Melverley Internal Drainage Board

R L R Jones FRICS FAAV New Windsor House SURVEYOR & CLERK Oxon Business Park Bicton Heath Shrewsbury SY3 5HJ

Our ref: RLRJ/JH/MIDB Tel: 01743 241181 Direct Line: 01743 239222 10 January 2013 Fax: 01743 242300

MINUTES OF MEETING HELD AT KINNERLEY VILLAGE HALL ON 9th JANUARY 2013 @ 7:30pm

Members Present:- J Cooke (Chairman) B Edwards W Jones R B Cambidge N Whittingham G Kynaston Councillor B Williams Councillor A Walpole R Jones (Clerk and Surveyor) S Roberts (arrived late)

Apologies:-

These were received from Councillor Mrs S Bruce

1. Appointment of Chairman

Following his decision not to stand for re-election in the October 2012 election the Chairman asked for nominations for a new Chairman. Mr Brian Edwards was proposed by R B Cambidge and seconded by N Whittingham. The Board unanimously supported this nomination. Nominations for the post of Vice Chairman were sought; Mr R B Cambidge proposed by Mr G Kynaston and seconded by Mr W Jones was nominated. There were no other candidates and the Board unanimously agreed to the appointment.

Mr John Cooke then presented to the new Chairman Mr Brian Edwards the Melverley Internal Drainage Board badge of office, Councillor A Walpole proposed that a vote of thanks be given to John Cooke for his excellent service to the Board undertaking the role of Chairman since 1981. Board members unanimously supported this. Mr Cooke thanked members for the support he had received from them. He felt that Board members had a strong common purpose in seeking to deal with the flooding issues that the Melverley Area suffers. He had enjoyed his work on the Board and was pleased he had been able to follow a long tradition of his family’s work on the Board.

The new Chairman Brian Edwards took the rest of the meeting.

2. Minutes from the Meeting Held 3rd October 2012

These were approved subject to minor amendment that R B Cambidge and R Brown were present at the meeting.

3. Matters Arising

Surveyor confirmed that A Moore, Turfmoor section had been cleaned by hand and that he was now satisfied. Surveyor confirmed section of Malhouse ditch alongside public road had been cleaned and said has resolved the issues for Pritchard of Stone House and Herbert Jones of The Hendre.

Unfortunately the work at Plas Cerrig for I Evans by Brian Bebb had not yet been undertaken, this had not been possible due to the extreme wet conditions experienced.

4. Correspondence

A. A. 12th October 2012 A document from ADA entitled vision for IDB’s. Copies of this will be sent to all members.

B. 24th October 2012 ADA information on Section 30 Flood and Water Management Act 2010 designation of features.

C. Natural Paths for Communities Grant Scheme

D. ADA October / November 2012 News Stream. (i) Strange weather – 2012 has been the wettest on record, more extreme weather is predicted, both floods and droughts. (ii) 75th ADA Conference has been held in London. (iii) Natural Resources to be without any non-executive floods director Dr Emyr Roberts was the new Chief Executive. Consultation was being undertaken on the future of IDB’s in Wales, they may be merged into the new NRW body but the decision is still awaited.

E. Standing Orders Approval. Following criticism from an audit office report of the Caldicot and Wentlooge board we were asked to ensure that the minister had given approval to board standing orders.

F. Bulletin received from E A Next Generation Suppliers.

G. E A crane driver death case, E A fined £220,000 for health and safety breaches.

H. Circuit 18 E A framework publication highlights the work of their principal contractors e.g. Atkins, Dean and Dyball.

I. County Council notification of Shropshire flood insurance and information workshop 24th January 2013 drop in session from 5:30 to 9:30 at Shirehall, Shrewsbury.

5. Complaints

Suckley has complained about the condition of the Weir Brook at the very top end close to the A5 adjacent to his field. Members explained that this had originally been a very wet field and had been drained several times to make an arable field: 2012 had been extraordinarily wet and it may be the watercourse is not to blame. Surveyor would inspect.

Steve Roberts reported that there was a problem over the sheep wash sluice gate arrangement where this runs off from the main Weir Brook. Surveyor will inspect.

6. Surveyors Report

Surveyor reported that all the maintenance work contracted to Ray Morris had been completed, work has been partially inspected, invoices for Maesbrook Isaf and Pwll have been paid but those for Turfmoor and Looking Glass were yet to be paid. There was some snagging work to be done on the Looking Glass but generally the work had been well done.

J Roberts had been instructed to complete the rest of the ditching work at Redwith but this had not been done.

