LONGNEY AND EPNEY PARISH COUNCIL MINUTES OF THE PARISH COUNCIL MEETING HELD ON MONDAY 12th November 2018 A meeting of LONGNEY AND EPNEY PARISH COUNCIL was held on Monday 12th November 2018 at Longney Primary Academy PRESENT: Cllr. Godwin (RG) Cllr. Harvie (JH) Cllr. Wingrove (GW) Cllr. Everett (LE) Cllr. Russel (AR) District Cllr Gill Oxley (GO) District Cllr Dave Mossman (DM) Clerk Nikki Leach (NL) 8 residents 1. APOLOGIES: Cllr. Stephen Davies Kevin Lee Rachel Addinall David Scriven Angela Scriven Hena Rahman 2. DECLARATION OF INTEREST IN ANY MATTER ON THE AGENDA: Cllr. Harvie stated that the solar farm development will be at the bottom of his drive and therefore he declared an interest. 3. MINUTES OF THE SEPTEMBER MEETING: The minutes were agreed and signed as a true record of the meeting. 4. MATTERS ARISING: The request for funding from Cllr. Davies has been submitted 5. POLICE REPORT: PCSO Addinall provided the following update by email: I did research on incidents from the last meeting until last Fridays date and compared it to last year. There were no crimes reported last year but there were 2 this year. These were an isolated incident and obviously due to data protection I cannot give you the full details but can confirm that they are not crimes that affect the general public like car crime or burglaries. On that note unfortunately burglaries are on the increase across the whole of the Gloucestershire constabulary but Gloucester south have not been affected by this crime compared to other areas. However, our normal crime prevention advise still stands. Now the clocks have changed and it gets darker at night earlier we remind everyone to get timer switches so lights are on in the house if you know you are going to get back late. We sell timer switches and TV similators at the station. As it is getting nearer to Christmas please refrain from displaying Christmas presents under the tree. Also when you are Christmas shopping please try and prevent from storing Christmas presents in your car. When you have unwrapped all of your presents please try and take boxes of new gadgets to the recycling centre so burglars cannot find out from your recycling Draft minutes to be finalized at the meeting on 14th January 2019 boxes what you've just had for Christmas. We don't wish to put a doom and gloom over Christmas but just wanted to give you a few handy tips to keep you safe over the Christmas period. Action: None 6. PLANNING: One new application has been received since the last parish council meeting: Doris Cottage, Epney – conversion of part of garage to holiday let. Doris cottage is a listed building and it likely that the historical officer will deal with this more accurately. The degree of harm will need to be considered in terms of increased traffic to the area. The consideration of whether this will ultimately be converted into permanent accommodation must also be considered. The response is required by the 15th of this month. The application was discussed and it was agreed that the planning officers will take the required steps to meet the listed building requirements. It was agreed that the application will be supported. Cllr. Wingrove to draft comments and circulate them for review. Updates since last meeting: Land adjacent to Peglass Cottage, Longney. – Decided, planning approved. There were a number of conditions applied to the application. Solar Farm: Covered under separate agenda item It was discussed at the last meeting that a meeting with John Longmuire regarding planning transgressions will not be needed, however a letter outlining the position of the parish council will be drafted and sent. Cllr Mossman advised that the planning department are currently very stretched. Action: Cllr. Wingrove to draft comments on the application for Daisy Cottage and circulate for review. 8. CORRESPONDENCE: School playing field – the decision has been made to let the school roll and slit the maze, clerk to communicate this to the school. The school have also had an issue with dog fouling on the maze. This was discussed again. Signs are a possibility but the council do not support the idea of a bin as this needs emptying and can often get left which causes more mess and litter. It seems that professional dog walkers are taking their dogs to the maze and using it to exercise dogs at the weekend. There are bags thrown in the hedge along the footpath where people are disposing of their waste. A number of local dog walkers have been noted including Al’s dog walking and the Gloucester Spaniel Group (up to 30 dogs). They also use the church field as an exercise area. It was suggested that this could be taken back to the dog warden for consideration. If it is a regular occurrence at the weekend we could