Minutes from the Parish Meeting held on 2 August 2018

Minutes from the Parish Meeting held on 2 August 2018

Singleton Parish Council
Minutes of the Parish Council Meeting held at the Village Hall, Singleton
on 2 August 2018 at 7.15 pm

Present: – Cllrs Lee (Chair), and, Chew, and the Parish Clerk, Verena Henderson, who took the Minutes. Two members of the public also attended.
1. Apologies were received from Cllrs Gallagher and Smith, who were on holiday and Cllr Bailey, who the Parish Council was concerned to hear, was in hospital.

2. Minutes of Previous Meeting and any Matters Arising

The Minutes of the meeting held on 28 June had been previously agreed via email but were not signed on this occasion as the Chair at that meeting, Cllr Smith, was away. These Minutes will be signed at the next meeting on 6 September 2018.

The Minutes of the meeting held on 31 May 2018 were signed as a true and correct record by Cllr Lee.

Matters Arising from previous Minutes – Fraser Monteath, Fylde BC’s new Ranger, will be attending the Parish Council meeting on 6 September.

3. Open Forum

Two members of the public had come to enquire about the current situation in regards to the planning application placed by Pool Brow Caravan Park in which the new owners of the Park had applied to raise ground levels and install three more caravans.

The Parish Council had been concerned about the height of the proposed ground levels and the fact that neighbouring chalets on an adjacent site would be overlooked. The Council had also been concerned about drainage. This had gone back to the Planning Officers who had asked for a new drainage scheme. The planning application is currently stalled awaiting this new scheme and the Planning Officers have recently been chasing this up. United Utilities had objected to the drainage scheme the Park had put forward as it would mean surface water going into the road drain. They are not allowed to drain the site into the road drain. No decision will be made on the planning application until the Park owners provide all the necessary details. Once all the information is received, the Planning Officers have been authorised to come to a decision themselves and it will not be going back to the Planning Committee.

The residents were shown how to access the planning application on Fylde Borough Council’s website and Cllr Chew undertook to keep them advised of any information she received about it.

4. Declaration of Interests – Cllr Lee in regards to 18/0561 – Mount Farm House, Station Road Singleton FY6 8LG and he therefore took no part in that consideration.

5. Planning Matters and Decisions

18/0561 Mount Farm House, Station Road, Singleton, Poulton-le-Fylde FY6 8LG. Substantial alterations to dwellinghouse. Unfortunately the Parish Council was not quorate so would have to leave this decision to the Planning Officers at Fylde BC.

18/0548 Singleton House, The Village, Singleton FY6 8LL – Erection of Front boundary wall including railings and gate. Unfortunately the Parish Council was not quorate again but would put forward to the Planning Officers that brick walls are not a feature in this countryside location and the Parish Council would like to resist this urbanising feature.

18/0606 Bankfield Lodge, Pool Foot Lane, Singleton FY6 8LZ – Application to seek confirmation that a lawful start has been made on the development in accordance with condition 1 of Planning Permission 18/0082. New listing – no details received as yet. Bring to next meeting.

6. Police and PACT Report

Information received that the new Blackpool front counter has opened to the public and that the new West Division Police Headquarters will provide a base for some of the local policing and immediate response teams, an investigations hub and 42 custody cells. It also houses a range of specialist teams service the whole of the division which covers Blackpool, Fylde, Wyre, Lancaster and Morecambe.

The Crime figures for June show 2 Anti-Social Behaviour cases, 3 Violent crimes, 4 Thefts and Handling and 1 Auto Crime. These figures seem to be the same in other rural areas so there is some confusion as to whether these just apply to Singleton Parish or Rural Fylde as a whole.

Another opportunity for the Parish Council to have its say on policing in Lancashire. The Clerk was asked to complete the survey on the Parish Council’s behalf. It had been mentioned at the recent Parish and Town Councils’ Liaison Group meeting that the Police and Crime Commissioner had intimated that he would like to merge the Police with Lancashire’s Fire and Rescue. The Parish Council would be against this proposal.

Another list circulated of PCSO’s in Fylde. PCSO Becca Didsbury is still over Kirkham and Rural Fylde, which includes our parish.

7. Traffic and Highway Issues – None

8. Proposed new By-Pass – Nothing heard from Highways England for some time.

9. Correspondence

• Information received from Cuadrilla to say that they are starting work on restoring the Grange Hill site to its original pre-exploration use as agricultural land. Their decommissioning works would include the mobilisation and demobilisation of the rig and equipment undertaken during daytime working hours only.
• Thank you note from Ray Cottam for the donation of £50 to the Great Eccleston Cricket Club funds, which was to show the gratitude of the Parish Council for his work in auditing the annual accounts once again. Mr Cottam’s work in this regard is much appreciated by members of the Parish Council.
• Agenda and Minutes received for the District Parish Liaison Meeting, which took place on 18 July. Cllr Chew attended on the Parish Council’s behalf and reported that a Senior Police Officer had been in attendance who had told the meeting that a lot of police time is taken up with people suffering mental health problems and people going missing from nursing homes. These cases can take up the time of 2 or 3 Police Officers and if hospitalisation is necessary, the Police Officers cannot leave until they have officially handed responsibility over, which in some cases can be some hours.
• Cllr Chew at the Liaison Meeting had raised the problem of people not being able to pay bills over the phone to Fylde BC who seem reluctant to take payments other than on-line. Any cash payments need to be done at the Town Hall. Cllr Chew also raised the problem of phones not being answered quickly. Complaints have been received by residents of hanging on the telephone for long periods and then the phone going dead at 5.00pm. This was not acceptable.

10.
Feedback from Meeting with Singleton Trust and the problems with crows

The Clerk had written to the Chartered Surveyors to the Richard Dumbreck Trust on 5 June 2018 following complaints received about the increasing number of crows causing problems to residents. The crows in the Trust area are in Church Wood and Puzzlewood. No response had been received from the Chartered Surveyors and Cllr Lee had brought this up at the meeting with the Trust. The Trust does not intend to do anything about the crows but has undertaken to carry out a tree survey on trees close to houses to detect any possible damage caused.

The Trust brought up the possibility of a joint newsletter being sent out by themselves, the Parish Council, Village Hall and Church instead of several different ones being sent out. This was generally thought a good idea.

11.
Accounts and any Invoices to Pay

The Clerk reported that all the information on the accounts for 2017/2018 had now been sent off to the new company acting on behalf of the Audit Commission. The accounts had been made available to members of the Parish for a six-week period up to 13 July 2018 and this had been advertised on all notice boards and the web site.

• A Pawson – SPID – £30.00 – Proposed Cllr Lee. A seconder needed before payment and this will be arranged via email.
• S Butcher – Litter-picker – £197.60 – Proposed Cllr Lee, seconded Cllr Chew. Agreed.
• Clerk – Salary and expenses for June/July – £272.59 – Proposed Cllr Lee, seconded Cllr Chew. Agreed.

12.
Any Other Business

• New SPID – The company has agreed to a full refund for the faulty device. The Clerk will forward bank details to Cllr Lee for him to arrange this.
• A resident reported a broken gutter on the Fire Station to the owners, the Electricity Board. He passed on the reference number of the fault to us and we will chase this up if necessary. The Parish Council is grateful to him for his diligence.

13 Date and Time of next meeting

Thursday 6 September at 7.15pm.
As there was no further business, the meeting closed at 8.20pm.

Signed …………………………………………… Dated ………………………………………

Verena Henderson, Clerk to the Parish Council, Tel: 01995 670455