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-673100-53975000Great Shefford Parish CouncilClerk to The Parish Council: Mrs Kim LloydTel No.: 07867 310121E-mail: greatsheffordpc@GREAT SHEFFORD MINUTESMEETING HELD ON THURSDAY 5th NOVEMBER 2020. THIS WAS A REMOTE MEETING.Cllr’s Present: Cllr. S. Ackrill (Chair)Cllr. E. Bell (Vice-Chair)Cllr. B. Williams Cllr. S. McCarthyCllr. R. Hale-Power.Cllr. G KnassParish Clerk: K. Lloyd.District Councillor: Cllr. Hooker.Attendance: 15 Members of the Public. The Clerk announced this meeting will be recorded for minute purposes and the recording will be deleted once the minutes are approved.APOLOGIES No apologies received. DECLARATIONS OF INTERESTNo Declarations of Interest were received.MINUTES FROM PREVIOUS PARISH COUNCIL MEETINGMembers RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY to confirm and adopt the minutes of the Parish Council meeting held on 1st October 2020.OPEN FORUM.Four members raised concerns regarding The Swan application for the proposal of the Farm Shop. The main points raised were.Inconsistences in the application believing to be false representations. The threat to the local shop and post office if this application was to be approved. Car parking, the increase of traffic. Flood Risk.The Agent listened to the members of the public that spoke and said a recent representation has been submitted which is now shown on the planning website. The latest issues raised in terms of the car parking is that additional spaces are being created. New proposed opening hours of closing at 6pm on weekday and 5pm at the weekend has also been proposed, this is following a response to the highway comments. Regarding sourcing local produce inconsistences on the application, the agent said the publican said discussions has taken place with local suppliers. The Agent also confirmed the area is in a flood zone 1, which did not need a risk assessment. …….The publican said that he cannot invest with local suppliers until he knows if this planning application is going to be approved. No actions can be made until this is a go-ahead. The publican also stressed that people are welcome to approach him to discuss his planning application if they have concerns so they can work together on issues. Also, he did not have any intentions to mislead anyone. He wanted to work together with the other businesses in harmony and make it work for all of us. TRAFFIC CALMING /PARKING ISSUESCllr. Ackrill reminded Parish Council members that before we discuss this item, that this is not connected to the Swan planning application that we are considering next on this agenda. This item is because of complaints received to the Parish Council regarding when the pub car park is full this then in turn causes parking issues around the village. These comments were raised to the Parish Council as the reasons of objection to the last Swan Planning Application for the canopies. The Parish Council at that time felt this objection reason did not affect that planning application. It was agreed to make this an agenda item as it had been raised to the Parish Council and members are duty bound to consider it. Cllr. Ackrill said the publican is a victim of his own success. When the car park is full people do just park their cars anywhere. The Mead and Blakeney Fields both have parking restrictions around their junction with the A338 but there are none around the Church Street / A338 Junction. There have been photos on the WBC site, showing that anyone can park in the bus stop area as there are no restrictions /signage to say otherwise. There has been parking on and near junctions which is dangerous. Cllr. Ackrill suggested to the members that we ask highways to come out and look at the situation. Cllr. Bell said the Parish Council do have little powers to do anything but agreed we need to get Highways to do a review on the whole village regarding traffic and parking. All members agreed. The Clerk will contact Highways. PLANNING APPLICATIONS RECEIVEDThree Planning Applications to consider. 20/02245/FUL - The Swan for a Farm Shop in association with The Great Shefford Public House.. Ackrill raised to everyone present that whatever the outcome we cannot take away the fact of how well the publican has brought the village pub back and it does appear to be thriving.Cllr. Ackrill also asked the members not to take into consideration the current climate of COVID-19, as we need to look at the bigger picture, whatever decisions we make will be here for longer. Cllr. Bell reported that both herself and Cllr. Ackrill had a meeting with the publican and his agent in the pub to fully consider this applicationCllr. Bell said as a Parish Council I believe we can only comment on the issues of the impact of traffic and parking -the impact of what it might do to our local shop, the appearance of the area – the noise pollution. The other issues that has been raised is not for the Parish Council to consider, but for West Berkshire Planners to consider. (i.e. the amount of staff proposed to employ, the source of where the local produce will come from etc) Cllr. Hooker the District Councillor also present in the meeting, confirmed to the members that this is