PEN-Y-FFORDD
COMMUNITY COUNCIL
Minutes of the Meeting held in the War
Memorial Institute on
Wednesday 10th October 2018
Present: Councillors Mr J Priddin (Chairman of the Council) Mr
A Wight (Vice Chairman), Ms C Hinds, Mr D Walker, Mrs M Jones, Mrs E Davies, Mr
R Bestwick, Mr D Williams, Mr R Wakelam, Mr M Rothero and Mrs P Ransome
Absent:
In
attendance: Mrs S Hughes, Clerk
& RFO to the Council
PCSO Andrea Ellis
& PC Natalie Williams
Claire Homard,
Damian Hughes and Cllr Ian Roberts (Cabinet Member) – FCC Education
139. Apologies
Apologies
were received from Councillor Dr J Smith-Bellis
140. Declaration of Interest – Members Code of Conduct
There
were no Declarations of Interest received.
141.
Visitors
i.
PCSO
Andrea Ellis and PC Natalie Williams – AE provided members with a Crime Report
with details on any incidents which occurred during the past month. Following the amount of comments on social
media she wished to clarify that following her report and attendance at the
September meeting (12th), there was an incident of burglary which
occurred on 21st Sept and again at the same property on 6th
October. These incidents would have only
been reported to the Community Council at the October meeting.
She
procedure to inform members for clarification purposes the process of the
police in such a crime; any burglary is treated as highly priority and officers
would attend, forensics would also attend to gather as much information as possible,
CID would also be made aware. House to
house enquiries would be undertaken as soon as reasonably possible (also any
cctv footage). A PCSO would undertake
follow ups with the victim discussing security target hardening. Assistance from Social Services would be
available if needed.
It
is not procedure for the police to contact and inform community or county
councillors of such incidents other than reporting at the monthly meeting. Cllr Williams asked for clarification that if
the council were to contact 101, would they be able to provide details of the
victim? AE advised that herself or any
police officer would absolutely not be able to divulge the details of the
victim due to data protection reasons.
Cllr
Wakelam felt that maybe the comments on social media had started with good
intentions and were to help the vulnerable to the village. The majority of councillors found the
comments, negativity and accusations to be disgraceful.
The
Clerk asked AE in accordance with the above procedures, would the victim have
been offered additional target hardening following the first incident? AE advised she was on leave at the time, but
in accordance with procedures, she would have been offered it.
Cllr
Wight suggested that maybe the intention of the social media situation was to
ascertain if we could be more proactive to assist the vulnerable
residents. AE advised that there are
numerous ways other than social media such as Owl, Pop Up events, Neighbourhood
Watch, Social Services etc, however, despite what can be offered to residents,
they have to actually want to receive help and assistance. Cllr Ransome
clarified that systems and support is obviously in place and the council should
encourage people to attend the Lets Talk Security Event being held on Friday 12th
October, 6.00pm at the War Memorial Institute.
**6.50pm PCSO Ellis and PC Williams left the
meeting.
ii.
Claire
Homard, Damian Hughes & Cllr Ian Roberts (Cabinet Member) – FCC
Education. They gave a brief
introduction and welcomed the opportunity to attend the meeting to address
concerns regarding capacity of Castell Alun High School with all the new
development within the surrounding areas.
DH expressed the importance of submitting the Admission Form before the
cut off date. FCC have a strict admissions
policy and if a form is received after the closing date, it will unfortunately
be put to the bottom of the pile, regardless of where the person lives.
FCC
are starting to work very closely with primary schools, who will also be
assisting to ensure that parent/guardians have submitted their admission
form. Primary schools are in a very good
position to liaise with families and assist where necessary.
DH
explained that FCC are not concerned about capacity of the schools and referred
the data for the last 4 years which showed that Castell Alun after following
the admissions policy was able to offer 60 places to children outside of the
area (2015 – 56 spaces, 2016 – 51 spaces, 2017 – 40 spaces), this information
shows that there are still spaces for local children. There were a total of 211
admissions to Castell Alun this year (pre 16yrs old).
