Minutes of the meeting of the Parish Council held at the North Luffenham Community Centre at 7.30pm on Tuesday March 20^th 2012.

There were no members of the Public present

1. APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

.Received from Cllr Tobin, Cllr Sewell and County Cllr Bool

2. DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

Cllrs Coogan, Read and Miss Lloyd declared a personal interest in agenda item no. 15 (Broadband) by virtue of being Trustees to The Village Trust. They agreed that should the discussion warrant it, they would be prepared to leave the meeting at that point.

3. MINUTES OF MEETING HELD ON JANUARY 17^th 2012

Re item 9 – Cllr Overington pointed out that the words “to review the investment annually” are unnecessary as that is catered for in the Policy. The Minutes were then signed by The Chairman as being a true record.

4. MATTERS ARISING

Oval bottom gate. As Cllr Sewell is not present this item will be held over.

Pridmore’s Field. Cllr Overington reported that he had prepared all the documents and signs only to find that Mr Pridmore now wants to put in place a replacement scheme and the matter is now in the hands of his Land Agent who is liaising with DEFRA. However a permissive right of way could still be granted.

Alteration to Minutes of November 28th The Clerk had circulated the corrected version on February 7^th 2012.

Village Information Sheet Cllr Coogan reported that this document is now complete and ready for distribution via the usual method. However we are waiting for Cllr Cade to produce a flyer promulgating The Community Centre so that they can be distributed together. The Clerk will ensure that all Councillors have an up to date distribution list.

Alteration to Standing Orders The Clerk advised that he had circulated the amended version on January 31^st 2012.

Alteration to Field Gardens Investment Policy. The Clerk advised that the amended version had been circulated on January 28^th 2012.

Gateway in School Lane. The Clerk, with help from County Cllr Bool had ascertained from RCC that although a driveway entrance from the rear of the Barn Conversion into School Lane had been disallowed, planning permission had been granted for a pedestrian gateway not exceeding 2.5 feet.

Cllr Overington

Cllr Coogan

Cllr Cade

Clerk

5. CORRESPONDENCE

Village Achievement Award Details of this scheme had been sent to the Clerk who gave salient points. It is open to any village with less than 12000 residents and covers Community, Green, and Living issues. It was agreed that the poster be displayed in the Community Centre.

Letter from North Luffenham Parochial Church Council requesting that the PC’s annual grant be continued. Proposed by Cllr Cade and seconded by Cllr Coogan it was agreed to pay £150 as in previous years.

Letter from Rutland County Council inviting the Chairman to attend a Civic Service & Reception to celebrate The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee on Sunday May 13^th 2012. The Chairman is unable to attend this event. The Vice-Chairman, Cllr Cade, will attend instead subject to his checking availability and advise The Clerk accordingly.

Cllr Cade

Clerk

Cllr Cade

Clerk

6. FIELD GARDENS/OVAL REPORT

Oval trees The Clerk has now obtained 6 quotations to do the work (a) P2 & P3 in the Symbiosis Report (including felling T10) and (b) to do the cutting back on T90/91/92. The Council agreed to ask Hill-Fort Tree-Care of Little Dalby to do the work. Not only were they the lowest quotation but they had sent in details of Insurances etc. They anticipate a maximum of 3 days on site. The Clark will action this.

Bulging Walls on Oval Cllr Cade is continuing to get quotations.

Allotments renewals The Clerk reported that all 43 allotments had been rented out and all monies received. There are 2 people on a ‘waiting list’ so Cllr Cade will ask Cllr Sewell to plough the spare land behind the new houses to create more allotments. The Clerk and Cllr Cade agreed to draw up a new Chart of the allotments showing the tenant in each case.

Allotment Driveway There is nothing further to report.

Play Equipment. Cllr Cade reported that Wicksteed had done their annual inspection and the report had not highlighted any urgent actions. There is some medium priority remedial work needed on the wooden equipment in the South-West corner of the Oval and Cllr Cade will action this. The North Luffenham Garden Club have asked that the long grass in this same area be allowed to grow more so as to enhance wild flowers and insect life. Cllr Cade will ask Colin Heasell not to cut this area.

Clerk

Cllr Cade

Cllr Cade

Cllr Sewell

Cllr Cade & Clerk

Cllr Cade

Cllr Cade

Internal Auditor The current Auditor, Alan Swindley, is planning to leave the village and we will need to find a replacement in 2013. However he will be available for the Audit due in April this year.

