MAGHERAFELT DISTRICT COUNCIL Minutes of Proceedings of a Meeting of Magherafelt District Council held in the Council Chamber, 50 Ballyronan Road, Magherafelt on Tuesday, 09 February 2010. The meeting commenced at 7.30 pm. Presiding: P McLean Other Members Present: P J Bateson J Campbell T J Catherwood J Crawford Mrs E A Forde P E Groogan O T Hughes J F Kerr Miss K A Lagan Mrs K A McEldowney I P Milne Miss B Scullion Apologies: J J McPeake Rev Dr R T Wm McCrea G C Shiels Officers Present: J A McLaughlin (Chief Executive) J J Tohill (Director of Finance and Administration) W J Glendinning (Director of Building Control) A Cassells (Director of Operations) M Young (Director of Environmental Health) Mrs Anne-Marie Campbell (Head of Policy/Implementation) A Boyle (Deputising for Chief Executive’s Secretary) Representatives from Other Bodies in Attendance Northern Ireland Electoral Office: Ms Rae Kirk Ms Mandy Hassan DoE Planning Service: Mrs Sandra Adams – Planning Officer 1 Minutes 1.1 Minutes of Meeting of the Council held on Tuesday, 12 January 2009 1.1.1 It was Proposed by Councillor J F Kerr Seconded by Councillor P J Bateson, and Resolved: that the Minutes of the Council Meeting held on Tuesday, 12 January 2010 (copy previously circulated to each Member) be taken as read and signed as correct. 1.2 Minutes of Special Meeting of the Council held on Tuesday, 19 January 2010 Councillor Mrs A E Forde stated that she had requested an apology on behalf of Councillor J Crawford, but the attendance of the Minute did not have Councillor Crawford’s apology recorded. 1.2.1. It was Proposed by Councillor T J Catherwood Seconded by Councillor J F Kerr, and Resolved: that the Minutes of the Special Meeting held on Tuesday, 19 January 2010 subject to the above amendment be taken as read and signed as correct (copy previously circulated to each Member). 2 Matters Arising Out of the Minutes 2.1 Submitted letter of thanks from Home Start for the Council’s donation towards their Christmas Appeal. 2.2 Submitted letter of thanks from Race Against Multiple Sclerosis for the Council’s donation of £200. 2.3 Submitted letter of reply from the Department of Regional Development in connection with the Chief Executive’s letter to Conor Murphy MP, MLA requesting an urgent review of legislation relating to the clearance of snow and salting of footpaths. 2.4 The Chief Executive reported that the reply consisted of three pages with only a couple of significant paragraphs. The letter stated that “in consultation with NILGA, Roads Service had drawn up a draft legal agreement and that one of the key elements of this agreement was that councils would indemnify the Roads Service against all losses and claims, which were not the responsibility of the Department”. The letter continued by saying that “this was mainly in relation to public or employers’ liability claims arising from negligence and/or breaches of health and safety by councils. That apart, Roads Service would continue to accept responsibility for other losses and claims arising from the duty on the Department under the Roads (NI) Order 1993”. 2.5 The letter also intimated that “The Minister was aware that during the recent prolonged cold spell many councils had voiced concern about the problems caused by ice and snow on town centre footways and pedestrian areas. As a result, he had asked the Chief Executive of Roads Service to revisit these proposed partnering arrangements with councils. In conclusion the letter stated “it was unlikely that an agreement would be in place before next winter”. 2.6 A short discussion took place on the letter of reply where some Councillors stated that more clarity was required on what liability entailed. The Chief Executive was of the opinion that it would be impossible to write a waterproof public liability indemnity claim like the Department wanted which would cover all eventualities. Councillors also said that there were a small number of councils who had signed up and wondered what way it was working for them. It was stated that Belfast City Council were one of the councils but they had assumed the insurance risk as part of their self insurance policy. 2.7 The Chief Executive was asked to get legal opinion on what the implications were for the Council of the two paragraphs highlighted in the letter of reply from the Department of Regional Development. 3 Good Wishes 3.1 Councillor J F Kerr informed Members that the Chairman, Councillor JJ McPeake had recently been in hospital and asked that a basket of fruit and a message of good wishes be sent to him. All Members agreed. 