**MR left the meeting at 7pm
Cllr
Williams questioned whether FCC will receive any funding from Wrexham Council
once the development in Llay has been complete and the children will be
attending a Flintshire School. It was
confirmed and explained that FCC would not receive any funding and the same would
apply if a Flintshire resident attended a school outside of the county, FCC
would not provide funding. However, each
school does receive funding for every child that attends.
Cllr
Hinds expressed concerns that Hawarden, Elfed and Castell Alun High Schools are
all full to capacity. CH said that they
look at all schools and look at longer term.
DH said that the Elfed High School is not actually full to capacity as
it currently has over 300 spaces.
They
advised that Castell Alun runs and co-ordinates their own 6th Form,
this is not undertaken by FCC.
A
number of members expressed their concerns that due to all the new developments
children within the village that have attended primary school together, could
end up having to attend different high schools.
DH advised that the new primary school in Penyffordd is already bigger
than 2x schools and has been future proofed with the possibility of extended a
further 2 classrooms. Schools are always
in regular review and if schools needed to be extended then they would do so,
however, they do not build unless there is a demand.
IR
advised that FCC follow welsh government rules which are consistent throughout
Wales and acknowledged that at times this can be frustrating. DH advised that
placements are determined by nearest school and not by catchment areas.
DH
offered to meet with Cllrs Williams, Hinds and Wight to go through the figures
of FCC and to explain in further detail.
This was welcomed and accepted by the members.
** MR returned at 7.20pm
Cllr Wakelam expressed
concerns of children form the village having to attend Hawarden High School
with no transport from FCC and having to walk home via Tinkersdale. IR informed members that FCC already invest
£1.5m more than similar local authorities on school transport.
Cllr Williams raised
the concerns again of traffic for the single site school. Previous requests have been made by the
Council and School to implement traffic trails from this September in order to
address any potential issues. He again
asked FCC if they could please address this issue as soon as possible. DH agreed that this will be looked into.
Cllr Williams also
stated his concerns that FCC did not address the concerns raised by the Design
Council on the planning of the school, such as; energy efficiency, not enough
natural lighting, cladding could fade/damage.
DH responded by saying that the building will be of Breem Excellence
& ECP Rated. The cladding is fully
compliant with fire regulations; the natural lighting has to be met by all
building regulations. Cllr Rothero
acknowledge that the village is extremely lucky to be receiving a new school.
DH addressed the
request from the community council regarding the provision of a defibrillator
at the new school. Whilst FCC will not
be providing this, they would be willing to assist the community council by
installing and making the defib purchased by Mr Grimshaw accessible to the
public and it could be installed on the school grounds. DH advised the council to liaise with Paula
Vougt.
The Chairman thanked
Education for attending the meeting and the information they had provided. Cllrs Williams, Hinds and Wight will make
arrangements to visit Damian Hughes.
** DH, CH and IR left
the meeting at 7.40pm
142. Minutes of the Council Meeting held on 12th
September 2018 and the Extraordinary Meeting held on 2nd October
2018
RESOLVED: these were approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.
143. Matters arising
Min
104 (74 & 54) - Mark Middleton is going to be assessing the
location of a safety barrier outside of St Johns School and along A5104. The Clerk has spoken with him and he does
have concerns that the pavement may not be wide enough to allow this. He will review and report back.
Min
116
- Cllr Williams will have submitted the planning application for the new
noticeboard. The noticeboard will be
ordered in due course.
Min
137
- Connected Security have confirmed the cameras will be installed by 24th
October. The cameras have a 12 mth
warranty. The only additional costs
would be if the council wished to have them serviced which would be £100. I have informed PCSO Ellis of these cameras
and she is going to liaise with Connected Security.
144. Public Questions
There
were no public questions received.
145. Councillor
Vacancy
Flintshire
County Council have confirmed that no request for an Election was received
within fourteen days of the date of the Notice and as a result it is in order
for the Community Council to fill the vacancies by co-option following the
Local Government (Wales) Measure 2011 / Filling Vacancies by Co-Option.
