Apologies Were Received from Councillors D a Hope and M S Streeter

MINUTES OF A MEETING OF THE SALTNEY TOWN COUNCIL held at the ODDFELLOWS HALL, 65 HIGH STREET, SALTNEY on WEDNESDAY 10 MARCH, 2010

PRESENT: The Mayor, Councillor Ann Lloyd; Councillors K Armstrong-Braun; H D Beddow; T J Elliott; D Evans; V Gay; E E Greensmith; W P Jones; T R Lloyd; C P Streeter; and the Town Clerk.

143. APOLOGIES

Apologies were received from Councillors D A Hope and M S Streeter.

144. MINUTES

RESOLVED: That the Minutes of the meeting of the Council held on 10 February, 2010 be confirmed as a correct record.

145. MAYOR’S COMMUNICATIONS

The Mayor reported that she had:

·  attended a Heavyweight Boxing Event at the Deva Boxing Academy;

·  Chaired the Police Forum on 23 February;

·  been invited to attend the Womens Football Qualifying Match between Wales and Sweden at Airbus on 31 March. Unfortunately because of previous commitments she would be unable but that she would be represented by the Deputy Mayor, Councillor Gay.

146. POLICE MATTERS

PC Ian Millington was in attendance and reported as follows:

·  there had been a noticeable decrease in the crime and ASBO statistics in South Flintshire and he thanked everyone for their support;

·  the two ‘Metal Mickey’ cameras would be set up in the next month or so in the area of the Victoria Road shops and adjacent to the children’s play area on the ‘rec’;

·  funded by the County Council and the Welsh Assembly Government the police intended to organise Youth and Older Persons meetings to try to resolve some of the difficulties/fears that arise in this relationship;

·  there would be a ‘Youth Night’ held at the Social Club on Saturday 20 March. There had been considerable support for this from members of the Youth Club;

·  a number of high value specialist mountain bikes had been stolen recently and the Neighbourhood Wardens were willing to give advice to anyone who wanted help in securing their property;

·  to encourage the licensees of the Public Houses in the Town to work together to try to combat the consumption of alcohol by underage drinkers a Pubwatch meeting was to be held on 25 March;

·  funded by The Mayor’s Charity a number of posters had been displayed in the area of Douglas Place to discourage ‘Cold Calling’;

·  a ‘parental awareness’ evening had been held in conjunction with members of the ‘alcohol awareness team;

·  following the Police Forum there had been no additions to the ‘action plans’; an EVA would be carried out in the St David’s Terrace area and attention was drawn to the area at the back of the flats behind the Victoria Road shops;

·  referred to a police initiative County wide scheme ‘Balance the Bobbies’, he circulated some flyers and encouraged members to take part;

·  informed Members that he was delighted to have been appointed a School Governor at St David’s High School.

Afterwards Members discussed the problems associated with ‘dog fouling’ particularly in the area of the ‘rec’ and it was suggested that notices for lamp posts should be obtained from the County Council.

Members also drew attention to the bogus ‘old clothing’ for charity collectors that were operating in the area. Special attention should be drawn to the necessity for the bags used to carry the charities registered charity number.

147. BUS STOP – HIGH STREET/PARK AVENUE, SALTNEY

Further to the discussion about the abovementioned bus stop at the last meeting of the Council, the Town Clerk reported that he had written to the Head of Highways and Transportation and he circulated a copy of the response. The response did not answer any of the questions asked but the text appeared to be a copy of a letter sent to Cllr Armstrong-Braun.

It was agreed that the modern day longer buses did not properly fit into the lay by but the idea of removing the lay-by was not supported and Members insisted that the bus-shelter which had become a health hazard should be removed.

The Police would be against anything that restricted the traffic flow along the High Street.

RESOLVED: That the County Council be informed that the Town Council are disgusted at the response from the Director of Highways and Transportation and that they insist on a site meeting with Messrs Longland; Faulkner and Bloore and that the Police be invited to the meeting

148. FINANCE

(1) Annual Governance Statement

The Town Clerk reported that in Accordance with Audit Regulations it was necessary for the Town Council to review annually the effectiveness of their internal audit controls. The Council operated a computerised cash book with its own in-built internal audit controls and print-outs from the cash book were regularly submitted to the Council. At present all monies paid to the Town Council were transferred by the County Council and others direct into the Council’s Deposit account held with HSBC. With regards to expenditure, all accounts were brought monthly to the Council and were listed on the Council’s agenda. All expenditure was by way of a cheque. All invoices, which were open to inspection at every meeting, were checked and initialled by the Town Clerk and the cheques were signed by any two of the authorised members of the Council who also initialled the counterfoil of the cheque and the invoice.

Last year the Council had appointed JDH Business Services as their internal auditors and the Council were invited to re-appoint them.

RESOLVED: That (1) JDH Business Services Ltd, of 94a Wrexham Street, Mold is re-appointed the Town Council’s internal auditors;

(2) Budget Report

Members received a printout of the state of the present budget; payments to date and trial balance.

RESOLVED: That (2) the report be received.

(3) Carry Forward

The Town Clerk reminded Members that Paragraph 3.5 of the Council’s Financial Regulations refers to unspent provisions; Unspent provisions in the revenue budget shall not be carried forward to a subsequent year without the express approval of the Council.

In vote 201, Recreation Grounds, for a number of reasons, it was expected that there would be an under spend of nearly £15,000 and it was suggested that this money be carried forward for use in 2010/2011.

Likewise it was expected that if there were to be an election for the vacancy of a Councillor, consequent upon the resignation of Cllr Crawford, it would be held on 22 April. £2,000 had been set aside for this in the 2009/2010 budget and it was suggested that this money should also be carried forward

RESOLVED: That (3) approval be given to the carry forward of £14,500 from vote 201 and £2,000 from vote 102 into the new financial year 2010/2011.

