Foxton Parish Council
1
FOXTON PARISH COUNCIL
Minutes of the Meeting held on Monday 3rd April2017
These are draft minutes and have not yet been agreed by the Parish Council.
Present – Ron McCreery, Simon Buggey, Peter Sutton, Colin Grindley,Jane Trevanion, Christine Eckersand Liam Elliott. CountyCouncillor Susan van de Venand District Councillor Deborah Roberts were in attendance. There were five members of the public present.
1Apologies for absence –Malcolm Bore
2Members Declarations of Interest for items on the Agenda – None.
3To approve and sign the minutes of the Meeting of 6thMarch 2017–ProposedJane Trevanion, seconded Peter Sutton. Agreed nem con.
4Matters arising from these minutes – Colin Grindley said the Conservation Area report should say a ‘Public Statutory Consultation’ will be carried out by SCDCafter the May meeting, not a ‘Public Consultation’.
5Co-option of a Parish Councillor – The vacancy for a new Parish Councillor has been put on the website and noticeboard, asking for interested candidates to come forward by 14th April. The Standing Orders will be updated with the agreed procedure and followed for future co-options. The Draft Procedure was read out by Ron McCreery, having previously been circulated. Proposed Ron McCreery, seconded Christine Eckers. Agreed nem con.
The Procedure for Co-option will go on the website in Standing Orders. Action LE
6Infrastructure Report by Ron McCreery
Rail User Group
Peter Sutton attended the Rail User Group meeting on 14th March.
Salt Bin
Jane Hampshire has donated a salt bin and a supply of road salt. David has installed the bin at the entrance to Chalk Hill.
No. 26 Bus
Ron McCreery has heard nothing further on the 26 bus service. It looks likely that the suggested hourly service to Trumpington Park & Ride will be implemented.
Defibrillator
As agreed a key to the Recreation Ground has been placed in the locked defibrillator box. The dangers of leaving the Recreation Ground gate unlocked have been highlighted by the experience of Cherry Hinton where, while a new pavilion was being built, gypsies have moved on to their recreation ground.
7Committee and Working Party Reports:
a) Recreation and Amenities (including MAYD) by Jane Trevanion
Twinning Group –Four representatives from the Parish Council in Montigny, including the Deputy Mayor, came to the Reception on March 17th. They were presented with a new sign to hang in their Village Hall. There will be a meeting of the Twinning Committee later on in the week.
Tree Maintenance –Three saplings have now been planted; two horse-chestnuts in the Recreation Ground and a Sandringham Oak in Foxton Woods.
A good job has been done of mowing the Recreation Ground. Ron McCreeryis to get in touch with the grass cutters to do the first cut of the village. Action RM
MAYD
Christine Eckers said the next MAYD meeting will be held in two weeks’ time.
b) Finance Report by Peter Sutton (see appendices attached)
To Sign Section 106 payment forms (Chalk Hill)The Section 106 forms for the Hill Farm Development on Fowlmere Road were signed and witnessed. A total of £37,894 in S106 monies will be contributed towardsOpen Space and Community Facilities in the village within the next 10 years.
To Approve the Annual Governance Statement and Annual Accounts 2016/17The Annual Governance Statement was read by Peter Sutton and the Accounts were signed off, ready to go to the internal auditor, Mike Matthews. The Fixed Asset register was adjusted to take into account the removal of the youth shelter.
Proposed Peter Sutton, seconded Simon Buggey. All agreed.
Peter Sutton is to again query the unsatisfactory Npower bill and look into alternative suppliers. Action PS
The cheques were approved for payment. It was agreed to transfer £1060.00 from the Deposit Account to the Current Account. Proposed Peter Sutton, seconded Ron McCreery. All agreed.
Pay Scales for Clerks 2017 –TheNationally agreed NALC pay scales for the sector were acceptedat level 29 for the financial year 2017 - 2018. Proposed Ron McCreery, seconded Peter Sutton. All agreed.
c) Neighbourhood Planning by Ron McCreery
A meeting of the Working Party to discuss the results of the questionnaires will take place on April 11th. From this the Working Party will confirm or develop the Vision Statement and theme based objectives.
