Category: Village Hall

2012 05 03 PC Minutes

Annual Meeting of Fulking Parish Council: Meeting held in the Fulking Village Hall on 3 May 2012 At 8pm

Present: Ms K Watson (Vice Chairman), Mrs P Rowland, Ms L Dyos, Mr M Trist and Clerk to the Council Andrea Dickson. 8 members of the public.

1. Meeting opened by Ms Kate Watson

2. Nomination for Chairman and Vice Chairman were received by the Clerk. Chairman Ms Kate Watson was nominated by Mrs P Rowland and seconded by Ms L Dyos Vice Chairman Mr M Trist was nominated by Ms K Watson and seconded by Ms L Dyos The Chairman and Vice Chairman signed the Declaration of Office forms.

3. Apologies: Dr D Slavin and Colin Trumble.

4. Minutes of Annual meeting of Fulking Parish Council on 2 June 2011 were amended and approved.

5. Chairman s Report Clerk The previous Clerk did not meet the Parish requirements,this resulted in her resignation . Sheena Trist thankfully stepped in to help out until a new clerk could be recruited. Andrea Dickson took up the post of Clerk in April, her details will be on the website soon.

Planning: In the past year Fulking Parish Council has received 11 applications. 3 have been approved. 1 refused. 6 pending consideration. 1 called in by South Downs National Park Authority. Market Garden site is included in the pending consideration list (the application is for permanent permission for the stationing of caravans and a dayroom on the site). This has been called to committee by Mid Sussex, the planned date for this is 31 May (this has yet to be confirmed). The National Planning Policy Network (NPPN) was introduced at the end of March, hopefully this should not alter things too much for Fulking. More information can be found about the NPPN on the internet.

Finances The annual precept has increased by 3.26% to 6344.

Thank you to Bob Rowland for acting as The Responsible Finance Officer and for looking after all financial matters. Thank you also to Nick Hughes for carrying out the Internal Audit of the annual accounts. This was accepted by the Parish Council last night.

Highways: Flooding is still an issue despite Tony Brooks’s best efforts to get this sorted. Please report any flooding to West Sussex Highways Department in Chichester. Speeding is still a problem, articles have been posted in the Pigeon Post highlighting this issue. Fullking was very prepared this year with a winter management plan, although it was not necessary to put this into action.

Village Hall: Parochial Church Council considered selling the Village Hall due to lack of funds. At a public meeting in December the Village Hall Action Group was formed.The action group has worked tirelessly over the past few months improving the facility, raising funds and encouraging people to use the hall. The current arrangement is still in a trial period, the future of the hall is still very uncertain and in the hands of the community.

Village Plan: The Village Plan published last summer has recently been updated. This will be found on the website in the near future.

Crime: There has been a sharp increase in crime in the area recently so please be vigilant. Anything suspicious should be reported on the direct number for non emergencies 101.

Village Fair: Please support the village fair on Sunday 29 July 12noon-5pm. Thank you to the Social Committee which does a great job raising funds and orgainising cleans ups around the village.

Finally thank you to David Slavin for his work as Chairman in the last few months. David will be stepping down as councillor due to work commitments. This will create a vacancy on the Parish Council which will be advertised on the Parish notice board in the near future.
Thank you to all of the councillors for the extremely hard work they have put in over the past year. Thank you also to Aidan Walker for his continued involvement in Pigeon Post and to James Lightfoot for running the website for the village. Final thank you for attending the meeting and for taking an interest in the local community.

6. Speakers: Councillor Peter Griffiths gave an overview of the services West Sussex provide. Andrew Trigg (SDNPA) Neighbourhood Planning Officer for the National Park gave an update for Fulking on Neighbourhood Planning. Tricia Robinson gave a review of the progress made by the Village Hall Action Group.

7. Comments from the floor.

8. Dates of next Ordinary Parish Council meetings July 12, October 11, January 10 2013.

Meeting closed at 9.30pm

[ BoilerPlate plate = “PC_Disclaimer” ]

2011 07 11 PC Minutes

Minutes of the Parish Council Meeting Held on Thursday 7th July 2011 at 7.30pm

MT, PR, KW, LD & DS. Clerk to the Council. Apologies from MSDC & WSCC representatives. 20 Members of the public present.

The minutes from the last Ordinary Parish Council meeting held on 14th April 2011 were approved.

