ALVELEY AND ROMSLEY PARISH COUNCIL
COUNCIL MEETING 4th February 2025
MINUTES OF MEETING
Present: Councillor Isley Jakeman (Chair) and Councillors Ian Braithwaite, James Taylor, Colin Taylor, Richard Narburgh, Russ Dowson and James Cumiskey.
In attendance: Steve Kerry, Parish Clerk and Mr Monty Beaumont and Mr Bill Smith
2024/25.117	APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE
	Apologies were noted from Councillors Christine Brown and Sam Potter
2024/25.118	DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST
Councillor Colin Taylor declared a non-pecuniary interest in item 7 on the agenda, Village Hall Proposals, as he is the representative of the Parochial Church Council for St Mary's on the Village Hall Committee and the Joint Committee which is working 	on proposals for a new structure.
2024/25.119	OPEN FORUM
Mr Beaumont was invited to address the meeting. He explained that he is a governor at the primary school with specific responsiblty for health and safety. He wished to raise the issues of traffic and speeding past the school, especially at the times when the children are arriving and leaving. The signs show an advisory 20 mph limit on the approaches to the school but these are widely ignored. Many parents   are concerned that if they follow the school's policy of encouraging children, 	especially the older ones, to walk to school on their own to build their personal independence they will put them in danger. There have been some near misses with children and parents crossing the road, and this is not helped by perfectly legal 	parking across the road from the school which limtis the visibilty of traffic and 	pedestrians alike. Members disuccsed how this could be responded to. 
There is considerable difficulty with placing permanent signs on lamp columns as they are not designed to take much extra weight. Cllr Narburgh read from the specification that notices should be temporary, wiegh no more than 1 kilo and be no more than A4 size. It was suggested that the telegraph poles might be more robust 	and Mr Beaumont agreed to pursue this idea. It was also suggested that he puts an article in the parish magazine highlighting the speed limit and the need for it as much of traffic is local. Councillor Colin Taylor referred to Shropshire Council's support for the "20 is plenty" campaign, but this is focussing on urban sites due to limited funding but this might be revisited. Finally the issue was disucssed of asking for a vokunteer to provide a crossing patrol "lollipop person" - Mr Beaumont said this could only be done after the school had a Safer Schools audit which he hoped 	could be brought forward and completed before there was an accident.
The Chair thanked Mr Beaumont for raising this issue and it was agreed to place an item	 on the agenda for the next meeting for a fuller discussion and to enable resolutions to be made. 
Members raised the issues of the planters in the village. Council is grateful to Margaret Shaw for continuing to look after the ones at the top of the village but there had been no response to the parish magazine article for a volunteer to take over the ones near Cooks Cross. It may be necessary to engage a contractor to do 	planting and periodic watering, depending on the weather. It was noted that the 	memorial plaque needs to be replaced and the Clerk was asked to expedite this. In addition Andy Simmons had not been contacted yet about the coating for the Hampton Loade bus shelter and as the weather was now improving he would be asked to carry this out as soon as possible. 
The Clerk reported a further request from the Lieutenancy for nominees to attend a garden party, this time at Buckingham Palace on behalf of the parishes of the county. It was agreed to repeat the earlier nomination for the Lord Lieutenant's 	gathering.
2024/25.120	MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING
	It was proposed by Councillor Colin Taylor, seconded by Councillor James Taylor and 	unanimously
RESOLVED That the minutes of the meeting of 7th January be accepted as an accurate record and signed accordingly by the Chair.
2024/25.121	FINANCIAL REPORT
	The Clerk presented the trasnactions since the last meeting up to 31st January. This was noted.
The Clerk also reported that he had received confirmation by phone from CCLA that the changes to allow email instructions from himself to transfer funds from CCLA to the Unity Trust (current) accout had been accepted, together with Cllr Narburgh's status as a signatory to the CCLA account. This means the speedy transfer of funds to the current account was possible, which in turn makes it possible to increase the amount held on deposit and earning interest. It was noted that with some larger items now paid, including the one off installation of power to the tree, a larger set of lights and most of the safety report items  on the play area addressed, the Council had nearly £95,000 in the current account with £85,000 on deposit. The next precept was due in March at £58,000.