It was
proposed and agreed that a separate meeting will be held to review the
applications and to hold interviews, the suggested date was Thursday 8th
November, 6.30pm, venue to be confirmed
RESOLVED: the Clerk
will display the Notice of Co-option for a 14 day period with a closing date of
the 2nd November. Applications will be provided to members as
soon as reasonably possibly and the applications will be reviewed and
interviews held on Thursday 8th November.
146. Working Groups
i.
Transport
– Cllr Walker advised that Jessica Pritchard (FCC) will be making contact with
both Penyffordd and Buckley councils to discuss transport. He also commented that the Council needs to
consider transport fro residents to Broughton.
Cllr Hinds advised that Ruth Cartwright (FCC) was due to be arranging
another Community Transport Drop In Event.
Environment – Cllr Williams confirmed that he
and Cllr Smith-Bellis have reviewed areas of the village in preparation for
Project Daffodil, Cllr Smith-Bellis has this information. Cllr Wight advised that the delivery of
10,000 bulbs will be received shortly and that a project plan of areas,
planters and groups need to be co-ordinated. He asked whether Sherratts
Landscapes would have access to a bulb planting machine?
ii.
Cllr
Wight proposed to form an additional Working Group ‘Community Buildings’ to
assist with the War Memorial Institute and youth club.
RESOLVED:
i.
The
Clerk will ascertain if the Sherratts Landscape have access to a planting
machine.
ii.
It
was agreed for an additional Working Group for Community Building which will
consist of Cllrs Rothero, Priddin, Wight, Wakelam, Hinds, Ransome, Williams and
Davies.
147. Millstone
Playing Field
i.
The
Clerk provided members with the agenda information on the site meeting between
Cllrs Priddin, Wakelam, Williams, herself and Richard Roberts to review the
grass matting. On his advice he
suggested investing in wet pour to prevent the problem from happening again,
the deterioration is due to high usage wear and tear. He had advised it would be in the region of
£6000-7000, and FCC would contribute £3000.
Quotes for the work have now been received and RR has proposed a 50/50
contribution taking the cheapest quotes: Brian Davies to carry out the
groundworks @ £3700 and DCM to carry out the wetpour @ £2916 = £6616, therefore
the cost to the council would be £3308.
In addition to the above a quote has also been provided for the
installation of drainage at a cost of £1750.
ii.
At
the site meeting it also became apparent that the fencing in the toddler area required
being replaced and the old concrete posts removing.
RESOLVED:
i.
The council approved for the above works to be
undertaken. Installation of wet pour
under the titan rope swing and installation of drainage. The Clerk will liaise with Richard Roberts.
ii.
Cllr Williams will obtain a quote for the
replacement fencing and the Clerk will liaise with Ian Williams and Richard
Roberts to ascertain of they are able to assist with the removal of the
concrete posts.
148. Annual
Community Awards
Requested
by Cllr Wight: he had suggested the council considers Annual Community Awards
where we have specific categories which we invite nominees for and we present
winners with a small trophy and gift voucher. If the categories were well chosen,
we could include recognition for the long serving volunteers as well as people
with new initiatives, youth or children’s award and a lifetime achievement
award. We can present them at Christmas or at the Carnival.
This
proposal was welcomed by members and agreed that the Community Working Group
will formalise categories and proposed prizes which will be presented for the council’s
approval.
RESOLVED:
the Community Working Group will formalise categories and proposed prizes which
will be presented for the council’s approval.
This will also be included as a new budget heading.
149. Redrow
Development, Chester Road, Penymynydd
Notification
has been received and circulated that Redrow wants to offer support to as many
local groups, organisations and individuals as possible and will share out the
£10,000 budget accordingly. Applications
to Redrow have to be received by 31 October.
Cllr Wight
also advised that Redrow have informed him that they are starting to trap for
newts in the top fields and will be closing off access for dog walkers around
the fields whilst the traps are in place.
