Snape with Thorp Parish Council

Minutes of Parish Council Meeting held on Monday 21 November 2016 in the Schoolroom, Snape Methodist Church.

Present: Councillors John Duck, Steven Smith, Terry Warwick, Richard Poole, Jenny Rydzewski, County Councillor John Weighell, District Councillor David Webster, and 25 members of the public

1. Declaration of Interest – There were no declarations of interest.
2. Welcome to the meeting – Cllr Duck welcomed all to the meeting, reminded the members of the public that this was a Parish Council meeting not a consultation meeting and that if anyone wished to raise a query or comment they could do so by raising their hand.

Cllr Duck announced that the Parish Council had heard from Mr Howe, who was supporting Price’s Pavings in connection with a potential change to the Manor House site. An open meeting would be held on Wednesday 7 December so that the proposed changes to the site could be explained to and discussed with the community. A note would be circulated giving the details of the meeting.

3. Minutes of the meetings held on 5 October, copies of which had been circulated with the agenda, were accepted as a correct record.
4. Village Maintenance
   1. Posts for grass verge by the beck – the posts had been painted to test paint being applied on the tantalised wood. It was RESOLVED that the stakes would be purchased and undercoat applied prior to being put into place. The stakes would then need to have a top coat of paint applied once in position. A parishioner offered to loan a hole borer for these works.
   2. The Clerk confirmed that funding from NYCC for certain grass cutting in the village and funding from NLCA to support transparency had been received.
   3. Section 106 funding – the Clerk confirmed that the appropriate documentation had been received and involved £1102.60 being available towards each of the Playing Field and the Avenue projects. These funds could be drawn down as the projects commenced. This type of funding was to be replaced by CIL – Parish Councils without a Neighbourhood plan would be able to access 15%; those with a plan would be able to access 25% of the development levy for any developments in their community.
   4. Highways matters – Cllr Duck advised that he had met with a representatives of the Highways department and the following had been discussed:
      1. Corner of Salmon Lane – there had been a number of cycle accidents at this point. Consideration would be given to how improvements could be made but the width of the road did not permit white lining. It was understood that H&S on highways was now a responsibility of the police service. It was agreed that this problem area would be raised with the police.
      2. Footpath by the side of the Institute – it was unclear who owned this footpath which had become uneven due to root growth. Further information would be sought on ownership. A partnership approach to improving this surface might be considered by Highways.
      3. Road near the Arboretum – improvements were scheduled for this area in the current financial year.
5. Policing report – no-one was available from the Police service to present the report so copies were tabled.
6. Avenue
   1. Communications – there had been two communications recently; one had been unsigned and was not a Parish Council communication; the other had been a letter and attachment from the Parish Council advising on the current situation and issues.
   2. Consideration of quotations – four quotations had been received and summarised for the Councillors. It was RESOLVED to accept the quotation from Oliver Tree Services. This would also include stump removal of the felled trees. Brash from the works could be deposited on Cllr Duck’s land. Funding would be required to undertake these works.

There was an opportunity for those present to ask questions of the Council and to make comment. In drawing this to a close Cllr Duck confirmed that the works would proceed and that there had been no discussion of works other than those required for H&S reasons; there would be further discussion before any further works to the remaining trees were considered.

Cllr Duck advised that HDC had applied a temporary TPO on the new Avenue of trees and the Parish Council had just received notification of this decision.

Cllr Duck picked up on a point raised by a parishioner in relation to stones recently added to the banks of the beck; he agreed to meet the parishioner to discuss his concerns about H&S risk of these stones.

7. Financial Matters
   1. Receipts and payments – the following were noted

Receipts and payments:

Receipts – VAT refund - £1473.54; NYCC – for grass cutting - £266.03; YLCA – transparency fund - £144.00

Payments – T Warwick for copying - £1.92; S Lowe salary - £40.80; £93.60; expenses - £31.10; HMRC - £92.80; Playsafety Ltd – RoSPA report of playing field - £92.40; Citizens Advice – donation - £20; Farm and Land Services - £775.20

Bank accounts as at 14 November 2016

Current account – £6192.39

Deposit account - £2633.12

Institute Committee account - £13153.26

A summary, a copy of which had been circulated with the agenda, outlined the payments and receipts reconciled with the bank accounts.

1. 2. Hours of work by the Clerk – it was noted that the Clerk had undertaken 27½ hours work since the last meeting.
   3. Precept for 2017/18 – the Clerk had prepared and tabled a budget document for 2017/18 to aid with the setting of the precept. Cllr Warwick commented that it would not be possible to confirm the precept until a decision had been made about whether a loan was to be obtained for the avenue works. The Clerk advised that a response was normally required by HDC by 31 December to aid with their own timescale for setting the overall council tax a further meeting of the Council would be required prior to this date if this timescale was to be achieved.
   4. Donations – It was RESOLVED to make donations of £25 to each of the following charities: Yorkshire Air Ambulance Service, Great North Air Ambulance Service and Royal British Legion.

8. Grass cutting
   1. Invoice from Mr Wilkinson – A response had been received from Mr Wilkinson that day to the Parish Council’s communications; this had been circulated but the Councillors had not had an opportunity to read the communication; the item was deferred to the next meeting.
9. Playing Field Committee –
   1. Minutes of recent meetings – the draft minutes of the meeting held on 26 October, copies of which had already been circulated, were received for information.
   2. Cllr Smith, Chair of the Committee, reported that the application to the Bedale and Villages Community Forum had been successful and had received an award of £1k with an offer to consider a further application next year towards the new equipment. The Yorventure Fund would end in 2017 with a last application round in June; it was being clarified at the present whether it was possible for an application to be made by the Committee.
10. Defibrillator

The Clerk advised that the pads had been replaced in the defibrillator and so the machine was showing as being in full working order. YAS had advised the Clerk that the defibrillator had been removed from the box recently for an incident so the access arrangements had worked as intended.

11. Marina Bridge

Cllr Warwick stated that gravel was accumulating under the bridge and could present flooding risk in wet weather. Cllr Duck would view the problem.

The meeting closed at 8:55 pm