S.P.C Minutes February 2020

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SHENSTONE PARISH COUNCIL

Serving Little Aston, Shenstone, Stonnall, Shenstone Wood End, Lynn, Parish Council Office 25C Main Street Shenstone WS14 OLZ
Tel: 01543 481 947
e-mail: <admin@shenstone-staffs.gov.uk >
web: www.shenstone-staffs.gov.uk

Approved Minutes from Full Council Meeting of Shenstone Parish Council held on 111h February 2020; at Stonnall Y&CC at 7:15pm

103. Register of members in attendance:

Cllrs Val Neale; David Thompson; David Salter; Neil Perry; John Branch; Darryl Godden; Nicki Gobran; Lesley Edgley; Mick Cox; Nicola Macdonald; Gail Nicholls

104.  Acceptance of apologies. 

Shirley O’Mara Cllrs Nick Smith; Kelly Harrison; Shelia Beilby; County Cllr David Smith; District Cllr Elizabeth Little

105. Public Participation. Members of the Public are invited to address Council for a maximum of 15 minutes:

None

106. Declarations of interest. Members should consider whether they should partake in any discussion or vote on matters on the agenda unless they have a dispensation:

None.

107. To accept and confirm minutes of the last Full Council meeting on Tuesday 14th January 2020:

Signed and approved

108. Chairs report on outstanding matters from minutes Tues 14th January 2020 

Overhanging trees on Birchbrook Estate right of way: Staffs CC approved works & payment. Scheduled for March.

Problems with .gov email addresses: Boldmere Computers are looking into this for us.

109. To receive reports from District and County Councillors:

Cllr Salter to carry on reporting LDC ‘headlines’ to Parish Cllrs. With reference to item 114 Cllr Salter is liaising with both LDC and SCC about the ongoing problems outside our local primary schools.

Cllr Smith had also reported to the office that the flooding problems in the area are still ongoing.

110. Finance: Transactions for approval & financial position as Feb 11th 2020

Unity Bank £30,242.22 Nat West current £920 Nat West Res £83,252.23

Nat West Liquidity £161,384.81

Shirley had a visit from Alan Topliss who is pleased with how things are going with our accounting. We discussed the accounting package that Shirley used, which has been developed by Nick specifically to Shirley and the Parish Council’s requirements we agreed unanimously to continue with this accounting system. Cllr Edgely remarked that we are the beneficiaries of Nick’s good will. Shirley has discussed an ex gracia payment for the work on the system with Cllr Beilby. Cllr Perry said ‘if it isn’t broke don’t fix it’. Cllr Perry also asked about a backup for Shirley, Cllr Salter replied that there are peripatetic clerks who we could call on, and that he is monitoring e mails at the moment.

111. Planning applications: Cllr Thompson spoke on the following:

  1. Future training opportunity re Neighbourhood Planning. Training available at Barlaston (north Staffs) this is being run by Stafford Borough Council but Cllr Thompson felt it may be more suited to the villages in that area. He felt that it may be more relevant to us to attend training nearer to here. Maybe LDC will run training nearer and more relevant to SPC and the villages.
  2. Little Aston Appeal Ref No: APP/K3415/W/19/3243673. The application to gate another area has gone to appeal, there is mixed opinions in the area and not all the residents want this to go ahead. There have been no measurements of incidents of criminal or anti-social behaviour.
  3. Little Aston Community Hub enquiries: update. This was felt to be a fishing expedition from a consultancy firm from Leamington Spa. Cllr Salter replied saying that there had been a lot of money spent on the hall. Cllr Gobran spoke about how much better the space the hall sits on could be utilised.

Shenstone Business Park developer enquiry re: flood risk to lands north of Lynn Lane. This has arisen due to the Environment Agency (EA) asking the developer to model the potential for flooding on the site over the bridge and adjacent to the railway. This site could be developed for 100 properties, which is part of the Neighbourhood Plan. The EA has asked the developer to adjust the height on the banks of the brook. The EA have revised all their measures due to the effects of climate change, by their measures the car park would flood. The developer would like to meet with Cllr Thompson and EA to propose the water flowing into the Lamas Land, and what the implications would be. Cllr Thompson explained that we’d like the development to go ahead and that give and take is a good tactic, and that the CIL money from the development woud be useful. He also explained to Cllr Gobran what the CIL fund is, and the implications of having a Neighbourhood Plan to help keep more of the money for local issues. Cllr Perry asked about flooding in other areas of Shenstone, and Cllr Edgley mentioned the electricity substation on the Millbrook. Cllr Salter mentioned in a response to Cllr Branch that there have been floods from the brook before. Cllr Thompson reiterated that the land would be to the north of Lynn Lane.

112. Lengthsman audit: 33 bags of litter collected and disposed of, and lots of compliments from all of the villages.

113. The Great British Clean Up:

Cllr Salter explained that this is a National initiative to pick up litter during ten days in March, instigated and supported by The Daily Mail. All agreed we should participate as it will provide good PR.

Cllr Nicholls mentioned that there are lots of villagers in Stonnall that pick-up litter in the village and surrounding lanes. To that end there is a ‘clean-up’ already arranged for 30/4/20 in Stonnall, posters will be placed around the village.

Cllr Edgley asked about our village boundaries, and commented on the amount of litter she’d seen in Canwell/Little Hay.

114. Children’s safety signs re: engines idling:

Cllr Salter spoke around the issues we have at all of our schools with parents/carers sitting with their car engines running. He read out a letter that our PCSO Andrea had sent out via the schools quoting the relevant traffic laws around idling engines. He also asked Andrea to modify the letter for Little Aston. Cllr Gobran had been in touch with Little Aston school as it is a big problem outside the with some cars parked at 2pm with their engine’s running. She felt the school were not interested, and many trees have been cut down locally which doesn’t help. Cllr Nicholls also felt that the head/office at St Peter’s in Stonnall were not interested, and only sent out a generic letter/text message. Cllr Nicholls has also involved Cllr Smith and the local lobby group SCAR, in trying to solve this problem. Cllr Salter is going to arrange to meet the local PCC and County Councillor to ask about clean air zones around our schools, which will also help in educating parent/carers about the risks to children from toxic exhaust fumes. Cllr Cox felt we should check the air around the schools before we move on this. However, the law is clear about idling engines and Cllr Godden felt we should move on this, and involve LDC and SCC. Cllr Nicholls mentioned LDC had called a climate emergency, and that we needed to help all we can. Cllr Branch spoke about contacting the schools first as a parish council, and about putting up signs. Cllr Salter felt we needed to check any wording used with SCC as the county have a scheme running with some schools. We also had a discussion around the buddie’s scheme that was bought to council by our PCSO Steve. It was felt that we should be looking at trying to find a solution to this problem.

114a) This was added by the chair at Cllr Neale’s request, she wanted to know if we could do anything about the parking and driving on the shop car parks in Shenstone and Stonnall. It was pointed out that these areas are on private land and as a Parish Council we are unable to do anything.

115. Doctors Lane: Problems with potholes and lighting:

Shirley to meet with the footpaths officer and BT to try to sort out the problems on this unadopted road. SCC is responsible for the right of way, and we also discussed the lack of lighting but, felt it wasn’t our responsibility. Cllr Gobran felt BT had a corporate social responsibility. We are awaiting responses from the relevant parties.

116. Flooding in Stonnall playing fields – culvert:

Can we chase up LDC to find out who is responsible for the brook/culvert.

117. March newsletter:

Councillors are asked to consider articles for submission by end of February:

118. Date of next meeting:

10th March 2020 at Little Aston Village Hall at 7 :15pm: