Draft Minutes of the meeting of Sherington Parish Council held at the Pavilion on Tuesday 12th October 2021, commencing at 7.30pm
PRESENT: Cllrs McNeil, Mears, Nokes and Palmer, Parish Clerk Lauren Scott, and RFO Will Pike.
ALSO ATTENDING: Ward Cllrs Mclean and Geary, PCSO Huckle, Jeff Charles Caretaker and 11 members of the public.
- Receive and accept apologies: Cllr Shires and Cllr Hosking.
- Receive declarations of interest: Cllr McNeil in respect of BarnCo.
- Receive the resignation of Cllr Meldrum and Co-Opt Susan Sexton: It was agreed to minute The Council’s thanks to Cllr Meldrum for his service to the community, his written resignation accepted, Lauren Scott informed the room that notice will be given to the Electoral services manager and the vacancy notice posted to the village noticeboards and website. Cllr McNeil proposed Susan Sexton for Co-Option and Cllr Palmer seconded the proposal.
Action: Clerk – Advertise vacancy, notify Electoral services.
- Approve minutes from the meeting 14th September: Approved
- Receive Ward councillors report: Cllr McLean gave an update on the MKConnect service, 6 months in, he noted that rural areas were not being supported as well as towns and they had received roughly 85% negative feedback on the service, a shortage of drivers and being a new service being part of the problem, solutions are in hand, but feedback is still vital to making the service work.
Action: Clerk – Add feedback box to website if possible.
- Receive PCSO report: PCSO David Huckle introduced himself and his colleague and gave a short report (see website for details) He advised that a person of interest that had been reported since the last meeting had been reprimanded and that catalytic converter theft is on the rise, tips on how to avoid this are detailed in his report.
- Review of action log: Reviewed and agreed that tasks would be investigated in more detail and focus areas set.
- Clerks report: The Website domain name and host have been set in place and work has begun on the new site. The extra dog poo bin has been approved we are still looking into placement; new noticeboards are still in progress.
Standing orders will be reviewed and circulated to all councillors for approval at the next meeting.
- Receive caretaker report: The Willow tree in the Pavilion carpark has been cut back, Jeff recommends that the tree is added to the landscaping programme of works to be kept in shape annually. Outside lighting at the Pavilion has been changed to brighter led bulbs. A request has been received from one of the football home teams for the bushes on the outskirts of the field to be cut back, it was agreed to investigate this.
A request has been made to the caretaker to renew Phil Smiths tree on the knoll as the existing tree is not doing well, it was agreed to investigate this or a suitable alternative as trees don’t seem to be doing well there.
Jeff also noted that we should be thinking about The Queens Jubilee and how the village can celebrate it.
- Project group updates:
10.1 Pavilion: The new MUGA has been signed off and opened for use, Wicksteed supplied goodie bags and footballs for the children at the Grand Opening that was well attended. Quotes have been sought for the installation of a footpath and floodlighting to encourage winter use, funding streams will be identified to help with these costs, we will also be investigating the possibility of extending the carpark footprint to allow for the extra parking required when footballers and hall users combine.
10.2 SHOP: Cllr McNeil gave a brief update on where we are with the shop, due to the sensitive nature of this subject this will not be minuted.
10.3 BarnCo: *Due to Cllr McNeil’s pecuniary interest in this area Cllr Mears takes the Chair* – Cllr Mears reported that the TORs for working groups must be set by The Council, It was agreed that these will be worked on within a separate meeting, date to be set, and then brought to the next meeting for approval. Cllr Nokes updated that he had met with the other members of BarnCo and that he had shared the minutes of that meeting, it was agreed that those minutes should be added to the PC website on the BarnCo page. It was also noted that all correspondence from BarnCo with The Council and other stakeholders would be via Cllr Nokes only, no other members of the group are authorised to correspond on behalf of The Council.
Action: Clerk- Meeting to agree TORs to be booked, minutes to be added to the website.
