Woldingham
Parish CouncilMINUTES
of a Meeting held at the Village Hall, Woldingham on 25 November 2004 at
7.30 p.m. Present: Jeff
Jeffery (Chairman); Sally Marks; Julie Moylan; Colin Packington;
Michael Batterbury; Bobby Johnson; Rodney Fuller; Jill Meekings Also in attendance: Karen
Newman – The Clerk 1.
Apologies: Maggie
Bantick, Richard Butcher 2.
Minutes : The Minutes of the meeting held on the 28 October 2004 had been circulated
and were signed by the Chairman as a correct record subject to the following amendment: 7. Highways & Rights of Way:
b. Crescent: Add the following: Cllr Batterbury had requested TDC
to ensure that a financial bond would be obtained from the developer to cover
the cost of the footpath reinstatement to match the as new condition which now
existed.
3.
Declarations of Interest: No declarations of interest. 4.
Matters arising: Cllr Johnson advised the meeting that a further request had been
received from St. Agathas asking for a grant of £1,000 towards the upkeep costs,
which equate to £2,800 per year. At the October meeting a grant had been agreed
for the sum of £500 and Cllr Johnson asked all Councillors to consider raising
the grant to £1,000. Cllr Johnson reminded the meeting that the Parish Council
has a responsibility for the upkeep and confirmed that six people so far had been
buried there this year. A vote was taken and carried to raise the grant from
£500 to £1,000. 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 except for Little
Orchard. This being a new built house (although replacement)
on a site of less than 0.2ha and thus should not be agreed.
Holmwood: Cllr Johnson advised that there is
insufficient information with the planning application so she had contacted TDC.
The Council asked Cllr Johnson to raise the matter with
TDC that this was another instance of an application being accepted without all
the required information being included.
Flint House: Cllr Johnson advised that whilst this
does not come under our Parish but comes under the Parish of North
Oxted, it is a building of historic interest but it is not listed.
Cllr Johnson confirmed that she had contact TDC to ask for emergency listing and
was advised that Tandridge were sending an expert to look at the building as they
are deeply concerned that the plans are for it to be demolished. Cllr Marks asked
that a letter be written to TDC expressing the Parish Councils concern and the
Chairman asked for Cllr Johnson to contact the Clerk of Oxted. Appeals:
Current
Land adj Ferrers – Cllr Moylan gave a brief
summary of her meeting with Mr Ray Planning Officer at TDC. Cllr Moylan advised
that the 2nd Appeal was lodged on the 11 August whilst the 1st
Appeal was still running – the 1st Appeal was withdraw on 14 September.
The appeal was being heard on 30 November. b. Infringements: Cllr Packington advised
the meeting that he had e-mailed Mr Lawrence on the 19 November regarding various
matters and the responses are as follows: (Mr Lawrence’s responses are in blue italics) Springfield, BW92 What
progress have you been able to make towards establishing an acceptable level of
stabling prior to the time scale finalisation in the New Year? Site meeting held
and sketch scheme prior to formal application expected within next few days. Bromfield Stud. No
change has been observed on the site in respect of lorry parking and roofing business,
have you had any further discussions with the owner leading to compliance with
your Notice within the expected time scale? Compound now mainly
cleared of all materials and scaffolding and roofing lorry will be removed within
next 2 weeks. Mr.Drea's Property on BW92 Has
your enforcement Notice been issue on Mr.Drea yet? Still in preparation Park Mews, Marden Although
it appears there has been considerable change in the position of the Owner from
'Change of Use Planning Application', to
advertising For Sale; are you still proceeding with the Court Proceedings as a
continuing process for legitimate removal of domestic use of the premises? Yes hopefully with initial
hearing early next month. Whistlers Steep, Have
you now been able to issue an enforcement notice on Mr.Patel. Still in preparation Cllr Packington expressed concern over the length of time that Mr Drea’s
Property and Whistlers Steep are taking to action the enforcement notices and
the Council asked Cllr Packington to write to Mr Lawrence, copying in Mr Evans
and Mr Butcher expressing the Council’s concern over the amount of time the enforcement
notices are taking to be implemented.
6.
Finance: - Payments: The payments
as Appendix B were signed and approved.
- Precept 2005:
The Chairman confirmed that a precept meeting had taken place. The
Chairman advised that he had asked Clifford Catt to put the precept percentage
change at the bottom of the total and this was found to be higher than the Chairman
was happy with. The Chairman advised that he had dropped the legal expenses by
£500 and the contingency of £1,600, which brought the figure back to what was
agreed at the meeting.
- The precept figures
had been circulated to all Councillors before the meeting and after a long discussion
Cllr Batterbury proposed that the Slines Oak
Island was reduced from £4,000
to £2,000 and the £2,000 is placed in a contingency fund. A vote was taken and
carried and the agreed precept for 2005/06 is £40,560.
Cllr
Marks requested that in future she is sent a hard copy of any figure documents,
as she is unable to print them out. 7. Highways & Rights of Way: - Highways Monitoring and Reporting: Cllr
Fuller advised that he is still waiting for three reports. The Chairman advised
that the drain on the corner of the Green has now been jetwashed. Cllr Moylan
advised that she has received several complaints on how infrequent the Woldingham
road are swept. The Clerk had circulated the latest schedule to all Councillors
and Cllr Moylan will extract the figures for Woldingham roads and report back
at the next meeting.
