DRAFT MINUTES – TO BE FORMALLY AGREED
Singleton Parish Council
Minutes of the Parish Council Meeting held at the Village Hall, Singleton
on 30 January 2020 at 7.15 pm
Present: – Cllrs Gallagher (Chair), Bailey (Vice Chair), Cholmondeley, Ibbotson and Lee, and the Parish Clerk, Verena Henderson, who took the Minutes. Also attending were 35 members of the public plus PCSO Lauren Vallely.
1. Apologies for Absence – None
2. Minutes of Previous Meeting and any Matters Arising
The Minutes of the meeting held on 19 December 2019, having been previously circulated and agreed, were formally signed as a true and correct record by the Chairman.
3. Police Matters
This item has been moved to position 3 on the Agenda to allow visiting Police Officers to leave soon after the start of the meeting to allow them to continue with their other duties.
PCSO Vallely reported that in December there had been 5 reports of Anti-Social Behaviour and 5 reported incidents of theft, all of which involved a fuel garage.
The Police and Crime Commissioner had sent out information regarding the Precept for 2020/21 being sought by the Police in which they are proposing to increase their Precept to meet some of the pressures they are currently encountering.
4. Open Forum
The meeting was opened up to the visiting members of the public who were very angry because they had heard of plans by the Trust to stop having shoots in Singleton. They had heard that leases were not being renewed for shooting on Trust land and they were worried about the employment the shoots bring to Singleton which includes extra revenue to the local public house immediately after the shoots. One member emphasised that Singleton was developed as a shooting estate by the late Thomas Miller and the purpose of the charity was to provide for the community of Singleton. They were angry that no consultation had taken place and wanted to know if the Parish Council could do anything about it.
Unfortunately this was the first the Parish Council had heard of this, although Cllr Lee had very recently heard the rumours. No formal approach had been made by the Trust to the Parish Council, however, and the Parish Council was therefore completely in the dark about the matter. The Parish Council undertook to contact the Trust with a view to finding out if these rumours were correct and what the future plans of the Trust were.
5. Declaration of Interests – None.
6. Planning Matters and Decisions
20/0006 – River Wyre Holiday Camp, Singleton FY6 7LF – Change of use of existing bar/concert room to a three bed dwelling … – The Parish Council has no specific observations to make on the proposal.
19/0875 – Riverside Chalet Park, Occupation lane, Singleton FY6 7RA – Redevelopment of Holiday Caravan Park – Withdrawn by applicant on 18/12/2019
7. Traffic and Highway Issues
Cllr Ibbotson circulated photographs of the pavements on Mains Lane and Garstang Road. The width of the pavements at many areas is greatly reduced by overhanging trees and hedge width. This is not only causing problems to pedestrians but the poor visibility at the corner of Old Mains Lane has caused at least one road traffic accident recently. Lancashire County Council is responsible for this section of the main highway but the overhanging trees and hedges are the responsibility of the individual owners and therefore the Parish Council will contact the Enforcement Officer to see if anything can be done about them before any more accidents occur.
8. Proposed new By-Pass
Cllr Lee reported that the Trust has been approached by Highways England looking to buy some of their land for the new by-pass. Highways England has asked them if there is anything they could do for the community in return and the Trust asked Cllr Lee if there was anything he could think of. A zebra crossing for the village has been suggested, which the Parish Council unsuccessfully tried to acquire some time ago. We will contact LCC to ask them to look into this.
Cllr Bailey reported that he had met with Highways England very recently discussing the problem of getting over the land at Barnfield Manor towards Singleton Hall. They will need a new access point off Lodge Lane but cannot do anything yet until the whole project has been signed off by Grant Shapps MP in April. Again there may be some money towards a community project and Cllr Bailey will pass on the contact details to the Clerk to pursue this.
9. Update on SpID
Two new SpID machines have now been ordered at a cost of £4,068 plus vat and the Chairman of the Trust confirmed that they would be match-funding this. The Parish Council is very grateful for the support from the Trust for these machines which, it is hoped, will help to reduce the speed of traffic through the village. These machines are the same type as the ones recently purchased by Weeton Parish Council.
