Parish Council minutes
Old Buckenham Parish Council met on Thursday 5 June
at Old Buckenham Village Hall. Those present were councillors Naomi Bailey
(Chair), Doug Irons (Vice Chair), Stan Burton, Lesley Evison, Steve Gowers,
David Taylor and Pete Twissell.
Also attending were Megan Elvin (Clerk) and Donna
Oakley (RFO) as well as six members of the public. The minutes of the meeting
held on Thursday 1 May were approved (6 in favour).
Financial matters. Community account balance was now £30,523.50. Payments of £3,092.51 were approved and which included payment to solicitors, for digger hire, subscription to NALC, council insurance as well as the community car drivers.
AGAR forms are to be signed. There were no issues
with the accounts but will not be signed off until Jonn Hicks has been
sentenced. He was due to be sentenced next week but this has not happened. This
delay will increase the fine for late delay.
Councillor’s reports. Naomi Bailey said that a social
media post circulating is badly worded. Complaints are not disturbing the
parish council and it is the council’s job to respond to the complaints.
Steve Gowers gave news on the Almshouses. The work on the roof will commence in June and take eight weeks. There may be some inconvenience on the local roads but residents have been made aware of this. With the Community Speed Watch he is trying to find out what we can do and has written to police commissioning office. Unable to get a speed sign with a face on it as Norfolk ban them. Doing one hour a week on Cake Street and an average 20 cars are reported for speeding. They are trying to get things done but not getting as far as they would like.
Lesley Evison has looked at the jubilee trees. Two
looked like they are dying but there are some new shoots halfway down. Others
are looking fit and healthy. The Green Working Committee should be having
someone go round to look at trees and will ask them to look at the jubilee
trees as well.
The Clerk said phone calls had been had with the
owner of the goal post currently on the Green and they will be completing a use
of Green application form. She had ordered and received the new adult pads for
the Village Hall defibrillator and the child pads for Village Hall and
defibrillator at the Ox and Plough. The recent defibrillator training mentioned
starter kits that we should have so she has ordered three of these for all the defibrillators.
The new post box is up at the Village Hall. If this
is to be used for both the Village Hall and the Parish Council, then the old
one will need to be taken down or a new sign put on the new one as it could be
confusing for the post man with two post boxes. An email has been sent to the solar
company regarding the lump sum funding however yet to hear back from them.
Planning applications. (All planning applications
are available for viewing on the Breckland District Council planning portal –
www.breckland.gov.uk/article/2933/Search-Planning-Applications - Parish
Councillors have been asked by the chairman to view the new applications in
advance of the meeting)
New planning application. Hill Farm, Leys Lane. Proposed
two storey & single storey side extension, erection of porch and bay window
(PL/2025/0725/HOU). There were no issues and council voted (5 in favour) to
support this application.
(David Taylor arrived at 19.49).
Green Working Committee update. The wayleave money
has gone over to the Parish Council for the Green Working Committee. Having a bench
on the middle of the Green will deeply affect the cutting so this has been
declined. There are enough benches around the Green to not warrant one in the
middle.
When they took on Prince Harry’s Wood it was
mutually agreed an extra £500. Then there was an issue with Prince Harry’s
Woods and an extra bit of land but this has now been sorted. Would like to put
forward to have the extra £500. Doug Irons asked if the committee had put up
the three-year plan for all of the outgoings. At this point they have not been
able to estimate due to the current state of the Green putting costs up for
this year, they cannot say exactly how much it would cost. Another reason for
not receiving the £500 is due to the issues with old Clerk the Council decided
to keep the fund the same for this year. At the moment, cannot do anything with
Prince Harry’s Wood without more funding.
Two more trees on the Green need to come down, two
ash trees that have ash die back and are too large to cut without professional
help. Opportunity to sell the felled wood at a discounted price to get money
back into GWC.
Bench survey – one by the village sign that needs to be removed. It is rusted and the wood rotten. It is also right by the edge of the road. Stan Burton suggested that it’s taken down and if someone wants to put a bench there it can be put further back and turned round to face the other way to look onto the Green, rather than onto the road.
Lloyds Bank update. Paperwork that was filled in
months ago now, did eventually make it. Asked for everyone to have internet
access and some of the card readers have already come through.
Allotment update. Lesley Evison had been down to
the allotments and had a brief look. Sent out apologies to the allotment
holders for the lack of communication. Would like to ask for an extension
until the end of October as one allotment holder has pumpkins on her plot for
school children. Advised that this should not be a problem. May also need to
hire an extra skip for the clearance.
One allotment holder asked several questions. Before
the decision was made to close the allotments, did anyone speak to the
landlord about the potential closure? She had spoken to farm owner who was
disappointed that we are leaving. Had he have been approached by the council
they may have been in agreement to help with security and gates. Got the
impression that the farm owner was never approached to find alternative
solutions. Feels sad that over the years the Parish Council has not invested in
the allotments. Has also had yet another break-in this last week. Was offended
at the wording of the letter regarding the clearing of the plots otherwise they
may be charged by the parish.