Shropshire Wildlife Trust weed cutting. They had paid the board £7,554.00 as a contribution towards the cost of this. It had been hoped to undertake this during the Autumn 2012 but extreme wet weather and soft ground conditions followed by December flood prevented this. Dependant of the weather this may be done in January / February 2013 otherwise it will be left until July / August 2013. Shropshire Wildlife Trust were continuing to fund further fencing work against the Weir Brook scheme proposals for 2013 were: (i) Des Evans top end Weir Brook, (ii) Ian Mansell alongside the Acksea water course, (iii) Further work on the Weir Brook up stream of Brook House Lane (R Oakley, D Wigley), Cae Howell (R Lloyd) some bank erosion revetment work was also included here. Shropshire Wildlife Trust hopes to receive a further sum of money from the EA River Restoration Fund for further similar work in the year 2013 / 2014.

7. Clerks Report

Account Balances: Current Account £9,996.47 Tracker Account £57.47 Income since last meeting £15,765.46 Expenditure since last meeting £15,233.02 Arrears currently £11,301.29 As per schedules attached

Of these arrears there were three over £1,000 and eight over £300. If all these were paid the arrears would reduce to approximately £3,000. Cheshire Credit would be instructed 14th January for arrears not paid. Clerk confirmed Brian Bebb had been paid all outstanding monies due to him. There had been a delay in receipt for special levy from Shropshire Council, this matter has been chased up and it is hoped payment will be received shortly. 8. Planning Applications

12/04518/FUL Kinnerley Change of use from former staff accommodation and letting rooms to 2 bedroomed dwelling at Severn Way House, Pentre (formerly Grove Inn). There were no drainage issues.

12/04771/FUL Acksea Cottage affordable dwelling proposed, this lies on land just inside the board boundary on a greenfield site, again there were no drainage issues.

12/04694/FUL Osbaston Farm erection of 6 bay general purpose fodder and machinery store. No drainage issues, permission has been granted.

12/05048/FUL Mount View, Melverley conversion of agricultural building to form 1 residential property with extension to side. This is an existing brick / asbestos former dairy adjacent to the road, quite separate from the house, the site itself does not flood lying on the highest ground of Bontain however all access roads to the area can be cut in a flood. Board members had no strong feelings over this application as it was an existing structure.

14/0562 Bromwich Park, Maesbury Marsh conversion of traditional farm buildings to holiday let accommodation with provision of new sewage treatment plant. The buildings are just outside of the board area except the sewage plant is likely to lie in our area. No drainage issues.

9. EA Liaison Meeting, Kidderminster, 1st November 2012, Chairman John Cooke & Clerk attended. This was the first meeting Chaired by the new RFCC Chair Anne Wheeler an academic from Aston University who lives near Shrewsbury. Foreign water grant and EA precept were confirmed to be unchanged from 2012 / 2013.

10. Severn Tributaries Flood Forum 13th December 2012 Melverley Village Hall. Clerk had attended along with some other board members, this had been a useful meeting. Shropshire Council produced a pamphlet for use by local residents with levels from the various river gauges explaining what the levels mean in reality i.e. which roads flood at what height.

11. Website Clerk confirmed this is now up and running and is found at melverleyidb.org.uk. Meetings will be advertised, minutes will be posted and members contact telephone numbers provided. Our constitution, standing orders, together with an explanation of board work will also be posted.

12. Election Following the October election we only have some 7 elected members plus 3 Council appointed members. We therefore have 3 vacancies for the board, it was suggested that board members consider names of rate payers that might be approached to be co-opted onto the board. R B Cambidge asked how the boards quorum for meetings was set, was this a minimum number of members or was it a percentage of the actually membership? Clerk would investigate.

13. Budget for 2013 / 2014 Budgets for 2013 / 2014 were put before members based (1) on 13.5p rate and (2) on 14p rate. N Whittingham reminded members that at the 2012 rate setting meeting whilst a 0.5p increase in the rate had been agreed it had been felt that a 1p increase should be sought and spread over two years.

On a motion proposed by N Whittingham and seconded by G Kynaston the Board approved a rate of 14p / £ for financial year 2013 / 2014. It was also confirmed that a special levy to be served on Shropshire Council would therefore be £5,144.

14. Approval of Board Standing Orders This was referred to earlier, Rules covering regulations as to proceedings, committees or sub committees, standing orders, order of debate, common seal, suspension of standing orders and statutory provisions regarding the proceedings of an I.D.B were approved unanimously by the Board.

15. Any Other Business

John Cooke requested that a letter for appreciation of the service of R Brown be sent to him following his decision not to stand for re-election at the recent election.

Reference was made to the recent death of Mr Albert Bebb a long standing rate payer and drainage contractor used by the board for many years. The clerk confirmed that he had personally seen Mr Brian Bebb to convey the board’s condolences.

16. Date of Next Meeting

This was set for Wednesday 17th April at 7:30pm in Kinnerley Village Hall.

There being no further business the Chairman closed the meeting at 9pm.

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