the right way forward. Some of the issues raised are there to just support the application and we must take them at face value. Cllr. Bell said we need to comment on the issues that we can comment on. Cllr. Ackrill agreed, then the three main issues were then discussed by the members of the Parish Council and considered in turn by each member. After a lengthy discussion and taking into consideration all the members of the public that had spoken during item 4 and the representations received. Also, in mind of the representations read on the planning website.Members then RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY to Object this application on the following three points which was considered and raised.The following response was submitted to the WBC planners. ?Parking and general traffic issues were raised many times during the discussions, from members of the public and members of the Parish Council. The PC ask for WBC to look into this issue before considering this application. The pub car park is often?full even during times when use of the pub is restricted due to social distancing. The PC feel parking issues in the village will only get worse once the pub is once again running at full capacity and there is the additional traffic from the proposed farm shop. This leads to vehicles parking and obstructing access around the village. All this leads to even more traffic congestion, and a major concern is for everyones safety. There has been ongoing issues for sometime now regarding the traffic and general road safety along this stretch of road outside the pub. This whole area needs to be assessed by Highways, Road and Safety. With the potential addition of a Farm Shop it will just become even more congested. ?Why has there been no Flood Risk Assessment carried out on the application? This area is shown on the Environmental Agency website that it is in a high risk of surface water flooding. The proposed 16m long building adjacent to a watercourse would be, in effect blocking the last remaining exit from the car park of surface water from a flash flood. Some of the members have lived in the village for 30 plus years and have seen the car park / pub itself flooded at least 3 times in the past. Could you please confirm why no risk assessment has been carried out? The Village Shop and Post Office could be under threat if a Farm Shop were to open in the village, it is unknown how much effect this would have on the Village shop, ?but the members of the Parish Council ask that this is seriously taken into consideration by WBC Planning. The amount of residents that have shown concerns over losing their village shop if a Farm Shop was to open has been alarming and this needs serious thought. ??If the shop were to become not viable after the opening of a Farm Shop the village would also lose their Post Office, in mind of East Garston recently losing their Post Office this is something that needs consideration from WBC. ?A large amount of residents who are isolated use the shop as a daily refuge and to lose this facility would be an unimaginable loss to the village. ?Please bear this in mind when considering this application.Members then RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY to Object this application on the following three points which was considered and raised as above. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------20/02431/HOUSE - Harwood Cottage, Church Street for a conversion of existing garage into new study and utility room, new front porch, replacement of external staircase and small infill extension to rear elevation. Members resolved to ‘No Comments’ for this Planning Application 20/02431/HOUSE.20/02429/House and 20/02430/LBC2 - Great Shefford House for a conversion of existing coach house into ancillary accommodation for main house and construction of machine store in garden. HYPERLINK "" Members resolved to ‘No Comments’ to this Planning Application 20/02429/House /20/02430/LBC2.Decision Notices20/01770/FUL and 20/01771/LBC2 - Barn, Fishers Farm, Ermin Street, Shefford Woodlands- Restoration and conversion of an existing timber framed barn to provide 2 residential units with associated car parking and landscaping. WBC ‘Granted’ Planning Permission. FENCE AT BOTTOM OF HUNGERFORD HILLCllr. Ackrill reported that the fence had been again demolished by speeding vehicles which he notified to the members in between meetings. The Clerk confirmed that she had received from the police, the driver’s vehicle registration number but no other details are given due to Data Protection. Cllr. Ackrill said there is signage at the bottom of the hill, and suggested writing to Highways in WBC to find out if we can ask for improved signage and propose that chevrons are put in place, to alert drivers around the bend. The Parish Council also need to consider a barrier rather than a fence. Whatever is done to the fence we are not going to stop a vehicle from damaging it. Cllr. Ackrill will look at some costs to repair the fence. If a claim is made, it can be paid like for like, but the Parish Council will have to consider further expenditure to make the fence more secure. The Clerk will find out details regarding a claim and