HORTON KIRBY AND SOUTH
DARENTH PARISH COUNCIL
MINUTES of the
MEETING of the PARISH COUNCIL held on 6 December 2004 in the Village Hall,
South Darenth at 7.30 pm.
Present: Cllr P Bradley
(Chairman),
Cllrs A Burchmore, D Payne, G Piller, M Powsey, D Snape,
R
Valentine and I Wescombe
T Searles, District Councillor,
P McGarvey,
District Councillor
PCSO Peter Hylands
Ch Insp
Simon Black
1 member of the public
In attendance: C Allart,
Parish Clerk
Apologies for absence: Cllr
G Tripp
Declarations of Interest:
None
Chief Inspector Simon Black
and PCSO Peter Hylands attended the meeting. PCSO Hylands was in
his last week of training and so would be starting the job on 13 December. Ch Insp Black read
out the PCSO’s powers and made special reference to
the power to require names and addresses which the Police had not had before
unless offenders were seen to be doing something wrong. Now they have to give their names and
addresses if asked in any situation. He
said this was a very useful development but was a power that would only be used
if necessary, not as a matter of course.
PCSO Hylands would be able to act as a
professional witness which would be very useful.
PCSO Hylands
told the Council he was delighted to get South Darenth
and Horton Kirby and that although he was new and
would need help to get to know the community, he had had a lot of experience
from his previous job as detention officer in Gravesend.
Simon Black said that the
Police were still working on how to deal with the provision of bicycles.
RESOLVED that the Minutes of
the meeting held on 1 November 2004 be approved and signed as a correct record.
Villages Design Statement
Printed copies from the
final disk supplied by Councillors Burchmore and Powsey were available to view. They showed that there was still considerable
work needed to get the draft into an acceptable form which would be
professional enough. Philip McGarvey offered to do this.
It was reported that there
had been a door between the 2 rooms so that making a new doorway was
comparatively easy. Cllr Valentine had
offered to do the work which was now nearly complete. Members were impressed with the result and
recorded their thanks to Cllr Valentine.
As a result of the
re-arrangement of the office, the small safe needed to be moved out of the way
and was available for sale.
RESOLVED that the Minutes of
the Village Hall Advisory Committee held on
11 November 2004 be approved
and adopted.
117 TWO MINUTES SILENCE
Clerk’s Report
You will recall that we had
to change the type of rocket for legal reasons but the supplier stated that the
replacement rocket, which has 5 small bangs and 1 loud bang, would be a
satisfactory alternative because all 6 bangs take place within a split
second. I personally don’t think they
were really suitable and wonder what others felt? Should any of the other ideas, such as having
someone play a bugle, be used next year?
Discussion
Cllr Searles
produced a report which state that councils could buy and set off Class 4
fireworks and it was suggested that further enquiries be made about getting the
original maroons for 2005.
The following items have
come forward from the Consortium meeting:
This has been planned for
Saturday 5 March 2005. Cost will be
about £80 per parish for 3 councillors.
What will be on the agenda has not been agreed yet and suggestions are
welcomed. Who wants to go?
Cllrs Payne, Wescombe
and (possibly) Powsey said they would like to attend.
There is a great deal of
speculation and discussion about the extent of the Thames Gateway and various
related areas specified in the emerging South East Plan which might affect the
northern parishes of Sevenoaks District Council. Parishes were invited to a meeting at Sevenoaks last Wednesday.
No one was able to go.
There was considerable
discussion on this and the possible effects of being in the “Zone of Influence”
Crockenhill gave a lot of information
to the Consortium members about possible problems from travellers and their
latest ploy of buying green belt land and developing it virtually overnight and
usually over a weekend. Crockenhill felt that Sevenoaks
District Council should be alerted and urged to be ready to combat this sort of
thing. They also wanted other parishes
to write to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister to take action. Crockenhill PC is
also going to organise a meeting with relevant authorities in January /
February and wanted to know if other parishes wanted to be involved.
There was discussion on the
traveller situation and also on how the Consortium works in practice. Cllr Wescombe
suggested that there might be a way of getting the group to act with one
stronger voice on common issues, if the timetable of the meetings were
altered. If a detailed agenda was
circulated 6 weeks before the meeting, individual councils would have the time
to discuss each issue and give a mandate to its representatives so that a
collective response could be made by the Consortium. It was agreed to put this forward as an
agenda item for the next Consortium meeting in June.
