Minutes of a MEETING OF LYTCHETT MATRAVERS PARISH COUNCIL

Held on Monday February 20th 2017 at 7:00 in the Methodist Church, Lytchett Matravers.

PRESENT were Cllrs M Colvey, A Bush, R Carswell, J Gracey, K Norris, E Wilson, P Webb, C Wood (from 19:20) and Mr T Watton (Parish Clerk).

Dist Cllr W Meaden and County Cllr F Drane were also present.

1. REceipt of apologies for absence – Cllrs A Cottman, A Huggins, and J Taylor.

2. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION SESSION

There was none.

3. CHAIRMAN’S ANNOUNCEMENTS. Cllr Colvey reported that he, Cllr Taylor, Dist Cllr Meaden and the Parish Clerk had attended the funeral service for former Parish Council member Peter Burbidge. He reflected on Mr. Burbidge’s contributions to the work of the Council and to his extensive knowledge of the village and its surroundings, which he drew on as part of his contributions. As a mark of respect a period of one minute’s silence was held.

Cllr Colvey confirmed that the planned local training session would be going ahead on 25th March 2017. He advised that a draft programme would be circulated to all members.

4. DECLARATIONS OF PECUNIARY INTEREST; AND CONSIDERATION OF REQUESTS FOR SPECIAL DISPENSATIONS UNDER SECTION 33 OF THE LOCALISM ACT 2011. There were none.

5. Minutes of Council Meeting on 16th January 2017 after correction of minute 10a to indicate that Cllr Cottman rather than Cllr Wilson was to undertake the risk assessment of the allotments, these draft minutes were APPROVED as a true record of the meeting and signed by the Chairman.

6. MATTERS ARISING & UPDATE ON ACTION POINTS.

i. Minute 14, 21st September 2015 – website updating. It was noted that producing the set of personal profiles is still outstanding.

ii. Minute 13, 19th September 2016 – replacement of Wareham Rd bus stop adjacent to the primary school. It was pointed out that Cllr Wood had updated the Council on this matter in an e-mail circulated to all members on 17th February 2017. In that email she explained that she had spoken to Mr Andy Shaw at DCC, Chris Hook’s line manager. Chris Hook had not replied to her message sent early in week commending 13th February and had in fact not been in touch at all since before Christmas and the site visit appointment he had failed to attend. The message from Mr Shaw advised that he would ask Mr Hook to look into this and get back. Mr Shaw also asked Cllr Wood to contact him again if she got no further response from Mr Hook.

iii. Minute 20, 17th October 2016 Decommissioning of Telephone Kiosks: Cllr Colvey reported that there had not yet been a response either from the Conservation Officer at PDC or BT to his request for either operational retention of kiosks or their purchase by the local community.

iv. Minute 11, 16th January 2017 – Deed of Dedication for protection of Old School Green. The Parish Clerk reported that the signed deed had now been returned completed by Fields in Trust. The covering letter confirmed that Old School Green was now protected.

v. Minute 20, 16th January 2017 – steps in front of the pharmacy premises. Cllr Bush reported that he had spoken to Mr Geoff Holland who had confirmed that the design and construction of the steps are within the current regulations / standards. It was suggested that it may be prudent to write to the owner to suggest taking some action to improve public awareness of the risks and thus the need to take extra care when using them – e.g. warning signs and / or painting the surface of the steps.

7. District Cllrs report.

Cllr Meaden and Cllr Webb reported that the debate on the proposal to create two unitary authorities in Dorset had been robust and without histrionics at PDC Council meeting on 31st. January. The votes were 11 for, 11 against and 1 abstention. The motion to support the creation of the two unitaries was defeated on the Chairman’s casting vote. Both Cllr Webb and Cllr Meaden had voted for the proposal.

They went on to report that the six Dorset Councils have put in their submission to the Secretary of State. The Minister has indicated that he will give his ‘minded to’ view by 16th. March. In the interim the six councils are making plans. The three ‘no’ councils are making the Minister aware of their position but will wait until the Minister’s statement before deciding what their next steps, if any, are.

They commented that since the above vote the Housing White Paper has been published. Changes to the rules around the new homes bonus have meant that PDC will have to find a further £600,000 of cuts from 2018/2019 onwards. This could well mean some serious cuts in staffing and reduction of service levels.

They explained that the Housing White Paper is out to consultation. They commented that what emanates from that will be of significance. They advised that probably the key element is the Government’s intention to have a standard methodology for arriving at Objectively Assessed Housing Need. They felt that just what the methodology will throw up is open to conjecture, but they stated that there is hope that it will be more robust and that the economic growth element is sensibly proscribed.

