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Minutes of a meeting of LYDD TOWN COUNCIL

held at the Guild Hall

on Monday 7th January 2008 at 7 p.m.

Present:The Town Mayor - Councillor Ms. V. M. Dawson - Chairman

Councillors C. E. Albrow, T. Allen, Revd. A. J. Davis, Mrs. P. A. Davis,

C. Goddard, D. G. Kersey,Mrs. V. Loseby, Mrs. M. R. Masters, G. D. McKay,

W. L. Richardson, Ms. R. G. Saunders, Mrs. J. Shepherd and D. F. Watts.

Town Clerk – John Rich

Town Clerk’s Assistant – Mrs. J. Mathews

Town Mayor’s Chaplain - Revd. S. Hardy

Prayer:The Revd. Hardy led the Council in prayer.

1DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

Members agreed to declare any interests as each item was considered.

2QUESTIONS FROM THE PUBLIC

Community Warden Paul Croft addressed the meeting on various subjects, including graffiti removal, cigarette ends outside public houses, checks on vehicle road tax and anti-social behaviour at Lydd Late Night Shopping. The Town Mayor was thanked for personally cleaning graffiti from the roundabout. Mrs. Huxley-Williams also expressed concern about cigarette ends.

3MINUTES OF THE LAST COUNCIL MEETING

RESOLVED: That the minutes of the meeting on 3rd December be agreed and signed as a correct record.

Proposed by Cllr. Goddard, seconded by Cllr. Mrs. Masters, and agreed unanimously.

The clerk was asked to re-introduce the practice of providing copies of the agreed minutes for the public gallery, which had been discontinued to reduce paper wastage.

4PLANNING & ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE

RESOLVED: That the minutes of the meeting on 3rd December 2007 be received and adopted.

Proposed by Cllr. Revd. Davis, seconded by Cllr. Mrs. Masters, and agreed unanimously.

5MINUTES OF COMMITTEE MEETINGS

Members expressed concern that minutes of other committee meetings were marked as draft. The clerk explained that this was because they had not yet been agreed by following meetings.

RESOLVED: That the minutes of committee meetings should only be received by the Council after they have been agreed.

Proposed by Cllr. Mrs. Loseby, seconded by Cllr. Albrow and agreed unanimously.

6WEEKEND BULK REFUSE SERVICE

Arising from the minute on this matter the clerk informed Members that the planning application had been received and would be considered at the next meeting of the Planning & Environment Committee.

7LYDD COMMUNITY HALL

Cllr. Revd. Davis reported on a meeting of the committee attended by Cllr. Mrs. Saunders and himself.

8LYDD HALF MARATHON

The clerk reported an invitation from Shepway District Council to attend a presentation of its revised events procedure, which Cllr. Mrs. Loseby and Cllr. Mrs. Masters volunteered to attend. Arising from this, Members discussed the planned Half Marathon and the clerk agreed to provide a progress report.

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9MR. M. WALSH

The clerk reported a request from Mr. Walsh for an up to date statement on the Council’s budget for 2007/8 and the Mayoral Allowance.

RESOLVED: That Mr. Walsh is provided with the Budget Monitoring report for the second quarter and figures for the Mayoral Allowance.

Proposed by Cllr. Allen, seconded by Cllr. Mrs. Masters and agreed unanimously.

10TOWN COUNCIL VACANCIES

The clerk informed the Council of the arrangements for returning nominations for the forthcoming election.

11KALC AREA COMMITTEE MEETING

Cllr. Ms. Saunders informed the Council that the AreaCommittee was due to meet soon and asked for any matters that Members wanted raised. She reminded the meeting of her report from the last meeting and recommended that the implications of the planned Planning Portal be reviewed by the Council’s Communications & Media Sub-Committee. Members suggested that concerns about emergency planning, particularly concerning people with disabilities, should be raised at the Area Committee.

12MEETING VENUE

Cllr. Albrow introduced his letter, which had previously been provided to all Members, and asked that the Council review the current arrangement, suspend the alternating of meeting venues and that all Council and committee meetings be held in the Guild Hall. Councillors debated the matter including considerations of cost, mileage, attendance and equality.

RESOLVED: That the existing arrangement be continued.

Proposed by Cllr. Revd. Davis, seconded by Cllr. Mrs. Shepherd and agreed.

13MAYOR, DEPUTY MAYOR & TOWN SERGEANT’S ALLOWANCES

Cllr. Richardson expressed concern that adequate support is not being provided by the Council to enable the Mayor to properly represent the town at civic functions. The Town Mayor and Cllr. Albrow also agreed there are difficulties that need to be addressed. The clerk advised that the Mayoral Allowance Sub-Committee and the Establishment Committee would be the appropriate meetings to deal with these issues in detail.

14MEGAN CLOSE PLAY AREA

Cllr. Richardson introduced a petition from residents of Megan Close concerning £16,000 lodged by Crown Builders with Shepway District Council for a proposed play area. The petitioners are against the proposal and wish to see the money used for upgrading the existing play area on the Rype.

RESOLVED: That the Town Council supports the petitioners and will approach Shepway District Council requesting access to the funding to improve the play facilities in the parish.

Proposed by Cllr. Richardson, seconded by Cllr. Revd. Davis and agreed unanimously.

15BUDGET & PRECEPT FOR 2008/9

Cllr. Ms. Saunders presented the proposals of the Budget Working Party that had been set up by the Finance & General Purposes Committee to consider the matter in detail and determine the bottom line figure to be recommended as the precept level for 2008/9. Members discussed various aspects of the Council’s finances and wished to have more time to consider the level of precept.

RESOLVED: That the matter be referred to an extraordinary meeting of the Council, to be held on 21st January instead of Finance & General Purposes Committee, with a further meeting of the Budget Working Party to reconsider the level of precept.

Proposed by Cllr. Mrs. Loseby, seconded by Cllr. Richardson and agreed.

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16MAYOR’S DIARY

The Mayor’s engagements for the previous month were noted.

The following matters were considered under Any Other Business

17LAYOUT OF COUNCIL CHAMBER

Cllr. Richardsonand other Councillors expressed concern about the current layout and requested that a different layout be tried.

18PARISH PATHS

Cllr. Allen was advised that no information had been received recently about paths and particularly RUPPS.

19AIR AMBULANCE

The clerk reported a request for funding from the Kent Air Ambulance Trust that would be raised at the February meeting of Finance & General Purposes Committee.

20ENVIRONMENT AGENCY FLOOD RISK MANAGEMENT STRATEGY

The clerk reported an invitation to the Liaison Group meeting in February that would be raised at Planning & Environment Committee.

21LONDONASHFORDAIRPORT(LYDD)

The clerk read to the meeting a letter from the Station Director of Dungeness B Power Station explaining that British Energy had decided to object to the proposed expansion of the airport having assessed a number of issues associated with the risk of aircraft hazard on both the existing power station and the future of the site.

22PARK STREET CAR PARK & TURKS REMOVALS

The clerk announced that this planning application was due to be considered by Shepway District Council’s Development Control Committee on 8th January.

23HAMMONDS CORNER HIGHWAY IMPROVEMENTS

Details of these roadworks that had been provided by Kent Highways Services were read out by the clerk.

244D DRAINAGE WORKS

Cllr. Mrs. Masters told Councillors that this scheme was now complete and working.

Chairman

Town Council, 7th January 2008