MINUTES OF A MEETING OF TWYNING PARISH COUNCIL HELD ON MONDAY 14 DECEMBER 2015 AT THE VILLAGE HALL 7.30PM Present: Cllr R Edes, Cllr P Ellis (arrived during item 320/15), Cllr D Hetherington, Cllr Holden, Cllr J Horsfall, Cllr Irwin, Cllr D Murray (Chairman), Cllr W O Dell. 4 members of the public, Mrs S Satchell (Clerk), Mr D Taverner (RFO), Cllr T Spencer (TBC), Cllr M Sztymiak (GCC) (arrived during item 320/15). The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting. He invited comments from members of the public. There were none. Parish Council Meeting 312/15 Apologies for absence Apologies were received from Cllr Cowper. Cllr Sztymiak had indicated that he would be delayed as he had a prior meeting. 313/15 Declarations of interest and their nature Cllr Edes: Other interest in Village Hall. Cllr Horsfall: Other interest in matters relating to TRAC and the Village School. Cllr Murray: Other interest in matters relating to the Village Hall. Cllr O Dell: Other interest in matters relating to the Village School. 314/15 To consider any requests for dispensations received There were none. 315/15 To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 9 November 2015 The minutes of the meeting held on 9 November 2015 were approved by the meeting and signed as such by the Chairman. 316/15 Planning See schedule for planning applications and decisions. The Clerk had submitted comments (together with the Hydrology report commissioned in connection with the previous planning application) on the application to extract sand and gravel 15/0088/TWMAJM. She had also submitted a statement to the Planning Inspectorate in relation to the appeal brought by Mr Southall (Ripple Tip traveller site) against an enforcement notice issued by TBC. 317/15 Clerk s report TRAC had submitted a grant application to TBC to assist with the purchase of a new play area fence. It had been agreed in principle via E- mail that TPC would contribute 30% of the total cost of the fence, on the basis that 50% of the cost would be grant funded. Dave Luckett had attended a Flood Wardens meeting. This mainly repeated information previously given and focused primarily on those areas which suffered flooding to properties. There had been an 254
interesting presentation from a senior fireman on the dangers of flowing water and how little there needed to be, for it to be life threatening. A visit had also been arranged to the Environment Agency s operations room. Hill End Road would be closed 15/16 December from outside Willow Cottage towards Hillend for BT works. The Clerk had given an expression of interest in a scheme proposed by TBC for a dog warden to be funded by the parishes. It appeared that it might be disproportionately expensive. Andy Norman was proposing to run Couch to 5K sessions in the New Year from TRAC. Spare blue refuse sacks would be available from the shop to help over the Christmas period when normal refuse collection arrangements were suspended. 318/15 Neighbourhood Development Plan & Service Village Forum The NDP team had met with TBC, who had subsequently provided a long list of suggested amendments to the draft plan. The NDP team needed to go through these in detail. There was a problem because of the requirement for conformity with the JCS and Tewkesbury Borough Plan, neither of which would apparently be ready before the NDP was completed. 319/15 Determination that Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) not required for Neighbourhood Plan As no sites (other than those already with planning permission) were being proposed for development in the Twyning NDP, it was not necessary to commission an SEA. It was resolved as follows: Following completion of screening by Tewkesbury BC and the three statutory consultees, Natural England, Environment Agency and Historic England, completed on 26 November 2015, in accordance with Regulation 9 of the SEA Regulations 2004 Twyning Parish Council as the responsible authority, determines that the Twyning NDP is not likely to have significant environmental effects and, accordingly, an environmental assessment is not required in respect of the plan. In making this determination the Parish Council had regard to Schedule 1 of the Regulations. The NDP team were required to publicise this resolution within 28 days and keep a record of how they had done this. It was agreed that the determination above would be put on the notice board and the web site and TBC and the statutory consultees would be notified. 320/15 Balances As at 30.11.2015 HSBC Current A/C 18,140.95 HSBC Deposit A/C 14,308.73 Handelsbanken 15,064.39 Nationwide Treasurer's A/C 22,629.19 Total 70,143.26 321/15 Cheques 255
