BAYDON PARISH COUNCIL
Minutes of the Parish Council Meeting held at the BYPA Hall on
Monday 30th June 2014 at 8.00 pm
(Draft)
PRESENT: Cllr Andrew Knowles (Chair), Cllr Kevin Howell, Cllr John Cockcroft, Cllr Tamsin Witt, Cllr James Sheppard – Wiltshire County Council, Angelina Grieve (Clerk)
Including: 16 Members of the public
1. APOLOGIES – Cllr Alison Tomkins
2. DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST
None
3. MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS PARISH COUNCIL MEETINGS – The minutes of the meeting held on Thursday 19th May 2014 were approved with the following amendment: Item 5.1 should read ‘standpipes’, not ‘water tanks’
4. SUSPENSION OF MEETING FOR PUBLIC QUESTION TIME
4.1 Bridleway Baydon 1 needs maintenance as there are dead beech trees and these may cause a danger to the public. It was noted that the land owner for Bridleway 1 was present at the meeting.
4.2 Bridleway 8 has a sign missing where it meets the road.
4.3 Bridleway 24 has a sign missing near the motorway bridge.
4.4 The gas cover by the chicane in Manor Lane is loose.
4.5 Road repair on Downsmead has not been done properly.
4.6 Hedge opposite Downs House needs cutting to allow ease of vehicle parking.
4.7 Footpath between Ermin Close and Manor Lane is in a bad state. There are lots of cuttings on the ground and it is dark because the street lights aren’t working.
4.8 Someone has left their hedge cuttings on the verge in Manor Lane (alpaca side) instead of using their green bin.
5. CORRESPONDENCE
5.1 Response to email concerning Japanese knotweed. It was agreed the Council would contact the Ramsbury Parish land owner by email or letter requesting that he takes steps to control the knotweed to prevent it spreading from his land and that if it can be proved that knotweed has spread from his land and has damaged neighbouring land then he can be held liable for the cost or removal or repair.
5.2 Response to email concerning cut vegetation on the footpath of Ermin Close/Manor Lane. Concern was raised that the state of the footpath would attract litter. The street lights are not working and the area is very overgrown. Cllr Prior queried why members of the public are willing to cut the weeds in this area, but not prepared to take them away.
5.3 Pittams grass cutting. This has now been completed.
6. PLANNING
6.1 14/05491/FUL – Land rear of Foxfield and Escots. Erection of 4 detached dwellings and garages with associated parking, new entrance and private access road. Construction of double garage to serve Foxfield. The Council unanimously objected on the grounds that 5 bedroom houses are not in alignment with the Village plan, which clearly states that Baydon requires 3 bed houses.
6.2 Ref: 14/04699/LBC – Woodley Cottage, Ermin Street, Replacement of ground floor windows on south east elevation (Listed Building Consent).
The Council supported this application.
6.3 Ref: 14/05871/FUL – Baydon House Farm. Laying of surface of between 2 and 2.6 meters in width of an existing track currently in use as a public permissive bridleway. The Council supported this application.
6.4 Ref: 14/05472/FUL – Baydon Valley Farm, Manor Lane. Erection of an agricultural worker’s dwelling and garage in connection with established alpaca stud farm; with associated tractor shed, hay barn, alpaca barn, a covered yard and the creation of a new vehicular access point. The Council agreed to support the application with conditions. The conditions being that the applicant maintains the road from Manor Lane to the proposed development. The Council also asked that the house which may be built be tied to the land and the buildings to be built in such a way that it could not be sold independently of them at any time. This would prevent the present owner selling the land and buildings but maintaining ownership of the house.
7.1 Clock maintenance has been carried out by Smith of Derby and an invoice was received from them for £235.20 inclusive of VAT.
7.2 Pains Fireworks. It was decided that a refund would be accepted from Pains to the Parish Council so that any future orders can be started afresh and issues with VAT can be avoided. Action: Cllr Prior
7.3 Annual Return – comments from auditor
7.3.1 Every invoice should be on headed paper in order that the Council can claim back VAT.
7.3.2 Any personal expenses submitted from Councillors must have a receipt and a new expense claim form. The form has been circulated by Cllr Prior. The Council approved the new expense form.
7.3.3 Petty Cash to be dealt with in the following manner: An amount under £5.00 should be recorded in the Minutes and any amount over £5.00 should be processed through the normal way.
7.4 Review of Draft Financial Regulations
7.4.1 The annual governance statements are to be reviewed each year.
7.4.2 The Chairman could authorize up to £500 and the Council needs to decide how they would like to proceed with this.
7.4.3 No income is paid into the petty cash float.
7.4.4 The Council should strive to obtain three quotes for any work needed in the village, but it is not absolutely necessary that 3 are received.
7.4.5 The council does not have to accept the lowest tender.
7.4.6 Annual Risk Assessment must be done before the insurance renewal each year.
7.4.7 The annual inspection of the playground is to be carried out in August 2014. Action: Clerk
7.4.8 Council legal documents to be looked at, as some may need to be upgraded.
7.5 Hedge Cutting. There are two places in Manor Lane where overgrown hedges are causing sighting problems for vehicles and the owners of the properties need to be contacted. Action: Clerk
7.6 Downsmead has a beech hedge which is at present growing over the pavement at approximately 2 feet causing pedestrian access a problem. The Council agreed to write to the property owner. Action: Clerk
7.7 Cllr Prior suggested a Cllr or member of the public become a coordinator with the Parish Steward. Another suggestion was that individual areas in the Village form working groups to take care of their own areas.
