SHERINGTON PARISH COUNCIL
Approved Minutes of the meeting of Sherington Parish Council held on Tuesday 12th March 2019, at the Pavilion, commencing at 7.30pm
PRESENT: Cllrs Bush (Chair), Watts, Shires, Parish Clerk Will Pike.
ALSO ATTENDING: 13 members of the public and Ward Councillor Mclean.
- RECEIVE AND ACCEPT APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE
Cllr Selvey and Ward Cllrs Hosking and Geary. All apologies accepted.
- RECEIVE ANY DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST
Cllr Shires declared and interest in the rent of the Pavilion should it come up.
- APPROVE MINUTES FROM LAST MEETING
Approved and signed by Cllr Bush.
- CO-OPT IAN HINDLER TO THE COUNCIL
All councillors were in favour and therefore Ian Hindler was co-opted to the Parish Council.
- RECEIVE WARD COUNCILLORS REPORT
Points were raised as follows:
Milton Keynes Council passed the budget for the next financial year.
Recycling bags – There are still issues with the ordering system. Some Council offices are now offering a ‘click and collect’ service which seems to be working well and may be rolled out to everyone if it proves itself.
Housing Infrastructure Fund (H.I.F.) – Meeting taking place on 13th March. Amount requested has raised from £75million to £95million. General consensus is that there has been very little consultation with various groups around the matter. If the scheme goes ahead it would include a new primary school and health centre.
There are recommendations to put the scheme back to 2031.
There will be a new scheme for Parishes coming soon to enable them to view complaints that are coming in to Milton Keynes Council. Under the current scheme no records are kept therefore it is very difficult to see exactly what is being complained about in general and see if all Parishes have similar issues for example.
Village Shop – It was mention that planning enforcement had made a visit to the village shop following on from several complaints. They decided that no enforcement was needed at the moment citing also that any maximum fine would be just £1,000 and would likely be much less than this. Some advice was given and will hopefully be acted upon. Help will be provided by Milton Keynes Council where necessary or requested.
Ward Cllr Mclean made himself available for any questions.
A question was asked regarding rubbish that has become more visible now that hedges etc have been cut back and cleaned. It was mentioned that prosecution for dumping the rubbish is impossible unless the culprits are seen in the process. Cllr Mclean mentioned that this issue is being worked on, on a road-by-road basis.
- RECEIVE REPORT ON ACTIONS FROM LAST MEETING
All issues from the last meeting are dealt with at appropriate points in the agenda.
- REPORT ON DEVOLUTION OF LANDSCAPING SERVICES
Councillor Watts provided a very detailed review of the process required to select a contractor to take on the service for the Parish as from April 2020. All details are available on the website.
The key dates are as follows:
01/04/2020 – New contract starts
17/02/2020 – Contract award date
20/11/2019 – Submission deadline for contractors
Milton Keynes Council’s contracts department will manage the contract process.
At this point David Williams offered the Parish Council tree survey data collected which was gratefully received by the Council.
Cllr Watts put forward the motion, seconded by Cllr Bush, to proceed with the contract process and all were in agreement. Cllr Watts will now start the process.
- RECEIVE REPORT ON AFFORDABLE HOUSING OPTIONS ARRISING IN THE VILLAGE
Cllr Bush summarised the current position with the Barwood Homes development confirming that as they were struggling to find a housing association willing to take the houses on – they have asked for a decrease in the time where local residents have priority from 12 months to 3 months. He also confirmed that there will be 9 house available to rent under the scheme and 2 available for shared ownership.
Cllr Bush stated that he believes that the move to 3 months should be supported but asked WP to contact Dawn Wilson at Milton Keynes Council Housing Department to clarify a couple of details regarding how people can apply for the scheme. These included who to make first contact with, how the banding works with regard to any local connection (ie. What gets priority and where), and how the scheme works going forward should someone be unsuccessful or due to any oversubscription on the initial phase.
- CLERKS REPORT
WP mentioned the following:
There had been significant interest in the affordable housing scheme and that once the process detailed above was finalised then he will contact everyone to explain how to apply.
