The minutes for the virtual meeting of Ashwell Parish Council held on Zoom on Tuesday 1 December 2020, hosted by Val Harvey.
Present were Wendy Cheesman, Chair; Tony Graveling; Brian Farr; Val Harvey; and Ward councillor June Fox. Clerk was Sally Harnett. There were no members of the public.
1 There were no apologies received for absence.
2 Declarations of Interest were expressed by Val Harvey, personally known to applicant of 2020/1325/LBA, and Brian Farr, personally known to applicant of same.
3 The Minutes of the previous meeting were unanimously agreed.
4 Matters Arising from the previous meeting:
The cherry tree on the green near the telephone box has been removed by RCC, leaving a stump above ground level, posing a possible risk to pedestrians. The clerk will contact RCC to find out what RCC intend to do about the stump. Depending on the answer from RCC, the clerk will contact the resident who has offered to buy a new tree.
All the safety railings in Water Lane have been painted. The ditch in Oakham Road has been cleared satisfactorily, a letter of appreciation has been forwarded to RCC. This will ensure that excess water running off the adjacent fields will again drain properly into the stream. The new waste bins in Oakham Road and Cottesmore road have been installed and are in use.
The installation and placing of the new notice board will need to satisfy Conservation Area requirements. The choice of board, finance and ownership will need to be discussed.
The response to the Local Plan took a very long time to complete. It should be recorded that it was not considered to be well put together, and that the questions could have been better formed. All members of Ashwell Parish Council made their comments, and the clerk filled in the forms. Appreciation is recorded for everyone’s work. A record has been kept on file, in Planning “Response to Local Plan 2020”, copies are to be distributed to members.
5 Finance report by Tony Graveling.
The present balance stands at £11,277, this is higher than expected. A bank reconciliation was carried out on 30th September 2020. The 2 waste bins have been installed as requested on Oakham Road and Cottesmore Road, we will shortly have an invoice for £200 for these.
Resolution: to approve payment for waste bins, proposed by Wendy Cheesman, seconded by Brian Farr and passed unanimously.
There have been no requests for donations since the last meeting.
The Leicestershire and Rutland Association of Local Councils, (LRALC) was consulted on the subject of donations to village halls, as the literature on the subject was unclear for the particular situation for Ashwell. LRALC stated that another power should be used, the Local Government Act 1976s19(3). There would be no cap on donations using this power. With this in mind a range of larger sums for donation has been proposed in the budget for 2021/2022.
The draft budget for 2021/2022 has been circulated. After some discussion it was calculated that Ashwell could see an increase in council tax of about 1%. Ashwell Parish Council wishes to assist the village hall within the council’s limits.
Resolution: To approve the precept of £4000, proposed by Brian Farr, seconded by Wendy Cheesman, passed unanimously.
Resolution: To approve the Ashwell Parish Council budget for 2021/2022, proposed by Wendy Cheesman, seconded by Val Harvey, passed unanimously.
The clerk was thanked for all her extra work, caused mainly by the pandemic and the 3 large surveys which required many hours of work for all, wages were paid of £624 for 52 hours work since 6 September 2020.
5a It is proposed to include updates on the village hall in future meetings under a sub-heading in Finance.
6 Planning
Local Plan response: The provided on-line response form for this was used. It was felt that the form of the questions appeared to be biased to receive the answers that were wanted. It was a very tedious experience, taking an inordinately long time. A particular point raised was the South Kesteven arrangement for housing. Councillor Fox explained that there is a duty to co-operate with adjoining counties. The piece of land in question is owned by the Burleigh Estate and South Kesteven Council. One advantage to Rutland could be a provision of a possible surgery on that site, as a Stamford surgery has been closed, with Empingham surgery overfilled as a result.
The Government White Paper on planning for the future was sent as a survey with 24 questions, this was returned on 22October2020 at 11.42, the firm conducting the survey would not allow it to be saved. Ashwell made strong comments on the attack on local planning in the proposed White Paper, the government plans appear to be taking away the democratic rights of the public.
The Conservation Area leaflet has now been passed, and will be processed for delivery to Ashwell households.
Observations and comments continue to be made on planning applications. One application is pending, Brian Farr and Val Harvey have declared an Interest in this application, 2020/1325/LBA.
7 Highways
There was a meeting with Highways Officer Donna Ullah who agreed that there was a blockage in the pipework under the Cottesmore Road at the Water Lane junction, and work must be carried out here. Ashwell Parish Council has been given job numbers for the several matters needing attention in the village, and will continue to apply for updates. The layby at Cottesmore Road and Woodside is going through costing at RCC. There is subsidence in Brookdene, and flooding in a further spot in Brookdene. A vacuum lorry did clear the drain in Cottesmore Road, but the leaves blocking the drain were heaped onto the pavement, and had to be removed by a resident. The clerk will report this.
Councillor Fox stated that there has been a high turnover of Highways staff in Rutland County Council lately.
Ashwell Parish Council continues to support the resident of Teigh Road in his efforts to have a 40 limit sign imposed at the edge of the village.
The inappropriate parking sign close to the village hall should be removed, this could possibly be combined with the installation of the new notice board.
The resident who reported concerns with the use of chemicals too close to properties has been visited by a parish council representative. It is believed that there will be a ban on certain chemicals for spraying in the future.
8 Correspondence
APC has received a reply from MP Kearns stating that Rutland will fight to try to keep hospital services in Rutland. Councillor Fox stated that RCC is fighting hard to keep Rutland medical services. Discussion followed on the need to keep Rutland Memorial Hospital in better use, if the demand for full services was made then they should be available rather than the necessity for much further travel and stress.
9 Police
There has been a burglary and an attempted burglary in Ashwell very recently. It was decided to sign up to PC Appleton’s app, and to check with PC Appleton that it could be published on the village link run by the editor of the Wellspring.
10 Public Forum
There were no members of the public present.
11 Co-option of a new member for Ashwell Parish council.
It was decided that it was a difficult time to go ahead with efforts on this, due to lockdown and the pandemic. It was decided to postpone this.
12 Cottesmore Tip.
There was much discussion about the need for this tip to be re-opened, the present arrangements forcing the use of North Luffenham which meant a good hour’s journey through country lanes. The Rutland Local Plan was not being followed in the continued closure of the Cotesmore tip, the staff from which are now employed at the North Luffenham tip. Councillor Fox said pressure to reopen would be continued. APC decided to write to the MP for Rutland.
13 AOB for the next meeting.
The email regarding CloudyIT received 1 Dec2020 would be investigated and placed on the agenda for discussion.
Dates of next meetings:
Tuesday 2 March 2021
Tuesday 25 May 2021
Tuesday 7 Sep 2021
The meeting was declared closed at 20.15hrs.