*Cllr McNeil Retakes the chair*
10.4 Landscaping: A walk about has been organised to ascertain ownership of areas in need to work, maintenance of bushes in the pavilion carpark and within the perimeter of the field will be added to the Shires contract, if necessary, The Clerk is attending a Teams workshop on landscaping on the 18th of October.
There are several benches within the village in need of repair or replacement, this will be investigated further.
Stephen Kennedy asked that the ward councillors support him with the removal of vegetation encroaching on to the highway at the top end of the high street by emailing the highways team.
Action: Clerk – Attend village walk ascertain ownership, update village map, update landscaping contracts accordingly. Price up replacement benches.
Ward councillors – Email highways regarding encroaching vegetation.
10.5 Biodiversity: Cllr Palmer gave an update on Stonepits Copse. He has been working with volunteer David Keen to regularly maintain a path through the area and would like to set up a working party in November to tackle some bigger projects including but not limited to tree planting and cutting back, shrub maintenance and the replacement of a basic bench. All councillors were in favour providing that the group could provide a risk assessment on the working environment and safe use of tools.
Cllr Nokes asked that the signage that was removed from the high street be replaced.
Action: Cllr Palmer – Liaise with David Keen to set up working party and produce a risk assessment.
Caretaker – reinstate signage
10.6 Drainage: Cllr Mears updated on the work completed by a group of volunteers headed by Stephen Kennedy, another working party is organised for the coming weekend to continue up the high street. It was noted that some small bridges across the ditches have been uncovered and need guard rails.
Stephen Kennedy is attending a MKC meeting on flooding on behalf of the PC and will report back to the group his findings, he has also been liaising with MK highways to find out who is responsible for which areas. The Council thanked him and other volunteers for their continued efforts.
10.7 Highways: The possibility of a group of villagers applying to the Arts S106 fund for decorative gates at the 3 village entrances was discussed, Councillors are in favour of decorative entrance gates or similar and would like more time to investigate further as they would like to explore different funding streams.
Cllr Nokes has been liaising with BP who came to the council with the intent to add an Electric vehicle charging point within the village, Cllr Nokes has identified a possible position, but more investigation is needed, this is to be added to the agenda for next meeting.
Action: All – investigate CIF and other funding streams.
Clerk – Add BP EV charger to next agenda
- Finance: All payments and invoices received were approved and sent for payment.
MONTHLY BALANCES:
Current Account: £68,417.33
Savings Account: £35,476.89
Payments Due: £13,842.88
Total Funds: £90,051.34
- Planning: 21/03001/LBC |Listed Building Consent for the conversion of existing out-building to village shop (Retail – Shops A1) (for 21/03000/FUL) | The White Hart 1 Gun Lane Sherington Newport Pagnell MK16 9PE – Council is in support.
Consider correspondence and new consultations: See highways update.
Katie Hine requests that the Council consider her request to put in an access gate between her property and the Carters close/Village Hall recreation ground, this will be added to the agenda for the next meeting.
Action: Clerk – Add to the agenda for next meeting
External meetings: Cllr McNeil and the clerk met with Adam from ‘Something less boring’ for an update on their proposal to access S106 Arts funding to create a conservation trail around the village, they in turn updated the Council, and it was unanimously agreed to support this by allowing them to use PC land to erect their sculptures, for more information please see the presentation on the PC website.
Action: Clerk to add updated proposal to website.
- Councillors’ items: As above
- Receive public comment: A former council member reported that he is still receiving emails from the defibrillator company, he asks that the clerk emails the company to update the contact details, He also requested that minutes of the BarnCo meetings be added to the website, and this was agreed and minuted under BarnCo.
A question was received regarding hedging along Gun Lane, it was agreed this would be covered by the landscaping actions.
A member of the public requested that the grass verges between Sherington Grange and Gun Lane be kept clear to walk along, it was agreed this is also covered in Landscaping.
A question was asked about the gate on the border of the Grange and High Street, it was agreed to add this to the agenda for next month for investigation.
Action: Clerk – Add to next month’s agenda.
- Date of the next meeting: 9th