Clenchwarton Parish Council

Parish Clerk The Parish Office Black Horse Rd

Clenchwarton King’s Lynn PE34 4DN

Tel 01553 773254

Minutes of the Parish Council meeting held on Thursday 1st March 2012

Councillors present:Sue Cross – Chair, Kevin Pell, Richard Smith, Trevor Collison, Sheila James, Richard Brown
In attendance:Joan Hodkinson (Clerk) and 11 members of the public.
1 / Apologies for absence: Apologies were received and accepted from Cate Swietonowski – Vice Chair.
2 / Disclosures of Interest: Cllr Cross (Chair) declared a prejudicial interest in Item 12 – Planning application at her home address. Cllr Pell was voted in as acting Vice Chair to Chair the meeting at Item 12. Cllr Collison declared a personal interest in Item 11 – Finance - payment of wages as a relative of an employee.
3 / Minutes:It was resolved to accept the minutes of the meeting of 2nd February 2012 as a true record of those proceedings. Prop: Cllr Brown. Sec: Cllr Smith. All agreed.
4 / Clerks Report: The Clerk reported that a letter has been sent to the LDF Manager at the Borough Council informing him of the Parish Council vote on Mr Richard Freezer’s development plans as: 3 councillors in favour of supporting the plans, 2 abstained from voting and 1 councillor declared a personal interest.
5 / Public Forum:John Bolderstone reported that the Football Club had chosen 4 of the club’s long serving managers as bearers of the 1948 Olympic Torch when it comes through the village on Tuesday 5th June and he detailed the events that will be held on the playing field on that day to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in association with the Stroke Association. He expressed his concerns about the ruts on the playing fields which may cause an accident. The Clerk is to contact British Sugar for a quote for their sand based top soil to spread on the fields. Mr Bolderstone reported that there was still a problem with dogs being taken onto the field. The Chair advised that signs were to be installed.
Jane Ashby who is a resident of Station Road, questioned Borough Councillor David Whitby why he had sent a letter of support for the proposed development at 42 Station Road when he had not spoken to any of the adjoining property owners. Cllr Whitby replied that he didn’t think the development would affect the neighbours. Jane Ashby replied that the development will be looking into the neighbouring gardens and houses and that she will be opposing the development.

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6 / Hastoe Housing: Frank Baker of Hastoe Housing and Nicki Patton who is Housing Strategy Officer at Borough Council gave a talk on Affordable Housing within the village. Nicki Patton reported that there had not been a needs survey done since 2008 and urged people with housing needs to register with the Borough Council as they can only provide a scheme if there is a sufficient need to justify building homes. Frank Baker illustrated to the meeting how Hastoe Housing are a specialist rural provider of homes for local people building ‘passive’ homes, that is houses with energy and water saving systems built into every property.
7 / Reports from Borough and CountyCouncillors:
7.1 Borough Councillor David Whitby – Nothing to report
7.2CountyCouncillor David Harwood – Cllr Harwood reported that the County Council are to keep the Council Tax amount at the same level for this year and the next. Almost 70% of the money that County Council had invested with the Icelandic Bank had been recovered and expect another 8% to come back.Members of the council addressed the issue of the proposed incinerator to Cllr Harwood, stating how they felt ‘let down’ by him abstaining from voting on the proposals rather than opposing them. Cllr Harwood replied that if he had voted no, there would have been no other chance for him to get involved with the process. Abstaining was as good as a no vote and was recorded as a no vote but the electorate don’t see it as such. Questioned on the health and environment issues that have been stated by Richard Burton at presentations, he replied that “Richard Burton is not qualified to comment on the environmental effect of the incinerator.” He informed the meeting that the Borough Council are to put forward a judicial review of the proposed incinerator. He advised the meeting that the planning application for the proposed Wind Farm at Ongarhill will be submitted in the next few weeks.
8 / Police Report: The police were not in attendance. The Clerk reported the figures taken from the Police website for January 2012 in Clenchwarton as: 1 incident of Anti Social Behaviour, 2 Incidents of Violent Crime (this includes offences against the person such as common assault, grievous bodily harm and sexual offences.) 1 incident of Other Theft and 1 drugs related incident. The Clerk is to contact the Police for more information on the fly tipping incident reported last year.
9 / Car Boot Sales: Mr John Mayne had e-mailed the council requesting permission to hold a car boot sale, on the playing field, one day a week during the summer period approximately mid May until the end of August for about 30 to 50 cars. It was felt there would be a danger, if let on a regular basis, of the field being churned up with the movement of so many vehicles. It was resolved that permission would not be granted. Prop: Cllr Smith. Sec: Cllr Brown. 5 Councillors agreed and 1 abstained.
10 / Queen’s Diamond Jubilee: As stated earlier the Football Club are organising events on the playing field and will be providing refreshments. The Bowls Club are also holding a bowling event. It was suggested that something could be held in the Memorial Hall organised by other local clubs. A letter had been received from the East of England Co-operative offering funding towards costs of holding a street party. The Clerk to obtain further details.