The Clerk reported that a quote had been received from KIWA to carry out a full 	structural inspection of all the lamp columns  in the village, which would meet our 	legal requirement to inspect every six years. This was much lower than he had expected, based on an extrapolation from a quote supplied to another parish, with three to four days on site at a cost of £810 per day. Adding VAT this came to a 	potential cost of £3,888 which was well within the Council's resources. To allow time for any necessray repairs he recommended that the Council proceed with this, KIWA 	have teams available for late in February.
	It was proposed by Councillor Narburgh, seconded by Councillor Jakeman and 	unanimously
RESOLVED That the Clerk accept the quote from KIWA and ask them to undertake the six yearly inspection as soon as they are able to organise that.
Councillor Narburgh provided a brief summary of the meeting of the Lighting Committee on 15th January. The meeting had reviewed its responsibilities which are to ensure the annual visual inspection and running repairs (which is covered by a contract with Eon) and the six yearly structural survey (see above). He and other members of the Comittee were checking all the columns to make sure they were all numbered and reporting any anomalies, this should be finished by the end of February which would allow for a fully updated asset register entry to be made. 	There are about 9 columns which don't appear to have numbers.
Finally, Councillor Dowson agreed he would make a perment infill on the hole previously used to site the Christmas  tree now we were using the natural tree which had been very succesful last year. 
2024/25.122	PLANNING ITEMS
Members considered application 25/00170148 regarding Moor Farm House. Members were concerned that the most modern barn on the site appeared to be the one being converted and wondered if the plan was in fact to make further conversions and turn the whole site into a residential one. It was noted tha a less controversial application at Nether Hollies had been rejected by Shropshire but that 	this one was being proposed as permitted development. It  as proposed by Councillor Jakeman, seconded by Coucnillor Dowson and unanimously
RESOLVED That the Clerk advise Shropshire Council that we do not consider this ought to be permitted development and that if the change of use is agreed it should not set a precedent for further residential development on this agriculutral site. 
Members aslo discussed the proposal for a road closure by Cadent to install a gas supply. Both the Chair and the Clerk had been in copious correspondence to clarify 	why this had to be done without moling the site to avoid closing the carriageway and to find other ways of reducing the impact. The work would take place in half term, 	which was of some benefit, and Cadent had agreed they would take responsbility for barriers etc themsleves not passing it to sub-contractors. They had also undertaken to complete in three days maximum and remove barriers immediately on completion. As they are operating on behalf of a statutory unertaker and have Shropshire's consent for the work, this is  as far as the parish council can push the matter. The Clerk was asked to contact Select or Shropshire Council to find out what 	the facility would be for a bus service during the days of closure of the road. 

2024/25.123	VILLAGE HALL
Having declared a non-pecuniary interest, Councillor Colin Taylor asked if he could make a brief statement of factual information before leaving the meeting. This was agreed.
Councillor Taylor stated that the first leaflet that had been circulated in the village was extremely inaccurate and some of it was defamatory. It had caused a great deal of anger and some members of the Bowling Club had indicated that they had not been aware of the proposed contents before agreeing to circulate it. He, and 	others named in the leaflet had taken legal advice, the content of which was, of course, confidential. He then left the meeting.
Members noted the tone of the first leaflet and the content of the second one which had explained the proposals more calmly and carefully. It was noted that no 	decisions had been made and any signficant progress would require a ballot in the 	village which would establish the level of support for the plans. Any position the Council might take should be informed by consideration of the long term future and development of the village and the expressed majority view of residents, which had not yet been tested. Personal attacks in leaflets were not the right way to proceed and had introduced an uncessary and regretable tone into the conversation. 
The Clerk reported that he had been asked to act as the Returning Officer for the ballot which he was happy to do as long as he had second scrutineer and had suggested Revd John Aldwinckle for that role as someone relatively new to the village, but widely known and respected, and with no known preference either way on this project. 
