Ranton Parish Council
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Ranton Parish Council MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE COUNCIL HELD ON THURSDAY 27TH MARCH 2008 AT RANTON VILLAGE HALL PRESENT: Cllr. N. MacLeod (Chairman) Cllr. R. Thomas (Vice Chairman) Cllr. J. Forrester Cllr. N. Bayliss IN ATTENDANCE: 5 members of the public. 1 Apologies Mrs J. Hill (clerk) 2 Minutes of the previous meeting It was resolved to accept the minutes of the meeting held on 24th February 2008 as a true record and they were signed by the chairman 3 Finance a) The following accounts for payment were approved by the council: £ 99.72 J. Hill £ 12.12 Haughton Parish Council (photocopying) b) The financial statement was received and approved. 4 Reports a) Mowing and maintenance – no activity b) Highways – Butt Lane to be checked to see if it has been repaired. Hextall Lane still has standing water. c) Footpaths – Complaint received from Mrs J. Tranter about electrified fence across bridle path where both she and her dog were injured by the fence. This is to be checked with the farmer (Mr P Jones) d) Seighford Airfield – Certificate of Lawful use – rejected. 2 planning applications – rejected. Residents say they have been operating every Saturday and Sunday except Easter and Mothers Day. They should now have used their 14 ad hoc events. DriveMe may appeal against the CLEUD judgement. Check on Seighford Parish Council to see if they have been notified of the reason for rejection. Also we should ask for the reasons for the rejection. e) Parish Plan – We need to call for a second meeting and we need to give 2 weeks notice and issue a leaflet on the day – “Do you care about your village.” Jeff will draft a leaflet. Meeting date Thursday 10th April. 5 Clerks Report Planning application for The Cottages – Councillors expressed concern about the proximity to adjacent properties. Concern about overlooking adjacent properties. The response should reflect these two concerns. 6 Public Questions A question was asked regarding the state of Coton Lane. Cllr. Forrester will contact CLARENCE. 7 Chairman’s Questions Cllr. Thomas is clearing the rubbish from the road side. Cllr. Forrester is now a Community Governor for Ranton School. 8 Planning One item dealt with under Clerk’s report. 9 It was resolved that a meeting be held on Thursday 24th April 2008 at 8.00pm. And it was resolved that the Annual Assembly would held on the same date at 7.30pm. The meeting was closed by the Chairman. Signed…………………………………………………. Date……………………………………………………. Ranton Parish Council MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE COUNCIL HELD ON THURSDAY 21 FEBRUARY 2008 AT RANTON VILLAGE HALL PRESENT: Cllr. N. MacLeod (Chairman) Cllr. R. Thomas Cllr. N. Bayliss IN ATTENDANCE: Members of the public Mrs. J. Hill (clerk) 1 Apologies Cllr. M. Winnington and Cllr. J. Forrester sent apologies. 2 Minutes of the previous meeting It was resolved to accept the minutes of the meeting held on 24 January 2008 as a true record. 3 Finance a) The following accounts for payment were approved by the council: 836 Audit commission £58.75 Annual audit 837 Mr. R. Thomas £7.10 Photocopying 838 Bayliss Agricultural Services £452.08 Clerk salary & exes b) The financial statements to the end of January 2008 were accepted by the council. 4 Reports a) Mowing and maintenance – Cllr. Thomas reported that he had walked around the village with John Hall regarding the grass cutting. The clerk produced the quote received which came to nearly £3,000. Mr. P. Jeffries had also quoted for the work and offered the same terms as last year. The council decided to retain Mr. Jeffries for the 2008/09 season. b) Highways – reports had been received of flooding on Brook Lane near Mr. S. Jeffries. Water was still lying on Hextall Lane and did not seem to be a Severn Trent Water problem but more probably a consequence of the high water table. Some work had been carried out on Butt Lane but had only moved the problem elsewhere. Coton Lane continues to be covered with mud. The clerk would try contacting CLARENCE again. c) Footpaths – nothing to report. d) Seighford Airfield – Cllr. Thomas went through a report he had given to the special meeting on 12 February. If the Certificate of Lawful Use was granted the parish could make a formal complaint to the ombudsman. If it felt that Stafford Borough Council had misrepresented themselves it could apply for a high court judicial review which would be costly. A barrister’s opinion would be useful, however, if more planning arises on the site. Seighford parish could be asked for a contribution towards costs and Ranton parish has reserves put aside for situations such as this. Members of the public said that they would be willing to contribute to a fund and were sure others would as well. The Chairman said that Cllr. Sutherland had called in the two retrospective planning applications that had been put in by Driveme. Both Councillors Sutherland and Winnington had declared personal interests, however. 