RIBBLE BANKS PARISH COUNCIL

 

Minutes of the meeting of Tuesday 30 September 2008

 

Present:        Councillors: Ian Wright, David Clarke, Chair and Richard Crabtree

 

In Attendance:        4 members of the public

Clerk:             Alison Fawcett

 

30/09/01:       Declarations of Interest:

None at this time.

 

30/09/02:       Apologies for absence:

Received from Councillors Barbara Houghton and Frank Higginson and District and County Councillor David Heather. Mr M Dean.

 

30/09/03:       Public Participation:

No issues were raised for discussion.

 

30/09/04:       Minutes of the last meeting:

These were agreed after an amendment to minute 22/07/05 – the last sentence was deleted, and duly signed.

 

30/09/05:       Matters arising not otherwise on the agenda:

5.1 Settle Festival events (Min 28/05/09) – The Clerk reported that letters had been sent to both Mr Dale and Lindsey Quinn, CDC about the proposed events. No reply had been received from Mr Dale. From CDC, G Bowyer, Licensing Manager had replied clarifying the procedure for issuing Temporary Event Notices and also the position regarding noise and other issues which may arise at an event. It was noted that the planned events had not taken place.

5.2 Public telephone at Halton West (Min 22/07/12) – The final decision is awaited from BT. The Clerk outlined a new scheme from BT to “Adopt a Kiosk”. It was agreed to wait and see what the decision is before taking any further action.

5.3 Jack Bridge lay-by (Min 22/07/09.3) – An on-site meeting is still to be arranged to discuss options on this.

5.4 Parish Meeting views on establishing Parish Councils for Rathmell and Wigglesworth (Min 28/05/12.2 and 28/05/12.3) – The Chair reported a letter received from R Stone on behalf of Rathmell PM and gave a verbal report from Wigglesworth PM. There have been requests from both these expressing a wish to discuss the issues with CDC; a meeting with Colin Iveson will be arranged.

 

30/09/06:       Standing Orders and Financial Regulations:

6.1 The final draft will be circulated to Councillors this week.

6.2 Response to letter outlining expectations for conduct of Parish Meetings - C Yorke, Halton West PM, said he has concerns over disenfranchisement in respect of Halton West, in particular because of its relative size. The Chair said the Council recognised these concerns, but stated that a robust system to deal with correspondence will be set up and that there will initially be a 6 month trial period of the new system.

 

30/09/07:       Finance:

7.1 Current statement – The Clerk reported there has been no change since the last meeting.

7.2 End of year accounts – These are still not available for agreement prior to sending to the external auditor, Mazars. The Council expressed serious concerns over them not being available once again. The Clerk indicated that the accounts would be ready for Councillors to approve in principle within the next two weeks. Internal auditing can take place before the next meeting and the accounts will be presented for approval at the meeting on 25th November 2008 before being sent to MAZARS.

 

30/09/08:       Planning matters:

8.1 Applications:

05/2008/8885 Erection of 5 no wind turbines, etc, land adjacent to Brightenber Hill, near Stainton Hall – C Yorke had requested that the Council debate this matter and had circulated information to Councillors on the objections raised by Halton West. After discussion, the Council agreed to endorse these objections and write itself recommending refusal of the application on the grounds of landscape impact, the need for a traffic survey, its impact on cultural heritage and biodiversity, questionable efficiency and cost-effectiveness.

36/2008/8911 Proposed steel frame cattle building, West Thornber Farm, Wigglesworth – C Yorke said he was visiting the site tomorrow to discuss this application. He agreed to copy any comments to the Chair and Clerk following this.

59/2008/8909 To replace existing wood windows and doors with uPVC, Smithy Forge, Rathmell – No objections to this application are known; the Council has no comments.

One other application for new windows at a house on Gooselands, Rathmell was also reported, no details are known and no objections are known.

 

30/09/09:       Reports from Councillors and Council Representatives:

9.1 Halton West – C Yorke asked about any progress on the war memorial repairs. The Clerk reported that a full costed quote is still awaited from the contractor she met on site. He suggested that he approach T Ayrton to ask if he would be willing to carry out work at Halton West; this was agreed by the Council, especially in light of the urgent need for the re-pointing to be done.

9.2 Rathmell – Cllr Crabtree reported on a meeting he had attended at CDC with representatives from other local councils and councillors where specific concerns were identified and discussed relating to Mr Dale and any future Settle Festival events proposed.

9.3 Wigglesworth – Cllr Clarke reported that the Old School has now received funding approval from the Big Lottery Fund (£265.000), conditional on the total project funding of £400K being in place in 12 months time. Other grants have been applied for and local fundraising events are being organised including fortnightly (Thursday) quiz nights in The Plough.

9.4 Clerk – The Clerk reported attending a Local Clerks Forum at CDC where the main items were dealing with the press and the current Local Development Framework consultation.

 

30/09/10:       Village Environment, Rights of Way and Highways Matters:

10.1 Verges - Cllr Crabtree asked that once again, the hedge and trees on the verge at Cappleside be raised with NYCC Highways and action be requested on the grounds of road safety being seriously compromised by the narrowing of the road due to vigorous growth.

10.2 Stiles near The Green, Rathmell – R Stone reported several stiles being overgrown. Cllr Wright agreed to check them.

10.3 Closure of B6478 – It was confirmed that no road closure notification had been received, despite it now being closed for some time.

 

30/09/11:       Correspondence:

The Clerk circulated a list to Councillors, all were noted with action on the following:

329 Safer Craven Community Partnership – Cllr Heather has nominated himself to be the local representative; the Council agreed this a good idea and support the nomination.

332. CDC information on grants passed to Cllr Clarke.

 

One other item was received from R Stone asking about monies held by Rathmell PM. It was confirmed that monies can be spent on agreed projects as previously agreed – gravel has not been bought yet for Back Lane, a donation has been made to the website project. A request to make an on-going commitment through the precept to Rathmell Reading Rooms was then discussed at some length. The Council felt it was minded not to support such a request, but if one-off amounts were needed for specific projects, these will be considered. It was agreed to carry the matter forward to the next meeting for consideration; at this meeting outline requests from each Parish for inclusion in the precept will be considered.

 

30/09/12:       Any other matters of urgent local concern:

No matters were brought forward.

 

30/09/13:       Date of next meeting:

Confirmed as Tuesday 25 November 2008 at Rathmell Reading Rooms (1930).

 

The Council then moved into private session to discuss various personnel issues with the Clerk.

 

The meeting closed at 9.30pm.