The Meeting of the Parish Council of Withypool and Hawkridge
Withypool Village Hall, Tuesday 13th November 2018 at 7.30PM
Attendees: Parish Cllrs: A Howard (AH - Chairman), K Branfield (KB), A Collins (AC), J Davies (JD), R Lock (RL) , P Williams PW), County Cllr F Nicholson (FN) (for part of the meeting), D Cllr S Pugsley (SP) Clerk C Hornsby (CH) and 6 members of the public
18/57 Apologies for Absence Cllr T Lloyd
18/58 Declarations of Notifiable Interest RL on Planning
18/59 Approval of the Minutes of the last meeting on 11/09/18 was proposed by
AC and 2nd by KB
18/60 Matters arising from the Minutes of the last meeting
18/42 PW stated that there are more stones and it is getting worse. She was concerned about more traffic using this route due to road closures elsewhere. Mike Ellicot (ME) of Exford has been told about the situation but as yet nothing has come back. SP said he will remind ME and FN.
18/51 Dulverton Tip will be two days a week from April.
18/61 Withypool Bridge Common Land The chairman, members of the parish council and members of the public all spoke on the present situation. It was proposed by SP that it was put on record the Parish Councils abhorrence of the recent act of vandalism that have occurred to Kings Farm property and all Cllrs agreed that it was totally wrong for someone to be carrying out these acts. It was discussed that a meeting should be arranged with all parties concerned, with their professional advisors, to help resolve this matter and District Cllr Steven Pugsley was asked to chair the meeting. It was agreed that decision points only will be minuted and not the general discussion. Clerk to arrange the meeting.
18/62 Report by District Cllr: New boundary and salt bags: SP reported that SCC are going to fund the provision of salt bags and bin filling for 2018/19. But that the Parish may have to fund their own salt bags and bins in 2019/20
18/63 Report by County Cllr Salt bags allocation and distribution as above.
18/64 Finance report:
Bank reconciliation: 1st Nov: £5115.12
However, the sale of the Ditch next to Hill Cottage has gone through and so a deposit of £4,780.00 was made on the 7th Nov. This was the sale less the money due to Mr Mark Sanders for his work on finalising the sale. His invoice was for £720.00 incl VAT.
This makes to total balance now: £9895.12
Invoices:
Mr Dan Passmore for grass cutting and tree clearance £630.00 (chq no 481)
to be paid immediately and Mrs C Hornsby for Clerk Pay £315.41 (Chq no 482) to be paid in January. This needs to be authorised at the Nov meeting as the PAYE has to be entered on the 1st January and the next meeting is not until the 8th( since postponed until 15th January) January.
Budget
This had been previously circulated to all Cllrs and the future costs May 2019 election and of the salt bags was raised as something that would need to be added to the budget.
Precept
This was the raised as the application form need to be signed and sent off before the next meeting in January. It was proposed by RL that the Precept should be raised by £650.00 to cover the cost of salting the villages roads. It was 2nd by KB and All Agreed. The Precept for 2019-2020 will be set at £3500.00
Laptop
Getting more quotes as Exmoor only have a budget of £300 to spend on a laptop.
As Withypool and Hawkridge working hours are more it was agreed that WHPC will pay £500 towards the laptop. This gives a pot of £800.00. The Clerk and Chairman will look in to purchasing the best deal for both Parish Councils.
18/65 Highways - Quarry head road will be closed from 19th Nov. Clerk to inform highways about the new hole at the bottom of Quarry head road and to ask Highways to jet drain outside Old Rectory and Olivers Cottage and also one down from Bigmoor above Quarry Head Road.
It was reported that Portford Bridge has been done nicely but is a different colour. Pennycombe bridge - Tree has been removed and the damaged to the area before the bridge has been reported
PW discussed the pot holes below Westerclose drive and the Old Rectory. She also said that she will bring up Chibbet ford at the next consultative meeting with Highways.
18/66 Parish Gardens A Jubilee Gardens tree is to be removed as it is causing a problem with the kissing gate. KB to arrange for someone to do this.
18/67 Planning 6/42/18/111 1 Rose Cottages Hawkridge Cllrs fully support the planning as it will get cars off the road and make it safer. Removal of the Beech tree and hedge will improve visibility. Clerk to email ENPA
18/68 Parish Maintenance AH thanked JD for clearing out the drains/gutter alongside the Sandway road above Withymoor, below The Firs Bungalow. AH to talk to local resident about the same section of road that JD cleared. One of the bends needs a digger to stop the water from Withypool Hill moors running across the road, which freezes every year.
18/69 Flood Defence AH asked RL if the bin can be sorted soon, RL said it would.
18/70 Correspondence The map about the re warding pattern was shown to Cllrs
18/71 Report from representatives of other groups
Withypool Village Hall KB - The Harvest upper was a great successes, the recent proposed chairs had been rejected and broadband Airband was being discussed
Hawkridge Village Hall RL - Car park finished, fire escape to be completed by Feb 2019
Henry Leigh Trust KB - reported that about 17 application were received at the last meeting, and this ranged from varied requests including driving lessons and laptops.
Exmoor Panel JD - Salt bags as previously discussed in 18/62. A talk was given by the Fire Service which was very interesting and they spoke of a trial for a Rapid Intervention Vehicle which would have greater access to difficult to reach areas.
Consultative and Parish Forum PW - Meeting on Thursday 15th Nov
Historic Signposts Restoration - JD - spoke about the need to continue restoring the sign posts and that many that had been done at the start were now in need of a touch up. JD spoke about the future of the signpost restoration as the co-coordinators contract will be finishing in spring 2019. Charlotte Thomas has been excellent in her role which require a lot of paperwork with each sign post that is restored.
18/72 Items for January meeting nothing extra
18/73 Date for January meeting-
Tuesday 15th January 2019 at Withypool Village Hall at 7.30pm
There being no further business the chairman closed the meeting at 9.45pm
Signed by Chairman Date