Motcombe Parish Council Minutes of the Virtual Meeting of the Parish Council held Tuesday the 8th December 2020
Present: Cllr L Stacey – Chairman, – Vice Chairman, Cllr J Taylor, Cllr J Hood and Cllr B Mauleverer and Cllr R Craigmile
In attendance: Mrs N Phillips (Parish Clerk) - and Keri from This is Alfred, Dorset Council Cllr B Ridout, There were 4 members of the public present.
At this point, the Chairman asked if anyone present was going to record the meeting. The Clerk and Keri from This is Alfred will be recording for their records.
Public Consultation period: There were none.
68/20. Apologies for absence and dispensations Cllr S Rogers, Cllr P Mouncey, Dorset Councillor Cllr D Walsh and Dorset Councillor Cllr V Pothecary were unable to join the virtual meeting.
69/20. Declaration of interest and dispensations There were none.
70/20. Co-option for new members No members of the public came forward.
71/20. Approve minutes from the Parish Council meeting dated the 10th November 2020 and matters arising from that meeting: The minutes were proposed by Cllr Mauleverer and seconded by Cllr Stacey, all members in favour that they were a true and accurate account of the meeting. The Clerk signed the approved minutes on behalf of the Chairman. RESOLVED: Approved the minutes dated 10th November 2020 (no budgetary requirements). Play Area update: Cllr Hood is continuing to obtain quotes for a new gate for the Play Area. Action – Cllr Hood Update and proposals for Motcombe Meadows: Cllr Mouncey and Cllr Hood have been obtaining quotes for the two priority projects: removing the line of fir trees and dead elms; cutting back brambles around the fields edges and trimming the hedges. Hopefully the quotes will be received in the next few weeks which can then be circulated to the Councillors for their consideration and agreement. We will need to ensure the safety of Meadows’ users whilst all the work is undertaken, meaning the temporary closure of some paths, and it is likely that there will be damage to some pathways (which may need to be rolled). Parts of the site may look rather unsightly in the short term, but nature will quickly deal with that next spring. The grass has been cut in the area behind the Grange and the orchard. Finally. The whips that Cllr Hood obtained from the Woodland Trust will be planted over the winter to extend the existing tree plantations. This was to be a community event, but as this will not be possible in the foreseeable future, we need to plant them as soon as possible to ensure survival. If you wish to volunteer to help with the planting, please let the Parish Council know.
72/20. Dorset Councillor Ridout and Dorset Councillor Walsh circulated the following report: REMINDER: The Draft Climate & Ecological Emergency Strategy and Action Plan consultation has been extended to Wednesday, 20th January 21. Member’s Briefing, Thursday, 15th November: Food Security: vulnerable individuals and families, Winter Pressures Grant. Dorset Council has a strong partnership with local communities, volunteers, informal and formal voluntary and the community sector, more so during the COVID lockdown: vulnerable individuals, families, self-isolating (Test and Trace) and Clinically Extremely Vulnerable (CEV’s), previously referred to as the ‘shielded’. Help is available through the Dorset Council (DC) website, the ‘Help and Kindness’ website https://www.helpandkindness.co.uk/, the Dorset Council Contact Centre (for reactive and proactive calls) and the CAB call centre (for food and other related matters). Dorset Council supports the food supply network by: • Mapping the wide and varied offers across the county. • Encouraging everyone to resister with #helpandkindness. • Creation of a Food Bank forum/Network.
