Woldingham Parish Council

MINUTES of a Meeting held at the Woldingham Village Hall, Woldingham on 28 February 2008 at 7.30pm.

Present: Michael Batterbury Colin Packington
Rodney Fuller Sally Marks
Bobby Johnson Julie Moylan
Jeff Jeffery
Karen Newman (Clerk)

1. Apologies: Cllr Meekings,

2. Minutes.
The Minutes of the meeting held on the 31 January had been circulated and were signed by the Vice Chairman as a correct record.

3. Declarations of Interest
Cllr Packington - Forestridge
Cllr Johnson - Company Secretary of Woldingham Magazine
Cllr Marks - member of another authority Surrey County Council
Cllr Jeffery - Member of the Village Hall Committee

4. Matters arising
The Action list was discussed and will be updated for the March meeting.

Cllr Johnson advised that she had spoken to TDC with regard to the graffiti and replacement bus stops but had not received a positive response so the Clerk will chase up.

Cllr Jeffery advised the meeting that the company that was interested in producing the new sign for the Green has now pulled out and recommended another. Cllr Jeffery has now sent the new company diagram drawings of the proposed sign and is awaiting a quotation. Cllr Jeffery advised that he had spoken both with Highways and Parks department who are both happy with the proposed new signage.

Slines Oak Island: Cllr Jeffery mentioned that he will be contacting Knights re the planting.

5. Planning Matters:
A copy of Appendix A had been circulated to all members before the meeting and the Council voted to ratify the recommendations of the Planning Group for February.

As requested Cllr Batterbury attended the Appeal hearing on Tuesday, 19th February, 2008 at TDC offices and circulated a copy of his report on the hearing.

On Thursday, 21st February, Mr. Hall of TDC telephoned to thank Cllr Batterbury for the Council's support and said that he had heard from the Inspector that the Appeal was Refused. A copy of the Refusal was received by Cllr Batterbury on Friday, 22nd February and a copy is available. For future reference, the significant items were size of the development which was previously restricted by case law to 50/51 sq.m. (this application was for 91 sq.m.) in these situations and Openness. This information would be helpful to our Planning Group to refer to in future applications of this type.

b. Infringements: Cllr Packington read through the infringement report which had been circulated to all Councillors before the meeting. Cllr Jeffery mentioned that the Planning Group should be looking at entrances and mention them to Highways, where the drawings are not clear to query the drawings.

c. Core Strategy: Cllr Jeffery advised that himself and Cllr Johnson had commented online on the proposal.

6. Finance:
a. Payments: The payments as Appendix B were signed and approved. Cllr Jeffery read out a letter received from the Chairman of the Village Hall Charity advising the Parish Council that the works on the Ladies and Men's toilets had now been completed to their satisfaction and that the works had come out lower than anticipated at £15,117.95. A vote was taken and carried that the grant to the Village Hall be amended to £15,117.95.

7. Highways & Rights of Way:
a. Highways Monitoring and Reporting:
Cllr Fuller advised that he had contacted Woldingham Golf Club and is waiting for a meeting to be set up to discuss the overgrown hedges.
Rodney to meet with Woldingham Golf Club.

Cllr Williams asked whether SCC should be contacted to ask whether they have a stipulated width of hedges. Clerk to contact Parks Department.

Cllr Fuller advised that SCC went to tidy up High Line but found electricity cables exposed so were unable to finish the works.
Clerk to write to EDF re exposed cable in the Road.

Cllr Williams advised that some Parish Council's have been proactive in contacting SCC with regard to which roads in their parish's are designated unsuitable for heavy vehicles. Cllr Johnson advised that she had sent a letter to SCC but had not received a reply. The Parish Council agreed that another letter be sent asking for a response and also to ask what signage was available.

Cllr Packington advised that the new lamp post installed is still not yet wired up and the steps need repairing on footpath 40 from Park View Road to Station Road. Cllr Marks advised that she will chase. The Chairman will also write formally to SCC re the standard of work completed and time taken to rectify the problem (meeting held with SCC August 2007). Action: Chairman to draft letter to SCC.

Cllr Johnson advised that in Cllr Williams' absence she was asked to comment on Surrey's Distribution Network as to the suitability of roads suggested by SCC for local distribution. The map sent out by SCC did not show Woldingham, so a local map indicating the position of Woldingham relative to Warlingham and Oxted was forwarded to SCC. Cllr Johnson advised that Peter Jeffs of the LORDS campaign had requested copies of the maps sent to SCC. It was agreed that a copy of the Heavy Vehicle complaints form would be inserted into the next newsletter and further copies will be held at Park & Bailey or the shop.