	It was proposed by Councillor James Taylor, seconded by Councillor Jakeman and 	unanimously
RESOLVED That the Coucnil notes the proposals and takes no formal position on the matter at this time.
	Councillor Colin Taylor then rejoined the meeting.
2024/25.124	MEMBERSHIP OF COMMITTEES
	It was proposed by Councillor Jakeman, seconded by Councillor Narburgh and unanimously
	RESOLVED That Councillor Cumiskey be appointed to the Lighting Committee
	It was proposed by Coucnillor Jakeman, seocnded by Councillor Dowson and unanimously
	RESOLVED That Councillor Cumiskey be appointed to the Play Area Committee
Councillor Dowson briefly reported the last meeting of the Play Area Committee 	which established a need for someone to inspect visually the site on a regular, 	preferablyweekly, basis. Councillor Cumsikey said he would be able to do this when his children were playing there. The Clerk added that the majority of the safety works listed at the last meeting had been done, and Mr Potter's invoice had been cleared for payment and would appear on the Feburary report. The remaining items were in hand.
2024/25.125	COUNCIL FOR THE PRESERVATION OF RURAL ENGLAND
It was noted that the Council appreciates the ogoing work of this body which is of benefit in preserving the rural environment in the area.
	It was proposed by Councillor Jakeman, seconded by Councillor Colin Taylor and 	unanimously
	RESOLVED That the Clerk renew the affiliation to CPRE at a cost of £30.
2024/25.126	UPDATES
	Hampton Loade bus shelter had been discussed under Open Forum.
National Cycle Route 45: noted that this had not been affected by the landslip which had undermined the railway track itself. There is slow progress with Shropshire Council but some hope now of obtaining Active Travel funding for the footpath. This would be kept under review. 
	Street bins: the order is with Glasdon and delivery is expected imminently.
	CCLA - reported under the Financial Reports item
2024/25.127	SHROPSHIRE COUNCIL MEMBER'S REPORT
Councillor Colin Taylor had mentioned SUSTRANS and the possible funding of National Route 45 under the previous item. 
The Local Plan is paused, the Inspector has found fault with the level of reserve land allocated in Shropshire for "Black Country Overspill" and with the amount of employment land. The Shifnal area is under extreme pressure with applications and Weston Park have proposed a garden village development on the estate. For 	Alveley, the Cleckers, the club field and the field adjacent to that are mentioned in existing plans, but if the Local Plan is not approved it will be harder to constrain developers to the chosen sites. The recent case in Redditch has shown that councils are unwilling to challenge delevopers on unwanted proposals for land where they had not got a robust local plan to fall back on as legal costs and the chances of losing with an Inspector were prohibitive. The pressure for more housing and 	employment land is coming nationally, and Shropshire may not have the resources to develop a better plan. 
Shropshire are considering reducing black bag collection to three weekly with food waste being the subject of a separate weekly caddy collection. How this will save any money is not clear. Fly tipping has increased since the booking arrangment at the tip was introduced. 
Planning is still going ahead for the North West Relief Road around Shrewsbury despite the grave risks of it being unfunded by the Department of Transport which woud expose Shropshire to crippling costs. All parties except the Conservatives are 	against this, and it would set back the Council's progress towards CO2 reduction by about twenty years. The full business case is due to be presented to Council on 27th February, which should have happened a considerable time ago given the financial risks. 
2024/25.128	ROMSLEY MATTERS
	Councillor Narbugh had nothing to report.
The Clerk reporttd that he had received an oral assurance from a representative of Severn Trent that sites would be made good and natural drainage restored after their extensive works.
2024/25.129	ITEMS FOR FUTURE MEETINGS AND DATE FOR NEXT MEETING
	VE Day commemoration
	Speed control by the local school
	Parish Council team for the Village Hall quiz night.
	Next meeting Tuesday 4th March 2025 at 7.30 pm in the Pavilion

Signed .............................................

Date ......................................................