Singleton Parish Council
Minutes of the Parish Council Meeting held at the Village Hall, Singleton
on 31 August 2017 at 7.15 pm
Present: – Cllrs Lee (Vice Chair), Chew and Gallagher, and the Parish Clerk, Verena Henderson, who took the Minutes. Two members of the public also attended
1. Apologies were received and accepted from Cllrs Bailey and Smith.
2. Minutes of Previous Meeting and any Matters Arising
The Minutes of the previous meeting held on 20 July 2017, having been previously circulated and agreed by email, were duly signed by the Vice-Chairman as a true and correct copy.
3. Open Forum
The meeting was opened up to the two members of public who had come to discuss their planning application. This was one in which the Parish Council had initially voiced concerns about the possible noise levels and disturbance to neighbouring properties which could result from operating a boarding kennels. This was not going to be an ordinary boarding kennels but one which trained gun dogs. They stressed that they would not be training with gun shots but would be using a starter pistol in the initial stages of the training. Since their initial application, they had consulted Planning Officers at Fylde BC and taken on board their comments and had adapted their plans accordingly. They would be limited to the types of dogs they took in and this would be a condition of the planning permission.
The Parish Council had not been consulted about their latest application and Cllr Chew advised the applicants that she had spoken to Planning Officers about this and would be attending the Planning Committee meeting on 6th September to put forward the Parish Council’s views. Unfortunately, Parish Councils did not benefit from seeing officers’ reports and those from the County Council. They could only comment on the initial planning application as a planning matter and cannot go into it in depth. Cllr Chew had asked for copies of all the reports prior to the meeting so she would be fully briefed of the situation.
4. Declaration of Interests – None
5. Planning Matters and Decisions
• 17/0654 – Gerip, Station Road, Singleton, FYf6 8LG – Resubmission of Application 17/0175 for two storey side extension. No specific observations to make.
• 17/0683 – Silver Ridge, Lodge Lane, Singleton, FY6 8LT – Erection of Detached Dwelling with 1.8m high wall and gates to front – No specific observations to make.
• 17/0670 – The Manor Barn, Mains Hall, Singleton FY6 7LE – Existing dwelling to form 3 no. holiday cottages and 1 no manager’s dwelling. No specific observations other than the Parish Council could not see the need for a manager’s dwelling for such few properties.
• Notice of Appeal lodged on refusal of planning application 16/1006 – Land adjacent to 195 Mains Lane Singleton FY6 7LB – outline application for up to 9 dwellings with access. Noted.
Planning decisions
17/0539 – Nelson House, Garstang Road, Singleton FY6 8LX – Erection of arch topped wrought iron driveway gates – Granted.
Consultation information received on the Fylde Local Plan to 2032, which would run till 14 September 2017. Fylde has to build 430 houses per year till 2032. They need to show the Inspector that there are enough houses in the pipeline which will be built within a 5 year period which would meet the 5-year total. At the moment they are somewhat short.
6. Police Matters
The Police had been on two occasions recently with a speed gun. During these periods they had given out quite a few penalty notices to those doing over 30mph in the 20mph area and to one driver who was doing 42mph.
Alarmingly, however, an accident took place in the neighbouring parish of Thistleton where a wagon hit a car head on, and it took 45 minutes for the Police to arrive. Local neighbours had to direct the traffic whilst waiting for the Police.
The Leader of Fylde Borough Council had invited the Police Commissioner to a meeting to discuss fear of crime and loss of confidence in the response from the Police, but the Commissioner had declined the invitation saying that meetings already took place between the Council and the Police.
7. Traffic and Highway Issues
Cllr Chew was to have had a meeting with Highways England on 6 September but had to postpone this because it had clashed with the Planning Committee meeting she was attending. This was to be rearranged.
8. Proposed New By-Pass
A meeting had been called for the Community Reference Group for 1st August and Minutes from this meeting had been circulated. There is nothing new to record from these. The next meeting with the Community Reference Group will be held following the Preferred Route Announcement, which is expected later in the year. Local residents are still coming forward to some councillors with alternative route ideas.
9. Correspondence
Notification received from Fylde BC that an Order has been made for dogs to be kept on leads on all public places or if a Police Officer, Police and Community Support Officer, Dog Warden or other person authorised by the Council asks them to. Failure to comply would result in a Fixed Penalty Notice of £100. The Clerk would request that Singleton Children’s Play Area is included in this Order.
10.
New SPID (or SID) as it is now called
This has now arrived. There was a problem with a missing part, but this has now also been delivered to Cllr Lee. Cllr Lee will now liaise with Andy Pawson to have this new SID mounted. We would leave the old SPID as a back-up for the time being.
The benefit of the new SID was that it could be calibrated to do different speeds and record speeds during any period of the day. If, for instance, we had further problems from speeding motor cycles on a Sunday, we would be able to advise the Police exactly when this happened and what speeds they were doing.
11.
Overnight Parking on the Village Hall Car Park
There was another incidence of this at the beginning of August, but it seems to have quietened down. Cllr Gallagher will keep an eye on it, however, to ensure regular cars are not continuing to park overnight.
12.
Litter Collection – Update
Very disappointed to learn that the man who seemed so eager to start in this role has not returned Cllr Gallagher’s repeated phone calls. The Clerk was asked to enquire from other Parish Council Clerks to see if they had anyone on their books who could fill this position.
13. Accounts and Invoices to Pay
Notification received from Council Audits that they have received all the information they require about the 2016/17 annual audit and have now closed our file.
Notification received that the second part of the Precept would be paid into the bank on 1st September 2017. This would be less the second instalment of the Playground Maintenance payable to Fylde BC, and the net figure of the Precept would be £8,136.00. The Clerk would prepare a half-yearly balance sheet for the next meeting.
• T A Pawson – SID – £60.00 Proposed Cllr Lee, Seconded Cllr Gallagher. Agreed.
• C A Traffic Ltd – New SID – £3,019.20 (including vat of £503.20). Proposed Cllr Lee, Seconded Cllr Gallagher. Agreed.
• Clerk’s Salary and Expenses for July/August 2017 – £185.10. Proposed Cllr Chew, Seconded Cllr Lee. Agreed.
14. Any Other Business
• Cllr Chew had completed her claim for financial assistance towards the cost of new playground equipment, which needs to be submitted in September. She has asked for £2,000 towards the costs.
• Greenhalgh Parish Council had undertaken an extensive exercise looking into the prices of cameras to be located in fly-tipping hotspots. They had very kindly passed on all this information to us and Cllr Gallagher will now look into this.
• Complaints had been received regarding Wyreside Park. A Health and Safety Officer from Fylde BC had looked into the complaints under their jurisdiction and was happy with the way the site was being run. The only concern the officer had related to an old toilet block which was made of asbestos. The site manager has had to do an asbestos management plan and this has satisfied the Health and Safety Officer. The other issues were civil matters and the complainant was advised to seek legal advice on these.
• Cllr Gallagher reported that the bollards at the end of Pool Foot Lane had still not been repaired, despite LCC promising that they would be. He had sent an email to County Councillor Paul Hayhurst to advise him of this.
• Complaints about the hedges not being cut again and weeds growing in the footpaths. The Clerk had complained about the weeds and would complain again.
15 Date and Time of next meeting
The next meeting is scheduled for Thursday 21 September 2017 at 7.15pm. At that meeting dates for the following 3 meetings would be decided.
As there was no further business, the meeting closed at 8.20pm.
Signed …………………………………………… Dated ………………………………………
Verena Henderson
Clerk to the Parish Council
Tel: 01995 670455