27th Sept 2018

CASTLE COMBE PARISH COUNCIL

Minutes of the Parish Council meeting held on Thursday 27.09.18

in the Village Hall, Castle Combe

Present:

Cllr’s:  F. Winup (Chairman).

  1. Blair

Mrs. J. Halliday

  1. Prior

Mrs. H. Reeves

  1. Ryall (Clerk)

Unitary Cllr. Baroness. Jane. Scott.

6 Parishioners.

  1. Apologies for absence:

Cllrs. J. Mackelden, S. Bettles.

  1. Declarations of interest:

Cllr. Bettles – 4G. Estate yard licence, Cllr. Prior – 7A Planning Appln. No. 18/08566/FUL – Upper Combe Farm, demolish existing buildings and erect new.

  1. Minutes of the meeting held on 12.07.18

These were accepted as a true record and signed by the Chairman.

  1. Matters Arising:

4A. Area Board Meeting and Parish Forum.

Area Board.

Cllr Prior was unable to go to the meeting on 23.07.18 which was sparsely attended and agreed to go to the meeting in the Neeld Hall on 8.10.18. The Chairman said he would attend the meeting on 17.12.18.

Parish Forum.

Cllr Winup said he will attend the meeting at Upper Seagry on 24.10.18

4B. Parking Review.

  1. i) Car park Signage.

Cllr. Winup said discussions with Wilts Council about the proposed new car park signage will be deferred until the village cross costs are finalised as the Parish will have to find  25%. He said the Council could get its own signs at £24 each if money was unavailable from Wilts Council.

  1. ii) Parking statistics

The Chairman said that 28 were booked in July and 38 in August.

4C Footpaths

The Chairman said that little remained of the 30 tons of scalpings and he had asked the Golf Course to use the remainder to complete the repairs to both ends of the School Lane footpath. Chris Clark, Wilts Highways, has arranged another small delivery to Cllr Bettles to add to the Whitegates turning circle.

Cllr Prior will liaise with Cllr. Bettles to arrange laying.  It is unlikely that any will be left for the repairs by the Cotswold Wardens to the Roman Bridge footpath but more may become available.

4D. Village Flooding

The Chairman said he saw no point in attending the Operational Flood Working Group meetings as the same things are discussed each meeting and are unrelated to the village. Also the Environment Agency had made no effort to convene the promised meeting with affected householders to discuss the procedure for providing financial assistance or installing flood prevention measures. He proposed that this item was removed from the agenda as those affected had now taken their own action. This was agreed by the meeting.

4E. Defibrillators.

Cllr Winup said the cabinets had now been received, the defibrillators were in transit and installation quotes from ES electrical were £554 + VAT against the supplier’s £800+ VAT. He said that the UCC unit was now likely to be the Chapel instead of the Coppice and the he would speak to Guy Bentham-Hill (Wilts planning) as the Chapel is Grade 2 listed.

He said he has asked the supplier for dates for the training sessions and that overall costs would be about £750 below budget with 50% of this being returned to Wilts Council on completion.

4F. Market Cross

The Chairman said the Heritage Lottery Fund had rejected the grant application for £17K as their funds are limited with one in four being agreed. He was surprised that a scheduled monument has no priority and the refusal after the amount of paperwork raised was exasperating. The good news is that the Manor House Hotel has donated £5K for which the Council is most grateful and £100 was received from a recent Spanish film shoot. He said that as per the June extraordinary meeting the estimated costs were £70K with a £5.8K contingency and against this the Council has £33K in committed grants, £7.6K in donations and £22.5K from the Parish Council. This latter could be increased to £25K if necessary.

The response just received from the Garfield Western Foundation rejected the recent application and therefore the Chairman said he would discuss the shortfall with Historic England. He said he would be reluctant to commit further Council money in view of potential future repair costs.

Cllr Baroness Jane Scott suggested contacting The Wiltshire Historic Buildings Trust Chairman John Bush.

4G.Estate yard Licence.

The Chairman confirmed that this is in abeyance pending information from the Estate.

4I. Village Welcome Pack.

Cllr Halliday said she has e mail the latest shortened version to the Council for comment. Those present suggested a number of amendments.

4J. White Lines – lower village issue 5660

The Chairman said that as agreed at the last meeting this was on hold as recent revised CATG guidelines indicate that it will not receive priority and that the Council would have to provide 25%.

4M.Speeding on the hill & the School Lane junction.

The Chairman said that no response had yet been received from the Area Board for the CATG raised for the 20mph speed limit through the village. He said the traffic measurement cables at the top and bottom of the hill could be related to this application. Cllr Baroness Jane Scott confirmed this and said it was a requirement for any speed limit application.

6A GDPR

Cllr Blair said he would issue the data base to the Councillors for information.

8B. Winter Salt

The Chairman confirmed that Cllr Bettles agreed to collect it from the Wilts Council depot on 18th October and that storage location would be determined by Cllrs Prior and Bettles. The Clerk said Wilts Council will fill the bins during October and refill on request when practical with the Parish Council filling as necessary.

20.Wilts College – noise etc.

