CASTLE COMBE PARISH COUNCIL
Minutes of the Annual Meeting held on Thursday 18th May 2017 in the Village Hall
Cllr F. Winup (Chairman)
B. Blair.
J. Halliday
J. Mackelden
J. Prior
G. Ruggles
S. Bettles.
D. Ryall (Clerk)
Unitary Cllr. Baroness. J. Scott.
9 Parishioners
1. Apologies for absence –
There were no apologies for absence
2. Election of Chairman & Vice- Chairman –
Chairman: Cllr. F. Winup – Proposed by: Cllr. B. Blair.
Seconded by: Cllr. J. Mackelden.
Vice-Chairman: Cllr. J. Mackelden – Proposed by: Cllr. F. Winup
Seconded by: Cllr. J. Prior.
There were no other nominations and Cllr’s Winup & Mackelden were unanimously elected to serve as Chairman and Vice-Chairman respectively for 2017-18.
3. Acceptance of Office–
Cllrs. Winup and Mackelden duly signed Acceptance of Office documents.
As a result of the recent unopposed election all of the Council also signed Acceptance of Office documents.
4. Declarations of interest –
There were no declarations of interest.
5. Minutes of the meeting held on 16th March 2017.
The minutes were unanimously accepted as a true record and signed by the Chairman.
6. Matters Arising –
A. Area Board & Forum Meetings
The recent area board meeting was not attended as it was only for the election of Chairman and Vice Chairman and because of this there was no Parish Forum.
B. Parking Review.
Car park charging.
Cllr Winup said the Council was unhappy with Wilts Council’s proposals and will not support the proposal in the absence of confirmation that the criteria for agreement listed in Cllr. Winup’s e mail of 30.01.17 are met. Cllr Winup said he had again contacted Wilts Council and asked them to reconsider the practicality and that lengthy public consultation would be required. He said the new signage for the car park are part of this proposal and noted that the hatching outside the White Hart had been reduced as requested.
He said that there were no parking bookings in March but 30 in April which corresponded with the Council’s rejection of the car park charging proposal.
Unitary Cllr. Scot said that now the elections are over she intends to propose a different policy for ‘honey pot villages’ like Laycock & Castle Combe.
C. Footpaths
The Chairman said that no scalpings had yet been provided by Wilts Council for the footpath from School Lane to the village or for the Whitegates turning circle. Unitary Cllr. Scott said she would progress the delivery.
Cllr Winup said the footpath from School to Whitegates had been cleared by the village steward.
D. Village Flooding
Cllr Winup said the river modelling is still not available some 4 years after the flooding and as agreed would be reviewed with Nettleton Council when available.
E. Defibrillator & First Aid Training..
Cllr. Winup said he had recently investigated options with Heartsafe Ltd; in view of the latest incident. The top of the range would cost £1995 per unit excluding VAT with a 5% reduction for three plus two training sessions at £300.
The locations have to be finalised but power is needed to keep the battery dry.
Possible sites, dependent upon Wilts Council agreement, are the village hall, the Whitegates entrance and opposite Westway Close. This continues to be deferred until
the final cost of the village cross restoration is known.
F. Market Cross repairs.
The Chairman said the second interim grant of £2078 has been received with the total grant to date being £9346 towards the eligible costs of £11683 and non- eligible costs of £598.
The Heritage Lottery Fund application is drafted and will be discussed with the Heritage Lottery before submission. The estimated cost to date is £70500 which consists of:
Repairs to roof & plinth – £56066
Contingency (max 10%) – £5600
Contract design & admin – £5034
Virtual design of web site frame -£3800
He said that before the final submission it will need to be formally agreed by the Council together with a Council financial input of a suggested £20000. An informal amortisation fund for future repairs will need to be set up to satisfy the auditors. (William Prior heritage fund was set up for this purpose previously)
He said when the residual funds are known a village meeting will be convened to debate the projects for which it will be used.
G. Estate Yard Licence.
The Chairmen said a meeting is to be convened with the estate to finalise the document.
H. Ladywell
Cllr Bettles confirmed that the Estate is arranging to have the repairs carried out
I. Holiday Lets & Second Homes.
Cllr Halliday said that in the lower village out of the 49 houses 21 are second homes and 5 holiday lets which is eliminating the community and must be stopped. Cllr Winup said the Council cannot take anything forward as it is the law of the land that you can sell your property to whoever makes an acceptable offer. He said that the Government had changed the tax arrangement last year which has reduced ‘buy to let’ by 50% which will reduce further as landlord tax relief reduces from 45 to 20% over the next 3 years. This will be further affected by changes in mortgage affordability criteria taking affect and the 3% stamp duty surcharge on second homes.
Unitary Cllr Scott said that Wilts Council would continue to monitor the situation.
J. Election
The Chairman said this was not needed as the number of candidates matched the seven vacancies.