Parish Council Clerk s salary (November) (Includes a tax refund) 398.92 Clerk s expenses (November) 63.00 RFO s salary (November) 65.69 RFO expenses (5 months) 129.80 Village Hall(November meeting) 12.00 Twyning PCC (Mini bus ad in church magazine) 18.00 Tewkesbury Borough Council (Litter bin 400 + VAT) 480.00 GAPTC (Course on auto-enrolment for RFO and Planning training for Cllr Horsfall) 110.00 W O Dell (reimbursement of renewal of domain name 17.50 + VAT) 21.00 D Hetherington ( reimbursement cost of materials to install litter bin 8.35 + VAT) 10.02 Neighbourhood Plan Hunter Page ( 507 + VAT) Advice on NDP final draft 608.40 Cllr Hetherington confirmed that Twyning Village Stores had very kindly donated the sum of 100 towards the new litter bin. Cllr Horsfall commented that the new bin was already full. The Clerk agreed to ask TBC how often the bin was emptied, and consideration would have to be given to whether an additional bin was needed. It was resolved to make the above payments. 322/15 RFO s report The RFO said that he would report in detail about the Auto-Enrolment requirements for the Council at the next meeting. Audit arrangements were also changing - authorities with a turnover of less than 25,000 would no longer need to have a full audit, but had to publish certain information on their web sites. Twyning were very close to the 25,000 threshold. The Clerk suggested that the Council might publish the transparency information in any event. 323/15 To approve the Budget for 2016/7 (further discussion) The RFO had received the Council tax base details and grant information from Tewkesbury BC. Some key information was outstanding including what if anything should be reserved for future expenditure at TRAC and whether any costs associated with the NDP would fall into 2016/7. 324/15 To set the precept This was held over to the January meeting. 325/15 Advertising in the Bulletin The Council had agreed a trial period for 2 issues, the second of which would be the January edition. A small group of Councillors had been appointed to approve adverts. It was agreed to carry on taking advertising for the time being and to ask the Editor to report back if there were any problems. 326/15 Borough Council matters Cllr Spencer had been through the Twyning NDP and congratulated everyone on an excellent document. He was concerned about the 256
progress of the JCS and referred to the difficulty of recruiting and retaining planning officers. 327/15 TRAC report including play area fence and replacement of other fixtures A short written report had been circulated. TRAC had applied for a grant to part fund the proposed new fence and hoped to hear the outcome of the application before Christmas. No further work had been done on the development plan and the Clerk had asked TRAC to let the Council know if they envisaged asking the Parish Council for any additional financial help over the next 15 months. There had been no further development on clarification of the terms of the Lease. 328/15 Village Hall Management Committee report No report. Ms Ball said that there was a new bench outside the hall which would be a memorial bench for John Reynolds. 329/15 Mini Bus report A short written report had been circulated. 330/15 Discussion of revised terms and conditions for use of the mini bus Cllr O Dell invited Councillors to discuss the future of the mini bus. The bus needed money spending on it to tidy it up. Cllr O Dell felt that the amount of use (particularly by villagers) did not justify keeping it. The cost of replacing the vehicle was not justified when it was used 6 or 7 times a month. Cllr Murray suggested putting something in the January Bulletin to see whether villagers felt strongly about keeping the bus. The Clerk said that the Parish ran the bus under a delegated power from TBC. She had felt from the outset that TPC did not have the facilities or the resources to run the mini bus in a way that provided for recording and cross checking which would stand up to scrutiny. TPC had nowhere to keep the vehicle; they were reliant on the goodwill of others. There were no full time staff to deal with loans and checks and the system relied totally volunteers. She had nothing but praise for the hard work and dedication of the volunteers who ran the bus and made no criticism of them but it was difficult to put adequate accounting and supervision systems in place that did not create an unacceptable burden for them. It was a high value/high risk asset compared with the Council s general resources. She acknowledged that nothing had gone wrong, but the process of looking at redrafting the terms and conditions had highlighted the vulnerabilities for example, if the bus broke down whilst on loan, the Council was not in a position to offer a replacement vehicle. If Twyning disposed of the minibus, the Gloucestershire Mini bus scheme would be available to residents. Cllr O Dell thought it was worth disposing of the vehicle whilst it still had some value. TBC had indicated that if the vehicle was disposed of, rather than insisting the money was repaid, TPC could put forward a proposal for a worthy use for the proceeds of sale. If the vehicle was retained, the redrafted terms and conditions should be checked by a lawyer. 257
