MINUTES OF KINGTON
HELD IN THE COMMITTEE ROOM OF THE VILLAGE
HALL ON
PRESENT: Cllr. Dr. Maurice Dixson
(Chairman), Cllr. Mrs. Betty Bird, Cllr. Mrs. Val Giles, Cllr.
APOLOGIES for absence: None.
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081.08 |
DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST – Cllr. Mr. Don Styles declared a Personal
and Prejudicial Interest in the Planning Application at Elmet House,
Fairleigh Rise. Cllr. Mrs. Val Giles declared a Personal Interest in the
Planning Application at Elmet House, Fairleigh Rise. |
ACTION
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082.08 |
RESIDENTS’ FORUM - None. |
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083.08 |
MINUTES OF MEETING HELD ON
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084.08 |
MATTERS ARISING FROM MINUTES
The Chairman asked for
the actions from the previous meeting to be reviewed as follows:
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Clerk Cllr. Mrs. V Giles / Clerk Clerk Clerk |
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085.08 |
PLANNING
(a) Planning Issues: The Chairman asked Councillors to consider a
proposal to set aside a fund for employing professional advice when
considering major planning developments in the village. He cited as an example
a letter written by a professional planning agent on behalf of a neighbour to
the Barncroft application which very eloquently presented objections. The
point he emphasised, however, was that it could be advantageous in key
planning applications for the Parish Council to be represented by a local
established professional in the field with a good reputation in planning
circles. County Cllr. Mrs. Jane Scott said that the strength of any
submission relied on its reference to Planning Policy documents. The Clerk
was asked to circulate copies of the agent’s letter and the Parish Council’s
submission. Cllr. Hart pointed out that if such an
application was received there may not be time for the full Council to meet
to decide on whether an agent should be employed. If this became delegated
powers to the Chairman, the Parish Council’s Financial Regulations would need
to be changed. The subject should be an agenda item at the next Parish
Council meeting. Cllr. Mrs. Jane Scott pointed out that if the
Parish Council wished to have an application brought to the Development
Control Committee they can do so via their District Councillor. Apart from
Local Plan considerations, however, the Committee were most likely to be
influenced by the views of local people when making their decisions to refuse
planning applications. (b)
Planning Applications decided by North
Wiltshire District Council:
Planning Application Recommendations decided
under powers delegated to the Parish Clerk:
(c) Planning
Applications for consideration:
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Clerk Clerk Clerk Clerk Clerk Clerk Clerk Clerk Clerk Clerk Clerk Clerk Clerk Clerk |
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086.08 |
CHAIRMAN’S BUSINESS Cllr. Dr. Maurice Dixson said he wished to record
his thanks to Cllr. Peter Hart for all his work on the Commons Erosion
project and to the Clerk for a successful end of year Financial Audit
resulting in no actions. He said that he had obtained clarification on the
proposed electoral divisions by the Boundary Committee. Kington Langley would
not be part of Chippenham but part of the Sutton Benger unitary division of
villages. District Cllr Ms. Sherry Meadows said that a name change from
Sutton Benger to the Kingtons had been proposed but it would be a good idea
for the Parish Council to write to support this suggestion. |
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087.08 |
CLERK’S UPDATE All Councillors had now received the new
Councillors’ Handbook. The Clerk said she had put it together to enable
councillors to find useful reference materials in one place and it had been
done at minimal cost reusing old parish binders and dividers. Councillors can
now put the contents of their green folders (containing Standing Orders and
other Parish-specific regulations) into this binder and return the green
folders to the Clerk. |
All Councillors |
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088.08 |
COMMONS EROSION PROJECT Cllr.
Hart said that the application for matched funding (a sum of £5,360) had been
approved by the Area 3 Committee at their last meeting on Monday 2 June. The
timing for the start of the work would be the beginning of the Councillors
were given a summary of the quotations received from potential contractors
for the kerbing work and for bollard suppliers. On a proposal from Cllr. Chris Timbrell, seconded
by Cllr. Don Styles, IT WAS RESOLVED
that the contract for the kerbing work should be awarded to Groundscape. On a proposal from Cllr. Peter Hart, seconded by
Cllr. Mrs. Val Giles, IT WAS RESOLVED
that the contract for supplying bollards should be awarded to Furnitubes.