The public footpath across the fields will remain open.
RESOLVED:
the report was received and noted.
150. Planning
Applications
a)
To review
and consider Planning Applications received.
i. Notification
that Ref: 057396. Application for
approval of reserved matters for the erection of 40 dwellings following outline
approval ref: 053656. Land at (north of)
Rhos Road. Went to the Planning
Committee meeting on 3rd October 2018.
Further correspondence received to advise it has been removed from the
agenda. Cllr Williams advised this has
been referred due to ongoing discussion of affordable provision.
ii. Macbryde
Homes – Consultation before applying for Planning Permission. Proposal: The construction for 32 dwellings
including associated affordable homes, opens pace, access, drainage and
infrastructure. Site: Land of Hawarden
Road, Penyffordd. Cllr Williams advised
that the new proposed plans include; new layout and new style of houses. Macbryde Homes are will to meet with the
Council to discuss.
RESOLVED: the
Planning Working Group will arrange to meet with Macbryde Homes.
iii. Ref:
058943. Creation of access. 22 The Woodlands, Chester Road, Dobshill. Support on the condition that there are no issues
or concerns from neighbouring properties.
iv. Ref:
058836. Single storey extension to
provide re-modelled toilets and accessible toilet. St John the Baptist School, Chester Road,
Penymynydd. Support
v. Ref:
058929. Conversion of barn to form 1 no.
dwelling with associated parking. Rhydd
Farm, Rhos Road, Penyffordd. The
Council wish to leave the decision to the delegated officer, however, there are
concerns regarding access.
vi. Ref:
058922. Erection of a single storey
garage to side of property. 14 Westfield
Drive, Penyffordd. Support
RESOLVED: the above comments will be
reported to Flintshire County Council Planning.
b)
To
receive Notifications of Planning Decisions made by Flintshire County Council.
i. Ref: 058252. Construction of menage. Blackbrook Farm, Lower Mountain Road,
Penyffordd. Approved
RESOLVED: the above be received and noted.
c)
To
review Ongoing and Proposed Planning Applications.
i. Penyffordd Single Site
School
ii. Rhos Road (40)
iii. Dobshill (former
Council Depot) – planning application has been approved.
RESOLVED: the above was received and noted.
151. Youth
Club Building and Surrounding Site
Cllr
Williams reported that he has had a meeting with the Scout Group. Neal Cockerton – FCC has now advised to meet
with FLVC for advice and assistance with producing a business plan. Cllr Wight there are two options at present
1) the site to be managed by one user or 2) one user to manage the youth club
and the scout group to manage their building.
RESOLVED:
the report was received and noted.
152. Newsletter
Cllr
Williams confirmed the newsletter is complete and has been printed, he will
liaise with members with regard to distribution of areas within the village.
The
newsletter will also be uploaded to the Council website.
RESOLVED:
Cllr Williams will liaise with members to ensure all areas are covered for
distribution. The Clerk will include
this on the council website.
153. Parking
Issues and Road Safety
To
consider complaints received on the following:
i.
Parking
and access for residents adjacent to Penyffordd School - this has been raised
again with FCC who have confirmed it will be looked into.
ii.
Hawarden
Road Parking Issues (area of the Spar) – Cllr Williams advised that this is
still being investigated. It was
suggested that Cllr Williams and Hinds will undertake a letter drop to the
local residents. He advised that FCC
have informed them that the final decision will be determined by the County
Councillors.
iii.
Exiting
of The Groves, Penyffordd – Cllr Williams and Hinds have spoken with the
Highways Officer and this will now be discussed with Streetscene for further
investigations.
RESOLVED:
i.
This has been raised again with FCC who have confirmed
it will be looked into, the council will await a response.
ii.
Cllrs Williams and Hinds will liaise with local
residents and report back to the council.
iii.
Cllrs Williams and Hinds to purse this matter and
report back to the council.
154. School
Governors
Due to
recent resignation from members the Council needed to appoint permanent members
to hold the posts of School Governors at both Penyffordd Primary School and St
John the Baptist School.
