News Report

Baydon Parish Council Meeting of 20th February 2012

 

The Baydon Parish Councillors and 10 members of the public met at the BYPA Hall on Monday 20th February for the Parish Council meeting, which started slightly late at 8.04pm to ensure all Parish Councillors were present

 

Apologies - apologies had been received from Rowan Cockcroft, the Parish Clerk, who was away on holiday. Councillor Tamsin Witt agreed to take the meeting’s Minutes in her absence. Wiltshire Councillor, Chris Humphries, was also not present

 

Declarations of interest - Parish Chair, Councillor Andy Knowles declared an interest in Agenda item 7.5 regarding the allotment rents. Also a discussion regarding Agenda item 7.8b and the Diamond Jubilee village mugs was discussed as Councillors had children who would receive the mugs but this was not considered a problem with preferences being given re the type of mug to purchase

 

Minutes of the last meeting - these were agreed without alteration

 

Suspension of the meeting for public question time - Chair, Councillor Andy Knowles stated that the BYPA had applied for parish funding and apologised for this not being on the Agenda. Venice Marriott spoke about BYPA and confirmed that a grant application had been submitted to the Marlborough Area Board by the recent 12th February deadline. Councillor Michael Edmonds offered advice regarding the legal ownership documentation of the BYPA Hall and surrounding land and forms were available to complete and submit to the Land Registry to ensure there were no issues in this respect when it came to obtaining grant funding

 

It was noted that a number of village rights of way / bridle path signs were either missing or damaged, plus some local rights of way had become blocked by the landowner. Rather than discuss a full list in the meeting, Councillor Andy Knowles asked that people provide the Parish Council a list of their observations / concerns as there was a planned meeting with the Parish Steward to discuss this topic (as Agenda item 8.2)

 

Planning applications - there was just one planning application to discuss, being application E/2011/1730/TPO relating to tree removal and replacement at Penclose House, Manor Lane. An update had been received from Wiltshire Council stating that is was not appropriate to plant a replacement tree on a like for like basis and that a field maple would be planted instead

 

Items for consideration - the first item was to elect a Vice Chairman, but there had not been any nominations and so the issue was deferred. Councillor Michael Edmonds gave an update re the Marlborough Community Area Board and was keen to see a Baydon presence at the forthcoming 13th March ‘Traffic Planning for Rural Villages’ event and that hopefully one or more of Councillor Tamsin Witt, Mark Austen and himself would be attending to represent the village

 

A Baydon Traffic Calming Working Group (TCWG) report was received from Councillor Tamsin Witt and Mark Austen. Councillor Tamsin Witt had attended a recent Marlborough Area Board Community Area Transport Group (CATG) meeting and it was agreed that a feasibility study will go ahead to review possible physical traffic calming measures at the location of Ermin Street near the playground area where the Baydon CSW Team have reported by far the worst village speeding problem. A Speed Indicator Device (SID) which flashes a speeding vehicle’s speed had been loaned to Baydon by Wiltshire Council and has been located at the start to the village on Ermin Street coming from Lambourn / Newbury direction, but sadly after three weeks and various chasing by Mark Austen has not worked for nearly the whole of the three weeks and so its loan to date has been very disappointing. Councillor Tamsin Witt confirmed that she had reiterated Baydon’s wish to have Ermin Street included in the forthcoming Wiltshire Council C road review, in which only two roads in the whole of Wiltshire will be selected to have such things as the benefits of a 40mph countdown area created before the start of the 30mph area, etc. The Parish Council gave a vote of thanks to Mark Austen and the Baydon CSW Team for their continued efforts to record and highlight the extent of the ongoing speeding problems in Baydon and ensuring regular (normally weekly) and accurate speeding statistics are being logged with Wiltshire Police and offenders getting written warnings from the police

 

A discussion followed regarding the village recycling bins in the Red Lion Pub car park and the question as to whether there was still a need for them. It was agreed that general clarification was needed as to what they could be used for and so any additional use to the current kerbside recycling collections. A village wheelie bin was then considered that could be used for those who collect rubbish around the village and so not need to use their own wheelie bins, but collection logistics and related costs were still unclear following recent communications with Wiltshire Council

 

The Councillors want to agree a Parish Council policy regarding financial grants to make it transparent as to what criteria would be used to consider the award of funds and ensure a fair process was in place to allocate any grants that became available

