HORTON
KIRBY AND
MINUTES
of the MEETING of the PARISH COUNCIL held on
Present: Cllr P
Bradley (Chairman),
Cllrs A Burchmore, D Payne,
G Piller, D Snape, G Tripp,
R Valentine and I Wescombe
D Brazier, County
Councillor,
6 members of the
public
In attendance: C
Allart, Parish Clerk
Apologies for
absence: Cllr D Payne, Cllr T Searles, District
Councillor, Cllr P McGarvey, District Councillor
Declarations of
Interest: None
RESOLVED that the
Minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting held on 27 May 2004 be approved and signed
as a correct record.
RESOLVED that the
Minutes of the meeting held on 27 May 2004 be approved and signed as a correct
record.
RESOLVED that the
Minutes of the meeting held on 29 June 2004 be approved and signed as a correct
record.
RESOLVED that,
with the exception of the item to place wire mesh over all the windows, the notes of the Westminster Field Advisory
Committee’s walkabout held on 9 June 2004 be approved and adopted.
Report
Members will no
doubt have been pleased to hear that we have been successful in our application
for a PCSO. Only 12 out of 33 applied
for in Kent were successful. Nothing in
writing has yet been received. However,
the Police will be recruiting as soon as possible and an officer might be in
post by September.
Discussion
The clerk said
that the Parish Council might be asked to provide facilities for the PCSO such
as use of the parish room in the afternoons for interviewing and the purchase
of a mobile phone which will have to be considered at a later date.
Cllr Wescombe asked that a note of congratulations to Cllr
Valentine be recorded in connection with our success. He rallied many people in South Darenth to report incidents and phone the Police which may
have had an impact on the decision to award this parish an officer. This was agreed unanimously.
Report
The clerk had
been told that there would be several people at this meeting who want to
discuss the low river flows and the control of the sluice gates on the Paper
Mill site. A letter from the Property
Manager of the Paper Mill stating that the Company was not prepared to let
anyone else operate the sluice gates for health and safety reasons was
circulated. A copy of this letter had
also been sent to the Kingfisher Place resident who had asked for the item to
be put on the agenda.
Discussion
As there were no
residents at the meeting and in view of the response from the Paper Mill, it
was considered that there was nothing that this Council could do at the present
time.
27 BARRIER
IN RIVER AT WESTMINSTER FIELD BRIDGE
Report
The clerk said
that she had been asked to put this item on the agenda for discussion. Residents of Millen
Court have received permission from the Environment Agency for a permanent
barrier near the bridge which is being manufactured at the moment. However, planning permission is also needed.
Discussion
The person who
asked for this item to be discussed was not at the meeting. It was commented upon that it would be much
better, visually, to have the barrier right up against the bridge rather than
some 6 feet upstream. Members agreed to
keep an eye on this.
Report
Cllr Valentine
has requested a public meeting with Superintendent Hewitt, Commander of North
Kent Police as a result of approaches from many residents of the Montgomery
Road flats. They are being intimidated
all the time by youths throwing stones at their windows so that they do not feel
safe in their own homes. No doubt other
people living in the village will attend the meeting to air their own
grievances. Cllr Valentine would like to
know if the Parish Council supports this meeting and will add its name to the
request.
Discussion
Cllr Valentine
reported that he had received a phone call from Insp
Andy Pritchard who was prepared to attend a meeting
with PC Geordie Laidlow. However, Insp Pritchard had wanted to know what the Parish was doing
about the youth problem. Cllr Valentine
had then spoken to SDC’s Community Safety Officer
Philip Aldis who listed several things that we were
doing including recording problems on the anti-social behaviour forms, paying
towards a PCSO, holding a youth club, organising graffiti removal and a
neighbourhood watch scheme.
RESOLVED that support
be given to this meeting and the hall be made available at no charge.
Report
The Parish
Council has received a letter of apology from Kieron Murphy, the boy
responsible for the graffiti on the village hall some months ago. He has been working with the Youth Offending
Service and been working in the community.
If anyone would like to see the letter it is in the office. For information
Report
This request for
salt bins has been received from Southdowns
management via Cllr McGarvey and 2 residents of Southdowns attended the meeting. They said that as they lived on a private
estate they get no road sweeping or winter maintenance and felt that they
needed 3 bins so that they could grit the roads.
Discussion
It was pointed
out that being a private estate also has its advantages (privacy and control
over use of the roads) and also that there are always anomalies and sections of
a community that loses out by not getting as many services as others.
