WIVETON PARISH COUNCIL

Chairman:  Mr Godfrey Sayers

 

                                                                                                                                    ClerkÕs Address:                                                                                                                                 Morning Flight

                                                                                                                        42 High Street

Blakeney

                                                                                                                        NR25 7AL

                                                                                                                        Tel:  01263 741576

E-mail: wiveton@glavenvalleycouncils.co.uk

12th April 2007

 

The next Parish Council Meeting will be held on Tuesday 17th April 2007 in the Parish Room at 7.30pm

 

A G E N D A

1          Reports for information:

            Councillor Bernard Crowe

Councillor Derek Baxter (if present)

 

            PC Ken Durrant (if present)

2          Declarations of interest relating to items on the agenda

3          Minutes of the last Meeting

 

4          Matters arising for information

5          Correspondence

 

6          Finance

 

7          Planning

 

8          Parish Land

 

9          Parish Council Election – 3rd May 2007

 

10        A O B

 

11        Parishioners Question Time

 

12        The next meeting will be The Annual Report to Parishioners and will be held on

            TUESDAY 15th MAY 2007 AT 7.30PM 

 

                                                          Tricia Temple-Crowe         

Clerk to the Parish Council

Minutes of Wiveton Parish Council Meeting held on Tuesday 20th March 2007 at 7.30pm

 

Present:                      G Sayers, J Ratcliff, M Wakelin, P Adcock, S Beal and J Ramm

In attendance:           Councillor Derek Baxter, Councillor Bernard Crowe OBE, the Clerk and 2 parishioners

Apologies:                  G Mears

Declarations of Interest   The Chairman and Steve Beal declared an interest in item 5 Allotted Land.

 

1            Minutes  

 

The Minutes of the last meeting held on the 20th February 2007 having been distributed in advance were approved and signed as a true record by the Chairman Godfrey Sayers.  Clarification to an item under Matters Arising : Land to the rear of the Parish Room.  Mr and Mrs Woodhouse had expressed a wish to rent the land not to purchase it.


2          Matters Arising

 

2:1       Signage

The Clerk has written to Wensum Foundry to query the excessive charge for the bolts.

 

2:2       Wiveton Stone Bridge 

The Chairman had no further progress report regarding the work on the bridge which is to be re-done.

 

2:3       Joint Annual Meeting   Mr Robert Harris had suggested either the 24th or 26th April would be

the most suitable date for the joint annual meeting between the three principle village organisations i.e. the Parish Council the Parochial Church Council and the Raulf Greenaway Trust to examine ways in which these groups can work together and the 24th April was agreed.

 

2:4       Village Party  -  The Chairman read out a draft letter to be distributed to everyone in the village regarding the proposed Street Party.  Paul Veitch has kindly agreed to assist the Chairman with the receipts of cheques/donations for the Wiveton Amenity Fund.

 

2:5       Code of Conduct

 

In response to recent concerns the Chairman distributed copies and read out the following response which will be published in the next issue of the Glaven Valley Magazine that will clarify his article in the previous edition:

 

Although my last report generated less response than usual it did produce a very genuine concern from a parishioner, who felt that in rewriting parts of our code of conduct in order to provide ourselves with the first opportunity to investigate accusations of councillors misconduct, we were appearing to set ourselves outside or even above the law.  Heaven forbid that we should even dream of doing such a thing. Quite the opposite, improving our accountability and effectiveness is our main goal.

 

We are very aware that some ethical misconduct may well require independent arbitration, for example if a number of councillors or heaven forbid an entire council were suspected of colluding with or covering up misconduct, which has happened with far more important councils than ours. However, if that were the case concerned parishioners would hardly be likely to go to that council with their suspicions and would seek redress from an independent arbitrator anyway.

 

But we are also very aware that most accusations levelled at councillors, particularly at parish level are born of misinformation, misunderstanding and more often than one would like, petty malice, and usually turn out to be unfounded.

2:5       Code of Conduct – Continued

 

It is therefore of paramount concern to us that any suspicions that parishioners may have are brought to us first, principally because we think we are best placed to investigate and secondly so that we can ensure that any possibility of an innocent councillors character being tarnished is avoided. Character assassination is an often-used weapon at parish level. 

