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Minutes 8th January 2025 Draft

Agendas and MinutesCurrent Year Uploaded on January 20, 2025

                     Berwick Bassett and Winterbourne Monkton Parish Council
Minutes of the meeting of the Council held on Wednesday 8th January 2025, at 7.30pm. at Winterbourne Monkton Community Hall.
Present: Cllr Woodward (Chair), Cllr J Petchey, Cllr S Petchey (Note Taker), Cllr Scott, Cllr Pattison, Cllr. Feeley. Wiltshire Councillor Jane Davies joined for the first part of the meeting.
Abby Craigie (Clerk)

1. Apologies for absence: None received.
2. Declarations of interest: None.
3. Co-option of new Councillor: Cllr Laura Feeley was co-opted on to the Council.
4. Questions from the Public: None.
5. Minutes of meeting of Wednesday 4th December 2024 and matters arising:
No matters arising. Accepted and approved. Signed by Chair.
6. Councillor Jane Davies :
– Wilts Council was awarded a top rating by Ofsted for Children’s Services. Adult Services has been reviewed and the rating is waited.
– The Government is pursuing the establishment of a Mayor for the ‘Heart of Wessex’ to include Wiltshire, Dorset, and nearer part of Somerset. The pressure to accept this is that £20m of central funding is at stake for disbursement by the Mayor if this office is accepted by Wilts Council. Separately from this, Wilts is losing 90% of the Rural Grant (£6m) for non-core funding.
– All council elections, including local and parish, will be at the expense of that council.
– Winterbourne Monkton speed signage entering the main village road. Our request q1 for action to be taken regarding the delimit from the A4361entering the village, which is clearly absurd given the width etc of the village road was misunderstood by the relevant decision makers, LHFIG and Highways, who offered ‘slow’ signs on the road into Berwick Bassett even though these had not been requested.
Action: Chair to follow up original request with LHFIG.
7. Chair’s update
– National Trust car park. Unresolved: Chair to continue to pursue.
– Winterbourne Lea flooding: Chair to make contact again with landowner .
– Follow up on delimit issue (above).
8. Councillors’ written reports
Cllr Scott (Finance}:. The meeting authorised payments as follows:
– £192 to the Clerk as salary for January
– £26.99 Purchase of postbox installed on the Community Hall by RFO
– Up to £200 for the purchase and installation of a new dog bin outside the New Inn
The Council has total funds of £10587, of which £8000 has recently been transferred into an interest bearing instant access savings account. The budget for 25/26 is unchanged.
Cllr Pattison Planning): nothing new to report
Cllr Swinyard: in his absence the ‘village roads’ item was deferred.
Cllr S.Petchey: reported that he had received complaints from visitors who had parked their cars on the Old Dairy Lane roads. Apparently someone had fixed ‘no parking’ notices on vehicles, in some cases leaving sticky deposits on windscreens. He had confirmed with Rivar Ltd that they remain the owners of all the estate roads, and they had not authorised any parking action. They suggested contacting the management company (Lambert Smith Hampton).
9. Open Spaces Contribution
The Open Spaces Contribution was discussed. It was agreed that the invoice to initiate the payment by Wiltshire Council should be submitted after the financial year end. This would obviate the necessity of undertaking an external audit this year.
10. Council website and Mail System
Work has continued in updating and revising the website. The Council accepted the deferral of any move to a .gov mail address pending indications that the government would seriously pursue this.
11. Dog Bins
Funding agreed for a further bin as above.
12. Items for Press Release
This will include details of the new appointments in the Council, installation of benches, and the roads situation.
13. Next meeting
Wednesday 5th February 2025 at 7.30pm in the Community Hall.