Singleton Parish Council
Minutes of the Parish Council Meeting held at the Village Hall, Singleton
on 21 September 2017 at 7.15 pm
Present: – Cllrs Smith (Chair), Lee (Vice Chair), Bailey, Chew and Gallagher, and the Parish Clerk, Verena Henderson, who took the Minutes.
1. Apologies – None
2. Minutes of Previous Meeting and any Matters Arising
The Minutes of the previous meeting held on 31 August 2017, having been previously circulated, were agreed as a true and correct record and duly signed by the Vice-Chair.
Matters arising
• Weeds on footpaths: Fylde BC is now tackling these and the workers are getting closer to the parish. Complaints voiced about the difficulty of walking along the pathways because of high weeds and nettles.
• Litter-picking: Cllr Gallagher had once more tried to contact the original man the Parish Council offered this role to, but again without success. In the meantime, the Clerk had asked neighbouring councils if they had anyone who would like to undertake this work and three councils had responded. It was agreed to offer the man who currently litter-picks for Greenhalgh Parish Council the opportunity to do this work. Cllr Gallagher will discuss the details of the work required with him. It was agreed that the man would be needed for between 10 and 15 hours per month.
• Public Spaces Protection Orders for Dog Control. It had been confirmed by Fylde BC that the Children’s Play Area was included in the new legislation which meant that dogs would be excluded from enclosed playgrounds. Dogs would have to be on leads in all public places. Failure to comply with this order would result in a Fixed Penalty Notice of £100. This order was now displayed on the Notice Board.
• Bollard replacement on Pool Foot Lane: Acknowledgement from Cllr Hayhurst that he would be chasing this up with LCC.
3. Open Forum – None
Declaration of Interests – None
5. Planning Matters and Decisions
16/1006 – Notice of Appeal for the land adjacent to 195 Mains Lane, Singleton, FY6 7LB which was for outline permission for up to 9 dwellings. The hearing will start at 10am on 17 October 2017 at Fylde BC.
Planning Decisions
17/0140 – Brook Cottage, Garstang Road, Singleton FY6 7SX – Resubmission of application 16/0746 Change of Use of land to Dog Boarding Kennels and Dog Training School. Cllr Chew attended the planning meeting and voiced the Parish Council’s continued concern about possible noise nuisance to neighbours. Permission was granted.
17/0401 – Land East of St Anne’s Church, Church Road, Singleton FY6 8LN – Change of use of agricultural land to form peace garden with seating, paths, planting and fencing around. Permission granted.
17/0582 – Land at Summerer Farm, Weeton Road, Singleton, FY6 8NQ – Telecommunications development of 24M high lattice mast – Permission not required.
6. Police Matters
There was an incident in Pool Foot Lane on Sunday 17 September where a resident was assaulted by two men who had been hiding in bushes. The Police attended, with a police dog, and the dog indicated that these two men had been up and down several driveways in the lane. Investigations are on-going.
The Leader of Fylde Borough Council had asked for parish councils to let him have any concerns to pass on to the Police. Cllr Chew advised him of the incident in June involving the three young people who had caused so much distress to many residents.
7. Traffic and Highway Issues – None
8. Proposed New By-Pass
A prospective purchaser of an apartment in Singleton Lodge has been in touch with Cllr Chew, voicing his concerns about how close the proposed by-pass is going to be to the property. Cllr Chew’s meeting with the Highways Agency has been rescheduled to 28 September.
9. Correspondence
• Another Public Spaces Protection Order for Dog Control has been issued by Fylde BC, this time making it compulsory for dogs to be on leads on all highways and in car parks. A copy of this has been displayed on the notice boards and information concerning all the orders will be put on the website.
• Information received from Network Rail of work going on between Blackpool and Preston which means that the train services will be closed from 11 November to 28 January 2018 for Preston to Blackpool South and from 11 November to 25 March for Preston to Blackpool North. There will be a replacement bus service during this time. The work will be to electrify the line and carry out upgrades to platforms at Blackpool North and Kirkham & Wesham stations.
• The next meeting of the District Parish Liaison with Fylde BC will take place on 18 October at 6.30 pm.
10.
The new “Clever” SID
This arrived and was put up by Andy Pawson. Unfortunately there appeared to be a problem with data recording and the battery. This is currently being dealt with by the supplier.
11.
Winter Tubs
Cllr Smith proposed that Mr Chew plant out his usual winter tubs of bulbs and pansies. This was seconded by Cllr Gallagher and Agreed.
12.
Christmas
• Christmas card and Newsletter – Ideas for the card needed please and also help with compiling the newsletter. Cllr Lee will assist Cllr Chew with this.
• Christmas tree – Cllr Gallagher will check on the Christmas lights. The tree is in place and help is needed in putting the lights on it.
13. Up-to-Date Balance Sheet
The Clerk distributed a balance sheet which showed a current balance of £26,458. So far this financial year the parish council had paid out £12,438, which included such items as Playground Maintenance, Grasscutting, Clerk’s Salary and Expenses, Insurance, Work on the Playground, the new SID etc. A further £8,216 was already committed, which left a balance of £26,458.
Parish Council is proposing to spend up to £4,000 on new play equipment and Cllr Chew has completed the grant application to ask for a further £2,000 towards the new equipment. Cllr Gallagher will buy one camera with a sim card to tackle the fly-tipping problem, and more will be purchased in the future if this is found to be a success.
Accounts and Invoices to Pay
Notification received from the official auditor that the annual audit for the year ended 31 March 2017 has now been completed and there were no matters which came to their attention that required the issuing of a separate additional issues-arising report. This was acknowledged by the Parish Council and a notice to this effect will be put in the noticeboards. As Singleton Parish Council is a smaller authority, BDO LLP Ltd will not be the auditor for the year ended 31 March 2018 onwards. The Parish Council will be notified of the new auditor in due course.
• BDO LLP Ltd for official audit – £120.00. Proposed Cllr Smith, Seconded Cllr Chew. Agreed.
• Mr T A Pawson – Mounting of SPID – £30.00. Proposed Cllr Gallagher, Seconded Cllr Lee. Agreed.
• Singleton Village Hall – Rent for 6 months – £135.00. Proposed Cllr Smith, Seconded Cllr Bailey. Agreed.
• Clerk’s Salary and Expenses for August/September (including computer consumables) £298.86 – Proposed Cllr Chew, Seconded Cllr Gallagher. Agreed.
15. Any Other Business
The Clerk raised the question concerning the storage of archive material. This was now contained in 10 very full boxes. Items such as Parish Council Minutes and all financial records were public records and, as such, needed to be preserved. Some items could be scanned and put onto disc. It was agreed that ordinary domestic planning applications did not need to be kept for a length of time and the Clerk would sort out and thin out the boxes, removing any unnecessary items.
16 Dates and Times of next meetings:- The next 3 meetings were agreed as follows:-
7.15pm at the Village Hall on Thursdays 26 October, 16 November and 14 December.
As there was no further business, the meeting closed at 8.30pm.
Signed …………………………………………… Dated …………………………………………………
Verena Henderson: Clerk to the Parish Council: Tel: 01995 670455