RESOLVED that no
action be taken to assist with the provision of salt bins at Southdowns.
Reprot
Parish Councils
were asked at the last Consortium meeting if they wanted to be involved in
special training days organised specifically for councillors of Consortium
Members. The cost last time was £60 per
day for each participating council (regardless of how many members
attended). Topics need to be suggested.
Various members
expressed an interest depending on when it takes place.
RESOLVED that the
Consortium be informed that this Council is happy to be involved with a
training day.
Report
The School is
renewing its fencing along the boundary with the back of the burial ground and
down the school drive as far as the palisade fencing and gate. They are going to erect 1.8 m high close
boarded panels for extra security and privacy.
They would also like to include a lockable gate (that will be kept
locked at all times) so that if a ball did go over into the burial ground it
could be retrieved. As a matter of
courtesy, the School is asking whether we are happy with this gate and have
also asked if the Parish Council would consider making a contribution towards
the cost. (total cost approximately £2200)
RESOLVED that
1.
no objection is made to the installation of a
lockable gate; and
2.
no contribution be made to cost of the fencing.
Report
Kent County
Council has sent notification that amendments are needed to the Parish
Council’s pension policy for those items where there is discretion. Full details are in the letter (available in
the office) but it is suggested, like last time, that we simply adopt the KCC
standard.
RESOLVED that the
KCC standard wording be adopted.
Report
A letter from the
occupier of 93 Montgomery Road is attached.
You will see that she is not satisfied with the previous decision of the
Parish Council not to do anything about replacing this section of fencing.
RESOLVED that a
site meeting be held on Monday 12 July at 11 am.
Report
Geordie would like to
know if we have any tasks that could be carried out by these people. Things like painting over graffiti, litter
clearing, strimming, etc are all suitable.
Can anyone help me compile a list?
Discussion
Various
suggestions were made including, painting the village hall fence, painting the Heathside stand, clearing the gutters and strimming the
edge of Westminster Field.
A draft of these
documents is enclosed (on yellow and pink) for approval and adoption.
Clerk’s Report
I have to express
my concern about financial regulation 11, Contracts which requires tenders to
be sent out for any item costing more than £1500. Compiling tender documents is a technical
matter which I could not do and could not accept responsibility for. It would therefore be necessary to employ a
qualified person to do this which would obviously not be cheap. It is also my guess that contractors
responding to tenders add on a percentage to cover themselves. A £1500 job could therefore easily cost an
extra 25%. The draft regulations, which
have come from NALC suggest a figure of £50,000 for tenders and they must have
had a reason for setting it at this level.
We recently had the village hall car park tarmaced which cost over £2500
so under these regulations would have had to be put out to tender unless the
Council agreed to waive the regulations.
If a figure of, say, £5000 was set Members could always decide that for
any individual items costing less, an exact specification was required.
Discussion
Cllr Wescombe felt that putting items out to tender produced
much lower prices as contractors only had one chance to bid for the job. Cllr Burchmore
offered to draw up a standard tender document that could be amended each time
it was needed.
RESOLVED that the
standing orders and financial regulations documents as circulated be adopted.
Report
A health action
team, which identifies and addresses health issues in the area, has been in
place covering Swanley for some time. The Team now wants to extend the area to
cover the northern parishes and clerks have been invited to attend
meetings. Funds have been allocated for
a Health Needs Assessment of the northern parishes and a steering group is
being set up to which parish councils have also been asked to be part of. I am not sure how much time this is likely to
take up but is it something you want me to be heavily involved in? I have said already that we are happy to
give publicity to any initiatives that come out of the process when we can.
Discussion
Cllr Burchmore offered to attend these meetings on behalf of the
clerk.
38 VILLAGE
HALL COMMITTEE VS ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Report
The Parish
Council wants to think about changing the status of the Village Hall Advisory
Committee to a full Committee of the Parish Council.
Committees (other
than a finance committee) can consist of people other than councillors but they
do not have a vote. This could be seen
as the major disadvantage by hall users who might want to have voting rights
when decisions are made. At the moment we
only have 1 user who is not a councillor but this has not always been the case. The advantage is that the committee can have
delegated powers to make decisions and spend money without having to wait for
approval at the next council meeting.
The length of time to wait between meetings varies from just over 3
weeks to 8 and a half weeks in the case of the Summer recess.
Committee
meetings have to be open to the public and advertised in the same way as a
parish council meeting by public notice.
