Parish Council
Parish Council Minutes April 14
KING’S SOMBORNE PARISH COUNCIL
Minutes of the Parish Council Meeting
held in the Village Hall
commencing at 7.00pm on Monday 7 April 2014
Present: Cllr R Harwood (Chairman)
Cllr A Brock
Cllr R Curtis
Cllr J Evans
Cllr F Fahy
Cllr R Jackson (paras 49 to 62.1)
Cllr R Lane
Cllr A Reeves
Cllr J Werrett
Cllr S Whitehead
In Attendance: Mr P J Storey (Clerk to King’s Somborne Parish Council)
Public Session
The Open Spaces Warden, Dr Mackintosh and Mr Pearson, were present for part of the meeting.
Dr Mackintosh reiterated the Village Hall’s wish to extend the Hall building onto the hardstanding facing the junior football pitch and how it would be advantageous when fundraising to state that the Hall owned or at least had a long lease on the parcel of land in question. He confirmed the Hall management committee had ringfenced funds to meet up to £2,000 legal and other expenses to enable the transfer to take place. Fields in Trust, as owners of the land, would not consider transferring that parcel of land in isolation and had stated they were only prepared to transfer the whole recreation ground including the Scout ‘s leased land to the King’s Somborne recreation ground charity of which the Parish Council and the Clerk were trustees. They were planning to consider the transfer of the land at their June meeting of trustees subject to final confirmation from the Parish Council that it was willing to accept the transfer of title. This was duly noted.
Dr Mackintosh also displayed the new signs signposting access to the recreation ground and Village Hall which the Hall had purchased and which it was intended to display on the entrance to the slip road. However, some discussion ensued on whether or not it would be preferable to have the sign facing traffic from Romsey positioned on the entrance by the bottle bank and this would be discussed further at the next Parish Council meeting.
45. Apologies for absence.
45.1 C/Cllr Gibson and PCSO Bonter.
46. Chairman’s announcements and Councillors’ questions
46.1 None.
47. To approve the Minutes of the Parish Council meeting held on 3 March 2014
47.1 Proposed Cllr Brock, Seconded Cllr Werrett, RESOLVED unanimously that the minutes of the meeting held on 3 March 2014 be accepted as a true record.
48. To consider any Matters Arising from those Minutes
48.1 Para 36.8 Biodiversity site. Cllr Jackson would mark the area of the biodiversity site on 3
Fields.
Action: Cllr Jackson
48.2 Para 36.10 MUGA. Cllr Curtis updated members on the MUGA and the meeting was adjourned to enable members to view the proposed location on the sports field. Cllr Curtis would send a scaled drawing of the site to all and the Clerk would write to all near neighbours outlining the MUGA plans after final confirmation at the next meeting. Cllr Fahy stated his wish that a shed be considered on-site for storage of tennis equipment. The Clerk recommended that a Certificate of Proposed Lawful Development be applied for from TVBC.
Action: Cllr Curtis and Clerk
48.3 Proposed Cllr Evans, Seconded Cllr Fahy RESOLVED that application be made to TVBC for a Certificate of Proposed Lawful Development for the MUGA.
Cllr Jackson arrived at this point
49. Declarations of Interest and requests for Dispensations
49.1 None declared or sought.
50. To consider Correspondence Received and determine any action required
50.1 The Clerk drew Members’ attention to correspondence received and would take the appropriate follow up action, where necessary. The request from the Romsey town mayor to join an inter Test Valley quiz night was not supported as any team entering needed to include at least three councillors.
51. To receive Councillors’ Reports
51.1 Cllr Fahy confirmed the information on how to report potholes would be repeated in The Gauntlet for general information and that a road users claim form for compensation when having suffered injury or damage as a result of a pothole was on the Hantsweb website.
51.2 Cllr Lane stated that Rookery Farm had requested all the nearby ditches be cleared following the floods.
51.3 Cllr Whitehead sought confirmation that action had been requested to reposition the 30mph restriction signs at the top end of Eldon Road. Cllr Fahy would follow up.
Action: Cllr Fahy
52. To receive the RFO’s Report and Budget Monitoring
52.1 A budget monitoring report had been circulated with the agenda papers and was noted.
52.2 The Clerk reported that the internal auditor would be with him on 29 April to complete the end of year accounts and Annual Return. He was also pleased to report a successful bid for £1,000 from Aster Communities towards the costs of the MUGA.
