MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF BELPER TOWN COUNCIL HELD ON 18th JULY 2001
PRESENT: Councillor Randall Sanders (Town Mayor) in the Chair,
Councillors Tim Benson, Alan Broughton, Ron Buzzard, Alan Cox, Ron Day, Michael Handley, Pete Leahy, Ben Miller, John Nelson, Joyce Sanders and Richard Watson.
- APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE
Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Elaine Emmott and Robert Hallsworth.
- CHANGE IN ORDER OF BUSINESS
It was agreed to take the item on the Showground which had been included on the Supplementary Agenda at the end of the main Agenda.
- DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST
Councillor Alan Cox declared an interest in item 12 (Planning Applications) and any other matters which had planning implications.
Councillor Ben Miller declared an interest in item 13 (Justices and Entertainments Licences).
Councillor Joyce Sanders declared an interest in item 12 (Planning Applications) in so far as it related to application AVA/2001/0115 (Matthew Smith Almshouses - 2 bedroomed house on Crich Lane).
- POLICE REPORT
PC Nigel Coulstock presented the crime figures for the Belper Division from 1st April to 30th June. There was particular concern at the low detection rate for vehicle crime and at the level of house burglaries this June compared with June 2000 where burglaries had increased from 5 to 25.
Reference was made to the two thefts of Council property in the last week, the first being two sets of sponsorship signs at Milford Triangle where the police had been given possible leads and the second the theft of a strimmer from the Council's depot on Saturday 14th July. It was hoped that the police would use the CCTV recordings to identify the thief.
The Chief Constable's letter was also considered. Although the letter reiterated the earlier advice that the local beat team would be in place by the end of this year, PC Coulstock said that it now appeared that the Belper Division would not have a team in place until this time next year. A letter would be sent to the Chief Constable urging him to bring forward the establishment of the team to the date originally intended.
PC Coulstock also reported that £101,000 had been included in this year's and next year's budgets for drug enforcement action in the Amber Valley Division.
There was a general discussion on the Police's policies and actions in relation to speed checks. It was considered that instead of the speed checks being carried out in the same place on a fairly regular basis, they should be more random in their targeting. A further letter would be sent to the Chief Constable on this subject.
- 323 PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
- ITEMS BEING TAKEN IN CAMERA
It was agreed to take minutes 317 and 318 of the Council meeting of 12th June in camera at the end of the meeting.
- MINUTES OF COUNCIL MEETING - 12th JUNE 2001
Minutes 292 to 316 of the meeting held on 12th June 2001 were received and approved.
- MATTERS ARISING FROM THE ABOVE MINUTES
The Mayor reported that he had visited the Showground with Barrie Whittaker and had been satisfied that the footprint of the proposed BMX ramp would be in keeping with the rest of the site and had therefore sanctioned the go ahead for the planning application.
295 - Ashford Rise Play Area
Councillor Michael Handley reported that the survey of properties in the neighbourhood of the play area had been carried out and he was meeting officers of Amber Valley Borough Council the following day to analyse the returns. The subsequent report would be forwarded to the Town Council so that it could be included on the next Council agenda.
As well as thanking the sponsors individually a letter would be sent to the Belper News thanking all the sponsors through the media in the hope of encouraging additional sponsorship for ensuing years.
- ALLOTMENT'S SEMINAR
The Mayor reported that he had attended the seminar by himself. It had been most informative and the various leaflets/papers he had circulated would be made available to interested members and the Secretary of the Hunter Road Allotments.
- MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL MEETING
The minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting and the Annual Meeting of the Council held on 19th June 2001 were received and approved.
It was agreed that in future these two meetings should be held as one annual meeting in accordance with best practice for larger town councils elsewhere.
- MINUTES OF THE RECREATION AND DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE HELD 10TH JULY 2001
The minutes of the Recreation and Development Committee of 10th July were received and noted.
Councillor John Nelson referred to the letter that had been sent from the Borough Council reminding the Town Council of the conditions of its licence for the Larks in the Parks concerts. As this was an administrative matter, rather than one of principle, the Town Clerk had not included it on the schedule of correspondence received.
It appeared that the conditions being imposed on the Larks in the Park events were more onerous than on events of a similar scale organised by other bodies. There was obviously far greater danger at events where the audience was well in excess of the 450 maximum at the "Larks". A letter would be sent to the Borough Council pointing out this fact in the hope that there will be some relaxation next year.
The Chair of the Recreation and Development Committee reported that a programme for the Words and Music events planned from September through to June would be finalised by the end of the month. Although it was hoped that they would be self financing it was agreed that they should be underwritten up to a sum of £1000 from contingencies.
- MAYOR'S ANNOUNCEMENTS
The Mayor said that he had thoroughly enjoyed his attendance at the Well Dressings event over the weekend and that he considered it to be the most successful yet. His remarks would be passed on to the organiser of the event.
