Minutes of the meeting of Maresfield Parish Council held on Tuesday

21^st February 2006, in the Memorial Hall, Nutley

Present:         Cllr P Tester (Chairman), Cllr H Fry, Cllr J Gutteridge, Cllr K Ogden, Cllr T Sparrow, Cllr C Stephens, Cllr R Street, Cllr R Tester, DCllr F Brown, DCllr J Hollins, DCllr Mrs S Martin, CCllr A Reid, CCllr F Whetstone, Mrs C Goossens (Assistant Clerk).

1039    Public Session – None.

1040            Apologies for absence – Cllr W King, Cllr S Leaney, Cllr G Hardy, Cllr C Stevenson, DCllr Mrs P Kennedy, DCllr N Buck.

The Chairman brought to the Council’s attention Cllr Wallace’s resignation and his letter as circulated with the meeting papers.

1041            Declarations of interest – None.

1042            Minutes:-

1.      Minutes of the Council meeting (17 January 2006) for adoption – Adopted.

2.      Matters arising from these minutes

The Assistant Clerk noted that few suggestions had been received with regard to possible sites for stationing PCSO’s in the community.

1043            Reports by and questions to:-

1.      County Councillors

CCllr Reid reported the following points:

·         County Council today discussed and agreed the budget for the coming year.  In fact the proposed budget for the next 4 years has been reviewed in full detail.
A current annual increase of 4.7% in Council tax will hopefully be reduced to a target percentage increase of 3.5% by the end of the Council’s term.  ESCC’s expenditure is largely impacted on by the number of youngsters needing special education assistance and an increase of 10-14% in adult social care cost demands. Although in the coming year Central Government will fund schools directly (approximately £212 million, an increase of 6.8%), it will only fund the rest of County Councils commitments to the tune of 30%, which undoubtedly will necessitate a complete change in the way business is carried out at County Council. 

·         Regarding the replacement of the line between Uckfield and Lewes, a local firm of consultants has recently submitted a report to the County Council, at their request.  This report is certainly encouraging in terms of the viability of the restoration of the line.  The Director of Transport and Environment will summarise and publish this report in next couple of weeks.  The next step will be to raise approximately £150,000 to facilitate the submission of a full business plan, before finally applying to Parliament for a Transport Act.

·         On Wednesday 1^st March, the South-East Regional Assembly will sign off on the South-East Plan, announcing annual growth in housing in the South-East Region for the next 20 years.  An extremely positive step in the plan is recognition that growth should only come in parallel with the necessary employment and infrastructure to support it.

·         Tomorrow morning County Council’s Highways and Planning Committee will hear the Onyx application.  CCllr Reid will have the opportunity to address the committee and express local views and concerns which indeed are very much his own.  It must however be noted that Officers do recommend approval of the application.  By lunch-time tomorrow the outcome will be known.  CCllr Reid confirmed that he will also relay the views of Fletching Parish Council with reference to the application.

·         County Council still maintains financial responsibility for home to school transport, improvement and maintenance of standards at schools and distribution of children between them.  Children’s services cost County Council approximately £55 million annually, although it should be noted that this amount does include funding for some costs which wouldn’t have been considered in past years e.g. acute/special needs.

·         County Council’s total budget is £283 million the cost of adult social care accounting for £115 million of that.

2.      District Councillors

DCllr Mrs S Martin spoke about plastic recycling in Wealden and the following points were noted:

·         Wealden does not have a plastics recycling unit and takes all their plastic recycling to Lewes. 

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·         Lewes does not have facility for glass or paper and so Wealden also collects from Lewes District Council bottle and paper banks.

·         The Lewes depot recycles 5,800 tonnes of Low Density Polyethylene each year.  A large proportion is exported to China where it is recycled into a variety of items or is burnt.

·         The cost of running curb-side recycling operations in Lewes District Council is £500,000.

·         In 2010, Wealden will have 100% CROWN recycling system in place in order to comply with government legislation.

·         CROWN currently reaches almost 2/3rds of Wealden residents (37,000 households).

·         The cost of extending CROWN kerbside recycling to rural areas is in the region of £120,000 per 3,000 properties.

·         Danehill and Forest Row are prime candidates for the first rural roll out.

·         Recycling points in car parks cost approximately £4,000 for the basic installation of containers and then around £300 per commodity to empty.

