Offord Cluny PARISH COUNCIL



Offord Cluny & Offord Darcy Parish Council

M I N U T E S O F M E E T I N G

Minutes of a MEETING of the Parish Council held in the Village Hall, Offord Cluny on Thursday, March 5, 2020 at 7.30pm

Present: Cllrs Weitzel, Gatward, Dawson, Young, Eayrs, Gillbanks & Riley

Attending: 3 Members of the public, Dist.Cllr Mike Grice, County Cllr Peter Downes & Clerk

2020/2516 Apologies for Absence

Received from District Cllrs Conboy & Wilson, Cllrs Holdworth & Savage

2020/2517 Open Forum (max 10 minutes)

A resident raised an issue with the increased number of HGVs in the villages since the opening of the new A14. It was noted that Highways England had committed to do a follow up traffic survey to measure this, but it was not known when that would happen. Cllr Weitzel mentioned the Parish Council survey that had been done plus our requests for increased and better signage. Speeding was also mentioned and the Clerk was asked to see if it was possible to have a temporary speed indication sign.

Two residents raised the issue of the newly opened Budgens store and the lighting that was left on all night around the fridges and deliveries out of hours. Although the Parish Council had already commented on the application and had recommended approval, it was agreed that this new information would be relayed to HDC Planning.

2020/2518 Declarations of Interest and Dispensation for Agenda items only

(Section 27 Localism Act 2011)

None

2020/2519 To Approve and sign the minutes of the meeting held on

February 6, 2020

Approved as an accurate record and signed

2020/2520 Matters Arising from Minutes dated February 6, 2020 (information only)

None

2020/2521 District & County Councillor Reports

Cambridgeshire County Councillor report to The Offords Parish Council, Thursday, March 5th, 2020

The County Council has now settled its budget for the coming financial year, including

a. The level of services available to residents and local communities

b. the setting of the council tax. The maximum increase permitted this year by central government was 2% towards adult social care and 1.99% for other purposes.

The decision, voted through by the majority group, was to apply the 2% increase for adult social care and 1.59% for other purposes.

In the current 2019-2020 year, the CCC Band D charge is £1,521. Every 1% increase costs a Band D household 31 pence a week more and raises £2.9 million. If the full flexibility had been used, the CCC Band D charge would have risen to £1,581, a cash increase for a Band D household of £1.16 per week. Most houses are banded below D so the increase would be slightly less for the majority of households.

The council decision saves the Band D household 11p per week but reduces the tax income to the County Council by £1.7 million.

A Local Government Grant used to fund about two thirds of council expenditure and is now zero. Every year councils have had to make savings which has meant the cutting of services and leaving the ones that remain short of funding. In the case of Cambridgeshire County Council the full flexibility to increase council tax in 2014-2017 was not used. The impact of those decisions, with the year-on-year compounding effect, is that the Council is now depriving itself of about £22 million per year.

CCC has made efforts to cut its costs e.g. it has plans to close the HQ in central Cambridge and move it to Alconbury Weald; dispersing service teams to various CCC buildings in different locations across the county but each year as it enters the budget setting period it finds itself with a deficit which has to be covered and that means more savings. The Council has an active strategy of using a ‘Transformation Fund’ to find more cost-effective ways of delivering services. Despite this, deficits remain. During 2019/20 there were significant overspends in Children’s Services and expected revenues from the Council’s investment have been less than planned.

For this budget the Council brought forward transformation changes in Adult Social Care and Children’s Services and has proposed to increase charges significantly in the former. But even after these changes there is still a deficit.

In addition to the council tax increases, the main features of the adopted budget are that funds have been established for ‘climate action’ (£15 million) and ‘community capital projects’ (£5 million); In addition , there is some investment in highways. £200 thousand more/year for Local Highways Initiative (LHI) schemes, and an extra £366 thousand in 2020/21 for highways maintenance.

The main opposition party had a different proposal, the main features of which were: a. council tax increased by 2% for adult social care and 1.99% for other services b. committee and councillor costs reduced by circa £120 thousand (slimming down the committee structure) c. investment in climate emergency related projects (£220 thousand) and funding allocated from the Transformation Fund for additional investment (£10 million) going forward; d. £250 thousand ‘safety net’ to cushion the impact of the increased Adult Social Care charges; e. investment in Children’s and Early Years centres (£500 thousand) and Youth Services (£120 thousand); f. £500 thousand extra for local highways officers to use directly to address immediate road maintenance issues; g. investment in bus transport  (£290 thousand) specifically in cross-company bus ticketing and out of hours services.

Local issues: a. The new A14 is partially open and after a chaotic few weeks, mainly caused by confusing signage, is now working more successfully. Congestion entering Huntingdon from the west is increasing.

b. Buckden Parish Council submitted a Local Highways Initiative bid to get the speed limit reduced on Mill Road. The outcome will be known in March but not in time for this meeting c. concerns continue about the faded road markings at the railway crossing and these have been passed on as a matter of urgency to the County Council. d. East-West rail project: An information event on the proposal to build a new station south of St. Neots as part of the Cambridge to Oxford development will be held on March 6th at the Priory Centre in St. Neots, 2.30 to 7 p.m.

