Parish Council Meeting Minutes January 2010

Also present: Miss R Macklen - Clerk.

Apologies received and accepted from Cllrs Chalmers, Treacher, WDC Cllr. Buck and ESCC Cllr. Reid.

Cllrs. Daniel and Warner declared personal interests in any matters concerning the Basil Ionides Memorial site by being members of the Ionides Memorial Trust appointed by the Council.

Cllrs. Rose and Downing declared a prejudicial interest in any matter relating Land west of Church Road by being the owner of the property adjoining the land.

The minutes of the meeting held on 8^th December 2009 were signed by the Chairman as a correct record of the meeting.

Nothing to report in the absence of ESCC Cllr. Reid

Firstly Members expressed how pleased they all were that Cllr. Daniel has decided to stay in England and thus with the parish council.

It was agreed that the next issue of the Community Voice newsletter should be published either just before or at the time of the Annual Assembly in May in order that it can include the Chairman’s yearly report. Ideas for this edition were to include an article based on the recently published WDC road safety review; and recycling (do’s and don’ts e.g. mixed bottles in the banks) and the expansion of kerbside recycling across Wealden which is scheduled to happen during 2010.

Item 1 Parish Plan Objectives:

PP/ Action 1. Youth Council:

Cllr. Warner reported that the youth council had met for its cross generational technology session, but unfortunately only one member of the public attended and the school’s servers were being worked on and thus the technology was not working correctly.  Subsequently, it has become apparent that the adult education service now visit Buxted Court to give help and advice on technology and it has been requested that the youth council maybe follow up this visit to continue to help residents if they are experiencing difficulties or if there is anything they did not understand.

The youth council are also currently applying for grants from the Big Lottery’s Funding for Young People to support members attending a higher level first aid course and for further play equipment at the Ionides site.

Youth council members would be attending the New Hall Workshop as invited either on Thursday or Saturday.

PP/ Action 3. Public Footpaths:

Cllr. Blandford reported that she had spoken to Russell Lines, the general manager at Buxted Park regarding previous concerns raised about footpaths through the park.  She was advised that Buxted Park is working with Natural England on the preservation of the Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and will produce a management plan which will also be displayed on boards within the park to explain its aims and objectives. As part of the management plan endorsed by Natural England is also the leasing out of land to local farm holders to keep sheep in the park.  The recent problem of sheep worrying could have an impact on this which would result in the park losing the sheep which could then affect any grant awarded by Natural England – let alone traumatising the sheep if not actually injuring or killing them.

There have also been problems with visitors parking on areas not allocated and then being abusive to staff who ask them to move. This is unfortunate and could impact on the long term public use of the site.

Referring specifically to the footpath issue, Buxted Park recognises that many footpaths which run through the site and have been walked for many years are ‘passive’ and not ESCC registered footpaths.  However, as part of the new management plan, it was advised that some of these ‘passive’ footpaths may have to have restricted access in the future.

Mr Lines did stress however, that he is happy to keep communication open.  Parish Council Members agreed that Cllr. Blandford should continue to be the councils contact with the park to ensure the park forges a closer relationship with the community now that communication has reopened.

Members also discussed the recently received footpaths survey from ESCC which was clearly based on a very comprehensive assessment of all footpaths in the parish, but unfortunately did not provide a detailed report.  The clerk was asked to contact ESCC and request further detailed information regarding local footpaths.

Following a short discussion and agreement by the Cllr. Blandford as the parish’s Tree Warden, it was agreed to have ‘Trees’ as a separate item on the agenda listed under Outstanding Matters.

Item 2 Road Safety:

The Chairman advised that due to the recent weather conditions, the Speed Watch team have been unable to be out and about as much as they had hoped.  Now that the snow has gone, the teams aim to be back out as normal.

The recently circulated School Travel Plan newsletter was discussed, and it was again noted that Buxted Primary School cannot implement a full plan due to the unsuitable and unsafe road conditions leading up to the school from the village. Regrets that County Highways still did not recognise this were reiterated.

