Minutes of the Meeting held on Monday 8th January 2007.
Present: Councillors Sayce, Chainey, Drew, Hall, Levitt, Martin, Porter,
Wade, Warhurst-Walker
Mrs M Williams, Clerk. Also present: District Councillor Dale, County Councillor
Thompson
Mr L Jewitt, Mr W Green, Hexham Courant
Apologies: Councillors Hedley and Barwick-Bell, District
Councillor Mike Collins
Mrs Sayce opened the meeting by wishing those present
a Happy New Year. She also welcomed Mr Jewitt to the meeting and thanked
him for his interest in the proceedings of the Parish Council.
06/73 Declarations of Interest – None
06/74 Minutes
The Minutes of the meeting held on 4th December were agreed as a true record.
06/75 Matters Arising –
Double Yellow Lines at Cross Street – Councillor Thompson said
that these would be painted on the Surgery side only of Cross Street and
on both corners, and that steps would be taken to ensure that the pavement
would be accessible to all pedestrians and disabled scooter users. He advised
that the County was responsible for pavements and highways and suggested
that the bollards prevent the delivery vehicles from using the pavement.
Double yellow lines Birches Nook Road - will be
installed as previously agreed.
Land at 15 Branch End Terrace – Mrs Dale
provided a copy of a letter from Tynedale referring to this issue. The matter
was discussed more fully later in the meeting.
Fence at Hall Farm Close – Mrs Dale advised
that responsibility for repair was being investigated.
Broomley Village Play Area – Mrs Dale confirmed
that responsibility for this will be taken over by Tynedale.
Branch End Play Area – Mrs Dale said that
Tynedale will be recommending the BEPA Phase II improvements for grant aid – however
she stressed that the project must meet the required criteria in order to
qualify for the grant.
Flashing Speed Signs – Mr Thompson advised
that the County had not forgotten this issue. He advised however that the
"Camera Partnership" was responsible for funding such signs. He
said that individual county councillors could contribute to the costs but
under the contract placed by the County with the Camera Partnership the signs
will be mobile and could be moved to other parts of the County. A decision
on this will be reached shortly.
SPAM – it was reported that most councillors’ SPAM
problems through the Stocksfield.org account had been sorted.
Bus Shelter at Branch End - it was confirmed that
a letter had been sent to County requesting suggestions for a site for a
bus shelter on the west bound side of the A695 at Branch End.
06/76 Public Participation
Over-grown hedge in Apperley Road – the County is to be chased on this
matter.
St John’s cinderpath – complaints about
the condition of the path are to be investigated by Tim Fish, the County
Footpath’s officer.
06/77 Correspondence
Correspondence had been received regarding proposals for the Local Government
Review. Councillors Sayce and Hall are to attend a meeting at Tynedale on
9th January. Other meetings discussing this issue are Prudhoe Community Partnership
Members’ Meeting 23rd January and a full meeting of the County Council
18th January.
Terry Davey – A letter had been received
offering to bring councillors up-to-date with the Code of Conduct. He is
to be contacted and a date in May suggested for such a briefing.
Community Action Northumberland (formerly CCN) – a
letter had been received requesting grant aid and it was agreed to pay a
grant of £100 in 07/08.
Hexham Courant – a letter had been received
from the Hexham Courant requesting an entry in this year’s Tynedale
Visitor. It was agreed to repeat the entry from last year.
Tynedale – Local Development Scheme – The
Planning Group is to look at the on-line documentation and make recommendations
on comments at the February meeting.
NCC – Consultation on Rights of Way - Footpaths
Group is to look at this documentation and make recommendations.
Tyne Rivers Trust – Wild Angling Passport – the
Parish Council has no fishing rights and no response was considered necessary.
All other correspondence listed was noted.
06/78 Finance
The Accounts for December had been circulated and were approved.
Precept 2007/08 – A summary of the precept
documentation, which had been discussed at previous meetings, was circulated.
Councillor Malcolm Chainey proposed and Councillor Tracy
Warhurst-Walker seconded and it was agreed that the precept for 2007/08 be
set at £50,400.
06/79 Youth Service and Youth Provision
Sally Jones, recently appointed Senior Youth & Community Worker based
in Prudhoe was welcomed to the meeting. There was a wide ranging discussion
covering issues raised in the past and also briefly looking to the future.
