Minutes of Ordinary Meeting held 9th July 2020 (Draft)

Minutes of the Ordinary Council Meeting Fulking Parish Council held Thursday 9th July 2020 at 7.30pm online. 

Present 

Chairman:                                          Cllr Firth
Fulking Parish Council (FPC):                Cllrs Dyos, Healy and Leader
Mid Sussex District Council (MSDC):   Cllrs Colin Trumble and Alison Bennett
West Sussex County Council (WSCC): Cllr Joy Dennis
Parish Clerk:                                       Trevor Parsons 

There were no members of the public present. The meeting opened at 7.30pm. 

20/048/0M.    Apologies for Absence were received from Cllr Mark Hind (FPC) and Cllr Rodney Jackson (MSDC) 

20/049/OM.   Declaration of Members’ Interests. There were no declarations of interest 

20/050/OM.   Approve the Minutes* of the Ordinary Council Meeting 2nd April 2020, Annual Council Meeting 7th May 2020, Extraordinary Council Planning Meeting of 23rd April 2020, 11th June 2020 and 30th June 2020:   

The minutes were read and approved by the meeting and will be signed by the Chairman accordingly  

20/051/OM.   Planning Applications Update. 

Reference  Name  Application Details  FPC Decision  SDNPA Decision 
SDNP/20/00159/FUL  Knole House  Demolition and replacement of 2 storey house  18/02/19
Unanimously in favour 
Superseded by SDNP/20/00159/FUL 30/06/20 
SDNP/20/00670/HOUS  Perching Sands Farmhouse  Erection of single storey garden studio  02/04/20
Unanimously against 
Application withdrawn 24/04/20 
SDNP/20/00649/HOUS  7 Clappers Lane  Extension to outhouse  02/04/20
Unanimously in favour 
Approved 04/05/20 
SDNP/20/01347/HOUS  Perching Holt  Extension and alteration to outdoor space  23/04/20
4 neutral, 1 in favour 
Approved 10/06/20 
SDNP/20/01882/FUL  Paythorne  Farm  New on-farm visitor accommodation comprising 1 shepherd’s hut and 2 pods.     11/06/20
1 neutral, 4 in favour 
Approved 06/07/20 
SDNP/20/00159/FUL  Knole House  Demolition and replacement of 2 storey house  30/06/20
Unanimously Neutral 
Application in progress 

20/052/OM.   Reports from District and County Councillors.   

Cllr Joy Dennis emailed the latest WSCC report to councillors separately and reported at the meeting the following 

  • Recent changes have occurred regarding shielding and WSCC will continue to offer support via the Community Hub 
  • WSCC are working with privately owned care homes to create a Sussex federation to better co-operate in future. 
  • PROW and footpath inspections have restarted. 
  • There is likely to be an £85m funding shortfall due to COVID-19 for WSCC which may affect capital projects. 
  • Two traveller groups are currently in Sussex. They are being moved on leaving significant amounts of litter for the district councils to remove. 
  • Cllr Dyos reported a temporary road repair at S & D and Cllr Dennis indicated that a permanent repair for the stretch to S & D could be completed in the near future. 

Cllrs Trumble and Bennett of MSDC reported 

  • MSDC are enduring a financial impact to COVID-19 likely to be around £4.2m caused by higher outgoings and loss of revenue including the leisure centres costing £275k pm which will rise by £160k pm when they re-open. 
  • Home working of staff has been a success with little loss of productivity. 
  • Homelessness has risen to 103 persons, some of whom will require additional mental health support. 
  • MSDC own 15 properties which are used to house the homeless and MSDC has agreed a budget of £4.2m to purchase a further 15 units across Haywards Heath, Burgess Hill and East Grinstead. 
  • Mid Sussex Applauds is being run again in 2020 and nominations are being sought. 
  • MSDC will be undertaking risk assessments at their nine largest playgrounds to establish whether they are safe to re-open. Cllr Trumble will keep us informed of their findings. 

20/053/OM.  Matters Arising & Outstanding Actions:  To clarify and report on actions brought forward from the last meeting. 

Village Signs Cllr Firth reported that there are three options. (I) engage the original painter, Nick Breamer (ii) use the craftsman from Newtimber to build new signs (iii) approach an artist in the village to repaint the signs. Further reports to follow. 

Village Gates – Cllr Firth Reported that three entry gates would cost around £700 each plus installation and suggested a village poll to gauge opinion and local funding would be appropriate. Three councillors were in favour of this action and one against. 

Ram Pump – Clerk reported progress with SDNP being made however the grant funding portal is currently closed due to COVID-19. 

Yellow Lines – Cllr Dennis suggested a collaboration with Edburton and Poynings for a Community Highway Scheme to include yellow lines at S & D as a way to move the matter forward. Clerk to investigate. 

Bridlepath to Henfield  – Cllr Leader advised that a pelican crossing would not be permitted at the crossing of A281 in Woodmancote and the only other available option would be for Woodmancote PC to install Village gates to calm traffic speeds.  

Visioning Exercise  – Councillors have decided to re-focus on this action after the October 2020 meeting. 

Operation Watershed – Clerk reported that WSCC had been in touch and to liaise with Tom Elphick of Landbuild to resubmit the application. 

Village Hall Lease – No further progress to report 

20/054/OM. NTF Playground – Covid-19 closure. 

Cllr Firth has completed a risk assessment and assessed against current government guidelines concludes the playground should remain closed until the findings of the MSDC risk assessments are publishedAgreed by councillors.  

Cllr Firth and Clerk to liaise on 20th July followed by an all councillor Teams update on 23rd July 

Cllr Firth has instructed weekly inspections of the playground by councillors once the playground is re-opened.  

The RoSPA report has been produced and confirms no major defects in the area requiring immediate remediation. 

20/055/OM.  Winter Plan Update – Cllr Hind to undertake grit audit and report to WSCC as usual. 

20/056/OM.  Reports from Outside BodiesNone 

20/057/OM.   Information Items.  To receive information and items for the agenda at future meetings. 

ACTION – Clerk to write to WSCC following the recent conservation report to obtain an update on the action points raise in the document. 

20/058/OM.   2020 – 2021 Precept – Clerk reported that first tranche of precept has been received and that the 2019-2020 AGAR was completed and the Certificate of Exemption have been acknowledged by the auditor 

20/059/OM.   Correspondence.  To discuss correspondence and respond to correspondence received. 

Email received from a villager asking if residents parking permits were available for Clappers Lane. The email was acknowledged however no parking schemes are being considered at present.  Councillors felt that resident parking in this particular section of the lane might be counter-productive and that they had looked in detail at various options some time ago, reporting to a public meeting at the time. Councillors acknowledge that it is a particular problem area for parking in the village and needs monitoring in the future 

20/060/OM.   Financial Matters: To receive the report on the Council’s income and to approve future expenditure. 

Clerk reported that MSDC have still not responded to the question of the 100% increase in dog bin collection fees from £330pa to £660pa and that the invoice is still outstanding. 

All other invoices are paid and in line with budget set in October 2019. 

Date of the next Ordinary Meeting: Thursday 8th October 2020 at Fulking Village Hall at 7.30pm.