HORTON KIRBY AND SOUTH DARENTH PARISH COUNCIL

MINUTES of the MEETING of the PARISH COUNCIL held on 4 December 2006 in the Village Hall, South Darenth at 7.30 pm

Present: Cllrs A Burchmore, P Bradley, G Piller, M Powsey, D Snape, G Tripp,

R Valentine and I Wescombe

In attendance: C Allart, Parish Clerk

P McGarvey District councillor (present until 7.45 pm)

T Searles, District councillor

P Hylands, PCSO

Apologies for Absence: Cllr D Payne and R Gough, County councillor

Declarations of Interests: None

110 APPOINTMENT OF CHAIRMAN

RESOLVED that Cllr I Wescombe be appointed Chairman.

111 RESIGNATION OF PREVIOUS CHAIRMAN

Following discussion, Cllr Peter Bradley withdrew his resignation as Chairman. As a result, his request to be appointed to the Village Hall Committee was not needed and he also agreed to continue to carry out the monthly internal audit checks. Cllr Wescombe resigned as Chairman.

RESOLVED that Cllr Bradley’s withdrawal of his resignation be accepted.

Cllr Bradley took the Chair.

112 POLICE MATTERS

General Matters

PCSO Peter Hylands attended the meeting and gave brief details of his recent work on trying to prevent the graffiti problems. He had names but unfortunately no one to back them up. He said that now he is part of the West Kent policing he has found the back-up from other officers to be phenomenal and he is feeling very positive about the move from North Kent. The only downside is that he and Geordie are not able to communicate as easily as before. PCSO Hylands was unable to respond to a press item about an individual’s problems in East Hill.

Policing Kent 2007-8 Survey

Members’ responses to a Police survey were collected and would be collated and returned within the next week.

Youth Award

Peter Hylands gave full details of his scheme using the Treejumpers facility in School Lane at which 15 places for young people had been donated by the Company. He explained the youth competition and asked whether the Parish Council would donate a trophy and present it to the Young Person of the Year. Ian Wescombe offered to produce certificates for any runners up, etc that Peter Hylands might need as part of this initiative. Gill Tripp congratulated Peter on his hard work on this project.

RESOLVED that a trophy be purchased up to a value of £60 for this purpose.

Mobile Police Station

In conjunction with the PCSO of New Ash Green, Peter Hylands stated that he would like to use a mobile station that could be parked up and allow the public a private room for interviews with the officers. He envisaged this would be once a month at weekends and it was suggested that the layby in front of the village hall would be a good location. The Parish Council were happy to support this scheme and help advertise it in both South Darenth and Horton Kirby as far as possible.

113 REPORTS OF DISTRICT COUNCILLORS

Disposal of Retained Housing Greens by Sevenoaks District Council

Tony Searles informed the Parish Council that Sevenoaks District Council had agreed to offer unwanted greens in former housing estates to town and parish councils at no cost. The green at Saxon Place had therefore been offered. Members were interested in this proposal and agreed that the matter should be decided at the next meeting in order to allow provision for grass cutting costs to be included in the 2007/8 budget.

114 MINUTES

RESOLVED that the Minutes of the last Parish Council meeting held on 6 November 2006 be approved and adopted.

115 MATTERS ARISING

Brochure

Members agreed to ask a representative of Plus Publishing Services to attend a future meeting to explain the details of their product and agreed to put an appropriate amount in the 2007/8 budget to cover costs.

Resignation of Dianne Payne

RESOLVED that thanks be recorded to Dianne Payne for all her hard work as a parish councillor and in connection with the village hall.

Post Office Closures

Cllr Valentine reported that he had received a response from Dr Stoate MP informing him that South Darenth post office would not be closing which was good news.

Parish Clerk’s Contract of Employment

Cllr Wescombe reported that he had written to 7 Chairmen of local parish councils and had so far received 2 replies. As soon as he had a reasonable number of responses he would look at them with the Chairman and report back.

116 VILLAGE HALL COMMITTEE

Terms of Reference

The following terms of reference for this committee were approved.

Scope of Committee:

Village Hall buildings and grounds (excluding the proposed extension which will be dealt with at Parish Council meetings)

Quorum

3 voting members or one third of committee whichever is the greater

Delegated Powers:

to consider and make decisions on all aspects of the areas covered by the scope of the committee;

to consider and make decisions on all matters referred to it from time to time by the parish council;

to approve expenditure within the limits of the budget set by the parish council;

to request estimates for items not within approved budgets;

to appoint additional voting and non-voting members of the committee up to a maximum of 9 voting members and 5 non-voting members; and

to appoint sub-committees for general or specific matters.

Minutes

The Minutes of the last meeting held on 9 November 2006 were received for information.

Village Hall Cleaner/Caretaker

It was reported that an appointment had been made and that John Wood started work on 25 November 2006.

117 PLANNING

SE/06/02860/FUL

2 Beeches Farm Cottage, Canada Farm Road

Haystore

The Parish Council objects to this application on the grounds that it is overdevelopment in the Green Belt.

SE/06/02882/FUL

Horton Wood, Stack Road

Change of use of land from agricultural/woodland to paintballing and ancillary structures

The Parish Council objects to this application on the grounds that it is overdevelopment in the Green Belt as there would be too many similar leisure facilities in the area.

