Fittleworth Parish Council
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Fittleworth Parish Council DRAFT Minutes of the Parish Council Meeting held On 16th October 2017 at 7.00pm in the Pavilion Building. Present: Chris Welfare (CW) Chair, Mike Allin (MA), David Brittain (DB), Alison Welterveden (AW), Shelagh Morgan (SM), Mick Foote (MF), Robin Dunstan (RD) and Tony Broughton (TB) In attendance: Janet Duncton (JD) for item 3 and Louise Collis (Clerk) Members of public: David Gilders, Maria Gilders, Lucia Dean Taylor, Adrian Webb, Mike Waller Action by 1. Apologies for absence: Chris O’Callaghan (CO) 2. Minutes of the last meeting and matters arising The minutes of the previous meeting held on 18th September 2017 were approved as a correct record and signed by CW. DB was thanked for preparing the minutes. The Minutes were PROPOSED by AW and SECONDED by MF. 3. District / County Councillor reports i) Community Green Offer (CGO) WSCC have announced a Community Green Offer (CGO) Pilot Project which began on 16th October across the Chichester District. The CGO has been developed with the aim of assisting the City, Town and Parish Councils and Community Groups to volunteer to undertake a range of work to help maintain the highway including cutting and clearance. The closest “tool library” is the Fire Station in Midhurst. The CGO includes: • access to training • the loan of tools and other equipment • insurance cover (subject to certain conditions) • support from the area highways teams The CGO can assist communities with tasks you may already have in mind or may help progress altogether new ideas. It also provides an opportunity to undertake street scene maintenance and improvement work that may have been delivered by the former Community Support Team or Highway Rangers. The pilot will last for a period of 6 months. ii) Operation Watershed There is still funding available. The Fittleworth Parish Council Operation MF Watershed application relating to School Lane drains was signed by JD and will now be submitted to Sue Furlong at WSCC by MF. MA reported that Landbuild have set aside a slot in late November to do the work if the application is successful. iii) Children in Care new scheme A new scheme to try and educate the people who look after the children at the first point of call when a child is taken into care. One social worker will have 6 Fittleworth Parish Council - Draft Minutes – Parish Council meeting 161017 Page 1 of 7 Publication date: 14th November 2017 clients. A child in care costs WSCC approximately £40,000 per annum. It is hoped there will be long term savings with the new scheme. iv) West Sussex highway contract has been put out to four contractors and the new contract is now st expected to be in place by 1 July 2018. v) New WSCC Contact Centre in Bognor is up and running with the online web chat. vi) Fittleworth Village Shop – CDC grant application update AW requested an update regard to the Fittleworth village shop grant application to Chichester District Council. JD reported that there are 27 applicants and the grants are awarded based on a scoring system. The grant applications are currently with the Cabinet Member for Finance. vii) 30mph road markings MF reported that the 30mph red road markings at the entry points at Trip Hill and coming into the village from Pulborough are very faded. This was reported a year ago JD and not action to date. JD to ask the Highways Officer. viii) Leaf clearing machine request – A parishioner has requested that leaves be cleared outside JD Maddisons. JD to look into this. 4. Public Questions i) Mr David Gilders – Planning application SDNP/17/01554 Mr Gilders voiced his concern about the refusal of his planning application for Land @ Withies Cottage, School Lane. Both he and his wife felt that their application was reasonable development of the plot (approx. 17% of the plot). They felt that the Parish Council had influenced neighbours who were not planning to object and then changed their minds to later submit an objection. They also felt that the Parish Council comments mirrored the comments submitted by neighbours and feel there was collusion by neighbours and the Parish Council. It was pointed out by MA and SM that the issues of the mulberry tree and the highways access point were not the only reasons that SDNP Authority turned down the planning application. The reason for the application being rejected was that the proposed work was not suitable in a conservation area. Mr Gilders asked how the planning committee made their decision. CW explained that the planning committee meet. At least 2 committee members go on a site visit. Next the planning committee discuss the planning application, then the proposed comments are passed in front of all the Parish councillors before the Parish Council comments are submitted. It is not under the control of the Parish Council if the case officer, in this case, Jenny Shaw, does not carry out site visit herself. MF suggested that Mr & Mrs Gilders request a planning officer to meet on site to explain why the application was rejected before pursuing the matter any further. 