DRAFT MINUTES OF GORSEINON MEETING ON JAN 13 2021 HELD REMOTELY. MINUTES WILL BE APPROVED AT NEXT MEETING ON FEB 3 2021

MINUTES of the MEETING of GORSEINON TOWN COUNCIL, held on WEDNESDAY 13th January 2021 at Ty Newydd centre, 17 West St. GORSEINON, at 7pm and remotely via Microsoft teams.

77. Present, Chmn M Curtice, Andrew Thomas, Clerk Remotely P Morgan, J Curtice, Sue Rawle, A Stevens, Marcus Thomas, K Roberts, Carlo Rabaiotti

78. Apologies were received from Cllrs, Pat Griffiths, Joe Clayfield, Lee Anne Crowley Davies, Ken Jones, Joanne Crowley. Andrew Crowley

79 DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST. Cllr A Stevens declared an interest in planning application 2020/ 2357, 43 dwellings Pencefnarda road, and did not participate in discussion or vote.

80. ANNOUNCEMENTS. The Cllr Malcolm Curtice advised of the following events he had attended, and was due to attend shortly; He advise of the Xas competition winners as below;

2 Best lit houses 2020 Bungalow top Brynteg rd Penyrheol, 44 Village drive Bryngwyn development Gorseinon Best dressed shopfront 2020. No shopfront considered suitable in 2020.

The Mayor/Clerk had visited the 2 properties and cheques for £100 each were presented to the house owners. It was agreed to refurbish the Mayors/Deputies chains of Office and also include NHS memorabilia as done by the adjoining Council.

81. POLICE MEETING. The Police were not represented at the meeting,

82. PUBLIC FORUM. None in attendance. It was agreed that in future there should be no Public presence in the building during Council meetings for health reasons. The Public could send in requests by post/email to be discussed at the meeting. This revised format would remain during the ongoing pandemic.

83. APPROVAL OF MINUTES. a. The Clerk presented the December 2nd Council and Planning minutes (which had been distributed previously) for approval. They were approved with no amendments. (Proposed by Jan Curtice, seconded by Cllr A Thomas).

84. FEEDBACK FROM ALL MEMBERS

a. Cllr Kelly Roberts reported Provisional bids for new childrens play areas at Parc Melyn Mynach and Foreshore. (Loughor town Council area) as part of the initiative Improving play facilities across the City having a £1m fund. The proposed upgrade of Parc Melin Mynach had been supported and forwarded by the 3 local County members. A Town Council contribution was confirmed as £25000 from next years budget.

b. Cllr K Roberts offered thanks to all those who had helped locally with the Covid 19 response including 130 helpers , joint LA coordinators and Lucy Williams in particular. 10000 leaflets had been distributed to houses and over £30000 had been donated in a massive response. It was suggested the initiative be submitted to One Voice for their Innovative Practice awards in 2021. She also advised over 130 Xmas gift bags had been donated for the Xmas appeal, up from 70 last year.

c. Cllr K Roberts outlined the proposed new Traffic regulation Order / highway improvements being designed for Gorseinon Penyrheol streets as part of a new highways funded initiative from Council. It was noted the initiative was part of a £1m scheme to address highway safety in the community, and whilst some reservations were expressed about the consequences of 20mph limits and amounts of road humps, the overall initiative was understood and supported. Cllr Stevens would distribute maps to members for information.

i. Cllr Marcus Thomas advised that the Friends of Parc Melyn Mynach had now been set up, with himself as Chairman and Aaron ? as treasurer, and about 30 Members to date. They were awaiting a bank account being set up. It was hoped that once approved by Swansea Council they could pursue a tree planting programme in the Parc. MT indicated intention to apply to Town Council for grant for schemes.