 

In my experience accusations of improper conduct are brought to a councilÕs attention by members of the public, and we would hope, and expect that they would always feel free to do that. If they are subsequently dissatisfied by the way in which we have dealt with their complaint they can request that we forward it to the Standards Board or they can do that for themselves.

 

Finally the conflict I was attempting to illustrate was that of being required to demonstrate strong leadership at a local level in a situation where the moment a minor difficulty crops up we have to run straight to the Standards Board for a resolution.

 

Until someone can persuade me otherwise I remain convinced that at the moment we are being run by a group of people who have failed to understand the social liberalism they promote and quite unthinkingly assume they hold the intellectual high ground and that we on the lowest rung of government and presumably the most simple minded must unquestioningly obey. A prerequisite of all of historyÕs worst regimes.

 

The Chairman had also obtained clarification from Richard Bishop who had suggested that the Council could adopt the model complaints procedure.  This would also ensure that everyone is aware of how they can if they wish to make a complaint.

 

2:6       ChairmanÕs Planning Meeting – held on 28th February at the Council Office in Blakeney was attended by the Chairman and Steve Beal – The Chairman reported that a number of issues had been clarified by the Head of Planning and the Minutes of the meeting will be distributed when they are made available.

 

2:7       Affordable Housing  Mary Wakelin informed the Councillors that she was still waiting for a formal response from the Planning Department of the NNDC but felt that until the Local Development Plan is approved they were not likely to be very forthcoming.

 

3          Correspondence

 

N N D C:

 

Norfolk Rural Community Council  -  Members Council Meeting on Wednesday 28th March

 

N A P & T C  Parish and Town Council Elections Publications

 

4          Planning  

 

The following planning application had been received:

 

The Wiveton Bell – Display of Illuminated Advertisement -  The Parish Council had no objection to this application.

5          Allotted Land

 

Following a request for a debate on the possible future use of Wiveton allotted land the Chairman informed the meeting that the Allotted Land Committee had been formed in 2001 and any discussions regarding the future or current use of the allotted land should be considered by the Allotted Land Committee and then their recommendations would be put to the full Council.  

 

The Chairman also explained that allotted land agreements were drawn up and signed by the tenants in 2001.  The Chairman suggested that perhaps there was now a need for these to be reviewed and proposed that the agreements and issues appertaining to the allotted land should be discussed at a meeting of the Allotted Land Committee. 

 

It was agreed that a meeting of the Allotted Land Committee would be held on Tuesday 27th March at 6.30pm.which would include an inspection of the allotted land.   

 

The Councillors agreed that Mary Wakelin should be co-opted onto the Allotted Land Committee to fill the current vacancy and the Clerk would minute the meeting.

 

6          A O B 

 

Village Green  The requirement for urgent repairs to be carried out to the surface of the village green was discussed by the Councillors.  It was felt that if repairs were not carried out the village green could become unusable.  The Councillors felt that following the recent change of ownership of the Wiveton Bell that this would be the ideal opportunity to open dialogue regarding a possible donation towards the essential repairs required for the village green, particularly as this area is extensively used as a car park by people visiting the Wiveton Bell.  In fact without the use of the village green the owners would have great difficulty in accommodating their customers with parking facilities.   It was also suggested that any future donation could be publicly acknowledged.  The Councillors agreed that the Chairman should make the initial sensitive approach.

 

Parish Elections  The Clerk went through the Parish Election nomination papers and stressed the need for everyone to ensure their nomination papers were delivered on time to the Returning Officer. 

 

Future Meeting dates for 2007

Tuesday 17th April

Tuesday 15th May                   Annual Report to Parishioners

Tuesday 19th June

No meeting in July

No meeting in August

Tuesday 18th September

Tuesday 16th October

Tuesday 20th November

No meeting in December

 

7    Reports

 

Report from Councillor Bernard Crowe OBE 

 

Housing

In this edition, I am going to concentrate on housing issues. This is always the top item of concern by those who contact me.

 

Affordable Housing includes social rented and intermediate housing provided to specified eligible households whose needs are not met by the market. Affordable housing should meet the needs of eligible households including availability at a cost low enough for them to afford. This is determined with regard to local incomes and local house prices. The home should remain at an affordable price for future eligible households.

