MELBOURN PARISH COUNCIL
MINUTES

Minutes of a Parish Council Meeting held on Monday
25th March, 2013 at All Saints’ Community Hall at 7.15pm.

Present: Cllrs. D.Mowatt (Chairman), M.Townsend, I. Bloomfield R. Gatward, J. Hales, M. Linnette, M. Sherwen, C. Stead, V.Barrett, K.Crosby, R.Wakerley and R.Tulloch
In attendance: The Clerk, CCllr S.van de Ven and 2 members of the public
PC147/12 Apologies for absence: Cllr P. Simmonett
PC148/12 Declaration of Interest: Cllr Barrett declared a Non-Pecuniary Interest as a member of the SCDC Planning Committee.
PC149/12 Minutes of the meeting held on 28th January, 2013.
It was proposed by Cllr. Hales and seconded by Cllr. Gatward that the minutes of the meeting held on 25th February 2013 be signed as a true record.
PC150/12 Matters Arising: PC136/12: Cllr Hales reported that C.Cllr S.van de Ven would be attending the meeting together with Mr T.Blackburne-Maze, Senior Officer for Street Lighting.
PC151/12 To receive a report and request concerning Stockbridge Meadows from the volunteers.
The Council received the report and expressed concern about the continuing problem with rabbits. The Clerk was requested to ask Mr P.Andrews to fill in rabbit holes in Stockbridge Meadows first thing in a morning and to order more topsoil if more is required. The Clerk to seek pest control advice and to liaise with Cllr Bloomfield on the matter. The problems are to be considered by the Conservation Committee. Cllr Gatward raised some concerns about the planting of wild flower seeds and the ash tree and the need for greater communication between the two groups. The Clerk stated that he thought the planting of the seeds in Stockbridge Meadows and elsewhere in the village had been covered in previous e-mail correspondence. IT WAS PROPOSED BY CLLR BARRETT AND SECONDED BY CLLR HALES THAT MELBOURN PARISH COUNCIL AGREE TO A FURTHER PAYMENT FOR RABBIT WIRE AND STAPLES FOR TREE GUARDS. This was CARRIED.
PC152/12: To receive Financial Reports
The Clerk reported that, due to his absence last week, the Financial report for February is not yet available. The Clerk will send it to councillors when it is ready.
PC153/12: To receive details of cheques to be drawn on the Parish Council’s Account as detailed or amended by late payments. To approve payment and agree the amount(s) to be transferred from the Business ‘No Notice’ Account to the Current Account.
Cheque list Chequenu Paid
mber Tn. no date Gross Vat Net Cttee Supplier Details
103600 503 £23.30 £0.00 £23.30 F&GP Les Sullivan Domain name renewal + advanced e-mail forwarding
103601 504 £6.62 £1.10 £5.52 F&GP Stationery Cupboard date stamp
103602 507 £550.00 £0.00 £550.00 F&GP Melbourn Village College rent Feb 2013
103602 508 £192.00 £0.00 £192.00 F&GP Melbourn Village College Afternoon tea for Age Gap event
103602 537 £550.00 £0.00 £550.00 F&GP Melbourn Village College Rent for March
103602 £1,292.00 £0.00 £1,292.00
103603 509 £24.73 £4.12 £20.61 F&GP Phillimore Garden CentreGrass seed, rubbish bags & sieve
103604 510 £81.48 £13.58 £67.90 F&GP Jewson Ltd Scruffs + neverbend Dutch Hoe
103605 514 £3,840.00 £640.00 £3,200.00 CON PAS Building ServicesWork on 83 High Street wall & fencing
103606 516 £10.00 £0.00 £10.00 F&GP CAPS Deduction from wages
103607 517 £99.00 £16.50 £82.50 F&GP Wrights Mower Centre Agri fab spreader
103608 518 £54.00 £9.00 £45.00 PLAY Herts And Cambs Ground Maintenance Limitedovermark 1 pitch
103608 519 £336.00 £56.00 £280.00 CON Herts And Cambs Ground Maintenance Limitedcut, clear andprepare strip for planting in New Road
103608 £390.00 £65.00 £325.00
103609 521 £24.00 £0.00 £24.00 CON Barbara MacKellar materials for 83, High Street
103610 522 £333.00 £0.00 £333.00 F&GP A. Mellor manning the Parish Office
103611 523 £2,156.40 £359.40 £1,797.00 PLAY Marmax Products Ltdwiner diner (3) for Clear Crescent Play area
103612 524 £21.50 £0.00 £21.50 F&GP Royston And District Community TransportTransport for Celebrating Age Event
