PARISH COUNCIL

Meeting held 7.30 p.m. Thursday 13th October 2016 At Sporle Community Centre

Present: Mr G Burrows Mrs S Clark Mr K McLeod Ms H Bartley Miss H Dye Mr J Councilor Mr P Wilkinson Mrs J Howard

Sally Moy (Clerk) in attendance Members of the public: 3

The meeting commenced at 7.30 p.m.

1. Apologies: Mr P Smyth.

2. Minutes of the last meeting (8 September 2016). An amendment to a name in item 4 from Love to Dove was made. The minutes were adopted as a true record. This was proposed by Mrs Howard and seconded by Mr McLeod.

3. Declarations of interest: None.

4. Meeting adjourned to allow members of the public to speak: None.

5. Update from the County Councillor: Mr Smyth emailed the following: The window for applications has now opened for people to apply for their children’s Reception class next year (September 2017). This window is open from end of Sep- tember to mid January 2017 and results should be known in April. There is a walking and cycling festival running in the County from 22 to 30 October. Details on the NCC website. Library Services are holding a ‘Get Online Week’ from 17 to 23 October. Full details on the NCC website. Update from District Councilor: Mr Wilkinson reported that there are19,800 garden waste subscriptions in Breckland with 84% of renewals being processed online. It is hoped further payment options will be available. The Help Hub is now operational which is a one stop shop to help and refer to the right department. Creative Arts East have been awarded £240,000 to ensure the ‘Our Day Out’ project can run for a further 3 years. It is a monthly positive activities programme for people with early stage dementia and their carers. Breckland have awarded Sporle a £4090 grant towards play equipment following their application. Funding opens again in January where £7520 can be applied for towards sport. Matched funding is also still available. A copy of Narborough’s Emergency Plan was supplied to the Clerk to take forward. A mud on the road leaflet was also supplied to the Clerk. There are new rules on increases in annual precepts. NALC AGM on 26 November at East village hall is free to attend.

6. Matters from previous minutes: The pipe on Bunkers Hill: matter is on-going. The Chairman requested that Highways and Anglian Water are contacted to try and progress. Dog mess in the village is still a problem. Swings and bus shelter would be dealt with as issues now resolved. Septic tank at the pavilion has never been emptied – it is being monitored. Mr McLeod telephone Estate about mud on the road and they cleared is very quickly. Following the Chairman’s attendance at a recent SNAP meeting the police have ad- vised they will monitor speeding farm traffic. A new Beat Manager has been appointed at Constabulary.

7. New Planning: 3PL/2016/1116: 98 The Street. No objections to plans but the roadside access needs to be really well improved. 3PL/2016/1177&1167: Thatched Cottage Too. No objection to revised position of the garage. Suggest hedging sympathetically planted to improve screening. Still concerns about the south boundary of 29 by excavating a roadway as no answer had been giv- en when this was previously highlighted. Decision made by Breckland Council: 3PL/2016/0093/O Other applications: None

8. Payments for approval: Sporle Community Centre 12.00 Hall hire September Mr R Tyrrell 30.00 Bus shelter cleaning September CGM 599.58 Grass cutting & spraying TT Jones 244.46 Street light maintenance HMRC 139.20 PAYE due Clerk salary 556.86 July to September Clerk's expenses 5.04 July to September E-on 10.23 Sports Pavilion electricity (DD) SSE 213.07 Street lighting electricity (DD) 1810.44

The above invoices were presented; proposed by Mr McLeod, seconded by Miss Dye and approved for payment.

The Clerk reported that in addition to the £2500 grant received from Windfarm Temporis Community Fund a further grant of £3850 has been received from Breckland Council sanctioned under the Match Funding scheme. With the funds set aside by the Parish Council in the precept this means a total of £10,200 can be used to purchase LED street lamps to replace the obsolete lamps. If the same amount can be put aside in the next precept the remaining 15 lamps can be replaced. The result of this will be a reduction in energy bills of £1700 per year. This expendi- ture was proposed by Miss Dye and seconded by Mr McLeod. TT Jones Electrical has carried out the annual maintenance of the street lights and reported defects which will cost £214.35 to correct. There was unanimous approval for this expenditure.

9. Review Ditch Clearance The Chairman thanked Dawn and Phil Boyce for organising the ditch clearance with the gardening group and thanked everyone involved for their hard work. He also thanked Tim Palmer for taking the green waste. Mrs Boyce asked if the Parish Council would consider some expenditure on spring bulbs to be planted along the ditch. Prices are to be researched. A budget of a maximum of £60 was agreed. The Clerk was requested to get a piece in the magazine asking for bulb donations.

10. Grass Cutting Contract The current contract expires in March 2017. The Clerk was requested to send out a copy of the current contract to everyone to review. It would be decided at the next meeting the exact requirements of any new contract so quotes could be obtained.

11. Review of the Playing Field & Pavilion Project: The Chairman reported that he had met with an architect at the pavilion and it has been confirmed that the building is usable and can easily be updated/extended so there is no need to demolish it and start again. Outline plans of a suggested phased project were handed out showing what could be achieved with internal alterations, an extension and inclusion of car parking. Quite a long discussion took place about the project. The next step is to get costings. The first phase should not prove too expensive and removal of the side door will hopefully re- duce vandalism. Sporle football club need to be involved in the consultation process. It was necessary to call out Anglian Water as the stopcock could not be turned off to repair the leak in the pavilion. A new stopcock has been installed. Once costings have been received the Parish Council will be in a position to apply for various grants. The Chairman read out an email the Clerk had received from Mrs Soame regarding the project. All points were covered by the above apart from the formation of a new committee. The Chairman reported that this was still being progressed. Tesco website will be monitored for when Funding in the Community is available.

12. Correspondence received: Mr Ashton’s request for purchase of land for access is still ongoing. The Chairman re- ported he had been in discussion about the process and the expected starting point of negotiations is one third of the expected value of the property. The Clerk was asked to apply for a plan of the playing field from the Land Registry. One application had been received for the vacancy of Parish Clerk and an interview would be arranged after the closing date.

13. Further Items for Discussion: It was asked why the minutes of the Parish Council meetings were not being printed in the magazine. Mr McLeod asked if there was any further news about the stones placed on verges. The Highway Rangers did not action our one request. The Clerk is to email Mr Jacklin and copy in Mr Smyth. The Clerk is to contact the Environment Agency to see if they can clear the stream or meet with the Parish Councilliors in the village to discuss the issues. Potholes on Southacre Road need reporting. Mr McLeod advised he was researching installation of a windmill on the playing field. The roadside posts at the pumping station have all disappeared. The fencing on Hills Close had been reported to the Planning Department. Discussions took place about the Breckland Local Plan and a response needs to be composed. All Councilors were requested to email the Clerk with their thoughts.

14. Date of next meeting: Thursday 10th Novemberber 2016.

15. There being no further business the meeting closed at 9.57pm.