MINUTES OF CLAVERING PARISH COUNCIL
MEETING
HELD IN THE VILLAGE HALL ON MONDAY 5 NOVEMBER
2007
(Key to votes: P: Proposed S: Seconded
F: For the proposal A:
Against Ab:
Abstained D.Int:
Declared an interest).
1 PRESENT: Chairman Edward Oliver, Vice Chairman
Richard Carter, Rebecca Stanford, Jon Cooke, Brian Barrow, Philip Smith, Edgar
Abrahams, Ron Couchman, Des Abrahams, together with 5
members of the public. Apologies
received from Mike Patmore and Nigel Cook.
2 DECLARATION OF INTERESTS:
Edgar Abrahams: Prejudicial interest in Item 9 (P3 Scheme) as
receiving funds.
Edgar Abrahams, Richard Carter
and Philip Smith: Prejudicial interest
in UTT 1721 as a friend of the applicant.
Richard Carter: Grasscutting of
Hill Green, under Finance, as a member of the Cricket Club.
Edward Oliver: Prejudicial interest in UTT 1823, and on the Wingham Appeal decision, as an adjacent neighbour to the
site.
REGISTER OF INTERESTS: Brian Barrow declared his resignation as the
Council’s Representative to Clavering Village Hall Committee.
ELECTION OF OFFICERS: Jon Cooke stood down as Responsible
Financial Officer, and the Council voted unanimously to elect Edward Oliver to
this role (P:RWC, S:ECA, F.All).
3 PUBLIC QUESTIONS
Mr Howland asked again about Dog
Control Orders information, and Edgar Abrahams was asked again to retrieve
the papers from the Jubilee
Field Committee.
Mrs Alex Weston summarised the
views from the last Jubilee Field meeting (see Item 14).
4 MINUTES: The Minutes of the meeting of 1 October 2007
were approved and signed, with the deletion of the second
half of the sentence under Item
18.
5 DRUCE
FOOTBRIDGE
The
Clerk outlined the proposals from the Environment Agency and the Council voted
to approve the works and then
take
over responsibility for ownership and maintenance. (P: RWC, S: PS, F: 6,
Abs.1).
6 MATTERS
ARISING.
1 Highways & Byways:
a. Speed Limits : It was
thought the VMS now worked properly.
b. Byway 50: Temporary closure expired. Byway 63, Parsonage Farm; being
investigated for resurfacing.
c. Coley Lane – awaiting
hedge trimming quotes; and the adjacent
LH owner to cut this side back.
d. Planned Parish Visit -
List sent to Highways. Add pavement
repairs outside
e. Verges extra cut: Proposals sent to Highways.
2 Other items:
a.
Land adj Cricketers –
Des Abrahams said bulbs had been planted; but councillors said the land
still needed
clearing.
Des Abrahams declined to ask for this to be done; in abeyance.
b Parish Notice Board for village events – Ron Couchman was designated to investigate sites.
c Tree donation: Decided to plant this on Lower Hill Green
when works at The Views are completed.
d Marker posts at Stickling Green – being
processed.
7 FINANCE:
No
Budget Figures received. VAT and HMRC
refunds awaited.
It
was proposed and agreed that Hill Green be given a final cut by a contractor as
it had become too long for the
Cricket
Club mowers, and agreed to ask MG Maintenance to do this urgently, (P: EO, S:JC, F: All).
Invoices: It was agreed to pay the following:
Harts Stat. via B.Barrow Printing 23.00 3.43 000893
Stationery & Post via
Clerk Admin.
40.91 4.78 000894
CVH Hire of Hall Sept/Oct 07 28.00 - 000895
Uttlesford
Citizens Advice Bureau Donation 100.00 - 000897
Receipts:
Newsletter Donation Clavering Players 15.00
EDF Energy Wayleaves 218.30
Allotments Rents 2007-8 149.50
Request from RCCE for a
subscription was not agreed.
Request from SSE was
Refused (Ron Couchman declared an interest, asked the
Council to make a grant, and left the meeting).
(P:RS, S: RWC, F:All).
Edward
Oliver asked the Council to start planning the Precept for next month.
The
Audit Report from Lubbock Fine was circulated at the meeting.
TENDERS: For repairing and repainting the Seats and
Benches: Two were received, and it was
agreed to accept that from John
Banks at £960. (P:RC, Sec.JC, F: All).
8 PLANNING:
UTT
1335 Downham,
The Views, Hill Green. 2 dormer
windows. Approved.
UTT 0545 Talks, Ash Tree Market
Gardens. Application to retain use of
mobile home. No decision.
UTT
1246 Talks, Ash Tree Market
Gardens: Egg grading/storage etc. Refused.
UTT 1463 Funston, Jubilee Works,
UTT 1569 Buckley, Old Garage House. Single storey extension. No objections.
UTT 1668 Woodhouse, Hawthorns, Mill
Lane. Approved.
UTT 1679 Peter Smith, 1 Colehills
Close. 2-storey side extn. No objections.
UTT 1697 Evans, Toad Hall, Starling Gn. Single storey
side extn.
Approved.