Clerk

The Planning Committee have reviewed and not objected to the following

Property extension in Sycamore Close.

Property extension in Johnson Close.

Sun Tunnels in roof of Barn Conversion in Church Street.

Enlargement of concrete pad at the Green waste site (no volume increase).

Widening of pathway from Church Street to the School.

The last 2 have subsequently been approved.

In addition, it was reported that the Ketton Windfarm issue is being considered by the Committee. Cllr Read enquired as to why The Barn conversion roof has collyweston tiles only at the front and not at the back. The Clerk will ask Cllr Tobin to check the planning application re this.

Clerk/Cllr Tobin

Cllr Coogan

10. COMMUNITY RECREATION FACILITY

Cllr Read reported that tasks had been allocated to members of the group and he hopes to be able to report back at the next meeting.

10. ROSE’S WOODYARD

In a written report Cllr Tobin said that he had had no further information from RCC. However The PC understands that the site will close on March 31^st 2012 and will lie derelict until the developer moves in. Cllr Read raised a concern that this could be attractive to travellers. The Clerk will contact Francis Jackson Homes which is the developer who came to see us Summer 2011.

10. THE QUEEN’S DIAMOND JUBILEE

The organising Group are now getting ideas from Clubs and individuals in the area. Cllr Read tabled a proposal to spend approx £600 on a WC trailer for this event and requested approval for this. Cllr Coogan then indicated that several additional items had been identified which it was hoped could be funded by The Parish Council, notably £300 for a local history display and so requested that the overall budget be increased to a maximum of £5500. Proposed by Cllr Read and seconded by Cllr Cade it was resolved unanimously that the budget for Diamond Jubilee events be increased from £4500 to £5500. It was further agreed that in the interests of expediency, cheques can be drawn against this budget outside PC meetings. Cllr Coogan reminded the Council that we will need to have a trained First Aider on site. He also referred to the Golden Jubilee celebrations in 2002 when all households were leafleted to ascertain the numbers of children under 16 years of age and suggested that this be done again. This will be done as one distribution with The Chairman’s Report (see item 9) and The Village Information sheet (see item 4).

13. PARISH COUNCIL WEBSITE

Cllr Tobin had sent in a written report which was read out by The Clerk as follows “I had hoped to produce a mock – up of what the site may look like, but I don’t have suitable software. The content has already been proposed by Mike and I have nothing to add. The next step will be to approve the content and commission someone to design the site based upon other PC site layouts as I don’t see the need to re-invent the wheel. Most PC have a similar look and feel. If the PC wishes to proceed my son is willing to put it together, but as it would be a conflict of interest it would be perhaps best to find someone else to do it. Perhaps the PC knows of someone who could do it for us? The estimate I have for a simple site with the ability to manage the content held by named individuals from the PC is around £150. There would then be an on-going hosting fee which will depend on size and features.” Cllr Read proposed giving the project to the Homeworkers group who meet regularly in the village to deal with IT issues. Cllr Coogan has researched site names. The Clerk will contact Pete Burrows re the Homeworkers group.

Clerk

Cllr Coogan

Clerk/All

Cllr Read/Clerk

15 BROADBAND

Cllr Overington reported on the actions arising from the previous PC meeting. He had conducted a survey of Broadband speeds around the village and sent the results based on 19 responses received to Ms Buchanan at RCC as well as to PC members. Cllr Overington had met with Ron Simpson of “Uppingham First” who have put in a bid of £360k for the Uppingham Mast project which whether or not the bid is successful will probably go ahead as there is believed to be sufficient interest to raise all of the required funds privately. Apparently, Rutland Telecom already have a wireless link from Uppingham to a number of properties in Great Easton.

16 DATES OF NEXT MEETINGS

Tuesday April 17th 2012 – Annual Parish Meeting

Wednesday May 16^th 2012 – Annual Parish Council Meeting

This being the last meeting of the Parish Council year, The Chairman thanked all present for their years work. He told the meeting that he would be standing down as Chairman at the May meeting (and would not be available as Vice-Chairman) and asked everyone to give some thought as to his successor.

There being no further Business the meeting closed at 9-40 pm.

Signed………………………………Chairman Date………………………

Cllr Cade

Clerk

Cllr Coogan

All

£2773-37

£7894-08

£108-16

£141-60

£54-00

£217-44

£150-00

£75-00

£662-87

£50-00