MINUTES OF A PARISH COUNCIL MEETING
Held in the Village Hall, All Cannings on Wednesday 27th March 2002
PRESENT: Mrs Currie (in the chair)
Mr Hunt, Mr. Butcher, Mrs Butcher,
Mrs Riseley- Prichard,
APOLOGIES:
Cllr J Combe(KDC), Mr. T. Daw, Cllr A Molland (W.C.C.), Dr Hollway
MINUTES
Minutes of the previous meeting held on 27th February 2002 having been circulated, were confirmed as a true record and signed by the Chairman.
MATTERS ARISING
Recycle bins: No further news
Quality Parish and Town Councils: The Clerk has responded to the consultation paper with the comments made by the councillors and received a letter of acknowledgement.
Statutory Parish Councils Model Code of Conduct 2001 Order: An information pack has been received from Maria Memoli at KDC who will be the Monitoring Officer. The Clerk distributed a copy of the explanatory notes about the Model Code and the obligatory Register of Interests to all Councillors for them to keep until adoption of the code takes place. A meeting concerning the Model Code is to take place on April 22nd at 4pm in Devizes Corn Exchange, the Clerk will attend with one other and asked the councillors to let her know of any questions to take to the meeting. The Clerk will keep forms for Gifts and hospitality and Declaration of Acceptance that has to be advertised when the Council elects to accept the Code.
It was decided that no actual decision concerning acceptance of the Model Code could be taken at this meeting as not all councillors were present this will be discussed again at the April meeting.
Contracts: The tenders received for all the grass cutting areas in the Parish will be discussed under Accounts.
W.C.C: No response has been received from the Environmental Services Dept. concerning our invitation to speak about their Best Value initiative at the Annual Parish Meeting in April.
Devizes Angling Club: British Waterways has been contacted and responded that they are still intending to place litter bins for Canal boat users in the Car Park at All Cannings .
Lights: There is a light out nr. Drewitts Lane Mrs Currie reported that it is still not working the Clerk will report it again.
Page 2 of Parish Council Minutes dated 27th March 2002
REPORTS FROM COMMITTEES
Village Hall: Electrical work is being carried out in the hall. The committee are planning to re-fence the back area and possible re-decorate the hall. There has been some vandalism to the Pre- School equipment during Youth Club sessions. The youth Club will be folding shortly.
PCC: The AGM will be held in April. Comments received that the Churchyard is looking nice for Easter.
FtPs: WCC sent a letter concerning Rights of Way, asking Parish Councils to take on routine clearance of footpaths and Rights of Way in their areas and alert the Warden of any major repairs that need attention. The council was concerned how such clearance could be undertaken without funds being made available, as the work needed would involve quite hard manual labour due to clearing the overgrowth that occurs annually in Spring/Summer. The Clerk was asked to write to Mr Lander and ask about this.
Transport: A new issue of Transport Times & Telegraph was sent round included the Quiet Lanes initiative and a report on the Wigglybus Project. The Thursday and Saturday Bus Service to Devizes has been cancelled due to operator costs and falling usage.
Leisure Facilities:
Play Area:
Community Services will be contacting the Clerk during March to assess the swing re-painting job. The Clerk was asked to contact the service to ask that the bars be included in the repainting job.
Churchyard:
War Memorial- “Friends of War Memorials” requested a photograph of the memorial as the Clerk has a digital camera she will send some via the net
Golden Jubilee: The Clerk spoke to Mr Scott as Chairman of the committee who said they may be contacting the Parish Council for a contribution in the near future. There is a fun day planned at The King’s Arms involving food and possibly a marque.
CORRESPONDENCE
Planning:
K/042898/T Mrs Thomas, South Cottage, Green Lane , All Cannings. To remove a Conifer/Cypress that has out grown its location.
K/043002/T Mr Lindsay 10 Matthews Close, All Cannings. To cut back Elder to 12ft
Planning application withdrawn for K/042356 Mr Baron Rendells Farm All Cannings formation of a lake.
Page 3 of Parish Council Minutes dated 27th March 2002
Planning Permissions:
K/042801/T Mr Currie Rose Cottage, The Street, All Cannings. Tree work – trim and prune various trees.
K/042839/T Mrs Hackett, Four Seasons The Street, All Cannings. To fell one Willow
Winged Fellowship Trust: A request for donation was received, it was decided under the council’s donation policy for Section 137 payments that no donation would be given.
ACCOUNTS
Five cheques were submitted for signature.
27thMar Mr Coles- Churchyd wages 000388 £143.00
“ “ Mr Gunnell- Cemetery wages 000389 £90.00
“ “ Mr Game-Glebe & Green wages 000390 £584.00
“ “ AC Village Hall-hire Feb & Mar 000391 £8.75
“ “ Mrs Daw-Clerk wages & Exp 000392 £209.08
Received- Hire of Green 01-02 from A.C. Football Club £50.00
Contracts:
Cemetery; Mr Gunnell expressed his wish to continue to care for the Cemetery. Mr Coles put in a tender for the Cemetery at £544 per annum and Mr Game put in a tender of £450. It was proposed by the Chairman that Mr Game be offered the post, due to family circumstances likely to continue to prevent Mr Gunnell from being able to carry out the work satisfactorily.
Churchyard; Mr Coles put forward the only tender to continue to maintain the Churchyard at a cost of £590 per annum. This was accepted unopposed.
Glebe and Green; Mr Game expressed his wish to continue to maintain both areas , it was proposed by Mrs Butcher and seconded by Mr Hunt that he was offered the post.
Audit: The new regulations have been received by the Clerk. The main issue being the need for an internal auditor to be appointed by the Council to check the books before the final report is sent off to the new external auditors, who are Mazars Neville Russell based at Southampton. They have been appointed by the Audit Commission to audit all Parish Councils in Wiltshire. The cost is £120 fixed fee with substantial additional fees for any queries. They seem to be inferring that councils need to ensure the internal auditor is very thorough to prevent any need for contact. The Clerk would be contacting the WALC for further details, as no internal auditor would be able to be appointed to review the last financial year. She suspected that a fee would have to be paid to hire an internal auditor. She will report back at the next meeting.
ANY OTHER BUSINESS
Clerk Vacancy: There has been only two people interested in the post , the second has since pulled out. Mr Jim Scott continues to be asked to be considered for the post. Both The Clerk and Chairman have talked extensively to Mr Scott and feel he would be an appropriate choice. As not all councillors were present it was decided to wait until the next meeting to make a decision.
Page 4 of Parish Council Minutes dated 27th March 2002
Cemetery: The water tap seems not to be turning on and the box has rotted away and is falling off. Mr Hunt will replace the box with a piece of timber and attach the tap to it and ensure the tap works.
Humberts Field: The field next to the Glebe is suffering from people dumping their waste on it again. The Clerk was asked to contact Humberts to let them know and seek help in trying to prevent it happening.
Meeting closed at 9.00pm
_____________ ____Chairman ___________Date