Parish Council Minutes 9 June 2015

Cllrs. Blandford (Chairman), Harding, Littlefield, McQuarrie, Milner, Mulvagh, Roberts and Skinner.

Also present: ESCC Cllr Galley, WDC Cllr Lunn and Clerks Beccy Macklen and Claudine Feltham.

APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

Apologies received and accepted from Cllrs Cox, Goldsmith, Martin, Sheard and Rose and WDC Cllr. Illingworth

DECLARATION OF MEMBERS INTERESTS

Cllrs. Blandford and Skinner declared personal interests in any matters relating to the community hall by virtue of being members of the Hall or Ionides Trusts appointed by the Council.

Cllr. Milner declared a personal interest in any matters relating to the parish council website due to being a personal friend of the parish council’s website consultant.

MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING

The minutes of the meeting held on 12^th May 2015 were signed by the Chairman as a correct record of the meeting.

ESCC/WDC REPORT

Cllr. Galley reported that it is a quiet time at the County Council following the election period. He had attended a meeting that day to consider a three year plan – which consists of savings of between £70 and £90 million. Part of the remaining £350 million budget is ring fenced for some services, such as schools, therefore savings will have to be made on social and adult care – this will make an interesting challenge to find ways of providing services. WDC have managed to make significant savings across the past few years by working in partnership with other sectors and councils. This could work for ESCC by using resources more effectively, by working more closely with health services in relation to children and adult care.

Highways – Within the parish good work has been carried out in relation to the repair of surfaces and pot holes in recent weeks. Herons Ghyll 40mph sign should be installed soon. Cllr. Littlefield raised a question with regards a 50mph zone outside of Ashdown Place? Cllr. Galley did not think that a 50mph zone had been approved at this stage but he would be happy to raise this with highways for possible future changes.

Cllr. Blandford introduced Cllr. Lunn to the parish council who will be working alongside Cllr. Illingworth covering Buxted PC meetings as our WDC representatives. He advised he is an existing councillor for Hadlow Down PC, so has a degree of sympathy with parish council workings. He sits on Planning North at WDC so will be our District Council representative for this area. Cllr. Illingworth sits on the Finance and Audit Committee and is a substitute on the Planning North Committee – so if we have a specific application issue we are encouraged to advise Cllr. Lunn of the parish council’s stance in order for the parish to be to fully represent at the district council committee.

All official proceedings at WDC are now on webcams, so members of the public can now follow meetings live. It could be interesting to watch the decision making processes.

All residents have now been advised of waste collection changes – any issues, please refer to Cllr. Lunn. He is also looking closely at how planning agreement Section 106 monies are allocated, such as development in Buxted providing funding for traffic improvements in Uckfield. Thus far £3 million has been provided for Uckfield town centre improvements, with £1.6 million used so far – so scrutiny is needed to ascertain the allocation of money and how it has been spent.

For information – the Ridgewood development for a further 1000 homes is for consideration at the Planning North Committee on Thursday 11^th. Infrastructure questions will no doubt be raised.

Cllr. Lunn confirmed he is very accessible via WDC and personal website and mobile telephone.

The Chairman asked Cllr. Lunn if there was any update on April Cottage. He advised that there are three possible SANGS (Suitable Alternative Natural Green Spaces) becoming available to off-set development that April Cottage could be considered to fall within. Cllr. Lunn advised that he is not yet sure which SANGS will be signed off by WDC first, but it will be pushed at that time to ensure that April Cottage is able to be released for development.

INITIAL PROPOSALS FOR DRAINAGE FOR BUXTED RECREATION GROUND

Buxted Football Club, whose home is on the Recreation Ground owned by the Parish Council have approached the parish council to request funds towards drainage improvements on the land. This was last carried out some years ago and needs renewing. Although owned by the Parish Council, the land is fully maintained (including the Pavilion) by the Football Club and for that the parish council are very grateful as costs to the public are therefore kept very low.

The Chairman, who also sits on the Ionides Trust, has approached the Trust with a view to providing the funds to improve the drainage on the recreation ground, who has agreed in principle.

Members all agreed to move forward on this basis and support the new drainage on the recreation ground. All quotes received by the Football Club will be considered by the Property and Recreation Grounds Committee which are due to meet on Tuesday 16^th June at the Reading Room at 7.30pm.

OUTSTANDING MATTERS

Gatwick: A meeting has been arranged at Gatwick with a representative from Maresfield Parish council attending on behalf of north parishes. Any feedback will be forwarded to parish council members.

Public Footpaths: Nothing new to report.

Trees: The clerk advised that the tree works to remove all remaining poplars has now taken place. The site now looks much clearer and is less of a haven for wildlife. Allotment holders are extremely pleased with the work carried out. The invoice for works is included in this month’s payments.

Road Safety: On 11^th November 2014 the Parish Council agreed to enable a traffic survey for all residents of Five Ash Down with reference to proposals to provide a pedestrian crossing at the Coopers Green traffic lights, funded by developer contributions from the Ashdown Place development. The initial idea came from local residents who raised concerns that crossing at the traffic lights is dangerous. The clerk informed the members that the survey has now been issued with a closing date of 30^th June. Alternative suggestions have already been received, so the parish council will have to consider all responses at the next parish council meeting.