In informal conversation
after the meeting it was suggested that we should apply for a community
warden. It was agreed that we should
wait and see how the PCSO develops.
It was mentioned that there
were a number of Police bicycles in various locations around the district and
we should enquire about our PCSO having one of these rather than buying yet
another. This would be borne in mind at
the appropriate time.
119 FENCE BETWEEN
WESTMINSTER FIELD AND FISHING LAKES
A cheque for £500 from the
Dartford and District Angling and Preservation Society has been received
towards the tree planting in Westminster Field.
The fence has been sprayed, the hawthorn and blackthorn whips are due to
be planted soon and the large ailing tree is to be taken down shortly.
Cllr Wescombe
reported fully on meetings he had had with both Fairview Homes the site
developer and Sevenoaks District Council planning
officers. Malcolm Green had also attended
the meetings and both of them were encouraged by the response to the concerns
of the parish.
Fairview were committed to
consulting with the local people and the first meeting will be in January. Stephen Gough,
Planning Director of Fairview was passionate about the street scene and keen to
retain as much as possible. There would
probably be about 150 houses on site and the current regulations say that 25%
should be affordable / shared equity housing although this may be increased to
40% under the Zone of Influence.
Cllr Wescombe
was asked to take to the next round of meetings concerns about traffic
movements out of the village and the need for a roundabout at the top of
Station Road.
SE/04/02726/FUL
North of Pylon, Skinney Lane
Installation of 15 metre
high lattice tower for 2 antennae, 1 dish and ancillary development for 6
months (retrospective application)
The Parish Council objects
to this commercial use of agricultural land and considers the equipment should
be removed until permission has been granted to use the pylon.
SE/04/02829/FUL
7 East Hill
Rear Garden Conservatory
The Parish Council has no
comments on this application.
SE/04/02847/FUL
64 East Hill
Excavation of part of front
garden to provide parking space for 1 car
The Parish Council has no
comments on this application.
SE/04/02907/FUL
Mussenden Cottage, Mussenden Lane
Single storey rear extension
to form cloak room, utility and rear porch
The Parish Council has no
comments on this application.
SE/04/02914/CONVAR
14 Turners Place
To vary condition to allow
current applicants continued use of premises.
The Parish Council has no
comments on this application.
SE/04/02711/FUL
Court Lodge Farm Stack Road
Steel portal framed
agricultural building to be used as a grainstore and
hop oast.
The Parish Council objects
strongly to this application because the large size of the building will be
detrimental to the rural scene. It is
requested that this application be referred to Committee rather than officer
delegation.
Licensing Regulations
New regulations coming in in 2005 will affect many local businesses including this
village hall. Tony Searles
had a list of local premises, which the District Council will be regulating,
and the possible costs.
O2 Mast in Wilsons Lane
Cllr McGarvey
reported that there were plans to put in a mast near the railway bridge in Wilsons Lane.
Members noted that the
cheques to the Royal British Legion and St Mary’s Church were donations under
section 137 of the Local government Act 1972.
RESOLVED that the schedule
of accounts, as submitted, be approved and payments made accordingly.
Binding of Minutes
In order to keep Minutes in
good order and to reduce storage space, it is suggested that the Minutes are
bound. The Chairman asked that this be
considered at the next meeting in time for inclusion in next year’s budget.
South Darenth
Village Sign
Cllr Payne reported that the
Village Society wanted the sign to be lit.
Gate to Footpath Franks Lane
It was reported that this
gate was missing and needed replacing.
Parish Council Noticeboard
by The Bull
This has been taken out and
thrown over the brick wall into the garden of the house behind overnight on 5/6 December. It was agreed that this should be reported to
the Police. The clerk reported that for
some time the Village Society had been organising the making of a replacement
board and this would soon to be ready.
Triangle of Land
Residents reported continued
use of the triangle for bonfires by the owner.
It was agreed to tell PCSO Hylands about this.
Footway along A225
It was reported that this is
in a very bad state and needs attention.
The meeting ended at 10.02 pm.
Chairman
Date