Parish Council Meeting Minutes

Minutes of a Meeting of Ellisfield Parish Council
held in the Memorial Hall on Monday 1st September 2003 at 7.30 pm

Present

Paul Turner (Chairman and Acting Clerk),
Sally Adams, Caroline Cazenove, Steven Gould, Tim Guinness and Peter Mitchell (Councillors)

In attendance

Katrina Dalziel (Administrative Assistant)

2 members of public

1.

Apologies for Absence.  None.

2.

Minutes of the Meeting held on 14^th July 2003.

Two items had been given the wrong Item Number. The "To consider any new Planning applications and receive an update on current applications" item should have been numbered "9" instead of "7" and the "To discuss any matters which the Chairman considers urgent" should have been numbered "11" instead of "15". The minutes were amended accordingly and the alterations were initialled by the Chairman. The Minutes were then agreed and signed as a true record.

3.

Matters Arising from the Minutes.

Page 637 - Item 1 (Register of Interests forms). These had all been returned to the Clerk and had been sent off to the Standards Officer at B&D. Noted.

Page 637 - Item 6 (Appointment of Cllr Turner as Responsible Financial Officer (RFO) for a period of 3 months). Cllr Guinness mentioned that there had been general agreement that at the meeting following the three month period there should be a review of the RFO function. Noted.

Page 637 - Item 7 (Change of Signatories). The mandate had been sent off at the end of July. Only informed by Lloyds TSB that there was a need for signatories to provide proof of signature on August 22. All relevant signatories had been informed. Noted.

Page 638 - Item 10i (Highways). An update regarding the drains and gullies on Axford Road will be provided by Councillor Adams within this meeting's Item 9i. The fallen tree had been cleared by BT (thanks to Cllr Gould). Noted.

Page 638 - Item 10iii (Website). The website had been entered into the Hantsweb contest. Noted. We have not got the e-mail addresses yet from B&D; this matter had been escalated to the Chief Executive as IT Director is off sick. Noted. Cllr Guinness reported that, in his capacity as a resident of the village, he was still corresponding with solicitors regarding the mast. Noted.

Page 639 - Item 10v (Land & Property). The notice had not been circulated. Noted.

Page 639 - Item 11 (Matters which the Chairman considers urgent). The Chairman had thanked Martin Ridgeway for his help whilst the Council was inquorate.

4.

To amend signatories on the Treasurer's Account with Lloyds Bank plc.

Cllr Mitchell had not been present at the last meeting when other councillors registered as signatories. Cllr Mitchell signed the new Bank Mandate as a new signatory and this was witnessed by Councillors Guinness and Gould. Cllr Turner was removed from the list of signatories as it had been decided at the last meeting that he should not continue to be a signatory whilst also holding the position of Clerk.

5.

To receive a report from the Clerk on Administration Matters.

a. No-one requested inspection of the 2002/3 accounts during the statutory period. All relevant documentation was posted to the District Auditor on Friday, August 22. Noted.

b. Councillors Cazenove, Gould and Guinness can now sign cheques. 7 cheques were signed:
    M. Woodgate (litter picking - July and August) - £50.00
    S. Duncan (litter picking - July and August) - £50.00
    Katrina Dalziel (salary - July to September) - £75.00
    Paul Turner (clerk's expenses) - £155.82
    Edna Chilton (clerk's salary and expenses) - £594.05
    SLCC (Clerks Manual) - £15.00
    Shaw & Sons (Parish Councillor's Guides) - £72.00

c. Parish Funding Scrutiny Panel. Highlights of their initial report are:

Proposal to increase B&D's £500pa to £1,000pa.
Proposal that Parish Councils be surveyed in regards to their expenditure on those areas that might be involved in "Double Taxation" (ie, where residents in rural parishes help pay for expenditure in Basingstoke on such items as Burial Grounds, Play Areas, etc. as well as being directly charged by their Parish Council for expenditure on the same items within their own parish).
Communications issues (eg, chairman attending Liaison meetings, special web pages, etc.).

d. There is a B&D Clerks' Liaison Meeting on Wednesday, September 3 at 7pm.

All noted.

6.

To consider any new Planning Applications and receive an update on current applications.

56242 (Conservatory at the Walled Garden, College Lane):
This application was received between meetings. The Clerk conferred with the vice-chairman and a "No Objection" was sent by the Clerk to B&D. Noted.

56398 (Removal of condition for The Rest, College Lane):
This application was received between meetings. A "No Objection" was sent by the Clerk to B&D. Noted.

56608 (Additional antenna on the College Lane mast):
It was decided that the Parish Council should object (on the grounds of sighting and appearance). The Clerk was asked to attend to this. Agreed.

Cllr Guinness proposed that residents be asked in the next Newsletter to copy to the Parish Council any Planning Application objections they send in to B&D. Agreed. The Chairman proposed that this also be included in the Planning section of the Council website. Agreed.

Cllr Guinness proposed that all Councillors be e-mailed by the Clerk with the details of all new Planning Applications. Agreed.

7.