Members discussed the recently published Wealden District Council Road Safety Review, which is a report compiled by WDC Members and officers as part of the Community Scrutiny Committee work programme.  The report is enormously detailed, giving many statistics and valuable pieces of information that are relevant to all parishes and towns in the county.  Members specifically mentioned the reference to Section 106 contributions from developments towards road safety improvements and how this opportunity was missed by WDC for safety improvement on the A26 through the Temple Grove and Grampian planning applications.  It was agreed that the Pass Plus scheme should be promoted and it is good to see both WDC and ESCC supporting the idea to encourage young people to take part.  A further encouragement should be its incentives such as the reduction in insurance costs.  The report also highlighted the need for street and house names and numbers to be clear and visible in order to assist emergency services when attending incidents.

The report had also been forwarded to Rob Storey as the Speed Watch coordinator for Buxted who raised concerns that through a poll of parish councils, it had become apparent that speed cameras were considered the best form of speed control through villages.  This came as somewhat of a surprise to Rob, who is more than aware that speed cameras only serve to slow traffic as they pass the camera.  It was agreed that averaging speed cameras either end of the village are the most effective at slowing traffic on a far more permanent basis and should be encouraged for the future in the County as well as the Parish.

Members were interested to find out what WDC will decide to do with the information in the report following its consideration and hope that it is used to try and influence ESCC Highways current policies.

It was agreed that an article based on the report should be included within the next Community Voice newsletter and that Cllr. Daniel would aim to include a short article highlighting the report in the next Buxted Messenger and High Hurstwood newsletter.

Item 3 Grampian site FAD:

The clerk reported that she had attended a meeting between ESCC, the developers of the site and local residents at which issues of concern were discussed.  It is hoped that these issues have now been partially resolved.

Cllr. Dopson commented that since the erection of the new bus stops on the A26, it has been reported that the public consider that they are too close to the road and therefore feel safer if they walk into the village and catch the bus from there. This did not surprise Councillors.

Item 4 Land west of Church Road: Nothing to report.

Item 5 New Parish Hall & health centre:

Cllr. Warner reported that a meeting between the Ionides Trust, Ryhurst, the PCT and Simon Barker had taken place the previous evening at which the revised plans for the surgery in line with PCT costings were considered.  The surgery had been reduced in size since the original plans were viewed and this reduction had been agreed by the doctors; and that comments fed back previously by the Trust had been taken on board.  However, concerns were now raised at the industrial looking nature of the building, so Ryhurst were asked to soften and ‘ruralise’ the building.  Concern was also raised at the building materials, specifically the metal roof to which Ryhurst explained that they considered that a 45° pitch might appear intrusive if tiled, so a metal roof was being suggested to allow a low lying roof.  The number of car parking spaces has been reduced to 35 ostensibly to meet WDC requirements and the two storey element of the building is now set down the slope of the site to reduce impact – however it has been moved closer to the road at the top of the site which the Trust requested be amended in order to leave a green space on the corner of Framfield Road/A272. Cllr. Warner also mentioned that Simon Barker, the chosen architect for the hall project, was extremely helpful at the meeting.

The next stage is for Ryhurst to finalise the design before a pubic meeting is organised to view the design in February.  The Ionides Trust have ask Ryhurst for examples of materials and other buildings of similar style and design by which to consider the impact of the building further.

Cllr. Crowe thanked Cllr. Warner for her update and urged the Ionides Trust to stand firm on the principles of what was originally agreed and not to let Ryhurst pressure the Trust into accepting a building that the community will regret. From the outset of discussions Ryhurst, the PCT and doctors were well aware that any building needed to respect the setting at the Heart of Buxted. It was also noted that the 35 car parking spaces would only serve the surgery – this was also not what was agreed with Ryhurst at the beginning of the project who stipulated that they would provide the car parking, access and services for both the surgery and new hall.