16. Village Welcome Pack.
Cllr Halliday ran through the proposed contents of the pack which the Council agreed contained all of the essential information. The Chairman asked Cllr. Halliday to distribute her proposal and obtain quotes for an A5 booklet.
7. Finance –
Income £
Wilts Council -Precept – full year 5000.00
Wilts Council – signpost repayment. 1150.00
HMRC VAT repayment 543.79
Orchard Media & Events – film donation 150.00
Nearly New Sale – Market Cross 300.00
C.C. Village Hall – fuel payment 300.00
Expenditure
The Councillors checked and approved the following invoices:
Non domestic rates – village hall 00.00
David Newton Ass – coordination Village Cross restoration 1588.40
Jane Root – report history of Village Cross & repairs 1815.60
Village Hall room hire 45.00
Integral Engineering – structural survey Village Cross 1056.00
Cllr. Winup – newsletter printing. 88.40
D.Ryall – printer cartridge. 14.99
Water Business- half year bill 79.85
Cllr. Halliday – plants 7.99
Bowen Accountants – payroll costs 102.00
WALC subscription 133.43
Southern Electric – quarterly bill 204.21
Lloyds bank account @ 26.04.17 40566.52
Shawbrook Bank deposit account 20000.00
7A. Internal Auditor
The Chairman reported that Mrs. Hermina. Fleming had agreed to act as the Council’s internal auditor for the 2016-17 accounts.
8. Correspondence –
A. Zurich Municipal – insurance renewal. The Chairman said that after negotiation the Clerk had succeeded in reducing the premium from £1116 to £1047.80per annum for three years. It was proposed by Cllr Prior and seconded by Cllr Ruggles that the quote was accepted and the policy renewed with the Zurich. This was unanimously agreed by the meeting.
B. WALC – Membership renewal.
The meeting agreed unanimously to renew membership.
C. Wilts Bobby Van appeal.
The Council agreed to donate £20.
D. Community First.
The Council agreed not to renew membership.
9. Planning applications –
P.C. Approved:
Castle Inn – internal alterations, staff & guest accommodation.
Church Cottage – internal alterations.
South Cottage – single storey extension etc.
Park Lane Ford – erection of farm building.
Gardeners House – tree surgery.
Castle Inn – revised signage.
P.C. – Under Consideration:
Estate Yard Barn – revision of opening hours.
Dovecote, riverside House – internal alterations.
Old Court House – internal alterations, bathroom etc.
P.C. – Rejected: Nil
Unitary Council – granted
Golf Course – tree surgery
Hill House – tree surgery.
Castle Inn – internal alterations.
Church Cottage – internal alterations
South Cottage – single storey extension
10. Unitary Councillor
Cllr. Baroness. Jane Scott said she had sent a copy of the Wilts Council annual report to the Council.
11. Playing field and C.C. Circuit Reports
Playing Field – as per the Parishioners Meeting.
Circuit Meeting – as per the Parishioners Meeting.
12. Play Area Report.
Cllrs Mackelden Said the lower play area was fine and thanked Cllr Bettles for cutting the grass.
Cllr Prior said that organic moss killer had been sprayed on the surface of the Whitegates play area.
Cllr Winup said a replacement waste bin had been bought and asked Cllr Prior if he could help remove the old one. Cllr Prior agreed to assist and confirmed he would arrange to empty the bin as Wilts Council had refused. Unitary Cllr Scott said she would investigate the reason.
13. Highways Report.
Cllr Halliday reviewed the list of work outstanding and said the kerbstones had now been replaced in the lower village and she was progressing Wilts Highways on the rest. She said the village steward scheme was working well and that, Adrian, the local steward is excellent. Unitary Councillor Scott said she would again progress the replacement of letters on the now blank road sign at the Gib.
14. The Village Environment Report
Cllr Ruggles said he had replanted the two troughs at the top of the hill and noted that the Dunns Lane grit bin was damaged. Cllr Mackelden said he would arrange replacement.
15. Whitegates
Cllr Prior said weed killer had been applied to all of the footpaths at Whitegates.
Cllr Halliday said the residents were still considering creating a working party and raising funds to replace the stolen tubs.
16. Village Hall
As per the report to the Parishioners’ meeting.
17. TV Committee
As per the report to the Parishioners’ meeting.
18. Review of Standing Orders and Financial regulations
The Chairman said that he and the Clerk had reviewed the standing orders and recommended their approval as no change has been made. There were no comments and they were unanimously approved by the Council.
19. Annual Governance Statement.
The Chairman said the Council complied with the March 2016 Governance and Accountability for smaller councils in England and proposed their approval. This was seconded by Cllr. Ruggles and unanimously approved.
20. Date of next meetings –
This was confirmed as Thursday 20th July 2017 at 7.30pm in the Village Hall.
The date for the extraordinary meeting to review the accounts for 2016-17 and the budget for 2017-18 was confirmed as Wednesday 7th June at 7.30p.m in the Village Hall.