The Working Party had a meeting on 13th March attended by Rachel Hogger, a planning consultant from Cambridgeshire ACRE. The availability of grants was discussed in particular for landscape character assessment, site assessment criteria and probably a housing needs assessment.
A community led landscape character assessment with input from consultant Alison Farmer is provisionally scheduled for Saturday 8th July. This will involve morning training followed by field work on the character assessment.
The next and final meeting at SCDC about the package they will offer Parishes to help with preparation of Neighbourhood plans will be held on 26th April.
Conservation Area by Colin Grindley
A meeting was held with SCDC Officers last month, and another one is scheduled for tomorrow. Last month there were delays at the Planning Department, who are inundated with work, and the documentation hadn’t arrived as expected. Hopefully, the graphics will be available tomorrow. There has been a big increase in the size of the Conservation Area so new base maps are being produced. Ron McCreery said he would not want to cancel the Public Exhibition scheduled for 2nd May.
8Planning –reported byLiam Elliott(see appendices attached)
There were three planning meetings held over the last month.
Malcolm Bore has written to Deborah Roberts regarding the land buying process at Station Road, but she has not yet received a reply from the Director, Stephen Hills. The access land is under SCDC’s ownership. Stephen Hillswill be chased upto discuss rights of access, to try to stop further development. Action DR/MB
It was suggested contacting Philip Kratz again to ask his advice about disposing of public land. Should it be put up for Open Tender? Action RM
Ron McCreery and Malcolm Bore are to have a meeting with Mr Conrad at Cambridgeshire County Council to ask what’s happening with the old school site, which currently has a Covenant in place. Susan van de Ven was asked if she wanted to attend and will be copied into the arrangements. Foxton PC would like to consider the possibility of obtaining more Recreation Ground space. Action RM/MB
9 County Councillor’s Reportby Susan van de Ven (see appendices attached)
10District Councillor’s reportby Deborah Roberts
Deborah Robertssaid that the Planning Department at SCDC was very stressful at the moment, as they are seeing streams of speculative applications coming in for housing, including on green belt land and in conservation areas. There is much conflict with the Planning Committee officers, who are allowing far too much development in villages where there is a lack of associated infrastructure, due to the lack of a Local Plan. She said green belt housing should only be granted in exceptional circumstances.
11Police Liaison Report by Simon Buggey–There was no crime to report. Simon Buggey attended an informative and useful Police Commissioner’s event on 18th March, where Speedwatch, Neighbourhood Watch, Scams, Fire Safety and Fire Prevention was discussed. South Cambridgeshire remains a very safe place to live.
12Recreation Ground Trust reportby Peter Sutton–It was agreed to ask Darren Steed, who looks after the gardening around the Village Hall, to re-quote for the next two years. Action PS
13Correspondence – An email was received from a resident asking for a cherry tree to be pruned back on the green. Quotes are to be obtained. Action JT
14Open Forum for Public Participation – The PC was thanked locking the padlock on the gate to the Play Area.
There was huge frustration that the independent inspectorate in charge of the Local Plan is taking so long. Many houses are granted planning permission but not being built, in the hope that the land will go up in price.
The church has been advised that the Police have arrested the gang who have been stripping lead from church roofs.
15 Any Other Business–Liam Elliott said there have been problems with the mapping arrangements on the website and not to pay the web services bill if it arrives. We have already paid for the domain name.
16 Date and time of future Meetings
Monday 24th April 2017 at 7.30pm Annual Parish Meeting (Village Hall)
Tuesday 9th May at 7.45pm Parish Council Annual Meeting (Pavilion)
The meeting closed at 9.15 pm.
