MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF SPIXWORTH PARISH COUNCIL HELD AT
7.30pm on TUESDAY 8 JANUARY 2008 at SPIXWORTH VILLAGE HALL

PRESENT
COUNCILLORS: Mr Fitt (Council Chairman)
Mr Barrell Ms Cullum Mrs Holdroyd
Mr Manning Mr Mills Mr Potter
Mr Sadler Mr Thompson Mr Watson
District Councillor C. Thompson (also Parish Councillor)
County Councillor Williams (later)
CLERK: Mrs R. Rose
PC 1120 Lambert

MR FITT took the chair and welcomed everyone to the meeting. .

1. APOLOGIES were accepted from Mr Ward and District Councillor Kular.

2. DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

Councillor Sadler: as Chair of Broadland Standards Committee and a member Broadland Community Partnership (public bodies); a member of the Executive Committee of NCAPTC; Vice-Chairman of the Norwich Airport Joint Consultative Committee; a personal interest in any matter relating to the Code of Conduct or the bodies stated.
Councillor Holdroyd; a personal interest in Item 6.1 (payment to Stephen Blanch Garden Services) as a relative.
Councillor Potter: a personal interest in Item 11 as an employee of the Social Club and a member of a user group of the Village Hall.

3. THE MINUTES of the previous meeting held on 4 December 2007, which had been circulated, were agreed, and signed by the Chairman as a true record.

4. MATTERS ARISING

4.1 Child Protection Policy
The Clerk had ascertained that the definition of a child or young person in legal terms was one who had not yet reached his or her sixteenth birthday. The Policy would be reviewed at least annually. With these amendments, it was AGREED to adopt the Child Protection Policy.

5. POLICE MATTERS

5.1 Crime Statistics
The figures for December had been received and circulated; 25 calls had been taken by the Control Room from/regarding the parish, and 6 crimes had been logged.
PC Lambert commented that this represented a reduction in calls and there had been no burglaries. He enlarged on the causes of the logged crimes. He had spent time patrolling the village and monitoring the fly-tipping in Quaker Lane. He had also warned vehicle owners about parking on the footways, and would issue Fixed Penalty Notices if these warnings were ignored.

He had spoken to the youths riding mini-motes around the village and warned them to keep off the highway. He hoped that the PCSO would arrange for a local surgery in the village within the next few weeks.

5.2 Safer Neighbourhood Action Panel
The next meeting would be on 21 January at Sprowston Parish Council offices. The April meeting would be in Old Catton and the meeting on 21 July in Spixworth.
The Clerk would ask Councillor Ward to raise speeding issues. PC Lambert had already indicated that he could have access to a speed gun, and the areas requiring monitoring in Spixworth were Crostwick Lane, Park Road, Buxton Road and Arthurton Road.
P.C. Lambert was thanked for attending and he left the meeting.

6. FINANCE

6.1 Balances were noted.
Cheques and Payments detailed on the attached schedule and totalling £3,336.13 were authorised for payment.

6.2 Applications for Financial Assistance
None received.

6.3 Finance & General Purposes Committee
6.3.1 The minutes of the meeting held 18 December 2007 were RATIFIED.

6.3.2 Budget and Precept 2008/09
The Committee had proposed a 15% increase in the precept level to £61,000.
Councillor Potter challenged the budget proposals under several headings, and discussion ensued.
Proposed by Councillor Sadler, seconded by Councillor Thompson, the budget was accepted and a precept level of £61,000 was AGREED.

6.4 External Auditor's Report
The audit had been completed satisfactorily and no matters were raised.

6.5 Any Other Finance Matters
It was AGREED that a Budget Control Report would be provided to all Councillors quarterly.

7. PLANNING MATTERS

7.1 Planning Committee
7.1.1 The minutes of the Committee meeting held 4 December 2007 were RATIFIED.

7.1.2 Councillor Mills gave a verbal report of the Committee meeting held immediately prior to the Council meeting; the Council AGREED the recommended responses to the planning applications.

7.2 Permissions and Enforcement Matters
An application for sub-division of a plot at 95 Buxton Road, to which the Parish Council had objected, had been refused by Broadland District Council.
Of the two enforcement cases outstanding: there had been no progress on the case of untidy land at 10 Sydney Road. Permission had been granted for the boundary fence at 33 Redwing Gardens.

7.3 Any Other Planning Matters
7.3.1 The application for recycling works at the Parkers Skip Hire site in Rackheath was due to be heard by the County Council Planning (Regulatory) Committee on 11 January 2008. Spixworth Parish Council's comments had sought compliance with the 7.5 tonne weight restriction by the traffic generated from the site.

7.3.2 Development off Spixworth Road, Old Catton: negotiations were ongoing for the development and further statutory assessment documents were now available.

7.3 3 Broadland District Landscape Character Assessment
The meeting agreed with the proposed assessment of the parish character as that of 'wooded estate land'.

7.3.4 Consultation had been received on a validation checklist for all planning applications, intended to improve the quality and level of information they contained.