They drew attention to the fact that buried in one of the supporting papers is a proposal that Neighbourhood Plans can allocate land within their Green Belt for future development.

They commented that the introduction of the standard methodology for housing need has meant that the Purbeck Local Plan Partial Review numbers will be arrived at through this new methodology as the Government has stated that plans from April 2018 will be judged against it.

The Planning Advisory Service was brought in to review the work of PDC on the Partial Review. The result is that they consider the work has been of a high standard and that the new work commissioned as a result of the Options consultation is of such a scope that the Partial Review has in fact become a full review with nearly all policies being affected.

At Council on Tuesday 21st. February members were asked to agree to renaming the current process as The Purbeck Local Plan Review. In order to have a meaningful consultation a system of local Forums is to be set up. This is to be able to submit a new plan to the Inspectorate in early 2018 to avoid planning by appeal and to meet new rules proposed under the Housing White Paper.The proposal is that there will be five Forums covering Purbeck and a pan Purbeck Infrastructure Forum. Lytchett Matravers will be in North East Purbeck which includes Lytchett Minster & Upton and Morden. Each Forum will be chaired by a District Councillor and will be open to anyone with an interest in planning including landowners, developers, individual residents, campaigning groups, Parish Councillors, old and young etc. The Forum will be serviced by PDC with a secretary to take notes to be published on the Review website and a planning officer to give guidance and clarity.

Cllrs Meaden and Webb noted that this report is not the place to debate all the proposals of the Housing White Paper nor the ins/out of the Unitary Authority argument. However they observed that we live in interesting times and most of what will take place over the next two years will be dictated by central government.

They reported that PDC are set to produce a balanced budget for 2017/2018 with the rise on a Band D Council tax being £5. This is the maximum allowable.

The changes to the Dorset Homes Choice Allocations policy are to be voted on. Despite a deferment to gather further evidence officers are still recommending the local connection criterion be reduced from 5 to 2 years. The problem is government guidance and the threat of judicial review being stronger than the evidence and many members concerns that this move discriminates against truly local people.

They gave a reminder of the Question & Answer session at Purbeck School on the Purbeck Local Plan Review at 5.30 p.m. on 16th. March.

In addition to the above report, Cllr Meaden provided an update on three further items of local interest or impact:

(i) Repeated fly tipping incidents on Foxhills Road. She reported that she has been examining the fly tipped rubbish which included till receipts showing a pattern of purchases at a specific location and time. She advised that the police had commented that they are happy to investigate this as they think it is possible this fly tipping is related to other criminal activity. She hoped that as a result of the police’s action the fly tipping may now have stopped.

(ii) The motor home parked at the Rose and Crown public house. She had spoken to the police about this matter and they indicated that they would put a notice on the vehicle.

(iii) A vehicle collision at the Lytchett Minister end of Huntick Road (Randall’s Hill). A junction mirror has been suggested to be installed in this location and the police have indicated that they will back up this request with their own evidence.

8. County Councillor’s report

County Cllr Drane reported as follows:

He had attended the DCC Police and Crime Panel where a discussion was on setting the precept for 2017-2018 of 1.98%. After a lengthy discussion the panel agreed to the increased precept.

He had attended the DCC People and Communities Overview Committee meeting. He advised that at this meeting a new approach was tried by inviting providers of care services to attend – such as Care Home providers, the Clinical Commissioning Group and the public. He reported that carers complained of the lack of working together and the minimum amount of information they received.

The DCC full council meeting had focussed in setting the budget for 2017-2018.

Cllr Drane also reported that he had attended a seminar at DCC on highway performance. At that seminar there were reports from DCC Highways Officers Andrew Martin, Mike Hansford, Martin Hill and Mike Westwood. During these the usual questions were raised regarding pot holes, pavement repairs etc and most answers included comments on budget cuts due to reductions in Government funding. However Cllr Drane had noted an increase in funding was received for pothole repairs and road repairs.

9. REPORTS FROM SUB-COMMITTEES AND WORKING GROUPS

Village Hall Toilets Refurbishment Working Group – It was noted that a final invoice has been presented by the contractor for £200 to paint the inside of the skylights.

Sports Club Governance Working Group – It was noted that this matter had also been discussed at the February meeting of the Finance and Policy Committee and therefore members were advised to examine the minutes of that meeting. Cllr Bush reiterated that he had repeatedly made requests for a further meeting of the Sports Club Committee to progress important items of business, but there had been no response from other members of the Sports Club Committee. The Parish Council noted this with disappointment and AGREED that a further meeting of the Sports Club Working Group should be called.

