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ALBURGH PARISH COUNCIL
Minutes of the parish council meeting held on Thursday, 3rd January 2013 at 7.30pm in Alburgh Village Hall.
Parish Councillors present:
Mr. Denny (Chairman)
Mrs. Walton (Vice Chairman)
Mrs. Gladden-Fenn
Mrs. K. Love
Mr. R. Morris
Also attending:
Mrs. J. Pearce
Mrs. P.Wright
Mrs J Gedge
Mrs D Beckett
Dr. M. Gray, District Councillor
Mr. T. Tomkinson, County Councillor
Apologies:
Mrs. P. Goose
Mr. E. Renaut
Minutes of the last council meeting
The minutes of the November 2012 meeting were amended and signed by Mr. Denny, Chairman as a correct record.
Public Participation
None
Update on Matters arising from previous minutes
Millennium Garden Pond – Mrs. Walton has spoken to the Norfolk Wildlife Trust about the bulrushes and how best to deal with them. Their response was that when the bulrushes start to grow we could apply round up by hand. Councillors were not sure if this was a good idea or not.
Affordable Housing – We have now receivedplanning permission for this to go ahead. It was felt that it would be at least early 2014 before this will be completed.
Correspondence
Village Playing Field Contract 2013 Season (Year 4 of 5) – Letter from Norse reminding us that we have a five year contract for the maintenance of our playing field and that the cost for the 2013 season will be £316.81.
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Publications
The following will be circulated:
Norfolk Link
Norfolk Gritting Routes Leaflet
CAB Annual Report 2012
Speed Watch
Mrs. Goose (in her absence) forwarded the following report:
On 5th December, Mrs. Goose and Mr. Flatt attended the Annual Speedwatch meeting at Dereham. This was a 3 hour meeting that covered a range of statistics and was attended by the Assistant Chief Constable and other heads of police depts.
- There are 700 volunteers in Norfolk and Suffolk who were thanked for all their hard work.
- 4,000 speeding letters have been sent out.
- 75% of accidents in rural areas were due to speeding.
- Bigger permanent signs coming into the speedwatch area so we do not have to put up the portable ones
- Camera with facilities to record Index Nos – these will be looked in to and reported back to us.
Discussions on whether we carry on with speed watch. We do not seem to get any feed back from the police and although people are caught speeding nothing seems to happen. Mrs. Goose is getting frustrated by the lack of volunteers and has difficulty getting 3 people to operate the speed camera at the same time. It was decided that we would carry on with SNC’s SAM and look in to getting a ‘Fixed’ SAM. The cost of this is £2,800. Dr. Gray said there are grants available from the neighbourhood fund for up to £2,000.
Clerk to write a letter to Mrs. Goose to thank her for all her hard work.
Parish Council Representative on Village Hall Committee
Mr. Morris is standing down from the Village Hall Committee at their AGM (May 2013) and therefore we need a replacement representative. Mr. Denny gave thanks to Mr. Morris for all the work he has done. Councillors will give this some thought and report back at the next meeting.
Playing Field Report
Mr. Denny did inspection. All was clean and tidy.
With the amount of rain we have had, it is very wet on the playing field and where the roundabout swing is two people have been hurt. Joy Playgrounds have been and taped this off so it is out of action for a while. They have agreed to put a matting there.
Mr. Denny noticed Dog fouling on the playing field. Mrs. Walton will put a notice in magazine.
Opening of Playing field
It was agreed that this would be best held in the Spring/Summer when the weather is better. Mr. Denny has asked Mrs. Gladden-Fenn if she would be happy to do the ‘Open Gardens’ again this year and we could combine the opening of the playing field with this. Mrs. Gladden-Fenn said that she would but as this would be held on a Sunday would the ‘officials’ that need to be invited come out on a Sunday. We need to establish this before we take this any further.
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Playing Field Committee Report – Update on fundraising
Mrs. Walton suggested a Cinema evening. She has been to one before and they are called ‘The Village Screen’. Mr. Denny will look in to this.
Mrs. Gladden-Fenn also suggested a film night showing ‘Archived Films’.
Gritting on Broad Road
In the recent bad weather there have been two serious accidents on this road as it is not gritted. Mr. Tomkinson said we could make an application for this to be done.
Letter from Alburgh with Denton School
We have received a copy of a letter the school has written to NCC regarding the poor traffic flow and parking outside the school. It explains that as the school has grown, so the volume of traffic has increased along School Road and Church Lane. In addition, a lack of a footpath from the village to school has meant that it is totally unsafe for children to walk or cycle to school. This has been an ongoing problem but came to a head last week when a coach attempting to return children to school was stuck between parked cars and oncoming traffic resulting in gridlock, angry exchanges and some close encounters between families and cars. The school has also received several complaints from local residents regarding parking and they now urgently need advice on best practice and a solution to what is becoming a daily hazard. Councillors agreed that we should write a letter of support.
Precept for 2013/14
Dr. Gray clarified the situation regarding the Taxbase and precept setting. We can now complete the precept form.
Accounts
Payments: J Ellis, clerk salary £187.20 x 2 for November and December 2012
Village Hall Hire for parish council meetings held in 2012 and the dance £181.00
Receipts: £2.00 War Memorial booklets
£3,337.12 VAT Repayment for 6 months from 01/04/12 to 30/09/12
£550.00 grant from Alburgh Town Lands Estate for playing field equipment
£193.00 Pamper evening
£10.00 Alburgh Book
County and District Council News
Mr. Tomkinson reported:
- The county council share of the council tax for the coming year will not go up.
- The council has continued with saving money.
- BT has been appointed to promote faster broadband in the county.
- Roads are being improved.
- Enterprise Norfolk are helping businesses start up and grow. Delivering 400 apprenticeships in Norfolk.
- More money in to County Farms.
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Dr. Gray reported:
- SAM was paid for from a project run by the Neighbourhood board.
- Grants are available: £800,000 to spend on particular projects for service improvements.
- £100,000 for capital projects.
- The ‘Unevenness’ at the bottom end of Broad Road. We have both reported this before but not had any reply. Mr. Tomkinson will chase this for us.
- ‘Wood Cutting’ business at South Farm. Dr. Gray will look in to this.
- Pylons – SNC passed a motion saying they would object and want it to be under ground.
Public Participation
Mrs. Wright said about the bus that was coming through the village and that it would not be coming through any more.
Mrs. Beckett spoke about the Pagan Trust. She spoke about the benefits of the trust and explained that she has spoken to members of the Pagan family who feel they would like more money spent on the church. The Pagan Trust will look favourably towards the church in the future.
Mrs. Pearce reminded us that it is our turn to host the Joint Village meeting this year. Mrs. Walton suggested the CPRE as guest speaker. Clerk to contact David Hook, the Co-ordinator for CPRE to ask when he is available.
Items for next Agenda
Joint Meeting
Mr. Denny thanked everyone for attending and closed the meeting at 9.15pm.
Mr.Denny, Chairman Alburgh Parish Council, 7th February, 2013.