MINUTES OF A MEETING OF PUBLOW WITH PENSFORD PARISH COUNCIL HELD ON THURSDAY 16th APRIL 2020 ONLINE using ZOOM

Present: Chairman: Mrs J Stephenson
Mrs J Gully, Mrs D Custance, Mr M Daniels, Ms J Flower(Part), Mrs S Grimes, Mr T Heaford, Mr P Baxter, Mr T Jones, Mrs T Jones & Cllr P. May (B&NES) and Mrs H Richardson (Clerk)
There were 0 Members of the public present.

5.1. Members of the Public: – None

5.2. Apologies for Absence None

5.3. Notification of any Members’ personal or prejudicial interest in any item on the Agenda: None

5.4. The Minutes of the Meeting held on Monday 9th March 2020 and Monday 6th April 2020 were agreed as a true and fair record. The Chairman will sign them at the next available opportunity.

5.5. An update on District Matters. Cllr Paul May reported that B&NES are working with 3SG (Bath & North East Somerset third sector group) in response to the Covid 19 outbreak and so far it is working well.
The Garden Waste collections have been stopped until June to enable staff to concentrate on the rubbish and recycling collections, however they were working to re-instate it sooner.
They are still aiming to re-open schools in September after the summer break.
Heritage has closed down, they have had problems with property rentals in the centre of bath and there is no income from the carparking so the council is likely to have financial problems long term unless the Government steps in.

3.6. Updates on current matters:
a) Memorial Hall-Cllr Paul Baxter- on lockdown due to Corona virus
b) Community Speedwatch – Cllr Mike Daniels – on hold until we have some normality.
c) Fingerposts – Cllr Janette Stephenson – No progress on Fingerposts at the moment
d) Vintage Phone Box – Cllr Paul Baxter & Cllr Jenny Gully – No progress due to Coronavirus
e) Defibrillators – Cllr Janette Stephenson – Thanks were expressed to Cllrs Tracy Jones and Mike Daniels for continuing their role as guardians of the defibrillators. SWAST Ambulance have asked for daily checks ( increased from weekly) this will be questioned once things settle a bit.
f) Allotments – Cllr Mike Daniels – busy as busy can be in this current situation. Two old tenants have not continued with their tenancy this year one full plot and one half but both have been filled. A new tenant has not responded to any contact and so one available.
g) Review of speed limit through Woollard & Publow – Cllr Janette Stephenson & Cllr Paul May – No progress until we are back to normal
h) Climate Emergency working group – Cllr Dawn Custance. On hold but have been in contact with a group that has bought 1000 oak whips to be planted in suitable places either as hedgerow infills or on sloping ground, they will be taking professional advice on land suitability etc. Pleased to hear Paul May is pushing BANES to declare an ecological emergency. Also have heard many comments from parishioners enjoying the peace and quiet of a village devoid of hurrying vehicles and roar of aeroplanes and being able to hear birds singing.

5.7. Matters for Discussion/ Decision:
a) The Parish Council resolved to extend the delegation of the council decisions to the Clerk during the period of restricted activity declared by the Government in respect of the Covid 19 virus, Such delegation, in line with the agreed procedure described in ‘the business continuity motion’, to enable the council to fulfil its responsibility to its residents

> Jane Flowers left the meeting due to technical difficulties

b) The Parish Council received an invitation to comment on the consultation of the Local Plan Partial Update & Draft Statement of community involvement. The Chairman would review the documents and make a recommendation to council.

c) The Parish Council received an update on the community response to the Covid-19 outbreak & the support available to residents. Simon King has co-ordinated volunteers in the Parish, available to help those self-isolating due to Covid 19. He is now in touch directly with B&NES, 3SG and WERN. B&NES had initially approached the Parish Council for assistance in distributing the food parcels to the shielded. B&NES were concerned about the low numbers that had registered, and they took Simons details to deal direct. Volunteers numbers have been circulated for support with shopping, and medication. B&NES compassionate communities Hub has been set up to offer more support for the vulnerable that cannot be offered by the local volunteers – The Number is 0300 247 0050 or visit 3SG.org.uk
Pensford Post Office is offering a delivery service for groceries and other supplies.
The Community Trust have offered to pay for the leaflets which were distributed
The Parish Council approved expenditure to purchase gloves for volunteers: £54.84 (inc £9.14 VAT)