10.
Correspondence
• A letter of thanks from ex-councillor Maxine Chew was read out to the meeting which said how honoured she had been to be awarded the Freedom of the Parish upon her retirement.
• Information received that Wyre Council is to hold two Council Terrorism ACT Awareness events for business across the borough. The first of these takes place on 3/02/20 at 4.30 at the Civic Centre, Poulton-le-Fylde, and the second is on the 11/02/20 at 9.30am at the Marine Hall, Fleetwood. Noted.
• Information and a programme received from Fraser Monteath, Ranger at Fylde Borough Council who is once again arranging to have walks around the Borough. The first walk will be in Singleton on Wednesday 25 March starting off from the Village Hall car park at 1.00pm. The Clerk will publicise this on the website and noticeboards.
11.
Precept for 2020/2021
The Clerk distributed copies of the current balance sheet to 31/12/2019 and also information supplied by Fylde Borough Council regarding the Precept. The cost of annual maintenance supplied by Fylde BC for the children’s playground will rise from £3,460 to £3,550 in 2020/2021 and this amount is deducted at source from the annual Precept. The Precept is the major funding for Parish and Town Councils.
Although the Parish Council has a balance of £24,163 it is currently purchasing 2 SpID machines and is looking to improve its website. As well as hiring a grass-cutting contractor throughout the year and having many flowering tubs widely distributed across the parish, it also now contracts a litter-picker. The prospect of contracting a lengthsman to tidy up pathways is currently being considered. The playground needs to be kept in good condition and a great deal of money has been spent in the past on the car park.
All things considered, it was decided it was imperative to keep a healthy balance and Cllr Bailey proposed a 3% rise in the Precept, this was seconded by Cllr Gallagher and unanimously agreed.
Because of the recent housebuilding in the Parish, the Parish Council was eligible for a New Homes Bonus Grant of £1,207.00 which has to be used for community facilities. The Clerk had checked with the Deputy Chief Financial Officer at Fylde and this grant could be used for the refurbishment of the play facilities and a recent report had stated that the park furniture needed attention.
12.
Parish Council Laptop
The Clerk reported that she had recently had to upgrade the Parish Council laptop from Windows 7 to Windows 10 as Windows 7 was no longer going to be maintained by Microsoft.
13. Update on Website
Cllr Lee is working with a firm on this.
14. Accounts and Invoices to Pay
• T A Pawson – Mounting of old SpID – £60.00 – Proposed Cllr Gallagher, Seconded Cllr Bailey. Agreed.
• S Butcher – Litter-picker – £144.60 – Proposed Cllr Bailey, Seconded Cllr Gallagher. Agreed.
• Clerk – Salary and Expenses – £159.40 – Proposed Cllr Gallagher, Seconded Cllr Bailey. Agreed
• Clerk – Reimbursement for cost of updating laptop – £75.00 – Proposed Cllr Bailey, Seconded Cllr Gallagher. Agreed.
• PEI Delta – Supply of camera – £127.02 – Proposed Cllr Bailey, Seconded Cllr Gallagher. Agreed.
15. Any Other Business
• The Boundary Commission is looking at all the wards in Fylde Borough at the moment with a view of reducing councillor numbers in some areas.
• The Chairman asked all councillors to think about items they would like to put on a “wish list” of things they would like to work on in the Parish during the year. These would be discussed at the next meeting.
• Cllr Gallagher. Cllr Bailey and Cllr Lee would try and arrange a meeting with the Trust to see what the situation is in regards to shooting rights on Trust land.
16 Date and Time of next meeting – Thursday 20 February 2020 at 7.15pm at the Village Hall.
As there was no further business, the meeting closed at 8.50pm.
Signed …………………………………………… Dated ………………………………………
Verena Henderson
Clerk to the Parish Council
Tel: 01995 670455