Old Buckenhan February minutes

 February minutes

The following notes were written by the blog editor from the draft minutes and so may contain information that is changed at a later date.

Old Buckenham Parish Council met on Thursday 5 February at Old Buckenham Village Hall. Those present were Councillors Naomi Bailey (Chair), Stan Burton, Lesley Evison, Steve Gowers, Pete Twissell and Darren Butler. Apologies had been received from David Taylor and Doug Irons who were unable to attend due to work commitments. Also in attendance were Megan Elvin (Clerk) and District Councillor Steve Askew together with three members of the public.

A minute silence was given for Michael Bartlett who died in late January. He was an asset to the village and will be greatly missed by all.

The minutes of the meeting held on Thursday 8 January were agreed (5 in favour and 1 abstain)

Financial matters. The current bank accounts stood at Barclays Community Account £18,953.85, Lloyds Community Account £3,645.79 and Barclays Charity Account 4,117.90. Payments for approval included £112.95 to the community car drivers, £6048 to Broadland Trees for work on the Green, the Christmas Tree and allotment clearance, £882.02 on skip hire and £37.50 on hire of the Methodist Church. The total payments up to the end of January were £6,709.31 and this was approved (6 in favour).

Councillors and District Councillors reports. Steve Askew said the pop up pantry is now going to be five-weekly due to less people using it. Due to the new unitary Council, Breckland is trying to pass on assets that are Breckland-owned such as the Attleborough car parks to the area council. Norfolk County Council is trying to repair potholes as quickly as they can. The preferred way to report them is to go on the NCC website and report the issue through there. Postponement of the elections meant that they were postponed last year to facilitate the new council and the mayor. Now the mayor elections postponed to 2027 and the county elections have been postponed as well to 2027.

Naomi Bailey has not heard back from the contractor regarding Puddledock. Reported many pot-holes but please report them as well if you see them. Welcome pack renewal is now in process. The original is very outdated. Started work on new one and then all the work was lost. Lesley Evison asked if the Welcome Pack is a necessity. The councillors do not know who is moving in and who is moving out. Is it a priority to work on? The groups in Old Buckenham have their own pages which people can utilise. Once it’s finished, the information will become outdated again very quickly. Perhaps something to add into the newsletter?

Steve Gower wanted to thank the Community Speed watch team for going out in January, completing two sessions a week and with good results. Pete Twissell reported that the bench around the tree at the top of Abbey Road to be replaced with a memorial plaque and he was asked to carry on with liaising with the family to get this sorted.

New planning applications. Wash Farm, New Buckenham Road, NR17 1PW. Demolition of redundant adjoined outbuildings to enable proposed single-story and two-story extension to existing dwelling farmhouse (PL/2025/1022/HOU). There were no issues and council voted to support (6 in favour).

3 Mill Cottages, Mill Road. Discharge of condition 4 on PL/2025/0167/FMIN. There were no issues and council voted to support (6 in favour).

Amended applications (for information). Tree House, Fen Road. Discharge of condition 4 on PL/2025/1627/HOU

Access on South-east side of Abbey Road. 500m north-east of Chapel Green School Discharge of Conditions 4 & 5 on PP PL/2025/1053/FMIN

Albermarle House, The Green. Pine Tree – Removal (PL/2026/0068/TCA)

E-Learning on planning applications. Costs £17. If any councillors would like to carry out the training, then this is okay. Breckland planning is not user friendly.

Green Working Committee. Woodchipper is very useful bit of kit and there is a log book that people have to read and complete before use. Risk assessments are required and this is non-negotiable. All are required to do these for insurance purposes. It is stored by Stan Burton in a locked area. Expenses for using woodchipper (fuel, oil, etc) to be reimbursed by the Parish Council.

Stan Burton is to become a member of the Committee as a Green Rights Holder and Darren Butler to potentially step in as a Parish Council member. He will attend their next meeting.

Ottomer Pond (ongoing). The Clerk is still waiting for response from Water management team at NCC regarding chasing the private land side of things.

Parking (ongoing). Have contacted the High School and the Primary School regarding parking. High School has added it into their weekly notice board but nothing received from Primary School. Crown Road is full of pot holes as a result of the Green being eroded due to school parking.

Solar Farm. Response received from Solar Company answering questions that Doug Irons had and he is currently looking through the response. Suggestions for ideas on what the funding can be used towards are needed. The funding has to be solely for the community. The Clerk to contact newsletter editor to ask villagers for suggestions to pass on to the solar company. One potential use is for it to go toward the burial ground.

