Claybrooke Magna Parish Council

MINUTES of a MEETING
held on THURSDAY, 9th February 2017
at 7.30 pm in the Village Hall

Present:
Cllr Nicholas Reseigh, Chairman
Cllr Michael Lenihan
Cllr Jan Butcher
Cllr Robin Deacon, Vice Chairman	
Cllr Jo-Ann Allcoat

Mr Richard Saillet, Resident

Mr Peter Jones, Clerk to the Parish Council

Apologies for Absence  
Apologies were given by Cllr Rosita Page, District & County Councillor.

Disclosure of personal interests. There were no disclosures.

Minutes of the last meeting, held on 12th January, were approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

Matters Arising from the last meeting
Parish Website
The Clerk had now received some training and was able to place Agendas, Minutes and Councillor details on the site. He explained that members could also have access to put details of other events in the village if they wished. More training/practice would be carried out before the site went live.

Speed measures, Main Road
LCC had offered to instal “dragon’s teeth” at the High Cross Road entrance to the village. The Clerk had asked if other measures could be suggested to dissuade motorists to speed through the villages and was awaiting a reply. 

Grasscutting
The Chairman had spoken with Mr Andy Latham who had volunteered to carry out the grasscutting this year.

High Cross Monument
The CORE group had now decided that they would take out Public Liability Insurance and  insurance of the items, and provide proof to the PC. Hopefully CCTV cameras will be installed by HDC near the site to deter flytipping etc, which would provide additional security.

Cllr Deacon suggested that the PC could provide a donation to the project at a future date and the PC will revisit the subject in six month’s time.

Minutes exchange Magna/Parva 
Claybrooke Parva PC had agreed to an informal exchange of minutes between the two villages and the two clerks would set this up. Parva had also requested that Magna contact the Woodyard asking if deliveries to the yard could be directed via High Cross and not through Parva or Woodway Lane and passing the School. It was agreed that Cllr Lenihan would speak to his contact in the Woodyard and the Clerk would also contact them if necessary, but it should be remembered that not all HGVs passing through the Village are destined for the Woodyard.

New Village Nameplates
Cllr Lenihan was still in communication with LCC who had raised objections to the format of the lettering on the proposed signs. He will continue to chase this up and report to the next meeting.

Skateboard Park
Cllr Lenihan had been informed by Blaby DC that the Village could hire the park for four half day sessions for £1,058. It was agreed unanimously that the PC should go ahead for 2017. Cllr Butcher felt that better advertising e. g. social media, flyers etc would attract more users.

Matters raised by District/County Councillor 
Cllr Page not present.

Matters raised by Residents, at Chairman’s discretion
A resident had approached Cllr Lenihan and felt that a dog fouling notice should be placed at the end of Chapel Lane. This was agreed and Cllr Lenihan would install the extra sign.

Finance 
Accounts for Payment: 
It was proposed by the Chairman, seconded by Cllr Allcoat and agreed that the following accounts be paid:

HDC – emptying of Bins : £88.63
Mr Trevor Dawes: Servicing of the mower: £166.09

Mr Dawes had also submitted  an invoice for £500 from Mr Barrie Briggs who had carried out some resurfacing of the roadway at Laurel Fields, an unadopted highway which led into the playground. Residents of Laurel Fields were under the impression that the Parish Council, after an informal and verbal request in 2013, had agreed to donate £500 to the project; whereas they had instead asked for sight of three quotations and details of costings before agreeing to donate any funding. [See Parish Council Minutes, July and September 2013].No further details had been received and no further requests had been made since that date. The Parish Council, therefore felt that although sympathetic to the work being undertaken, as the road provided the only access to the playground which was under the auspices of the Council, they could unfortunately not make any donation at this time and the Clerk was asked to invite Mr Briggs to the next meeting to clarify the matter. In the meantime the Clerk would also investigate what powers the Council had in respect of repairs to an unadopted road/pavement which provided access to a Council property.   

Monthly Budget Report: 
The Parish Council had spent approximately 102% of its Precept in the current financial year. The Clerk reported that taking into account the refund of VAT and the grant for the skateboard Park, the adjusted figure would be 90.4% This was noted.          

Precept 2017/8 
The Clerk had circulated a Summary of the Parish Council’s Precept requirements for 2017/18 which had been agreed at the last meeting.

