter and distribute to all Cllrs. for comment prior to despatch.
3283.2 / Perins Fun Camp – The Perins Fun Camp decrease in attendance and insufficient funding resulted in the closure of, what is considered to be, a beneficial community resource. Resolution: To write to Perins to ascertain the exact reason for closure and to ascertain what action was required to assist in reopening the facility. Proposed Cllr. B. Jeffs. Seconded: Cllr. Griffiths. (AGREED). It was point out that funding was available from WCC and HCC, in particular, to investigate whether cascading funding remained an option.
3284 / Reports from Outside Bodies and County and City
3284.1 / Written reports were available from all City and County Cllrs. - City Cllr. Cook pointed out that Cllr. Porter may have funds available to assist any Fun Camp money deficit.
3285 / Next Meeting – Tuesday 20th October, 7.30 ARC, Lower Meeting Room.
Meeting Closed 9.35
Chairman’s Signature………………………………………………………. Date…………………………………….. / Page 249