RESOLVED that a
decision which will be implemented from the next municipal year (May 2005) be
made at the next meeting
Report
All parish
councils in Tonbridge & Malling,
Tunbridge Wells, Maidstone and Sevenoaks have been
invited to attend a meeting of this committee on 8 July when reconfiguration of
services in Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust will be discussed. I can’t see how this will affect us but if
you would like to go please let me know.
No one wished to
attend.
Report
Cllr Valentine
would like the parish council to consider passing the expense of maintaining
street lighting over to KCC. He can’t
understand why we pay out some £5000 a year when it could be paid for by the
County Council. I have not yet looked
into what is required but will do if Members agree this is worth finding out a
bit more about.
Discussion
Members agreed
that this was worth investigating and County Councillor, David Brazier agreed
to look into it and report back.
SE/04/01352/FUL
Canada Farm,
Canada Farm Road
Single Storey
Side and Rear Extension & Septic Tank
The Parish
Council has no objection to the extensions but would ask that the planning
authority ensure that the septic tank system does not affect any water
catchment area, has the permission of the water authority if necessary and does
not cause a nuisance at any time.
SE/04/01417/FUL
Riseley Hall, Eglantine
Lane
Reduction of
Front Entrance Walls and Gates
The Parish
Council objects most strongly to these walls and gates. The walls are built in red brick of a quite
bright shade which are very prominent in the local landscape which is generally
characterised by shrubs, hedges and informal low fencing. They have an unacceptable impact on the rural
setting and introduce an incongruous urban element into an otherwise unspoilt
country lane. This was the conclusion of
the Planning Inspector in December 2002 when he gave the applicant 4 months to
comply with the enforcement notice and reduce the height of these walls to 1
metre.
The proposal here
keeps the walls at 1.3 metres high and the gates at 2 metres. It is essential that they are reduced to 1
metre maximum and it is essential that the enforcement is carried out now as it
is now nearly 15 months since the work should have been completed.
The application
shows a length of Kent Ragstone walling with planting
behind presumably to cover the brightness of the red brick. The Planning Inspector has already considered
this and stated that, even recognising the scope for some softening with
planting such as ivy, the walls will continue to be unacceptable in scale and
appearance. In short, these planting
proposals will make no difference. This
is nothing but a ruse to gain extra height.
Although the
applicants can keep these brick walls if no higher than 1 metre, they should be
persuaded to demolish the whole of this entrance and submit a fresh application
showing a rebuild with local materials like flint and weathered bricks and
traditional farm gates.
SE/04/01494/LBCALT
Kirby Hall, The
Street
Alterations to
Kitchen, Back Lobby, Bathroom and Corresponding Areas Above to form an Enlarged
Kitchen, New Back Stair, Family Bathroom and Ensuite Shower Room
The Parish
Council has no comments on this application.
SE/04/01518/FUL
15 Churchill Road
Conservatory at
Rear
The Parish
Council has no comments on this application.
The chairman
reported that he had started a regular internal audit check and everything was
satisfactory so far. The budget update
was circulated to all Members.
RESOLVED that
1.
the schedule of accounts, as submitted, be approved
and payments made accordingly; and
2.
the budget update be received.
Licensing Act
2003
The clerk
reported that there was a feedback meeting on 9 September at Sevenoaks to which parishes were invited.
Speed Indicator
Display
Cllr Valentine
reported that he and Dave Edmed had been trained to
supervise SID. He gave full details of
what would be involved for the teams of 4 local people needed to operate the
device and asked for volunteers to man it.
Cllr Valentine
said that he had been told that SID could not be used on Dartford Road as it
cannot be used above 60 mph. This was a
major disappointment as Dartford Road was one of the worst roads in the parish
for speeding. It was agreed to write to
the Director of Strategic Planning at County Hall to ask that Dartford Road be
re-designated as a 50 mph road.
Cllrs Bradley, Burchmore, Piller and Tripp volunteered to operate SID.
Letters File
The Chairman
reported for information that he had instigated a system whereby the clerk kept
on one file a copy of each letter she wrote so that Members could read them if
they wanted to.
Traffic Island
Triangle Franks Lane
There was
discussion on the considerable amount of activity including bonfires, earth
moving and dumping and chipping of wood on the land. Members and the public were unhappy to hear
that Sevenoaks District Council had not taken any
action on the disregard by the owner of the Injunction Order. Legal advice suggested that the courts would
not take any action against the minor infringements and that the main purpose
of the Order was to prevent him bringing a mobile home onto the land.
The meeting ended
at 8.56 pm
Chairman
Date