Planning
New/unresolved Planning Applications:

Proposed application for housing – Land off Main Road
The Clerk had received an email from a firm who wished to meet with the Parish Council and discuss a new proposal for housing in the Village, off Main Road. The application had not yet been submitted and the Parish Council had asked the Clerk to decline the offer at this stage, feeling that no useful benefit could be obtained by discussing a proposal before it had been submitted. Cllr Lenihan offered to produce a flyer to residents informing them of the proposal.  [Note by Clerk: the Developer posted flyers through village letter boxes the morning after the meeting and inviting residents to a consultation meeting, which rendered Cllr Lenihan’s offer unnecessary]

Other/Ongoing Planning Matters:

Claybrooke SRV status
The Parish Council over many months, had held discussions and correspondence with HDC regarding the proposal by that body to designate the Village as a Selected Rural Village (SRV), and had also had correspondence with the Ombudsman and others in an effort to persuade HDC that the Village should not be accorded SRV status. The criteria HDC had applied with regard to the village was, in the opinion of the Parish Council, flawed and indeed HDC had changed the criteria regarding the distance that children would have to walk to the School (in Parva) from 800m to 1 kilometre. All efforts had been unsuccessful and the Parish Council was now left with a choice of dropping their objection or seeking further legal clarification as to the options left open to them.

The legal option was now felt to be the only way to clarify the situation and ensure that the future of the Village is secured from unreasonable development.  Cllr Butcher felt that the new proposal for houses off Main Road (see above) had been instigated by developers who had taken advantage of the fact that the proposal for SRV status, which is in the public domain, would be approved when the Local Plan was itself approved, and would thereby enable a greater measure of development than would have been possible had the village not been designated as SRV.

The proposal to seek legal advice would be expensive and the PC therefore had to consider whether it was a proper use of public money. All members agreed that this was a significant issue for the future of the community and if successful could help to protect the Village from future excessive or unsuitable development and therefore would be a proper investment of public funds. Nevertheless the PC realised that there was no guarantee of a successful outcome as this would depend on the skills of the barrister and his interpretation of the legal situation.

The PC therefore felt that they could justify the expenditure whether or not the outcome was favourable but if the outcome was positive the PC may be able to challenge HDC’s proposals with more substantial evidence backed by legal opinion.

The proposal was therefore put by Cllr Lenihan and seconded by Cllr Butcher, that the Parish Council appoints a barrister to provide a legal opinion on the matter of the proposed SRV designation.   By a show of hands the proposal was carried unanimously.

Cllr Butcher had obtained three quotations from firms and a quotation from Richard Humphreys QC was deemed to be acceptable in the sum of £3000 +VAT.  Cllr Butcher would ask the firm to provide an invoice as they required payment in advance.
Correspondence The Clerk produced items of correspondence, some of which were distributed amongst members.  

Dog Fouling – extra funding
HDC had indicated that they had allocated extra funding for resources to combat dog fouling, including notices, more dog wardens and patrols. Clerk to ask for further information as to how Claybrooke could become a beneficiary of this scheme.

Parish Events
Cllr Lenihan informed members that there were no events taking place at the Village Hall in the near future. It was pointed out by other members that there were other events taking place in the Village e.g a Village Quiz on 10th February and a bingo night later in the month. There was a need to be informed of all events in the Village, not only the ones to take place in the Hall and to establish some sort of a calendar system to keep up to date. This could also be put on the website when live. It was decided that this agenda heading be not used in the future but that general village- wide events would be mentioned under AOB and that Cllr Lenihan would continue to report Village Hall events under the Village Hall item.

Village Hall 
Cllr Lenihan advised members that the proposal to clear and renovate the area at the back of the hall had received an offer of grant funding from HDC of £5000. The total cost would be £11000 and the PC would be asked for a contribution in due course.

Playground
Cllr Deacon will carry out essential repairs to the playground and order more bark infill, but probably would be unable to do the work until April due to family and other commitments.

Any Other Business
There was a general discussion regarding the possibility of setting up a village newsletter to keep the residents informed about current issues, especially planning matters, the proposal for new development, and other matters. Cllr Allcoat said she would help in setting this up, together with Cllr Butcher, and that all Cllrs would co-operate in ensuring that matters of importance and interest to the Village would be included.

Date of next meeting: 9th March 2017.

The meeting concluded at 8.55 pm.