ILAM PARISH COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES

04 July 2017 @ 8:00 pm Ilam School

Present - C Sellers, S Hudson, V Nottage, L Oulsnam, C Hibbert-Foy, R Wain

P Watson (Clerk)

Observers: K Warrington, G Nottage

Apologies  - E Wain (SMDC), P Mortimer (NT)

Minutes

● Minutes of the meeting held on 09 May were read and signed as true and correct.

Parking

● A “Permit to Dig” is required for the work to create the proposed footpath opposite Town End Cottage.  The fee for this is currently £325 but the Highways Department have indicated that they may be willing to waive the fee.  However, the Permit can only be granted to an organisation holding an NRSWA (New Roads and Street Works Act) licence.  None of the Councillors has such a licence so they will make enquiries to see if they can find such a person or organisation who can act as the organisation carrying out the work.  Meanwhile County Councillor, Gill Heath, is considering alternative solutions and will attend the next Council meeting along with Mary Anne Rafferty, the Infrastructure Community Director.

● To be viable as a drop off and pick up point for parents bringing and taking their children, the proposed parking area next to school house would need the entrance to be widened or a separate exit to be created.  This would probably require planning permission – Peak Park will advise - and in any case there are underground cables nearby that could cause problems.  Nevertheless, it would help to ease congestion if the teachers parked there instead of on the road.  Graham Nottage will request the headmistress to ask teachers to do this.

Councillors

● One application to fill the casual vacancy on the Council was received.  It was from Keith Warrington and the Council unanimously decided to co-opt him as the new Council Member.  He completed the Acceptance of Office and Declaration of Interest forms for the clerk to send to SMDC.

Peak Park

● The Council confirmed their decision not to send any representatives to Parishes Day.

● The planning application NP/SM/0617/0636 for a rope bridge at Ilam Hall was examined and the Council had no objections to the proposed development.

Highways

● The Clerk Passed on to the Council the sincere thanks of the family and colleagues of Jim Buckley for allowing them to plant his memorial tree near Ilam Bridge.

● C Sellers will phone the Highways Liaison Officer, Dave Rushton, to follow up on the Clerk’s request that a grid should replace the solid drain cover opposite Ilam School and to ask when the verges will be cut back.

● The Clerk will write to Dave Rushton to request that, next time the drains at Lower Damgate are cleared, the troughs down Damgate drive should also be cleared.

Transparency Fund

● The Clerk has applied to SPCA (Staffordshire Parish Councils Association) for £60 from the Transparency Fund for the cost of incorporating the Council information into the village website.  Although SPCA encourages the Council to also apply for funding for a computer and printer for Council use the Council could see no benefit from this and so decided against.

First Responders

● The Clerk told the meeting of the First Responders response to his request for clarification.  The Council found this satisfactory and agreed to pay half of the cost of the new battery, i.e. £84.

Finance

● There is £613 in the account with a further £404 of precept to come in September.  Expenditure in the region of £370 is expected in the financial year to 31 March 2018, which would leave a balance of £647 at the year end.  The Clerk will ask SMDC about the likely costs if the next Parish Council elections are contested so that a suitable reserve can be built up.

● The Council passed a resolution that:

“The authorised signatories for the current mandate for account number 46516190, sort code 60-01-19, be changed to remove Terrence David Prince and add William Stuart Hudson.”

Next Meeting 05 September