103613 525 £78.00 £13.00 £65.00 F&GP Smartwater Renewal of subscription
103614 526 £47.50 £0.00 £47.50 CON Ray Pritchard seeds for Stockbridge Meadows
103615 527 £273.44 £0.00 £273.44 F&GP Michelle Cooper work on the accounts
103616 528 £300.00 £0.00 £300.00 F&GP Bridget Smith Project development and fundraising report
103617 529 £87.50 £0.00 £87.50 PLAY Alison Cockburnfootball management, litterpick & office cleaning
103618 530 £260.43 £0.00 £260.43 F&GP G.D. Squires wages
103618 531 £16.80 £0.00 £16.80 F&GP G.D. Squires Mileage allowance 28 x 0.60
103618 £277.23 £0.00 £277.23
103619 532 £403.90 £0.00 £403.90 F&GP K. Rudge Wages
103619 533 £43.80 £0.00 £43.80 F&GP K. Rudge mileage allowance 73 x 0.60
103619 £447.70 £0.00 £447.70
103620 534 £834.48 £0.00 £834.48 F&GP P. Andrews wages
103621 535 £1,346.41 £0.00 £1,346.41 F&GP
Peter Horley Clerk’s salary
103622 536 £775.86 £0.00 £775.86 F&GP HM Revenue & Customs tax & NI
Total £12,770.15 £1,112.70 £11,657.45
The Clerk recommended the transfer of £15,000 from the No Notice Account to the Current Account.
It was proposed by Cllr. Townsend that the cheques be approved and signed. Seconded by Cllr Gatward and approved.
PC156/12 To receive a recommendation from the Planning Committee concerning support for MELDHAC
[In the absence of C.Cllr S.van de Ven this item was taken before PC154/12 and PC155/12] Cllr van de Ven arrived whilst this item was being discussed.]
The Clerk read out the committee’s recommendation, recorded in the minutes of the Planning Committee held on 4th March, 2013 as Item PL174/12, which reads ‘It was proposed by Cllr Tulloch and seconded by Cllr Sherwen that Melbourn Parish Council’s Planning Committee recommends to Melbourn Parish Council that the Parish Council fully endorses the results of the MELDHAC group survey and the report which was submitted to the council and to South Cambridgeshire District Council. This recommendation was CARRIED with one abstention.
Cllr Hales reported on a traffic survey carried out in Back Lane by MELDHAC which showed the problems of traffic movement which would be greatly exacerbated by the proposed new development. He also reported that the Head Teacher of the Primary School had been informed that, in the event of the proposed development being approved, new classrooms would be made available. This disturbed several councillors and C.Cllr S.van de Ven said she would investigate the matter.

[At this point, the time being shortly after 8.00p.m., the Chairman suspended Standing Orders to allow representation from members of the public (See Addendum). Standing Orders were resumed at 8.23p.m.]

PC154/12 To receive a report from C.Cllr Susan van de Ven
Melbourn Parish Council
County Councillor Report
March 2013
1. The 128 bus contract has been retendered and the new operator is Cozy’s, who provide some home-school transport for Melbourn Village College. The County Council Scrutiny meeting this week will be reviewing the legacy of the decision two years ago to cut 100% of bus subsidies and replace them with ‘as good or better alternative solutions.’
2. Frustrating news from Cambs County Council which is that they can no longer provide general engineering advice on prospective highways schemes that do not fall within the strict remit of Minor Highways Improvements. The answer is that parishes could look to hire consultants to give advice. This does not seem an appropriate response from our local authority and I’ll be following up.
3. County Highways will be ‘siding out’ the Melbourn-Royston path – clearing the turf back to reveal original width of the tarmac path. This should be a good first step. The 19h A10 Corridor Campaign Cycle ride will meet at Phillimore’s in Melbourn as its mid-way point, for refreshments. Most of the campaign
members are people who both cycle and ride and are well aware of the paramount importance of promoting safe and responsible cycling and driving.