5.8. Reports:
a) The Clerks Progress Report, previously circulated, was accepted.
b) The Chairman had nothing additional to report.
5.9. Planning:
a) Applications to consult:
20/01339/FUL Sunningdale, Woollard Lane. Erection of two storey rear extension.
The Parish Council resolved to OBJECT to the application as it was thought that previous extensions may have extended the original property beyond allowed levels and the site is outside of the development boundary in greenbelt.
b) Decision Notification: None
5.10. Financial Matters:
Financial Report
i) the financial Report was accepted.
ii) Payments to be authorised at January meeting were approved:
Dom Lowe Footpaths (March) £80
Mrs Helen Richardson Clerk Salary (April) £745.54
Gloves for Covid 19 Volunteers £54.84 (£9.14 VAT to recover)
Total value of cheques £880.38
5.11. Items of Report to carry forward to the next Meeting: None
5.12. To Note Future Meetings: PCAA – Thursday 19th March 2020 (cancelled)
Parish Liaison – Tuesday 31st March 2020 (cancelled)
B&NES ALCA meeting – Thursday 11th June 2020 Avon Room, Saltford Parish Hall
Parish Liaison – Thursday 16th July 2020
B&NES ALCA meeting – Thursday 3rd September 2020
Parish Liaison – Thursday 22nd October 2020

DATE OF NEXT PARISH COUNCIL MEETING: Monday 11th May 2020

The meeting closed at 19.59pm

DRAFT – SUBJECT TO APPROVAL

MINUTES OF A PLANNING MEETING OF PUBLOW WITH PENSFORD PARISH COUNCIL HELD ON MONDAY 6th April 2020

Virtual Meeting using Zoom

Present: Chairman: Mrs J Stephenson
Mrs J Gully, Mr M Daniels, Ms J Flower, Mrs S Grimes, Mr T Heaford, Mr P Baxter, Mr T Jones, Mrs T Jones and Mrs H Richardson (Clerk)

4.1. Apologies for Absence: None

4.2. Notification of any Members’ personal or prejudicial interest in any item on the Agenda: None

4.3. Planning:
a) Applications to consult:
i) 20/00973/FUL: 41 Hillcrest, Pensford. Proposed two storey and single storey rear extension
The Parish Council Resolved that they had no objection to this application.

ii) 20/00894/FUL: Wyvern, Publow Lane, Woollard. Erection of a single storey extension following removal of conservatory.
An email from the applicants was circulated to Councillors prior to the meeting, and the Parish Council resolved that they had no objection to this application.

iii) 20/01002/HPD: 55 Hillcrest, Pensford. Prior approval request for single storey flat roofed rear extension that would 1) extend beyond the rear wall of the original house by 4m 2) have a maximum height of 3.25m and 3) have eaves that are 3m high.
The Parish Council resolved that they had no objection to this prior approval request.

iv) 20/00939/CLPU: Waterside cottage, Church Street, Pensford. Erection of summer house in back garden (For information Only – No consultation)

b) Decision Notification:
i) 20/00315/FUL: Langford Farm, Woollard Lane, Woolard. Erection of a wooden shelter to house a milk vending machine. PERMIT

DATE OF NEXT PARISH COUNCIL MEETING: Monday 16th April 2020 (Online)

The meeting closed at 19.56 pm

MINUTES OF A MEETING OF PUBLOW WITH PENSFORD PARISH COUNCIL HELD ON MONDAY 12th FEBRUARY 2020 AT MEMORIAL HALL PUBLOW LANE PENSFORD

Present: Chairman: Mrs J Stephenson Mrs J Gully, Mrs D Custance, Mr M Daniels, Mr S Filer, Ms J Flower, Mr T Heaford, Mr P Baxter, Mr T Jones, Mrs T Jones & Cllr P. May (B&NES) and Mrs H Richardson (Clerk)
There were 7 Members of the public present. Continue reading Parish Council Minutes – 12th February 2020 →

Publow with Pensford Parish Council

Climate Emergency Resolution 10/02/2020

Publow with Pensford Parish Council resolves to recognise the existence of a climate emergency.

This Parish Council welcomes and supports the Bath and North East Somerset Climate Emergency Declaration passed by all parties at a meeting of the full Council held on 14th March 2019. We also note the subsequent recommendations made by the Committee on Climate Change in May 2019 and the Government’s net zero carbon commitment made in June 2019, which provides a national framework for this declaration.