Neighbourhood Planning Working Group – Cllr Bush reported on the report which had been received from the Examiner. This report was disappointing in view of a series of requested amendments – including the removal of policy 1 – and so he has raised some issues with Mr. Tapscott of PDC. Mr. Tapscott has promised to look at this and respond to the Parish Council as soon as possible. It seems that if a community wishes to make changes to its Neighbourhood Plan it is necessary to go through a further consultation exercise. This action would delay the final acceptance of the Neighbourhood Plan and thus also to access to the increased share of CIL monies from 15% to 25%. It was AGREED to challenge the Examiner on the amendments, and if this proves unsuccessful it was suggested that policy 1 is simply removed as the Examiner requests and its content is included in a flyer which will be circulated with the referendum materials.

Huntick Cycle Way Working Group – Cllr Huggins provided the following report:

1) the DCC "health and wellbeing" meeting which Cllr Meaden referred to in her report to the January Full Council meeting, where cycle paths would be discussed, was postponed.

2) Cllr Huggins had chased Helen Jackson at DCC for update following December’s site meeting: she replied on 2nd Feb that she is still is awaiting costings of options, which she’ll send on to Cllr Huggins when available.

Ms Jackson had already confirmed that the proposed scheme is the Local Transport Plan list, but cannot be prioritised without the costings. Cllr Huggins advised that he had made the point that the Parish Council would like input in the proposals to reduce the chance of DCC heading in a direction which is contrary to the scheme’s intended aims. Cllr Huggins assured members that he would chase Ms Jackson again early March.

Cllr Bush commented that the scheme should seek to link-up to other cycle ways – thus emphasizing its multiple purpose nature. He pointed out that long-term this gives greater opportunities to obtain funding. Cllr Gracey expressed concern that young people in the village might consider that they had not been consulted on a cycle path which is of particular interest and concern to them. The members present noted this point and that there may be an appropriate time to consult the young people of the village; but the general view was that this was more relevant at a later stage.

10. Recommendations from Committees:

The following recommendations were considered:

a) Finance & Policy Cttee – meeting 6th February 2017:

· Acceptance of the Bank Reconciliation and Accounts update as attached at Appendix 1 to the Finance & Policy Cttee minutes 06/02/17. AGREED

· Acceptance of the 2017 Risk Register attached as Appendix 2 to the Finance & Policy Cttee minutes 06/02/17, subject to two points of clarification:- (i) What protection is provided against the Council’s website being hacked. (ii) What protection against bank failure and or the account being accessed by unauthorised persons. AGREED

· Acceptance of the updated Schedule of Governance / Internal Controls responsibilities as attached at appendix 3 to the Finance & Policy Cttee minutes 06/02/17. AGREED

· Acceptance of the quotation obtained from R M Smith Fencing on 30th January 2017 to repair & strengthen the damaged gate to the Recreation Ground car park, that it should be painted yellow, and that a large metal “reflector plate” be fitted to it when it is repaired. The other two gates to remain as current for the time being so that the Council can evaluate the effectiveness of this solution before going any further. The sum authorised is £690 – plus a charge for the reflector plate. AGREED

b) Planning Committee – meeting 2nd February 2017:

· No recommendations. However it was reported that Council has decided to go ahead with the Extraordinary Parish Council meeting to take place on 27th February to consider application 6/2016/0743 concerning land adjacent to Deans Drove and Foxhills Road.

It was RESOLVED to receive the minutes of both of these meetings.

11. 6/2016/0743 Stonewater Housing Association. Land at Deans Drove, Lytchett Matravers, BH16 6EQ. Redevelopment of the site with 19 affordable houses and 4 open market houses with associated access, parking and landscaping. It was noted that this matter has now been made the subject of an extraordinary meeting of the Parish Council to take place on 27th February 2017.

12. Consideration of a Council response to consultation on Purbeck District Council Statement of Licensing Policy (see email to members 17th January 2017. Cllr Bush expressed the view that it is surprising that the Parish Council is routinely neither informed nor consulted by the Licencing Authority (PDC) when festival-type events are being proposed within the Parish Council area or in locations which will affect residents of this parish. Cllr Meaden explained that the policy and its proposed amendment referred to in this agenda item has been produced due to the increase in festivals across the Purbeck District and a rise in complaints about noise from them. The proposed policy amendment provides for more control, and also for the future review of the policy. After further brief discussion it was RESOLVED to write to Purbeck District Council supporting the proposed revision of this policy. Action: Parish Clerk to write to Purbeck District Council accordingly.