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11 / Finance Report: (Refer to payment sheet on file)
11.1 The financial position and payment of wages and invoices for the month was reported. Cllr Pell proposed that the finance report be approved, seconded by Cllr James. All agreed. Cllr Cross requested that, as there was only a small amount of Petty Cash available, a cheque is issued in the sum of £100 as Petty Cash to cover the costs for the Parish Assembly. At last year’s internal audit it was recommended by the auditor to keep the Petty Cash amount at £75. It was resolved that the amount should be reviewed on a monthly basis. Prop: Cllr Collison. Sec: Cllr Smith. All agreed.
12 / Planning: The Chair having declared a prejudicial interest on an application in this item left the room and Cllr Pell chaired the meeting.
Ref: 12/00188/F –Demolition of commercial buildings and construction of 4 new 3 bedroom dwellings at 42 Station Road.
Cllr Collison asked Borough Councillor David Whitby had he not considered that it would have been better to discuss the proposed development at Station Road before submitting his letter of approval to the Borough Council. Cllr Whitby apologised for not having done so and when asked if he would now consider retracting his support he confirmed that he would. The members of the Parish Council voted unanimously to oppose the development on the grounds that it was an inappropriate use of ‘back land’ and the new dwellings would overlook the neighbouring properties.
Ref: 12/00155/F – Installation of a small scale wind turbine at Land at The Old Mill, Mill Lane. The application was unanimously supported.
Planning Update:Refusal of the outline planning application for up to 75 dwellings at Fosters Sports Ground, Main Road on the grounds that it would be located outside the development boundary of the village and within the countryside as defined by the King’s Lynn & West Norfolk Plan 1998.
Cllr Cross rejoined the room and continued to Chair the meeting.
13 / Correspondence:The list of correspondencereceived had been circulated to all councillors and included:
A request from a parishioner to have a dog bin installed on the green on Warrens Road – to be included on the next Finance Committee agenda.
Notice of the Community Rangers visit during week commencing 26th March – Clerk to e-mail requesting all Keep Left signs be cleaned and the footpaths hand swept through the village.
Norfolk Green advising of changes to the bus service through Clenchwarton with effect from Easter weekend.
Anenquiry to hold a ‘Dance for Health’ on the playing field in summer.
14 / Items for Future Agendas:
Boundaries
Dance for Health
State of the road on Mill Lane
Hedges round the village

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15 / It was resolved to exclude the Press and the Public from the following items in accordance with the provision of the Public Bodies Act 1960.
15.1 Nominations received for the Citizen of the Year Award 2012.
Three nominations were received and the members discussed the merits of each one. The result of the vote to be announced at the Annual Parish Assembly meeting in April.
15.2 To consider a report from an employee
A report (copy on file) from a grounds man and employee of the Parish Council was read to the meeting which detailed an incident at the playing field on Sunday 19th February 2012. The members of the Council discussed the matter and it was a unanimous decision that the Clerk should write to the Police to ask for further investigation into the matter and for the reasons that they did not attend the incident.
The meeting was closed at 21.35

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