This Parish Council will work with local residents, community organisations, businesses, B&NES Council, other parish councils, neighbouring authorities and organisations to establish specific local initiatives that will contribute to achieving the area wide objective of becoming carbon neutral by 2030.

To achieve this aim, we resolve to establish a working party that will report back to this Parish Council in six months’ time having undertaken to;
• Agree terms of reference and set a timescale for the working party;
• Call for experts or interested community members to input into and support the working party;
• Pledge to investigate ways to establish an indicative baseline of our Parish carbon footprint;
• Seek to understand our local impact, whether from transport, built environment, natural environment, energy usage and other activities;
• Show leadership and provide focus;
• Immediately undertake to ensure any future procurement we carry out minimises our carbon footprint and review our own current organisations footprint;
• Support Bath and North East Somerset Council in their delivery of their Climate Emergency Declaration;
• Call on Bath & North East Somerset Council to provide the necessary powers and resources to make the 2030 target possible.

Within this initial six-month period, we will hold a parishioners’ meeting to share information, generate ideas, create actions and empower the local community to help deliver carbon neutrality by 2030 through an agreed action plan and targets.

We agree to be open to working in partnership in the future with other parishes, to make effective use of our resources to achieve our goal but that this is an evolving and dynamic situation and we need to take actions without delay.

MINUTES OF A MEETING OF PUBLOW WITH PENSFORD PARISH COUNCIL HELD ON MONDAY 13th JANUARY 2020 AT MEMORIAL HALL PUBLOW LANE PENSFORD

Present: Chairman: Mrs J Stephenson Mrs J Gully, Mr M Daniels, Mr S Filer, Ms J Flower, Mr T Heaford, Mr P Baxter, Mrs S Grimes, Mr T Jones, Mrs T Jones & Cllr P. May (B&NES) and Mrs H Richardson (Clerk)
There were 7 Members of the public present. Continue reading Parish Council Minutes – 13th January 2020 →

MINUTES OF A MEETING OF PUBLOW WITH PENSFORD PARISH COUNCIL HELD ON MONDAY 9th DECEMBER 2019 AT MEMORIAL HALL PUBLOW LANE PENSFORD

Present: Chairman: Mr T Heaford Mrs J Gully, Mr M Daniels, Mrs D Custance, Mr S Filer, Ms J Flower, Mr P Baxter, Mrs S Grimes, Mr T Jones & Cllr P. May (B&NES) and Mrs H Richardson (Clerk)
There were 6 Members of the public present. Continue reading Parish Council Minutes – 9th December 2019 →

MINUTES OF A MEETING OF PUBLOW WITH PENSFORD PARISH COUNCIL HELD ON MONDAY 12TH JUNE 2017 AT THE MEMORIAL HALL PUBLOW LANE PENSFORD

Present: Chairman: Mrs J Stephenson Vice-chairman: Mr T Heaford
Mr S Filer, Mrs T Jones, Mrs J Gully, Mr J Kelly, Mr P Baxter. Cllr P May.
Clerk: Mrs J Bragg. There were 6 members of the Public Present.

1. Members of the Public:
Parish Council Vacancies: Member of Public asked why the vacancies on the Parish Council had not been advertised in the Parish Magazine. Clerk reported that details of the procedure for advertising a Vacancy had been obtained prior to an advert being put in the Magazine.
Pensford Churchyard: Member of the Public reported that under the responsibility of BANES Local Authority now the Churchyard is only being strimmed and not cut. It has not been strimmed for at least two months now. Enquiries have been made to Haycombe Cemetery. Parish Council will contact BANES & Tracey Mock Bereavement Services Manager at Haycombe and ask about the maintenance programme for the Churchyard.
Pensford Garage: Mr Garry Hudson had asked for a three minute slot at the Parish Council and proceeded to raise his concerns regarding the Pensford Garage Site. Mr Hudson believes that the site are in Breach of their conditions as excavations have already started on site. They have removed a considerable amount of surfacing which is believed to be polluted and are depositing it on the lower part of the site. This is reported by Mr Hudson to be in direct contravention of the conditions and a substantial health risk to local residents.
Mr Hudson is also concerned about the effect on Salters Brook and the erosion that it has suffered and how high the bank now is.
Clerk will contact B&NES to find out if a stop can be put to proceedings until an investigation has taken place. The Environment Agency will also be contacted.
Pensford Hill Wall: Member of the Public raised concerns about the Wall outside of Hill House. He was informed that the recent closure was to enable engineers to look at it and report back to B&NES. Some testing works had been undertaken and results of this awaited.
High Street: Opposite the entrance to The Orchard the hedges and bushes are really overgrown. Clerk to report to B&NES.
Footpaths: It was commented that the Footpaths are being strimmed and are being kept up together very well by the current Footpaths Officer Mr D Lowe.

