Keynsham Town Council

KEYNSHAM TOWN COUNCIL

Minutes of the Town Council meeting held on Tuesday 9th February 2016 at 7.30 pm at the Community Space, Civic Centre, Market Walk, Keynsham.

PRESENT: Councillors K Baker, D Biddleston, J Cron, T Crouch, C Duckett, S Edwards, C Fricker, L O'Brien (Chair), B Simmons, K Simmons,

S Waite and Z Wilkins.

IN ATTENDANCE: D Drury – Deputy Town Clerk, Councillor C Gerrish.

274. APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

Apologies were received from Councillor A Sinclair

275. DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

There were none.

276. NON DISCLOSABLE PECUNIARY INTERESTS

There were none.

277. DISPENSATIONS

There were none.

278. CONFIRMATION OF MINUTES

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the meeting of the Town Council held on 19th January 2016 are confirmed as a true record and signed by the Chairman.

279. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

Two members of the public spoke. One member thanked the Town Council for their assistance in respect of matters relating to the Leisure Centre. A second member spoke in respect of proposed plans in relating to the electrification of the railway line and associated works. Concerns were raised in relation to the provision of waiting shelters that can accommodate disabled passengers in wheelchairs.

280. CHAIRMANS ANNOUNCEMENTS

The Chair reported that a nomination put forward to the B&NES Chairman’s Community Awards had resulted in the Keynsham Wombles being awarded the Neighbourhood Team Award. A letter of congratulations will be sent on behalf of the Town Council.

281. QUESTIONS ON NOTICE BY MEMBERS

There were none.

282. MINUTES OF MEETINGS 2 | P a g e

RESOLVED: That the minutes of the meeting of the Planning & Development Committee – 25th January, Personnel Committee - 21st January and Allotments Committee - 26th January are received and noted.

283. PLANS FOR KEYNSHAM STATION

Steven Payne of Network Rail gave a presentation on the proposed plans for works at the Station.

He explained that the essential electrification of the main line would provide a reduced journey time of 22 minutes between Bristol and Paddington, allow for additional seats for passengers and reduce running costs. There will be a temporary period of disruption to allow for the removal of the existing canopies, the lowering of tracks and platforms and the introduction of an anti camber to the platform surface (this is required for safety purposes e.g. wheel chair users and pushchairs). There will be new drainage installation at the rear of the platforms, improvements to the brick shelter, introduction of new canopy shelters that will be sited on the footprint of the existing shelters. The proposed measurement of overhang of the canopies will need to be reduced due to overhead electrification cables. Members of the Town Council requested that the new canopies be designed to allow for maximum possible overhang that would give passengers some protection in adverse weather conditions.

Discussions were had in respect of cutting into the embankment to allow for larger canopies and it was reported that this would be extremely costly due to the necessary engineering works that would be involved. Also the embankment land is not actually in the ownership of the railway authorities.

It was suggested that comments in respect of the proposed canopy designs be fed back to the planners before the application is submitted.

The disabled ramp will not be affected by the proposed works. Works such as extension of car parking at the station, CCTV and ticket machine installation are not under the remit of Network Rail.

Steven reported that in respect of essential works to the listed Clay Bridge and Pixash Bridge, after 14 months of negotiation with Historic England, Bath Preservation Society and Bath Heritage agreeable plans had now been drawn up for reducing the track bed and increasing the parapet by incorporating some specialised railing. The planning application in respect of this bridge work will be submitted mid March with works being undertaken by September.

284. YOUTH COUNCIL

A member of the Youth Council attended and gave an update on the recent activities and forthcoming projects. She thanked Councillors Baker and Fricker for attending the Youth Council meeting and explaining the Keynsham Neighbourhood Development Plan (NDP). The young people have lots of ideas to input into the NDP and would like to get involved in the launch event. The Youth Council have applied for a community stall at the Music Festival and will be raising awareness of the Youth Council and at the same time raising funds for Butterflies. Members of the Youth Council will be attending St. Keyna School to talk about anti bullying and also attending the Unicef conference on ‘a Child Friendly City’ to be held in Bath. 3 | P a g e

285. KEYNSHAM YOUTH SERVICE

RESOLVED:

1. That a working party be set up to consider the following 3 options for the Youth Service, with the proviso that Keynsham Town Council retains control of the programmes and content. The options are:

(i) Keep the Youth Service as it is, therefore no change (ii) Work with B&NES Council to run the service in a different way (iii) Outsource the Service.