• Financial support to food banks and other community food supply. • Supporting the development of community fridges and social supermarkets. The key principles to supporting people: Personalisation and helping them to help themselves; Sustainability - seeking to address the causes of food insecurity and local sources of support. These can be achieved by understanding the barriers to food security: Logistical – by securing supermarket delivery slots, volunteer pick up, and Financial: by linking to offers of support in the local area; providing emergency food parcels (in exceptional circumstances) coordinated by Dorset Volunteer Centre from 4 hubs or by referring to the CAB for further advice and support. Winter Pressures Grant – a new £170m Covid Winter Grant Scheme has been announced with up to £922k for Dorset Council. To be paid in 3 instalments. This is managed by the Department for Work and Pensions with delivery from 1st December through to 31st March. The funding is ring-fenced, and detailed guidance awaited. Spend should be locally determined with at least 80% earmarked to support with food and essential utility costs; at least 80% spent on families with children. It is not means-tested and doesn’t affect benefits. The proposed approach is to issue food vouchers to families eligible for free school meals, working with schools to deliver over Christmas and half-term in February with an online form/call centre, primarily targeted at: families with children in the early years; care leavers; young people with education, health and care plans; 18-25-year olds and vulnerable families. Covid update. Cases across Dorset decreased by 70% during lockdown, despite an early spike during November. On the first day of lockdown, 205 people tested positive for coronavirus – 144 cases in the BCP area and 61 cases in the Dorset Council area. On Tuesday, December 1st, cases had fallen to just 61 across the county – 14 in Dorset Council area and BCP Council area saw 47 people test positive. The statistics suggest that the lockdown has worked in reducing the spread of coronavirus across the county. Cosy at Christmas – winter coats and pyjamas appeal. An appeal asking for new or nearly new children’s winter coats and pyjamas (suitable for ages 3-12) to be donated started the first week in December. 2020 has been a tough year for many and DC would like to make it just a little bit better for children and families in Dorset. There will be one week when people can drop off items, an isolation period to minimise the risk of COVID and then a week where families can drop-in and pick-up coats and pyjamas. Our nearest drop off/pick-up point is Shaftesbury Children’s Centre, Wincombe Lane, Shaftesbury SP7 8PZ Tel: 01258 474036. Drop off dates/times: Fri 4th, Mon 7th – Thurs 10th. 9.30am-4pm. Pick up dates/times: Mon 14th – Fri 18th, 9.30am to 4pm. Libraries – all 23 Dorset Council libraries will be open from Wednesday, 2nd December. Customers will be able to browse books and use the library computers (bookable slots). The order and collect service will still be available as an alternative to visiting. Gillingham’s opening times: Monday 9.30am to 1pm; Tuesday 9.30am to 1pm, then 2pm to 5.30pm; Wednesday – Closed; Thursday 9.30am to 1pm; Friday 9.30am to 1p; Saturday 9.30am to 1pm and 2pm to 4pm. Shaftesbury Household Recycling Centre – members received an interesting briefing on the workings of this depot. The current refuse collection vehicles from this depot consist of three single vehicles collecting three waste streams: food, recycling and glass and 3 dual vehicles, collecting refuse and food waste. These will be replaced in the Spring of next year with all dual vehicles, collecting recycling and waste. In May there will be changes to rounds and days/weeks of collection. More details to follow. A missed bin collection can be reported online using the DC website, clicking on: Bins, Recycling and Litter, following the links and filling in the form. There is general information on reporting, but it is important to report a missed bin the same week it is missed. Fly tipping can be reported in the same way from the Bins, Recycling and Litter tab and then selecting Street Cleaning and Litter problems. There is an interactive map where the location can be exactly pin pointed. Photographs are also very useful. Dorset Waste works with the Ranger Service where fly-tipping is on bridleways/footpaths. Please note that Dorset Waste only removes fly- tipping from the public highway, not on private land (the landowner has to clear). However, the DC Waste Enforcement team may be interested in looking at fly-tipping on private land to search for evidence and check for links with tipping on the public highway. In certain circumstances DC can offer a paid waste removal service for fly tipping on private land. Very little waste goes to landfill. Recycling and household waste collected by the Shaftesbury depot goes to Blandford or Sherborne transfer stations and then onto the relevant treatment plants. About 60,000 tonnes of residual waste goes to New Earth Solutions near Wimborne. Here, waste is treated in a mechanical biological treatment process with some materials such as metals, reclaimed. A compost like output is produced from the organic fraction with waste baled for burning as a refuse derived fuel. Food waste goes to be treated at the Eco Anaerobic Digestion plant in Piddlehinton. Household waste is used for energy from fuel. It is very important that no food waste goes in the household black waste as this contaminates the waste. Recycling waste is ‘bulked up’ near Hurn and then sent to Shotton, North Wales where materials are separated. Seems a long way to send waste but it is home to the United Paper Mill and Dorset produces high quality fibre content waste, which is used in the paper mill, so a good price is obtained. As refuse collection crews are the eyes and ears of communities, on a week-to-week basis, a system is being drawn up to flag up potential safeguarding/vulnerability issues with customers, where crews can report to their supervisor and the concern relayed to the relevant DC department (e.g housing, care services) or police if necessary. Eg. Bins not put out repeatedly might indicate a customer’s difficulty to put their bin out (assisted bin service needed) or they might be ill and needing attention. SWR timetable changes – SWR have announced that the planned increased services from 13th December 2020 will not be happening partly due to the second COVID lockdown. The decision has been made to ‘rollover’ the weekday timetable from 13th December 2020 to 26th March 2021. So, from 13th December, SWR will continue to operate the same weekdays timetable that has been running since September 2020. Some weekend timetables will still change to reflect patterns in demand and accommodate
planned engineering works. The advice is to check before you travel. More information on current and future timetables can be found at: https://www.southwesternrailway.com/plan-my-journey/timetables. Help and Support for Dorset Residents - As part of DC and partners’ community response to COVID 19, there is help and support on offer to struggling residents this winter. The focus is on supporting families with children, people in financial difficulties and those facing loneliness and isolation over the festive season. The aim is to make sure vulnerable people have access to food and warm clothing for their children, and someone they can talk to if they need to. Help to deal with financial struggles: Dorset Citizens Adviceline on Freephone 0800 144 8848. Support also available online: www.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/reaching-out. Coping with Isolation and Loneliness: Dorset Together Team, support including food shopping and delivery, collection of prescriptions, dog walking and befriending. Help can be accessed via an online form on the Dorset Council website or by calling the Dorset Together helpline on 01305 221000, 8.30am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. Digital Hotline – people with queries about getting online or improving online skills can call the Dorset Digital Hotline on 01305 221048, Monday to Friday from 10am to noon. Outside of those times you can leave a message and a Digital Champion will get back to you. If you are on a low income and do not have a broadband connection or device at home to connect to the internet, it may be possible to help you to get set up. The Dorset Council website is an invaluable tool for finding out the latest information and about essential services affecting the public. For those residents not online, who have important questions or concerns, call Dorset Council on 01305 221000, 8am to 8pm, 7 days a week or email: [email protected]. Dorset Council website; https://www.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk.
