LITTON CHENEY PARISH COUNCIL

Minutes of the meeting of Litton Cheney Parish Council
held on Tuesday 8 March 2022

 

Present: Bill Orchard (Chairman); Quentin Blacke; John Firrell; Andy King; Andrew Price; Diana Maston; Maggie Walsh (Clerk).   Also in attendance Cllr Mark Roberts and 2 local residents

 

1.    Apologies Bella Spurrier

2.    Declarations of interest None

3.    Democratic time N/A

4.    Approval of minutes of the Parish Council meeting held on 11 January 2022 It was proposed by Cllr Firrell, seconded by Cllr Orchard and carried unanimously that these be approved.

5.    Matters arising since the previous meeting not part of this agenda Dorset Council were consulting on School Transport Policies until 3 April.  Details of the consultation are accessible online by following this link School Transport Policy Consultation.

6.    Dorset Council overview – Cllr Mark Roberts reported that approval of the 2022-23 budget by full council had been straightforward after a better than anticipated Government Grant meant there need be no cuts to services. DC had issued a statement in support of Ukraine but no information was yet available as to what practical help might be provided. Land Charges delays had reduced from over 40 days to 26 and should shortly meet the government target of 10 days. There was still a backlog of planning and enforcement cases. He would find out if there had been any progress regarding a new weight limit Traffic Regulation Order on White Way.

7.    Finance report and invoices for approval (Clerk and RFO) At the time of publishing the agenda, Parish funds stood at £23,144.82. Spend since the previous meeting was £703.66 comprising £594.72 employee costs, £4.50 expenses, £60.00 website fee to Vision ICT and £44.44 for various materials required for refurbishment of the noticeboard.  Income since last meeting was £350.99 comprising £250.95 transfer of funds from the Social Committee to the Community Bench Fund, a further £50.00 donation to the Community Bench Fund, £50 contribution from LATCH towards the website fee and .04p interest. The PC wished to minute its thanks for donations to the Community Bench Fund. The RFO anticipated a year end underspend of approximately £2,400 as a number of anticipated maintenance tasks had not yet been undertaken.  At its previous meeting, the PC had agreed to transfer any year end underspend to the playground reserve towards the required repairs.                MW

       There were no invoices for approval.                                                                     

8.    Councillors’ portfolios:

Planning (Bill Orchard, Chairman):

The outline application for 9 dwellings at White Thorne Cottage, Main Street (Ref: P/OUT/2021/03262) had been refused.

The application for 2 dwellings at Barges Close remained undecided but there had been a change of Case Officer: the PC understood that the Case Officer had visited the site and that the application was now progressing.  A new plan had been submitted showing site levels, but did not appear to show relationships with existing houses.

The PC wished to represent views of villagers when responding to the next consultation on the new Dorset Local Plan.  Cllr Orchard therefore hoped to form a steering group to engage with villagers and report their views back to the PC.  This would be on the Agenda for the Village Assembly in May.                                                                                                        BO/MW

Highways/Transport (Andrew Price): The PC had been consulted regarding a proposed closure of Whiteway for 3-5 weeks from 11 April to install electrics to the Emergency Services Mast.  These works were originally scheduled over the Christmas period.  There was no alternative to the closure but the PC anticipated it would have a significant impact on the wider Bride Valley, including local businesses.  The road was also used to access water supply facilities.  The PC had worked with DC and contractors to achieve cooperation between contractors and minimise disruption and it was hoped a site meeting would take place before the closure. Measures would be taken to protect the avenue of trees.

A meeting was scheduled at Parks Farm to discuss traffic issues and DC had requested plans from Parks Farm to show how the visual impact of the car park could be mitigated.

Cox’s Lane had flooded during the recent storms and one property in Main Street had flooded. There had also been drainage issues on Hines Mead Lane. Temporary measures had been adopted but further works were needed. DC had reinstalled the bollards to protect the stream bank opposite Charity Farm entrance. However, farm vehicles could not easily turn left into the farmyard and often had to go through the village.

