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Minutes December 2nd 2021

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Minutes of Castor Parish Council Meeting

Held on Thursday 2nd December 2021 at 7.30pm in the Cedar Centre

  • In the absence of Cllr. Neil Boyce, Cllr Fiona Rowlands, Vice Chairman presided over the meeting.

 PRESENT: Fiona Rowlands (Vice Chairman), Cllr. Richard Anker, Cllr. William Baxter, Cllr. Steve Davies, Cllr. Jane Greene, Cllr. David Shaw & Cllr. Dennis Surgeon; Two members of the public were also in attendance.

 APOLOGIES – Neil Boyce, unwell.

 DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST – None

 MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETINGS – We unanimously RESOLVED to approve the minutes of the previous meeting, held on 4th November, 2021 -. These were duly signed by the chairman.

Proposed Cllr. William Baxter and seconded Cllr. Richard Anker

 Matters arising from the previous minutes. –

 Public Forum – No matters were raised at this point.

 PLANNING and associated matters

 Joint Community Action Plan (JCAP) – David Shaw reported that he had spoken to Mr Winfrey about further village housing trust development under JCAP item 1.4 and that Mr Winfrey was agreeable to include an appropriate and modest scheme within the alms houses organisation

 Neighbourhood Planning (NP) – We had already agreed that the NP needs to be reviewed in 2022 and anticipated that the governments intentions on planning may be clearer by the time of the review

 Status report – the Clerk reported on the current position of planning applications, and we noted that there were only two changes since our previous meeting. Condition C21 of the Woodlands scheme (Staff accommodation) had been removed. The application to remove a row of pines at the Old Rectory had been permitted. Cllr. Shaw added that he had approached the applicant of the Old Rectory and reported that the applicant was in agreement with the parish council and looked to planting of the native species as replacements for the felled trees

 Planning applications

 21/00865/LBC – Three Chimneys, 8 Peterborough Road – Re-consultation on revised documents related to repair works to make the building structurally sound. We had no observations to make on the technical changes made and agreed to support the views of the conservation officer.

 Woodlands –

    1. Cllr. David Shaw referred to the public meeting held on 30th December attended by some parish councillors. John Hodder had prepared some notes of that meeting and we agreed that those notes captured the issues discussed and salient points raised. We asked that those notes be copied to Country Court Care and Nene Park Trust.

 We agreed that our next step should be to correct erroneous statements made during the public meeting.

 Cllr. Shaw referred to a document he had prepared setting out some policies that would be useful in appraising the planning applications that we expect to come forward in due course. In particular planning policies related to the village setting in the conservation area, and the importance of trees in that regard. He also referred to the City Council Climate Change policy and in particular the stated aim of the city council to use planning powers to move towards Net Zero CO2. In the context of the document prepared by Cllr. Shaw, we agreed to meet at the Woodlands car park at 11.00am on 30th December to familiarise ourselves with the site

  • LAND & ALLOTMENTS:
  1. Tree Safety – The clerk reported that he had instructed Willow tree services in accordance with the decision made at the previous meeting and that they had agreed to carry out the work on 23rd Cllr Anker asked to be notified when access is required for the Coppice
  • HIGHWAYS
  1. Parking issue – No further progress to report and the matter now lay in the hands of residents
  2. Ferrybridge Access Road, Fly Tipping in the turning area – We asked the clerk to write to the City Council with a request that a barrier be erected to prevent vehicular access
  3. Observations from Councillors – Blocked Drains Peterborough Road – David Shaw reported that since the last meeting the City Council had cleared the top of the drains and Anglian Water had cleared the pipework. Regrettably that had left a solid mass of debris in every drain. We asked the clerk to refer this matter again to the city council and to also involve the ward councillor.
  • Community MATTERS –
  1. Joint Parish Liaison Group (JPLG)- The next meeting will be held on 13th January and John Hodder asked that we agree the agenda for that meeting when we next meet at the beginning of January
  2. Langdyke Trust Nature Recovery Plan –
  3. Cllr. Richard Anker reported that the posts were in situ in Tweentowns ready for these to be erected in the coming days, subject to the horses and shed being moved by the current leaseholder.
  4. Cllr. Fiona Rowlands reported that the apple and pear tress were in her possession pending planting by the group of volunteers on 9th December
  • The current leaseholder of the Paddock in Splash Lane had agreed to give up that lease in October 2022 and it was intended to bring forward tree planting plans for approval in due course and that Sarah Lambert had been engaged to assist in the planning for that area.
  1. We agreed that the access to the Coppice should be changed to control, by a combination lock solely for the use of Cllrs if they were to accompany visitors, not for general public access which would be controlled by open day events to be arranged.
  2. We RESOLVED to approve the cost of £431.70 for the fencing for Tweentowns.

Proposed Cllr. William Baxter Seconded Cllr. Jane Greene

  1. Queens Platinum Jubilee – Jane Greene reported that the celebration committee had met and a few suggestions for commemorating the Jubilee.
  2. The committee asked the parish councils to engage in “Castor in Bloom” and consider the placing of planters at appropriate spots in the highway verge. We agreed that the matter should be placed on our next agenda and that in the meantime the plans and costings be brought to that meeting for our consideration. We also asked the clerk to approach the highway authority to establish any conditions that they may impose.
  3. The committee also asked the parish council to allow the planting of a commemorative tree on the Village Green and we agreed to consider this at our January meeting along with the other committee requests.
  • The committee also suggested joining in the national “beacon lighting” for the Jubilee and suggested two in Castor and one in Ailsworth. In Castor, one in the church and one on the village Green.
  1. Standing Stones – We considered a suggestion of clearing the shrubbery alongside this site on the Ferryfields access road with the dual intention of increasing the visibility of this heritage site and also attempting to reduce the abuse of the secluded area with the subsequent litter. WE RESOLVED to ask the city council as highway authority to remove the shrubbery adjoining the site

Proposed Cllr. William Baxter Seconded Cllr. David Shaw

  • Governance Matters

 S106 Monies – Further to the Resolution made at our previous meeting committing the funds to the nature recovery work at the Paddock we are fearful of losing some of the funds if the costs of the scheme fall short of the available sum. We agreed to consider the matter further at our January meeting with a view to adding other infrastructure projects for consideration, including the “Village in Bloom” planters, the play area footpath and other possibilities.

 Covid support group funds. We were informed by the group that the group had been wound up and that a balance of £359.77 of our grant remained unspent. We RESOLVED that the balance should be paid to the “Good Neighbours” scheme (GNS), as the work of the covid support group would now be undertaken by the GNS.

Proposed Cllr Dennis Surgeon Seconded Cllr. David Shaw

 Signage – We were advised that the existing signs were out of date in that of the three contact names and numbers only that of Cllr. Baxter remained relevant. We agreed that the signs should be replaced and that contact detail be those of Cllrs William Baxter, David Shaw and, subject to his agreement, Cllr. Neil Boyce.

 Public Rights of Way – deferred to the next meeting for Cllr. Neil Boyce to report.

 Budget Preparation – mindful that we will be considering our 2022/23 budget and precept at our next meeting we asked the Clerk to draft a budget that sought to contain the precept at the current level and avoid any increase if at all possible.

  official announcements & CORRESPONDENCE.

  1. There were no official announcements to record, or correspondence that had not been covered elsewhere on our agenda and recorded in these minutes

 Future Agenda Items –

  1. Celebration Committee – awaiting updates from the celebrations voluntary committee.

 Date of next meeting – Thursday 6th January, 2022.

 There being no further business the chairman closed the meeting at 9.17pm.

 Clerk & RFO 3rd December, 2021