Everyone was reminded that the New Hall Workshops were taking place on Thursday for invited organisations and on Saturday between 10.00am and 1.00pm for all members of the community to attend. They are a first opportunity for the community to have dialogue with Simon Barker as the community architect and start to engage with the Heart of Buxted Initiative.

Item 6 Wealden LDF: Nothing to report.

Item 7 Emergency Plan: Nothing to report.  Nearly had to use during recent bad weather, but snow fortunately subsided.

Item 8 Property Issues:

The clerk reported that the leaky roof above the Reading Room kitchen is being fixed.

Item 9 Parish Council Website:

Cllr. Daniel report that work continues on the new website with the structure now in place with many items having been uploaded.  The design and visuals now need to be looked at and decided upon.  It was therefore agreed that Cllr. Daniel and Cllr. Blandford would look into this before giving a demonstration of the new site to Cllrs at a forthcoming meeting.

P1, P3, P5, P6, P7 – Parish Residents: requests for grit bins in various locations – This matter was given careful consideration with Members discussing in detail how East Sussex County Council have put the onus on parish and town councils to pay for the installation and filling costs of new grit bins without any notification or consultation.

Members’ initial concerns were the number of grit bins the parish council may end up having to supply. If the seven current requests were agreed, it would then be in a very difficult position to say no to any further requests. At a cost of £273 per bin, with a further £70 for each fill, this could have serious implications on the parish council budget and ultimately parishioner precept rates. The effectiveness of the bins is also of particular concern given that across the Parish and the wider County a number of grit bins were emptied recently, but the grit was used on private driveways and not the highway or pathways as it is intended.

Members were very concerned that the parish council precept budget has not, and should not have to cater for a service which is the responsibility of another authority. Any further stretch on parish council funds needs to be seriously considered given that parishioners already pay for this service and other winter roads maintenance through their Council Tax to East Sussex County Council. Other parish councils faced with a number of requests for new grit bins also are of the same opinion.

Unfortunately, East Sussex County Councillor Reid was not in attendance as it was hoped that he would have been in the position to report back on the first of the County Council’s meetings to review its Winter Roads Maintenance Policy which took place last week.

It was therefore resolved that whilst the results of the East Sussex County Council audit of its Winter Roads Maintenance Policy are awaited, the parish council would not invest in any further grit bins for the parish at this time. Instead the parish council, in line with other Parish and Town councils, would encourage open dialogue with the County Council as to how they plan to ensure adequate future winter roads maintenance. If this then requires parish and town councils to take more responsibility then the costs of this will need to be agreed with the community. We will keep the community informed of discussions with County prior to decisions being made.

Members of the council noted that they too have all been affected by the recent bad weather and are fully appreciative of the problems associated with snow and ice on the minor roads (and now potholes) – let alone the problems on the more major thoroughfares and pavements in the towns as well as the villages.

It was felt that perhaps in preparation for potential future bad weather the parish council should suggest that where a number of residents are particularly affected, then perhaps there could be some clubbing together to obtain small stocks of salt and grit (if available) and perhaps also contingency working parties. This worked reasonably well in some parts of the Parish and in other areas – with members of the community working together to common good.

The clerk was also asked to investigate a missing grit bin from Gordon Road, which appears to have been relocated within a BT owned site.

P4 Mrs Loveday: Can grit bins be paid out of private donations? – The clerk advised that the legalities of this matter are being investigated by SALC as this question has arisen in many parishes and towns across the district.  The clerk would update Members and Mrs Loveday as soon as an answer is received.

P2 Local Works Campaign: Request for support regarding the Empowering Local Councils and Sustainable Communities Act Amendment Bill – Some Members reported that they had individually written to Charles Hendry MP and the clerk has written on behalf of the parish council.

P8 Victim Support: Request for grant – Members agreed that Victim Support carries out some invaluable work and resolved to award a grant of £100 as in 2008/09.