 

There was then a discussion as to whether the Parish Council should investigate options for playing an active role in the running and refurbishment project of the BYPA Hall. It was agreed the Parish Council would get together with BYPA representatives to see if both parties can work together, look at the hall, possible funding and a community approach to running the hall going forward. Possible meeting dates are to be circulated

 

A date was considered for this years ‘Beating of the Bounds’ and whether instead of the normal May bank holiday it was deferred to form part of the Jubilee celebration weekend. Barbara Furber had volunteered to help organise the event and was available over the June bank holiday weekend and so it was agreed to have the event on Monday 4th June

 

With various things taking place over the next few months, it was agreed Baydon would not take part in this years ‘Best Kept Village’ competition, but to defer to a future year.  Thanks were given to the 16 villagers who had turned up at the recent village litter pick

 

Finance - payments for the Christmas carol singing refreshments in the Red Lion Pub (£50) and a Thames Water bill (£7.52) were approved. A parish funds reconciliation statement for January 2012 was received with £2,288.92 (Treasury account), £10,221.67 (Savings account) and £24.21 in petty cash coming to a total of £12,534.80 as at 31st January 2012

 

The village grass cutting contractor for the year ahead was discussed. Only two contractors had come back with quotes, at £2,175 and £2,050 + VAT so a third quote was still needed and Wiltshire Council are to be approached

 

The village allotment rents for the year ahead were fixed at the current rate of £20 for a full plot and £10 for a half plot (Councillor Andy Knowles, having declared an interest, did not take part in the discussion or vote)

 

The situation re Aldbourne Youth Council and the current youth working leaving resulted in an agreement to postpone any further parish council funding until a replacement youth worker had been found although it was noted that Wiltshire Council have not publicised the vacancy yet. The Parish Council expressed an interest to be involved in the recruitment process. The first £500 funding payment to Aldbourne Youth Council had still not be acknowledged as received yet

 

A request had been received for the Parish Council to financially assist with the funding of the 2012 Baydon church and school fete raffle tickets, which would cost in the region of £50. It was agreed to support the church and school and contribute up to £50

 

The costs and arrangements for the Baydon Queens Diamond Jubilee celebrations were reviewed. A Marlborough Community Area Board (MCAB) grant application had been submitted but had been followed up by the MCAB requesting further details mainly relating to how Baydon would spend a £500 grant if awarded. Two examples of Jubilee commemorative mugs were demonstrated with a decision being made by a majority vote of those present at the meeting, with 150 being obtained to give to the village children and others were very welcome to purchase one. The Parish Council had earmarked up to £1,000 to be provided towards the cost of the Jubilee celebrations which hopefully will be boosted by the £500 MCAB funding

 

It was agreed to move the Parish Clerk’s salary grade for 2012/13 from grade 20 to 21 which would result in an increase of 39 pence per hour

 

Items to note - the annual Parish Assembly will take place on Friday 18th May in the school hall. Villagers were encouraged to provide the Parish Council with details of any observations or concerns regarding missing or damaged local rights of way signs, or obstructions to footpaths, bridle paths, etc by the end of March as a meeting with the Parish Steward is to take place in April to discuss this in detail

 

Items for next meeting - to discuss a requirement for an automatic external defibrillator for Baydon, with a recent item being included in the Scene in Baydon to which one response had been received to date, being a “no” vote. Further consideration would be needed regards procedure, easy of use, logistics of a rota, etc

 

To discuss a proposal for a fence along the northern boundary of the playground, this will be looked at when the weather is better

 

Parish Council storage requirements needing discussion, looking at the possibility of renting an empty Downsmead garage but further details were needed regarding the rental costs. A clearout of parish documents is to take place at a forthcoming archiving exercise with older records being placed in safe storage at Wiltshire Council’s Chippenham offices

 

Councillor Philip Dore explained that the recent bad weather had prevented him from repainting the village noticeboard at the junction of Downsmead and Aldbourne Road

 

Councillor Andy Knowles confirmed that the BYPA application for parish funding that unfortunately had been missed off this meeting’s Agenda would be discussed at the next Parish Council meeting on Monday 26th March, Venice Marriott reiterated that is was hoped any major refurbishment work on the BYPA Hall could take place over the Easter holiday period and so not impact too much on the normal users of the hall

 

The meeting closed at 9.21pm

 

By Mark Austen

 

 

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