Following a proposal by Cllr. Don Styles, seconded by Cllr. Dennis Gill, IT WAS RESOLVED that the original
estimate of 20 bollards should be increased to 35 bollards as the increase in
price would be offset by the slightly reduced cost of the edging contract. On a proposal from Cllr. Dennis Gill, seconded by
Cllr. Don Styles, IT WAS RESOLVED
that villagers’ Promises should now be called in and the Chairman should
write letters to all those who had made pledges. Cllr.
Hart was also asked to put a short summary into the Village Magazine. |
Clerk Clerk Cllr. Hart Cllr. Dr. M Dixson Cllr. Hart |
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089.08 |
VILLAGE POND The
Clerk had received an update from Mrs. Lynn Atwell, saying that she had been
advised that pulling the Crassula
helmsii pondweed out by hand would not be wise because as the roots were
broken up it would spread even more. It does after all need to be treated
chemically. Mrs. Atwell had taken advice from a company in Cllr.
Dr. Dixson expressed concern that advice had changed and no action could be
contemplated until the Autumn. As the Councillor with responsibility for
Wildlife, Cllr. Timbrell agreed to take responsibility on behalf of the
Parish Council. Councillors
asked for clarification on which chemical was to be used and whether any work
could be done on the pond during the 3 years of the treatment. |
Cllr. Timbrell Cllr. Timbrell |
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090.08 |
REFUSE COLLECTION District
Cllr. Ms. Sherry Meadows confirmed that North Wiltshire District Council was
considering changing the frequency of the general refuse collection to
fortnightly. County
Cllr. Mrs. Jane Scott said that the reason was not primarily one of cost but
followed an EC directive to raise recycling levels. If the County went above
its landfill ceiling it would be fined. The intention was that different
types of waste would be collected on different weeks which should encourage
householders to spread the load between the collections and recycle more. On a proposal from Cllr. Chris Timbrell, seconded
by Cllr. |
Cllr. Ms. S Meadows |
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091.08 |
BYWAY 34 The Chairman said that the Parish Council had
been pursuing the downgrading of the Byway from a BOAT to a Restricted Byway
since last May. However, If the Council wished to pursue it further, evidence
of fly-tipping, drug-taking, etc. would have to be produced, including dates
and locations of specific incidents ideally including photographs. There was
no reason why vehicles should need to use the byway except for agricultural
purposes and farmers wishing to cut hedges or access their fields should not
be restricted by the change. Mr.
Weston asked to comment that the area included a medieval field system.