ask the neighbourhood warden for support. Al’s dog walking walks on a Wednesday at the other end of the village but has been known to block gateways and has been intimidating to residents. It was suggested that people could keep a record of the times and days when this takes place so that we have a record to take to the dog warden. Several years ago a number of signs were placed around the village and it was suggested that we could do that again. This may deter people. Residents were advised that people should not be approached and challenged in case the situation becomes unpleasant or aggressive. School car park – Cllr. Godwin commented that last time he offered to complete the work on the car park someone else did the work instead and so it was not clear if they are taking the role on. One of the school parents offered to provide the plainings if required. Last time the council were doing some works in the village and as a goodwill gesture offered to fill some of the holes. Cllr. Godwin will put some plainings down this week. Draft minutes to be finalized at the meeting on 14th January 2019 Action: Clerk to respond to the school 8. COUNTY COUNCILLOR’S REPORT: Cllr. Davies sent the following update by email: Ofsted have recently visited Gloucestershire’s Children Care Services and have reported that the service has turned a corner and that they are now seeing an increased pace of improvement. Sadly they still found cases where the response had not been adequate. Gloucestershire County Council have appointed a new Chief Fire Officer, Wayne Bowcock. He joins from Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue. Action: None 9. DISTRICT COUNCILLOR’S REPORT: Cllr. Mossman informed the council that he has been advised by Geraldine Le Cointe, Planning Manager, that officers are inclined to reject the solar farm application under officer delegated powers. He has asked if the parish council would still like for the application to go to DCC. Following a discussion the Councillors agreed to accept that the case officer make the final decision. Elgin had apparently declined to reduce the size of the scheme. The Councillors agreed that it would have been a positive step if Elgin had agreed to reduce the scheme in size as the Council had requested. A parishioner asked if the applicant can appeal. It was advised that they can. Cllr. Mossman advised that it would be unlikely to get through an appeal. Cllr. Oxley provided an update on community services. SDC has some loan equipment. The equipment is aimed at older people, community groups and is available at a deposit of £20 for up to 8 weeks. SDC have set up a focus group to look at housing for older people. They are doing a survey of older people to ask what their requirements are in terms of housing. The monitoring is now totally active on the incinerator. The first report has come off them and is well within parameters. 10: GOVERNANCE REVIEW No updates 11. VILLAGE PLAN: Garden Group/Equipment: We have had one enquiry about the shredder. Website: No new updates Newsletter: No new updates Action: None 12. HIGHWAY MAINTENANCE: Severn Trent are unable to find the source of water leaking on the hill near Patrills House. They do not think that it is their water. Action: None 13: FOOTPATHS: Draft minutes to be finalized at the meeting on 14th January 2019 Cllr. Harvie has followed up on the Lapperditch footpath. The plan to extinguish the footpath is not going to be progressed. They are working on another option. Cllr. Harvie has another contact there that he can progress the conversation with. Action: None 14: SEVERN VOICE The last meeting was well attended. The development planner from Gigaclear gave an update on the progress and said how well they were doing. The green boxes in the village are publically funded. There are Openreach ones and Gigaclear ones and both will be kept. Longney and Epney are hosting the next Severn Voice meeting in Spring. The Environment Agency is looking to engage with communities and may attend the next Severn Voice meeting. Martin Surl has a fund to fund 50% of ANPR schemes. They are hugely successful at slowing people down. There are units available at around £10,000 each, however this could be funded by 50%. We have had a generous offer from within the village to get one of these funded or part funded. This will be an agenda item for the next parish council meeting. They are moveable, but they need securing correctly. Action: Agenda item to be added for next meeting – speeding. 15. FIBRE OPTIC BROADBAND The Chairman reported that the Gigaclear representative at the recent Severn Voice Meeting had briefed that the completion date had been brought forward to December 18; the previous completion date was December 19.