MINUTES OF THE PARISH COUNCIL MEETING HELD ON MONDAY 14th JULY 2008

Present: Cllr P Privett (Vice Chairman)

Councillors: Mrs B Powell, M Jolly, G Preston, Mrs P Blackmore

In Attendance: Cllr Roger Giles (DCC), Cllr Graham Brown (EDDC), PC Jim Tyrrell, PC Colin Harper, four members of the public, a fifth member of the public arrived at 20.40hrs and John Masters (FPC Clerk)

17. Questions from the Public

Mrs Kellow handed a photo copy of a letter that her and her husband had received anonymously which made serious accusations against them. The chairman of the meeting expressed his sympathy and felt that what ever the circumstances that the letter was wrote, it is very cowardly that the writer did not have the courage of their convictions to sign the letter, but was unable to offer any help. Mrs Kellow accepted this but wanted the council to know what is going on in the village; she went on to say that the police have been informed.

John Partridge from the Youth Centre Manage Committee asked the chairman when the £1200.00 that was agreed the council would donate earlier in the year would be available. The chairman confirmed that the cheque would be raised shortly. Mr Partridge also reminded the chairman that a donation was also promised to the Toddler Group; again the chairman said that would also be raised at the same time.

Jean Garside thanked the council for the £50.00 donation that the council had agreed to donate to the new 4Ever Green group who are working towards raising money to purchase the part of the playing field that is up for sale and went on to ask for the cheque to be made out to F.P.F.

Sally Goddard asked the council if they could put up some signs warning people about the ‘Dog Ban’ on the playing fields as any unsuspecting visitor to Feniton could be caught out by it. The chairman said that the council did not have the authority to put up any such signs.

18. Apologies: Mr Martyn Smith, Mrs K Tomkins.

19. Minutes
The minutes of the meeting held on 9th June 2008 were confirmed by the council and signed by the Vice Chairman, Cllr P Privett.

20. Police Officer’s Report PC Jim Tyrrell gave the following report:- There have been 4 thefts from motor vehicles and 2 criminal damages to motor vehicles, primarily in the Housing Estates in Feniton and one in old Feniton. There have been 2 thefts at the Spar shop when entry was gained to the rear compound and foodstuffs taken.
There have been 2 non-dwelling burglaries in Feniton in which insecure garage premises have been entered and property stolen.
There were 2 further non-dwelling burglaries which have been recorded as occurring in Payhembury but according to the Police computer are classed as the Feniton area. Again, property was stolen. There was one case of criminal damage to a garage door in Feniton. 1 case of common assault at Feniton Sports Club. There is a named offender and enquiries are continuing. And finally one case of cheque/card fraud. There is a named offender. Enquiries are continuing into this. At present the thefts/criminal damage offences and burglaries remain undetected but enquiries are in hand to gather further evidence and hopefully make some arrests. In total there were 15 incidents reported to the Police.
PC Tyrrell introduced PC Harper who is assisting him with the spate of local crimes.

21. County and District Councillors’ Reports

Cllr Graham Brown (EDDC) spoke briefly about the proposed Boundary Changes that are being discussed locally, district and at county level and that the draft proposal in going out to a 12 week consultation period. Cllr Brown wanted to congratulate the local young people on the committee on how well they organised the Feniton Fun Day everybody enjoyed themselves despite the weather. Finally Cllr Brown said that he is prepared to get behind the organisation that comes up with the best plan for securing the part of the playing field that is for sale for the people of Feniton but cannot run with two or three different plans because they will all be doomed to fail.

Cllr Roger Giles (DCC) presented a three page report below is a brief extract:- School Transport, last November DCC changed its policy on allowing Year 6 pupils from Primary Schools by banning them on the school buses when they attend (locally) Kings School for a week in July to get to know their new school describing them as “unknown passenger” which is ridicules as they are known to the school and will be entitled to Free Transport in September. Cllr Giles is working with various heads of Primary Schools to try and get this overturned as locally in Feniton it means an extra 20 to 30 cars ferrying pupils to school when busses are running with spare capacity. Digital Switchover Road Show will be at Tesco Honiton on the 23rd & 24th July.
There will be a shortfall in primary school places in East Devon for some time, it has been agreed to increase Ottery St Mary Primary school to 420 places with new building work and to increase Newton Poppleford from 161 to 210 in January 2009. Feniton flooding, unfortunately there has been very little progress according to a message received from Meg Booth (DCC) because they are still waiting to identify two landowners so they can find the last two manholes to complete the drainage survey in the old village. The survey in the new village has also to be completed.
Ottery Children’s Centre as previously report at the last FPC meeting both Ottery and Sidmouth will have Children’s Centres rather than the original proposal of just one in Sidmouth. DCC will ensure that a suitable building is available in Ottery for which children from Feniton can use; the services will be run by a company or organization (which could be a playgroup or governing body of a school) who will tender for running the services for three years.

