BLACKMORE, HOOK END & WYATTS GREEN PARISH COUNCIL
MINUTES
Of the Ordinary Meeting of the Blackmore, Hook End &
Wyatts Green Parish Council held on
THURSDAY 21st JANUARY 2021 at 10.00am
Zoom Conference Meeting:
Members present: R Keeble (Acting Chairman), N McCarthy, T Lockhart, K Bennett, H Cannon, A Watley, J Clarke, S Clapham (Parish Clerk) and R Nelson (RFO). Borough Cllr Peter Jakobsson. Mrs Tracy Hinton (co-option).
1416 APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE
Cllr Dean, Cllr Lennon.
1417 APPROVAL OF MINUTES – 17.12.20
The minutes were signed as a correct record by the Clerk on the Chairman’s behalf.
1418 CO-OPTION – Mrs Tracy Hinton (of Doddinghurst)
The Clerk confirmed that all checks had been carried out and the Clerk had duly advertised the vacancy. It was confirmed by BBC that Mrs Hinton could be co-opted at the meeting. Mrs Hinton accepted the post and was welcomed onto the Parish Council. The Clerk will send an electronic version of acceptance of post until such time that she could visit the office to sign the official register.
1419 DECLARATION OF INTEREST (for items on the agenda): Nil
1420 OPEN FORUM (for Public Attendees) – none registered with the Clerk
1421 PROGRESS CHECK -nil
1422 CORRESPONDENCE
- The Clerk had been contacted by Pamela Rue enquiring whether she could have a charity stall on the Green on both May Bank Holidays – 3rd and 31st May.
It was proposed by Cllr Keeble and unanimously agreed that approval be given on the same basis as before, and the Clerk would confirm the terms and conditions in writing with Mrs Rue in due course. It was noted that this was to be on a non-commercial basis as before.
1423 REPORTS OF BOROUGH AND COUNTY COUNCILLORS
- Cllr Jakobsson advised that he had reported episodes of flooding in Blackmore – St Lawrence Gardens, Chelmsford Road and Redrose Lane with County Cllr Lesley Wagland.
Cllr Keeble reported on the following:
- He advised that whilst the blocked drain on Nine Ashes road (adjacent to the Millennium Park field) had been cleared by ECC, he felt there must be a blockage further down the system which could be responsible for the St Lawrence Garden flooding. However, Cllr Watley advised that St Lawrence Gardens had been subject to flooding even before the drain had been cleared. This has been reported to ECC.
- All works are to be forwarded to the Clerk and/or Cllr Keeble ahead of the BBC NAT’s visit on 8th February.
- Cllr Keeble had reported a local fly tipping spot to BBC and this had been dealt with.
POLICY & RESOURCES
1424 Finance – Payments made online:
S Clapham –
HMR&C –
Pension –
R Nelson –
Total Landscapes – £160.00 – Inv.no.022120. installation of 8 new parish signs
Castle Water – £198.33 – supply to allotment
Castle Water – £21.29 – supply to war memorial
DGL (Stuart Allan) – £18.43 – new ‘no dogs’ signs for Mill Lane play area
RCCE membership renewal – £72.60
Bits & Bytes – £70.00 – ant virus upgrade (clerk’s laptop)
MD Landscapes – £450.00 – hedge cutting at Walter Hobbs and Millennium Park
Total Landscapes – £384 (inc VAT) – installation of refurbished seat at Mill Lane
Neil O’Riordan – £1764 – Mill Lane works and Walter Hobbs footbridge steps
Mr & Mrs Cooper – £50 – Electricity supply for Xmas lights
Andy Elmes – £50 – fee to disconnect lights at the Coopers
Hatch Roof – £168 (inc VAT) – Blackmore village hall roof repair fee
Deckanon (payment taken off hold) – £1584 – inv.no.887 – Walter Hobbs handrails
Payments made on the PC Credit Card:
NBB Recycled Furniture – seat ground anchor kit – £21.60 (inc VAT) – Judi Wood to reimburse once memorial seat installed
Amazon – £36.16 (inc VAT) – 2 boot scrapers for Ted Marriage field
ALCC – £40.00 – membership renewal
Cash drawn – £1460 – for the Blackmore Parochial Charity – Mrs Nelson advised that £150 had not been able to be given out to the recipient. This will be held over.
Mini bus: Still Temporarily out of use & off-road SORN declaration.
It was agreed that Cllr Keeble would look to purchase a ‘trickle charge’ battery charger as the bus had been out of action for so long this would prove useful.
Receipts/Income: £3,000.00 ECC CIF grant for the Ted Marriage zip wire project
1425 Financial Report to 31st December 2020
Mrs Nelson reported on the financial reports as distributed prior to the meeting. All approved with no amendments. Cllr Bennett advised that there would be a year end surplus of just under £3,000 and all items had now been included within the budget as requested by Committees.
