Minutes of a virtual meeting of Shobnall Parish Council

held on Monday 16 November 2020 commencing at 7pm

Present

Councillor Dennis (in the Chair)

Councillors Dittmer, Donlon, Hoare, Shilton and Yousaf

In attendance

County Councillor Clarke

ESBC Councillors Allen, McKiernan and Walker

Mary Danby, Clerk

Councillor G Allen, ESBC Deputy Leader (Regeneration and Planning Policy)

Councillor Allen had requested an opportunity to meet with the council and for parish members to speak directly with him on a range of district responsibilities. He explained that his portfolio broadly covers planning policy and enforcement and executive functions of planning control, business support and LEPs, economic development, Town Centre regeneration, brownfield strategy and the use of S106 for brownfield development. He invited questions from Councillors.

Q         How close is ESBC to fulfilling its quota of new housing?

A          Did not have the information to hand and undertook to supply this to the council.

Q         How many planning permissions have not been actioned by applicants?

A          Did not have the information to hand and undertook to supply this to the council.

Q         When do you get to the stage when no more development can happen?

A          The Space for Dwellings Supplementary Planning Document had been revised in 2019 and this will guide that decision as there is obviously a limit to how much development can be absorbed, he added that the new national legislation is likely to allow building upwards.

Q         What information is given to the Planning Committee? Is there a toolbox to help them to ensure that we have high quality development and infrastructure to meet needs?

A          By the time an application gets to Committee it is too late for changes to roads/infrastructure, it is also difficult to overturn Officer’s recommendations and applicants can only be expected to mitigate any problems that their development might create.

Q         The council recently submitted comments on The Lawns development. What will happen with those comments, will the Planning Committee see them?

A          After the consultation period the Planning Officer will address material planning consideration queries and these will be provided to the Committee, respondents submitting non-material planning considerations will be advised that these cannot be considered in the planning process.

Q         Was it correct that the new national legislation will allow HMOs up to six flats?

A          Permitted development up to third floor appear to be permissible under the new legislation but local criteria will have to be met prior to works commencing, e.g. parking will have to be provided for the development.

Q         What support is there for parish councils on planning applications?

A          He and the Planning Officers are happy to provide support as required and suggested that emails be sent when the need arises. The Planning Manager had been tasked to go to speak to parish councils if there are particularly contentious applications in their areas.

Q         Will the parish councils be kept informed on progress with the Town Deal?

A          Yes, via the two parish council representatives on the Town Deal Board.

Q         It was felt that the Town Deal consultation had been rushed.

A          The final Town Deal document is almost ready, and the proposed schemes must be prioritised to spend the £25m Government funding.

Q         Parish Councils can help to get consultation information out to the public via their websites.

A          This was noted.

Public Forum

No members of the public were present at the meeting.

2020-21/97          Apologies

Councillor Asghar

2020-21/98          Declarations of interest

None declared.

2020-21/99          Written applications for dispensations under the Localism Act 2011

None were received.

2020-21/100        Updates to Councillors’ Register of Interest Forms

No updates were notified.

2020-21/101        Minutes

Resolved              That the Minutes of the meeting held on 19 October 2020 be approved and signed as a true record.

2020-21/102        Matters arising from the previous meeting

None raised.                                       

2020-21/103        County Councillor’s report

Councillor Clarke reported that:

• All SCC Councillors had been given £20,000 to allocate in their areas. Most of his allocation had been allocated to drains. A problem persisted in Shobnall Street where a new drain had been installed – Amey will be revisiting the site on 26 November. Other drains, including those on Wetmore Road and Wharf Road used to have puddles after rainfall but these no longer appear following jetting of the drains. The other hot spots identified and submitted to SCC had now been jetted and were now working properly. The remaining drains will be jetted w/c 30 November.

• Bridgewater Road properties internet connection: a resident had done a lot of work on this and Virgin Media are putting fibre optics in. Virgin Media say that the developer has offered £5,000 towards the installation and they are willing to do the work for that price (the information was to be confirmed).

• Shobnall Road resurfacing: SCC had sent out 2500 letters to residents regarding the proposed rubber cushions to slow down the HGVs. He said that 105 responses had been received to the written consultation with a 50/50 vote in favour of this proposal. SCC will send another letter to residents answering some of the concerns raised and explain the reasons for the rubber cushions proposal. This matter is still under consideration. Councillors Dennis and Dittmer said that they had not received the letter from SCC – Councillor Clarke asked that their addresses be sent to him and he would investigate why the letters had not been sent.

• He was working with two schools which had reported social distancing problems and he was due to meet with the newly formed Active School Travel team which had been set up to look at problems caused by parking outside schools. A survey had been done which included some of the Shobnall schools and he would be discussing the reported issues with the team.