8. Reports:
Cllr Johnson advised that she had attended a meeting with the Village Hall Committee and Cllr Batterbury who had addressed the meeting as a resident of Woldingham and not representing the Parish Council. Cllr Johnson advised that the Parish Council attended as we have a "Duty of Care" re asbestos - Cllr Johnson chaired the meeting and the minutes had been signed as a true reflection of the meeting.

Cllr Johnson advised that she had attended a site meeting at the Glebe to look at the feasibility of the grass strip of land between the yew hedge and perimeter of the tennis court to have a drop off area for Woodlea parents. Cllr Jeffery will be attending the Governors meeting on 11 March and will advise the Governors of the proposal. The Glebe had raised surprise that the Village Hall car park could not be used and Cllr Jeffery explained that hirers of the Hall hire the car park.

9. Miscellaneous Matters:
a. Airports: Alan Simmons submitted his report by email which Cllr Batterbury will circulate to all Cllrs.

* As reported in the Dly Telegraph (Feb 25 issue), construction will soon start on a "jet enclave" for 20 planes by Air Partners Ltd who are to use Biggin as their premier private jet base. In time this will lead to more flights.

* Bromley Council have confirmed they are in talks with Biggin Hill Airport about changes in the lease which will allow more aircraft to use the airport both earlier and later in the day,plus at weekends and Bank Hol's.

* Biggin have on many occasions stated that aircraft using the airport are on the "permitted list". As there is no such thing, clarification is being sought.

* Flightpath has asked Woldingham to support opposition to any change in the airport lease by writing to all Bromley councillors (as before) objecting to any extension in the hours.

* We have also been asked to write to Bromley CC for a copy of the "approved list" of airplane types that are authorised to use Biggin, to flush out whether one does exist or not given F'path believe it does not.

b. Station Car Parking: Cllr Packington advised that he had surveyed the land and the Council should now consider purchasing 1 acre. Cllr Fuller will approach a local land Agent to ascertain how much the land would be worth. Cllr Marks advised that she had had a preliminary chat with Planning Department at TDC who would be against the land being used as a car park because it is in the green belt. It was agreed that Cllr Fuller would contact Peter Ainsworth to get his support as it is a Government policy to get people off the roads and onto the rail network.
c. School Parking: Covered above.
d. Improved signage: Covered above.
e. Speedwatch Cllr Jeffery advised that more people are going out now that the weather is warmer and it is working well. Cllr Jeffery queried whether the Council could chase when the lower speed limits will come into force.
f. Newsletter: The Vice Chairman had emailed before the meeting suggestions of topics for the next newsletter. The Vice Chair asked for all articles to be emailed by the next meeting ready to go to press and out before May 1st.
g. Village Event: Cllr Moylan advised that she had approached the Oxted Band and that they are free on Sunday 20 July at a cost of £300. Cllr Packington proposed that the Parish Council pays for this cost and it was seconded by Cllr Batterbury. It was agreed that on any advertising it would mentioned that the event is sponsored by the Parish Council and a letter will be drafted telling people about the day.

The Vice Chairman advised that she had received an email from John Cox of the Glebe asking whether another Woldingham Day could be held next year to co-incide with the 75th anniversary of the Glebe. Cllr Moylan advised that the Woldingham Day committee had agreed not to hold another Woldingham Day for three/four years but there was nothing stopping the Glebe on building on the Picnic initiative next year. The Clerk will send a reply to John Cox .

h. APM: The Vice Chairman advised that the APM had been moved to Thursday 8 May and asked for suggestions re speakers. Cllr Batterbury advised that he was contacting Flightpath to see whether they would be interested in attending.
j. New Councillors Meeting: The Vice Chairman advised that the meeting is at 7.30pm in the New Church Room.

10. Meetings to attend:
New Cllrs Mtg 4/3 - Church Room
School Governors Mtg 11/3 at 8p[m

11. Correspondence:
Correspondence received during the month was circulated to all Councillors during the meeting.

It was agreed by the Council that a formal reply to be sent to Mr O'Brien in response to his letter dated 7 February 2008.

12. Any Other Business:
a. Diary: All Councillors completed diary dates for March 2008.

Meeting ended at 10.06
1 member of the public present