 

Social rented housing is rented housing owned and managed by local authorities and registered social landlords (RSL) for which guideline target rents are determined through the national rent regime.

Intermediate Affordable Housing is housing at prices and rents above those of social rent but below market price or rents, and which meet the criteria set out above. These can include shared equity schemes, other low cost homes for sale, and intermediate rent.

 

Those homes that do not meet these definitions are not considered, for planning purposes, as affordable housing.

 

Government Policy in broad terms is to:

 

-Achieve wide choices of high quality homes, both affordable housing and market housing, to address the requirements of the community.

 

-Widen opportunities for home ownership and ensure high quality housing for those who cannot afford market housing, in particular those who are vulnerable or in need.

 

-Improve affordability across the housing market by increasing the supply of housing.

 

-Create sustainable, inclusive mixed communities in all areas, both urban and rural.

 

Local Development Framework

The proposed changes to the GovernmentÕs East of England plan have been published for consultation. The main points of relevance to North Norfolk include:

 

The RegionÕs allocation of dwellings is increased by 27,500 to 508,000.

 

The allocation of 8000 houses for North Norfolk is confirmed.

 

All housing figures are to be treated as floors and not ceilings. Local Authorities are asked to seek to exceed their targets if more can be delivered through the use of brownfield sites and, where appropriate, by increased densities.

 

An aspirational target of 35% for affordable homes is recommended.

 

Land banking in 5-year blocs by Local Authorities is required to achieve these targets. This is land is suitable for development, is available, and is deliverable. This 5-year supply should be maintained throughout the 15-year period.

 

On-site renewable energy to serve new developments is required. A minimum of 10% is recommended.

 

Provision of sites/pitches to meet the needs of Gypsies and Travellors living within or resorting to North Norfolk is now a government policy. (NNDC has identified two transit sites).

 

A target of 4000 new jobs to be created in the district is recommended.

 

The impact of this revised guidance may affect the Site Specific proposals that have been put out for earlier consultation.  The Working Party has now examined all responses. I have suggested that we should have further consultation on aspects of the site-specific proposals, as the new guidance is a significant change. This is likely to occur. We will await the response from government to our Core Strategy Document first.

 

The East of England Assembly has, I understand, rejected the new housing figure because the infrastructure will not support these numbers.

 

General Comments on Planning Issues

 

Development in the Countryside

Some representations have been made that development should be allowed in many of the smaller villages and in the Countryside. It is claimed this may restrict development in these locations will lead to stagnation, and not address the need for housing in these locations. I suggest that with a slightly more flexible approach to housing numbers the scope for infill development in a wider selection of villages could be reconsidered. However, others argue those infill developments, probably of single and non-affordable dwellings would not meet the CouncilÕs aims.  ReadersÕ views are welcome.

 

Second Homes

There is a widely held view that the numbers of second homes has an adverse impact on the local housing market with equity rich purchasers from outside the district acquiring properties which might otherwise be available for local people.  The purchase of a second home does not require planning permission. Consequently, planning policies are unable to exercise control over this type of use of existing dwellings. The Council is seeking to ensure that the type of housing that is provided on new developments is targeted towards meeting local needs. Second homeowners are required to assist the funding of affordable homes via their Council Tax. If you have views on second homes, please be in touch.

 

Drive to recruit women Councillors

This year marks the centenary of women gaining the right to stand for local elections. Latest figures show that just 28% of the UKÕs councillors are women. This month the government is launching a new commission that will review the barriers and incentives to serving on local councils. I am pleased that the Glaven Valley Ward is moving ahead of the game. Lindsay Brettle, candidate for the Ward, welcomes the opportunity to serve our community as a front line councillor.

 

Report from Councillor Derek Baxter

 

Councillor Baxter confirmed that the decision on the retention of the present flood warning sirens would be deferred for at least a year. 

 

Community Police Liaison Officers have now been appointed and it is hoped that they one will be in attendance at a future Parish Council Meeting.  At the moment Community Police Liaison Officer are unable to issue parking tickets but it is anticipated that legislation will be introduced later in the year to enable all C.P.L.O to have the same powers.