Minutes of the meeting of Sherington Parish Council held on Tuesday 1st December 2015 at Sherington Village Hall, commencing at 7.30pm
PRESENT: Cllrs A Thatcher (Vice Chair), W Bush, R Constantine and R Johnstone
ALSO ATTENDING: Ward Cllr Geary, Hannah Balazs (Clerk), and nine members of the public.
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| 1. PC CHAIR RESIGNATION & THANKS | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Following the resignation of Ian Collinge, Cllr A Thatcher, on behalf of the PC, thanked Ian for his hard work that he has carried out on behalf of the Parish Council.
1.1 Cllr R Johnstone proposed Cllr W Bush as the new chairman. Cllr R Constantine seconded this proposal and Cllr W Bush chaired the rest of the meeting.
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| 2. RECEIVE AND ACCEPT APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cllr A Hughes, E Caldwell and Ward Cllr K Mclean. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 3. APPROVE MINUTES OF LAST MEETING | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The minutes of the meeting held on 3rd November 2015 were agreed as a true record and signed by the Chairman, Cllr W Bush. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 4. RECEIVE DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cllr Bush declared an interest in item 14 the Solar Farm. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 5. WARD COUNCILLOR’S REPORT – Cllr Peter Geary | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Plan MK – there have been a number of meetings. The meeting on 9th November was regarding the Plan MK plans going out for consultation. The decision was to call in the plan (after 17 petitions from individuals and other parish councils). The Executive Scrutiny Panel will meet on 2nd December at 6pm at MK Civic Offices and the calling-in is being led on the rural parishes’ behalf by Phil Ayles from Castlethorpe. He will be requesting assistance with funding a challenge to the Draft Plan MK which will be in January’s PC meeting.
The Planning Inspectorate Appeal (APP/Y0435/W/15/3133886: Land at High Street, MK16 9QP) is now taking place on Thursday, 7th January 2016 at MK Civic Offices. The Draft Minerals Plan is coming out for consultation on 4th January 2016 and this means there will be a lot more public meetings happening. The footpath between Newport Pagnell and Sherington is not a high priority but there is a way of getting this work done and that is by way of community payback. Would the PC be happy to assist this and fund this – if the PC agrees then hopefully this could be in this financial year. Ward Cllr Geary will speak to the relevant highways officer.
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| 6. CLERK AND RESPONSIBLE FINANCE OFFICER VACANCY | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The clerk’s position is now vacant and has been advertised in the relevant places. Ward Cllr Geary advised the PC to contact Heather Baker at MKC as she can inform local parishes to see if anyone would be interested. | AT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 7. COUNCILLOR VACANCY | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Pam Loose at MKC has been informed of the vacancy on the PC and the deadline to call for a by-election is 14th December 2015. If a by-election is not called then the PC can co-opt someone for the position and this will be the responsibility of the PC. This vacancy is also being advertised. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 8. CLERKS REPORT AND MATTERS ARRISING | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| DC Blunt Gardening has notified the PC that they do not intend to seek a renewal of their contract re village grass cutting. The clerk asked the PC for suggestions of alternative gardening contractors to be approached with a view to taking on this work.
A new barrier between Crofts End and School Lane is to be installed at the School Lane end. The clerk has chased MKC for a start date for the work to be carried out in the car park at the pavilion. The road signs in Water Lane will be moved so they can be seen more prominently. Cllr Bush asked the PC if the community payback idea were something the PC would agree to. All councillors agreed this. Cllr Johnstone has received more complaints regarding the parked cars at the end of Crofts End. Cllr Geary advised that the PSCO for the village is Andy Hipking and he will be at the next NAG meeting. Cllr Johnstone advised that he would speak to the site manager. Christmas tree – Cllr Constantine will speak to Alban Hill and Cllr Thatcher will talk to Tony regarding the lights. |
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| 9. COMMUNICATION PLANS FOR WEBSITE AND FUTURE PC COMMS WITH THE VILLAGE | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| From the end of January 2016 Ian Collinge will no longer provide the website for the PC. Cllr A Thatcher will focus on improvements with communication between the village and the PC by providing a modern and updated new website. Cllr Thatcher reported that she has received a quote of £1,150 for creating a new website – it was agreed that this should be accepted.
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| 10. RECEIVE REPORT FROM NEIGHBOURHOOD PLAN STEERING GROUP | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The last meeting discussed the draft policies. Cllr Bush advised they want to produce policies that are comprehensive and very relevant to the village. NPSG has written 6 policies and these have been circulated in SCAN magazine for everyone to read. Cllr Bush proposed that the draft policies go out for consultation. Cllr Johnstone, Constantine and Thatcher seconded this. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 11. RECEIVE WORKING PARTY REPORTS AND CONSIDER MATTERS ARISING | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 11.1 Shop – an email has been circulated to the PC from a resident commenting on how well the shop is doing. Cllr Bush advised that a village shop subcommittee would be formed of Cllrs Hughes, Johnstone, Thatcher and Bush.
11.2 Pavilion – Cllr Johnstone advised that the electrical work has been completed and the outside lights at the pavilion are now working. The pavilion subcommittee are awaiting a quote from another builder to carry out remedial works. |
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| 12. FINANCE | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 12.1. Bank Account balance 1st December 2015 – £36,566.04
12.2. Approve Cheques for payment – Approved
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| 13. PLANNING APPLICATIONS – CONSIDER RESPONSE TO MKC | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 13.1 Reference 15/02631/FUL – proposal for a solar farm with capacity of up to 50kw and associated electrical infrastructure and surrounding fence.
Cllr Bush stood outside for this item as he declared an interest. Cllr Johnstone reported that the site is tucked away and not visible, Cllr Constantine reported that the land is not good for growing crops or grazing cattle. The PC had no objections to this application. |
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| 14. EXTERNAL MEETINGS | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 8th December 2015 – PLAN MK
2nd December 2015 – MK Scrutiny Meeting |
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| 15. CORRESPONDENCE/ NEW CONSULTATIONS | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Budget Consultation 14th December – it was reported that there will be many important and difficult decisions to make when deciding the budget.
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| 16. RECEIVE PUBLIC COMMENTS | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| A property owner who lives behind the village hall reported that he has applied for planning permission to build homes on his land and asked that if he provided a footpath from School Lane to the village play area, would the PC approve this development? Cllr Bush said that this would be discussed at January’s PC meeting.
It was reported that the shop tenant had received no communication from the PC. |
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| 17. COUNCILLORS ITEMS | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| No items raised. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 18. DATE OF NEXT MEETING | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The next Parish Meeting will be at the village hall on Tuesday 5th January 2016, 7.30pm. There being no further business the meeting ended at 2055hrs | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||