Mr Les Forrest from the CPRE attended the meeting to present a cheque of £50 to Wrington as winner of the District Large Village of the Year 2011. This was accepted on behalf of the Council and village by Cllr Glynn as Chair of the Council and Ms Echo Irving as previous Chairwoman of the Council. Cllr Glynn thanked Echo and the Clerk for preparing the entry. Les Forrest gave a brief report on why Wrington did not obtain the overall winner prize. The Chair then convened the meeting.

1. To receive apologies from Members for non-attendance:

Apologies were received from Cllr Howells (Holiday)

2. To receive Members’ declarations of interests on known agenda matters and any amendments to the register of interests

Cllr Hollingdale declared an interest in relation to item 16 on the agenda, Wrington Sports and Social Club.

3. To confirm and sign as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held 23 November 2011

The minutes were reviewed and signed as a correct record after the sentence ‘Cllr Taylor agreed to prepare a report on the quote received from Andrew Tobias for the renovation of the Cyber Room’ had been removed under item 15.

A further correction was approved, under item 15, from ‘would shortly circulate these to Members’ to ‘would shortly be available to Members’.

The meeting was adjourned to allow for public participation.

4. Public Participation

Les Forrest, CPRE - This had already taken place at before the meeting had been convened.

5. To receive a report from the Police representative

No police representative was present and no report had been received in time for the meeting.

Resolved: To write to the Chief Inspector at Clevedon Police Station enquiring about who would be replacing PC Tacchi and to request this month’s police report.

The Chairman reconvened the meeting

6. To note items of correspondence received and requiring action:

There were none.

7. To note other items of correspondence received:

· Report from Wraxall and Failand PC on Costings for Undergrounding HV Transmission

Cables together with a disclaimer letter (circulated via email). This was noted.

8. To receive the Clerk’s Report and consider any matters arising (copies circulated)

Collapsed culvert on the footpath from Wrington to Congresbury, near Iwood Lane.

Resolved: Cllr Glynn to check and report back.

Refurbishment of Downside Road and A38 (Ashford Road) notice boards

Resolved: To accept Don Guy’s quote of £250 to refurbish both notice boards. The Clerk to obtain written specifications of the work proposed before confirming the order.

9. To receive the Finance Report, including payments recommended for approval, bank reconciliation, and receipts and payments report for the previous month.

Copies of the reports provided separately.

Approval for the following payments was sought:

M F Clark & Son – Grass cutting & maintenance £2,316.00
Memorial Hall second quarterly grant payment (already paid) £3,000.00
Southern Electric Contracting – Replacement lantern, C6 Ropers Lane £287.60
Fountains – Dog Bins, November 2011 £72.00
Fountains – Dog Bins, April 2011 (this invoice has only just been received) £57.60
Fountains – Dog Bins, May 2011 (this invoice has only just been received) £57.60
Tom Vowles – village orderly – wages for December £104.00
Scott Arrowsmith – village orderly – wages for December £108.00
Clerk’s salary December – to be calculated
Assistant Clerk’s salary December – to be calculated

Cllr Bigg proposed approval of the payments and Cllr Taylor seconded the motion.

Resolved: To grant approval for the payments.

10. To consider the draft budget proposed by the Finance Group for the year 2012/13 and the Council’s related Precept request. The Precept will be formally agreed at the January Council meeting.

Members reviewed and considered the 2012-13 draft budget.

Resolved: To increase the amount of £500 under Capital Expenditure/Projects to £1000 to provide a more realistic provision for the initial cost of creating a Neighbourhood Plan.

Resolved: To increase the precept request by 1.9% only, with this to be confirmed in the January Council meeting.

11. To confirm acceptance of an offer from DCK-Beavers Ltd to undertake the year-end close down of the Council’s accounts for 2011/12 and to prepare the Council’s formal Annual Return at an estimated cost of £640, as this year.