73/20. Finance The Clerk tabled November’s payment schedule for the sum of £1928.93, it was proposed by Cllr Taylor to agree and pay the invoices listed on the payment schedule, this was seconded by Cllr Stacey, all member in favour. N Phillips wages Clerk wages £ 1,062.88 N Phillips expenses Clerk expenses £ 67.14 Nest Clerk Pension £ 74.40 HMR NI employers NI Oct £ 45.66 Chris Berwick Ltd grass cutting plus mm £ 678.85 Total £ 1,928.93
RESOLVED to pay the invoices listed on the payment schedule for the sum of £1928.93 (73/20 – finance).
74/20. Planning – the Planning group gave the following suggestions. Cllr Taylor reported on the following applications: • P/HOU/2020/00021 – Palemead House – Single and two storey extension – no objection. • 2/2019/1213/FUL – Land North of Lake Mead – change of use of land – Object to this application under the following grounds: There is no new information which leads us to change our original objection to this proposal. The site drawing includes land not owned by the applicant. The site is not large enough to accommodate the caravan, utility building, parking and suitable sewage disposal arrangements. Exit from the site cannot achieved safely as the hedge to the north of the site which would require partial removal is owned by a third party. • P/PAA/2020/00197 - Whilst we understand the reason we are not formally consulted on the application, we feel that we need to make our views known:-The site is not scheduled for residential development in our approved Neighbourhood Plan, the proposed design does not comply with the design guidelines contained in the NP. The traffic movements of 4 per day are understated for 4 dwellings. 75/20. Chairman’s report The Chairman gave the following report: • Read out the following from Julian Prichard: The League of Friends of Westminster Memorial Hospital, Shaftesbury is incorporating to become simply ‘The Friends of Westminster Memorial Hospital’. This will allow us to embark on an exciting agenda of projects for both the hospital and the community. We will, of course, continue to do what we have always done in making your stay or a visit to the hospital more enjoyable, but we are now also running appeals, bringing new services to the hospital and planning to improve access and parking. This year, despite everything, we have purchased and refurbished a property to provide a base and increased clinical space for the ‘Steps to Wellbeing’ mental health team which is now in use. This year we are also running our ‘Hospital Electric Vehicle Appeal’ and will be the first Community Hospital in England to provide a wheelchair-adapted electric vehicle for our Integrated Community Rehab Team. You may have seen our old blue diesel vehicles with our heart logo on the bonnet around Motcombe. This is where we need your support by becoming a ‘Friend’ or buying a vehicle ‘body part’. By becoming a Friend, you are helping us support your vital Community Hospital and you can do this by giving anything from 50p per month or becoming a Life Member. By buying a vehicle ‘body part’ you are specifically helping towards the Community ‘Hospital Electric Vehicle Appeal’. To know more, join or donate, please call Julian on 01747 300 123.
• Thanks to Cllr Craigmile chasing up Dorset Council, the white lines have been renewed through the Hollow. • The Owl boxes have been given to Larkinglass Farm and Mr Philip Lever at Hawkers Hill, who have both kindly agreed to give a donation to Motcombe Village Hall. • The owner of Frog Lane has confirmed they are happy for a multipurpose dog bin to be sited on the pull in opposite the Farm. They have also expressed an interest in financially supporting replacing the map showing walks around the village. • Asked for Councillors to consider arranging a working party to look over Dorset draft plan. If any Councillors are interested, please contact Cllr Mouncey. • Had spoken with Cllr Mouncey and Cllr Craigmile regarding the ongoing issues raised by residents about the parking outside the School. A suggestion has been raised, that there is a rear access to the school through the church yard, but the access is rather steep. It was suggested that the working party obtain quotes to have the access slope to make the access safer. • Thanked all of his fellow Councillors for continuing to volunteer their time to the Village and wish everyone a Happy Christmas and prosperous New Year. It was noted that through the pandemic this year, it has highlighted we are very lucky to live in a village where the residents pull together to help and support each other.