P24 NWCTP: Invitation to Meeting on 4^th February – As the parish of Buxted is soon to be introduced to the door to door bus scheme Members felt it appropriate that the parish council should now be represented at the meetings.  Cllr. Downing and Cllr. Harding volunteered to attend and to find out exactly when the service will be extended to the parish.

None since previous meeting.

Cllr. Wilkes reviewed the income and expenditure in December 2009 advising of all the necessary payments in January 2010 noting the relatively small amount of payments for the current month.  It was resolved that cheques 753 to 757 be drawn on the current account totalling £3459.33 including voucher charges be authorised for payment.  The month’s bank statements were verified against the bank reconciliations.

Cllr. Sheard advised that he had attended a Parish Liaison of Ashdown Forest meeting and was pleased to note that more people attend each time.  Cycling across the forest was discussed with a scheme potentially being set up which would allow a recognised cycling club to ride in dedicated areas.  There is not quite a commitment to the scheme as yet, but the door is still open.

Deer accidents were reported with an estimated 1000 deer needing to be culled to keep the population down – however local land owners are not willing to allow culling on their land.  The overriding message was that if you travel at over 40mph at night across the forest, you are at serious risk if you hit a deer.

Cllr. Downing reported that she had attended a meeting of the Buxted Action Group at which the following matters were discussed:

· The news that the Wealdlink (NWCTP) scheme is coming to the parish was welcomed

· People in High Hurstwood are still interested in allotments and are thinking of applying for a grant under the title of the land being a community garden.

· Parking at Maypole Cottages is still a problem, but ESCC are considering converting the roadside verge into further parking for residents

· The garages and Maypole Cottages are also an issue with local residents wanting more parking – WDC would have to agree

· The group would ideally also like ESCC to provide a lay by in which the Southern Water tank which visits the cottages to empty the septic tank could use rather than blocking the road.

· It was reported that WDC are going to provide Buxted Court with further disabled and non disabled parking

· The AGM is either the 15^th or 22^nd March depending on the availability of High Hurstwood Village Hall.  Cllr. Warner was asked to attend on behalf of the parish council.

1. Cllr. Rose raised a concern with regards to his appointment to the Wealden District Association of Local Councils (WDALC) group.  He has been attending these meetings for some time alongside Cllr. Chalmers, but is unsure of exactly why the group exists and what its aims and objectives are.  It seems to meet regularly and discuss matters relating to the parish councils present, but the group does not appear to influence other bodies and there seems to be no decision making process by which change is brought about.

He requested that another Cllr. attend in his place to advise if he is incorrect in his assumptions.  Members however were minded to agree that Cllr. Rose’s interpretation is correct and instead the clerk should contact neighbouring parish councils to establish if they still send representatives to the meetings.

Subsequent to the parish council meeting, the clerk has spoken to Cllr. William King of Maresfield Parish Council who also sits on the WDALC management committee and who advised that he could understand the frustrations of our councillor but urged the parish council to remain involved in the group as it continues to maintain a joint parish council approach on issues of concerns for parish councils and from time to time WDALC does influence some big decisions.

2. The clerk advised that Councillors concerns had been relayed to WDC in the recent survey they sent. The clerk also advised that WDC continues to push forwards with electronic planning consultations with parish councils.  It is hoped that during the initial trial phase, all problems and difficulties experienced by parish councils would be identified and mitigated against before the scheme is rolled out to all parishes by the end of the year.

The clerk advised that Hadlow Down Parish Council is in the process of organising an evening event at which Trevor Leggo from SALC would be invited to explain the process of gaining Quality Parish Council status.  Buxted parish councillors are invited to attend.  Members agreed that this is good idea.

Hadlow Down Parish Council have also asked if councillors from both councils would like to have a joint approach with regards to attending meetings of outside bodies e.g. WDALC.  Considering the discussions above, the clerk would respond that although considered a good idea, at present, Buxted Parish Council may not have a willing representative to attend WDALC meetings but if this changes or there are other meetings then perhaps such a joint attendance could occur.