Draft copy to be signed April 2016 APM 2015
MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL PARISH MEETING held on Wednesday 15th April 2015 at 7.30pm at the Arkenstall Village Centre, Station Road, Haddenham, Cambs.
Cllr David Lyon, Chairman of Haddenham Parish Council, welcomed twelve members of the public, eight Parish Councillors and County Cllr Bill Hunt.
1. MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING having been provided to all those present were taken as read. Cllr G Wilson proposed and Cllr Cheetham seconded that the minutes should be signed as a true record of the meeting subject to the following amendment:
Item 6 Stop Berry Fen Wind Farm Group – Mr Ian Bayley should read Mr Ian Bayes.
All those present agreed.
2. MATTERS ARISING
There were none.
3. APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE were received from Cllr Bayes for late arrival.
4. HADDENHAM PARISH COUNCIL CHAIRMAN’S REPORT
As Chairman, it is my pleasure to present my report on the activities of your Parish Council over the past 12 months, which has been an interesting period for us, with some major issues affecting the village coming to the fore.
Many of you will have kept up to date by following the minutes of the Council meetings, but for those who haven’t, I will attempt to give the highlights, keeping things brief!
The year started with a significant loss to the village following the passing of one of its longest-serving Councillors, David Fairchild. He had served the village over a period of 50 years and his experience and wisdom will be missed by all.
Another of our Councillors, Robert Norman, had also reached the same milestone of 50 years service, and he was presented with a memento of the occasion in thanks.
In July, we co-opted a replacement on the Council to fill the vacancy, with Cllr Steve Cheetham being successful in the ballot.
We prepared for the commemoration of the various anniversaries relating to the World wars by having the War Memorial professionally cleaned, and we are proud of its restored appearance.
In August, I attended the Planning Committee meeting at ECDC in order to put the case against the application to build 100 houses on land at Wilburton Road. This proposed speculative development by Gladman’s would have been incompatible with our village vision and would have been situated outside the village envelope. We were pleased to see that ECDC agreed with our arguments and voted to refuse the application. Although Gladman’s registered an appeal immediately, we are pleased to hear that it has been withdrawn and the threat of over-development has receded somewhat.
In September, as anticipated, we were consulted on the planning application by REG power to build a wind farm at Berry Fen. The Full Council became our Planning Committee for the purpose of an Extraordinary meeting, owing to the significance of the proposal. Your Council opposed the development for a variety of reasons and we await the meeting of the ECDC Planning Committee with interest. We believe it will now be held in June 2015, and I will attend to present our concerns.
During the year, we have been contemplating a major refurbishment of the pavilion at the Recreation Ground in order to make it a more attractive and functional building. As a first step, we retained an architectural practice to develop conceptual drawings for us and we are now moving on to the next stage of engaging with local builders for further exploration of our options and costs. Obviously, there will be full consultation with affected user groups before any final proposals are adopted. Funding will be largely grant-aided, but there will also be funds available in the form of a percentage of the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) charges, which are attributable to the Parish when any development takes place within our boundary.
Another major project which has been around for a while now, but which looks likely to come to fruition soon, is the proposal to open up the area known as Wayman’s Pits for public use and enjoyment, similar to Fairchilds Meadows. This will require a planning permission for a change of use for the land, but early indications are favourable. We have prepared the way by cutting back the roadside hedge so as to give sufficient room to create an access footpath to the site from the point where the existing footpath runs out at the bottom of Station Road.
In October, the Council suffered the loss of another Councillor, but this time through a resignation. Again, a co-option process was undertaken and a replacement, Cllr Ian Bayes, was appointed.
It has been good to see how many excellent candidates have put themselves forward for co-option on both occasions, demonstrating that people do still care about the village and are willing to put their personal time into making it a good place to live.
We continue to be very concerned regarding road safety matters, with particular reference to the Station Road/Hop Row junction, where visibility is often hampered by inconsiderate parking on the double yellow lines near the junction. Last year, we were engaged in discussions with the Police regarding the provision of a CCTV installation to monitor and prosecute offenders, but this now looks impractical. An alternative means of control is being investigated, but in the meantime, we are assured by our PCSO that the police will be more vigilant in ticketing such offenders. We remain concerned at the number of vehicles speeding through the village and continue to support the work of Speedwatch in their efforts to monitor the miscreants.
Last summer saw the completion of the Aldreth play area refurbishment, with new equipment and safety surfacing being provided. This has been something we have been planning for a long time and it was good to finally achieve it. We are pleased with the positive feedback we have received from the residents and user community in Aldreth.
In November, we saw the introduction of the new replacement 106 bus service, which has been called the Zipper. This was the culmination of a lot of effort by ourselves and Cllr Bill Hunt to preserve a bus service for the village and it deserves to be a success. We now enjoy a more frequent service at more logical timings, allowing commuters to and from Ely to use it rather than their car.
During the autumn, we went out to tender for a new three year contract for our grounds maintenance, and we were pleased to re-appoint the incumbent contractor, Fergusons. The new contract has just commenced on 1st April and we look forward to a continuation of the good service they have provided over the last three years.
In January this year, we became accredited at the Foundation Award level of the new Local Council Award Scheme, which recognises and celebrates the successes of the very best local councils. This demonstrates that you have a local council that is up there with the best in terms of good practice and continuous improvement.