To review and approve any action needed on Ellisfield Volunteer Group's proposal that wildflower and long grass areas be incorporated within the Gravel Pit central space.

Through the parish newsletter, residents would be invited to go and see the developing wildflower area at the gravel pits and to respond with comments and opinions. Agreed.

In addition, it was suggested that the Volunteer Group could put up a notice at the gravel pits explaining what they wanted to do. It was agreed that the Chairman would speak to the Volunteer Group about doing this.

It was also reported that the Volunteer Group had mowed wider strips and had increased the mowed area at the entrance to the Gravel Pits. Noted.

It was agreed that the proposal for a wildflower area would be discussed at the next meeting when village opinion had been gathered.

8.

To discuss and allocate Members' Special Interests

Memorial Hall. Cllr Adams to continue. Agreed.

Swing. Cllr Gould to continue. Agreed.

Web Site. Cllr Turner expressed his wish to continue with this special interest whilst he completed the redevelopment of the web site. He would pass on responsibility for this special interest if another councillor wished to take it over. Agreed.

Highways. Cllr Mitchell would now be responsible for this interest. Agreed.

Neighbourhood Watch. Cllr Cazenove would now be responsible for this area of interest. Agreed.

Environment. Cllr Gould would now be responsible for this area of interest. Agreed.

Land and Property. Cllr Guinness would now be responsible for this area of interest (which would include Ellisfield's Rights of Way). Agreed.

Health & Safety. Cllr Turner to continue. Agreed.

Best Value. Cllr Turner to continue. Agreed.
It was agreed that this document be circulated to all new councillors. This would ensure that everyone on the Council was familiar with the document and how Best Value might apply to future issues.

BDAPTC. Cllr's Adams and Turner to continue. Agreed.

9.

To receive any report and approve any action needed on:

(i)

Highways:

Fallen tree had been attended to.

The Axford Road drains had been cleared.

The Axford Road lines are due to be renewed including College Lane. It was agreed that the Chairman would try to find out when. Green Lane had also been marked up for patching.

Chairman had met with Mr Lance. Work had been contracted out. HCC are having problems getting jobs done. We can help by contacting HCC and the newspaper to complain.

A notice would be put in the next newsletter about who to contact if a pot hole appears. Agreed.

It was suggested that the newsletter should also include a list useful telephone numbers. Agreed.

(ii)

Health and Safety: Nothing to report.

(iii)

Web Site:

The Ellisfield Parish web site had been entered into the Hantsweb contest. However, it had been noticed by another councillor that HCC had not yet listed the web site as having been entered. Noted.

It was also commented that the web site was difficult to find on Hantsweb. Noted.

Parish e-mail accounts had still not been set up for councillors since the B&DBC IT specialist was off sick. A request had been sent to the Chief Executive.

The redevelopment was continuing. Statistics to indicate how many people were visiting the site could not be considered accurate (because "unique" visitor numbers were recorded by counting the number of unique visitor IP Addresses and most ISPs allocated random IP Addresses per session). Councillors had been asked whether the Fox Inn should be added to the front page. It was agreed that the page would be built and then circulated to councillors for discussion. It was thought that the information about the Fox had to be factual and that a footer be included to inform the public that the council does not endorse the pub.

There was some discussion that the growth of the web site may damage circulation for Hill and Dale. It was generally felt that each had different remits.

(iv)

Best Value Review: Nothing to report

(v)

Land and Property:

The bus shelters and notice boards need cleaning and the cork lining in all notice boards either needs replacing or repairing.

Cllr Cazenove agreed to clean the notice board opposite Brocas. Cllr Turner agreed to organise the cleaning of the remaining notice boards.

It was agreed that all councillors would look at the notice boards and bus shelters so that their state of repair can be discussed at the next meeting.

(vi)

Environment:

There had been no further news regarding the "sludge" smell. Cllr Turner would follow this up.

It was agreed that the Chairman would also ask farmers in the area about their use of liquid slurry and cake. There was some discussion as to whether the council might be able to ask farmers to keep residents informed of certain activities.

(vii)

Swing: Nothing to report.

(viii)

Neighbourhood Watch: Nothing to report.

(ix)

Memorial Hall:

The next committee meeting will be on 16^th September. The Harvest Festival Supper is on 4^th October.

(x)

Basingstoke District Association of Parish & Town Councils:

There is another applicant for Parish Council Representative on the Standards Committee and interview was now necessary. Cllr Turner had yet to be interviewed.

10.

To discuss any matters which the Chairman considers urgent.

Councillors were asked to look at the village newsletter within the next few days and bring any problems to the attention of the Chairman. It was agreed that each councillor would distribute some copies of the newsletter.

The Chairman/Clerk would not be available for a meeting on 6^th October. It was agreed that forthcoming meetings would be held on 3^rd November 2003 and 1^st December 2003.

The meeting closed at 9.45pm.

Chairman:          (Signed by Cllr Turner)         

Date:                3rd November, 2003              

Matters discussed in Open Forum

Ellisfield bus timetable.