5. Thanks to Chris Stead for attending the Meldreth, Shepreth and Foxton Rail User Group’s AGM. The Rail User Group’s work on promoting sustainable transport will be featured at the Sustainable Parish Energy Project presentation at Coton Village Hall March 26, 7:30 PM.
6. Streetlighting: There is still a long list of case work to attend to. Thank you to all residents who have been in touch with their concerns and I hope these can be addressed. Tom Blackburne-Maze from Cambridgeshire County Council will be able to answer questions during his visit to the March parish council meeting.
7. In rolling out the Superfast Broadband project, the County Council is aware that villages like Melbourn with generally excellent service have pockets where connection to high quality Broadband is not possible, and that this will need to be addressed.
PC155/12 To meet with Tom Blackburne-Maze, Senior Officer for Street Lighting.
C.Cllr S.van de Ven reported that there were still lots of problems with the street lighting, especially lights taken out at inappropriate locations, light pollution, incomplete seals on the roads, re-seeding of damaged verges, the time taken to deal with problems and trenches which need filling-in.
Mr Tom Blackburne-Maze, Senior Officer for Street Lighting, introduced himself and explained the operation of the PFI contract with Balfour Beatty, the first 5 years of which is to bring up the street lighting to British Standards. He is aware of the myriad problems experienced by the residents of Melbourn and stressed that no payment will be made to Balfour Beatty until the problems are sorted out to his satisfaction. He explained that payment is on a street-by-street basis. However, he explained that an overall reduction of street lighting of 10% is required by the government but because of the statutory regulations concerning major roads, residential areas need to be reduced by more than 10% to compensate and that, in older roads, the figure may be even higher because of Health & Safety issues regarding the structural integrity of individual lights. If there is a need to reinstate individual lights in any particular road then a light will need to come out somewhere else to compensate. Overall, it was believed that this might involve between 6-11 lights in a few locations. Any lights belonging to the council which may have been inadvertently removed will be reinstated. The inspection process has, up to this point, been deemed inadequate and councillors stressed the need for such inspections to be carried out by an expert and at night and for lucid and detailed explanations given to residents. Mr Blackburne-Maze assured the council that he was personally committed to putting things right and he was thanked for his efforts and for his attendance at the meeting.
PC157/12 Correspondence:
(a) Letter from Mr Ray Pritchard re: SPEP Village Energy Days Project and National Energy Action Community Footprint Award. The letter was noted and the Clerk was asked to write to Mr Pritchard to thank him for the work he is doing.
(b) Letter from Melbourn Village College re: Ages Event and Tea Party. The
letter was noted. The Clerk has already replied praising the work of the College and its pupils in making the event such a success.
(c) Report from Bridget Smith re: Project Management and Fund Raising. This report was noted.
(d) Letter from Relate Cambridge re: Proposed working in the Hub and request for a donation. IT WAS PROPOSED BY CLLR TULLOCH AND SECONDED BY CLLR STEAD THAT MELBOURN PARISH COUNCIL AGREES TO DONATE A SUM OF £200 TO RELATE CAMBRIDGE TO ASSIST WITH ITS WORK. This was CARRIED.
(e) E-mail from Andrew Mulcock re: the failure of the website to be kept up-to-date. Mr Mulcock’s concerns were noted. The Clerk to liaise with Cllr Simmonett about the matter.
PC158/12 Urgent Matters:
(a) Cllr Stead reported a spate of metal thefts around the village. The Clerk reported sightings of a van being seen in Stockbridge Meadows and items being taken. The nearby residents to be informed.
(b) Cllr Hales reported a caravan dweller on Grinnell Hill. He had been moved on and seems to be parked in Saxon Way. This matter is being dealt with by the Enforcement Officer.
There being no other business the Chairman closed the meeting at 9.58 pm
ADDENDUM
The meeting was addressed by the volunteers for Stockbridge Meadows who gave a report on the work in progress and thanked the council for agreeing to fund some of the work (see PC151/12). Rabbits are a major problem and the council agreed to take action (see PC151/12). They also reported on the on-going work on the River Mel and they were asked by the council to work on the footpath edging, materials for which will be funded by the council and help will be sought from Rural Footpaths. These matters will be taken to the Conservation Committee. Cllr Mowatt paid tribute to the work being done by the volunteers.