The Chair said they did try to maintain the
allotment and tried to get people interested and a large amount of money was
put down on this occasion. But those that did take on allotments did not remain
due to lack of maintenance. At the moment it is costing us more to keep the
allotments and not even breaking even. It was never a money-making scheme. Can’t
be spending more money on it and not getting the amount back.
Clarification of insurance. Parish Council have gone for a 3-year contract with the insurance company. The cost for the first year has come down to £884.31 from £914. The increase for next year should not be too extreme by going for the 3-year contract. Questioned the hirer’s liability as this was not included on the insurance. The Hirer’s liability is only for hiring buildings/property. It does not cover land. So, we wouldn’t need this ourselves.
We just must make sure the hirers of the Green have their own insurance – they carry out risk assessments before and after and return the land back to the way it was before they used it. For example, any holes created in the Green need to be refilled to avoid a trip hazard, etc. We already make sure those that use the Green have their own insurance and do own risk assessments, so we are therefore covered.The Clerk to check insurance on playground if Steve Gowers does any maintenance himself. Will he be covered?
Update on charities. Naomi Bailey has been in touch
with the Charities Commission and is in the process of updating the trustees. Will
then liaise with Donna Oakley regarding getting the returns done.
Update on playground and parking. Megan Elvin and Steve Gowers had a meeting with Luke from NCC Highways at the beginning of May. It will cost the council several thousands of pounds to have the speed limit changed. We would have to go through a survey to see if a speed change would be warranted and it’s based on how many accidents have occurred on that road. We are allowed to put “No Parking” signs on the fence of the playground as this is our property. We are unable to put any other signs anywhere else on the road advising of a playground because it does not meet the criteria for visibility. Luke suggested white “H” Lines going across the entry way of the playground to stop cars parking directly in front of the gate, this will allow a larger view gap at the entrance. We have missed the deadline for issuing this as part of the bulk lining for the current bulk order of road lines so Luke will add it onto the next bulk order that they give the contractors later this year.
Chicanes will be a very expensive option to go
into. Suggested we start with the lines and the no parking signs on the fence
and then if the problem is still ongoing the council can look into the costs of
chicanes. Cost of parking signs is £70 each. These will need to be bolted to
the fence. A proposal to buy signs was approved (7 in favour). Also will need
to start looking at updating the playground equipment.
Churchyard update. Still no further forward with
this. Had suggested a meeting with the three charities to know who owns what
bit of land but this was cancelled due to lack of attendees. The meeting will
just be to know about what areas of land is owned by which charity. Naomi
Bailey and Steve Gowers to arrange sending out an email asking who thinks which
piece of land is which.
Ottomer Pond. Couple of quotes for putting in a silt trap at Ottomer Pond end of drainage pipe came as £950 and £1116.68. Stan Burton said costing to build ourselves would be £142.59 for materials, scaffolding to go round the pipe and gravel can be free. He asked why we can’t just build it ourselves. The chamber at the other end will have to be built professionally as this will bear the weight of vehicles. Doug Irons agreed that we should go through the ‘do it yourself’ plan and this was approved (5 in favour).
Breckland Council will be chased about the chamber
and the piping as they were the ones to make the error in the first place. Stephen
Halls from legal flood authority involved. The Parish Council do not have the
money to foot the bill. As it is not our drain or land that it is on and should also let the estate agents aware that are trying to sell the property that the
chamber is on.
Amended TWT lease agreement. Had documentation from
the Ice Queen to allow her the use of trading on the Green for TWT. To be
agreed in principle until updated liability insurance for the Ice Queen has
been renewed and received. This was agreed (7 in favour).
School parking. A suggestion was given by a member
of the public that when Chapel Green was built there was access from Chapel
Green to the primary school field. Stipulation was originally stated that this
should not be used as an access. There will be more issues with parking soon
when Chapel Green have new students starting and they have run out of parking
themselves. High school will be tarmacking some of their land in the summer to
hopefully alleviate parking on Abbey Road as it is mainly staff parking there.
The posts on Reggie’s way is only stopping cars parking on the Green. They can still park on the track but access cannot be obstructed. The Village Hall car park is often full and there are still cars trying to park in there without a permit. Some parents are rude when being asked not to park in certain places. The Gamekeeper has offered their car park up for parents. This information was given to the schools so they should be passing this information onto the parents. The pub owner is only offering up his car park for the school drop off times.
Pressure washer. The chair of Green Working Committee
has asked if we might consider buying a pressure washer to clean the village
signs. The Parish Council did not believe this is a necessity as one can be
borrowed.
Public participation. A parishioner asked if there
was going to be some other publicity for the AGM the following Saturday.
Notification to be added onto the Facebook groups
Items for next agenda. These are expected to
include parking update, ongoing work on Ottomer Pond, positioning of Christmas
tree and further updates on Solar Farm, Green Working Committee, Lloyds banking
and the co-option of a new councillor.
The next Parish Council meeting will be on Thursday
3 July at Old Buckenham Village Hall starting at 7.30pm.
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