- PLANNING APPLICATIONS
Councillor Joyce Sanders reported on the planning applications circulated on the 12th and 26th June and 12th and 18th July. There were no comments of any significance on the applications. However it was regretted that there was an application for change of use to residential for the Post Office at Milford. If this proceeded, there would be no Post Office or village shop left in Milford.
Councillor Joyce Sanders also referred to a letter that had been received from the Borough Council about the Local Plan Review that had just commenced. Councillor Alan Cox would obtain a copy of the First Draft Deposit so that those members who were not members of the Borough Council could be sent the relevant sections of the document.
- JUSTICES AND ENTERTAINMENTS LICENCES
Councillors made no comment on the applications for the two transfers of Justices Licences and the application for renewal of the Entertainment Licence at the Makeney Hall Hotel.
- PAYMENTS AND RECEIPTS
As the Edge Designs invoice was for £1,739 Councillor Alan Cox questioned why tenders had not been sought for the supply of a new desktop computer. He thought local firms would have been as competitive and their installation costs would have been significantly cheaper. The Town Clerk explained that the invoice covered several separate transactions, none of which exceeded £1000. As the Council's accounting system had been designed by Edge and all the other hardware and software had been installed by them he had considered it prudent to continue to use Edge to enhance the Council's system
- STANDING ORDERS
The various minor revisions to the Standing Orders were noted. It was pointed out that the reference to Standing Order 15 at the end of Standing Order 14 should in fact be to Standing Order 17.
At Councillor Alan Cox's suggestion it was agreed to substitute "May" for "June" in Standing Order 50 and amend Standing Order 4 to read:-
"In addition to the Annual Meeting of the Council, and any other meetings convened by the Town Mayor or by Members of the Council meetings shall be held on the first Tuesday of each month with the exception of August, or on such other Tuesdays as determined by the Council at its Annual Meeting."
- MEMBERSHIP OF OUTSIDE BODIES
a) The Leader's paper on the consequences of the changing role of Belper's Citizens Advice Bureau was noted but a decision on reducing the Council's representation on the Steering Group from two to one was deferred until the position was clarified.
b) The Belper Cottage Project had requested that the Council nominate a member to sit on their Management Committee. It was agreed to appoint Councillor Alan Broughton to this position.
c) Councillor John Nelson enquired into the Council's relationship with HMS Brocklesby. Attempts had been made to contact the Commander of the vessel over the last two years but without success. A further attempt would be made to re-establish the link by writing to the Admiralty.
- MARKETS
Councillor Michael Handley reported on the success of the first Thursday market and second Farmers' market that had been held in the previous week.
The reports on the meetings with representatives of Amber Markets on 20 June and with Mr Fraser Shaw on 10 July were noted. In particular, it was recognised that the position of the two existing markets should be consolidated before considering the Sunday market proposals. Councillor Handley suggested that there would be scope for further markets on Saturdays and put forward an idea for a student craft market as one possibility.
As the Coppice car park had been full at the last Farmers' market and was almost full for the Thursday market, members were concerned about the conflict that could possibly arise once the showmen take up their winter quarters. It was considered that the car park could take more cars if it was marked out properly. Quotes would be requested from companies specialising in the layout and marking of car parks.
- ST JOHN'S CHAPEL
The suggestion that Councillors Ron Buzzard and Robert Hallsworth meet with Norder to discuss the report and prioritise the steps that need to be taken was agreed.
- ROADSIDE ROAD SAFETY POSTER CAMPAIGN
After detailed consideration of the various roads where speeding was prevalent, it was agreed that the Council should nominate Chesterfield Road as its first priority and Crich Lane as its second priority. It would also ask the County Council to give consideration to extending their scheme to a third site at Ashford Rise.
- PRIVATE STREET WORKS
The letter from the County Council identifying the five streets that had been adopted recently was noted.
- TEMPORARY CLOSURE OF PUBLIC FOOTPATH
The temporary closure from 1st August 2001 to 31st January 2002 of footpath number 50 (at the rear of Deepdale Road) which had been approved at the Council's April meeting was noted.
- PARISH BOUNDARY
A letter from Amber Valley Borough Council concerning the change of boundaries between Belper and Holbrook and in particular the inclusion of Callwood Farm into Holbrook was considered. It was agreed that Callwood Farm should be transferred to Holbrook Parish Council and that the boundary change should take in all that land owned by the farm.
- SHOWGROUND
Two groups of travellers had been camped on the Showground for some three weeks. Despite their promises the travellers had not moved on and as a consequence the County Council had been approached to take the necessary steps to evict them. A notice to quit was about be served requiring the travellers to leave by 23 July. It was hoped that this would be sufficient to make the travellers leave without going on to the next stage of preparing court papers. However if court proceedings are necessary they will be commenced on August 6 with the object of using Court Bailiffs to move them on on 8 August if they have not moved before.
Council authorised the Town Clerk, in conjunction with the County Council, to take whatever steps were necessary to evict the travellers from the Showground.