Parish Council Meeting on 21 March
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Stonham Aspal Parish Council Approved Minutes of the Council Meeting held on Tuesday 21 March 2017 at 7.30pm at the Village Hall, The Street, Stonham Aspal Present: Cllr Malcolm Leith (Chair), Cllr Ian Wright (Vice-Chair), Cllr Peter Emberson, Cllr Josephine Mitson, Cllr Jean Timms and Cllr Charles Tydeman Attendance: Cllr Suzie Morley (District Councillor), Cllr Matthew Hicks (County Councillor) and Simon Ashton (Parish Clerk) 1. Apologies and Approval of Absences Cllr Stevenson did not attend the meeting. 2. Declarations of Pecuniary or Non-Pecuniary Interests by Members There were no interests declared by any of the Members. 3. Approval of Minutes of the Previous Meeting on 21 February 2017 Minutes of the meeting of the Parish Council on 21 February 2017 were received and approved as a true record and signed by the Chair. 4. Matters Arising There were no matters arising which had not been included elsewhere on the agenda. 5. Reports by the District Councillor & County Councillor Cllr Morley delivered her district council report at the meeting. Cllr Hicks delivered his county council report at the meeting. Copies of these reports have been made available at the end of these minutes for information. 6. Contributions by Members of the Public There were no issues raised by members of the public. 7. Consideration of Planning Applications & Decision Notices (a) MSDC 4766/16: Application Granted (21 February 2017) Lugano, The Street, Stonham Aspal IP14 6AH The granting of planning permission for this application was noted. (b) MSDC 4324/16: Application Refused (9 March 2017) Land adjacent to Reeve and Co, Stonham Road, Mickfield, IP14 5LS The refusal of planning permission for this application was noted. (c) It was anticipated that the Stonham Barns planning application would be considered by the MSDC Planning Referrals Committee in April 2017. (d) Planning activity in the parish summarised during the year was noted. 8. Finance (a) The cashbook, income and expenditure for the period to the end of February 2017 was reviewed by Members and noted. (b) The Parish Clerk confirmed that notification had been received from Mid Suffolk District Council of a recycling credit of £270.02 to be paid into the bank account in due course. (c) Approval of the bank reconciliation of activity to the end of February 2017 was proposed by Cllr Leith, seconded by Cllr Emberson and approved by Members. (d) (e) Payments were authorised in favour of the Parish Clerk’s wages (£140.80), office and personal expenses (£34.35) and HMRC income tax (£157.20). Payments were also authorised for payroll services received from Ladywell Accountancy Services in 2016/17 (£48.00), grass cutting services received from Mid Suffolk District Council in 2016 (£679.20) and Section 137 payments in favour of Mid Suffolk Citizens Advice Bureau (£50.00) and Suffolk Accident Rescue Service (£50.00). Approval of these payments was proposed by Cllr Tydeman, seconded by Cllr Mitson and agreed by Members. (f) The Parish Clerk confirmed that he was awaiting confirmation that he had been correctly named as the correspondent for all correspondence received from the bank. 9. Highways (a) The Parish Clerk confirmed that a response had still to be received from Suffolk County Council Highways about the reported flooding on The Street between the sports field and the Village Hall and Scotts Hill. The Parish Clerk agreed to follow this up with SCC Highways. (b) The Parish Clerk confirmed that a response had still to be received from Suffolk County Council Highways about the village sign with failed illumination for the narrow road approaching the village. The Parish Clerk agreed to follow this up with SCC Highways. 10. Recreation Ground Cllr Timms confirmed that she had met with MSDC Planning and advised that planning permission was not required for the ball stop net proposed along the edge of the Recreation Ground. This was because of provision of the Town and Country Planning, General Permitted Development Order (GPDO) 2015. Consideration was being given to the costs associated with its installation. Cllr Timms was thanked for her time and efforts for looking into this. A query had also been received from the Recreation Ground Committee regarding bird mess on the swings. Members were happy to approve the purchase of sticky back spikes for fixing on to the top of the swings frame. This was proposed by Cllr Timms, seconded by Cllr Leith and agreed by Members. 11. Review, Approval & Adoption of Risk Assessment 2016/17 The Parish Clerk presented the risk assessment for 2016/17 modelled on the previous year’s version for review, approval and adoption which was proposed by Cllr Wright, seconded by Cllr Leith and agreed by Members. 