Parish Council Minutes 4th January 2005

• Mr S McCarthy (Chairman)
• Miss D Frost
• Mr D Haylock
• Mrs A Midgley
• Mr J Sladen
• Mr A Thomas
• Mr A Weedon
• Parish Clerk
• Parish Clerk Designate

70. MINUTES OF MEETING HELD ON 9 DECEMBER 2004

    These were taken as read and signed as a correct record by the Chairman.
     

71. MATTERS ARISING

    • Rights of Way
      The list of groups to contact regarding the proposals of realignment had not yet been received from Mr Wallbank – the Clerk would pursue the matter. Mr Haylock was in the process of arranging a meeting with Mr Gordon Hands about this matter.

    • Neighbourhood Watch
      An imminent meeting between Don Feaver and George Allan would take this matter forward and further information would be included in the Newsletter.

    • Car Parking
      The letter to Mr G Rapley had resulted in little change to the parking problems and it had been noted that the grass frontage was been ‘eaten’ away by the white van. It was decided that the Clerk should discuss anti-social parking with the Car Parking Ambassador to ask his advice for further action that could be taken by the Council.

    • Terms, Conditions and Salary for New Clerk
      Meeting of the sub-committee (comprising the Chairman, the present Clerk and Mr Sladen) was arranged for 11am on Sunday 9 January at Mallards.

    • Highway Matters
      Mr Thomas advised of very poor road surface on Boytons Lane between Parsonage Farm and Water Lane and the white stop/give way lines had disappeared. The Clerk would write to advise Highways and to enquire when resurfacing of the road might take place.

      A letter from Mr R Midgley had been received concerning issues specific to Howe Lane and these were dealt with as follows:

      • water on the road near Pollards Cross Cottage – while some work on this had been carried out it had not solved the problem; it was considered a few more gullies might need to be cut to assist the escape of the water – it was agreed to send a copy of Mr Midgley’s letter to Mike Felgate to ask for an urgent review.
      • RM stated that work to install underground pipelines was completely ineffectual and was done in the wrong place.
      • inconsiderate behaviour of a local farmer causing damage to road – Mr Haylock would talk to Chris Rayner of the NFU

      Mr Haylock reported that a man from Highways had been to review the blocked drain and had agreed to return to investigate further with a digger. There was the possibility that maybe a pipe could be moled from the drain to a man-hole on Mr Haylock’s land. Mr Haylock also noted that the surface of Wincelow Hall Road was collapsing following the wet summer.

72. WEBSITE

    It was decided that Miss Frost and Mrs Midgley should investigate the setting up of a simple website and return to the Council with a proposed brief for further discussion.

73. PRECEPT FOR 2004/05

    After discussion it was unanimously resolved that the precept for 2005/06 should be £7,300.

74. CORRESPONDENCE

    Essex County Council Planning Department had written to request that hard copies of planning documents be held by the Council to be made available for viewing by the public. This was agreed.

75. FINANCE

    The following account was presented for payment and a cheque was drawn up:

    Society of Local Council Clerks

    annual subscription

    £45.00

    It was decided to purchase accounting software for the Clerk.

76. PLANNING

    • Plans for Quail Farm Cottage had been refused.
    • Plans for an extension to Waterloo Cottage had been received and following review by the Council it was decided that Mr Haylock visit site concerning the proximity to the stream. A letter of objection should then be sent to include that the proposed frontage is out of character within the conservation area.

77. STANSTED AIRPORT

    Mr Thomas advised of the judicial review of the White Paper – an update from Stop Stansted Expansion and would be distributed to the Council. Mr Haylock advised that currently the aircraft were coming in at one every 1 minute 23 seconds. A query was raised regarding nighttime flights and it was noted that currently no excessive abuse had been noted. However, it was to be constantly monitored.

78. VILLAGE HALL

    An annual inspection by Uttlesford Building Regulations Officer had been satisfactorily carried out.

79. DATE OF ANNUAL ASSEMBLY

    The date arranged was 22 April 2005 at 8pm in the Village Hall.

    The Clerk and her designate would liaise at the beginning of February regarding the preparation of the Annual Report. This needed to be submitted for inclusion with the April Newsletter by 23 March.

The dates of the next meetings were arranged for 10 February, 17 March, 12 April and 10 May.

The meeting closed at 9.50pm.