Blindcrake Parish Council the Minutes the Meeting of the Blindcrake Parish Council Held at 7.30 on Monday March 20Th in Blindcr
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Blindcrake Parish Council The Minutes the Meeting of the Blindcrake Parish Council held at 7.30 on Monday March 20th in Blindcrake Village Hall 1. Apologies: J. Marrs: Present: 8 Councillors, Clerk and 7 representatives of United Utilities and their contractors. 2. Minutes of January 2017 meeting. The Chairman was authorised to sign the minutes of the Parish Council meeting as a true record of that meeting. 3. Members to declare any interests they may have in any item on the agenda: None 4. Adjournment of meeting: The Chairman adjourned the meeting to allow parishioners an opportunity to ask questions and raise matters of interest. No items. 5. Maintenance and Matters of Report a. UUU Pipe Lines: Dave Watson of United Utilities introduced representatives of the three contracted firms who were carrying out the work. Sections of the A591 from Keswick to Castle Inn will be closed at various times for pipe laying. The main section in the Parish will be done in 2018 with some preparation work this autumn including tree and hedge removal. The work on the pumping station at Williamsgate and the pipe alongside the A595 will take place this summer. Work must take place in the dry weather window (March to September). A dedicated website will be updated regularly with information. A revised version of the Ghyll crossing was being drawn but concern was expressed at the 2.4 metre high fencing. The height was both for public safety and for the security of the structure. UU agree to look at what the lowest permissible fencing height would be, and report back to the Parish Council. A traffic management plan would be forthcoming. It was agreed that United Utilities would attend future Parish Council meetings. b. Police Matters (Apologies) c. Highways Issues: Many gullies had been cleaned in Blindcrake. However, the drain under Grange Farm appears to be blocked. The junction at Isel Hall has been damaged. The water leak in Blindcrake caused by Carillion has still not be repaired. The additional traffic due to the A591 closure had damaged the verges around Isel Old Park. d. Footpath group: The NPA had carried out more work on the “dirty lonnen” and improved the drainage. e. Broadband: A lot of mis information on the availability of Super-Fast in Blindcrake. It is clear that there is a lack of communication between BT and Openreach and that Openreach do not have sufficient trained engineers to meet the demand. The survey work in connection with the Sunderland Community Fibre Partnership is at last underway and work is continuing on establishing the most cost effective way of achieving fibre broadband to the village. It is unlikely that fibre broadband will be provided to Isel and Old Park within the current Connecting Cumbria scheme. There is a lack of trained engineers to do the work. The solutions for Isel and Sunderland will need to be kept separate. It may be that Isel will be better with individual claims and systems while Sunderland can eventually get a fibre cable from Aspatria. f. The Green – Drainage: Pending. g. Lynwood (state of): No further information. Martin to enquire. h. State of the Pound: This item to be taken off the agenda. i. Allerdale Voting Wards: The Crummock ward is disappearing, and proposal is to merge us with Aspatria. The meeting felt we had more links to Cockermouth All Saints and much of that was also in the National Park. It was agreed the Parish Clark would formally respond to the consultation on behalf of the Parish Council. j. Parliamentary Constituency: As of the next General Election we would be in the Penrith and Solway constituency. k. Removal of two lights in Sunderland: Allerdale will replace then if we ask. It was agreed we wanted them to be replaced. l. Removal of the Blindcrake Phone Box: We had objected on the grounds of poor mobile signal in the villages. m. Village Hall: Ros updated the meeting on the progress with refurbishment, grants and the creation of a Charitable Incorporated Organisation to replace the current unincorporated charity. The council would have a representative on the new management committee. 6. Correspondence: (Circulated via email) 7. Planning Matters: a. UU Pipe Line (Allerdale part) UU attending. (see item 5 a) b. Keswick Reach Caravan Park: There was considerable discussion re the redevelopment of the former North Lakes Caravan Park. There had been a problem with large lights and light pollution and the design of the main building. It seemed to have got through the NPA planners very easily. The meeting expressed concern that we had not been on the consultation list despite the site being only a few hundred metres from the Parish boundary. The Clerk was asked to write to both Allerdale BC and the NPA asking that applications of buildings near our parish were sent to us as well. There is a public footpath through the site as well; we need to check that this has been re-opened. The change to lodges did not need an application. Concern had previously been expressed re the sewerage and the stream that runs through the site. The large security lights had now been removed. c. Blindcrake Village Hall: This would be circulated. 8. Financial Matters: a) Current financial position: The Clerk said this was likely to be the end of the year figure plus a small amount of interest. b) Do we need fidelity insurance? The meeting agreed that we did not. c) Approval of our financial regulations: The meeting approved the regulations d) Approval of our Governance statement: The meeting approved the statement. e) Payment for the hire of the Hall 2016-17 £ 84.00 f) Payment of the Clerk’s travel costs 2016-17 £ 84.14 g) Payment for Printing & stationery 2016-17 £207.98 h) Payment for Maintenance work (A.Mossop) 2016-17. £220.00 Future agenda items and dates of future meetings: May 15th (AGM) July 17th September 18th November 20th Signed: ___________________________________ Date: _____________________________________ .