Old Buckenham Parish Council special meeting

Proposed move of Chapel Road School
These notes are written by the blog editor from the draft minutes of a Special Meeting of Old Buckenham Parish Council held on Thursday 14 August at Old Buckenham Village Hall.
Those present were Steve Milner (chairman), John Frost, Adrian Joel, Derek Smalley, Paul Boggia, Tom Johnson and the parish clerk James Watling (parish clerk). Apologies had been received from Carol Marshall, Sarah Dye, Tim Ing, Jonathan Kemp and Akis Chrisovelides.
There were also 12 members of the public present.
The only matter on the agenda was the proposed move of Chapel Road School to a site in Old Buckenham adjacent to the Village Hall. Steve Milner said the planning application for the new school had now been received by the Parish Council. There had been two opportunities for the public to view all the documents. This special meeting was to decide if the Parish Council wished to support the application or to vote against it. If they voted to support the application, they would need to decide what conditions or restrictions should be forwarded to Norfolk County Council concerning the application. One resident informed the meeting that local notices on the application had not been put up by NCC. The Clerk replied that he had spoken to Neil Campbell of NCC on the matter and he was assured that they would be displayed. Steve Milner then read out eleven points of concern regarding the planning application (see appendix 1) before asking for the councillors views on the points raised. Derek Smalley, Adrian Joel, Paul Boggia and Tom Johnson replied on various matters that they had been asked to look into. Steve Milner then read out a list of conditions (appendix 2) that he said should be put forward by the Parish Council if they voted to support the application and asked members of the public for their views on the application. Residents gave criticism of previous meetings with Norfolk County Council on the application. They also raised the question of emergency exit and access to the school which was not in the application. A small majority of residents were in favour of the application not being approved. Derek Smalley then proposed that the Parish Council object to the application on the basis of the points discussed in appendix 1. This was seconded by Tom Johnson and the vote was 3 for and 3 against the proposal. The Chairman then used his casting vote to vote against the proposal. Paul Boggia then proposed that the Parish Council support the application subject to the conditions discussed in appendix 2 and agreed in the meeting. This was seconded by Adrian Joel with 3 councillors for, 2 against and one abstention, therefore the proposal was carried.

Details of appendix 1 and appendix 2 will be given in a further post on this blog tomorrow.