July 2016
UPLOWMAN PARISH COUNCIL: MINUTES OF MEETING
Held on 21st July 2016 at the Village Hall, Uplowman starting at 7.40pm.
Approved on 15 September 2016
Cllr Kevin Wilson present. Minutes taken by Mr R Hodgson, Clerk. Action points in bold.
1. MEMBERS PRESENT
1.1 Present: Cllr T Milner (Chairman), Cllr Cllr R Adcock, Cllr R Norman, Cllr K Baugh
2. PROCEDURAL MATTERS & APOLOGIES
2.1 Cllrs R Branton, A McCombe and S Floyd had tendered apologies due to Mid Devon Show, personal and school commitments, respectively.
3. MINUTES OF LAST MEETING (11 May 2016)
3.1 The Draft Minutes of the Annual Meeting held on 11th May 2016 had been circulated. The Minutes were agreed without change and were signed as a true record of that meeting.
4. MATTERS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES
4.1 There was nothing that would not be covered by Agenda items.
5. FINANCES
5.1 Current Balance: £7792.94
Income since last meeting (Sect 105 for hall seating): £2139.00
5.2 The following payments were approved and cheques signed to effect the disbursements:
R Norman, for Hall seating (previously agreed): £2566.80
R Hodgson for Clerk's expenses : £13.66
J Veen, for Grass cutting: £184.00p
UHRA, for Hire of Hall: £40.00
Materials for Telephone Box restoration, estimated £154.00 Agreed, to be reimbursed later.
5.3 The Clerk left the room while his salary was reviewed. On his return the Chair announced that it had been agreed to increase the Clerk's salary by £20pa to £1040 per annum.
5.4 There was discussion about the Clerk's appraisal. It was agreed that the Chair would consult with selected members of the Parish about their dealings with the parish Clerk as well as with councillors and other stakeholders and a face to face meeting with the Clerk would be arranged in early September.
6. PLANNING/LICENSING APPLICATIONS
6.1 16/00326/LBC Uplowman House: Internal alterations. This had been approved by MDDC
6.2 16/00503/HOUSE: Hatherlands: revised drawing of extension. This had been approved by MDDC
6.3 Review of procedures for dealing with Planning Applications (paper attached) . The Chair introduced the discussion. He said that Council decisions required a quorum of 3 and it had been difficult to assemble groups of 3 councillors who had no prejudicial interest in particular sites for meetings. Regular planning meetings could be arranged but this would add cost and might still not be timely for all planning applications. He proposed a system where comments were provisional, to be confirmed at subsequent full council meetings. Cllr Norman did not think that a 'provisional' comment would be acceptable to MDDC. No vote was taken and the discussion was held over for a subsequent meeting.
6.4 Junction 27 development. It was agreed that any development at Junction 27 on the M5 could affect the lives of Uplowman residents greatly by altering traffic flows and generating a need for additional housing. Uplowman PC should make its views known in due course when a planning application was made for this development.
7. CORRESPONDENCE
A list of correspondence received and sent had been circulated. Attention was drawn to the following items of interest that were not covered elsewhere:
7.1 It was noted that MDDC had recently announced that the percentage of waste recycled in the District had reached 50%.
8. HALL AND RECREATION ASSOCIATION
8.1 Cllr Adcock reported that the tennis court was being used well. The UHRA planned to install fencing to prevent cars parking on the grassed areas. They were considering purchase of 50 new seats. The annual Music & Beer festival would take place on August 13th.
9. EMERGENCY PLANNING AND NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH
9.1 No report had been received.
10. VILLAGE IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS
10.1 Telephone box: Cllr Milner agreed to order a paint kit for the telephone box to be reimbursed by the PC. Cllr Milner would pass this on to Cllr McCombe who would would oversee the creation of the proposed information kiosk and make arrangements with Mr Veen to undertake the work as agreed at previous meetings.
10.2 Photographs were needed of the goal posts in use. Cllr Adcock would follow up with Cllr Floyd.
10.3 Work on the outdoor seating at the hall was now complete and appreciated by hall users. There had been several requests for installation of a play area for younger parishioners. Cllr Adcock said that there was currently a relatively large number of young people in the parish and UHRA was investigating how to set up and manage a play area. The Clerk said he received information about play areas and would forward it to provide examples and suggestions. Cllr Wilson noted that Steve Densham at MDDC could assist in identifying funding.
10.4 It was noted that the details of the TAP fund had changed. It would now be allocated by county ward (instead of by individual parish) and individual applications could be made subject to the maximum available for their ward. There would be two cut off dates for applications (30 September and 28 Feb 2017) to the fund with half the fund available for each. Parishes were expected to fund 10% of their projects from other sources. The Chairman said that everyone should consider appropriate projects for which applications could be made, to be discussed in the September meeting.
10.5 There had been no further development of plans to erect 'no parking' signs outside the school. The Chairman would contact the School Governors.
11. STATE OF ROADS IN PARISH
11.1 The potholes in the link road bridge on the Sampford Peverell road had been reported by Cllr Baugh but so far remained unrepaired.
11.2 The Tiverton road had been recently tarred and chipped but the surface was deteriorating rapidly in the warm weather.
12. DATE OF NEXT MEETING
The next meeting was confirmed for Thursday 15 September 2016.
The Clerk asked whether the current meeting schedule of the third Thursday every 2 months suited councillors. It was agreed to continue with this schedule and the Clerk would book those days in January, March, May, July, September and November 2017.
The meeting closed at 9.40pm
Public discussion:
There was none.
Minutes of 21 July 2016