76/20. Officer Reports. Cllr Mouncey sent the following report: • The main news was the eventual reopening of the path from Kingsettle up to Shaftesbury, using a second diversion from the original route after the first diversion was closed by Redrow at Littledown without any prior warning. This new diversion is still only temporary as Redrow submitted an application for a permanent diversion earlier this year which is an extension of the one now currently in place. The diversion is now fully signed and provides good views across Motcombe and the Blackmore Vale. Cllr Mouncey has improved way marking from Kingsettle, and currently also on other well used paths around the village. Cllr Hood gave the following report: • The Village Hall is now open, with limitations. A thank you to Beverly and Keith for putting up the lights at the Hall. Cllr Mauleverer gave the following report: • The bin collection has been changed over the Christmas period, you can see the times on the Dorset Council website https://news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/2020/12/04/christmas-bin- collections/#:~:text=Christmas%20bin%20collections%20%20%20Usual%20collection%20day,Wednesday%2030%20Dec% 20%209%20more%20rows%20 • The butterfly report is available on the Parish Council’s website. • Motcombe Village Hall are still showing films through Maviola, details are available on the Village Hall website. • Motcombe Methodist church are organising show box collections for the Samaritans charity. • The Senior Lunch scheduled for February has been cancelled. • The Coppleridge are offering food and a drink at a special rate, please support them. Cllr Craigmile gave the following report: • The ongoing matter of builders parking across the walkway to the School is still be monitored and the builders are being asked not to park over the line showing the walkway. • The working group are looking at options to try and help relieve congestion outside the school and to improve the safety of the Children walking to school. It is felt that the School needs to liaise with the parents/carers more and to use signage in the school grounds to try and get people to think of where they are parking. It would be a good idea to try and arrange a meeting with the Parish Council, the school, Dorset Council and the police in the new year, to try and get some kind of resolutions to the issues the parking is causing. Cllr Taylor gave the following report: • Nothing further to report.
77/20. Clerk Report – Correspondence – Matters of interest All correspondence had been circulated and actioned if necessary. Southern Electric have notified the Parish Council that three old streetlights in the village are unrepairable. The Parish Council have instructed Southern Electric to replace the three lights, 1 at 12 Shorts Green Lane, 1 at 22 Church Road and 1 at 26 Church Road. The Parish Council received an email from a local resident expressing concerns over the flooding outside Turks Paddock. Cllr Craigmile will talk to Dorset Council Highways team to ask for a meeting to look at what can be done to help with the flooding. A local resident has also reported a faulty light outside 30 Bittles Green and Cllr Hood reported the light outside the Nod’s Fold is staying on all day. The Clerk will report these faulty lights to Southern Electric. Action- Clerk An email from Steve Smith from Persimmon was received late 8th December, stating that he has put in a work request for removing some of the trees in the Limes, which are not covered by the TPO order from Dorset Council. Steve Smith will confirm a date for the tree removal once the job has been allocated. Mr J Phillipson has asked for an update on the following matters:
1. Progress on quotes to turn around the seat at the Bus stop – the Parish Council will instruct a contractor to turn the seat around as soon as possible. 2. what is happening outside 1 Littledown? who has taken responsibility to resolve at MPC – the Parish Council will write to Sovereign Homes again to ask that the verges are repaired and maintained. 3. Many hedges on the outskirts of the village e.g., North End towards Semley and Shorts Green Lane are looking unkempt. Can the process of contacting formally, the owners so they have time to undertake remedial work, before the normal closed season. – the Parish Council will continue to remind home and landowners that they need to keep their hedges managed. Dorset Council link to the press release providing details of the revised car parking charges approved by Cabinet: https://news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/2020/12/08/cabinet-agrees-revised-car-parking-changes-extends-free-parking-for-nhs-and-care- workers/
78/20. Item for next agenda and date of next meeting Grants (to remind local organisations that the Parish Council grant applications will be open in January)
The next Parish Council meeting will be held on TUESDAY 12th January 2020 at 6.30pm, Via Zoom. There being no further business, the Chairman closed the meeting at 19.38
Signed by the Chairman……………………...... Website - www.motcombeparishcouncil.org.uk Email - [email protected].