The main topics were:
- What does the Youth Service do?
- Is it good value?
- The Parish Council needs a dialogue with the Youth Service.
Sally Jones advised: She has recently been appointed.
The Youth Service in Prudhoe covers the Prudhoe Community High School catchment
area. Prudhoe is the only youth service in Northumberland with its own premises
and is regarded as a “flagship” service. The Youth Service has
to provide a “business plan”, a copy of which she left for the
Parish Council. The business plan highlights the premise that “every
child matters”. In some terms there is better attendance than in others.
The difference in youth work in Prudhoe and Stocksfield is astonishing. Under
13s pay a small weekly fee as the youth service does not receive subsidies
for this age group. 13+ no membership fees is payable. Replacement kit etc.
is partly funded by the tuck shop. Trips out of the area have to be paid
for. Although one of the Parish Councillors said that he did not know of
any other youth club where fees were not charged, it was acknowledged that
some people cannot afford fees. At present there are 12 regular attendees
at Stocksfield but there are also 5 or 6 regulars from Stocksfield attending
the East and others who attend the Skate Club. A lot of young people attend
the Prudhoe Youth Football sessions. A lot of youth work is done in school
by the youth service staff. Work with under 13s is only done in Prudhoe.
The youth service is trying to develop a service for young people. Level
1 meetings with the police suggest that there has only one 101 call since
last year and that was not youth related. Inspector Jan Richards has been
away from work for some time. With any code of conduct set up there might
be problems of acceptance with young people and there would be little point
in trying to set it up if it could not be made to work. It is not possible
to put a cost on the support work carried out and the work done by detached
workers. Detached workers are very good at handling and liaising with large
groups of young people. Youth workers do a valuable service however core
funding is continually being cut.
Parish councillors felt that a code of conduct might have
been designed to provide guidelines for acceptable behaviour. Whether or
not you agree with a code of conduct it is recognised that there is still
acceptable and unacceptable behaviour. Residents of Mount View Terrace and
Brumwell Court had been lead to believe that something was going to happen
to solve the problems they were having. The police officers who had promoted
the idea were no longer in post. It was felt that the Scouts and Cubs are
possibly looking after more young people in Stocksfield than the Youth Service.
Why does the County Council cut back core funding? Both
district and parish councils contribute to the youth service. Northumberland
is one of the few authorities where the youth service is attached to the
schools. Nowadays, youth service staff spend time on completing evaluations
rather than on doing hands on work. It was felt that there might be more
parental involvement in the youth service and that the County needed to review
its expenditure on this service objectively.
Broomley & Stocksfield Parish Council contribute quite
a large proportion of its budget to local youth service core funding. Councillors
asked if they could see a breakdown of youth service expenditure. Councillors
felt that they should be looking at youth as a whole and debate whether we
are making an appropriate contribution.
Ms Jones was thanked for attending the meeting and her
contribution to the debate.
06/80 Brief Reports from Advisory Groups and Council
Representatives
a) General Purposes Group
The General Purposes Group Report had been circulated.
Co-option of a new Parish Councillor – Councillor
Hall advised that he had been in touch with John Davison who had indicated
his willingness to stand for the Parish Council for the rest of the term.
Dave Porter proposed, Lorraine Wade seconded and it was agreed that Mr Davison
be co-opted to the Parish Council until the elections in May. Mr Davison
had been unable to attend this month’s meeting.
Grant Aid
The General Purposes Group had recommended and it was agreed that the following
grants be made
In the current financial year
Stocksfield Scouts £500 towards the new hut fund
£500 core funding
in the 07/08 financial year
Mid Tyne Kids Club £200 towards purchase of a computer
SICA £500 towards the cost of the proposed driveway
It was further recommended that all requests for grants
must be accompanied by accounts (for general revenue requests) and/or project
costs (for capital and one-off expenditure).
Land at 15 Branch End Terrace
Mrs Warhurst-Walker gave a brief resume on the course she had recently attended
on the subject of land registration of which they most salient points were:
- The Parish Council should consider any land that it owned before the
1st April 2007 when there will be a considerable hike in the fees. The Clerk
to check that the Cricket Field is registered.
- The Parish Council should also consider registering an interest in other
sites, e.g. the former Rifle Club site.