4 Suspension of Standing Orders 4.1 Councillor Miss K A Lagan requested that Standing Orders be suspended in order to bring forward an emergency motion regarding the cost incurred for the testing of soak aways from septic tanks It was Proposed by Councillor O. T Hughes Seconded by Councillor J Campbell, and Resolved: that the Council suspend Standing Orders 5. Emergency Resolution 5.1 Councillor Miss K A Lagan proposed that the Council adopt the following resolution: “That this Council expresses concern at the lack of consultation prior to designating Magherafelt District as a pilot area for testing soak aways from septic tanks incurring a cost of £110 per household” 5.2 Councillor Miss K A Lagan in support of her Motion explained that some of the constituents in the electoral area which she represented had received letters in November 2009 from the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) stating that, although all effluent discharges which were not connected to the public sewer required the consent of the Department under the Water (NI) Order 1999, the Department had no record of a consent to discharge effluent for the properties in question. The letters also enclosed an application form for a consent to discharge and instructed the recipients of the letters to complete and submit the form to the Department together with a fee of £110. Subsequently in January 2010, the constituents received a further letter from the NIEA which advised the owner/occupier of the properties in question to make the application for consent to discharge within 28 days to prevent the Department initiating the issue of a formal notice under the Water Order which could result in a criminal conviction punishable by imprisonment and/or a fine not exceeding £20,000. 5.3 Councillor Lagan expressed her concern at how NIEA was handling the issue and asked that the Council seek an urgent meeting with Mr Gareth Parke, Water Quality Inspector with the Northern Ireland Environment Agency to discuss the issue and, in addition, request that NIEA take no further action in relation to this matter until after the meeting had taken place. 5.4 Discussion took place and some other Councillors said that they had been approached about the same problem and all were in agreement that the Council should express its outrage at how the matter was being handled, especially in the light of the NIEA’s previous apparent failure to address discharge issues at the pumping station at Maghera. Following discussion, it was Proposed by Councillor Miss K A Lagan Seconded by Councillor J Crawford, and Resolved: that the Council write to Mr Gareth Parke, the Water Quality Inspector with the Northern Ireland Environment Agency requesting an urgent meeting with a delegation of Council Members (one from each party grouping) to discuss this matter and also request that the Department take no further action in relation to this matter until after this meeting had taken place. 6 Resumption under Standing Orders It was Proposed by Councillor J F Kerr Seconded by Councillor I P Milne, and Resolved: that the Council resume under Standing Orders. 7 Electoral Office Presentation 7.1 The Vice Chairman, Councillor Paul McLean welcomed Ms Rae Kirk, Area Electoral Officer and Ms Mandy Hassan, Assistant Electoral Officer to the Meeting and asked them to proceed with their Presentation. 7.2 Ms Kirk thanked the Council for the opportunity to present their Presentation and explained that she would deliver the presentation before taking questions and comments from Members at the end. 7.3 Ms Kirk gave a brief outline of the upcoming electoral process and explained the process of continuous registration and the benefits of being registered. She also outlined the ID Documents which were acceptable to the Electoral Office and indicated that the Electoral Office could supply voters with an Electoral Identity Card. She said that Electoral ID Cards were free of charge, widely recognised for travel purposes, and were acceptable for proof of age as well as being an acceptable means of identification on Polling Day. She also explained the process for registering absent votes and confirmed that as the next anticipated election was a “General Election” votes would be cast by marking an “X” on the voting slip as opposed to marking “1, 2, 3, etc.”. 7.4 Members took the opportunity to ask questions and to clear up any queries that they had. 7.5 The Vice-Chairman thanked the Representatives from the Electoral Office for their informative presentation. The Electoral Office representatives retired from the meeting at 8.05p.m. 8 Building Control Department 210/02/2010 The Director of Building Control presented the Department’s reports for the period 1 January to 31 January 2010 (copy previously circulated to each Member). 8.1 During this period forty-three applications had been recommended for approval and one hundred and seventy-nine applications required amending by Architects and Agents before granting approval.