The upcoming election – all candidates need to be registered by the 3rd April 2019 in time for the election to take place, if needed, on 2nd May 2019. There are 7 seats on the Parish Council and if 7 or less candidates come forward then they will automatically become the Council. Any more than 7 candidates will require an election to take place.
Should anyone wish to stand then they can contact either the Clerk or any current Councillor who can provided the forms and information required. All the details are on the website and will be placed on the notice boards shortly.
Speeding was also mentioned especially around Sherington Bridge and the corner straight after. It was agreed to ensure this area was included in ongoing discussions surrounding speeding in and around the village.
Sherington Road will be closed overnight, subject to weather conditions, for ‘lining works’ between 9.00pm on the 18th March and 6.00am on 19th March. Diversions will be signposted.
- PROJECT GROUP UPDATES
PAVILION:
Cllr Bush explained again the current situation regarding the rent. Advisors for both the Landlord and the Council had been asked to provide a suitable figure for the rent and both came back with differing figures. The Parish Council had been pushing for both sets of advisors to meet and come to an agreement on the figure, but this has not happened. Cllr Bush therefore proposed writing to the Landlord with a proposal to ‘meet in the middle’ of both sets of figures in order to move the issue on. This was agreed and letter will be sent to the Landlord with this proposal shortly.
SHOP:
Cllr Bush again thanked Helen Sachdev for the work she had put in in driving the project forward.
The open day had been deemed a success with very good attendance and lots of comments being received. These are being collated currently and WP was asked to call another meeting shortly of the Shop Committee to review and discuss these findings.
BIODIVERSITY:
Cllrs Bush and Shires mentioned that there was to be a meeting in the previous week but this had to be postponed. The meeting is now likely to take place on the week commencing 18th March should everyone be available.
- CARETAKERS REPORT
All is going ok.
- FINANCE
Current Account Balance: £2,268.48
Savings Account Balance: £36,998.72
Cheques Due for Payment: £3,496.98
Total therefore being held is £35,770.22
All cheques were approved for payment.
- PLANNING APPLICATIONS
- UPDATE ON WATER LANE SITE
No update.
- UPDATE ON HIGH STREET SITE
There had been talk that the number of houses on the site was to increase from 36 but no proof of this can be found. WP to investigate further.
- UPDATE ON THE APPEAL LODGEDFOR THE LAND EAST OF THE HIGH STREET
No update on the appeal that has been submitted.
- CONSIDERATION OF OUTSTANDING OR RECENTLY SUBMITTED APPLICATIONS
None.
- CONSIDER CORRESPONDENCE AND NEW CONSULTATIONS
None.
- EXTERNAL MEETINGS
None.
- RECEIVE PUBLIC COMMENTS
A question was asked as to what the Councillors thought of the performance of Gun Lane during the recent diversion due to the closure of the High Street and also whether there was any deterioration of the road and verges due to this. No negative comments were made but it was agreed to look into the state of the road in the upcoming days.
A question was asked about the recent shop open day and the comments received both on the day and through the website. It was confirmed that all comments have been recorded and will be analysed at the next shop meeting as detailed above.
The issue of increased dog fouling all around the village was mentioned, and a long discussion ensued. It was again mentioned that nothing can be done to prosecute owners unless they are seen in the act. It was agreed to look into extra signage around the village and to explore other options available to deter people from not cleaning up after their dogs.
It was mentioned that the ditches on Albans Hill are currently blocked and need clearing. WP will contact the Council about this.
It was also mentioned that the footpath at School Lane was in a very bad state of disrepair. WP will again contact the Council to see what can be done or if any work is planned.
The issue of possible asbestos and incorrect removal at the Water Lane development was raised. Advice to report the issue to the Environmental Health Team at Milton Keynes Council was given and WP agreed to write to the developer and to the EH Team on the residents behalf.
- COUNCILLORS ITEMS
None.
- DATE OF NEXT MEETING
The next meeting is to be confirmed.