Frances Laville
Foxton Parish Clerk
12/04/2017
Foxton Parish Council Appendices:
Foxton Parish Council April 2017, County Councillor Report by Susan van de Ven
Speculative planning applications: More large applications are appearing – the latest in Melbourn, adjacent to the Science Park, for 160 houses. This particular applicant suggested that if the school and surgery were full, they could provide new facilities – though might need to increase the number of houses proposed to make the numbers work.
A10 Cycle Path: Maintenance work by AstraZeneca is now happening. The next meeting of the A10 Corridor Cycling Campaign will take place on 18 April, 7 for 7:30, at Sartorius Stedim in Royston where we will be focusing on the Melbourn-Royston connection. Over the past ten days, upward of 100 volunteers have been helping to seed a wildflower seed mix along the verge of the new path connecting Shepreth and Melbourn.
Community Rail Partnership and Rail User Group: We have a new Duke of Edinburgh volunteer to help with the station garden this spring and summer. The next meeting of the Rail User Group will be 13 June at Foxton Village Hall. Unfortunately Network Rail has withdrawn its plan to extend the platform at Meldreth, which is concerning when footfall is increasing rapidly and capacity will become an issue.
FOXTON PARISH COUNCILFINANCE REPORT – 3 April 2017 / £ / £
BARCLAYS BANK – BALANCES
DEPOSIT ACCOUNT - 10359939
At 6 March 2017 / 18,225.63
Less; Transfer to Current Account / 2,390.00
Add: Interest credited / 0.00
15,835.63
CURRENT ACCOUNT – 70374067
At 6 March 2017 / 43.63
Add: Transfer from Deposit Account
Add; S106 / 2,390.00
23,681.83
Less : Cheques paid 6 February
Less; S 106-Transfer to Base Rate / 2,389.31
23,681.83 / 44.32
10 DAY NOTICE ACCOUNT– 63795578
At 6 March 2017 / 23,628.96
Add: Interest / 0.00 / 23,628.96
BASE RATE REWARD ACCOUNT - 23390160
At 6 March 2017 / 62,691.79
Add S106 / 23,681.83
Add: Interest credited 1 April / 17.58 / 86,391.20
CHEQUES REQUIRED
At 3 April 2017
Cambridgeshire Acre VAT 6.00 / 36.00
Foxton Village Hall – Hire of Hall / 16.20
HMRC / 25.08
David Salmons – Warden Duties / 152.00
Frances Laville – Salary 31.50 hours @13.35 Inc. back pay for April-349.5 @ 0.91p / 759.42
Frances Laville-Expenses - Computer, Travel, Stamps / 71.54
Total / 1,060.24
Transfer £1,060.00 from Deposit leaving £44.08 in Current
Minutes of a meeting of the Planning Committee of Foxton Parish Council
on 9th March 2017 2017 at 6:30pm in the Parish Council Office.
Present: Malcolm Bore (chair), Simon Buggey, Liam Elliott.
Apologies: None.
Two members of the public (Mr Roger Frost and Mrs Rosie Frost) were present.
Declarations of interest
None.
Application S/0326/17/FL – Orchard House, Barrington Road, Foxton (Zettlex UK Ltd).
This application is for a change of use from residential to business with ancillary residential use. The committee noted that the external changes to the building would be minimal, and in any case the site is almost entirely surrounded by trees. The changes may even result in additional employment in the village.
The Parish Council recommend approval, but would like to draw notice to the part of the application which claims that there will be no changes to refuse collection (planning statement, section 4.05). An increase in the amount of waste is highly likely, given the number of employees on site, and the fact that it will be business waste and not residential waste.
Correspondence
None.
AOB
Thriplow Farms grain store:
Mr Bore had written to SCDC regarding the proposed grain store, mentioning the Parish Council’s concerns about extra traffic and the intrusion to the countryside. By way of reply, he had been sent a copy of the pre-application advice given to David Walston. This gave three possible sites for the grain store, and stated that the Fowlmere Road site was the best choice because of the existing agricultural buildings on that stretch of road.
The committee agreed that Mr Bore should reply to SCDC, thanking them for the information given and pointing out some issues with the pre-planning advice document.