- Crescent: Nothing to report.
Service Road: Cllr Packington advised that he
had sent letter to all the firms that had tendered. Cllr Packington also advised
that he had written to John Cox about the procedures of the removal of a tree,
which is half in the hedgerow and half on the service road and confirmed that
he had requested two quotes for the demolition of the tree as agreed at the Service
Road meeting. The Chairman asked for Cllr Packington to contact a third company that had been recommended by a resident, for
a quote. Cllr Packington advised that he had received a letter from John
Cox who confirmed that he has no objection to the removal of the sycamore and
mentions that he had noticed in our minutes that the Parish Council had some reservations
on the level of maintenance of the children’s playground.area.
Cllr Packington confirmed that the construction of the service road would not
take place until the Spring. The Chairman advised that a communal letter will
be put together advising residents, landlords and developers about the work that
will take place. Cllr Meekings expressed concern about going ahead with the service
road when there will be developers in the Crescent. c.
Footpaths & Bridleways: Cllr Packington advised that the footpath
besides Nothdowns Road
has been heavily cut up by construction plant either being parked on it or driven
over it and the grass verge has been damaged and asked whether the responsibility
lies with Highways. Cllr Marks advised that she would contact SCC Highways.
The Chairman advised that the hedge had been cut at the junction of Bug Hill and
a vote of thanks was given to whoever had cut this.
8.
Reports: a. WA/PC
Liaison Meeting 1/11 – The Chairman reported that two people had attended and
came out of the meeting thinking ‘what had they gone through’ as the whole atmosphere
was that of an interrogation. Cllr Packington queried whether there was any point
in having meetings and mentioned that he would have preferred not to have attended.
It was agreed that a meeting does not need to take place unless there is something
specific to discuss and the PC minutes will be e-mailed to the WA. The Chairman
confirmed that it is the PC’s turn to host the next meeting on the 7 February,
and this will be considered in light of the above.
9. Miscellaneous
Matters: - Airports: Nothing to report.
- Village Appraisal: Nothing to report.
- Village Design: Cllr Johnson advised that the document
is now being produced with drawings and photographs and the hope is that
a preliminary copy will be available in 2 weeks time. Cllr Johnson reported that
they are still waiting for Paul Newdick to come back to confirm the way forward
under the new sustainability assessment required by the new legislation.
- Viewpoint on the Ridge:
The Chairman advised that the
height barrier had been broken and this will be replaced shortly.
- Newsletter: Cllr Batterbury advised that he would be contacting
all Cllrs next month for a report to go in the next newsletter.
- Recyling: Nothing to report but all Councillors agreed that
the recycling collection by the Tandridge Contractor is very poor.
- Post Office:
The Chairman advised that the Post Office is now considering giving the temporary
Postmistress a full contract and when this happens the situation will need to
be reappraised. A discussion took place about the usage of the
shop and everyone agreed that villagers needed to “Use it or Loose
it” a phrase that had been used several years ago
- Station Parking: Nothing to report Cllr Meekings
to chase up.
- Road Group: The
Chairman advised that the next meeting will take place at the beginning of January.
- Security: The
Chairman advised that Kia Wnuk the new Police Community Support Officer (PCSO)
starts on 6/12 and confirmed that he had had a meeting with Kia and PC Kevin Smith
and went over quite a lot of worries from people within the Village. The Chairman
advised that the Parish Council supports Kia 150% but the PC are still a little
unhappy about the information given on how it will operate. The Chairman advised
that a letter had been received from Geoffrey King asking whether the Parish Council
would like to place a Councillor on the committee and the Chairman replied that
the Parish Council would ‘hold fire’ on that decision until a response had been
received from Surrey Police. The Chairman confirmed that Cllr Marks had been
in contact with Surrey Police and had spent a lot of time working with Chief Superintendent
Rob Price to ensure that the letter covered questions that had been raised by
villagers who were unclear about the operation of this officer. Cllr Marks read
out the letter to the meeting.
- Woodlea Parking: The
Chairman advised that a meeting is taking place on 6th December at
8pm to discuss the continuing parking problems. The Chairman and Cllr Meekings will attend.
- Litterpick:
Cllr Packington mentioned that the new PCSO would
be of considerable help with regard to safety during the Litterpick.
- Trafalgar
Day: Cllr Packington confirmed that he had filled out
the form and sent off for more details.
10.
Meetings to attend
- ESPLG 30/11
- Standards Meeting Training 16/12
- Flightpath 5/1
- Woodlea
School 6/12
11.
Correspondence: The Correspondence folder for the month was circulated to
all Councillors during the meeting.
12. Any
Other Business:
a. Diary: December/January diaries were passed around for
all Councillors to complete.
b.
Christmas Drinks: Cllr Moylan confirmed that Christmas
drinks would be held on the 20 December from 7.30pm.
Meeting finished at 10.33pm
3 members of the public
attended.
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