Minutes July 2005
Minutes of the Meeting held on Monday 18th July 2005 at 7pm at Birdham Village HallPresent: Cllr Tilbury; Cllr Mrs Parks; Cllr Ms Huskisson; Cllr Kyte; Cllr Drew; Cllr Baillieu
In attendance: District Cllr Davies; a member of the public, a member of the press and the Clerk.
Prior to the start of the meeting, Rebecca Hair, the Rural Housing Enabler from Action in Rural Sussex spoke to the meeting about Affordable Housing. Funding is available from various agencies to help with providing affordable housing. Use can be made of exception land, and Section 106 agreements can be tied to this. It is mainly for local people, who may live here, work here, have close family here or who used to live here but moved out to get housing.
Properties can be low rent (below market price) or shared ownership. The property cannot be sold on the open market. The procedure is as follows: 1) consider the idea; 2) assess the need. To do this Action in Rural Sussex will do a housing survey with everyone in the village with a free-post envelope for return. All the answers are confidential, and a summary of the answers is reported back. 3) then AIRs looks for sites along with the Parish Council, and these will be exception sites or brownfield sites. 4) Then there will be an open day to discuss plans for the local residents to come along. 5) A developer is chosen, usually a housing association. 6) Funding from the local authority (CDC in our case) and they will deal with the planning applications etc. 7) Then the nomination process takes place, but the Parish Council does not have a role in this. Anyone nominated has to be on the Local Authority housing register. A local connection earns more points than any other considerations. 8) The houses are built. 9) The residents move in.
The Parish Council could write a covering letter to householders to go with the questionnaire. If anyone has any thoughts and wishes to contact the local person at CDC it is Austin Wade who is their Rural Housing Enabler.
Rebecca will send a copy of the questionnaire to the Clerk for her to circulate to councillors. The Chairman thanked her and Austin Wade for their time and said how useful the Councillors had found their talk.
44-05cl. Apologies were received from: Cllr Mrs Rees and Cllr Meynell
45-05cl. Declaration of Interest: Cllr Mrs Parks declared a personal interest in planning applications BI/05/02588/FUL and BI/05/02363/COU.
46-05cl. Approve and sign the Minutes of the Meeting held on 20 th June 2005 and the Special Meeting held on 6 th July 2005.
It was proposed by Cllr Ms Huskisson and seconded by Cllr Kyte RESOLVED to approve the minutes of the meeting held on 20 th June 2005 and that they be signed by the Chairman. It was further proposed by Cllr Mrs Parks and seconded by Cllr Drew RESOLVED to approve the minutes of the special meeting held on 6 th July 2005 and that they be signed by the Chairman.
47-05cl. a) Matters arising from the Minutes dated 20 th June 2005
i) Min 32-05cl ii) Village Pond insurance – Cllr Huskisson had prepared a risk assessment in reply to the insurers.
ii) Min 32-05cl iv) Flood Management Plan – the Clerk reported that she had been in touch with the Environment Agency at Worthing and they will be sending her a copy of their meeting notes to pass on to the Vice-Chairman.
iii) Min 32-05cl viii) Clerk's training – the Clerk gave an oral report of the training she had undertaken during the preceding two days.
b) Matters arising from the Minutes dated 6 th July 2005
i) Min 42-05cl i) and ii) Audit. The Clerk reported that the audit papers have now been sent off and she will expect to receive them back during September.
48-05cl. Clerk's Report including:
a) WSCC Reports, highways and correspondence:
i) The extinguishments order has now been made for footpath 37/1 and it will be displayed on the notice boards until 11 th August as has been requested by WSCC
b) CDC reports including correspondence There were none
c) Other Related matters
i) CPRE has written to invite the Council to send one or more councillors or the Clerk on a training course about the new system of planning. It will be held on Thursday 6 th October at Billingshurst Village Hall from 2-5 pm at a cost of £5 per councillor. It was agreed to send a Councillor if one was available on the date.
ii) The Information Commissioner's office has sent a letter confirming the renewal of the Council's registration for Data Protection. This was noted.
iii) Action in Rural Sussex are about to update their web-site and have asked if users could look at it and send comments. Unfortunately the closing date for comments was 15 th July, so it is now too late to do so.
49-05cl. Planning Matters including CDC Decisions
A planning paper had been circulated to all councillors.
BI/05/02334/FUL – Birdham Stores, Birdham Road, Birdham – New shop front – it was proposed by Cllr Tilbury and seconded by Cllr Kyte RESOLVED NO OBJECTION – the Council understand the need for security, but if a way could be found to make it look more like the original houses, it would be appreciated.
BI/05/01805/DOM – Ms R Shrubb, 2 Holt Cottages, Shipton Green, Itchenor PO20 7BZ – New entrance to road with gravel parking and turning area on site – It was proposed by Cllr Mrs Baillieu and seconded by Cllr Drew RESOLVED NO OBJECTION.
BI/05/02363/COU – Mr and Mrs Howell, Tawny Nurseries, Bell Lane, Birdham – Use of land as extension to existing caravan site (touring caravan site for 49 no. units) – It was proposed by Cllr Tilbury and seconded by Cllr Drew RESOLVED to OBJECT to this application on the following grounds:
Policy T7 and paragraph 366 clearly envisage a small touring caravan site and this development is for 49 touring sites. The site itself is adjacent to a main road through the village and will have a considerable impact on the character and appearance of the landscape at this point which is open and rural with some horticultural activity. There are other small caravan facilities in the area (including some at Tawny Nursery) but this would greatly add to the cumulative effect of caravans in this area and would adversely affect the character and appearance of the rural area.
