190517 MCP Minutes 17Th May 2019
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MONKSILVER PARISH COUNCIL DRAFT Minutes of the Quarterly Parish Council Meeting held at 7:30 pm on Friday, 17th May, 2019 at the EMN Community Hall. Present: Cllrs. Andrew Howe (Vice-Chairman), Kate Adams, Dan Cotterill, David Vere Hodge, Sue Westbury, District Cllr. Marcus Kravis & District Cllr. Peter Pilkington. Clerk: Phil Watts. 1. Apologies for absence: County Cllr. Christine Lawrence, Cllr. Mervyn Orchard-Lisle (Chair) & Cllr. Tina Coggan. 2. Minutes of last meeting, (22nd Feb, 2019) PW Item 19. Dates of future meetings: the last date should have been 21std February, 2020 3. Declarations of interest: None 4. Matters arising: None 5 Presentation by Sam Murrell (Local Engagement Lead) (LEL) Sam explained that she had worked for West Somerset District Council for over 30 years in various roles. As part of the reorganisation resulting in Somerset West & Taunton Council, she has taken up a new role. Sam, along with her colleague, Beccy Brown have taken up the roles of Local Engagement Lead for the Exmoor and Coastal area (Exmoor and the coastal strip up to and including Stogursey) of the new District Council. There being 7 other LELs in the eastern part of SW & T D C. That 30 years of experience gives Sam a great knowledge of the community, its residents, businesses, problems, etc. The key functions of the LELs is to act as a very approachable 2-way link between the community and the council. Especially early identification of problems with a view to them being rapidly appreciated and, where possible, quickly resolved. In addition, spreading the awareness of, and building on successful ventures that are being used within the area. In order to help these aims, SW&T will be developing a “Problem Solving Platform” upon which residents and all community groups can become registered, again increasing awareness and spreading solutions. This platform can be accessed via the Somerset West and Taunton website, where users can create their own account. This platform is called Firmstep and will be a way of reporting and following up on all Council related queries. It will be accessible 24/7 and will enable residents to self-serve, pay bills online and report incidents such as fly-tipping, missed waste collection and other related matters. Sam also wants to develop and extend the use of Area Panels similar to the existing Dunster Area Panel. These meet quarterly with a very large spectrum of attendees and act to examine and solve a wide range of issues across their areas. They are a valuable source of information sharing as are attended by most of the public services (Police, Fire, SCC Highways) and members of the public have the chance to raise their questions Minutes of Monksilver Parish Council Meeting held on 17th May 2019 Page 2 of 5 directly to the Panel. Minutes of previous meetings can be viewed on the SWT website to gain a further insight into how these are facilitated. Sam can be contacted at the following addresses etc.: Samantha Murrell Localities Engagement Lead (Coastal and Exmoor) Somerset West and Taunton Council [email protected] Tel: 01984 600167 And at www.somersetwestandtaunton.gov.uk 6. Presentation by Izzy Silvester (Village Agent) Izzy explained that her role as Village Agent was constantly changing and evolving to suit the way in which other organisations which affect people’s lives, are changing. Examples of this include: • Changes in legislation affecting Social Benefits, Unemployment. • Changes introduced by Councils, NHS, Housing organisations etc. Izzy related a variety of situations and resident’s problems that she becomes involved with including: • Working with Musgrove Park Hospital to facilitate patient discharge. • Liaising with charity shops to provide essential household items such as bedding, crockery, furniture etc for needy residents. • Working with GPs and other health professionals for the benefit of residents. • Obtaining financial advice and assistance. • Promoting enterprises that benefit the lonely, the depressed. • Linking residents with food banks etc. Izzy passed around a leaflet that summarises her role and it was agreed that this would be used in the various village notice boards and distributed to potential users. (Phil will also circulate a copy) PW Two of the initiatives Izzy is keen to promote are the establishment of Talking Cafes which have already been established in a number of locations across West Somerset ( Link to leaflet https://westsomersetcommunitydirectory.org/services/service-page-2/ ) and Village/Town Good Neighbours schemes in which groups of volunteer residents offer help to other residents including: • Befriending & visiting lonely residents • Undertaking small tasks PW • Letter writing & form filling An excellent guide to the scheme was handed around (Phil will circulate a copy) Andrew, thanked both Sam and Izzy for their contribution and felt that they had given the council much to contemplate and discuss in the future. Minutes of Monksilver Parish Council Meeting held on 17th May 2019 Page 3 of 5 It was stressed that often, those in need are unlikely to seek help as a result of pride, upbringing etc. and that on some occasions contacts with people & organisations outside their own village is more likely than talking to the neighbour! 