452 Minutes of the Meeting of Catfield Parish Council
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MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF CATFIELD PARISH COUNCIL HELD at 7pm ON WEDNESDAY 7th October 2020 via ZOOM. Attendance: Mr Beckley, Mr Filgate, Mr Harris, Mr Hill, Ms Johnson, Mr Jordan, Mr Read, Mrs Wickens and Dr Bacon in the chair, Mrs Millership and Mrs Grove-Jones (District Councillors), Richard Price (County Councillor), Paul Savage (Broads Society) and four parishioners. Apologies for Absence: Mrs Walker and Sasha Walton (Mushroom site). Dr Bacon stated that Mrs Fernee has tendered her resignation from the Parish Council. The clerk will contact NNDC to set in motion the procedures for finding a replacement. Declaration of Interests: Mr Harris declared an interest in that he is still trying to recover the costs of hedge damage in Fenside from Mr Alston. Dr Bacon referred to Standing Orders which state that the Parish Council meetings should last no longer than two and a half hours, the last meeting went between three and a half and four hours. The Parish Council needs to do something about this, we need to keep what we have to say brief, not repeat ourselves. The alternative is when two and a half hours is reached the meeting should stop or at least discuss whether or not to stop the meeting at that point. Related to that Mr Beckley sent an email to everyone about the length of the meeting and the minutes. Mr Beckley stated that the email was self-explanatory, Standing Orders do say two and a half hours maximum, we have always achieved that very easily in the past. Mr Beckley quoted two documents regarding minutes from parish council meetings and they both say they should be concise and to the point and he would like to see that. Mr Beckley recognised that others had differing views, it might be worth some debate. Dr Bacon said that there are all different styles of minute for meetings, everything from almost verbatim record of what was said to a brief summary of decisions made. Dr Bacon recommended before next meeting that councillors could go on the internet and find minutes for one or two other parishes and have a look at how other parishes deal with the issue, then the Parish Council needs to do something about getting minutes that are a lot less then fourteen pages and much more concise forms of minuting. Public Forum: Mrs Harris (a parishioner) asked if the key to the village hall notice board had been found, various people were going to be asked back in February, it is now six months later and it is still on the agenda which is probably why the meetings take so long. Mrs Harris has a locksmith coming and she suggested that at her expense, to ask him to change the lock, ask for four keys which will be given to the clerk then we do not have to wait another six months for the same question again. Mr Beckley stated that he had spoken to Mrs Gardiner about the issue because she was the one most likely to have the key, she was looking for it and she also said in passing that the notice board was put up to display events for the village hall and it was supposed to have some letters that would slide in, she found Mr Gardiner’s order for those letters but it had not been sent to the manufacturer. Mrs Gardiner said, on behalf of the Village Hall Committee, that they still intended to use that notice board to put village hall functions on it once they had the letters. Mrs Harris asked if it was ever to be used for the minutes, she thought it was to put the minutes up so that parishioners can see more extended minutes which are not in the magazine. Dr Bacon stated that if the notice board belongs to the village hall committee then it is for the village hall committee to makes decisions about access to it and what goes in it, not for the Parish Council to decide, the Parish Council would need to encourage the Village Hall Management Committee to sort 452 that issue out and the Parish Council can’t overrule them regarding that particular notice board if it is their notice board. Mr Beckley said that it had been the Parish Council’s intention to use the notice board originally however now someone from VHMC have said they actually do want to use. There are two other notice boards, one at the village hall and one on the corner of New Road. Mr Read gave Mr Beckley the keys for the one at New Road, he put the notice up for this meeting and had a bit of difficulty accessing one side of the board, it needs to slide the inside out to put notices on. Mr Beckley will investigate this. That board could then be used to display the minutes. Mr Harris stated that his understanding, if he has it right, is that the Parish Council has been looking for the key for six months. Dr Bacon stated that he could not remember but Mrs Harris said it was in the minutes. Mr Harris said his wife had volunteered to solve the problem at their expense by sending the locksmith to put new locks on and the Parish Council can have the keys. Would the Parish Council like Mr and Mrs Harris to take that up or not? Dr Bacon replied that he had not got the authority to say yes or no to that, it is the VHMC. Mr Beckley would contact Mrs Gardiner to see if she would like that to happen on their behalf. Mr Beckley agreed to this and go back to Mr Harris. Mr Harris stated that his wife is trying to solve a problem which has been out there for six months and it can be done this week at their cost, it would be nice to get an answer because otherwise we will be waiting another six months. Dr Bacon agreed. Mr Edwards (a parishioner) asked when he could expect meetings to return to normal in the village hall. Dr Bacon stated that we do not know. Mr Edwards asked what was the current problem that they cannot be in the village hall. Dr Bacon explained that the VHMC have closed the village hall until early November; when they will decide to do otherwise, we have no idea. Mrs Wickens stated that at present we could not have any more than six people anyway. Mr Edwards asked why not? Mrs Wickens stated that the Government has told us that. Dr Bacon stated that this was discussed in detail last time round about what the pros and cons of the village hall meeting are and what the problems are, that was all overruled by the fact that the VHMC decides whether or not it is open, at the moment it is not open until at least early November so until they open the village hall we can’t have a meeting there whether we want one or not. Mr Harris stated that the Parish Council agreed to expedite getting wifi into the village hall, has we made any progress on that? This will be discussed under “Village Hall” on the agenda. Mrs Millership (District Councillor) reported that the works at Wayford Bridge have been put on hold until the spring and then only one lane will be closed at one time, so any lorries going through Catfield will be alleviated for a while. Mrs Millership went on to say that she had meeting with Trend regarding Sutton but they said they had a very good community events days, it was very fruitful this year and the nets on the football pitch are now back up. They were happy with the volunteers that turned out. She attended her first funeral at Catfield church last month during lockdown and Mrs Millership stated how safe it felt and well managed all the people and thanked the Church Wardens. Mrs Grove-Jones stated that the District Council is working mostly at home, as they are also, the Planning Department is trying to catch up with all the backlog that they have. They are basically up to 80% of their completion which is very good because the national average is about 60%. They have had new planning officers appointed and the building inspection teams are up to full capacity and they have been out since May inspecting sites. There have been very few submissions from Catfield. Mrs Grove-Jones and Mrs Millership attended at virtual meeting with Ms Johnson and Mr Harris regarding to helping the sub-committee with possibly seeing a way forward to try and solve the 453 problems. Mrs Grove-Jones is happy to be contacted if there are any problems. Ms Johnson thanked Mrs Grove-Jones and Mrs Millership for their time. Mr Price reported that with regard to COVID there had been eighteen more cases in the last week in North Norfolk, 260 cases in total but no fatalities. The number infected has gone from seven to fourteen per hundred thousand of the population. Given the number of people who have visited North Norfolk during the last weeks it shows that we are doing exceptionally well. Sadly, since the requirement to wear face masks has come in hand washing and distancing has lessened, it is still very important to maintain the low rate. Mr Price sits on the local Health Committee and Scrutiny Committee in the last weeks they have been scrutinising the COVID outbreak at Banham and had a presentation from Dr Louise Smith.