85. BUDGET MATTERS.

Clerk reminded Members of the Town Councils revised 5 year priorities which were discussed and reconfirmed without revision as follows;

GORSEINON TOWN COUNCIL 5 YEAR PRIORITIES 2016 -2021

a. Continue to develop andupgrade the Ty Newydd multi user base for the Town Council and community groups, that meets the Town Councils needs and is both accessible and affordable for all residents of Gorseinon / Penyrheol wards. b. Aim to improve communication with local residents and groups, work with local partnerships, and represent views of the community. as well as better explaining what the Town Councils role is, and what can be done for the local community. c. Deliver projects for the area that will engender and strengthen both pride and respect in the communities of Gorseinon and Penyrheol. d. Deliver projects that will improve the physical appearance and environment of our town centre & residential suburbs. e. Support worthy community groups / local initiatives and community projects, focused on sporting/social and cultural activities, particularly for the youth/elderly of the area.

.Members then discussed in detail and approved the Draft 2021/22 budget as enclosed, totalling £140,000. Priorities were discussed, and the main changes were agreed as follows;

Phase 2 of Xmas lights in lower High street would be included including replacing the lampstandards in Lower High street, before new Xmas lights are leased for phase 2 Lower High street of the new Xmas lighting.

The landscaping of the grassed area at the bottom of Lime street was discussed and supported, but a Scheme needed to be drawn up initially and costed to establish costs and likely support from surrounding businesses and .

£25000 contribution would be made to the new childrens play area to be built in Parc Melyn Mynach.

Following on from approving the budget, Members discussed the 2021/22 precept. It was Resolved to set a precept of £129441 (Option B) in order to deliver the stated projects in the community, and the Clerk was instructed to notify Swansea Council accordingly. The proposed budget for 2021/22 was £140,000 so the shortfall would be drawn from Council reserves. The precept equates to a figure per household for 2021/22 of £39 per household (proposed Cllr Jan Curtice, seconded Cllr Carlo Rabiaotti, agreed by all Members present).

86.CLERKS MATTERS a) XMAS LIGHTING LOWER HIGH ST. Clerk had received quote from Swansea Public lighting to replace 6 lampstandards in lower High street to the accommodate new Xmas lighting features. The cost was £11556 for 6 columns and £15385 for 8 columns. Council agreed to order 6/7 new columns for the 2021 xmas features to be erected. An additional lampstandard at bottom of Lime St was to be investigated. b) Web site upgrade 2020. Following advice from Swansea Council legal section, Cultivate media had withdrawn its website upgrade offer. Clerk had updated Members on current position re website upgrade, following 3 formal tenders which had been secured to upgrade the Councils website. It was agreed for the web site sub committee to review the position in 2021. A revised quote had been received from the current supplier Vision ICT for the bronze/silver package which was agreed to be examined further. c) Grassed area environmental scheme at bottom of Lime street. Clerk had contacted Environmental groups and a meeting was to take place on Jan 14th on site with Swansea parks dept. It was suggested that trees planted on the grassed areas would be the best solution with ornamental pyramid planters close to the main junction. Further options were being examined, and quotes obtained from CCS for further trees on the bottom of Lime street and at bottom of Heol y Mynydd opposite the Cockle Shell. d) Local Places for nature wildlife Garden award Argyll Gardens ( now reallocated to Penyrheol school).Clerk had formally asked if the project could be relocated to Penyrheol junior school, where the items would be more secure. he school Headmistress was grateful for the offer which would complement the schools programmes very well. Keep Wales tidy have now accepted the Penyrheol school site for the garden package - equipment was delivered to the school on 20 October for the caretaker/parents/pupils to install.

