The Meeting of the Parish Council of Withypool and Hawkridge
Withypool Village Hall, Tuesday 14th January 2020 at 6.30PM
Attendees: Parish Cllrs: K Branfield- Chair (KB), A Collins (AC), J Down (JD), T Lloyd (TL), W Lock (WL), P Soltau (PS) and Clerk C Hornsby
Members of the public: 2
71/19 Apologies of Absence County Cllr F Nicholson (FN), District Councillor S Pugsley (SP) both stated they may be late
72/19 Declarations of notifiable interests Can be raised at specific points of the meeting.
73/19 Approval of the Minutes of the previous meeting on 12/11/19 These were proposed by TL and 2nd by AC and all agreed they were a true and correct record of what took place. The chairman then signed the minutes
74/19 Matters arising from the Minutes of 12/11/19 Highways responses were read out for road repairs. Salt bins lacking in salt was raised.
75/19 Report by the District Councillor -none
76/19 Report by the County Councillor - see end of meeting
77/19 Highways JD reported an issue near Landacre Bridge.
78/19 Salt bins KB and TL to see if the issue is raised at the meeting on 20th Jan
79/19 Common Land working Group update TL reported that due to advice from SALC (Somerset Association of Local Councils) the council will no longer pursue the issue and it will now be down to the land owners. If and when any response is required from the parish council regarding any changes to existing fencing along the road the council will vote on it and their opinion will be passed on to the relevant party concerned. Until this arises the parish council will be removing this issue from the agenda. An email had been sent to the parish clerk, from a resident, in support of an opening in the existing road side fence and this was noted.
80/19 Finance report Bank reconciliation: £7900.51
Invoices: Previously paid between meetings - all cllrs were emailed about this at the time: Three Atop - £ 375.00 tree maintenance Chq No: 501
Grass cutting of Withypool Parish Grounds 4th April 31st oct 2019 Dan Passmore - £580.00 Chq No: 502 the PC agreed that this should be paid.
Dan Passmore submitted a quote for grass cutting for 2020 he will be keeping same price as last year of £580.00 Proposed by TL and 2nd by JD and all agreed for Dan Passmore to cut the parish grass again.
SCC: There was an odd £35 standing order on the accounts to Somerset County Council. This was for a membership that no longer is required and so the standing order will be cancelled. Clerk to organise.
There is a deadline of 23rd September 2020 for compliance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018, clerk will check to see if website needs to be upgraded and any costs. This will be reported in March.
Previously the clerks husband was able to claim for paper and ink through his work and so the council were not charged however due to a change in situation the clerk will now be charging the parish council for any printing costs. This will be kept to a minimum but a charge of 10p per sheet will now be in place. The chairman thanked the clerk and her husband for covering the costs in the past.
81/19 Planning None, however one arrived after the agenda was published and Cllrs will be notified and if required a separate meeting will be arranged.
82/19 Parish Gardens the Clerk notified the parish council that two tenants will have their tenancy up for renewal in August. They will be notified in July. WL said that he knew someone who was interested and will pass on the name to the clerk to add to the list of interested parties. When land becomes available, if there is more than one interested it will go to Tender.
83/19 Parish Maintenance (i) Benches quotes several quotes were spoken about by the clerk and it was asked if the clerk could send all the Cllrs one specific one. It will be raised at the next meeting and a purchase of one or two benches will be proposed. (ii) Tree felling update- WL reported that the tree stump was taken down and logs were left for any one to pick up. KB reported that these have now all gone. (iii) JD reported that the fingerpost that had broken off had been taken away and it was agreed that this was by Mr J Davies of the village who is a monitor for the finger posts. (iv) PS raised the issue on dog mess and whether a bin should be provided in the carpark. The clerk informed the PC that the parish council would have to buy the bin and also pay a weekly fee to have it cleared. It was agreed that at present the problem is not a big one and so to leave for now
Cllr Howard (AH) and two members of the public arrived. Cllr AC made his apologies and left
84/19 Correspondence (i) Clowns would like a grant clerk to look in to this and forward the request to all Cllrs to view. (ii) Community Connect event -Clerk to fwd to all Cllrs
85/19 Report from representatives of other groups: Withypool Village Hall, Hawkridge Village Hall, Henry Leigh Trust, Exmoor Panel, Consultative & Parish Forum There was nothing to report from any of the above groups.
83/19 Parish Maintenance was returned to as AH reported that Mr J Davies is looking at the benches with a view to repairing them and Dan Passmore would do a yearly maintenance. The Cllrs all felt that the yearly cost would be much better investing in a recycled plastic bench which has no maintenance costs. Clerk will still forward all Cllrs the quote and this will be decided in the March Meeting.
86/19 Items for January 2020 agenda Benches, Website compliance,
87/19 Date and time of next meeting: Tuesday 10th March 2020 Hawkridge Village Hall 6.30pm
There being no further business the chairman closed the meeting at 7.39pm.
County Councillor Frances Nicholson arrived and had a couple of points to raise so the chairman reopened the meeting at 7.42pm
76/19 Report by the County Councillor FN reported about (i) the Panel meeting on 16/01/20 (ii) the Highways meeting on 20/01/2020 which is so the political leaders of the County Council can hear the problems with road closures and salting on Exmoor. TL and KB will attend. (iii) the letter from the CC about the unitary authority a report on combining resources to cut costs. Clerk to forward info to Cllrs. (iv) the Somerset CC website where you can report pot holes and blocked drains etc and mark them on a map to make it clearer for Highways to know where the problem is. All Cllrs will now report any issues directly and then report to the next meeting for the Clerk to minute and monitor.
There being no further business the chairman closed the meeting at 7.53pm
Signed ..Date