Minutes March 2009

Birdham Parish Council

Minutes of the Meeting held on Monday 16th March 2009 at 7pm in Birdham Village Hall.

Present: Cllr Tilbury; Cllr Ms Leach; Cllr Mrs Parks; Cllr Howat; Cllr Meynell; Cllr Churchill

In attendance: The Clerk; 4 members of the public; District Cllr Montyn; District Cllr Jones

117-08cl. Apologies had been received from Cllr Mrs Cobbold; Cllr Ms Huskisson

118-08cl. Declarations of interest Cllr Meynell declared an interest as the architect in item 120-08cl ii)

119-08cl. Minutes of the Meeting dated 16th February 2009 With the alteration to Minute 114 at the end to read “on the playing field and at the bus stops in Birdham” it was proposed by Cllr Meynell and seconded by Cllr Mrs Parks RESOLVED that the Minutes be approved and signed by the Chairman.

120-08cl. Matters arising from the minutes dated 16th February 2009
i) Min 109-08cl iii) Drainage matters – Cllr Mrs Cobbold had not been able to attend the meeting in Selsey, but Cllr Meynell had attended. He reported that about 18 people had been at the meeting. Quite a high powered meeting, but are not yet sure what they are going to do. Will be doing bore hole tests along the area. Mr Bunn will be going ahead to protect his own site. The government will not put money into the protection of farmland, which is why they are looking at managed retreat. Various options being looked at. The overall costs to protect at Medmerry could be over £2m. They are putting together a computing model to present to the public. Local land purchases already progressing for the land along the corridor of managed retreat.
ii) Min 111-08cl final paragraph – possible listing of Forge Cottage – the Chairman reported that he had completed and sent off the papers for this and was awaiting a reply.

121-08cl. Clerk’s Report including:
a) WSCC reports, highways matters and correspondence
i) the Chairman has been invited to lunch with the Chairman of the County Council.
b) CDC reports including correspondence
i) The Clerk has been told that the first payment of the precept will be made on 17th April and the second on 18th September this year. This was noted.
ii) CDC has also notified the Council that the Core Strategy may be delayed by quite a long time as there is no prospect of either the Highways work on the A27 being done within the time scale and there are also concerns about the capacity of Apuldram Treatment Works to treat the sewage from further large numbers of properties. This was noted.
iii) The Clerk has now received the maps from CDC and she has passed them to the Chairman. This was noted.
c) other related matters
i) The Clerk had attended the Peninsula Community Forum and had circulated her report.
ii) Kate Trent, Community Engagement Worker, has written to introduce herself to the Clerk. She deals with elderly people who may need help in staying in their own homes etc. and is based at Anchor Staying Put in Theatre Lane, Chichester. This was noted.
iii) The Council has received the February “Town and Parish Standard” and this will be placed in the correspondence file for councillors to read.
iv)The Clerk had asked the Chairman if she could attend a Clerks’ Networking day at East Grinstead on 31st March and he had said she could do so, so she has booked a place.
v) the Clerk informed councillors that she would be away from 6th – 13th April inclusive and that therefore the papers for the next meeting will probably go out two weeks before the meeting rather than the usual one.
vi) The Clerk informed the Council that she had been invited to join the local Chichester South CPRE Planning Committee. So that she can speak freely (rather than simply on behalf of the parish) she has joined CPRE as an individual member. This was noted.
vii) The Parish has received a letter from Bolitho Way, solicitors, who are acting on behalf of the late Tony Adams. Subject to probate, he has left the piece of land next to the playing field to the Parish Council. There will be a covenant on the land saying that it can never be built on, and that the Council will remove the existing boundary at their own expense and take responsibility for maintaining the boundary between the piece of land and Birdham Straight House. Until the Council hears that probate has been received. This was noted.
viii) Action in Rural Sussex has written to say that they are still keen for parishes to have a Parish Plan, and are now suggesting a rapid action plan which could be done just from the Annual Parish Meeting where a Council can ask for issues from the public. After discussion it was decided to note this, but that the Council is open to suggestions at any time with regard to the development of the Parish.