The parish council had been advised that a patrol person will now be permanently located on the A272 outside Buxted School once a suitable person has been employed and trained by ESCC. However, the parish council had enquired about the possibility of a permanent crossing in this location. ESCC have advised that this site just fell short of the requirement for funding but that a Community Match scheme is in place which allows a local town/parish council to provide at least 50% of costs to ensure a project is achieved. Prior to the meeting the clerk requested costs and possible crossings that would be allowed at this site and it was advised that a zebra crossing would cost £20,000, but only on a 30mph speed limit, and a signalled crossing would be up to £80,000. Subsequently it was advised that it would be highly unlikely that the road would be reduced to 30mph. Therefore, the parish council is very pleased that ESCC has agreed to provide a crossing patrol and hopes that this will be in place for start of term in September. If the crossing patrol were cease the parish council would seek to put in place on of the other alternatives.

New Community Hall: The Chairman advised that Buxted Fete is to take place on Saturday 12^th September, followed by music festival. Proceeds of which will be donated to the Buxted Community Hall Trust.

Wealden Local Development Framework: Nothing new to report.

Property Issues:

Adoption of BT Phone Box: Responses have been received from local residents to the BT Box requesting that the box remain in situ. The Chairman advised that heading into the summer months, a reply would be sent to those who took the time to respond to the parish council letter, and that for the time being, the box would stay in situ, however the parish council will revisit this matter at a later date.

Pound Green Triangle: The papers to transfer ownership of the land have been signed and returned to our solicitor. In the meantime a site meeting has taken place between the Chairman and Vice Chairman to discuss fencing possibilities. Either replacing the iron railings with new iron or wooden fencing is considered appropriate but it was not felt that mixing the two would be visually appealing or practible. This matter is referred to the Property and Recreation Grounds Committee on 16^th June.

Communication Matters: The clerk advised that she has met with the website consultant and the draft site is now up and running and the clerk is able to add posts and pages. The next step is to transfer the existing information to the new site and get it live on the web. Further work can be carried out after this date to iron out any further problems.

CORRESPONDENCE

P1 Mr Speight - Email to all councillors regarding speeding within Buxted and speed monitoring devices: The chairman advised that firstly she would like to point out that she was not the chairman mentioned by Mr Speight but was aware that the previous chair was very concerned about speeding issues in Buxted. It was also mentioned that there has been a large change in councillors in the recent years and it is hoped that Mr Speight would feel more welcome to return to parish council meetings.

The Parish Council has already ascertained from ESCC that they are unwilling to fund any survey and neither they nor the police would act on any data collected as they believe their priorities lie elsewhere.

This has been duly recorded in our minutes.

Members disagreed with Mr Speight that Speed Watch was ineffective as the perceived wisdom, from beyond the parish council, was that it had proved effective. Not from a perspective of how many drivers had been warned about their speeding but was an effective way to slow the traffic down by their mere presence. To further enhance this view, as part of his presentation Jim Stobart of Operation Crackdown confirmed that where Speed Watch teams have been located at a site over a period of time, statistics show that long term speeding had been reduced.

If there was a group of Buxted residents who were keen to target speeding through the village the parish council would fully support them in re-instating Speed Watch. It was only a suggestion that Mr Speight might like to spearhead this campaign. However, as we now have two new Wealden District Councillors, Michael Lunn and Toby Illingworth we suggest that if Mr Speight is unhappy with our response that he should contact them directly as one of their election manifestos was to target speeding in the local villages.

Maresfield Parish Council – Invitation to Join Cluster Group: Correspondence has been received from the clerk to Maresfield Parish Council inviting Buxted to join a parish cluster group with Maresfield, Fletching and Isfield with a view to possible contract information/contract sharing. Agreed to attend a meeting and report back further to the parish council as to whether this can be of use to Buxted. However, as a parish council, we often use small local contractors with whom we have a good relationship and are generally happy with the service they provide.

COMMITTEE MEETINGS

None since the previous meeting

FINANCE

i) To approve the Annual Return and authorise the Chairman to sign the Annual Return and the Annual Governance Statement

ii) Payments: On the proposal of Cllr. Roberts, seconded by Cllr. McQuarrie, payments totalling £11,222.88 covered by cheque numbers 619 and 630 were approved. Main payment of removal of poplars, almost £4000 other odd payments. Receipts this month show the receipt of £108,514 from the Ashdown Place Development for the new community hall in Buxted.

iii) Bank reconciliations: The clerk had circulated completed a reconciliation for February which were signed

OTHER MEETINGS

No other meetings

MEMBERS QUESTIONS

Cllr. Skinner raised a question with regards the damaged grit bin in Park View. The clerk advised that an email has been sent to ESCC and a reply is awaited.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

The clerk advised that notification has been received from the HHVHC that a consultation in the form of a flyer drop to all households of High Hurstwood and a public display at the village hall, to advise residents of the proposed cricket net to be positioned behind the village hall on the recreation ground owned by the parish council. The Parish Council has previously agreed to the proposal and members agreed that as no adverse comments to the proposals have been received by the HHVHC that the works to install the net can be continued.

The clerk also mentioned that she had received a call from the Chairman of the Buxted Football Club who has asked if the old rotten wooden windows at the Pavilion can be replaced with UPVC. It was agreed by all members present that the Football Club could go ahead and replace the existing windows as advised.