·         The actual cost of waste collection in Wealden is steadily rising each year.  Net expenditure for 04/05 was £3,033m; in 05/06 the estimate is £3,130m and the estimate for 06/07 is £3,285m.

Cllr Street reported that the bottle containers in Fairwarp village hall car park are almost always full, resulting in a number of bottles being left all over the car park.  Is this as a result of collections becoming less frequent and if so is this because it costs Wealden an increasing amount of money if we recycle more than our quota? 

ACTION:  DCllr Hollins to look at this issue.

Cllr Fry reported that the paper bank in Nutley is also often over full.

DCllr Hollins leaves the meeting.

1044    Council bodies: Actions, minutes and reports by, and questions to, Chairmen:-

1.   Civil Protection

·         Cllr Gutteridge reported that the draft minutes of the last meeting held on 26^th January were circulated with the meeting papers. 

·         It was noted that the Civil Protection committee works closely with Wealden but there is little coordination with representatives from other Parishes.

·         DCllr Mrs Martin stated that she is very impressed with Maresfield Parish Council’s Civil Protection Committee in terms of what it is doing and the advances it is making.

·         Cllr Fry added that this Committee has been consistently working diligently for a number of years.

2.   Environment & Maintenance

·         Cllr P Tester reported that the draft minutes of the last meeting held on 12^th January were circulated with the meeting papers. 

·         PPA is still causing some problems although matters are now hopefully moving on that front.  Unfortunately, Cllr Hardy is not present to report on the alternatives he is looking at for screening of the apparatus.

·         The new footpath markers as requested from ESCC are now in Cllr R Testers possession

3.   Finance & Administration

·         The minutes from the last meeting on 14^th February have not yet been published.

·          A close relationship will be forged with Fairwarp recreation ground at their request, and the Parish Council will now be represented on their management body.  Current facilities are in a bad state of repair and require attention.

·         Council has previously agreed the expenditure for the purchase of a portable Hearing Loop and the Clerk is to arrange this.  An element of the £480 cost is for training for both the Clerk and Assistant Clerk.  At a recent Wealden meeting there was a hearing loop in use, which Cllr Stephens reported to work very well indeed.

                                                  i.      Month 10 Financial Reports

·   Cllr Street confirmed that the budget is exactly as expected by the end month ten and looks to be on target for the end of the year. 

·   It was noted that it is excellent for the Parish Council to be at month 10 and spot on budget.

·   Cllr Sparrow confirmed that he and Cllr Stevenson carried out the internal audit in January and that someone is now needed for the next month’s audit. 

·   Both external and internal audits are taking place and everything is fine.

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                                                ii.      Wealden Budget Consultation

·   The consultation meetings relating to Wealden’s budget for the coming year which currently take place at the end January or beginning of February will it is hoped, from next year take place in November, which may improve attendance levels which have historically been very poor.

   ACTION: Clerk to inform Wealden of this suggestion.

·   Wealden’s budget increase for next year will be 4.5% compared with an increase by this Parish Council to 4.75%, an increase of our precept of16%, which we may in the future be told is unacceptable. 

·   Possible reorganisation of local councils will be based on a minimum residency of 5000 people i.e. 1500 more than live in Maresfield Parish.  It is inevitable that some of the smaller councils will need to be reorganised.

·   There is a strong view that Council tax increases of around 5% are unacceptable when inflation is currently running at 2%.  It may be that next year there is a drive to keep council tax rises to the rate of inflation and if this is the case, something will have to give e.g. car parking charges.

·   From 1^st April there will be free bus passes for those aged 60 plus.  It is important to ensure that all parishioners are aware that they need to apply for this privilege.  ACTION:  Clerk to put article in The Parish Matters

It was noted that although there will be free bus passes and the government is providing Wealden District Council with the funding, it will not meet requirements and therefore council tax payers will be liable for the shortfall.

Applications can be made on-line or an application form can be sent off for.

4.   Planning

·         Cllr Odgen reported that the draft minutes of the last two meeting held 30^th January and 13^th February were circulated with the meeting papers.

·         Cllrs Ogden, Stephens and Street this week went to the Parish Planning Conference at Wealden which was very well attended.  Cllr Odgen thanked Cllr Stephens and Cllr Street for taking the time to attend the meeting with him.  Wealden seem to be taking the views of Parish Councils on board more so than has been the case in the past.  Cllr Ogden promised to report further details at the next Planning Committee meeting.

