Hambridge & Westport Parish Council

HAMBRIDGE & WESTPORT PARISH COUNCIL

MINUTES OF MEETING HELD ON MONDAY 12 th FEBRUARY 2018 @ 8pm IN THE VILLAGE HALL

PRESENT: Cllrs Simon Denley (Chairman), David Cload, Brian Flack, Richard Maidment and Paul Masters. County Cllr Adam Dance was also in attendance.

388). APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE An apology for absence had been received from District Cllr Sue Steele

389). DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST Cllr Simon Denley declared an interest in Item 4(a) - ‘Rights of Way footpath’ L9/22.

390). MINUTES OF THE MEETING HELD ON 8th JANUARY 2018 Cllr Richard Maidment questioned the wording of Minute 382(a) under Reports from County/District Councillors, concerning the footpath from the School to the Church. He felt it required an introduction to make sense of the quotation it contained and the Minute was amended as follows:-

“County Cllr Adam Dance said that he had sent an email regarding the footpath from the School to the Church. Cllr Simon Denley said that reviewing last month’s discussion it would appear that the land owners would be more than happy to comply and allow a footpath for half of that road length. Why could the County Council not use half of that funding to install half of the footpath. County Cllr Adam Dance said that he was still waiting for a formal response but, the first response had been “can’t see that it will be possible if we are not going to do the whole footpath – it would not pass”. County Cllr Adam Dance said that the funding comes from central government and it has to pass certain criteria. He would be going into County Hall on the 22 nd February for a meeting and would follow this up with the relevant department.”

391). MATTERS ARISING a). Community work in the village that could be provided by the Probation Service. Rhudi Martin said he worked with the ‘community pay-back section’ of the Probation Service and could offer some community work to be carried out in the village. As he travels through the village every day, he can see some areas of work that could be undertaken, such as cutting back the brambles on the Village Green. There could be other areas of work that you felt could be of benefit to the community and we could offer a base rate of £30 per day. It does not have to be a number of days every week. It could be once a month, whatever is easiest. They work with Long Sutton, Chard and Bridgwater. He was new to this role and he was going to the smaller parishes to provide community work. The maximum that can be taken out due to health and safety regulations is eight and that can differ. The charge is still £30 for the group. He was thinking about doing it at the week-ends because more people come out at week-ends. Cllr Simon Denley asked if there was any other responsibility on the Parish Council other than the fee charged. Rhudi said that he would need to get his colleague out to do a risk assessment. If they are working by the road, there has to be a pavement to work by. All that is necessary is for someone to sign to say this is alright to do. He said that they had done some painting in the school.

Cllr Simon Denley said that we do employ Max von Tyzka to do our grass cutting and general maintenance. The Village Green does not belong to the Parish Council and you would have to obtain permission from Earnshill. Rhudi said that they would be provided with all the necessary kit required. It was generally agreed that this seemed a good idea. Rhudi would contact his manager and say that Hambridge and Westport Parish Council has indicated that it is interested and hopefully we can then set it up. If there is something that the Parish Council would like to be done, we should

get in touch with him and his colleague would come out. The work would have to be risk assessed. A mobile telephone was available to contact him. b). ‘Rights of Way footpath’ L9/22 – update Cllr Simon Denley said that there was nothing further to report on this item at this time. He has started to draft out a letter to go to the people involved and he hoped to have something to report next month. c). Recreation Trust Car Park grant application – update Cllr Simon Denley said that the Recreation Trust had held their AGM last month and one of the things that has come out of that is, they are putting in for re-surfacing and re-marking of the Car Park out in the front. The would like us, if possible, to see if there are any funds available that we could contribute. It was agreed that, in principle, there are some funds available and the Car Park does benefit everyone that uses it, not only the Village Hall. Cllr Simon Denley said that it had previously been said that there was a need for hatched areas to be provided for safety of the children getting to School and the disabled. d). Maintenance of the Churchyard – update Cllr Simon Denley said that he had tried to get some idea of the cost involved if we were to take it on. He said at present it cost about £1,500 per year to keep the Churchyard in a good state of repair. That is really only for grass cutting, cleaning up and the occasional one or two cuts of the hedge that runs down the side of the graveyard. The graveyard itself is quite full and there is an extended part at the back which is not easily cut using a lawnmower. Currently, Richard Combe gets a local person to do this. Cllr Simon Denley said that Richard Combe also manages to obtain about £1,000 from donations, mostly from relatives of people buried in the Churchyard. That is dwindling year on year. There is a source of revenue from burials, marriages and baptisms etc. It is a fairly minimal amount of money and quite a large portion of that is paid to the diocese. Cllr Simon Denley had also spoken to Max von Tyzka who gives the graveyard a preferential rate. Cllr Simon Denley said that if it was something we wished to proceed with, we would require a formal quotation from him. We would not want to take on any responsibility for the monuments etc. Cllr Paul Masters felt we should only take on the grass cutting and maintenance of the ground. Cllr Simon Denley said, are we prepared to take on the responsibility for maintenance of the Churchyard as far as grass cutting and hedge cutting is concerned. We already give a grant of £500 and Richard Combe obtains the other £1,000 from donations.