Since February you will have noticed the work done by Balfour Beatty, on behalf of the County Council, in upgrading the street lighting throughout the village. This has been done as part of a Countywide initiative to improve the lighting stock and bring down energy costs. It was not totally without some errors, but BB have been very proactive in correcting any small issues in conjunction with us and we feel that overall, it may turn out to be a major success, once all the final connections are made in June.
Financially, your Council continues to exercise prudence in the management of its affairs and the draft accounts will be published as usual in the June issue of the Village Voice. Our balance sheet is healthy and in line with commonly accepted norms. The precept has been increased this year by 2.19%, and amounts to just under £81,500. We believe this will give us the requisite level of funding to provide the parish with the service it requires from its Council.
We have a risk management plan in place, which is reviewed regularly, and I am pleased to be able to report that all significant risks are being actively managed.
Finally, and as usual, I would like to place on record the Council’s appreciation of the work done by our Clerk, Mrs Jenny Manning, without whom the Council would not function as effectively.
David J Lyon
Chairman
5. DISTRICT & COUNTY COUNCILLOR REPORTS
District Cllr Pauline A Wilson:
We have had a busy year helping many local residents who come to us with all sorts of problems including Planning Applications, Financial issues, Homelessness and Sanctuary housing issues and Anglian Water problems to name but a few. We hope that after May 7th we will be able to continue helping others.
We have continued to help residents through the process of planning, including consulting with planning officers at ECDC and attending planning meetings to speak either for or against the planning application on their behalf.
I am now only a substitute on the Regulatory & Support Committee and have only attended one meeting, which was on 13th April. The Council is setting up a new appraisal system to improve the speed of staff appraisals. We heard from the HR Champion, Cllr. Jeremy Friend-Smith that staff morale was still very low following many redundancies last year and staff feeling overwhelmed and unable to cope with extra workloads.
The Ely Country Park is expanding and is well worth a visit. Section 106 and CIL money for communities are available and we discuss the grants at this committee. Aldreth Play Park has now been refurbished using Section 106 money and a grant from Awards for All. The next area Gareth wants to improve by getting new play equipment is the Pocket Park at the end of Newtown Road and soon Gareth and I will be consulting with the residents there.
The recycling rate following the introduction of wheelie bins has gone from strength to strength to over 50%. East Cambs also supply grants to the district wide leisure centres and I hope this will continue.
Dial a Ride used to receive a grant from the Commercial Services Committee, but funding was cut 5 years ago and with County Council cuts too, Ely & Soham Dial a Ride eventually found it impossible to continue without funding and told members they would close on 31st March. At the AGM it was decided to transfer the Charity’s Assets to Fenland Association of Community Transport (FACT), Gareth proposed an amendment to the resolution to say that ESDAR would not close before the new Dial a Ride service was in place. We did not want the elderly and disabled left with no transport. ESACT are now running the new Dial a Ride service for Ely and Soham area.
Shape Your Place was a website set up to take the place of Neighbourhood Panels, but now has also ceased, due to Cambridgeshire County Council cutting the funding for this service. Shape Your Place was a community based web forum, which provided a one-stop-shop for people to talk to all public agencies about issues concerning their neighbourhoods, and provided a platform for groups and places to promote themselves. Since it was launched in April 2012 the website received in excess of 246,000 visitors. The Parish Conference met on 2nd April in Burwell and the conference report was due to be discussed at the Commercial Services meeting on the 14th April, but this meeting had to be cancelled due to staff illness.
District Cllr Gareth Wilson:
The Coalition Government has offered a Revenue grant to East Cambs equivalent to 1 percent council tax increase so long as council tax was not increased. This year this was accepted so there will be no increase in the East Cambs portion of your Council tax.
We have tried very hard to stop Ely & Soham Dial a Ride from closing down on March 31st. However the stopping of the East Cambs grant and the threat to stop the County Council grants caused the Board of ESDAR to wind down the organisation. In order to ensure that the Dial a Ride service was not lost to the elderly and disabled people of East Cambs I was elected onto the board and took up the Treasurer’s responsibilities to make certain that the service would continue under new management. Ely and Soham Association of Community Transport (ESACT) have taken up the service from 1st April. Hopefully they will be able to provide an even better service.
I have continued to represent East Cambs DC on the Haddenham Drainage Board. The clerk to the Drainage Board retired last month and instead of appointing an individual it was agreed to appoint the Middle Level Drainage Board Commissioners to provide the clerk’s duties.
Haddenham’s village vision along with those visions of all the villages in East Cambs has been inserted into the East Cambs Local Plan. This has now been to the Government Inspector and has been approved. The East Cambs Full Council meeting on 21st April will approve it and then it will become our District-Wide Plan and all planning applications will be judged against it. However it will need to be regularly reviewed and revised as necessary. This should prevent developers such as Gladman trying to ignore local wishes and dumping massive developments on our local villages.
East Cambs was successful in obtaining a government grant of £5million, which was used to provide wheelie bins and the vehicles to use them for recyclable waste and green waste. The new system seems to be working well. East Cambs recycling has risen from 34% to 55%.
I am a member of the East Cambs District Council Planning Committee, which meets on the first Wednesday of each month. I am therefore able to assist people with advice on how the planning system works and what is likely to be accepted or rejected, but I leave it to Pauline to fight a case because if I either support or oppose an application I would not be able to vote if the application comes to the Planning Committee.