22. Declarations of member’s interest:- Non

23. Finance

The following payments were authorised:-

001572 - F.P.F. - £50.00 - Donation to 4Ever Green
001573 - A Spry - £218.75 - Village Handyman
001574 - South West Water - £12.91 - Allotment Water Charge
001575 - The Parish Magazine - £135.00 - Annual payment for adverts

24. Correspondence

25. Email Correspondence

26. Late Entry Planning Approval’s from EDDC

27. Late Entry Correspondence

28. Feniton Parish Council Accounts

It was agreed to ask Val Jones to audit the accounts and call an extraordinary meeting to approve the accounts in August.

29. Village Handyman’s Report

Mr Spry’s written report detailed extra time for grass cutting, which was approved by the council.

30. Individual Member Responsibilities

Cllr Mrs Blackmore report on 4Ever Green’s activities

Since the last report, we have held a short meeting on 10th July 2008. Unfortunately, due to health reasons, Jean Garside has resigned as Chairperson of the Group. Jonathan Mutter has been elected as our new Chairperson with Jean as Vice Chair.

The Fun Day, I understand, was a bit wet and there was not much activity at the 4Ever Green stall, but we did raise the princely sum of £4.54 which the committee decided should go into the Petty Cash coffers. Jean Garside has the information regarding the £50 donation that the Parish Council had promised to pay to 4Ever Green for Petty Cash. Francis Pyle had received a letter from the Parish Council. He was not happy with the prospect of there being two Trusts to run the Fields.

Jean had heard from 5 different sources that the Feniton Playing Field Committee would like to put two junior football pitches on the site if we are successful in purchasing it. It was pointed out that this site was being purchased for the village and not for the Feniton Playing Fields Committee. Francis stated that the Football Association are best placed to get Lottery funding and could give a grant of up to £250,000 for the purchase of the site as they had been successful in getting money for the changing room building on the higher field. Please be advised 4Ever Green has not sanctioned this and is being followed up by the Feniton Playing Fields Committee as they have a contact name and address.

In the light of this, we did wonder why we are bothering to continue with our efforts but after discussion, we decided to go ahead with our aim and see what happens.

We had been invited to attend a Feniton Playing Fields Committee meeting, but due to the non-appearance of the Secretary, a formal meeting could not take place. Instead we did have an informal discussion on various topics. If you wish for further information on this, please let me know, although I feel that as it was a Playing Fields Committee meeting it is their place to keep you informed if they wish to do so. I do have a summary of these discussions should you wish to peruse.

Cllr Mrs K Tomkins sent this report in her absence:-

Devotec have repaired the broken piece of playground equipment at the Ely Close play area and have given me an invoice of £18.33 which I would like to request is paid out of the play area budget. (The council instructed the clerk to pay this invoice upon receipt from Cllr Tomkins).
QEII, the work should be due to begin after October, but EDDC cannot say exactly when.

No other reports were received.

31. Dog Control Area’s the following are recommended by the Parish council:-

32. Dog Waste Bins, the following prices for the supply & management of Dog Waste Bins in Feniton came from Martin McGuire of EDDC:-

Cost per bin £62.00
Installation cost per bin to include ‘T Bar or Straight Bar’ fixing approximately £45 - £100 per bin.

CITA will charge £150 per year to empty the bins three times per week, this is non negotiable.

To ensure bins are empted regularly they use the following colour bag liners:-

This will allow a quick check to see that the operator has empted the bin on time.

33. Allotments a new set of Allotment rules and regulations was presented to the council, it was agreed to take them away and discuss then at the next full meeting.

34. Public Notice Board Station Road because of the poor state of repair the clerk has been instructed to select two or three possible replacements for the councillors to choose from at the next full meeting. The criteria is the approximately the same size with a maximum price of £1,000.00.

35. Parish Council Website because Cllr M Smith manages the website and with his absence from the meeting it was decided to leave this item.

36. A.O.B. Three weeks ago the parish clerk was contacted by some worried residents about new Floodlighting and Car Parking Ticket machine to be installed in Feniton Station Car Park, the clerk contacted EDDC planning department and asked if South West Trains had applied for planning permission for Lighting, CCTV and Car Park Ticket Machine, EDDC were unaware of a planning application and after some internal discussion told the clerk that SWT needed planning permission, SWT denied this and started the work on Monday 7th July. EDDC had a meeting to discuss the matter on Wednesday 9th July and sent one of their officers to the site and now say that planning permission is not required.

The Parish council is most concerned about the congestion of the local roads like The Signals, Ottery Road, Station Road and Winchester Close with cars parked trying to avoid the parking charges. The council has instructed the clerk to write to both SWT & EDDC Planning department asking why the people most affected by this new scheme were never consulted.

37. Date of next meeting to approve the Parish Council Accounts Monday 11th August 2008

38. Date of next full meeting Monday 8th September 2008

39. Clerk to the Parish Council (end of three month trial period) The Clerk was asked to leave the meeting. The council decided to confirm the appointment of John Masters as the Clerk to the Parish Council and to set the hours worked at 10 hours per week and pay level SCP 16 in accordance to the NALC guidelines.

There being no further business, the meeting closed at 21.00hrs.

………………………………………………………Chairman 8th September 2008

Last Updated 8th October 2008