The Chairman said Cllr Mackelden said the Circuit were not responsible for the College who should be contacted direct.

  1. Finance-         £

Income                                                                                                     

CC Village hall – electricity & car boot proceeds                                     3003.00

Expenditure

The Councillors checked and reviewed and approved the following invoices:

Thomas Silvey – heating oil                                                                        299.25

Cllr. Winup- auditor’s gratuity                                                                      34.00

D.Ryall – salary                                                                                           410.80

HMRC – tax                                                                                                239.20

D.Ryall – printer cartridge                                                                              7.18

Wilts carers – donation                                                                                 20.00

Seafarers Association – donation                                                                  20.00

Cllr Winup – newsletter printing                                                                  68.97

SSE – electricity supply                                                                                81.94

Mr. Bruce – Scott – maintenance                                                                154.13

CPRE – membership                                                                                     36.00

Water 2Business – water supply                                                                   82.63

Lloyds Bank account @ 23.08.18                                                           38954.77

Deposit account Shawbrook (William Prior Heritage Fund)                  20000.00

  1. Correspondence.

6A WALC – Employment Service Consultation

It was proposed by Cllr Winup and seconded by Cllr Halliday that the Council support the proposal from WALC to provide an HR service to the Parish Councils costing £4.00 per annum. The meeting unanimously agreed.

6B. Wilts Council – Wilts Local plan consultation.

After discussion the meting agreed this would have no affect on the Parish.

  1. Planning applications

P.C. Approved:

Middle Cottage – fell ornamental Laurel.

Old Rectory – re pollard willow tree.

2, Waterside – replace render and repair cill.

Colham Mill – fell 1 Sycamore & Ash trees.

P.C. Under Consideration:

The Manor House – replace sign.

Upper Combe Farm – demolish existing buildings and erect new including house.

P.C. Objected.

Nil

Unitary Council Granted:

2, Fairfields UCC – flat roof extension etc.

Old Werretts – new out building and interior alterations.

Middle Cottage – fell ornamental Laurel.

Old Rectory – re pollard willow tree.

Colham Mill – fell 1 Sycamore & 4Ash trees

Unitary Council under Consideration:

2, Waterside – replace render and repair cill.

Upper Combe Farm – demolish existing buildings and erect new including house.

Unitary Council Rejected.

Nil

  1. Unitary Councillor

Unitary Cllr Baroness Jane Scott said wilts Council has to find a further saving of £25M next year which will again be very difficult. She said the Salisbury situation was still a problem and made worse by the recent apparent hoax poisoning with the tourist trade having reduced by 14%.

  1. CC Circuit & Playing Field

CC Circuit

Cllr Mackelden reported that at the liaison meeting on 16th July the following were discussed:

Anti social behaviour.

There were particular concerns about the April meeting with the Circuit liaising with the police particularly about illegal substances. The police seem more amenable to carrying out checks and possibly displaying warning signs even when they aren’t there.

Traffic has improved over last year in terms of the number & size of jams.

Planning.

Details about the new entrance are expected in October and the Circuit is applying for its own alcohol licence mirroring the existing one with no further outlets.

Circuit improvements.

These are focussed on toilets, gates and crash barriers

The Chairman reminded the meeting that the village had been allocated the car boot on 14th October.

  1. Play Areas

Cllr Mackelden reported that the lower area was in good order and the ROSPA report was awaited.

Cllr Reeves said the Whitegates area was reasonable and she had been asked if a new football net could be obtained. The Chairman said that the goal posts were not the Council’s responsibility as they had been provided by the residents.

  1. Highways

Cllr Halliday said the village steward had cut back the hedge at Whitegates and she had asked him to check the grit bins for litter and clear the gullies on the hill. The street sweeper was now coming every month and the only major item outstanding was replacing the marker posts along the river.

  1. Village Environment.

The Chairman asked what arrangement for maintenance was made with Mr Bruce – Scott. Cllr Prior said it was as required as the village steward was taking over during the winter. The meeting confirmed that Cllr. Bettles would water the trough in the car park, Cllr Reeves the one at the top of the hill and Cllr. Halliday those at Westway Close.

  1. 13. Whitegates

Cllr Reeves said that the bus stop had now been renovated and moved to a more convenient spot. She said a lot of tidying had been carried out around the estate and fly tipping had reduced although there were still some problem areas.

  1. TV. Committee.

The Chairman said that the system had no problems recently.

  1. Village Hall

The Chairman said the bookings remain good and that the defective interior lights would be replaced during the next inspection.

  1. World War One Centenary Commemoration.

The Chairman said Vicky Welsh, Wilts Council, is arranging delivery of a whip of ornamental Cherry or Hawthorn which the PCC have kindly agreed to plant in the churchyard. He proposed that the Council buy a ‘There but not There’ 10 inch silhouette for the War Memorial at a cost of £37.00 including VAT and inscription. This was seconded by Cllr. Halliday and agreed unanimously by the meeting

  1. Date of next meeting.

This was confirmed as Thursday 15th November 2018 at 7.30 p.m. in the Village Hall.