PeterDownes, February 29th 2020

District Cllr Mike Grice updated Members on the ongoing issues surrounding car parking and confirmed the Council had now fixed it’s budget confirming a Council Tax increase of 2.9%

2020/2522 Finance, Risk Assessment & General Purposes

2522.1 To Accept the Financial Information

Accepted as an accurate record

2522.2 To approve and sign the balance sheet

Approved and signed

2020/2523 To Approve the following payments & sign the cheques

The following payments were approved and signed

101771 Mrs J Stanbridge Salary £422.51

101772 HMRC Tax & NI £55.12

2020/2524 Annual Parish Meeting – Saturday April 25, 2020

The Clerk confirmed that all was in hand for the meeting with final arrangements confirmed at the April FC meeting.

2020/2525 Leisure & Amenities

LEISURE & AMENITIES COMMITTEE

M I N U T E S

Minutes of a meeting of the Leisure & Amenities Committee held in the Church Rooms, Offord Darcy at 7.00pm on Monday, February 24, 2020

Present: Cllrs Gatward, Eayrs, Gillbanks, Riley, Dawson, Holdsworth & Savage

Attending: One member of the public & Clerk

Open Forum

Cllr Gatward asked the member of the public if she wished to speak. She declined and explained that she was attending merely to observe

2020/796 Apologies for Absence

Received from Cllr Weitzel

2020/797 Declarations of Interest and dispensations for Agenda Items (Localism Act 2011)

None

2020/798 Approval of Minutes dated January 27, 2020

Approved and signed

2020/799 Matters Arising from previous Minutes (information only)

None

2020/800 Pavilion for Recreation Ground

Clerk was asked to establish when the planning permissions were granted for the three Thornhill developments as it was thought they were due to expire. Clerk then to write to Thornhills to establish when the provision of utilities would take place. If this was to be imminent new quotes could be obtained for the Pavilion.

2020/801 Millennium Green

Cllr Dawson confirmed that one of the previous MG Trustees had agreed to assist in the re-establishment of the wildflowers on the green. Cllr Gatward had met with the resident re the cutting back of the hedges and would explain the issue to the contractor on site.

2020/802 Recreation Ground

The recent vandalism was discussed. Cllr Savage had noted the number of young people now in the village having seen them waiting at the bus stops. Agreed it would be good to have a pavilion and set up both sports and youth clubs in the future. The recycling bin from the MG to be moved to RG and put out with Alison Lane bins as there was too much rubbish for the existing bin.

2020/803 Village Maps

Clerk confirmed she should have something for Cllrs to view at the next Full Council meeting.

2020/804 Allotments

Cllr Holdsworth reported that everything was OK with all the plots but that the weather had not been conducive to anyone starting to work on them.

2020/805 Cemetery

Nothing to report

2020/806 St Peter’s Churchyard

Clerk to ask ‘Friends’ for a list of events to schedule maintenance and also to schedule a date for the fixing of the mesh. Volunteers would be required to assist with the hammering in of the pegs.

2020/807 General Village Maintenance

The appearance of the Paxton Farm site was discussed at length. Cllrs felt that either the developer or the housing association should take responsibility for the way the frontage had been left. In addition, the green areas within the site were not being tended to which was making the development look generally untidy. Clerk confirmed she had been in contact with the developers several times,but they would not accept responsibility because the front hedge was “as it was when they started”. Clerk was asked to contact the housing association – Crosskeys Homes – to see whether they would take responsibility for this and mentioning that any future developments of affordable houses involving Crosskeys might not be looked upon as favourably.

2020/808 Any other Parish issues

None

2020/809 The meeting closed at 7.40pm and next meeting date confirmed as Monday, March 23rd, 2020

Cllr Gatward confirmed that since the meeting he had obtained the shrubs needed for the MG and asked the Clerk to chase up Stephen Moorbey re the gate repairs.

2020/2526 Planning

No applications had been received nor meetings held.

2020/2527 Network Rail- Future of Offords Level Crossing – Update if available

No update received

2020/2528 Councillor Reports

Cllr Eayrs confirmed that the hedge on the approach to the village had been cut and that some of the potholes in New Road had been circled for attention.

Cllr Gillbanks confirmed he had still to receive any response from the A14 grants team.

Cllr Riley informed Members that the MG bin was not now being collected. Clerk to chase up stickers from operations team

Cllr Weitzel informed the meeting that he would be attending a meeting of the A1 advisory group in Buckden at the end of the month.

2020/2529 Notices & Correspondence not previously circulated

None

2020/2530 Any Urgent Business

In accordance with section 100(B)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended) the Chair will admit an item of urgent business in order that it can be dealt with at the earliest opportunity provided it has been raised at least 24 hours before the meeting.

None

2020/2531 The meeting close at 9.25pm and next meeting date confirmed as Thursday, April 2, 2020.

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download