contact WBC to ask them to survey this area. ACTION: Clerk /Cllr. AckrillSPEEDING – WANTAGE END OF VILLAGEA resident had contacted the Parish Council asking why the SID operation is never carried out in the north side of the village. Cllr. Ackrill said the reason is because the SID units the PC borrow are usually only calibrated to 30mph whilst we have them. They can be changed but it would need the assistance of WBC to recalibrate the SID to 40mph for this area of the village. When deploying a SID operation, we cannot switch between 30 and 40mph when we have it. It could be done, but someone would have to make a special trip to and from WBC to collect the unit after WBC had calibrated it to 40mph. Cllr. Ackrill said back in August when the members did a SID operation, WBC had data problems. They had emailed this data to the Parish Council on the day of this meeting. The members did not have time to review the data yet and Cllr. Ackrill asked to add this item to the next agenda. Cllr. Bell, said this north side of the village, vehicles indeed drive to fast, and the pavement is not wide enough either. Cllr. Bell suggested it would be good to perhaps suggest this section of the road to be 30mph, and then a SID could be deployed at the same time for the whole village. The members will analyse the data and formalise a plan at the next meeting. ACTION: All. BRIDGE AND BUS SHELTERThe members of the Parish Council all agreed to support the proposal to the modifications to the Bus Shelter that was shown to the members from the Publican during the last meeting. Wood Treatment was asked to be used only and for the shelter not to be painted. The Bridge is WBC property, and the Parish Council cannot be involved, they advised the publican to contact WBC. (Unfortunately, Cllr. Hooker had left the meeting to be able to advise further on the bridge revamp.) The publican was thanked for offering to pay for the work. DOG WASTE BINThe Clerk reported that WBC will not add any more collections to their contract at this time during COVID-19. The Clerk said she was aware of an outsourced company that do a waste collection locally for ?7.50 per one collection. It was agreed to wait for COVID-19 to calm down and re-visit this item in the new year. The Clerk confirmed WBC are a cheaper option to do the collections.FLOOD ALLEVIATION SCHEMECllr. Ackrill is still working alongside the Environment Agency. An Outline business case has been amended ready for submission and once approved it will release the first ?80,000 funding to undertake the detailed design, which is positive news. LORAWAN GATEWAYThe Clerk will obtain more details about the Lorawan Gateway. The Clerk said she was hoping Cllr. Hooker was still going to be in the meeting to answer questions. WBC said they could send someone out to talk about it if the Parish Council agreed. The Clerk will find out more information and if someone can attend a forthcoming meeting.REMEMBERANCE SERVICE – SUNDAY 8TH NOVEMBER- 9.30amRevd Miriam Keen was in attendance during the meeting and was invited to speak about remembrance service this year, in mind of the COVID-19 lockdown implications. Revd Miriam Keen said it would be great to encourage people to come together on their doorstep on Remembrance Sunday. Cllr. Ackrill will also be laying a wreath. Revd Miriam Keen said they will do all they can to keep people safe and to try and keep everyone involved. Revd Miriam Keen asked for the members to spread the word. We are not cancelling the remembrance but celebrating it in a different way. Revd Miriam Keen could send on prayers to read if parishioners would like to have some and will advertise all this on the Village Facebook Page. COMMUNITY CHAMPION AWARDS 2020The members had not looked at the criteria for the awards. The members would look at the information and let the Clerk know if they would like to nominate anyone. The public can also make nominations. The Clerk has added a poster to the noticeboard. The deadline is Friday 20 November. FINANCEMembers RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY to confirm the payments for November as shown in Appendix 1. Note. One of the invoices for FCC Recycling for ?41.28 shown on Appendix 1 will not be paid. Cllr. Ackrill reported the collection was not done on 30 October which is shown on the invoice. The Clerk will contact FCC and not make payment until we know more. The Cashflow 2020/21 for November was noted.(All finance documents emailed to members of the Parish Council before the meeting) ONLINE BANKING UPDATEGreat Shefford bank accounts are now registered and fully compliant for online banking. The first payments for this meetings payment will be paid through online banking. Cllr. Ackrill will authorise the payments after the Clerk has raised them. COUNCILLORS /CLERK REPORTSThe Clerk said MP Laura Ferris has asked to attend a Parish Council meeting. The members asked the Clerk to invite MP Laura Ferris to a forthcoming meeting.MATTERS FOR FUTURE CONSIDERATIONSpeeding – Wantage end of the Village.DATE OF NEXT MEETTINGThe date of the next meeting is Thursday 3RD December 2020 at 7pm. APPENDIX 1. ................
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