Lower Allithwaite Parish Council s1

LOWER ALLITHWAITE PARISH COUNCIL

Minutes of the Meeting held in The Village Hall, Cartmel on Thursday, 9th December 2010 PRESENT: Cllrs Huggett, (Chairman), Allen (Vice Chair), Anderson, Barker, Bird, Bramwell, Derbyshire, Drinkall, Pascall, Shepherd, Unsworth, M Wilson, M E Wilson. 2 members of the public. 1. APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE Cllrs Bramwell, Fearon, County Cllr R Wilson. 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES AS CIRCULATED The Minutes of the Meeting held in The Village Hall, Cartmel on Thursday, 11th November2010 as circulated were approved. Proposed by Cllr Pascall, seconded by Cllr Shepherd and signed as a true record. 3. DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST in respect of items on Agenda. Cllr Drinkall (prejudicial) Cllr Bird (personal) Planning Applications SL/2010/9967 & 0968. 4. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN RELATION TO ITEMS ON THE AGENDA Item 5.vii) Below.

5. BUSINESS ARISING FROM MINUTES i) Market Cross, The Square, Cartmel A letter had been sent to Andrew Irvine, Stonecraft Design for justification of using a water repellent on the stonework as requested by the Listed Building Consent application. Andrew had suffered an accident – this item to be deferred to next month. ii) Allithwaite Website The Clerk had received training from Andrew Armitage regarding entering and deleting information from the website. She would also like to do this for the Cartmel site. Cllr M E Wilson thought that this could be done by just clicking over to the Cartmel site. Information to be obtained from Sandy Kitching. iii) Parish Plan A further meeting had taken place and it was considered a good positive meeting. The group would meet with Rural Cumbria on 18th January and a meeting with the traders was arranged for 25th January. It was hoped an Open Day could be arranged in the Village Hall in February. Richard England of Cavendish Arms suggested and would host an informal meeting with food – a chance for people to get together. John Evans had been asked to write-up the Parish Plan. It was considered there was a lot to consult the community about and the timescale for the plan would probably be 18 months. iv) Allotments – Parish Council Field Peter Lambeth had started work on the allotment entrance. The wall had been taken down, the ground excavated and levelled and hard core had been laid. The entrance on Vicarage Lane for the tenant of the field had been opened up. A letter from Mrs Brandon, Greystones, Vicarage Lane had been received (property opposite entrance to field) and she expressed concern that its position was in a narrow part of the road and may require the farmer to manoeuvre very close to her boundary wall. This concern was noted. v) Parish Council Cottage The grant application had been sent to Heather Squire, Housing Renewal Officer at SLDC. However, an email from her confirmed that two quotes for any works were needed for the application and the analysis was not acceptable. She would like to see a copy of the technical specification for the proposed electric central heating also. She would be away until Tuesday 21st December with an office move in her absence. She suggested that no paper work should be sent to her until after her return. vi) Cartmel Village Toilets Cllrs Huggett, Allen, M E Wilson and Unsworth had met to discuss the way forward. A meeting had been arranged with Caroline Leigh, Corporate Asset Manager, SLDC for 16th December. It was confirmed that the Chair of the Traders was quite keen to raise funding for the running of the toilets and that the Village Society and the Priory PCC could be asked also. An open meeting could take place to get all areas of the Village interested and supporting financially. One of the suggestions was that the toilets could open for 9 months of the year and a probable price for running would be £5,000. SLDC would agree to a long term lease, with a peppercorn rent, as long as the building continued to be run as public toilets. The question regarding the sale of the toilets would be raised at the meeting because if we invest – we need ownership. vii) South Lakeland Local Development Framework – Land Allocations A briefing of Parish and Town Councils had taken place, Cllr Huggett had attended. District Councillor M E Wilson had also attended a briefing meeting. The maps produced emerging options of land which was most suitable for development. Cllr Wilson confirmed that a new person had taken over from Steven Ottewell and local knowledge had been lost. She considered that the next consultation took us back to where we started at the first round. There was nothing wrong with the Core Strategy it was the number of houses which was upsetting everyone. Land outlined for Allithwaite broke the rules because it was beyond the Parish Boundary. Transport was still causing concern. She considered that SLDC will listen to us and that we should have a very clear consensus of where we want and where we don’t want houses to be built. Mrs C Hunt (member of the public) made representations about Cark Road, Headless Cross and Allithwaite Road which according to the development plan document had been identified as a hamlet. Paragraph 33 states ‘the approach has been to identify small sites in hamlets and settlements which have a clear functional relationship with a larger settlement”. She considered that this identification was totally false and must be rectified otherwise Headless Cross would be cut off from the village and receive different and inferior consideration of the type of housing allowed from the rest of Cartmel because of different building criteria. The public consultation will run from 14/1/10 to 18/3/10. viii) Clerk’s Report An acknowledgement had been received from Tim Farron MP regarding the representations made about key elements missing from the Localism Bill ‘Community Right to Build’. Mr Farron had written to the Housing Minister seeking his assurance that the matters raised would be addressed in the bill to be presented to parliament. District Councillor Report Cllr Wilson confirmed her report had been issued in the Land Development Plan Item 5.vii). County Councillor Report Cllr R Wilson (via Cllr M E Wilson) thanked the working group who carried out the road safety audit in Allithwaite, the Clerk for organising the drop-in session and considered that road safety and active travel, from the interest shown at the drop-in session which had been useful and well attended, was clearly a matter of concern. Cllr Wilson had met with John Bell and Cllr Huggett after the meeting and agreed a scheme to go forward. He suggested that in the New Year it should be considered how to progress the issues identified and how best to draw the outcomes from the audit into the Parish Plan. Winter Maintenance Cllr Wilson confirmed that the gritting programme had operated better than last year with more priority 3 routes gritted (see Agenda Item 8.i). Broadband Delivery UK Cllr Wilson had attended a meeting to discuss how this pilot could be developed in Cumbria. 10 million pounds has been awarded to become one of four super fast broadband pilots within the Country. A letter had also been received from Tim Farron MP regarding this asking for anyone willing to be a ‘broadband pioneer’ in the Community. It was suggested that Sandy Kitching may be interested.

