DATCHWORTH PARISH COUNCIL

 

MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL PARISH MEETING

15th May 2006, HELD AT THE VILLAGE HALL

 

Present:

Chairman: Councillor Mr C. Wilkins

Councillors: Mrs. M. Marr    Mrs. G. Lines

                    Mr T Charles     Mrs L. Carrington-Brown

                    Mrs F. Chambers  Mr F. Pearman

                   Mrs V. Marshall

                  

In Attendance: Mrs L. Chambers, Clerk

 

Parishioners:  Mr W. Emms

                      Mrs D. Nee

                      Alex Nee

                     George Wallace

                     Cameron Thompson

 

Item 1. The Chairman read the Notice of Meeting. The Parish Councillors introduced themselves.

 

Item 2. Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Mr J. Austin, Mr J. Nash

 

Item 3. Chairman’s Report – Please see the Clerk for a copy

Here are the main issues that The Parish Council dealt with over the last year.   This is not intended as an exhaustive list.

 

1.             Datchworth Sports Club (DSC) Planning Application

 

This was easily the biggest issue this year and took most of our time and energy. 

Although this is a planning matter we also have a role as landlord for some of the land affected.  This is a high profile issue that has exercised many minds in the village and all your councillors have been involved in our deliberations.  Because there is also an element of negotiation with the DSC we have chosen to hold most of our debates in closed session.

We have had meetings with the club, both at their club house and also here in the village hall.  The DSC has been helpful and open in presenting the plans to us.  They were also brave enough to present the application to a public meeting here on 7th November last year. 

There were many matters of detail, but the main concern was that of parking arrangements for the really busy weekend events when the number of vehicles exceeds the capacity for parking that we have here.   When this happens there is a need for careful marshalling and control to minimise the problems.  

How this could be tackled was the subject of debate with DSC.  A proposal was discussed whereby a DSC representative would get together with ourselves with input of the forthcoming events at the Village Hall and the match schedules.  Any clashes would be identified well in advance and planned for.  Agreement was also reached on the overflow parking in the field behind the Village Hall.   If the ground was unsuitable such that the field could not be used, then DSC would call off the match (or matches) at short notice.  Also all really busy weekends would be properly marshalled so that parking would be controlled properly, allowing for example for passing spaces.

The Parish Council wanted East Herts (EHDC) to make this arrangement enforceable via a condition to the planning consent.  In the event EHDC declined to agree to this and on the 3rd of this month approved the application without it in place.   It should be noted though that virtually all the other points of detail which had been suggested by us were built into the conditions that were approved.

The next steps for us are to see how a management agreement can be made to work properly.

I would like to thank the work put into this by Tony Charles.  He has put a great deal of time into it and although the end result is not all that we would have wanted, it is considerably better than it would have been without our intervention.

 

 

 

2.             Trees

This was our number one issue last year when the main task of understanding how to tackle the issue was sorted out.   At this time last year just the trees posing an immediate danger were being dealt with.  The situation now is that all work to these has been completed and the next group of trees in order of ranking is being dealt with - leaving us with just those of lowest priority.  We have been able to phase this work in such a way that we have been able to meet the cost out of balances and the council tax precept.

 

3.             Parish Plan

We met with East Herts offers and Tony Jackson in the autumn of last year to get the benefit of their expertise and experience with parish plans and how we could take ours forward.  It was a useful meeting and a number of ideas and examples from other parishes were explored.  As a result we have now opted for a design statement rather than a parish plan.   A design statement is really a subset of a full parish plan which should make it easier to manage.  At the same time it deals with those aspects we are most keen to see to be developed.  Ultimately we hope that the result will be added to planning regulations that will give added control of developments that could change to the look and feel of our parish.

 

4.             Drop in Session

In December we got together with Tewin with the aim of getting young people engaged in local organisations and activities.  We invited representatives from the organisations to the event to promote themselves and did the best we could to make the event known to everyone. 

It went reasonably well although we could have done with a stronger attendance.  The most popular activity turned out to be the shooting club.   We are thinking of doing this again next spring.

 

5.             Other Items

Parish Directory

A new parish directory has been compiled and distributed this year.  The content can also be viewed on our website, www.Datchworth.info.   Thanks to John Austin for his work on this.

 

Nutcroft swings

One of the swings became unsafe and had to be removed.   We now have a new swing in place.

 

Highways

The County Council budget for road surfacing has required our vigilance in spotting problem and dangerous areas and chasing up on getting them resolved.   Thanks to Jeff Nash for his time with this issue.

 

The Chairman invited questions on his report:

 

Mr Emms raised several issues:

1. He questioned how many cars were to be allowed and how this would be enforced. Councillor Charles explained PC will be seeking a legally enforceable contract between DSC and the Parish Council; however this was still at the negotiation stage.

2. Mr Emms referred to the problems he has with some trees which he has been in discussion with Councillor Charles about. The trees are in the next phase of work to be done this year, but no date has been scheduled for the start of the work yet.

3. Mr Emms congratulated the PC on the Parish Directory.

4. He commented on the tatty state of the Village especially the entrances to the Village. The Chairman responded with these subjects have been taken up with Highways and the Clerk chases regularly for action.

5. Mr Emms referred to the Parking outside the Bungalows in Hawkins Hall Lane. Councillor Charles said the Clerk has written on numerous occasions to East Herts, Highways and the residents about this. Currently, she is waiting for District Councillor Jackson to provide a contact at the Housing Association.

6. Where Parents park at the School is becoming a mud bath. Councillor Charles said a surface had been laid last year and had already deteriorated. Councillor Pearman said a permanent surface is not the answer as the Parents are being discouraged from parking there, but should park at the end of the Church path; a more permanent surface would only encourage more to park there.

 

Item 4. Financial Report – Please see the Clerk for a copy

Mr Emms queried the break down of the Web site Maintenance cost and Printing costs for the Parish Directory. The Clerk said the total was all printing costs, as there had been no further expenditure on the Web site.

Item 5. District Councillor’s Report – There was no report.

 

The Chairman invited any other questions.

 

Alex Nee asked if the Parish Council could provide some goal posts at the Turkey Farm. Councillor Charles said there had been money built into this year’s budget to provide some new play equipment and it was very helpful to know what was wanted. There followed a discussion of what sort of goal posts the boys wanted. The Chairman said this would be looked into and thanked the boys for letting the Parish Council know what they wanted.

 

The meeting closed at 8.40pm