7.3.5 Councillor Mills reported on the planning training meeting attended by Councillor Sadler, the Clerk and himself in December, and expressed his appreciation of its content.

8. CORRESPONDENCE

8.1 Correspondence List
A list of the correspondence received had been circulated, and was updated at the meeting; all items were available from the Clerk. A list is attached to the signed copy of these minutes.
Councillor Sadler would attend the Norfolk Police Authority meeting on 24 January 2008.

With the meeting's agreement as County Councillor Williams had not yet arrived, Highways Matters was postponed until later in the meeting.

10. AMENITIES MATTERS

10.1 Bus shelter on Buxton Road
Councillor Mills had asked for this to be raised as he felt that the shelter should either be refurbished or removed.
There was discussion on who had originally commissioned it; the Clerk would research the minutes of 1952/53. There was discussion on the possibility of erecting further shelters in the village, but the budget would not allow for this at the present time.

10.2 Any Other Amenities Matters
10.2 Greg's Meadow: the Chairman had measured the length of the central path to be resurfaced and was preparing a specification for tenders.

10.3 Teenage Recreational Facilities: Broadland District Council's bid to the Big Lottery fund had been successful. The District Council was now recruiting an officer to oversee the implementation of the scheme.

10.4 Vandalised Dog Litterbins: the Clerk reported that two more bins had been vandalised, but a new site had been found for a bin on Crostwick Lane. There were currently one old and one new type bins being stored in the office.
After discussion, it was AGREED that (after permission had been obtained) the new type bin should be installed on the new site on Crostwick Lane, and the old type bin on a site to be found near The Cut.

County Councillor Williams entered the meeting during the following item.

11. SPIXWORTH VILLAGE HALL

11.1 Tri-partite Meeting
The meeting noted the minutes of the meeting held on 13 December 2007.
The Clerk had ascertained the timescales and likely cost of a Parish Poll on the proposal that the Parish Council become the sole trustee of the Village Hall charity.

11.2 Leaflet to Parish
Councillors had had the opportunity to scrutinise a leaflet drafted by Councillor Potter explaining the background behind the proposal, intended to go to the village before any Parish Poll was held.
There was a wide-ranging discussion on the content of the leaflet, but the general feeling was that it was too long, and the emphasis should be more on the future and the proposal itself.
It was agreed to allow time for the Village Hall Management Committee and the Social Club Committee to scrutinise the leaflet and to make comments, and the matter would be put on the agenda for the February Parish Council meeting.

12. NORWICH INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

Councillor Barrell referred to an answer given to Councillor Sadler at the recent JCC meeting, in which it was stated that there were no vehicles strong enough to tow aircraft from a low-lying point on the airport site following testing. Councillor Barrell had ascertained that there were vehicles on the airport belonging to Sprayavia which had the required towing capability. Councillor Sadler would ascertain whose responsibility it was to tow the aircraft, and whether the Sprayavia vehicles could be used.

Councillor Ward had asked Councillor Sadler to ascertain where the new ILS beacon would be sited. Councillor Sadler had discovered that the system had already been on site at the airport for 10 years, and had been used on runway 09 for landings. It would now be moved to a point 300 metres north east of the main runway. It was 12 metres high, painted red and white. It was used as a guiding aid, and its signal would not affect radio, TV or mobile communication systems.

He had been asked that the Council respond to the consultation on the proposed changes to the instrument approach procedures. It was AGREED that Spixworth Parish Council would have no objection.

9. HIGHWAYS MATTERS

9.1 Highways Committee Meeting
A provisional date of 28 January 2008 at 5.00pm was agreed. The Clerk would ask the Area Manager and the Principal Engineer (Casualty Reduction) to attend.

9.2 Maintenance Matters Update
The Clerk would ask when programmed repairs would be carried out, and meanwhile would photograph those areas that were being monitored to ascertain if there had been any deterioration since September.

9.3 Church Lane
The Clerk read an email from the Area Manager, indicating what temporary measures he had taken to highlight the area as an accident blackspot, and what investigations were ongoing into the causes of the recent spate of accidents.

9.4 Any Other Highways Matters
County Councillor Williams reported that he had been asked to look into County Council contracting procedures.
He recommended contacting the National Farmers Union local representative about the persistent use of Crostwick Lane by sugar beet lorries, contrary to the 7.5 tonne weight restriction.

13. REPORTS FROM DISTRICT / COUNTY COUNCILLORS

District Councillor Thompson: Nothing further to report.

County Councillor Williams spoke about the preparation of the County Council budget for 2008/09. Efficiency savings had reduced the deficit from the Government contribution to £10 million. Care for the elderly was using increasingly more of the County Council resources. He anticipated that the rise in Council tax would be less than in 2007/08.

There was discussion on the Boundary Committee's exploration of the Norfolk unitary authority question. The Committee had still not received its Terms of Reference for Norfolk from the government, which had countermanded decisions already made on unitary authorities in other counties. The future of local government in Norwich and Norfolk was still unresolved.

14. AOB

Councillor Watson commented that he had received several complaints about the condition of the shop fronts on Crostwick Lane.

There being no further business, the meeting closed at 10.02pm