County Cllr. Mrs. Jane Scott said that this was a very good argument for
having the area closed to traffic. The
way to proceed would be to spend a period of time assessing the evidence with
a logging system set up to record incidents. Villagers should be asked to let
the Parish Clerk know of any problems. This should be publicised in the
Village Magazine and on the Web. The existing evidence should be collated
including letters from villagers, plus Police and NWDC Refuse Department
records. On a proposal from Cllr. Peter Hart, seconded by
Cllr. Chris Timbrell, IT WAS RESOLVED
that this recording system should be put in place. It was also agreed that anyone
whose fields border the Byway should be involved in any discussions regarding
changes. |
Clerk |
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092.08 |
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093.08 |
NEW BUS SERVICE Cllr. Don Styles said that the bollards preventing
obstruction to the larger buses turning round which the police had put at the
cross-roads by the Hit or Miss public house had apparently been removed by a
contractor. Cllr. Hart said he had noted that buses had been coming down However Cllr. Dr. Dixson said that there were
also villagers who use |
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094.08 |
DELEGATED SERVICES – NEW UNITARY AUTHORITY IMPLICATIONS Cllr. Dr. Dixson said that the Parish Council
would need to decide whether it had the will to have devolved powers. There
were several potential approaches to this, including clusters of Parishes
working together to employ contractors to service their villages. This should
be considered more fully in the coming months. He suggested that Richard Munro (Project Manager, Delegation
to Town and Parish Councils, Towards One Council) should be invited to talk at a
Parish Council meeting. |
Clerk |
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095.08 |
2007/08 ANNUAL ACCOUNTS – PARISH COUNCIL SIGN-OFF All Councillors had been given copies of the
Accounts and Supporting Statement and reviewed each item in Section 2. On
a proposal from Cllr. Don Styles, seconded by Cllr. |
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096.08 |
EFFECTIVENESS OF THE INTERNAL AUDIT – ANNUAL REVIEW In the interests of time, the Clerk was asked to
carry forward this agenda item to the next meeting. |
Clerk |
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097.08 |
FINANCE
(a)
Cheques
issued, payments received and transfers made since 6 May 2008 meeting:
Payments Received:
Transfers Made:
Direct Debits Paid: None. The invoices for the above cheques had been
inspected and approved by the signatories. On a proposal from Cllr. Peter
Hart, seconded by Cllr. Chris Timbrell, IT WAS RESOLVED that
cheques numbered 1043-1048 be approved by the meeting. (b)
Bank
accounts: The clerk reported that there were two sets of
Reconciliations for the meeting as the April statements had not been received
in time for the last meeting. The April reconciliation had been successfully carried out on 10 May
2008. Bank Accounts as at 30
April 2008:
The Clerk reported that the last reconciliation had been successfully
carried out on 5 June 2008. Bank Accounts as at 31
May 2008:
(c)
Grants,
Donations and other Financial Actions: ·
All Weather Footpath
Maintenance: Councillors
were not sure whether the footpath needed maintenance at this point. Cllr.
Chris Timbrell volunteered to check the lower part of the footpath to establish
whether this was the case. ·
Lost cheque by ·
Lloyds On Line
Banking – Following the precept
being paid into Deposit account the Clerk had investigated whether it was
possible for her to monitor the parish bank accounts online. However, the
banks do not yet have the facility to enable someone to monitor an account
without also being authorised signatories. This was under review by the Audit
Commission but not yet resolved. The Clerk would investigate alternative ways
of monitoring the accounts between the monthly statements. ·
3-Year Contracts – The Commons Cuts Contract has been
accepted and confirmed by AW Services. The contractor has committed to doing
the work during the week in future as he had only done the first cuts at
weekends to be ready for the Scarecrow Weekend. He had received a complaint
that he was not using the correct equipment for the job but had assured the
Clerk that he would be using different equipment in future. The contract does
give a 3 month “probation” period. |
Cllr. C Timbrell Clerk Clerk |
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098.08 |
CORRESPONDENCE
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099.08 |
ANY OTHER BUSINESS
(a)
The Clerk said that
the Playing Fields Pavilion had been vandalised over the preceding weekend.
The door and inner door were broken and the Fire Extinguisher sprayed
everywhere. This may be the subject of an Insurance Claim. (b)
Cllr. Don Styles
said that he had reviewed proposed changes to the mobile library service but
that the village was unaffected. (c)
District Cllr. Ms.
Sherry Meadows drew councillors’ attention to the CAVE meeting to be held on
the following day which was specifically focusing on supermarkets not giving
away plastic bags. Councillors were encouraged to attend. (d)
“Stop the Drop”.
Cllr. Chris Timbrell said that Wiltshire Wildlife Trust were running a pilot
scheme and asked for it to be put on next month’s agenda. (e)
Land at (f)
Cllr. Dennis Gill
said that that the drains by this development were overflowing. Cllr. Peter
Hart said they had already collapsed. The meeting closed at 22.05. The next Parish Council
Meeting is at 7:45 pm on Monday 14 July 2008. |
All Cllrs. Clerk Clerk |