Cllr. Bigg made mention of a meeting with the head of transport at GOSW attended by Cllrs. Glynn, Matthews and Bigg. Issues under discussion were:- 1) the Atkins report, 2) Whether or not there was funding available and 3) the Greater Bristol Transport Study. The overall objective was to get the new road line removed from the map. The response was that this was not achievable as it was a “finalised” report although it was likely that there would be opportunities in the future. There is no allocated funding and the issue was with NSC. It was admitted that there has been an element of study hence the report but the positioning of the “road” has not been determined. Cllr. Yamanaka indicated that from the NSC perspective the line was indicative but there are alternatives. NSC has no funding for an evaluation and no bid has been made. In reality any new road is unlikely until the year 2016.

The Minutes of the Meeting held on 19th December were adopted with the following amendments:

P2- line 8- for “current weight of traffic” read “future weight of traffic”.

P3-item 2- Litter bin- for “dire” read “fire”.

P5-BIA penultimate para. Cllr. Irving “delivered a prepared statement” and not “speech”.

P7, line1- Budget Consultation adds the word “had been” after “submission”.

Clerk’s Report.

1) ROSPA- now received a phone call advising that they are going to do a re-inspection.

2) Downside Road illnesses- no information forthcoming and the Council agreed that in the absence of this then the matter is to be treated as closed.

3) Standards Committee- minutes of meeting held 23rd November and agenda for 25th January 2007.

4) Local Access Forum- Minutes of Meeting held 10th October.

5) School Travel Showcase Tuesday 30th January at the Campus, Weston-Super-Mare from 1.30pm to 4.00 pm.

6) Badger Centre- leaflet describing its availability.

7) Children & Young People’s Services- results of consultation and possible funding for play pods, for both permanent and mobile sites, from Big Lottery Fund.

8) Publication-Community Action January edition.

9) NSC Sports facilities- the Clerk has completed a questionnaire and has also sent a revised consultation document to the relative sports clubs.

10) Copy letter received, via Cllr. Yamanaka, on the current position with regard to the new primary school to replace St. Katharine’s Primary School.

11) Letter of resignation from Dawn Judd as Tree Warden to the Parish. The Clerk was directed to write and thank her for her services and also send a “gardening gift voucher” for £30. Proposed by Cllr. Big and seconded by Cllr. Gallop. The Clerk is to include a request for a volunteer to replace Mrs. Judd in the Wrington Journal.

Highways Matters –

- The sub-committee produced a report on Community Speed Watch and the Council endorsed the recommendations. Cllr. Glynn indicated that he wished to take matters forward. Cllr. Yamanaka asked that the Council still forward a letter to Cllr. Crockford-Hawley, NSC, stressing the Council’s intent to set up a Speedwatch scheme within the Parish.

- Request from NSC to allow a village sign for Lower Langford to be placed near Blackmoor Bridge- agreed.

- Cllr. Atkins reported a collapsed drain cover near Melody Cottage , Downside- Clerk to report to NSC

- Cllr. Irving expressed concern that the edges to the lane in Long Lane (near Rockdunder) have been badly eroded and the Clerk was directed to bring this to the notice of NSC.

- School Travel Plan- it is expected that this will be completed and submitted to NSC before Easter. One proposal is for a “notional crossing” in Silver Street near the Memorial Road turning.

- General comment made about the state of hedges within the Parish and the appearance that they have been “massacred”. Cllr. Clements said that this was probably due to the new DEFRA regulations.

- Implementation of Decriminalised Parking Enforcement in North Somerset- notice that formal consultation on this matter will be forthcoming shortly.

Police – PC Tacchi produced a report showing that during the period 11th December 2006 to 26th January 2007 there were 14 crimes recorded with 5 being directly attached to BIA.

PC Tacchi mentioned an accident near Stepstones Farm and the problems he had encountered with First Bus due to their driver having a lack of knowledge of the English language- he is taking this matter up with First Bus.

The Council asked that PC Tacchi look at the parking in High Street especially near the junction with School Road.

Lighting- No report.

Skateboard Park * 33231.00 33231.00
Skateboard Park bins               333.00
Opus Studio                             600.00
Office Equipment                     1116.07
Alarm test                                45.00
Memorial Hall *    11509.45      11509.45
Memorial Hall      873.44

Total                     45613.89    46834.52


Confirmation has been received from NSC of the Precept and Village Orderly grant requests.

The Clerk has received quotations for the following:

Redecorate the inner hall to the John Locke Room £450
Two new dog bins at Alburys and Ladywell £173 + VAT per bin.

The Clerk is also to contact the owner of Priory House to see whether they would agree to a bin being placed nearby- this area has been the subject of complaints over dog-fouling.

Proposed by Cllr. Gallop and seconded by Cllr. Bigg that the expenditure be approved.

Memorial – request for alcohol

No requests.

Bristol International Airport – Cllr. Atkins issued a report from the BIA Consultative Committee Meeting of 24th January.

ALCA – The Clerk made comment on the ALCA January Newsletter and in particular its reference to Annual Parish Meetings and the forthcoming Council elections. Comment was also made on allowances for Clerk’s who use their home as an office.

Associated papers included Minutes of the Executive Committee Meeting held 24th August, Minutes of the ALCA NS Group Meeting held 2nd October and the agenda for the next meeting to be held 21st February and legal briefing on the Disability Discrimination Act and a briefing on “The Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill”. There was also a policy update which covered Section 137 indexation for 2007/08.

Annual Parish Meeting

After some discussion it was left that the Clerk would see if Redhill Village Hall was available on Thursday 26th April to host the Meeting.