53. Payment of Accounts
53.1 Proposed Cllr Lane, Seconded Cllr Whitehead, RESOLVED unanimously that the following accounts for March 2014 be approved for payment:
To For Net VAT Gross Chq/Internet
Mr P Storey Salary/expenses 591.71 591.71 Int
BPC Shared costs 144.00 144.00 Int
HMRC Tax/NIC 373.75 373.75 Int
Totals 1109.46 1109.46
54. Grant Aid application
54.1 The King’s Somborne School Association had applied for a grant of £1,657 to provide laptops for use at the children’s breakfast club to enhance their IT skills.
54.2 Proposed Cllr Brock, Seconded Cllr Lane, RESOLVED unanimously that £1,675 be granted to the King’s Somborne School Association for the purchase of laptops for the children’s breakfast club.
55. Review of flood reaction and precautions taken
55.1 The Clerk briefed on the initial setting up of the flood working group to oversee precautions taken, the advice available, and to provide help through localised flood wardens to the vulnerable. Whilst acknowledging there were lessons to be learned, all thought that the reaction to the flood had worked well judging by the number of complimentary comments received. A number of learning points were noted and would be introduced at the forthcoming wash up meetings with TVBC (dates to be confirmed) and, hopefully, HCC. In the meantime, the Clerk would research the report raised by Mr Bidwell at the time of the previous flooding a decade ago and produce something similar as a result of our more recent experiences. Additionally, the community resilience plan would be amended, where appropriate.
Action: Clerk
56. To determine action to be taken on transfer of land from Fields in Trust
56.1 Following on from Dr Macintosh’ presentation in the public session, some members raised concern at the potential liability falling upon the Council should the transfer of the recreation ground get Fields in Trust (FiT) approval only to find subsequently that the Deed of Dedication which would form part of the transfer documentation precluded building upon part of the land transferred with the Village Hall then declining to meet the legal costs involved since they could no longer realise their plans. There was also concern expressed at the FiT insistence to transfer all the land, including the Scout Hut and adjacent land within their fence, and the associated costs which the Village Hall had declined to meet since this transfer gave them no direct benefit. Finally, although the Hall had ringfenced £2,000 to meet legal and other costs, there was no indication available on what the actual costs might be and members thought it unwise to enter into a formal agreement with FiT to effect transfer without knowledge of these likely costs.
56.2 Proposed Cllr Brock, Seconded Cllr Werrett, RESOLVED with Cllr Fahy against that there should be one transaction which included the Scout’s land, that all costs including professional valuation and other fees should fall to the Village Hall and that the Village Hall should obtain an estimate of these which should also include the costs of the second transfer for that part of the whole area which the Hall wished to build upon.
57. Adoption of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 publication scheme
57.1 Proposed Cllr Brock, Seconded Cllr Lane RESOLVED unanimously that the Freedom of Information Act 2000 publication scheme be re-adopted.
58. Adoption of the Document Retention Policy
58.1 Proposed Cllr Lane, Seconded Cllr Curtis, RESOLVED unanimously that the Document Retention Policy be re-adopted.
59. Parish Development working group update
59.1 Cllr Werrett reported that work continued on drafting the Village Design Statement which would go out for consultation later in the year.
Action: Cllr Werrett
60. Annual Assembly 2014
60.1 This year’s Annual Assembly attracted slightly fewer members of the public than last year but despite this disappointment a lively exchange of views and transfer of information took place. In particular, in the absence of the HCC representative overseeing the roll out of Broadband to the rural areas, C/Cllr Gibson gave an account of his understanding of the programme which would see most of King’s Somborne benefitting next year. Action points arising from the Assembly included drain clearance and road sweeping following the floods, the sewage flow problem in Old Vicarage Lane, dredging the Borne and removing overhanging trees, a Gauntlet article on pothole reporting, more community seats, litter collection along the bridle path from Lancaster Green to The Gorrings, updating the community resilience plan and producing a flood report for future reference.
Action: Clerk
61. Clerk’s monthly report
61.1 The Clerk reported on youth nuisance around the area of the Eldon Road bus shelter, the TVBC/ Government reimbursement scheme for those who had lost essential white goods in the flood and that as a result of the Epworth Hall being out of commission until the end of the Summer he had booked the Village Hall for meetings up to early September.
62. Date, time and place of next meeting
62.1 The next meeting would be the Annual General Meeting on Monday 12 May 2014 at 7.00pm in the Village Hall, Romsey Road, King’s Somborne.
Action: All
There being no further business, the Chairman closed the meeting at 9.00pm