6. FINANCE i) Parish Council Community a/c £700.00. Business Base Rate Tracker £18,442.05. Car Park Community Account £1,146.19. ii) Money Received Mark Peacock £15.00 (Allotment Rent). Saunders & Son Burial E Unsworth (existing) £97.00. iii) Cheques for Approval Clerk November Salary £378.00 + £27.19 Expenses. Broadband £17.99. Lengthsman (November) 26 hrs £286.00. Proposed by Cllr Allen, seconded by Cllr Barker that Finance be approved. Unanimous. iv) Request for Donation – Citizens Advice Bureau Proposed by Cllr Allen, seconded by Cllr M Wilson and Unanimously agreed that a donation is not given this year due to considerable expected expense facing the Parish Council. It was suggested that Cartmel Village Society be suggested for consideration of this request for a donation. v) Budget & Precept Because still awaiting approval of grant money – precept will be discussed again next month.

7. PLANNING i) Consideration of relevant planning applications SL/2010/0967 Approved. 0968 Approved. 1002 Approved. ii) Applications Approved by SLDC: Change of use of Hotel/restaurant to dwelling with annexe Uplands Hotel, Haggs Lane, Cartmel. Installation of new windows Weavers Cottage, Haggs Lane, Cartmel. Erection of replacement dwelling, landscaping, installation of septic tank & alterations to vehicular access Tall Trees, Haggs Lne, Cartmel. Two storey rear extension Wraysholme Crossing, Flookburgh. Extension of time condition Bankfield, Jack Hill, Allithwaite. iii) Applications Refused by SLDC Formation of new vehicular access Weavers Cottage, Haggs Lane, Cartmel. iv) Applications Recommended for Approval by Parish Council Two storey rear extension Wraysholme Crossing, Flookburgh. Installation of new windows (amended plan) Weavers Cottage, Cartmel. Extension of time condition Bankfield, Allithwaite. v) Applications Recommended for Refusal by Parish Council None to Date. vi) Application with Reservations Replacement dwelling, alteration to access, septic tank & landscaping Tall Trees, Haggs Lane, Cartmel (Amended Plan – still considered to have an over intrusive roof height when viewed from the bottom of the valley and the dwelling does not fit into the locality). vii) The Planning Inspectorate Bankfield, Jack Hill, Allithwaite Appeal allowed and planning permission granted for dwelling without compliance with condition number 3 (Local Occupancy).