(4) Section 137 of the Local Government Act 1972

The Town Clerk reported that Section 137 of the Local Government Act 1972, permits a Town Council to spend on activities for which it has no other specific powers if the Council considers that the expenditure is in the interests of and will bring benefit to their area or any part of it or all or some of its inhabitants, providing that the expenditure is commensurate with the expenditure. Councils are also permitted under S 137 to incur expenditure for certain charitable purposes, and in both instances there was a spending limit attached to this power. For the financial year 2010/2011 the Welsh Assembly Government had not increased the formula and it remained at £6.15 per elector. Normally the sum would be increased by the percentage increase in the Retail Price Index. However the RPI was negative in September and this would have suggested a reduction in the formula but as this is not permitted in the legislation the formula remains as in 2009/2010. Saltney has 3488 electors and therefore the maximum expenditure under S137 could be £21,451.20. The actual budget provision for 2010/2011 is £8,000.

RESOLVED: That (4) the report be received.

149. LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOUNDARY COMMISSION FOR WALES

DRAFT PROPOSALS FOR FLINTSHIRE.

As agreed at the last meeting a Public Meeting had been held to discuss this matter on Thursday 25 February at the Community Centre, Sandy Lane. Over 80 people had attended the meeting and there was a unanimous objection to the Commissioners proposals. Attention was particularly drawn to paragraph 4 of the Directions – inter –alia ‘(d) It is considered that a decision to alter the existing pattern of multi and single member areas referred to in paragraph 3 of these Directions should only be taken where such proposals for alteration are broadly supported by the electorate so far as their views can be obtained in fulfilment of the consultation requirement contained in section 60 of the Act ‘. Those attending felt that there had not been sufficient consultation with the electorate and it was agreed that a petition against the proposals of the Commissioners and supporting the suggestions of the Town Council should be raised. A number of volunteers agreed to approach members of the electorate and, if in agreement, to ask them to sign the petition.

The Town Clerk reported that he had collected the petition signatures from the volunteers and with only one exception everyone who had been approached was against the Commissioner’s recommendations and had signed the petition. There remained a number of areas within the Township to be canvassed and members volunteered to attend on those streets.

The discussion then centred upon a newspaper article and photograph that had appeared in the Flintshire Chronicle on 4 March which referred to Councillor Armstrong-Braun’s ‘one man mission’ to get as many residents as possible to object to the plans to change the ward boundaries and to sign ‘his’ petition. Members were incensed at the Councillors behaviour in gaining publicity for himself against the best efforts of the Town Council.

RESOLVED: (1) That a Special Meeting of the Council be held at 7pm on Wednesday 24 March, 2010 to consider the Council’s response to the Commissioner’s recommendations; (2) that the matter of the newspaper article be referred to the Ombudsman for further investigation under the Code of Conduct rules.

150. LAFARGE INDUSTRIES – READY MIX CONCRETE PLANT

PLANNING APPLICATION

Further to Minute 101 of the meeting of the Town Council held on 11 November, 2009, the Town Clerk reported that the County Planning Committee had agreed to the requested extension of the planning permission for the continued operation of the Ready Mix Concrete Plant, however Lafarge had not been successful in obtaining the contract for the next phase of the build at Airbus and it was expected that the plant would be dismantled and removed from site by the end of April.

RESOLVED That the report be received.

151. PLANNING APPLICATION – Ref No 047181

The Town Clerk reported the receipt of the abovementioned planning application for comment.

Proposal: Change of use of former overspill car park for the Saltney Ferry Public House to car sales including temporary siting of portakabin and the addition of an entrance barrier.

Location: Car park adjacent to no 11 Chester Road, Saltney Ferry, Saltney, CH4 0AQ

For: Ben Wild Motors

Grid Ref: E 337059.4 N 364753.7

The proposed development involved the siting of a temporary portakabin to be used for the sales office with associated customer parking and allocated parking spaces for the display of vehicles for sale – approx 25 vehicles in total.

RESOLVED: That the County Council be informed that the Town Council wish to object most strongly to this application for change of use on the following grounds:

·  this is a residential area and this business is totally incompatible with that use;

·  on traffic grounds as the access is too close to the junction with the main road;

·  any advertising banners will be distracting to other road users;

·  the use of a porta-cabin would be unsightly;

·  the area would need water and drainage facilities for washing and preparing vehicles for sale;

·  there are no facilities for customers.

152. NHS WALES

Applications for inclusion in the Pharmaceutical List.

(1) Morrisons Supermarket, High Street, Saltney – Morrisons Pharmacy

(2) In the Vicinity of the Chester Road, Victoria Road, Bridge Street – Stephen Carr

The Town Clerk reported the receipt of two letters from NHS Wales inviting the Town Council to submit comments on the abovementioned applications. Members were requested to make particular reference to the application being necessary or desirable and consideration was given to the merits of both applications.

RESOLVED: That NHS Wales be informed that whilst welcoming both applications on the grounds that a Dispensing Chemist is both necessary and desirable in the Town Centre, the Town Council show preference to the application from Morrisons Supermarket on the grounds of services provided and Opening Hours.

153. MAYORAL CHAIN

The Town Clerk reported that there were no links left in the Mayoral Chain that hadn’t already been inscribed with the name of a past Mayor. Members discussed the options that were available including the purchase of a new chain and the refurbishment of the medallion and the possible use of the ‘retired’ chain for the Deputy Mayor on Civic occasions.

RESOLVED: That a Working Party, consisting of The Mayor, Deputy Mayor and the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the Finance and General Purposes Committee, be established to investigate the matter and report back to a future meeting of the Council.