Denton Parish Council
Minutes of the Meeting Held on Tuesday 12th May 2009
at 8pm at Denton Village Hall
Present: Liz Cargill (Chairman), Terry Hanner (Vice Chairman), Peter Hill, Adrian Hipwell, Eddie Winter, Annie Whiteman, Pauline Sandell (Clerk)
Also Present: Dr. Murray Gray (District Councillor), one member of the public
1. Apologies
Roger Gibson.
2. Declaration of Interest None
3. Minutes of the Last Meeting
Errata: 4a first line "memorative" should read "commemorative".
The last sentence of 4b to read "Annie, Liz and Peter will form a working party and report back to the Parish Council".
The minutes were agreed and signed.
4. Matters Arising:
a) Playing Field; April report completed by Roger Gibson. A lot of rubbish had been found in the recycling area; food waste and tin cans. Peter had found paper work within that rubbish that contained the name of a local resident. The Councillors agreed that this was "fly tipping" and, should it happen again, the person would be reported to the authorities. The neighbourhood police will be made aware of this. Liz Cargill to do the next report.
b) Play Area Project; a consultation meeting was held a few weeks ago and was well supported. 24 questionnaires had been returned, 44 children may be involved, 11 people said that they would like to help. Annie Whiteman agreed to analyse the questionnaires. A further quote has been received by Peter. Peter was thanked for his work in getting the quotes.
c) Calor Village of the Year Competition; the Councillors were delighted that Denton had won the Eastern Region heat and Peter Hill said that the prize money would be £2000 and it was likely that Denton had also won one of the categories and if so a further £500 would be received. Denton is again the smallest village of the five finalists. The next round of judging will take place on the 15th July. The Clerk informed the Councillors that Richard Bacon had written a letter of congratulations to Denton Parish Council.
d) Affordable Housing update; The Clerk read out an email from Saffron Housing Trust saying that the architect had submitted the plans to South Norfolk Council and that the Design Panel may be meeting week commencing 18th May. He also said that the Consulting Engineers had sent out public utility enquiries concerning sewerage and drainage.
e) Denton Directory; Adrian had spoken to Johnnie Carslake and he was happy to continue to look after the Directory and deal with amendments. Eddie will liaise with Richard to keep the web-site up to date. Liz would like to see farmers markets included. Adrian was thanked.
f) Any Other Matters; Peter Hill had written a letter to the Boundary Committee regarding Unitary Local Government in Norfolk and asked for the Councillors to agree for it to be sent. The Chairman summarized the letter stating that the status quo was the preferred decision. Peter was thanked for writing the letter.
Proposal; Agree to send the letter. Proposed by Liz Cargill, seconded by Annie Whiteman, unanimously agreed.
5. District and County Council Matters
Murray congratulated Denton for winning the Eastern Region heat of the Calor competition and Murray was thanked in turn for supporting Denton on the judging day.
Gypsy and Traveller Consultation; the consultation period is over and the Council had received nearly 1000 comments that are being analysed now. Final recommendations will be at the end of June. There are a growing number of caravans at 5 Acre Lane but when the County Council went to court a few weeks ago to try to move them, the judge deferred the decision until more information had been received.
Greater Norwich Development Partnership; Murray is still hopeful that Denton will be moved out of the bottom category but no decision at the moment. There will be a consultation period, but not yet.
Planning; Council is going to make some decisions about planning. At the moment there are three area planning committees (East, South-West and North-West), now there will be only two – East and West. Denton will be East. Previously, it took only one objector or supporter to get an application to committee, now two people are needed. The Council had said that it could ignore parish councils but now it has backtracked and the officers cannot ignore a parish council submission as long as it has a reason for it.
Annie Whiteman commented that she found the District Council's consultation web site very difficult to use. Murray said that there had been no feed back about that.
6. Questions from the Public None.
7. Pool Meadow Liz had a meeting with Norfolk Wild Life Trust at Pool Meadow and they made some suggestions; cut regularly and remove cut nettles, use a spray, bring in dried grass and hay which would shed its seed, under plant with shrubs to attract birds. Peter confirmed that he was offering the tractor mower to cut Pool Meadow but it would need servicing first. It was agreed to have it serviced. Peter will take it to Ken Ashton for servicing and then Peter was willing to do the mowing himself. The member of public in attendance said he would help. The County Council Footpaths Department are responsible for keeping the path clear of leaves, but it was decided not to contact them at the moment as the leaves could be blown off the path by the tractor.
8. New Planning Applications – Local List No action taken.
9. Joint Parish Meeting The Clerk reminded the Councillors of the Joint Parish Meeting on the 15th May. Peter, Annie and Liz will attend.
10. Correspondence Correspondence summaries had been circulated. No action.
13. Finance
a. Financial Monthly Summary: a running budget summary and financial summary was produced by the Clerk for the month of April.
b. Pay the Clerk £88.31 for May
c. Pay Peter Hill £52.19. for Calor Competition expenses
d. Pay Allianz £401.37 for annual insurance premium
Proposal: Pay b, c, d Proposed by Liz Cargill, seconded by Adrian Hipwell. All agreed.
The Clerk was asked to pay Mr. Crowhill £20 from the petty cash tin for the new lock on the noticeboard.
e. Received £200 for hosting the recycling centre. The Clerk confirmed that this was a standard annual amount now and did not relate to the weight of the recycled bottles.
12. Any Other Business The Clerk said that she had received a telephone call from Mr. Charnick to ask if the Parish Council would ask the District Council to put up deer signs at Trunch Hill as a number of deer had been killed or injured by speeding motorists. It was agreed that the Clerk should tell Mr. Charnick that at the moment the Parish Council was trying to obtain a speed limit in the village and did not want more signs on the road. However, the deer problem will be mentioned when the survey is submitted. The Clerk was asked to find out how many deer had been hit.
The meeting closed at 09.30pm.