331/15 Village Environment a) Dog bag dispenser/litter bins update The dog poo bag dispenser had been ordered and Cllr Hetherington had offered to install it on the Green. There was a discussion about whether one of the bins which had been removed from the area near the shop was suitable for installation by the Quay. b) Speeding vehicles Fleet Road Cllr Cowper had written a short report but was still waiting for the PCSO to arrange a date for loan of speed check equipment and training. c) Ripple Lane lay-by Cllr Sztymiak had agreed discuss the various problems with Richard Waters. d) Vehicle damage to the Green Cllr Sztymiak would also raise the question of how long it would be before the kerbs were installed along north side of the Green. The Chairman said that cars were driving over the Green, and Cllr Edes said that HGV s were also cutting across the grass by the War Memorial. The Clerk suggested that Councillors should have a site visit to discuss whether some sort of barrier was required between the parking area and the Green and the matter should go onto the agenda in January. Cllr Hetherington was asked to get a price for posts. 332/15 County Council matters Sand and Gravel planning application Consultees had asked for further information. It appeared that the applicant would be given time to update his reports. Cllr Sztymiak hoped that a timetable would be drawn up and adhered to. GCC was considering its budget for 2016/7. 333/15 Any other matters to be drawn to the Council s attention Cllr Spencer said that Twyning Lunch Club was a brilliant organisation, and those running it should be congratulated. 334/15 Meetings and courses Chartered Parishes meeting 9.12.2015 7pm Hub, Churchdown Planning training 8.1.2016 9.15-4.15 (Cllr Horsfall to attend) The Chairman and Vice-Chairman had been to the Chartered Parishes meeting. The main point of discussion was the service provided by Amey and in particular that there was no way of telling whether issues which had been reported were being progressed. 335/15 Adjournment to allow further comments from the public Mrs Page thanked the Clerk for the planning comments submitted on behalf of the Council in response to the Sand and Gravel planning application. Ms Ball said that Santander now had a bank account which might be suitable for the Council. 336/15 Date of next meeting Monday 18 January 2016 7.30pm Village Hall The meeting closed at 9pm 258
PLANNING APPLICATIONS Applications received 15/01151/FUL Perigilis Fleet Road 2 storey rear extension, garage conversion & porch 15/01249/FUL Mr T Reeves, Twittocks Farm, Twyning Erection of new general purpose agricultural building 15/0088/TWMAJM Moreton C Cullimore (Gravels) Limited Pages Lane Objection lodged 15/01294/FUL Mr and Mrs Broadbent-Smith, Perrins, Fleet Lane Timber framed conservatory to rear Permission granted 15/00733/CLP Cotswold Grange Caravan Park Downfield Lane 6 Caravans for residential occupation for people over 45 15/00584/FUL Cotswold Manor Country Park Stratford Bridge Installation of new sewage treatment plant and control kiosk to serve Cotswold Manor Park and erection of fencing (retrospective application), and proposed provision of area of hardstanding 15/00900/FUL Fleet Close Caravan Park Removal of conditions 3, 4 and 5 attached to planning permission 07/01509/FUL (allowed under appeal reference APP/G1630/A/08/2075145) to allow residential occupation of caravans on pitches 6, 7, 8 and 9. 15/00108/FUL Caravan Park, Meadow Lane Removal of condition numbers 2 and 3 of Application Reference Number: 01/01256/1488/FUL 15/00840/PDAD Mr T Reeves, Twittocks Farm Conversion of single storey agricultural building to 1 house 15/01184/FUL Mr Hawkes, 1 Duddage Farm Cottages, Brockeridge Road Removal of agricultural occupancy restriction Appeal lodged 15/00356/FUL Twittocks Farm Application to fence in front of property 14/00926/FUL 259
Liam Radcliffe, The Paddocks Downfield Lane Residential site for 2 gypsy families 15/00111/ENFA Mr Southall, Land near Gubberhill Farm (Traveller site on Ripple landfill) Appeal against enforcement notice. Appeals allowed 15/00016/FUL Mr and Mrs Bayliss Coombs Farm Goodiers Lane Erection of new dwelling 260