Tuesday 5th July

 
Present Cllrs. M. Turville-Petre, (chairman) Dr. S. Dawson,  D. Harrod,   S. Johns, 
C. Large,  Dist. Cllr. D. Young  and eleven members of the public.   J.Stibbons (clerk)
 
The meeting opened at 7.30pm
 
1. Apologies  County Cllr.  M. Baker, PCSO Guy Slade
 
2. Declarations of Interest    Cllrs Dawson and Johns  (item 8
 
3. The Minutes of the meeting held on 3rd May 2016, having been previously circulated were approved by the members and signed by the chairman.
 
4. Matters arising from the minutes.  None
 
5. Reports
            Dist Cllr. D. Young reported on the recent proceedings of North Norfolk District Council
             (The full report is attached at the foot of these minutes)
 
6.  Planning              Application ref. PF/16/0150       9, Bloomstiles. Salthouse.
Demolition of existing two-storey semi-detached dwelling.
Replacement two-storey semi-detached dwelling and associated external works
 
As this application had only been received two days before the meeting. The chairman asked for comments from the members of the public who were present.
 
The following points were raised:-
The application is completely out of style with the rest of Bloomstiles. At present there is a single-storey building, the proposed application would have a dormer and balcony which would look down onto  gardens of numbers two, three and seven.  Demolition and building will cause difficulty for access as well as dust. Vehicle movements in Bloomstiles is already unacceptable and this will increase. There is no unused parking at present. If No.9 is let for holiday accommodation it will cause an unacceptable strain on parking. The present garage will be converted into  a bedroom which will reduce parking even further.
There is no point in destroying a house which is only twenty years old.
 
It was agreed to hold an emergency planning meeting on Tuesday 26th  July to give all interested parties time to make comments and observations at which time the Parish Council    
would give their response to NNDC
 
7. Playing Field – Play equipment has been installed. This has been paid for by the Playing Field Fund. This account has now been closed.
It was suggested that signs should be erected to show the location of the playing field.
It was agreed to hold a village PicNic/B.B.Q. on Saturday 13th August at the playing field.

8.  Financial matters
Bank Balances: -
Current a/c £6123.29  Savings a/c £4631.17  
 
It was proposed by Cllr. Turville-Petre that a grant of £200 should be given to the Village Hall (£200 given in 2015). This was seconded by Cllr. Large and approved
 
The following Invoices were approved for payment and cheques signed.

• NNDC - Dog Bins                                                              £193.44
• J. Wright - Grass cutting                                                 £255
• Aylsham Computers - Computer purchase                    £480.95                                      Gov.  Grant.
• J. Stibbons - Salary & expenses                                      £467.28
• HMRC - PAYE                                                                    £92

 
9. Correspondence. Environment agency update.
 
10. Matters for information or the next agenda
Cllr. Dawson suggested that a bench should be provided by the Cross Street bus stop. This was approved by the meeting
The parish council does not object to the width of Church Lane being temporarily reduced while building works are carried out but the path must remain open.
There being no further business the chairman closed the meeting at 8.27pm
The next Salthouse Parish Council meeting will be held on Tuesday 13th September.
 
District Councillors  Report to Salthouse Parish Council 5July 2016

• The May Council elected John Lee (Cromer, Suffield Park) as this year's Chairman and Richard Shepherd (Sheringham South) as Vice Chair.
• There has been much in the local press about the relocation of Cromer Football Club and the move of the medical practice to the field opposite Cromer Hospital.    In this connection, the May Cabinet agreed to seek to acquire the former golf practice ground in Overstrand Road through Compulsory Purchase powers.   It also agreed to develop a planning application for the old Shannocks Hotel site in Sheringham which would be a prerequisite to an application for Compulsory Purchase.
• At the presentation to Scrutiny on Road Safety, NCC stressed its reduction in government funding and had only a budget of £25,000 for road safety across Norfolk.   They monitor reported accidents to identify "cluster sites" that would indicate a specific problem.   At present, none have been identified in north Norfolk.   The Police considered that speed is not a major factor on the A148 and the recent monitoring at High Kelling showed a compliance rate of around 80%.   Most accidents on the A148 are due to driver inattention.   "Village gateways" (white gates on verges where the speed limit changes – see Edgefield) are considered to be quite effective in reducing speed and are available through NCC's parish partnership scheme.

• Scrutiny also heard that a pilot scheme is now being run with a number of parish councils regarding the digitisation of planning applications.   It is hoped to run the new system across the district from next April.   Except possibly for communication "not-spots", paper copies might well be subject to a charge to parish councils that want them.
• The Local Government Boundary Commission has announced that it is minded to recommend that the number of District Councillors as from the next elections in May 2019 should be reduced from 48 to 40.   There is now a consultation exercise which ends on 5 September.   Wards will need to be redrawn to create roughly equal numbers of electors.   The Commission is hoping to receive suggestions and in particular is looking for evidence of how adjacent parishes might reflect the interests and identities of local communities.    Draft recommendations are expected in November with a further two months' consultation following which the final pattern will be published next March.
• The meeting of Full Council in June was required to decide on the proposals for devolution of powers to a Combined Authority of Norfolk and Suffolk.   This Combined Authority would be chaired by an elected mayor who would be responsible for transport and major roads and have powers over planning and housing.   The cost of this new Combined Authority and how it would be staffed and funded is still not clear.   The documents available provided no comparison of what is on offer (£25m p.a. over 30 years) with the likely expenditure requirements or with what funding for infrastructure that has been made available under the present arrangements.   There was little mention of coastal matters and the fear was that North Norfolk was likely to be largely ignored under such a larger administration.    NNDC was unanimous (with 2 abstentions) in rejecting these proposals.   Three other councils in Norfolk, including Norwich also rejected them.   All the councils in Suffolk approved them and it remains to be seen if the project is still considered a government priority in the light of economic and political uncertainties following the Brexit vote.
• Full Council also noted the 2015/16 out turn which resulted in a surplus of £702k.   The General Reserve now stands at £2.6m against a recommended minimum of £1.75m.    The Overview and Scrutiny Committee   had noted that there had been a surplus of £155k against the budget for waste collection and recommended that this should be used in the next 12 months to promote initiatives to reduce environmental waste and to tackle dog fouling, small-scale fly tipping and litter.   The Cabinet member responsible said that the council was spending £120k on buying more wheelie-bins and the recommendation was not agreed.
• Regarding the first tranche of the S106 moneys for Bard Hill Barns,.   I continue to press the Planning Legal Manager to take steps to obtain the funds which are currently lodged with solicitors.   Before the last meeting, I was told that the files are now "under review" and nothing appears to have happened since then.
• With regard to the Market Lane site, I believe I was correct in inferring that NCC was aiming to develop the site itself, without realising that it is only possible as a Rural Exception Site for affordable housing.  A dialogue has reopened with Broadland Housing, but the effects of the Right to Buy under the Housing and Planning Act and the economic uncertainties following the Brexit vote have caused Broadland to pause for thought.   The Broadland board has a workshop meeting in October and this scheme will not progress until after then.
• I continue to press John Sizer of the National Trust as to progress on the Beach Road car park.    Following the last PC meeting, I arranged for our MP, Norman Lamb, to write to the National Trust in May offering to press the Environment Agency re borehole information that is not in the public domain.   I am not aware that there has been any response to this.    The documents dated December but received just before the last meeting suggest that the cost could be £216k (option 1 with a pipe through the filled in ditch) or £320k (option 2 with a new ditch alongside the filled in one and a sheet metal retaining wall between) and on this basis, funding will clearly be a difficult obstacle to overcome.