·         The Planning Committee currently has a very heavy work load, having had ten new applications at the last meeting and a number of site visits.

·         DCllr Buck has today been lobbying County Councillors who will be attending the meeting tomorrow on subject of Onyx waste site application.

·         Cllr Gutteridge and Cllr Ogden have been working hard on the Parish Council’s objections to the Onyx Application and if the decision is unfavourable will work on the “calling in” process.

·         It was noted that the Parish Council has previously compiled a list of alternative sites to Maresfield re. Waste Transfer Site but that these were pushed aside by ESCC.

ACTION:  Cllr Ogden to provide CCllr Reid with the relevant information.

·         Cllr R Tester reported that he is personally puzzled by ESCC recommendation for a Waste Site in Maresfield, as ever since 1984 plans have dictated that the site needs to be high tech.  If ESCC disagreed with what WDC have been saying since 1984 shouldn’t they have said something before now?

5.    Policy Committee

The Assistant Clerk reported no meeting January and the date for the next is not yet set.

It was noted that the minutes from this last meeting have not yet been approved and should therefore be labelled DRAFT.  ACTION:  Clerk relabel minutes and to set date(see1047 below).

6.   Strategy Sub-Committee

·         A number of issues are still progressing following through from the Village Plan, some have been stood down, the Sub-Committee having worked through them.

·         Work continues both with regard to youth and bringing health services back into the parish, in particular, Nutley.  Cllr Sparrow and Mr Thorogood recently had a very useful meeting with the Sussex Downs & Weald Primary Care Trust, when it was established that we do have their ear as we progress the proposals on which they will be happy to comment.

 

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·         The final training and transfer of the website in-house is virtually complete. The next training session is for the Clerk and Assistant Clerk is tentatively booked for next Monday. 

            ACTION:  Clerk to add web address to Parish Council headed paper.

7.   Traffic & Transport Committee

·         The Draft minutes of the last meeting were circulated with the papers.

                  There is nothing further to report at present.

1045            Outside bodies’ reports

A written report by Cllr Sparrow was circulated and is reproduced below in italics for completeness.

Action in rural Sussex

Nothing major to report.  The possible move designed to bring all Lewes based staff under one roof is currently on hold as prospective premises are being investigated.

Wealden District Association of Local Councils/SALC

• One key target is the Local Area Agreement currently being agreed between ESCC and the government is for an increase in Quality Councils in East Sussex.  It is a tough target (37 by 2009) but if achieved will provide additional income to the County.
• WDALC is represented on the Statement of Community Involvement Board (Wealden District Council LDF) by Hailsham, Buxted and Maresfield.
• More comments are being made about the future structure of local government in East Sussex.  The most consistent is the formation of a county-wide unitary authority and the disappearance of the rural districts (Wealden, Rother and Lewes).  One even more strange is the formation of an even bigger unitary authority area based on Canterbury!  Whatever happens, the strong message is that Parishes/Towns will survive, but may have to be larger entities (up to 5,000?) and will certainly be expected to do more in terms of local services.

Local Strategic Partnership

Earlier today it is anticipated East Sussex County Council approved its budget for 2006/07.  This included a reduction in transfer of "second homes money" to East Sussex LSPs of 50% in 2006/07 and 100% in 2007/08.  The repercussions of these cuts on Partnership working in East Sussex could be very significant.

Cllr Sparrow reported the following with regard to the ongoing Accessibility Audit:

·               Maresfield, Withyham and Groombridge Parishes have been selected to participate in a free Access Audit, funded by the Countryside Agency.  A consultant works in conjunction with the Parish Council and parishioners to look at the existing transport services and also those which are not provided. Information from this audit will be forwarded to County Council and reviewed by them as part of their forward transport planning.

·               Step 1 – is to carry out a desk audit and this has now been completed.

·               Step 2 – is the circulation of a detailed questionnaire to representatives across the parish i.e. through clubs and schools.  The questionnaires have been distributed and are now being completed and returned the consultant for analysis.

·               Step 3 – The consultant carries out public consultations where he discusses the issues raised by the individuals he meets.  This information is then added to that collated from the questionnaires.

·               The whole process must be completed by no later than March 31^st when funding will cease.