Tony Brooks wrote to SDNP re: operation of the 28 days rule for the flight strip, however has no response to date. Pump House adjacent to the public house — SDNP were to take over responsibility for this issue, however no further correspondence has been received. Bus Services Cuts: No 17 from A281. WSCC have not jetted the drains outside the Old Thatch. This issue is in need of attention,

Fulking Village Hall: The Chairman gave a brief update on the VH. The Chairman then introduced Rev Currer to brief the meeting in more detail. Rev Currer reported that the Hall belongs to the Parochial Church Council. The hall has been in disrepair for many years. Discussions have taken place regarding selling the site, or demolishing the building and rebuilding. The PCC were reluctant to sell the site commercially. A letter of intent was received by the PCC from residents proposing to develop the site and build a hall for the use in the village. It would be agreed that should this option there would be an agreement that the use is non-commercial gain and for development for the village. This is the current position and still under discussion. The Big Society encourages this type of work with communities. There would be a village trust in place should this option be chosen in order to ensure there are no commercial sales in the future. The ownership was registered without the deeds for the VH therefore whoever purchases the site would take out insurance in order to cover any Covenants issues. Suggestions took place regarding the possibility of the Church considering leasehold for the VH site. The PCC will aim to keep the village informed of the progress on this issue. The next steps are for the PCC to meet with the proposing group to discuss further. The next step should this proceed would be for a surveyor to come and inspect the site for advice. A proposal then goes to the dioceses of Finance for approval before going to solicitors. It was felt it was important to ensure the village have been consulted as part of this proposal. Discussions took place regarding historic ownership. The PC could not afford this in the past due to the costs involved. Thanks extended to Caroline Currer for attending the meeting this evening.

Local Planning: Lower Kents — Cllr Rowland updated: 2 buildings – one achieved retrospective planning. The second building required full planning permission; however there had been delays due to Elections and neighbourhood issues with consultation. MSDC thought there was no need for this application to go to committee, however, following lengthy discussions with our MSDC Cllrs we have managed to get this to go to committee. No date set yet.

Market Garden — The 5-year agreement expires on 26th Sept 2011 in order to give MSDC time to establish further information. Martin Small and Mike Bleakley from SDNP are the Link Officers for MSDC, and have been involved in this issue. It would be key to continue with Mike Bleakley with this issue as the SDNP are not happy with the current situation. The owner is thought to be registered at the Withey Patch, so the 5 year agreement was due to the lack of availability to re-homing them. CLAG asked for support from the PC to work with MSDC to establish what has been worked on in the 5 years since this 5 year temporary planning was granted. The PC agreed this issue will be supported and will work with CLAG where required. The land is understood to be owned by the Hearne family. Cllr Dyos updated that the SDNP felt this was of significant issue, therefore will require further investigation.

Old Pump House — Previously known as smugglers walk. A mobile home was placed in situ in April, and subsequently the Enforcement Officers from MSDC completed a site visit. There is a 6-8 week timescale currently for the removal of the mobile home, along with various building materials. There has been a history of Enforcement issues with this property.

Backway: It was noted there are more vehicles using the backway. Access for 3 vehicles only had been agreed. This is a Bridleway, and should be 1 metre wide. The Chairman informed members that this issue was not for the Parish Council and this should be discussed between the residents in the area.

The Village Action Plan: to be delivered with this week’s Pigeon Post. Thanks to all those who have worked on the Action Plan.

Notice Board: Cllr Dyos stated that the current notice board is in need of repair and is too small. Clerk to look into the costs of a new notice board.

Concerns have been mentioned to Cllr Watson regarding the control of dogs around the access land in order to protect nesting birds. 1st of March to 31st July. Information is on the National England Website.

Next Meeting Date: Thursday 6th October 2011 at 7.30pm.

Meeting closed at 9pm.

[ BoilerPlate plate = “PC_Disclaimer” ]

Christmas Party: 22nd December

This year’s fancy dress party is to be held in the Village Hall starting at 8:00pm on 22nd December. The theme, as in previous years, is “Vicars and Tarts”.

[Polly says: last year, Revd. Richard Brown and a group of young ladies from Whitehawk had to be turned away on the grounds that, strictly speaking, they were not wearing fancy dress. We hope to avoid a recurrence of this embarrassing episode.]

Christmas Party