2020-21/104        Borough Councillors reports

Councillor McKiernan reported:

• The CCG had said that the Gordon Street Surgery was now up and running again and that telephone triage and a buddy practice system were in place. The Trent Meadows Surgery was now not running.

• She asked if anyone had gone to the Town Hall for a Covid-19 test. She noted that testing at Community facilities is done by nurses whereas people had to do the tests themselves at the Town Hall.

• The October Planning Committee meeting had been cancelled.

• She and Councillor Walker had been dealing with problems with dog fouling which had been reported at the Cemetery.

Councillor Walker reported:

• He had been contacted by a Waterloo Street resident regarding a long-running anti-social behaviour problem with their neighbours. Information had been gathered and ESBC will use this to deal with the problem.

• He had been contacted by a resident regarding an overflowing bin outside the BACT Hub, junction Grange Street/Casey Lane. He had visited the site several times but had not been able to confirm the problem, photos had now been provided by the resident and these had been provided to ESBC Officers for action.

• Issues were being issued with blue bin collections when some have not been emptied for two cycles due to being refused by the Refuse team. He had worked with ESBC Officers to resolve this issue.

• Unity Park: ESBC had confirmed that it was unlikely that the see saw would be returned due to frequent vandalism in the past, but another piece of age appropriate play equipment would be provided in its place. The litter picking and bin emptying is done on a weekly basis, as with other play areas and the new gates had been installed to stop people accessing the site when it is closed.

2020-21/105        Financial matters

2020-21/105.1    Schedule of payments

Resolved              That the above payments be approved and that the documents be signed at the next face to face meeting of the council.

2020-21/105.2    Bank reconciliation

 Resolved              That the above was a true record.

2020-21/105.3    Earmarked Reserves (EMRs) as at 31 October 2020                                       

Resolved              That the information be noted.

2020-21/106        Draft 2021/22 budget and actual income and expenditure as at 31 October 2020

                                Resolved              That:

1. The draft 2021/22 budget and report showing receipts and payments as at 31 October 2020 be received.
2. It was noted and that Councillors will be asked to approve the draft budget and set the 2021/22 precept at the December meeting.

2020-21/107        Shobnall Parish Council website

It was noted that there had been 122 visits to the website in the 30 days to 06 November 2020.

Councillors received data collated from the website’s Content Management Program (CMP) which gave details of when people visited the website, where they were located and which web pages they visited.

Agreed                  That the data be presented quarterly to the council, i.e. February, May, September and December annually.

2020-21/108        Planning matters

2020-21/108.1    Planning applications

Resolved              That the following observations be submitted to ESBC:

2020-21/108.2    Planning decisions

Resolved              That the notified planning decisions be received and noted.

2020-21/108.3    146 Victoria Street

It had been brought to the council’s attention that building work to erect a rear extension is ongoing at 146 Victoria Street and it was believed that the necessary permission(s) were not in place.

Councillors expressed their concern that the building is unsafe and that it is being constructed without complying with current Building Regulations.

Agreed                  That the information be formally sent to ESBC’s Enforcement Officer for investigation.

2020-21/109        Staffordshire County Council: Statutory Consultation re Waiting Restriction Amendments – Duke Street and Princess Street areas

Agreed                  That councillors inform the Clerk via email confirming whether they support the proposals set out in the above consultation.

2020-21/110        Councillors questions

2020-21/110.1    Bus Shelters

Councillor Donlon asked if bus shelters could be installed outside the Town Hall and opposite the Town Hall.

Agreed                  That the Police, Staffordshire Highways and Midland Classis be asked for their thoughts on the proposed locations and that this matter be an agenda item for the next meeting of the council.

2020-21/111        Correspondence and Circulars

2020-21/111.1    Staffordshire Parish Councils’ Association (SPCA)

The SPCA’s weekly newsletters have been circulated to all Councillors.

2020-21/111.2    Highways England

The weekly A38 Traffic Management Bulletins have been circulated to all Councillors.

2020-21/111.3    Staffordshire Police

The local Police Officers’ report had been circulated to all Councillors.

2020-21/112        Replacement laptop for the Clerk’s use

Councillors were advised that the current Acer Aspire E15 laptop had been purchased in June 2015 and now runs incredibly slowly (as recently confirmed by the council’s IT consultant) and takes a long time to be operational from power up, it also often freezes due to overheating and sound quality for video conferencing is not acceptable.

The Clerk had sourced quotations but as the current prices were sale prices and therefore the actual purchase would probably be at full price, i.e. up to £985 plus VAT.

Resolved              That the Clerk be authorised to purchase a replacement laptop to an upper ceiling of £985 plus VAT.

2020-21/113        Items for next meeting

No items were raised.

Date of next meeting

Monday 21 December 2020 commencing at 7.00pm via Zoom.

The Meeting closed at 9pm

Signed …………………………………………………….

Date ……………………………………………………….