We are greatly concerned about the traffic movements which would be generated by this application. Not only would it involve 49 extra movements of caravans on the already grossly congested roads of the west Manhood, where the traffic is already at a standstill for long periods of the day in high summer, but we assume that the site would also be used as a base for further exploration of the area, adding yet more traffic movements.
The Council has carefully balanced the economic and environmental aspects of this application and feels that in this case it must object to a development which would be overwhelming in its size and impact at this point in the village.
BI/05/02302/ADV – Mr D Pick, Whitestone Farm, Main Road, Birdham PO20 7HU – Free-standing triangular sign – It was proposed by Cllr Ms Huskisson and seconded by Cllr Mrs Parks RESOLVED NO OBJECTION
BI/05/02588/FUL – Mr Brown, Fir Trees, Sidlesham Lane, Birdham PO20 7QL – 12/192 x 6.096 steel portal building, grass cutting machinery and a tractor storage for agricultural purposes – It was proposed by Cllr Mrs Baillieu and seconded by Cllr Ms Huskisson RESOLVED to OBJECT on the evidence before the Council there is a 3 acre site, but there is no evidence of agricultural or horticultural activity, so the size of the building seems disproportionate to the need. The materials do not seem satisfactory and it will be visible from open country towards Whitestone Farm.
CDC Decisions
BI/05/00973/FUL – Mr and Mrs S Crossley, Birdham Fruit Farm, Martins Lane, Birdham PO20 7AU – 2 no. camping pitches for 28 days per annum – REFUSE
Planning Inspectorate decision
BI/04/00759/FUL – Mr and Mrs Crossley, Birdham Fruit Farm, Martins Lane, Birdham PO20 7AU – Drive – APPEAL DISMISSED
50-05cl. Correspondence:
Correspondence to be circulated includes:
Chichester Canal News Summer 2005
CDC Initiatives Summer 2005
Local Council Review July 2005
Harbour News Summer 2005
The Phoenix Summer 2005
Childcare Development in Rural Communities from Action in Rural Sussex
Playtoday July-August 2005
Clerks and Councils Direct July 2005
West Sussex Health and Social Care Spotlight June 2005
WSCC For Better Tomorrows
ICIS News summer 2005
WSCC Forward Plans of Key Decisions August – November 2005
51-05cl. Reports:
i) Village Hall – the Chairman reported that after the extraordinary meeting the application for approval for the loan had been completed and sent in. Contracts have not been signed as the loan had not been granted. Trevor Leggo at SALC had approved it and it had gone to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. The loan approval was received on Saturday so we can now write to the Public Works Board for a loan of £255,000. The Chairman has also discussed the project with Donna Gander of CDCwith regard to a possible grant. He is also in contact with Louise Beaton of AIRS about VAT liability. District Cllr Davies recommended we also contact Trevor James of Sheen Stickland.
ii) Play Area Report and Playing Field – the Clerk reported that the contractors have now cut the grass in the Play Area and have offered to continue to do so fortnightly during the growing season. Foster Playscapes have been to see the rope bridge and have taken away the damaged rope to get a replacement.
iii) Village Green and Pond – was discussed earlier.
iv) Footpaths and bridleways – were discussed earlier.
v) Neighbourhood Watch – Cmdr Clarke had reported that four sets of premises on Allmans Business Park had been broken into one night last week.
52-05cl Finance
A financial situation report had been circulated to all councillors.
Payments made since the last meeting to be ratified:
Clerk's salary (June) 394.54
Chichester District Council (grass, includes 69.83 VAT) 468.83
Southern Electric (street lighting, includes 4.79 VAT) 100.67
Receipts, current account (£50 playing field rental and 12.95 copies) 62.95
(VAT refund) 1298.95
Receipts Village Hall account (interest) 40.29
Receipts, BRA – nil
Payments to be considered:
Mrs Geary (litter, July) 65.00
Adrian Dover, grass, June 123.75
Seaman Partnership (fees to date including 222.99 VAT 1497.19
Grant Associates (pre Contract Planning services, inc. 105.00 VAT 705.00
Argus Laboratories Ltd – Asbestos Survey, village hall, inc. 113.75 VAT 763.75
Surrey County Association of Parish and Town Councils – Clerk's course
Includes 28.00 VAT 188.00
Clerk's Expenses (see separate sheet, includes 12.29 VAT 130.90
Notes: The Clerk has arranged for £1000 to be transferred from the BRA account today to pay these expenses, and will also transfer £2363.34 from the Village Hall account to the current account to meet the bills above, being the sum required minus that share of the VAT refund which was paid from the Village Hall fund.
It was proposed by Cllr Drew and seconded by Cllr Kyte RESOLVED to approve the Financial Report.
53-05cl. Reports of meetings attended by councillors none
54-05cl. To consider any urgent matters which the Chairman may wish to lay before the Council There were none.
55-05cl. Public Session
i) A member of the public asked about the sign forbidding ball games on the Village Hall wall, as it seems to encourage ball games. Some youngsters have asked for a wall to hit balls against and this could be provided on the field. District Cllr Davies added that several Birdham young people attend the drop-in centre at West Wittering on Wednesday evenings.
ii) The water level on the Canal has plummeted again – Neil Mitchell of WSCC is speaking to the Environment Agency about this. There are leaks at Salterns Lock. Trickle irrigation in the Birdham-Donnington section of the Canal may be part of the cause of the problem.
There being no further business, the meeting closed at 8.53pm