MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF CLYRO COMMUNITY COUNCIL
HELD IN THE VILLAGE HALL ON
TUESDAY 14 OCTOBER 2008 AT 7.00PM

89a. PRESENT: Cllr B Morgan (Chairman), Cllr V Price, Cllr E Brown, Cllr H Wheeler, Cllr G Green, Cllr P Keylock.

89b. IN ATTENDANCE: County Councillor Mrs M Morris, PC F Thomas

90. APOLOGIES: Cllr D Hood, Cllr A Williams, Cllr E Thorneycroft

91. MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING: These were accepted as a true record by councillors and signed by the Chairman.

92. DECLARATION OF INTEREST (if any): Cllr Green would abstain from the voting.

93. RESPONSIBLE PERSON for the duration of the meeting for fire regulations:Cllr B Morgan (Chairman), who pointed out all fire exits.

94. PLANNING MATTERS: including any updates on applications, including:

a. P2008 1402 Full: Deemed: Siting of mobile unit for staff accommodation and external works at Clyro C/W Controlled School, Clyro. Plans were passed to councillors. There were no objections. Cllr Green abstained from the vote.

95. MATTERS ARISING: These will include:

a. Community Council Assets – Cllr Morgan confirmed that the assets had been inspected and there were no problems to report.

b. Traffic Calming – Clerk had contacted the Highway Department of Powys County Council as requested, to establish the cost of purchasing a flashing, advisory speed limit sign, as seen in Hay on Wye. The cost of such a sign would be approximately £2000.

96. REPORTS ON DOCUMENTS READ, MEETINGS ATTENDED, ACTIVITIES etc including:

a. SCHOOL GOVERNORS REPORT:

There was nothing to report.

b. POLICE REPORT:

PC Thomas informed councillors that this was the first day on duty after breaking a leg, which was why he had not attended the previous meeting. He went on to report that there had been a good period over the last 5/6 weeks. Scrap theft had gone down. Two quads had gone missing but there were no leads at the moment. People travel a long way to steal them, but work was in progress on this.

In relation to the festival that had been held at Clyro Court. This had been held with little notice of intent as the venue had been changed from Bristol. Police would be objecting to further events of this nature. It had not been a family event at all. There were 32 drug offences. Security alerted police of drug taking. Arrangements had been made quickly because of the change of venue. The offences which had occurred would show in the stats later in the year.

Cllr Morris mentioned that Clyro Court was now a private residence. PC Thomas agreed and stated that an application should have been made to hold such an event, they needed to be licensed. Perhaps Cllr Morris could check with the Licensing Officer.

PC Thomas then advised councillors that there had been public concerns about the switching off of street lights in certain locations. The Safety Dept would be looking into where lights had been turned off as it could cause an increase in crime and anti social behaviour in some areas. The chances of this are low but the public are still wary of it. Where cars are parked in 30mph limits, then lights should be on as this could cause accidents.

There had been a few more section 59’s handed out to boys who had been driving their cars in an anti social way.

c. REPORT FROM COUNTY COUNCILLORE MRS M MORRIS:

The situation regarding street lighting had been brought to the attention of a meeting of the Board (comprising of 15 councillors). Each department had been asked to make 5% savings. Cllr Morris stated that County Councillors had not been consulted. She had maps showing where lights had been turned off which she would bring to the next meeting. The Legal Dept. had been contacted but it was legal. There had been a lot of letters received stating that a review of the situation was needed.

If the maps show lights should be in place then letters should be sent complaining about it.

The Chairman mentioned that a lot of give way signs were not on. He also asked about lights on junctions. He asked what had changed as in the past they had been told that they had to have the whole system of 19 lights and that they couldn’t just have a few, particularly by the school.

d. REPORT FROM MR DAVID DAVIDSON, HILLCREST/PENTWYN:

There was no report at this time.