Radar Tower update. Main contractor finished the construction of the tower and the installation of the communication cabin before Christmas. The activities associated with providing a net ecological benefit are now being progressed; this includes planting along the fence lines, bird-boxes, improvements to the existing pond on the Anglian Water site, etc. The project team are currently planning for the tower-top install of the radar parts and the associated radome which will protect the radar-parts from the elements. This will take around three weeks and expected to happen from mid-February. There will be a period of increased activity at the site during this time, including deliveries and crane operations. After the tower-top install the project will move into a testing a commissioning phase which is expected to take several months. This is mainly to check that the radar is functioning well and is able to deliver the higher quality rainfall data to feed into Met Office and Environment Agency products and services. The radar will be controlled and monitored remotely during this phase of the project, so no anticipated significant increased activity on and around the site. Will use this time to check noise levels to make sure that they are within the constraint stipulated in the planning permission and to discuss and progress visual screening with the occupants of Waterworks House. Expect to close the project in the summer once the testing and commissioning has been completed.

Community Car Scheme. Still waiting for a councillor to take on this position. The councillor that has been asked has not been present in the meeting to discuss. The Clerk and RFO to organise applying for the funding this month. DBS checks need to be done for everyone. Once new paperwork in place a plea for more volunteers will be made.

Drainage and embankment on Hargham Road/Post Office Road. Clerk to compose a letter out to the owners. Posts to go in to prevent cars from driving over the new drain.

Annual Parish Meeting. This was fixed for Saturday 13 June from 10am to noon.

Assertion 10. The Government have brought out the requirement for Council’s to conform to the new Assertion 10. This requires the council to have one generic email address on a council-owned domain. They will eventually require Councillors to have a council-owned domain email as well. This is not currently a requirement. Gmail accounts are not allowed as they are not secure. Same with the website. This needs to be a council owned domain. They would prefer Gov.UK addresses but this is not a requirement.

The Clerk email (clerk@oldbuckpc.co.uk) and the website (https://oldbuckpc.co.uk/) are okay as we own this domain. Should we wish to switch to a Gov.uk address, NALC offer the following service: fully .gov.uk email service. The cost is £106+VAT per year. This will provide a .gov.uk domain name and an unlimited number of 10GB email accounts. No need to go for this yet if we conform to the current guidelines. An IT policy will be issued in March’s meeting to conform to the final part of Assertion 10.

Approve an Internal Auditor. List of internal auditors have not yet been provided by NALC.

Costs for Fen Street speed limit change. The study lists TRO costs at £3000 and this will be legal fees from Nplaw and advert costs and design fee to carry out the consultation. The remaining £5500 will be the works costs, a bit of the designers’ fee to pull the contract documents together, so approx. £4000 in materials and labour and traffic management with the remaining £1500 being fees for the designer and contractor fee. Steve Askew would put 50% of the costs towards it out of his councillor funding. Old Buckenham Parish Council would need to fund the remaining 50%. Need to ask the residents how much they would be willing to put in and then decide. 

Repairs to the Green. David Tranmer has now been informed that the repairs will be carried out by professionals and invoiced to him. The ground needs rotavating and top-soiled along with the seeds. Still waiting for quotes for the repairs.

Volunteer Meet and Greet Day. Sixteen organisations have expressed an interest to come. Parish Council to attend with information about the Council and requests for volunteers. Event will be on Saturday 25 April from 10am to 12.30pm.

Resurface outside Village Shop. Steve Gower to provide details of some companies for Clerk to get quotes from.

Footpaths around village. Steve Gower still waiting for full quotes for March. There is funding that is now being issued to contribute to footpaths and the Clerk to look into this funding.

Bike ramps. Naomi Bailey has been asked if some bike ramps can be installed in Prince Harry’s Wood. Not had anything further about it with a plan from the resident. Should the Council provide this – the maintenance costs would come down to the parish council, a councillor would need to be responsible for the upkeep. Unless more information comes to light it is not feasible at the moment.

Public participation. The question was asked whether the website could have a page for useful links like bus time tables, local doctors, etc? After the meeting in April the Council should have an up-to-date list of village organisations.

Next agenda. This is expected to include Crown Road parking and repairs, Ottomer Pond, parking in general, Green Working Committee, repairs to the Green, volunteer Meet & Greet day, Solar Farm and Community Cars.

Exclusion of the press and public. The Council is invited to resolve that, in accordance with Section 1(2) of the Public Bodies (Admission to Meetings) Act 1960, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the discussion of a request regarding village signage, on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of sensitive information and relates to the personal circumstances of individuals. [Closed Session] Discussion of Signage Sensitivity. The signs are the responsibility of the Council. At the moment, one family wishing for the signs to be removed is not a reason to remove the signs. The proposal was rejected (6 in favour).

The next Parish Council meeting will be on Thursday 5 March in Old Buckenham Village Hall and starting at 7.30pm.