- The Parish Council should register its continuing interest in the land
adjacent to 15 Branch End Terrace.
- Officers of the Land Registry would be happy give advice to councillors.
With specific reference to the land adjacent to 15 Branch
End Terrace
Does the Parish Council know what it wants to do with it at the end of the
process.
There is a need to agree what the long-term aim is, although it was suggested
that at present this is to provide a managed garden.
These matters are to be pursued further with the Land
Registry.
County Council Budgets - the proposed letter was
accepted with amendments to reflect
- concerns over cuts in care and respite services (Mrs Martin declared
an interest in this topic) and
- the fact that it had to be acknowledged that where more than one route
to a community was available then priorities may have to be set as to which
was maintained.
Speaker at Annual Parish Meeting
After some discussion it was agreed
- that the subject at the Annual Parish Meeting might be the provision
of services and facilities for young people in Stocksfield.
- that rather than a speaker a small panel might be invited to debate the
subject with residents
- that providers of services for young people might be invited to show-case
what they had to offer.
b) Planning & Highways
The Planning & Highways Report had been circulated and a second report
was tabled.
It was noted that no response had been received from the
County Council querying the proposal to resurface Batt House Road before
Meadowfield Road. Mrs Dale advised that she believed this was because Batt
House Road problems were caused by structural difficulties where as Meadowfield
Road only has a surface problem.
Consultation re Tyne River Crossing – There
was a brief discussion on this. It was acknowledged that any provision of
a new river crossing could be many years away, but it was stressed that in
Stocksfield our major concern was to reduce the weight of traffic, in particular
heavy vehicles, using the A695. It was noted that at the Eastern parishes
Forum a fourth option had been suggested (i.e. to extend the Prudhoe by-pass
westwards past Mickley and Stocksfield.). It was agreed that the Planning & Highways
Group would draw up a response to the consultation.
Cade Hill Road - complaints had been received about
the dangers of parking outside no. 7. Planning & Highways are to discuss
this and make recommendations.
c) Parish Plan
This topic was deferred until the February meeting/.
d) Footpaths & Environment Group
It was agreed that Norman Hooks and Ruth Robson should attend the Joint Local
Access Forum Meeting on 18th January.
It was noted that Broomley & Stocksfield was one of
the few parishes in Northumberland with an active Footpaths Group.
It was noted that the Footpaths Group had plans to revise
the Footpaths leaflet.
Spring Clean – a similar event to last year
is to be organised at the end of the Easter holidays.
e) Play Facilities Group
Mr Hall advised that a useful meeting had been held between the Branch End
Play Area Regeneration Group and Tynedale officers. Tynedale will advise
the group about the criteria for qualification for grant aid under the Big
Lottery Scheme.
Comments on Tynedale’s Play Strategy document are
being prepared. It was noted that this parish comes out quite well in this
document, but stressed that we should not be complacent about this.
f) Sensory Garden
Mrs Martin advised that a meeting had been held at which it had been suggested
that more people needed to be involved. An appeal for plants for the sensory
garden had been published. It was stressed that the Leisure Facilities Group,
the Branch End Play Area Regeneration Group and the Sensory Garden Group
need to liaise, particularly over the siting of the new access to the Play
Area. It was suggested that students at Kirkley Hall might be involved in
the Sensory Garden project.
g) Sports Facilities Group
A paper suggesting rental levels for the 06/07 season for the Sportsfield
facilities was circulated and these were agreed as follows:
Cricket Club West Field £150
East Field £180
Football Club (3 senior and 4 junior teams)
£420
Rugby Club £330
A draft agreement for the use of the Sportsfield by the
various clubs is to be drawn up.
Multi Use Games Area
Mrs Sayce thanked those who had supported the recent fund raising event.
She advised that the Football Club was still waiting to hear from the FA – so
no further progress had been made.
h) Communication
After a brief discussion it was agreed that future issues of NE43 would be
an A4 and not trifold format.
i) Council Representatives
Nothing to report.
06/81 Other business
A notice had been received from Northumbrian Police regarding the next meeting
of the Police and Community Forum.
A letter is to be sent to Ivor Grey congratulating him
on being awarded an MBE in the New Year’s Honours.
06/82 Date of Next Meeting: 5th February 2007
The meeting closed at 10.10 p.m
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