5 Local Development Framework consultation At the special meeting held on 12 February members of the parish council had put together a response for ratification at this meeting. It was now resolved that the response should be entered on the consultation website by the clerk. 6 Parish Plan The Chairman had contacted the Village Hall Committee, the Women’s Institute, Kate Plant of the Parochial Church Council and Kerry Jones of the PTFA regarding support for the Parish Plan. He would shortly be issuing a parish newsletter to everyone to include a date for the first public meeting on the Parish Plan. 7 Clerk’s Report The council went through the correspondence received as listed in the report. 8 Public Questions None. 9 Items for Information/next Agenda None 10 Planning None 11 It was resolved that a meeting be held on Thursday, 27 February 2008 at 8.00pm in the Village Hall. The meeting was closed by the chairman. Signed ……………………………………. Date ………………………………………. Ranton Parish Council MINUTES OF THE SPECIAL MEETING OF THE COUNCIL HELD ON TUESDAY 12 FEBRUARY 2008 AT RANTON VILLAGE HALL PRESENT: Cllr. N. MacLeod (Chairman) Cllr. R . Thomas Cllr. N. Bayliss Cllr. J. Forrester Borough Cllr R Sutherland IN ATTENDANCE: Mrs. J. Hill (clerk) 1 Apologies Cllr. M. Winnington 2 Local Development Framework Consultation Cllr. Forrester and the clerk gave a report on the consultation meeting held on 6 February at the Civic Centre chaired by Borough Councillor D. Davies. Consultation meetings were being held with groupings of parish councils to give the background to the various proposals being put forward by the Borough Council. The government has handed down to the Borough a minimum target of 10,300 new houses under the new LDF with 7,000 to be built in Stafford. There are also targets for land for creation of new business. To help the Borough make its decisions it has produced a description of each village including infrastructure and facilities and wishes the parishes to study these and to correct any errors. The Parish Council felt that the description for Ranton fell short of its actual state. It requested the clerk to add the following to the consultation site for Ranton: The village lies on an unclassified road between the Great Bridgford/Newport road and the A518 at Haughton. All five entries to Ranton are single track roads at some point along them. It is surrounded by five working farms which have an impact upon the road system. The sewerage system is not fit for the present housing and the storm water system is not adequate for the parish as a whole. The electricity system is weak and the broadband connection is low speed. There is no gas supply to the village and the bus service is actually the Ruralink car service that connects to the bus service. There is an infants school for 5 – 7 year-olds. There are no shops. There is one pub and one pub/restaurant neither of which is in the village proper. There is a church and a village hall but no other recreational or sports facilities. Ranton could only support minor development without major infrastructure work. The Borough had also provided six options for the location of new housing which ranged from all at Stafford and Stone, some at the bigger villages and a scattering to all settlements. The Parish Council felt that Option C should be the preferred option i.e. development in areas that already have infrastructure, facilities, health centres and shops. Cllr. Sutherland said that Stafford Borough Council will make sure any development will include infrastructure through Section 106 payments from the development partners. Feedback from the consultation will be received at the next meeting on 19 May 2008. 3 Seighford Airfield Cllr. Thomas tabled his latest report which was read by councillors. He felt strongly that events and changes have taken place that had not been under planning control at all. He intended to write to the Borough Chief Executive, David Rawlings, rather than the Borough solicitor, A. Welch, who had a personal interest in the site. The meeting was closed by the chairman. Signed ……………………………………. Date ………………………………………. Ranton Parish Council MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE COUNCIL HELD ON THURSDAY 24 JANUARY 2008 AT RANTON VILLAGE HALL PRESENT: Cllr. N. MacLeod (Chairman) Cllr. M. Winnington Cllr. N. Bayliss Cllr. J. Forrester IN ATTENDANCE: Mrs. J. Hill (clerk) 1 Apologies Cllr. R. Thomas sent apologies as he was on holiday. 2 Minutes of the previous meeting Cllr. Winnington asked for two amendments to the minutes. The funds he had offered for the oil tank at the village hall had not been refused but the Village Hall Committee was not in a position to accept them.