12. Nomination of Trustee to Metcalf Educational Foundation Charity Cllr Stevenson was understood to be happy to continue as the nominated representative. On the basis of his acceptance to be checked by the Parish Clerk, Cllr Leith offered his proposal which was seconded by Cllr Wright and agreed by Members. 13. Appointment of Internal Auditor Following a query raised by the Parish Clerk, Cllr Leith confirmed that the decision had previously been made to appoint Suffolk Association of Local Councils (SALC) as the internal auditor for 2016/17. The Parish Clerk confirmed that the appointment would be made. 14. Correspondence Received There were no items of correspondence received for discussion since the last meeting. 15. Matters for Future Consideration Members noted the need to consider items for the agendas for the forthcoming Annual Parish Meeting (APM) and Annual General Meeting (AGM) at the next meeting on 18 April 2017. 16. Dates of the Next Meetings (a) (i) 18 Apr (ii) 16 May (APM) (7.00pm) (iii) 16 May 2017 (AGM) (8.00pm) (b) (i) 20 Jun (ii) 18 Jul (iii) 19 Sep (iv) 17 Oct (v) 21 Nov (vi) 12 Dec 2017 (c) (i) 16 Jan (ii) 20 Feb (iii) 20 Mar (iv) 17 Apr (v) 15 May (APM/AGM) (d) Cllr Tydeman agreed to secure bookings for use of either the Village Hall or an alternative venue for Parish Council meetings in 2017/18. The meeting finished at 8.55pm. Simon Ashton, Parish Clerk [email protected] 18 April 2017 Report for The Stonhams Ward – March 2017 Council Housing Officers feature in latest TV show Two members of staff from Babergh and Mid Suffolk’s Supported Living Schemes will once again feature in the latest series of the BBC One daytime show ‘The Housing Enforcers’. The fourth series of the show started on Monday this week and will air each weekday at 9.15 am until Friday 24 March 2017. It is hosted by presenter Matt Allwright and looks at the work of Local Authority Housing Officers who deal with a whole range of issues such as signing up new tenants, antisocial behaviour, overgrown gardens and environmental health-related matters. Community Housing Officers Ian Watson and Andrew Weavers have been working with the producers of this show for the last two years and they have already appeared in series 2 and 3. In the current series, viewers will see Ian or Andrew in 10 episodes altogether, where their work on the front line will show them dealing with anything from ‘right to buy’ fraud and abandoned properties to attending evictions and serving notices. Andrew Weavers said, “The programme producers and crew have been very supportive and it has been good to show the mixture of issues we deal with every day. Social worker, mediator, police officer, support worker and friendly face – these are just some of the people we are expected to be during the course of our work. We have no doubt changed people’s lives or even saved them along the path of our careers.” Ian Watson said, “The shows have been fair and quite positive, not like some other benefits programmes, so when we were asked to do more programmes after series 2, I was quite happy to do this because of the way they portrayed our work.” Cllr Jan Osborne, Babergh District Council’s Portfolio Holder for Housing said, “Our housing officers are a real credit to both councils and this programme shows just what an invaluable service they provide for our tenants. Viewers of the programme will see just how hard this team works to find solutions, even when they lie outside their normal area of activity, and the positive impact they have on people’s lives.” Cllr Jill Willshaw, Mid Suffolk District Council’s Member with Special Responsibility – Landlord Function said, “We know our tenants can have very individual needs and this programme does a great job of shining a light on just how hard our staff work to handle anything that is thrown at them. Their willingness to roll up their sleeves and do whatever it takes to solve problems and improve the lives of our tenants is a testament to the commitment and professionalism of the whole team.” Series Producer Kent Upshon said “We were really keen to open up the series this year, to look at the more human side of housing, and the challenges faced by both tenants and Housing Officers. Both Ian and Andrew were brilliant guides through today’s housing crisis. There’s an old cliché about there being no such thing as an average day as a housing officer, but our time in Suffolk and Babergh proved time and time again this to be true. Through them, we saw a huge range of different housing challenges, but the one thing that didn’t change was Ian and Andrew’s honest and professional approach to doing their jobs.