2. That the Working Party should consist of no more than 7 members.

3. That the membership of the Keynsham Youth Service working party is as follows:-

Cllr K Baker Cllr T Crouch Cllr C Duckett Cllr S Edwards Cllr L O’Brien Cllr B Simmons Jayne Lewis (temporary Youth Worker – Keynsham Youth Service).

4. That the Deputy Town Clerk sends out a doodle calendar, in order to arrange the date and time of the first meeting.

286. CO-OPTION OF TOWN COUNCILLOR

RESOLVED:

That Mathew Blankley be co-opted as a Town Councillor for the East Ward of Keynsham

287. FIRST GREAT WESTERN CUSTOMER & COMMUNITIES IMPROVEMENT FUND – RE-CONSIDERATION OF PROJECT

The reduction in funding offered by Great Western Railway for CCIF grant scheme was discussed. Concerns were raised that the reduced figure of £5000 together with matched funding from the Town Council of 20% (£1250) would not be enough to fulfil the proposed Timeline Project that includes visual enhancement for that station ramp. Alternative solutions were considered and these included:

 Adapting the design to fit a smaller scale and possibly reducing the quality of the project  Pooling and incorporating funds from the Centre Timeline project.

RESOLVED:

That a letter be sent to GWR explaining that due to the award being much smaller than the amount requested in the original application it would be difficult to scale down the project to fulfill the envisaged plans. Also, to produce the necessary additional documentation for a scaled down project by 12th February would be difficult and in view 4 | P a g e

of this if there was a possibility of increasing the funding for the Town Council then the application documentation could be reviewed and the application proceeded with.

288. DRAFT 2016/2017 COUNCIL TAX LEAFLET

RESOLVED

That the following amendments are made to the Council Tax leaflet:-

 A comma be included in the total figure £566,602 and not a full stop as currently printed.  The expenditure is listed in order of amount size starting from the top left column with the highest value.  The date of the Annual Town meeting (21st April) clashes with the date of the next Keynsham Area Forum meeting and a request should be made to Sara Dixon to reschedule the area forum meeting.

289. INTERNAL AUDIT

RESOLVED

That the information be noted

290. DRAFT SCHEDULE OF TOWN COUNCIL MEETINGS 2016/17

RESOLVED

That the February 2017 meeting of the Town Council be moved to 21st February 2017 in order that it does not clash with the B&NES budget meeting and that details of the Arts Committee and Allotments Committee meeting dates will be inserted following the next meeting of these Committees.

291. SCHEDULE OF EXPENDITURE – MONTH 10 (January 2016)

RESOLVED:

That the attached Schedule of Expenditure is approved.

292. BANK RECONCILIATION – MONTH 9 (January 2016)

RESOLVED:

That the attached Bank Reconciliation is received and noted.

293. PETTY CASH EXPENDITURE – MONTH 10 (January 2016)

RESOLVED:

That the attached Petty Cash Expenditure sheet is approved.

294. JOURNALS

There were none.

295. BUDGET MONITORING REPORT – MONTH 10 (January 2016) 5 | P a g e

RESOLVED:

That the attached Budget Monitoring Report is received and noted.

296. YOUTH FINANCES (January 2016)

RESOLVED:

That the attached Youth Expenditure sheet for November be received and noted.

297. TIMEOUT ATTENDANCE COMPARISON JANUARY 2015/JANUARY 2016

RESOLVED:

That the monthly comparison sheet be received and noted.

298. RENTAL AT PARK ROAD ALLOTMENTS

RESOLVED

That the increase in rental at the Park Road allotments be approved and that the increase in rental will be passed on to the Keynsham Allotment Association by the same percentage.

299. REPORT FROM B&NES COUNCILLOR(S)

The B&NES budget papers have been published for approval by cabinet at their next full meeting. Capital allocation has been put in place for the Leisure Centre. Funding has also been allocated for highways improvements/surveys for the Two Headed Man junction and the junction of Woollard Lane and the A37. A sum of £80,000 has been allocated for a survey of parking facilities in Keynsham and £200,000 has been allocated for a trial one way system through Keynsham.

300. REPORT FROM REPRESENTATIVES ON OUTSIDE BODIES

Keynsham Twinning Association raised £161.00 at their recent French coffee morning and a Barn dance is being held this Saturday, tickets available through Cllr Duckett.

301. DATE OF NEXT MEETING

RESOLVED:

That the scheduled date and time of the next Town Council meeting is Tuesday 15th March 2016 at 7.30 p.m. in the Community Space, Market Walk, Keynsham.

The meeting finished at 9.03pm. There were 6 member of the public present.

SIGNED:...... (Chairman) Dated: ......