KIRBY HILL & DISTRICT PARISH COUNCIL

(Incorporating: Kirby Hill, Milby,Thornton Bridge, Humberton and Ellenthorpe)

 

A meeting of the above Parish Council was held on 10 November 2008 in the Coronation Hall, Milby, in accordance with the Local Government Act 1972, due notice having been given.  The meeting opened at 7.00 pm.

 

 

Present:  Cllrs. Smailes(Chairman), Helliwell, Lister, Merson, Parr, Widdows, DCllr Brown, PC Neil Waite and Martin Rae (Clerk)

 

The Chairman welcomed District Councillor Nick Brown, recently elected to represent Newby Ward, to the meeting.

 

1   Apologies: Cllrs McKenzie, Renfrew and Wilkinson

 

2   Code of Conduct: Cllr Lister expressed an interest in agenda item 8b

 

3   Minutes of the Meeting  held 15 September 2008 had been distributed and were

     accepted as a true record and duly signed

           

The Chairman welcomed Neil Waite at this point. PC Waite reported that two incidents of vandalism had taken place with the milk cartons delivered to the Kirby Hill school.

He also commented on the enforcement of the new 30mph speed limit in Leeming Lane, saying that speed gun checks had on one day recently caught 7 motorists exceeding the limit, one at 54mph. All had had warnings but no fines on this occasion.  PC Waite advised that this would not be the case when traffic police from outside the area undertook the checks.

Boroughbridge police staffing was currently one under complement.

The chairman thanked PC Waite, who then left the meeting.

 

4   Finance

a.Balance stood at £4,862 (incl £500 grant from NYCC J. Watson fund, not yet spent)

b.It was agreed to pay £35 donation to the Royal British Legion for the poppy wreath

c.Cllr Parr proposed and Cllr Merson seconded the giving of a £100 donation to 

   OpenCountry, who had done such an excellent job on widening the village green path.

d.Litter Picking equipment -  £67.27 paid

e.Precept - £2,200 rec’d for 2nd half year

 f.Audit fee Mazars £120 + £21 VAT to pay (Large increase from previous year because 

   income had exceeded £5000 threshold in 2007/8)

g.NEDL wayleave £40.03 rec’d

h.Commuted sums £339 rec’d (war memorial railing) See also 5f

i. Grass Cutting - AA Foster 2nd half-year  £250 to pay

 

 

5   Correspondence

a)      NYCC Footpaths Diversion Order . Footpaths 15.94/3 and 15.94/4 Milby

Notices had been posted at the footpath ends advising of the changes

b)      HBC Standards Committee    agenda for 22 Oct meeting                 

c)       HBC Parish Estimates 2009/10 After discussion of anticipated annual surplus and need for contingency funds for grass cutting it was proposed by Cllr Merson and seconded by Cllr Helliwell that the precept should remain at £4,400                                                                                                                            ACTION CLERK

d)      NYCC County Area Committee (Harrogate) announcing co-option of Parish Cllr Martin Leather of Green Hammerton PC and Parish Cllr Christopher Laker of Littlethorpe PC to the Area Committee, joining three other PC co-optees including Geoff Craggs of BB Town Council.

e)      NYCC Minerals/Waste Core Strategy Notice that NYCC is to ask its members to endorse the seeking of a direction from the Secretary of State to withdraw its waste and minerals Core Strategies from Public Examination

f)        HBC Dept of Community Services COMMUTED SUMS Explaining the problems due to staffing difficulties and complexities of the system – resulting in many parishes being unable to get accurate balance sheet information regading their commuted sums..  DCllr Nick Brown reported that he had been fighting on behalf of a number of parishes to get this incompetent situation remedied. Cllr Merson felt that such incompetence needed to be challenged (see also 6c.)

Kirby Hill and District Parish Council was one of those still awaiting confirmation of balance sheet details, but the cheque recently received for £339 to go towards the cost of the War Memorial railing was correct according to previous balance sheet information.

g)      NYCCllr John Watson – email advising of £1m available for village pavement/ footways resurfacing (“microsurfacing”) in 2008/9 and 2009/10. Cllrs considered it worth applying for the village green footpath to be included.             ACTION CLERK

Discussion also took place regarding the path from the Blue Bell to the roundabout, but it was agreed that this needed the grass edges taking back rather than resurfacing work. Clerk to contact NYCC Highways                          ACTION CLERK

Cllr Widdows also raised again the matter of the red marking crossing the road in front of the Blue Bell. This had disappeared when the road was resurfaced. The Clerk will contact Ken Major (NYCC Highways) re-  reinstatement              ACTION CLERK

h)      Langthorpe PC – Village Road Safety Scheme Grant Leeming Lane.