5. Declaration by Council members of personal or prejudicial interest There were none. 6. Update on on-going matters not covered elsewhere i) Meetings a) 20th September All Parishes Meeting at Chichester SM attended. The item of interest was that Planning Enforcement will be setting out priorities based on Conservations areas and listed trees. b) SSALC Chairs’ Networking Day 28th September. CW was not booked onto the course so did not attend c) 4th October WSALC AGM. DB attended and reported the following:- Our participation at the WSALC AGM was appreciated as, with a quorum of 25 councils required, there were just 29 represented. 1. There was a presentation by AIRS to remind attendees of their existence and usefulness e.g. For rural housing projects by CLTs e.g. For coops and selfbuild 2. Matt Davey of West Sussex CC spoke on various aspects e.g Fittleworth Parish Council - Draft Minutes – Parish Council meeting 161017 Page 2 of 7 Publication date: 14th November 2017 3. The County Council Budget with increasing demands e.g. in respect of social care after cuts in central government funding. The new budget is likely to be settled in February although they had hoped to do it before Christmas. In the past undeliverable promises had been made eg on highways but he, in his new job, was trying to tell it to people straight. The reactive works budget had been cut from £14 million to £7 million. 4. On the A27 the role of WSCC was as a consultee for Highways England, but to my mind progress on the Worthing and Arundel proposals is important because of the knock on effects on the A283. On the Chichester A27 the money has of course been moved back to 2020-25, because of the lack of local agreement. 5. Operation Watershed. At present this is not seen as a long term fixture but merely a short term fix by WSCC as the Environment Agency were not responding 6. Green Offer- this as not seen to be about funding , but a facilitating process e.g. Volunteers on Rights of Way, bus shelters, new classrooms, bridges for rights of way, etc. There were pilot schemes for equipment, training and support with two tool stores to be set up at Selsey and Midhurst in response to local demands. Power tools may involve training but it was thought standard council insurance policies will expect some such activities in public areas. Overall there was expected to be better information e.g. on future works. West Sussex Highways and Brinsbury College can support and offer training courses. On disposal licences for cuttings etc there was a pro forma licence accessible on line, if "charitable". To be investigated if necessary before work takes place. 7. Andy Taylor, a strategic planner for Sussex and Surrey Police, gave a presentation including regretting the lack of provision of infrastructure for police in new developments 8. Paul Richards, Town Clerk of Shipley gave a presentation on Parish Online with a view to Clerks in the Chichester District being given training in November. This might be particularly useful for asset registers and planned maintenance, planning information e.g. On TPOs. And Listed Buildings, litter hotspots so that sources of littering can be involved in sorting it out and preventing it, information on land ownership in conjunction with the Land Registry, Ordnance Survey, EA, West Sussex Highways, census information etc 9. Chief Constable Giles York also gave a presentation in the light of the £26 million savings required over 3 years. The presentation headlines were expected to be made available on line. 10. Data Protection. If not a small council, all Councillor email accounts e.g. iPads, and mobile phones can be accessed and it is suggested that new and indeed old councillors start with a specific dedicated email address only for council business. Point 10 above – Data Protection – It was AGREED that the clerk will look into domain names and CLERK specific email addresses for parish councilors. d) 4th October. SDNPA Workshop Midhurst 6.30-9.30pm. No one attended th e) 9 October West Sussex Cycle Summit Horsham – AW attended. There is a drive for mental and physical health and cycling is being pushed at a Government level for local councils to look at flow of traffic to/from schools, shops etc and to try and establish a plan for shared routes. AW suggested that a long term goal could be looking at how to connect to Pulborough and the train station.