SE/06/02886/FUL

96 East Hill

Loft conversion with dormers to front and rear

The Parish Council has no comments on this application.

SE/06/02916/DETAIL

Horton Kirby Paper Mill, Horton Road

Details pursuant to condition 40 (off site highway works in parts of Horton Road, East Hill, Holmesdale Road and New Road)

The Parish Council has no comments on this application.

Tony Searles said that closures in these roads would be in operation for about 6 weeks when the new road surface was laid

SE/06/02982/FUL

70 Montgomery Road

Two storey rear extension

The Parish Council has no objections to this application.

SE/06/02988/FUL & 02993/LBCALT

Ash Tree House, The Street

Small single storey extension to side and rear, removal of part of existing flat roof at rear and replacement with pitched roof in tiles to match existing

The Parish Council has no comments on this application.

SE/06/02911/FUL

2 The Grange

Fencing

The Parish Council has no comments on this application.

The following decision notices were received for information:

SE/05/02000, 2001 & 2002

Horton Kirby Paper Mill, Horton Road, South Darenth

Mixed use development of 210, 1, 2, 3 and 4 bed residential units, including 42 affordable housing units plus 4 live/work units and commercial floorspace provision. Provision of 324 car parking spaces. Retention and works to Listed Buildings. Open river channel works. Alteration to access and associated highways works.

GRANTED

SE/06/02506/LBCALT

Former stables block, Franks Hall

Existing single door opening widened to take double door

GRANTED

The following notice of Appeal withdrawal was received for information:

Fairhavens, Mussenden Lane

Retention of replacement building used as amenity block and tack room

118 PROPOSED COMMUNITY FACILITIES AS RESULT OF PAPER MILL REDEVELOPMENT SECTION 106 AGREEMENT

Funding

Members received with great pleasure the news that £297,558.60 has been approved for community facilities comprising village hall extension, improvements to Heathside and /or other play equipment.

Consultation Report Results

The results of the consultation exercise held in the village hall on 23 September were received and considered. It was noted that not many people had attended and Members wanted to be sure that any extension was based on more information than just the replies from this consultation.

Feasibility Study

Members then had to decide how to progress the feasibility study of the extension.

Details of a proposal by independent consultants CSC Team to carry out a business plan were considered.

RESOLVED that standing orders relating to financial regulations be suspended for the following resolution on the grounds that no details of other organisations competent in the particular field is known and that the rates offered seem competitive and not excessive.

RESOLVED that a separate meeting be held with CSC Team to discuss the requirements of this parish council in order to make progress on the feasibility study.

119 CLLR GILL TRIPP’S THIRTY YEARS’ SERVICE

Cllr Gill Tripp was presented with a framed photograph of a local scene of the viaduct and Darent Valley recognising her 30 years dedicated service to this Parish Council.

120 OFFICE ASSISTANT

The clerk asked how the parish council wished to deal with getting agreement on the terms of the contract of employment and list of duties for Jean Wood, office assistant.

Members asked to be given a copy of the contract so that it can be agreed at the January meeting.

121 ST MARY’S CHURCH – FUND RAISING FOR TWO ADDITIONAL BELLS

The Chairman asked Members to consider whether they wished to give a donation for this fund so that provision could be made in the 2007/8 budget. He reminded councillors that £1500 had been given to purchase certain items when the initial 6 bells had been installed. Members agreed that they would make a decision on the amount at the special meeting in January when the 2007/8 budget was agreed.

122 REPORTS OF COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVES

River Darent Improvements

Members reported on a site meeting held with the Environment Agency officer when they were shown how works proposed for the Franks Lane bridge area would increase the bends in the river which would make the river move faster, scour out a deeper bed and be more beneficial to wildlife.

Cleaning of Public Conveniences

The Chairman reported that he had contacted 5 firms, none of whom were interested in taking on a contract for cleaning the parish council’s public conveniences. He added that 14 of the conveniences maintained by the District Council were situated in Sevenoaks Town and he asked our District Councillor to ask the question why we were subsidising Sevenoaks town.

123 SCHEDULE OF ACCOUNTS

RESOLVED that the schedule of accounts, as submitted, be approved and payments made accordingly.

124 ANY OTHER BUSINESS

New Footway at Bottom of Bull Hill

Cllr Snape asked whether any response had been given by KCC regarding the surface of this path. The clerk informed councillors of a KCC reply to a resident of Dartford Road who had complained about the unsuitability of the path for pushchairs which stated that the surface had been chosen to blend in with the rural location and that it was suitable for pushchairs.

South Darenth Village Name Sign By Viaduct

Cllr Valentine asked if any progress had been made in replacing the sign, which had been damaged by persons unknown and removed by the contractors carrying out the works to the viaduct at the request of the highways inspector. KCC highways had been informed of the missing sign but unfortunately nothing had been heard from them about it recently.

White Plastic Litter Bins

Cllr Tripp asked if these could be taken away as they are getting broken and are very unsightly.

Forge Lane Road Surface

The state of the road surface outside Forge House had been reported to the hit squad as it was dangerous.

Road Widening M25 (junction 1B to 3)

The clerk reported that a public exhibition on this proposal would be held in Sutton at Hone village hall on Friday 8 and Saturday 9 December.

Seasons Greetings

Cllr Payne sent greetings for a merry Christmas and a happy new year to all members of the parish council.

The meeting ended at 9.46 pm.

Chairman

Date