7. 2019 Elections: It was noted that no Parish election was necessary due to the lack of applicants. Phil stated that he had been informed during his development of the current Budget that the MPC would still receive costs for these elections irrespective of a vote not being necessary but the amount was unknown. Peter said he would make enquiries regarding this as it seemed unreasonable to be charged. PP 8. Planning Applications: Application 6/23/18/102 for a single floor side extension to The MOL Green. Decision yet to be made by ENP. Discussion took place regarding the District Council’s proposal that the distribution of hard copies of planning applications to affected parish councils was to cease. All information would now only be sent in an electronic format. It was agreed that if this included the applications drawings, it would increase the difficulty of examining the proposals, especially where drawings had been revised and where critical dimensions were not included. It is one thing to scale a paper drawing, another to scale an electronic version on a small PC. Phil considered it was not unreasonable to expect the District Council to supply A3 copies of the drawings. The clerk agreed to reply to the proposal. It was noted that a number of other parish & town councils had already replied, manly in a negative manner. 9. Flooding issues and updates: a. Combecross Hill street sweeping. It was explained to the District Councillors that the lack of regular sweeping to Combecross Hill meant that when torrential rain did occur the build-up of leaves etc, quickly blocked the existing drains. As Martyn Dewdney is no longer in position, it was agreed KA & that Peter would take up this matter and to aid this, Kate would email him PP with a resume of what we have proposed in the past in respect to altering the plan of swept highways by “Swopping” lengths within the present arrangement. b. Why a flood gauge at the waterfall was used is lost in the mists of time. No further actions. c. The flood prevention works were briefly discussed. They appear to be progressing well and are causing no unforeseen problems. d. Discussion took place again regarding the risk of a failure of man-made KA ponds within the Combe Sydenham estate. It was felt that as all the alteration works to existing and new ponds are effectively carried out in private and that we explore trying to get some external advice on the risks if any, created by the works. 10. Highways & Footpaths: Phil said that when passing the bridge to Pond Orchard earlier today, it appeared a large SW loose stone had been placed on top of the existing parapet. Sue was asked to check this. Minutes of Monksilver Parish Council Meeting held on 17th May 2019 Page 4 of 5 11. Website: No change. 12. Deer Management Group: The deer count has shown that the population of deer is both increasing and spreading. No action as yet. 13. Neighbourhood Watch: David indicated that there is rising concerns that the “Police” have no visible presence throughout rural West Somerset. He added that the NW coordinator had left the position and the replacement had not as yet been appointed. 14. Finance: a. Bank Statement: An Account Transaction Details printout had been circulated by email before the meeting showing that the current balance is £2,500.76. There has been no expenditure within the financial year and the only credit was the receipt of the Precept in the sum of £950. b. An invoice in the sum of £112 has been received from Zurich, the insurance renewal for 2019/20. A cheque for this payment was signed following the meeting. 15. Asset Register: No change 16. Risk Register: No change. 17. Waste & Recycling: An email describing the extent of street collections from 2020 has been circulated by Phil within the last week. It was noted that a greater extent of plastics (practically every type bar thin film) will be collected, however waste bin collections will then only occur 3 weekly. It was agreed that this might lead to problems in respect to soiled items such as disposable nappies or similar. 18. Dog Fouling. No problems at present. 19. Village Defibrillator: No change. 20. Fire Hydrants: a. Phil had checked with the fire brigade and it was indicated that all of the vehicles should have an active system which shows the location of every Fire Hydrant as vehicles move from job to job although satellite signals were often flaky.