Resolved: To agree to DCK-Beavers undertaking the year-end close down and preparing the Annual Accounts.

12. To agree that an arrangement can now be made with Vision ICT for the design, set up and hosting of a dedicated Parish Council website with costs in the first year estimated at £425 plus £105 for initial domain name registration, reducing to £250 in total for the second year and subject to variation in the event that additional content features are requested by the Council.

Cllr Bigg requested the web page has a facility to increase the text size.

Resolved: To accept the Vision ICT proposal for domain name registration, site hosting and design for the Council’s website and to proceed to discuss the design with Vision ICT.

13. To receive and consider reports from;

a. District Councillor, Cllr Yamanaka. This was received.

b. NE Ward report, Cllr Turton. This was received.

Resolved: Cllr Yamanaka to make enquiries about the seating now being proposed for business passenger use in the airport walkway when a condition of the permission required that any seating should be restricted for use by passengers with mobility associated needs.

c. WVMP, Cllr Robinson. Cllr Robinson wished the Council to question the opening hours of Wrington and Churchill surgeries in view of the NHS expressed intention of opening hours.

Resolved: Cllr Bigg to check the exact wording of the NHS expressed intention and contact the Clerk with details.

d. Sports & Social Club, Cllr Howells. Cllr Howells was not present; no report had been received.

14. To receive and consider reports from Working Groups:

a. Finance, Cllr Rawlins. Cllr Glynn reported that he would be submitting an update on Financial Regulations to the next Finance meeting.

b. Environment, Cllr Bigg. There had been no meeting this month.

c. Highways, Cllr Ledbury. There had been no meeting this month. Cllr Ledbury advised that a meeting would be arranged for January 10th, 7 pm.

15. To consider and approve the following recommendations from Working Groups:

a. To approve a recommendation to allocate £250 to the Citizens Advice Bureau, North Somerset.

Resolved: To approve the recommendation.

16. To consider an application submitted to NSC Licensing on behalf of Wrington Sports & Social Club Ltd for a Premises Licence and to agree on any response required by the Council.

Details of the licence application had been circulated in advance of the meeting, together with copies of the Club’s leasehold agreement with the Council and the ‘Licence to Trade’ agreed by the Club with the bar Franchisee. The application and related issues were discussed at length, with Members expressing various concerns. It was agreed that the current proposal to licence the whole of the Recreation

Field as well as the building was unacceptable as it would be in conflict with the lease terms, would have an adverse impact on the neighbouring properties and would not be appropriate due to the nature of the use of the field, which includes a children’s play area. The Council noted the proposal to formalise approval for regulated entertainment provided by the Club where this relates to activities within the building, although the details and hours will need to be agreed by the Council where there is any variation from the terms of the lease. Also, Cllr Robinson pointed out that there are a number of insurance-related concerns raised by the current lease that would need to be discussed with the Club since there might be circumstances under which certain matters are uninsured.

While committed to an objection, it was also agreed that the Council values the Sports and Social Club, recognises it as a Community asset and would wish to work more closely with the Club in the future, provided that the current issues can be overcome.

Resolved: The Council to write to NSC Licensing objecting to the request for extending the licence to the whole of the Recreation Field and to other detail in the application. The Chairman was delegated to prepare an appropriate response for submission by the Clerk which would address issues raised by Members, including the lease terms, insurance, consultation and relevant points from the four recommended licensing objectives.

Resolved: The Council to write to the Club Directors informing them of this objection and drawing their attention to the related insurance issues, with a view to meeting in the New Year to discuss and resolve any lease and other outstanding issues.

17. Items brought to the attention of the Council by Members and items proposed for consideration at the next meeting, to be held on Wednesday, 14 December 2011.

Cllr Taylor requested that the Clerk circulate the estimate for refurbishing the cyber room from Andrew Tobias so the quote could be discussed at the next meeting.

There being no other business the meeting was closed at 9.35pm.
Chairman