Firstly, the document stated that there was no relevant planning history, but an application to build a smaller grain store was refused a few years ago on a site very close to this (S/0374/06/O). Also, that the existing agricultural buildings on the road do not really spoil the open views, and that a site visit is really necessary to appreciate what an enormous difference the proposed grain store will make.
Mr Bore will also contact David Walston, and ask him to meet with the planning committee to discuss our concerns about the application, before the process has advanced too far. It was felt that it was best to voice our concerns at this early stage, to attempt to avoid great expense further down the road, should the site for the proposed grain store be changed due to our concerns.
The meeting closed at 6:50pm.
Notes from a meeting of the Planning CommitteeMeeting
on 23rd March 2017 at 7:15pm in the Parish Council Office with David Walston of Thriplow Farms, to discuss the proposed grain store on Fowlmere Road.
Present: Malcolm Bore, Simon Buggey, Liam Elliott
A leaflet had been delivered to Foxton residents about the forthcoming presentation on March 30th. Mr Bore commented on the use of the word “consultation” and asked whether the resident’s views would actually be taken into account. Mr Walston said he was open to constructive comments.
Mr Walston discussed some details of the grain store including its size. He had proposed three sites to SCDC; the possible sites were fairly limited due to the need to be close to an existing road, and to be reasonably central on the North/South axis of the farm. One of the proposed sites (on Brook Road) had been discounted because of the effect on the outlook of Thriplow church. His first choice had been a site off Newton Road, but the Fowlmere Road site had been chosen because of the straighter road (giving better views when pulling out onto the road in a tractor), and because it was the one that SCDC said they would support in their pre-application advice. Mr Bore noted that the pre-application advice was incorrect on two counts: firstly, its claim that there were no relevant previous planning applications in the area (an application from Peter Mead for a grain store was refused in 2006), and secondly that the area was already ‘built-up’ with nearby farm buildings (the farm buildings that are already there are either small or do not adversely affect the landscape character).
The increase in traffic was discussed - Mr Walston said there would be around 200 lorries a year, and they wouldn’t be going through any villages that they weren’t already. Mr Bore said that these lorries would intensify the use of the dangerous junction between Fowlmere Road and Newton Road, but Mr Walston noted that Frederic Smart had more lorries than this when they were operating. Mr Walston has commissioned a traffic survey but there are no results of this yet.
Mr Walston is holding another pre-application meeting with SCDC in about a week’s time, as well as holding the consultation meeting on March 30th. Mr Bore indicated that he would be writing to SCDC on behalf of Foxton Parish Council with our views.
The meeting closed at 8pm.
Minutes of a meeting of the Planning Committee of Foxton Parish Council
on 27th March 2017 at 8:00pm in the Parish Council Office.
Present: Malcolm Bore (chair), Simon Buggey, Liam Elliott, Ron McCreery. (Mr McCreery was co-opted to the planning committee for this meeting, as Mr Elliott was unable to take part in discussions for application S/0844/17/FL).
Apologies: None.
No members of the public were present.
Declarations of interest
Mr Elliott declared an interest for application S/0844/17/FL (5 West Hill Road), as the application site is the property next door to his.
Application S/0832/17/TP – 65 Station Road, Foxton (Mr John Manning).
This application is to cut back 3 lateral limbs of a T1 sycamore tree that is within an area with a group TPO. The planning committee had no objection to the work, and since the application was for information only, elected not to respond to SCDC.
Application S/0844/17/FL – 5 West Hill Road, Foxton (Mr & Mrs Andrew Hoole).
(Mr Elliott left the meeting for discussion of this application).
This application is to infill the open space between the garage and house, to create a utility space. The height of the roof over the garage and study is to be raised, and three roof lights inserted. There will also be internal alterations to the kitchen/dining room, and a change to the fenestration.
The committee had no objections to the proposals, as they would have minimal impact on the street scene and would not affect any neighbours.
The Parish Council recommend approval.
Correspondence
None.
AOB
None.
The meeting closed at 8:10pm.