Allan Southeby chief planning officer
All planning applications to go on line in the near future, paper planning applications to continue as well for the foreseeable future.
A duty planning officer will be available at all times for information.

Peter Morris
Gave us an update on the U D P which has still not been adopted, and as a consequence the
L D P can’t be started.

Richard Hobbs
Spoke about street lighting, Powys has a street lighting budget of half a million pounds, he told us that 67% of lighting not in core areas will be turned off.
Powys are not continuing with part night time lighting owing to costs, it costs £28 per light to supply and fit a photo cell.

Sandra Matthews
Chief elections officer gave us a breakdown of the 2008 elections, and thanked all council clerks for their help in handing out election packs and generally assisting councillors.

There were 987 uncontested Community Council seats, 125 seats unfilled and 4 councils without a quorum.

On average election costs are £178 for an uncontested election, and £815 for a contested election.
These costs are combined with county council costs.

Clarence Meredith
Spoke about on the code of conduct, nothing of interest for us.

These meetings are useful in that it gives us a chance to speak to other councillors and get an idea of their problems and thoughts.

I think that Margaret deserves a vote of thanks for reconvening this useful meeting.

97. CORRESPONDENCE:

1. PCC – Tidy Towns Initiative – PCC have been successful in its recent bid to WAG for substantial grant funding to help communities improve the local environment and the quality of their neighbourhoods. Councillors agreed not to act on this.

2. ONE VOICE WALES AGM 11 October 2008. Motions for debate. Five motions had been selected and were brought to councillors attention.

3. PCC – Clarification on the recent changes in Street Lighting Provision – Outlining the policy of switching off lights in non-core areas as it was felt that there was some misunderstanding about this. The letter also reiterated the core areas where lighting would not be switched off.

4. BDO Auditors – Approval of accounts. Clerk read the letter stating that all paperwork for auditing was to be submitted by 30 September 2008, if not a statement should be issued as to why this had not been done. The Clerk informed councillors that all paperwork for Clyro Community Council had been forwarded to the auditors on 26 September 2008.

5. COUNTY COUNCILLOR MRS M MORRIS – Hedgetrimming/footpath to Hay on Wye. Cllr Morris had approached the owner who had stated that the hedgetrimming would be done some time. The Chairman stated that the tarmaccing of the footpath needed more work done on it. There needs to be a proper pavement there.

6. WAG – Guidance for Community & Town Councils in Wales – Clean neighbourhoods and environment act. The Chairman took this to read.

7. SHAW & SONS – Society of Local Council Clerks – Examples of forms, records and registers etc. which the company stocked and sold. Clerk to keep for future record.

8. ZURICH – Proposed Changes to the Zurich’s Services Group Structure – The letter outlined the proposed changes, the main one was that there would now be an office in Britain. No changes would be made to the policy held by Clyro Community Council.

9. PCC – BT Payphone Consultation – 2 potential schemes offered to save phone boxes which involved either adopting a phone box or sponsoring a phone box. Councillors declined this.

98. FINANCIAL: Current Account Balance £2551.03. Precept of £750 instalment had been paid into this account on 29 August. Cheques drawn: £130.42, Clerks Salary. Reserve Account Balance: £2815.00 interest accrued of £14.12.

Payments to include: Clerk’s Salary £130.42 + admin expenses £30.26 = £160.68. This was proposed by Cllr Keylock and seconded by Cllr Brown. All were in favour.

99. ANY OTHER BUSINESS:

Cllr Brown informed councillors that the 2 ^nd meeting of the Advisory/Liaison Committee – Hillcrest/ Pentwyn, was held on 24 September. Chairperson was Mrs D Dempster. Mr David Davidson of Hillcrest/Pentwyn was present. He reported that there had only been 1 incident involving 2 boys who went missing. Things had quietened down at present.

The Chairman stated that the open day that had been held at Hillcrest/Pentwyn had gone well and was well worth attending.

There being no other business the meeting was closed at 8.15pm.