2. Apologies for Absence were received from Mrs D Custance & Mrs S Grimes.

3. To receive notification of any Members’ personal or prejudicial interest in any item on the Agenda.

None Received.

4. Matters for Discussion/Decision:
a) To agree amendments to minutes of Monday 10th April 2017 and sign as a true and fair record & to agree Minutes of Monday 8th May 2017:
Cllr Baxter objected to the wording in Section 7 of the Minutes of 8th May. In essence he said that the Minutes did not sufficiently stress that he was correct about his
query being in respect of Section 2 not Section 4 as stated in the Minutes of 10th April. Nobody disagreed that he was correct but other councillors felt that the wording confirmed this. A circular argument ensued.
He complained that he had not been invited to join the Staffing Panel. It was explained that the composition of the Staffing Panel, which was originally convened in April 2016 was re-confirmed at the meeting of 10th April 2017and he did not complain at either stage. He was reminded that discussion should be confined to matters on the agenda.
He stated that he had contacted the external auditors, Grant Thornton, about the Clerk’s hours and was informed that checking this was not part of their audit routines. He was warned that it was inappropriate to discuss matters relating to a Parish Council employee
a) in a public meeting and b) in the presence of the employee. He was reminded that discussion should be confined to matters on the agenda.

In view of the potential infringement of the Clerk’s employment rights, that the other discussions were becoming increasingly circular and bad tempered and Cllr Baxter’s refusal to confine his debate to the agenda the Chair stated that she would accept no further discussion on this subject as there were many items on the agenda and she wished to move on. Cllr Baxter refused to accept this and the Chair closed the meeting.

After the Closure of the Meeting: After the closure of the meeting Cllr Baxter informed the Parish Council that he had been recording the Parish Council Meetings via his Mobile Phone in his pocket. He had not made Members of the Parish Council or Members of the Public aware of the recordings prior to any meeting.

Litter Picks: Clerk proceeded to give out Litter Picks, along with a High Viz Jacket, Risk Assessment and receipt to sign to Mr Hunt & Mrs Hearn.

Re-posted to website on 7th January 2019 due to original version being missing.

MINUTES OF A MEETING OF PUBLOW WITH PENSFORD PARISH COUNCIL HELD ON MONDAY 11th NOVEMBER 2019 AT MEMORIAL HALL PUBLOW LANE PENSFORD

Present: Chairman: Mrs J Stephenson Mrs J Gully, Mrs T Jones, Mr M Daniels, Mrs D Custance, Mr S Filer, Ms J Flower & Mr P Baxter, and Mrs H Richardson (Clerk)
There were 7 Members of the public present. Continue reading Parish Council Minutes – 11th November 2019 →

MINUTES OF A MEETING OF PUBLOW WITH PENSFORD PARISH COUNCIL HELD ON MONDAY 14th OCTOBER 2019 AT MEMORIAL HALL PUBLOW LANE PENSFORD

Present: Chairman: Mrs J Stephenson Vice-chairman: Mr T Heaford
Mrs J Gully, Mrs T Jones, Mr T Jones, Mr M Daniels, Mr S Filer, Mrs S Grimes, Ms J Flower & Mr P Baxter, Cllr Paul May (B&NES) and Mrs H Richardson (Clerk)
There were 9 Members of the public present.
Continue reading Parish Council Minutes – 14th October 2019 →

MINUTES OF A MEETING OF PUBLOW WITH PENSFORD PARISH COUNCIL HELD ON MONDAY 9TH SEPTEMBER 2019 AT MEMORIAL HALL PUBLOW LANE PENSFORD

Present: Vice-Chairman: Mr T Heaford, Acting Chair
Mrs S Grimes (Acting Clerk), Mrs T Jones, Mr T Jones, Mr M Daniels, Mr P Baxter, Mrs D Custance, Mr S Filer, Ms J Flower & Cllr Paul May There were 10 Members of the public present. Continue reading Parish Council Minutes – 9th September 2019 →