RESOLVED:
Cllr Wakelam agreed to undertake the role for St John the Baptist School and
Cllr Ransome for Penyffordd Primary School.
The Clerk will write to each school respectively.
155. Football
Pitch (Taylor Wimpey)
Cllr
Williams advised that this is currently with FCC Legal Dept and is awaiting the
final legal agreement which is due imminently.
RESOLVED:
the report was received and noted.
156. Millennium
Clock – Wall of Poppies
Cllr
Ransome reported that this project is progressing extremely well and the
support and involvement from the community has been outstanding. She is working very closely with Mrs Priddin
who has instigated the project and they are communicating with local groups,
schools, social media to involve as many people as possible. They had recently attended the youth club
where children took part by making recyclable poppies for the wall.
Cllr
Wakelam will be installing the cargo netting for the poppies to be placed. There will be an official launch of the
poppies on Friday 2nd November with a Coffee Morning at the Royal
British Legion.
RESOLVED:
the above report was received and noted.
157. Alyn
Drive – Entrance
Cllr
Williams informed members that he, Cllr Hinds and Ian Williams (Streetscene)
had assessed the work required to tidy the entrance of Alyn Drive. He asked the council to approve a budget of
approx. £200-£250 to repair/replace the fencing and seating. IW has agreed that if the council can supply
the materials, he will undertake the work.
RESOLVED:
the Council approved a budget of £200-£250 for the improvement works required
at the entrance of Alyn Drive.
158. Correspondence
The following correspondence was received,
acknowledged and noted.
·
An invitation from Insp Darren Whibberley for 2
members to attend a consultation meeting on Thursday 15th November, 7pm at
Leeswood Community Centre.
RESOLVED: Cllrs
Wight and Wakelam will attend.
·
FCC Standards Committee and Town &
Community Council Meeting to be held on 12th November at Caffi Isa, Mynydd Isa
at 6pm.
·
Invitation to the Chairman to attend Leeswoods
Civic Service on 14th October and Buckley Town Council’s Mayor Charity Ball on
2nd November.
·
Royal Mail notification and request to promote
‘Scam Mail’
·
FCC are holding a Code of Conduct Training
Course on Wednesday 17th October at 6pm and will be held at Oddfellows Hall,
High Street, Saltney. To date Cllrs Priddin, Wakelam, Walker and Ransome have
confirmed their attendance.
·
Ensuring affordable fire and rescue services -
You are invited to take part in North Wales Fire and Rescue Authority’s
consultation - to have your say on ensuring affordable fire and rescue
services, before the draft budget for 2019/20 is set in December 2018. http://www.nwales-fireservice.org.uk/ensuring-affordable-fire-and-rescue-services-a-public-consultation
159. Members
Items (AOB)
·
Cllr Ransome wished to express her appreciation
at the speedy work of Mr Ian Williams Streetscene for clearing the rubbish in
the layby at the top of Chester Road.
·
Cllr Rothero advised that the Primary School
children had extended an invitation to all Council members to visit the school
to view their work on WW1. He also
advised that an invitation will be made to attend the School’s Christmas
Concert. Cllr Rothero will confirm the dates.
·
Cllr Jones reported a street light out at 18
Plas Yn Rhos.
RESOLVED: this
will be reported to FCC Streetscene.
·
Cllr Hinds informed members that she had been
contacted by Hawarden Estates who advised her that they will be undertaking
some improvements to Penymynydd Woods and any ideas would be appreciated.
·
Cllrs Hinds and Williams have co-ordinated a
security event to be held on Friday 12th October, and any assistance
from other councillors would be appreciated.
·
Cllr Williams expressed that recent social
media events have been extremely upsetting for both Cllr Hinds and himself and
comments made have divided the community unnecessarily.
·
Cllr Wakelam advised of concerns of the housing
application process for Ty Terrig and asked the council to consider this in the
future.
The finance and ordinary meetings were closed
at 9.50pm
Chair…………………………………………………..
14th November 2018