122-08cl. Planning matters including CDC decisions:
A paper detailing planning matters had been circulated to all councillors.
Plans to be considered:

BI/09/00362/FUL Birdham C of E Primary School – Erection of steel-framed polytunnel (5m x 8m x 3.1m) associated equipment and photovoltaic solar panel. It was proposed by Cllr Tilbury and seconded by Cllr Meynell RESOLVED NO OBJECTION

BI/09/00787/FUL Cowdry Nursery, Sidlesham Lane, Birdham – construction of new access. It was proposed by Cllr Meynell and seconded by Cllr Churchill RESOLVED to OBJECT on environmental grounds and of the vagueness of future plans for the site.

Substitute Plans

BI/09/00211/DOM – Glen Iris, Bell Lane Birdham – It was proposed by Cllr Tilbury and seconded by Cllr Ms Leach RESOLVED to note the substitute plan as amended and the withdrawal of the wall and so we have no objection to these plans.

Plans considered since the last meeting to be ratified:

BI/09/00137/TPA
14 Pipers Mead, Birdham concerning trees at Rowan Nursery, Bell Lane, Birdham

We regret the delay in responding to this application. The owner of Rowan Nursery has been away and we needed access to the trees.

For ease of identification we shall consider the trees from east to west.

Tree no 1.
When the TPA was applied to these trees at the time of the building of Pipers Mead on the site of Shamrock Nursery, the then owner removed a number of limbs on the north side of this tree without the permission of the owners, unbalancing it so that it now has some growth on the north side but the main growth is to the south towards the house at Rowan Nursery for which it forms a screen. To remove too much from the north side of this tree would accentuate the lack of balance but to balance this by removing growth on the south is both unnecessary and unneighbourly. We therefore urge great caution on item 3 of the application. Our preference would be simply to tidy up the straggly growth at the base of the tree on the north side but not to remove any major limbs.

Tree no 2.
This tree does not appear to us to need any attention and we would be concerned under item 1 of the application if the crown were thinned by 25%.

Tree no 3.
This tree does need some attention and we would be content to see the three lower limbs removed which would raise the height of the crown to the requested 6 metres.

Tree no 4.
This is the west tree referred to in item 4 of the application. We can see a case for thinning the growth on the north side of this tree where it overhangs the gardens in Pipers Mead but not for interfering with the main limbs. This tree has three main leaders (one more has been removed). They seem to us to be perfectly sound and not to require attention.

In the nature of Monterey pines, the these trees are very tall. Item 1 on the application requests all the crowns to be thinned by 25%. We would urge extreme caution if the visual amenity of these trees is not to be severely compromised.

We understand that the work is to be done at the expense of the owners of the houses in Pipers Mead. We assume that a qualified tree surgeon will carry out the work.

The Council raises NO OBJECTION to some work being carried out, subject to the comments above, for the good management of the trees but this should be the main criterion. If the work improves the light to the gardens that will be a secondary benefit.

BI/09/00211/DOM
Glen Iris , Bell Lane, Birdham

We have visited the site of this application since the plans show the extension reaching to the boundary between Glen Iris and Smallburgh to the north. We were concerned about unneighbourliness and difficulties during construction and for future maintenance.

In fact Smallburgh does not extend to its boundary. There is a concrete path about 60 cm wide against the southern boundary. It is nonetheless difficult to see how construction work will be possible at Glen Iris without disturbance to the neighbour’s property. Maintenance to the northern wall of the proposed extension to Glen Iris will be impossible without an agreement with the successive owners of Smallburgh. Plan 271008/3 does show a gap between the properties but is no wider than 10cm.

While the Council has NO OBJECTION to the proposal to extend Glen Iris, we do draw attention to the boundary problems. We were also told that mains supplies to both houses run partially under the line of the proposed front garden wall.