Following 2 successful bids, 880 small Tree whips have now been delivered to Clerk from Woodland Trust– awaiting sites and planting. Members would consider the best sites for planting, and for planting schemes). e) Members discussed the recent IT upgrade for all members to allow remote meeting to take place during the year ahead. At The AGM it had been agreed to move towards virtual meetings in the Covid crisis and to allow paperless meetings in future. The Clerk and Cllr Stevens had ascertained the IT need for existing Councillors and the purchase of appropriate IT equipment had been approved by the Chairman. Members approved the action taken. Cllr Andrew Crowley had asked for new computer equipment to be loaned to him from the Council. f) Clerk advised of current hiring situation following the recent reclosure of Ty Newydd to users and the updated risk assessment Now that WAG had asked Community centres to reclose, users were slowly asking for an update. Clerk had done risk assessment and cleaners had now done a thorough sanitisation of the building. Users were hoping to slowly return as from start of Spring once restrictions had been lifted.. A new cleaning and sanitisation regime had been agreed for users. g) Cllr Roberts / Cllr M Thomas had advised that a Friends of Parc Melin Mynach had now been set up. h). Clerk reported the grants meeting in February had received no funding requests too date and as such it likely to be postponed, as was the Mayors dinner 2021 due to Covid restrictions. Members had agreed earlier that the grant allocation would remain and be distributed to worthy causes throughout the year as the Covid pandemic eased. i) Clerk had been contacted by community liaison officer from POBL housing re the new housing scheme in Penyrheol. In view of the community element to the scheme GTC was asked if it wanted to have an involvement . A future meeting was to be set up with appropriate officers from the developers to discuss further. Cllr Stevens and J Curtice were having separate meetings with Coastal over the Gwynfaen developments progress and issues such as repositioning of playground facilities. j) DEFRIBULATOR. Clerk had been asked by Cllrs to explore costs of defribulator within new Parc Y Werin school campus. Costs had been received and future meetings were to be set up to look at potential sitings with Headmaster. Swansea Council had a new initiative to make the County a defribulator zone and as such Clerk was asked to wait until details had been publicised k) Cllr Roberts had received quotes for monthly input into the SA4 community magazine for Gorseinon area at a cost of £45+vat per insert. Members agreed to consider the offer, but were mindful that a monthly cycle was quite demanding and it may be better to forward articles for publishing as and when needed. Councillors also discussed the need for a Newsletter in some format to be distributed to the community in future. l) Clerk had received order form for Summer hanging baskets from Swansea Council. Members agreed to duplicate same order as 2020 with addition of new pyramid planter at bottom of Limestreet adjoining Bug public House, and 11 semi circular hanging baskets on the new lampstandards in High Street.

87. VARIOUS CORRESPONDENCE. A letter had been received from Mr Williams asking whether it was legal to change the welsh name of a farm to a new English version. Swansea Council legal dept had been asked and they had confirmed it was currently legal, but there were petitions with Government at present looking at the issue.

88 REPORTS FROM OUTSIDE BODIES. Reports were given on meetings that had been cancelled and were being reprogrammed. The Clerk advised of the next virtual One Voice Wales Swansea area meeting to be held on 18 Jan 2021. Clerk and Chairman would attend.

89. ACCOUNTS. a. Committee had received the Income / Receipts summary statement from the Clerk and considered and approved the payment of the following outstanding cheques for the ACCOUNTS dated from December 2020 (proposed Jan Curtice seconded A Thomas ). After the meeting the cheques were signed by 2 authorised signatures having examined all relevant receipts. Clerk advised members on current Council spend against programmed targets. b. Clerk advised of receipt of a payment for loss of income grant from Welsh government has now been received. He also advised that Business rates from Swansea Council have been suspended during Covid epidemic.. c. The External audit report was reported by the Clerk. No substantive issues had been raised by the external Auditor and the 2019/20 accounts had been signed off. Public Notices advising of the Audit completion had been placed on Public Notice Boards and website. d. Members approved the reappointment of Councils current accountants and internal auditors for 2021/21 audit.

90. Planning report. Members Noted and approved the Planning report as submitted by the Clerk as follows. It was agreed that Council would revert to the normal planning agenda format once normal meetings resumed after Pandemic ended..