The 30 MPH speed limit had been beneficial but some vehicles continued to speed in places, including along Main Street from School Lane towards the PH.

Agricultural Liaison/Footpaths/Rights of Way/ (Bella Spurrier/Quentin Blacke): The broken bridge had been mended.

Community Bench Fund: The bench fund currently held £726, including £350 raised by the wine tasting event held in celebration of Steven Spurrier’s life.  Permission had been obtained to locate a bench on Chalk Pit Lane opposite the footpath to the PH. A further bench would be located in the vineyard.  After obtaining prices from a number of suppliers, Cllr Blacke proposed that Community Bench Funds be used to purchase the following 2 benches (for which the PC had the landowners’ permission).

£500 payable to Russell Randall for a bench to be located in the Vineyard.

£150 payable to PJWilkins Woodcraft for a bench to be located in Chalk Pit Lane opposite the footpath down to the PH.

This was seconded by Cllr King and carried unanimously.                                  QB/MW

A further bench at Pins Knoll would be funded by a private individual. 

Playground/Playing Field/Allotments (Andy King): All allotment plots were let; a replacement shed was still needed.  The ground was still too wet to allow vehicular access to cut the hedges, which had not been cut since October 2020. Cllr King had been marking dog mess with agricultural paint but it did not seem to have improved the situation.  Cllr Maston suggested posting leaflets to holiday lets where dogs were permitted so visiting dog owners knew where to dispose of dog poo.

Playground: neither Cllr King nor the Clerk had been able to find any other suppliers to quote on undertaking the repairs detailed at the previous meeting.  Cllr King proposed that the PC suspend standing orders requiring 3 quotes and proceed with the quote provided by DC, which was in any event likely to be competitive. This was seconded by Cllr Blacke and carried unanimously.                                                                                                               AK/MW

Village Fabric/Maintenance/BLAP/DAPTC/ Administration & Probity (John Firrell) Cllr Firrell thanked Mr Romans and others for their help clearing trees etc after the recent storms.

 

Cllr Firrell had attended a recent BLAP meeting with Chris Loder MP, who would attend BLAP meetings approximately every 6 months. The MP had mentioned that a weight limit was being considered for the A35, redirecting heavy vehicles along the A37 and A303, to help reduce vehicle pollution at Chideock.  There was scepticism about whether the Government would look favourably on DC’s request to suspend the 5 year housing land supply target but Chris Loder was due to meet Michael Gove and was apparently hopeful.  Temporary permission for camp sites had reverted from 56 to 28 days.

The Village Group of Jubilee volunteers hoped to reinvigorate the bus shelter area in recognition of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. Improvements were unlikely to be completed before the Jubilee weekend but there were lots of other plans in hand for the Jubilee celebrations and it should be a fun weekend!

A litter pick was planned for the end of the month and into April.

Litton Cheney, Puncknowle and Burton Bradstock would meet to discuss a flood plan and it was hoped an EA representative would also attend.  The Parish Clerks would be asked to organise a suitable date.                                                                                                               JF/MW

Climate Emergency and Environment (Diana Maston) Cllr Maston had attended the first of three Carbon Literacy Workshops. The first had covered how to mobilise other Parish Councillors and villagers and included ideas such as litter picking. There would likely be a another Eco Café in April.

9.    New planning applications for consideration at the meeting

·           P/MPO/2022/00002 Variation of S106 agreement relating to Charity Farm permission reference WD/D/19/001463. The PC understood that this related to a proposed change of tenure to shared ownership at the request of the Housing Association and did not see a need to respond to the consultation.

10.  Correspondence not dealt with as part of the agenda none

11.  Date of next meeting The Annual Village Assembly would take place at 7.00pm on Tuesday 10 May 2022, and the Annual Meeting of the Parish Council would follow.

Meeting closed

Maggie Walsh
Parish Clerk