It was proposed by Cllr Churchill and seconded by Cllr Howat RESOLVED to ratify the decisions made since the last meeting.
CDC Decisions:

BI/06/01973/FUL – Birdham Fruit Farm, Martins Lane – Re-use of existing building to provide multi-purpose store and separate two-bay garage. Amendments to approved plans BI/04/00049/FUL and BI/05/04879/FUL – PERMIT with S106

BI/09/00137/TPA – Rowan Nursery, Bell Lane – Crown thinning up to 25% and crown lifting up to 6 m (on branches up to 175m in diameter) on 4 no. Monterey pine trees. Reduce by 2 metres 2 no. low limbs on north side of eastern Monterey pine tree (of the 4 no. trees). Reduce by 2 metres 3 no. limbs on western Monterey pine tree (of the 4 no. trees) all 4 trees within group G subject to BI/83/00023/TPO – PERMIT

123-08cl. Correspondence

Emails sent out since the last meeting:
19/2 – Presentation from Julie Whitney; 22/2 – Manhood Parishes Road Safety Group; 26/2 – Hospitals merger, latest information; 27/2 – Chichester Harbour Events – March; 28/2 – LDF Core Strategy update; 5/3 – West Sussex PCT’s ebulletin (issue 41); 9/3 – Common Land, Village Greens etc; 13/3 – Chichester Harbour press release; 13/3 – Local Notice to Mariners No.4 of 2009; 13/3 – work starts at East Head.

Correspondence to be circulated includes:

LCR March 2009
Clerks and Councils Direct March 2009
CPRE Fieldwork March 2009
Play Today Winter/spring 2009

124-08cl. Reports:
i) Playing field and play area – Cllr Churchill had reported to the Clerk that the fence around the play area was damaged. She had contacted Knights Fencing who will be looking at it on Wednesday to quote for the repairs. She has also chased up the repairers and they had said the work to repair the play area would be done this weekend.
ii) Village green and pond – the Chairman has been trying to make an appointment with Adrian Dover to talk to him about the exit from the pond. Cllr Churchill had been concerned about the ditch along Crooked Lane, but it seems to have been well maintained.
iii) Neighbourhood Watch – Wendy Pitty had not reported, but Ann Bromley had sent a report: Overnight 27/28 Feb a garage in Westlands was broken into and 2 children’s bikes were stolen. A third bike was moved out of the garage and placed on the drive.
In March we have had criminal damage to a sign in Bell Lane at one of the nurseries
2 occurrences of shoplifting from Birdham Stores - same offender - CCTV is being checked and contact details and advice given to store.

A local youth was given a warning for possession of cannabis - his vehicle was stopped around 04:25 on a Saturday morning, and following a search a small amount of cannabis was found and confiscated.

There was a break in to a van in Crooked Lane on March 10th but nothing was stolen.

Finally, there has been a theft of building equipment from a site in Westlands - furhter enquiries are being carried out.

On another subject, she had a meeting on 13th with the Youth Club Leader at East Wittering, Dean Miles. They are hoping to do some Outreach Youth work in Birdham later on this year and she wondered if it would be possible for her to accompany him to your April meeting (20th I believe?) He would like to address the parish council and give you an idea of what this would involve and would also like to approach the council with regard to some possible funding.

The Council agreed to this request.

iv) Tree Wardens – no report

125-08cl. Finance A Financial Situation Report had been circulated to all councillors.
Payments made since the last meeting to be ratified:

Clerk’s salary 556.72

Receipts, current account – Apuldram, copies and phone 21.71
Receipts, deposit account – interest 7.91
Receipts, Village Hall account – nil

Payments to be considered:

Mrs Geary, litter, March 65.00
SALC (subscription, includes £9.34 VAT) 377.12
SALC (Clerks’ networking day, includes 6.75 VAT) 51.77
Clerk’s expenses, includes £.05 VAT 48.30
HM Revenue and Customs (Clerk’s National Insurance 2008-9) 59.80

Notes: The Clerk has on Friday transferred £1500 from the deposit account to the current account to meet expected expenses until the first half of the new precept is received.

It was proposed by Cllr Tilbury and seconded by Cllr Mrs Parks RESOLVED to approve the financial report.

126-08cl. Reports of meetings attended by councillors
Cllr Mrs Parks reported on a recent meeting of the governors of Birdham C of E Primary School. The school will have a redesign and improvements.

127-08cl. Public session
Parish Plan – there is an outline available.
A member of the public asked if there could be a seat at the bus shelter opposite Birdham Stores. There is a seat at the Bird and Ham stop which is not used, and it could be moved. Clerk to enquire of Highways about permission for it.

There being no further business, the meeting closed at 8.52pm