·               Every effort is being made to ensure to we get as good a coverage as we can through the distribution of the questionnaire’s.  It is a sample questionnaire but we have circulated these to the best audience we can.

·               There are spare copies of the questionnaire available in the office.

·               CCllr Reid stated that no funds are likely to be available even when the survey has been carried out.  However, it was noted that this detailed information regarding the needs of the community for transport will be fed into the Local Transport Plan, which in turn will be worked into the County Council’s process e.g. reviewing contracts and existing bus services.  Furthermore, he reported that County Council is continually looking to see how services can be delivered in a more cost effective way and the survey will be helpful in this regard.

·               Cllr Fry reported that the Wealden Senior Citizens Partnership has decided to seek collaboration with a local taxi firm to help older people to get to doctors etc.

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1046            Chairman’s Report

• Ref. Item 1 - Cllr Ogden reported that both he and the Assistant Clerk last week attended a meeting at the Chequers Hotel together with a number of other individuals from Maresfield.  This was in effect a presentation by an architect working on behalf of Mr Watts displaying early ideas for building on his land and the resulting possible benefits for the village as a whole. 
• Ref. Maresfield Recreation Ground access issue - Cllr Street reported that the last letter received from the Parish Council’s solicitor has not yet been answered.  Cllr King has looked at this letter and given some advice and a response ought to be sent as soon as possible highlighting the fact that the solicitor has the wrong end of stick with regard to the fundamental issue, i.e. that the Parish Council is asking for a public right of access not a right of access for the Parish Council itself.  Furthermore, the Parish Council has no actual dispute with Mr Watts, it is purely asking for what is right.  ACTION:  Cllr Street to draft a letter to Wynne Baxter.
• Cllr P Tester reported that the Chairman is anxious to be appraised with regard to how he is fulfilling his role or otherwise, i.e. good, bad or indifferent.  If Councillors have any comments, Cllr P Tester urged them to call him as, Vice-Chairman of the Council, to discuss and he will then in turn feed this back to the Chairman. ACTION: All Councillors.

CCllrs Reid and Whetstone leave the meeting.

1047            Clerk's Report

Cllr Fry commended the Clerk for raising the issue of the number of committees and their focus, and recommends that everyone takes a view on this.  It was Agreed that the Clerk’s paper should be looked at by the Policy committee. ACTION:  Clerk to add item to next agenda for next policy meeting which should be arranged prior to the AGM and if necessary in Cllr Leaney’s absence.

1048            Payments to be made for approval

·         It was noted that lamp in the Memorial Hall car park is now working and that the bill is on the list of payments.   Feedback has been received suggesting that many are pleased with this useful addition especially Nutley School who pass on their thanks to the Parish Council and note that it makes the world of difference.

Payments totalling £3,463.79 were Agreed.

1049            Quality Council submission – progress update

Assistant Clerk reported that the results of the Clerk’s CiLCA submission are still awaited.  Furthermore, progress is underway with the Council’s submission, four modules of which have been completed.  It was noted that there has of course been a slight delay due to the Clerk’s recent illness.

1050    Village Fetes

The Assistant Clerk reminded Councillors of the dates of each fete and asked for helpers and ideas.

·         It was noted that the Fairwarp WI do not wish to share the Parish Council marquee this year.

·         Similar presentation at each event

·         Publicise some of our achievements over the last year.

·         Photographic competition last year was very good and something similar would be great.

·         Do we want to involve the community in one aspect of what we are doing – do we want to use it as an opportunity to seek public opinion.

·         LDF presentation (visual display) – work with appropriate conservation societies to put this together.

·         P Tester – mentioned also Annual Assembly and the need to arrange a speaker for this event in the very near future. 
ACTION: All councillors to consider options for displays and  Clerk to add this as Agenda item for next Council meeting.

1051            Communications

1.      The Parish Matters – winter edition update

The Assistant Clerk reported that there has been a slight delay in the production and distribution of The Parish Matters.  Di Miles hopes to have completed the formatting of the document in the next week or so now that her computer is once again up and running. 

ACTION:  Clerk to remove Mr Tom Best from The Parish Matters circulation list.

Date of next meeting, 21 March 2006 (Fairwarp)

Best wishes were conveyed to the Clerk for a speedy recovery and thanks expressed to the Assistant Clerk for maintaining all normal services during the Clerks absence.

There being no further business, the meeting closed at 21.00.