UTT 1697 Keeble
Bradford, Camlea Arkesden
Rd. Approved.
UTT 1568 J Cooke, The Old Vicarage,
UTT/1794 Smith, Further Ford End House. Single storey side & rear
extensions. No objections.
UTT/1853 Jewitt,
Green Oak Barn, Hill Green. Single bay cartlodge. No
objections.
UTT/1721 Balaam, Place Farm. Agric. General purpose grain store lean-to
building. No objections.
(ECA, PS
and RWC left the meeting).
UTT/1823 Wingham,
new house adj. Allington House. To object with reasons as previously.(EO
left the room).
APPEAL : Wingham, Site adj. Allington House.
Allowed by the Planning Inspectorate.
Planning breaches:
a. Barn and lake at Starlings Green: Under
review by UDC.
b. Parking at The Druce: Officers had asked if parking was
ongoing; the Council confirmed that it
was.
c. Sign at Jojacks
Farm: Under review.
d. TPO Tree in Sidestream woodland:
No news on removal.
e. UTT 1708/05, The Wheelhouse; Being checked by UDc.
f. Use of fishing lodge at Clavering Farm as a
restaurant; the Enforcement officers
reported they were investigating.
g. 20 Skeins Way: Enforcement officers reported planning
breaches which they were investigating.
h. UTT 1246 & 0545. Talks, Starlings Green. Enforcement Ntoice
issued for the removal of the structures on
the site, with a deadline of 3 months from 2 November 2007
unless an Appeal is made.
9 P3
Scheme & Footpaths:
Footpath at the Church still taped off. Bridges which had been closed were likely to
remain so until 2009.
10 LAND
REGISTRATION:
Track from Chipperfield
House to Hyaway:
Awaiting confirmation of registration by Mr Davey
of Hyaway.
11 ACCESSES
& GREENS:
a. The Cricketers – no further information.
12 CORRESPONDENCE: All correspondence was available in the
file and the list had been circulated to all councillors.
Essex Biodiversity: Brochure on Statutory obligations. Essex Area meeting at
agreed to attend).
EALC
– revised Code of Conduct regarding Prejudicial Interests and speaking at
meetings.
Mr
& Mrs Downham – request to clear the Frog
Pond. Accepted with thanks by the
Council.
High
Sherrif Awards to the best volunteers to be
publicised.
Post
Office Closures – agreed to write objecting to the closure of
Complaint
about parents at Chapel School still parking on the trackway;
noted for the moment, to monitor.
Highways
– approval for lights for Christmas Tree.
The Chairman signed the undertaking.
Highways
– request for Parish Representatives – passed to Ron Couchman.
Highways
– request for Passenger Transport representative.
UDC
– Winter Information event for Older People – Edgar Abrahams agreed to attend.
The following were
noted: Essex Training Partnership course
on Law & Procedures, Making the Links, NALC Chief Executive report;
Standards Board paper on Predisposition, Predetermination or Bias and the Code;
EALC County Update, EALC Community
Action Team report. .
13 STANDING ORDERS Email from the Monitoring Officer circulated. Awaiting Ron Couchman
and Edward Oliver to review, and to circulate the revised Orders with a month
for councillors to look at them.
14 VILLAGE
ORGANISATIONS
CVH: Comments that the Village Hall ‘Caution’ sign
was looking dilapidated and needed replacing.
Following removal of Clause 12 from the Trust
Deed, and advice from insurers that the Council would not be covered under
certain circumstances, it was agreed to put a sign at the entrance advising
users of this, and to put a notice in
the Newsletter. The Council decided that
it could not agree use of Hill Green for
other organisations’ events unless an indemnity or confirmation of their
own insurance cover was received. Agreed to write to the Charity Commissioners
for their views on the changes.
JF – Mrs Weston had given a summary of their
October meeting, and said whilst the field was a great asset to the village and
served its needs well, the paperwork side to comply with the Charity
Commissioners rules needed reviewing.
Edward Oliver had also
attended the meeting as ex-officio Trustee, and said he would regularly attend
in future to ensure no further problems were caused by the lack of Parish
Council Trustees.
Bulb planting – the
councillors thanked Mrs Tina Brown for co-ordinating the bulb planting in the
village.
15 DICK
BALL MEADOW Work Party meeting on
10 November.
16 ALLOTMENTS: Rents still being collected.
17 RISK
ASSESSMENT -
awaiting retyping. It was noted
that only recently the Village Hall and Jubilee Field
had
been removed from the PC Risk Assessment document.
18 HIGHWAYS
COMMITTEE: Jon Cooke and Ron Couchman: A public
meeting was planned in the Christian Centre.
19 PARISH
PLAN The Clerk was co-ordinating
this, and had appointed Chairmen to the various groups. Proposals for
the village Questionnaire
had been drafted, and they were asked for any additional questions on their
topic.
20 ANY
OTHER BUSINESS
The
name sign at Saville Close had fallen off, and Phil
Smith agreed to fix it back.
21 DATE
OF NEXT MEETING Monday, 3 December
2007. There being no other business,
the meeting adjourned.
CHAIRMAN