Following further discussion, it was proposed by Cllr Paul Masters that the Parish Council will undertake the maintenance of the churchyard on the basis of the situation as we understand it at the moment i.e. £1,500 per year, to be reviewed annually and three quotations obtained. This was seconded by Cllr Brian Flack and unanimously agreed.

e). Review of ‘Risk Assessment’ document i). Cllr Simon Denley proposed the addition of a section which advised that “All IT equipment is stored and secured by the Chairman when it is not being used during a Parish Council meeting.”

ii). He also proposed the inclusion of an item in respect of the Churchyard which would cover accidents that might be caused by tripping

iii). Defibrillator – ensure that the defibrillator is regularly checked and maintained to ensure correct performance if/when needed.

iv). Broadband & Telephone Line – Access to the Village Hall Internet requires a password available from the H & W PC Website. Users must formally agree to accept the terms & conditions of use prior to obtaining the password. Obtaining the code is considered as the making of a formal request and agreement. 2

Cllr Paul Masters proposed approval of the additional items to be included in the Risk Assessment. This was seconded by Cllr Richard Maidment and unanimously agreed. A copy of the revised Risk Assessment would be filed in the Minute Book. f). Pavement kerbstone damage at Westmore Lane, update Cllr Simon Denley said that he had written to Chris Weeks together with photographs of the relevant area. He had received this on the last day of his current position and had passed the information on to the department now dealing with it. There were two points; one was the state of the kerbstone down Westmoor Lane with the junction next to the new development at John Alford’s old yard. The other thing was a request to remove the sign as you approach from this direction towards the pub concerning a new road layout. A number of residents felt that this had been up for a number of years and was not now relevant. He had received a formal response via email acknowledging receipt and saying that it would be actioned within the next three to five days. County Cllr Adam Dance suggested that the relevant correspondence be forwarded to him.

g). Footpath from the School to the Church – update County Cllr Adam Dance said that County Highways would not do half of the footpath and funding would not be approved. You cannot have a footpath that does not lead anywhere. You need to see what the issues are and whether we can put white lines at the edge of the road. They want him and the Parish Council to go to the Primary School to see whether they are on board as well. It is a question of starting right back at the beginning of the process.

h). White lining in Westport – update It was agreed to take this item off of the Agenda until Minute 391(g) had been resolved. i). Signage for the Village Shop. Cllr Simon Denley said that this had arisen because we were looking at means of finding some way of helping the Village Shop. He had spoken to the owner who was struggling quite a bit and wondered whether there was any funding or grants available that could help in anyway. As far as the Parish Council is concerned, it is a private enterprise and we cannot get involved. It is a question of whether there are other grants available. County Cllr Adam Dance said that there was no point in approaching the County Council but, District Cllr Sue Steele might be able to help. It was felt that if it was a community shop it would be a different matter and County Cllr Adam Dance agreed.

Adjournment to allow public comment

Mr Golden was interested in the proposed footpath bearing in mind the chaos that is caused by parked cars. The thing that amazed him was that a member of staff from the School drove from the School and the queue of parked cars was so long that they parked opposite his house. County Cllr Adam Dance pointed out that the County Council has said that the footpath will not happen and he was now pushing to see if there is anything else we can do to improve the situation. It is not going to solve the problem but, putting white lines along the edge of the road, creating a virtual footpath, might help a little. It was felt that this would not stop people parking. Mrs Golden pointed out that cars were overtaking the parked vehicles blind because they could not see what was coming towards them and this happens every day. County Cllr Adam Dance said that if the parking is causing problems, it is something that can be taken up with the School. Mr Golden said he felt that no-one had looked at and assessed the situation and said that it was acceptable. Cllr Simon Denley said that one of the proposals for the development down next to the Church was to put some parking spaces in. It could only accommodate about a dozen vehicles.

392). FINANCE REPORT a). Accounts for payment The following accounts were approved for payment on the proposition of Cllr Paul Masters, seconded by Cllr Brian Flack. 3

Clerk’s Wages for Month 10 £56.00 PAYE for months 7/9 £42.00

393). REPORTS FROM COUNTY AND DISTRICT COUNCILLORS. There was nothing further to report at the present time.

394). LAW & ORDER On the Avon and Somerset system for Area North, we have had 165 investigated crimes reported for the month January 2018 and there were 25 arrests. There have been 28 reports of ASB for Area North.

395). PLANNING REPORT a). Application approved with conditions

Application No. 17/04907/NMA Application for a non-material amendment to No.17/00600/REM for the addition of an external chimney breast, additional rooflight, brickwork to be used below DPC and additional first floor window. Iltonia, Westport, Langport.

b). Application refused

Application No. 17/04141/FUL Creation of access and driveway. Rose Bungalow, The Green, Hambridge, Langport

396). CORRESPONDENCE a). The Local Government Boundary Commission for England Draft recommendations on the future electoral arrangements for South Somerset District Council have been published with a view to delivering electoral equality where each district councillor represents roughly the same number of electors as others across the district. A ten week public consultation on the Commission’s draft recommendations commenced on new ward boundaries across SSDC as from the 9 th January. The consultation would close on the 19 th March 2018. The proposed change would mean that instead of being with Isle Moor, Hambridge & Westport would be with Burrow Hill. Cllr Simon Denley had submitted his personal response and noted that in our case it made a difference of about one hundred people. It was agreed that, as a Parish Council, we should express our concerns about the expense involved in this exercise and that we did not agree with the change proposed.

397). ITEMS FOR A FUTURE AGENDA a). ‘Rights of Way footpath’ L 9/22 – update b). Recreation Trust Car Park grant application – update c). Maintenance of the Churchyard - update d). Pavement kerbstone damage at Westmore Lane - update e). White lining in Westport – update f). Proposed residential development & expansion of Village Green – update

CHAIRMAN______DATE______