Langhthorpe PC had requested that Kirby Hill PC make a joint application/contribution with them for additional safety measures such as 30mph roundels.  The cost of various road markings/signage was discussed and it was agreed that the clerk should pursue this with Langthorpe.                                                               ACTION CLERK

 

6  Clerk’s/Councillors’ Reports

a)      Police Liaison –  Next meeting 1 December. Cllr Helliwell agreed to attend if Cllr Wilkinson was unable to do so. (Cllr Parr being unable to attend on this occasion)

b)      Joint Parish Council – next meeting 11 December. Following NYCllr John Watson’s advice that an approach should now be made to Mr Ogden regarding his intentions for the Milby Lane site it was agreed that this should be made through the Joint Parish Council

c)       Parishes/HBC Consultation 1 October.  Cllr Merson attended and found it an interesting but very negative meeting at which HBC and NYCC Highways just came up with excuses about why things cannot be done.  The shambolic situation regarding commuted sums was one topic that had caused anger.  DCllr Nick Brown agreed that there was a lot of negativity about the meeting. He had himself been acting forcefully on behalf of the parishes to get a solution to the Commuted Sums problem. The Minutes of the meeting were not yet available.

d)      Yore Vision.  Next meeting 13 November 5.00pm. The clerk reported that that the St James Square project had run into difficulty.

e)      Parish Council Training Event  8 October.  Cllr Renfrew had attended.

 

 

7  Ongoing matters/updates

a.      Milby Lane Waste Site proposals

NYCCllr John Watson had provided a very useful Q&A following NYCC’s decision to cancel the work on the Minerals/Waste Core Strategy and start again.

It was not likely that the Milby Lane site would be included in any new list but finalisation of the new strategy was now thought to be delayed until the end of 2010. In the circumstances there was added pressure to have all the remaining CAP signs removed as they were becoming a blight, especially damaging to those trying to sell their houses in the area.  The clerk explained that he had written to CAP’s chairman asking, on behalf of the Joint Parish Council, for the signs to be removed.  Some had been taken down but many large ones remained and DCllr Brown said that he would also write to CAP’s chairman about this.

b.      Kirby Hill MSA proposals  The clerk reported that the public exhibition and consultation had produced well over 95% opposition to the scheme and that he now had a long list of email addresses of those wishing to object to HBC when the application was submitted.  These, together with others targeted through a leaflet drop, would be given suggested bullet points to use in their individual letters of objection.

c.       B6265 Lay-by  Still awaiting action by NYCC Highways (Ken Major) on closure.

d.      Grass Cutting and treecare – HBC had quoted £3100 for 16 cuts compared with Aidan Foster’s £550 quote for 2009/10.  HBC would charge £8000 per annum to include grass collection.  Other quotes were in the region £1800 to £2300 (without collection).  The possibility of the Council acquiring its own mower was raised by Cllr Merson and it was agreed that this matter should be raised again when the council had notice of Aidan Foster’s having to give up the work.

Two quotes had been received for the tree pollarding  £400 from Arbortech, who did the work last time, and £450 from English Treecare, who recently attended to the churchyard trees. Clr Merson proposed accepting the Arbortech quote and this was seconded by Cllr Widdows.  The clerk would also ask Arbortech to cut the lower branches of the sorbus/whitebeam while they were about the other work.                                                                                            ACTION CLERK

e.      Helperby Road/Burton Cottages road markings  Still being chased through Nina Zastawiak at NYCC Highways                                     ACTION CLERK

f.        Weight Limit Signs  Clerk to chase NYCC Highways for removal of 30mph signs from same posts. This might make the Weight Limit signs more noticeable.

                                                                                                            ACTION CLERK

g.      Meeting Venue The new meeting room was still thought unsuitable for parish council meetings. The clerk had checked the availability of the old meeting room but this was now permanently unavailable for meetings.  He would get available dates for the main room and the studio and try to arrange 2009 meetings around those. For discussion at next meeting.                                         ACTION CLERK

h.      Village Green bench The Chairman had obtained a quote from Solway Plastic Recycling for £130 for three  8-foot planks for the bench repair.  Cllrs agreed he should go ahead and order.                                                  ACTION CHAIRMAN

 

8. PLANNING

a.   6.57.6.1.FUL   08/03557/FUL

      Mell – Four Alls, Tinkler Lane Milby YO51 9HQ

      Erection of single storey rear extension and conversion of roof space to create  

      additional living accommodation with insertion of 3 rooflights.

      GRANTED

            b.   6.57.5.E.FUL   08/03835/FUL

                  Newby Hall Estate/JC Lister Farms  Farm Shop Leeming Lane Milby

                  YO51 9DE

                  Erection of single storey rear and side extension to provide café and single storey 

                   front extension to form office.

                  GRANTED