Financial Powers
1426 Approval of the 2021/22 budget – It was proposed by Cllr Bennett and unanimously agreed that the 2021/22 budget be approved, as circulated, without amendment.
1427 Setting the Parish Precept 2021/22 – After careful consideration it was proposed by Cllr Bennett and unanimously agreed that the parish precept be raised from £62.75 to £63.75 for a Band D property. The Clerk will notify BBC.
1428 MAGAZINE COMMITTEE – Parish Council Year Book
Subject to the Covid Govt. regulations at the time, it was hoped that Mr and Mrs Smith would be able to assist with the production of the Parish year book. This will be published in May/June, after the Local Elections on 6th May. A separate meeting will be scheduled to take this forward with Mr and Mrs Smith.
PLANNING COMMITTEE
1429 Planning applications were dealt with by Committee Members on 22nd December, and the Planning Committee Chairman emailed the reports to the BBC Planning Department. The reports were approved by full Council. Cllr Lockhart read out his report, as follows:
On 22nd December 5 applications were considered in the parish. The reports sent to BBC have been circulated to all members, as follows:
- Halcyon, Wyatts Green Road – rear annexe extension (20/01740/HHA) no objection
- Meadvale, Chelmsford Road – change of design of garage (20/01654/HHA) revised application no objection
- 6 Glen Hazel, Hook End – front & rear extensions (20/01812/HHA) no objection
- 60 Plovers Mead, Wyatts Green- 2 storey side extension – revised application (20/01813/HHA) no objection
- Trees, Wrights Lane, – car port & porch etc (20/01339/HHA) no objection
Planning applications in our Parish recently processed by Brentwood:
Halcyon, Wyatts Green Road – rear annexe extension (approved)
27 Woollard Way – new 3 bed detached house (approved)
The next planning meeting will be held on 26th January and at present 3 applications had been received, as circulated to all members.
1430 LDP Public Examination
Clerk’s updates:
H&H (David Whipps) is registered to speak collectively for Blackmore PC and BVHA at the following sessions:
Tuesday 2 Feb 2021 – AM session (matter 7a) – Site selection methodology (we query the hierarchy classification used)
Wednesday 3 Feb 2021 – PM session (matter 7g) – Site allocations – Rural villages (Kelvedon Hatch and Blackmore)
David Whipps is also registered to speak at the following session, for which the Clerk will need to get approval for extra expenditure as the current £5,000 has been reached, as recently notified by H&H. The Clerk has written to H&H for the estimate: (still pending H&H quote).
Wednesday 10 Feb 2021 – PM session (matter 9) – Gypsies, Travellers and Travelling show people accommodation (Issue 10)
All sessions will be streamed via BBC’s YouTube channel.
PARKS & OPEN SPACES
There had been a POS Committee meeting on Monday 18th January 2021 at 10.00am via Zoom. The minutes, as circulated, were approved by the Council. The following items of business were discussed:
1431 Christmas lights
The Clerk is purchasing the spare lights up to the value of £600 as agreed.
1432 Peter Wood’s Memorial seat, The Green, Blackmore
The Clerk had spoken with Judi Wood and gave updates as follows:
- Mrs Wood would purchase the NBB 3 seater seat costing £399.99, as agreed by members
- The Clerk had purchased the ground anchor kit for £18.00 (+ VAT) and Mrs Wood would reimburse the PC after installation
- Mrs Wood will supply the plaque (not the PC)
- The Clerk had provided Mrs Wood with the £320 quote for the PC to install it
- Location agreed: the corner of the Green near to Megarry’s Antique shop.
1433 Double Taxation
A remote meeting had been held on 19th January at 7.00pm between BBC and the PC to discuss the double taxation issue.
Double taxation arises when concurrent functions, which can be carried out by both the Borough and Parish Council, are paid for in both the Council Tax raised by the Borough and the Parish Precept.
The Clerk and RFO had supplied information and figures to BBC for consideration. This consisted of fees relating to dog and waste bin services and grass cutting schedules which could be used as examples of Concurrent functions.
Action: The Clerk is drafting funding examples as set out by other Councils and a further meeting will be held in March/April to discuss this.
There is a BBC and Parish Council Liaison meeting scheduled remotely on 21st January at 6pm. All nine parish Councils will be in attendance – The Clerk and Cllr Keeble will attend. This will be the first meeting in over two years.
1434 CLERK’S REPORT (Governance)
- Accessibility compliant website – Cllr McCarthy anticipated the website would be live sometime in February but confirmed it had been a very slow process.
1435 DATE OF NEXT MEETINGS –
POS – 15th February 2021 at 10.00am – Zoom.
PC – 18th February 2021 at 10.00am – Zoom.
Planning – 26th January 2021 at 10.00am – Zoom.
INFORMATION EXCHANGE/NEXT AGENDA ITEMS
1436 Nil
CLOSE OF MEETING
There being no further items of business, the meeting closed at 11.15am.