13. Proposal to brick-up the side door of the Sports Club Pavilion and create a bin store enclosure in the garage area. It was noted that the proposal for this work had come personally from the Chairman of the Lytchett Red Triangle Youth Football Club and Lytchett Matravers Sports Club. However the Council noted that the matter concerns the Sports Club pavilion premises and therefore that the proposal should be a formal one from the Sports Club itself. Members of the Council were aware that the Sports Club Committee had not met recently despite requests to do so in order to deal with a number of items of outstanding business. In the light of this the Council RESOLVED to defer a response on this request until after the meeting had taken place of the Sports Club Working Group.

14. Annual Parish Meeting 2017. The Council Chairman explained that he had contacted Purbeck District Council to provide a randomised list of residents to personally invite to this meeting. This will be in addition to the general invitation, via notices and the website, for any member of the community to attend. It was suggested to hold the meeting in the village library rather than the Methodist Church, and to hold it over a time span of 15:00-20:00 on 20th April 2017. Cllr Colvey indicated that he would make enquiries about this with the librarian. Action: Cllr Colvey to speak to the librarian. Cllr Wood wondered what support materials, such as displays etc, might be prepared to provide a focus for the meeting to draw people in. In response to this latter point, Council members were asked to respond by the end of February with any ideas they had.

15. Council training day – Saturday 25th March 2017. Cllr Colvey confirmed that the venue had been booked for this occasion. He referred to the draft list of topics for the day. In response to a question he confirmed that the intention was to provide the opportunity for extended discussion and exploration of issues by members. No decision-making would take place and it is not a formal meeting of the Council under Standing Orders.

16. Proposal to set up a Village Centre Working Group. It was clarified that the intended purpose of this proposed Working Group was to begin to take forward some of the matters included within the Neighbourhood Plan. Consequently there is a perceived need to gather together a group of people to generate a range of tangible ideas and to begin to progress them. An early task would be the working-up of a timeline for activity of the proposed group.

17. Report of any training activity undertaken in the past month.

There was none.

18. Reports of Representatives (by exception):-

Village Hall DAPTC Footpaths School Liaison
Youth Organisations Sports Club

There were no reports.

19. Council to approve the following payments due:-

Inv To Whom For What Net VAT Total
3714 T Watton Clerk’s salary – January (12 equal monthly payments by SO) 848.68 0.00 848.68
3715 T Watton Reimbursement of office expenses 32.50 0.00 32.50
3716 DCC LGPS pension contrib Jan. 270.32 0.00 270.32
3717 T Homer Handyman duties, January, plus reimbursement for nails and gate spring purchased. 322.07 2.31 324.38
3718 The Landscape Group Cemetery maintenance – January 2017 303.49 60.70 364.19
3719 R M Smith Fencing Supply and fit 3.6m galvanised gate for Club Hall car park plus timber dragons teeth. 520.00 104.00 624.00
3720 Replay Maintenance Ltd Half yearly maintenance for Lytchett Astro 31/01/17 495.00 99.00 594.00
3721 Lytchett Matravers Methodist Church Premises hire for meetings Nov 2016- Jan 2017 200.00 0.00 200.00
3722 R Carswell Reimbursement for expenditure on 3 x padlocks for Rec gates. 45.63 9.13 54.75
3723 K Bradbury Locum fee for Parish Clerk leave cover, plus mileage expenses. 100.64 0.00 100.64
3724 Brighstone Landscaping Ltd Additional pruning at Foxhills Open Space 350.00 70.00 420.00
3725 S R Skucha Home Improvements Village Hall toilets refurbishment project – final inv0ice (painting of skylights) 200.00 0.00 200.00
3726 PDC Fee for planning training 2016-17 50.00 0.00 50.00

Council APPROVED all of the above payments.

20. “Openness of Local Government Bodies Regulations 2014”, Part 3, Paragraphs 6-10, Record of Decisions and Access to Documents – record of decisions taken by Parish Clerk.

There were none.

21. CORRESPONDENCE.

The Parish Clerk reported on the following correspondence received:

A letter and deed of dedication from Fields In Trust related to the protection of Old School Green.

A letter from the Environmental Health Officer at PDC regarding the need to clear the fly-tipped rubbish alongside the Sports Club’s bin next to the pavilion in the High Street Car Park.

A letter from a resident mentioning the fly tipping referred to above.

A letter from a resident making a suggestion for redesign of the open area in front of the Tesco shop to alleviate the bulk delivery and car parking problems.

22. MATTERS OF INTEREST AND INFORMATION

Cllr Norris reminded those present of the planned litter pick to take place on the 4th March 2017.

Cllr Colvey reported on a telephone call that he had received from an elderly resident who, some years ago, had a donated a bench on the recreation ground. The bench had recently been vandalised and the resident had decided to have the bench removed and placed in her own garden instead.

The meeting closed at 9:10pm

Annotated by/on …………………………….. Signed by……………………

Full Council minutes 20th February 2017