8. CORRESPONDENCE i) Supply of salt to Parish Councils, Grit Bins and Grit Heaps Report following bad weather conditions. It was generally agreed that grit bins and grit heaps had not been replenished as stated in the letter from the CC last month. Cllr Huggett had attended the CALC South Lakeland Committee meeting which was part hosted by CCC. The presentation given by Keith Masser was regarding Winter Maintenance. Keith Masser had confirmed to Cllr Huggett that of the 13 grit bins requested we would be allocated 7. The other 6 did not comply with the criteria because of being on a flat road. Cllr Huggett had made representations justifying all the bins requested – this had been passed to Tony Beaty to re-consider. However, an email confirmed that they would be standing by their previous assessment. It was confirmed that it will take some time to deliver new grit bins and heaps – the work would be done in sequence. A supply of 7 tonnes of salt had been delivered. Grit bins and heaps had been topped-up from this supply, but Cllr Huggett considered that this was not the right thing to do and that we would now need to apply to the CC to replenish our stock as it was their responsibility to fill the bins and not for the PC to use their supply. Thanks were extended to Cllr Huggett for gritting in Cartmel Village and to Cllrs Pascall, Derbyshire and Unsworth for distributing grit to Allithwaite Village bins and heaps. The Lengthsman had also carried out gritting in Cartmel Village. Generally it was felt that more volunteers were needed to spread the grit on the highway. Proposed by the Chair that more grit be asked for and also if we provided grit bins would the CC fill them up? ii) CCC Public Consultation on Council priorities and budget options Survey to be completed. The Chairman encouraged all Cllrs to complete a survey. OTHER CORRESPONDENCE i) Your Council, Your Say SLDC are asking for help to balance the books due to big cuts in funding. They are asking for how you think SLDC should look to reduce its spending in 2011/2012.

9. OTHER MATTERS i) Cartmel Primary School – Have you send the state of the bus shelter? The children at the Primary School had been carrying out a project on graffiti and had produced suggestions for paintings in the bus shelter to cover the graffiti in there. It was not understood how the work would be carried out and who would be funding the work if it was decided to progress their suggestion. Cllr Huggett to get further information from the school. ii) King George V Playing Field Update on Charity application. An e-mail from Viv Tunnadine, Chair, confirmed that they had been advised to resubmit an application and register the original 1937 lease as a charity as the lease is the groups governing document. The lessees will act within the framework of the lease as a charity managing the site. They would dissolve the current governing document and suggested implementing an administrational constitution covered in clause 5 of the governing document. It was not sure if the governing document mentioned was the one which the Parish Council had already objected to. Further information required. iii) Cemetery Charges To approve charges for 2011. Proposed by Cllr Allen, seconded by Cllr Drinkall and Unanimously agreed that the charges be the same as the Church Commissioners except for burials into existing graves – half fee. iv) Clerk’s Salary and Mileage Allowance Confidential Item Following the offer last month of an increase in salary the Clerk had written to the Chairman questioning the hourly basis of the increase. She considered that following the surrender of the Car Park her hours had been reduced. Working on 10 hours per week at the rate per hour recommended by the National Association the monthly salary should be £388.00 per month which the Clerk was happy to receive. It was proposed by the Chairman to override the motion carried last month in favour of this new proposal. Unanimous.

10. QUESTIONS/ANSWERS/REPORTS/COMPLAINTS Cllr Bird Reported street light at top of Holme Lane demolished again. This had been reported to Highways.

The Meeting closed at 9.40pm and the Chairman thanked everyone for attending. The next meeting will be held in the Village Hall, Cartmel on Thursday, 13th January 2011 at 7.15pm.