Parish Plan

The Clerk mentioned a letter from Community Action on “Parish Plan Training & Networking events”. Cllr. Bigg was already aware of this.

Newsletter.

Cllr. Thorn agreed to co-ordinate on the basis that the format will be similar to last time’s. It was agreed that the sub-committees covering BIA and Traffic and Highways should submit a report particularly with the BIA Master Plan and the new road developments. The Clerk will submit matters relating to the 2007/09 Parish Budget and the forthcoming elections. Cllr. Irving to write on the Memorial Hall. The respective Chairman of the Parish Council and the Planning Committee to cover their topics. Cllr. Bigg to write on a “Spring Clean-up”.

The first draft is to be presented to the February Meeting and the aim is to get the Newsletter delivered before the end of March- the last day for applications to stand as a Parish Councillor is noon on Wednesday 4th April.

State of the Parish - whilst a request had been submitted to talk on the state of Wrington as a village the Clerk had widened the scope especially in view of the amount of rubbish at the back of BIA and the state of Winters Lane.

It was the view that the article in the newsletter would hopefully bring this to the attention of the Parishioners. The BIA sub-committee to seek the help of BIA regarding the problem at the back of the Airport.

The Clerk was also directed to speak with Mrs. Judd regarding planning of the bulbs won as a result of the Village of the Year competition.

Patient Practice Partnership

The Clerk reported on the Minutes of a Health Overview and Scrutiny Panel Meeting of 29th November and also an extract from the Minutes of 16th January relating to Draft revenue and Capital Budgets.

Report submitted by Cllrs Thorn and Bigg.

Further to our report on the PCT meeting held at Winscombe, we have to report on a meeting called by the PCT yesterday at Churchill Village Hall for those who had indicated interest in setting up a Rural Practices Forum.

About half a dozen PCT staff attended together with Dick Whittington from Community Action, the vice-chair of NSC Health Scrutiny and Review Panel, and c. 20 other people most of whom were patients of the Wrington Vale, and Winscombe and Sandford practices. Many were also parish councillors, members of volunteer local transport and help organisations. There were four of us from our PPP, including Jan Murray of Churchill, and Josie Tarnowski, Practice Manager.

A general discussion emphasised that any advisory/consultative forum should do more than receive for comment news of projects, policy, and decisions already taken by the PCT. It should act as a channel of communication from patients and practice staff to the PCT, who should give information about problems and possible projects at a very early stage, so that the forum could consult with the patients they represented as widely as possible, and feed back the results of this consultation to the PCT for them to develop their thinking accordingly.

Ideally, as many practices as possible would create consultative mechanisms similar to our own PPP. These could then federate and represent as wide a range of views to the PCT as possible. Membership of the forum should reflect geography and age-range, and use bodies such as parish councils, WIs, to reach as wide a range of patients as possible. Given the geography of the practices represented, it was agreed to recognise as a coherent single cluster Wrington Vale, Winscombe/Sandford, Congresbury, and Yatton. Other clusters in North Somerset would need to be identified.

Changes in the NHS mean that as many non-acute procedures as possible of those currently carried out in hospitals should be transferred to practices, which puts a premium on local knowledge of resources available – particularly public accommodation which could be used one or two days a week.

Of the non-PCT people attending, about a dozen indicated willingness to continue meeting to work on refining the modus operandi of the rural forum, define its membership, decide on timing and regularity of meetings. Those parish councillors attending, and members of other organisations, were asked to approach their organisations about formally recognising the existence of the forum, and make consideration of issues arising from the business of the forum a permanent item on their agendas, as well as facilitating the transmission of views and needs from their constituents to the PCT.

Consultations

The Clerk made mention of the ALCA survey and thanked those who had responded. It was agreed that the Clerk would complete the survey and that the Chair and Clerk would sign and submit.

Mention also made of the consultation on “The Issues and Options for waste in the West of England”. A series of meetings organised for the following dates:

Monday 26th February at @Bristol, Harbourside, Bristol BS1 5DB
Thursday 1st march at Cleve Rugby Club, Mangotsfield, BS16 9EN
Monday 5th march at the Winter Gardens, Weston-super-Mare, BS23
Thursday 8th March, Bath Rugby, Teachers Stand, off North Parade Road, Bath BA2 4ET.

Events start at 6.00pm finishing by 8.30pm

In addition Community Group, Weston-Super-Mare Senior Citizens have extended an open invitation to a meeting on this subject on Wednesday, 7th March at the URC Boulevard from 2pm to 4pm. TENONS will be holding a meeting in Clevedon on 19th February at 7.30 pm- venue to be announced.

Cllr. Bigg mentioned that as a result of an invitation from Gillian Hill of Winscombe, who organises community plastic waste collections, she had visited Towens and had explained to her the environmental and economic benefits of dealing with waste and recycling locally and the means whereby larger national waste organisations contract
to local authorities.

District Councillor’s Report – Cllr. Yamanaka’s report covered proposed speed limits on West Hay Road, Winters Lane sewerage, BIA, Waste issue and Cllr. Hockridge’s visit to the PC. Also made mention of 2 free car parking places for Community Transport at the Locking Road car park in Weston-Super-Mare.

Open Forum

1) Post log- the Council discussed this and the Clerk was of the opinion that it should continue. It was agreed that those Councillors who wished to have a copy of the post log should advise the Clerk. The question of a post log for outgoing post was discussed but the Council saw no merit in this.

2) The road works sign that has been at the Chapel Hill\/High Street junction for some time has been reported to NSC by Cllr. Yamanaka and hopefully it will be removed shortly.

There being no other business the meeting was declared closed at 21.45 hours.

Mr. T R Clements

Chairman