1 To consider and make recommendations on the following planning applications received from the Swansea City and County Council as the Local Planning Authority;

No Objections were raised to the following applications;

2020/2454 Single storey rear extension/1st floor side extension, 14 Saron Close Penyrheol (amendment to appn. 2020/1119) 2020/2488 Tyr Felin surgery Cecil rd Gorseinon Auto prescription collection machine on front elevation Pharmacy 2020/2546 TPO 505 Lop Horsechestnut, 36 West st Gorseinon 2020/2504 6 Industrial units (class B1,B2,B8) and drive thru restaurant A3 Millers Drive Gorseinon applicant CK Stores Council reiterated the views already expressed by C/Cllr Kelly Roberts on behalf of local residents that; a.Residents living adjacent to the proposal, have concerns about lorries using site roads during construction, with highway safety issues and mud on road. b.Access to the industrial units runs adjacent to Ffordd yr Afon, close to households and only separated by trees . It may be better if access is obtained on the opposite side of the site adjacent Aldi. 2020/2368 2 storey side extension, 5 Pencaecrwn rd Penyrheol 2020/2503 Part 2 storey, part single storey extension 11 Spring Gardens Gorseinon 2021/0037 2 storey side extension, 1st floor side extension, single storey rear extension,2 rooflights and new vehicular access.

2. Objections were offered to the following application;

2020/2357 43 dwellings(100% affordable housing)with landscaping, access and associated works, Pencefnarda Farm, Pencefnarda rd Penyrheol ( received Dec 2 2020 ). The Town Council supported the views already expressed in writing by C/Cllr Jan Curtice on behalf of local residents near the site , summarised as Highway safety concerns, land gradient concerns, dangerous access, drainage concerns at bottom of hill, adverse impact on SINC adjoining, Agricultural land value is actually 3A not 4 as in report, LDP policy – site is an extension of settlement not infill, Site should be considered for local need only if minded to be approved and provision should be made off site for LAP/LEAP play area provision.

2020/2603 Change of Use of former Cross Engineering, Gorseinon rd to car wash,car sales,waiting room/valet area. Whilst there was no objection to the proposed use, There was strong objection to the means of access to the site with an additional vehicular access off Gorseinon road close to a very busy junction and busy access to retail outlets adjoining.

3 . Notification of Approvals by Local Planning Authority were NOTED.

2020/1505 Signage Unit C J47 Gorseinon rd Gorseinon . Approved 2nd Dec 2020. 2020/1840 Illuminated signage Unit 4 J47 Gorseinon rd Gorseinon . Approved 2nd Dec 2020 2020/1953 Discharge cond 4 ( engineering,drainage,lighting,highways, mine shafts of pp 2720 approved 3 Dec 2019) land at Tyrisha Farm,.

4. Notification of Refusals by Local Planning Authority; None reported 5. Notification of Appeals by Local Planning Authority; None reported 6. Enforcement matters. None raised.

APPENDIX A GORSEINON TOWN COUNCIL EXPENDITURE TRANSACTIONS FOR Dec 20-Jan 21

Name particulars Net VAT Total

Inland Revenue tax 481.00 NI 231.10 Stationary/Admin& Hall supplies (stamps108.00 /Hall supplies43.29) 145.75 5.54 151.29 monthly local mileage 79.95 mortgage/overpayment monthly ( reduced to 646.46 from December 2020) DD 646.46 Swansea council rates 17 west St Suite 1 SUSPENDED FROM APRIL 20 DD 146.00 Suite 2 SUSPENDED FROM APRIL 20 DD 94.00 Npower gas Ty Newydd (50%MP) . DD 66.00 EDF/BGas electric Ty Newydd (50%MP) DD 61.11 Welsh Water ( 50% MP) DD 135.11 Represented cheque Parc Y Werin committee grant Apr 2021 DD 150.00 Cleaners Nov/Dec 2020 DD 150.00 Lighthouse electrical – work for electricity certification on Ty Newydd 544 108.80 DD 652.80 Lighthouse electrical firealarm 3 year contract @£170 annually 510.00 Chubb alarm 150.38 30.08 DD 180.46 SLCC annual membership DD 185.00 Best lit xmas house comp x 2 200.00 Wales audit fee 2020 DD 326.19

GORSEINON TOWN COUNCIL BANK RECONCILIATION Dec 2020

Current account Dec 30 2020 £ 5082.00 Treasurers account Dec 30 £ 116262.00

Mortgage balance Dec 30 2020 £ 79919.00

MEETING ENDED AT 9.35pm Chairman......