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Draft Minutes of East and West Beckham Parish Council
Meeting Held on Thursday 12th March 2020
Present.
Cllrs. R. McNeil Wilson, (chairman),G. Place, D. Barrass, R. Batt, J. Dovey, K. Lord, T. Toyn.
J.Stibbons(clerk)
The chairman opened the meeting at 7.04pm,
1. Apologies Dist. Cllr. P. Butikofer
3.There were no declarations of interest.
4. The minutes of the meeting held on Thursday 9th January 2020, having been previously circulated, it was proposed by Cllr. Toyn they should be confirmed as correct. This was seconded by Cllr. Lord and carried.
The chairman then signed the minutes.
5. Matters arising from the Minutes NCC Highways will attend to the Holly tree which has partly blown into the road at the Nature area and have cut the hedge and cleared the ditch at the Garth.
6. Reports from County, District or Parish Councillors
Dist.Cllr. P. Butikofer. A written report was read to the meeting.
A copy of the report is attached to these minutes.
7. Solar Community Fund Committee
V.E.Day is on the 9th and 10th of May. The village hall will be open and there will be a large screen
television.
It was proposed by Cllr. Lord that a display board of local interest during the war years should be
installed in the village hall. This would be a permanent feature and the estimated cost would be
£250. This proposal was seconded by Cllr. Toyn and approved by the members.
The old West Beckham village sign will be removed so the base can be painted before the new sign
arrives. The new sign may not be delivered until after March.
It was agreed to obtain quotations for the cost of a new wooden bench to be placed in the bus
shelter.
8. Playing Field.
The inspection for January/February was carried out be Cllr, Toyn. The fencing near the road and the back fence near the sports wall are in poor repair. All fencing is to be kept under review and inspected regularly.
9. Insurance renewal The value for insurance purposes on the bus shelter has been increased from £2652 to £6000 and the new village sign has been included at £6500.
The premium has remained virtually the same at £473.78, the previous year being £467.27
10. Financial matters.
Bank Balances at 12/3/2020 Current a/c £7930.14 Savings a/c £17926.36
The following invoices were approved:-
The Village Sign People Invoice 141 £5675.00
Zurich Insurance Renewal 473.78
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11. Correspondence
Letters of thanks for donations were received from NARS, Priscilla Bacon Hospice and Air Ambulance
A publication concerning the Bio Diversity awards.
12. Matters for information only or for the next agenda.
It was noted that the access to the Village Green was becoming very overgrown.
There being no further business the chairman closed the meeting at 8.26pm.
Copy of the Report from District Councillor P. Butikofer
At full council meeting, held on 26th Feb 2020, the council tax for all properties has gone up. The increase of 3.99% is the maximum allowed. This is a £4.95 increase for NNDC (excluding town and parish precepts), a £54.27 increase for Norfolk County Council and a £9.99 increase for Norfolk Police and `crime Commissioner.
For every pound that is paid in council tax only 8p comes back to the district. NNDC delivers around 83 (63%) of the 137 essential local government services. It does that currently for a Council Tax charge of £148.77 for Band D domestic Council Tax properties.
NNDC also continues to have a Council Tax charge which out of over 190 District Councils in England, is amongst the lowest.
Following February’s storms and subsequent damage to the Splash Leisure Centre in Sheringham, NNDC is pleased to confirm it has commissioned essential repairs to the roof and the swimming pool is set to re-open, hopefully, at Easter.
The high winds damaged roof panelling and made it necessary, for safety reason, to close all pool access and commissioned a safety report.
Land adjacent to Splash is being sold in order to help overall funding towards the construction.
The council has bought two houses. These will be used for temporary emergency accommodation. At present the council have families having to live in the Spixworth area. There are currently 42 families requiring emergency housing – normally we have 12 but the rapid increase is due to landlords not taking on families that are on Universal credit.
Funds are in place to purchase another three properties.
These properties will eventually go into the property company currently being set up.
20,000 trees out of the 109,000 have currently been planted with1,500 being planted this week in Holt country park.
A new play area was unveiled in Holt Country Park. This included a modern zip line, bug see-saw and three different swings, one of which is an inclusive bucket swing and a ‘me and you’ swing where parents and toddlers can swing together..
The new area replaces the old playground which has been in place for 12 years and required updating and was funded by NNDC.
NNDC working in partnership with East Suffolk Council have taken the initiative to express concerns about the proposed onshore National Grid cable connections and wider implications for the district, in a letter to Dept of Business, Energy and Industrial Energy
Under proposed plans, both local authorities will see 40% of UK offshore wind generation pass through their districts.
The letter proposes that the Government explores the development of an Offshore Ring Main to minimise construction impact on the coastal region. The ring main would connect to the National Grid through one single cable connection, potentially saving the North Norfolk countryside from widespread infrastructure works delivered over many years.
Onshore wind turbines at Selbrigg and Bodham, NNDC is seeking additional legal advise and hopefully will make a decision in the very near future.
There being no further business the chairman closed the meeting at 8.26pm.