7.8 The Parish Council have to either pay for certain work to be done e.g. nettles by the zip wire in the play area, or the villagers have to do the maintenance themselves. A letter has been sent to the land owners of the path which surrounds an alpaca field and the land owner said that the ‘tidying up’ of the path is imminent. Letters have been sent to home owners with regard to hedges overhanging public areas and Wiltshire County Council have also been informed, but do not appear to be interested in the problem. It was noted that the Parish Council can make requests to home owners to maintain their hedges but are not able to enforce home owners to do this. However, Wiltshire Council has the power to do the work and then bill the homeowner for the cost of the work.
· The Electric box on the green requires a person who is Part P qualified to fix the problem. Action: Cllr Howell
· It was suggested that protective sheeting is purchased to cover any allotment areas which are not currently rented out. This is for the purpose of keeping the weeds at bay. Also any current owners who wish to suppress weeds may rent sheeting.
8.1 Scene in Baydon invoice £40.00. (Funding gap for April 2014 edition) – paid.
8.2 Petty cash payment to be paid to Clerk (Beating the Bounds Letters)
£3.72 postage – paid at meeting.
8.3 A letter has been received from Pains Fireworks about the £260 and £432 BPC entries on the firework account. An offer to refund £72 was agreed by Pains.
8.4 Possible bank change for BPC accounts.
Cllr Prior reported the RBS bank statement for 15th June 2014 had not been sent.
Cllr Prior said his recent experience had reinforced the case for consideration of changing banks. He had checked on banks in Marlborough, namely Lloyds, Barclays and Nat West, i.e. more accessible than the current Newbury branch.
Lloyds did not offer an information pack and only entered applications via a computer screen. He thought this was not suitable for the Council. He would arrange discussions with the other two banks to discuss the “small print”, terms and conditions.
A visit to the branch also revealed that the Bank Mandate required three signatures on cheques whereas some had been cleared with two signatures. RBS advised that a new Bank Mandate would be required.
8.5 Progress with real time recording of Clerk's salary.
It was noted that paper work is not acceptable for these payments. Salary has to be, and will be processed via the Government Gateway real time online procedure.
8.6 Approved between meetings: - Clerk’s salary letter dated 2 June 2014 to RBS £525.51 and then £273.27 paid on the 25th of each month. - Approved
Beefy 1 tonne bag £64.00 - Approved
Scene in Baydon £40.00 - Approved
Southern Electricity £23.06 – Approved
8.7 A HMRC demand for £361 including Income Tax and National Insurance contributions for 2013-14 had been received. Cllr Prior had sent a letter querying this amount and an explanation of the BPC payments. No reply had been received. Action: Cllr Prior
8.8 Payment received from Baydon Allotment Association.
Cost of water usage 2012 & 13 £45.19 – Payment Banked
8.9 Thames Water
Following an estimated reading Cllr Prior had submitted the actual meter reading in a credit balance of £7.97 credit.
8.10 It was noted that the donation of £50 for Raffle tickets to the Annual Fete had been made.
8.11 Bank Statements
Treasurers account - £25,877.53 at 13 June 2014
Reserve account - £2,904.04 at 15 May 2014
Petty cash £17.11 at 30 June 2014
Total £28,798.68
The Chairman said he would arrange a transfer of £79.08, arising from a gross payment made to the Clerk in 2013-2014, into the Treasurer’s account.
Cllr Prior repeated his point that the Council is not a bank and a guide line total in reserves should approximate to a year budget amount. On that basis there is £11,000 available for as yet non-defined projects. (excluding £3,000 for the chicane). Further traffic calming is a target area and some outline plan should be developed in the not too distant future. Cllr Witt stated that she strongly believes that having £11,000 unallocated is a very good reserve for future projects.
9. ITEMS TO NOTE
a. A member of the public has offered to take on the role of Editor for the Baydon Scene. There is still, however, a requirement for someone to do the administration for the invoicing and advertising for the magazine. Members of the public were informed of this at the meeting.
b. The lighting on the chicane is not finished and the posts are loose. This work should have been completed on Wednesday, but has not been done. Action: Cllr Witt
c. There is a village lunch to be held at The Red Lion Pub on the 10th July at 12 pm.
d. The Village Fete raised £2,600.00.
e. There is currently a Parish Councillor Vacancy. Members of the public who attended the meeting were informed of this.
f. It is requested that Cllr’s home telephone numbers are NOT used for leaving abusive messages regarding village matters or any decisions made by the Council. (It was noted that one of the Cllr's received an abusive message regarding the pub trees being removed – despite the fact that Baydon Parish Council actually objected to the planning application for the removal of the trees).
g. The amount of £79.08 has been returned from the previous Clerk’s mistaken overpayment.
h. The Parish Council will write to Brydgette thanking her for her past work on the Baydon Scene and it was agreed that a gift of either flowers or a picture of Baydon would be given to her before she leaves the village. Action: Cllr Witt
10. ITEMS FOR NEXT MEETING
a. Review of the knotweed situation.
b. Agree the main co-coordinator of the Parish Steward visits.
c. Consider adding extending the grass cutting contract to include the nettles by the zip wire.
d. Agree that the bank mandate will have two signatures, rather than 3.
The Meeting was closed at 9.30 p.m.
The next meeting will be held on 11th August at 8.00 pm in the BYPA Hall
Signed.............................................................. Chairman (Mr A Knowles)
Date…...............................
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