EASTWICK AND GILSTON PARISH COUNCIL
CHAIRMAN
MARK ORSON
89 PYE CORNER
GILSTON
NR HARLOW
HERTS CM20 2RD
TELEPHONE 01279 453257
Email: marko@btinternet.com
PARISH CLERK
CHRISTINE LAW
9 CHURCH COTTAGES
GILSTON
NR HARLOW
HERTS CM20 2RH
TELEPHONE 01279 411646
Email: christine.law2@btinternet.com
DRAFT
Minutes of the Eastwick and Gilston Parish Council meeting held on Mo day 14th March 2011,
8.00pm, Village Hall, Pye Corner, Gilston
PRESENT: Cllrs Mark Orson, Tim Geddes, Keith Harvey, Alan Jenkins, Colin Marston,
Christine Law (Clerk), Mike Newman (District Councillor), 6 members of the public
PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
1. Terlings Park – Concerns were raised by several residents regarding the proposed
development at Terlings Park. Issues raised included the safeguards to ensure that a
developer will adhere to the outline planning consent if given, affordable housing, impact of
additional traffic and the maintenance of green areas. Cllr Orson explained to the meeting
that the parish council has met with CBRE who are acting for Merck Sharp and Dohme the
owners of the site and has also been in contact with East Herts Planning. The meetings with
CBRE were recorded in the parish council meeting minutes. At this stage we will have seen
the presentations made by CBRE at the public consultation events held in January and this
coming weekend and are now waiting for CBRE to submit their application and a detailed
Environmental Impact Assessment to East Herts Planning. The parish council will review
the application in detail and consult with parishioners before making a response. Residents
should take the opportunity to see the presentation at the Village Hall this coming weekend
which has been well publicised and raise and their concerns directly with CBRE.
2. Church Hill -St Mary’s Church, Gilston – Residents wanted to know what was being done
to resolve problems caused by the water run off from the lane adjacent to St Mary’s Church
and down Gilston Lane that puddles at the junction with Gilston Park House out drive. In
the past, Highways department have dug gullies to help disperse the water from the road.
The council will speak to Highways about this matter and the Clerk will write again to
Savills, the land agents to request a further review following their response to our previous
letter.
3. Footpaths 29 and 30 – concerns were raised about the footpath being blocked as BT had cut
part of the hedge to free telephone wires but had not cleared the cuttings. Brambles had now
grown through the cuttings blocking the path way. It was also mentioned that footpath 29
was heavily waterlogged and it was asked if drainage could be improved to allow better
access. These matters will be raised with Rights of Way.
Business meeting of the Parish Council started at 8.45pm
83 TO RECEIVE APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE
a) Cllr Roger Beeching (HCC)
84 TO RECEIVE COUNCILLOR’S DECLARATION OF INTERESTS
a) Cllr Harvey declared an interest regarding item 87 b.
85 MINUTES FOR APPROVAL
a) The meeting of the council minutes of 11th January 2011. These were proposed by Cllr Tim
Geddes and seconded by Cllr Keith Harvey. Cllr Mark Orson then signed the minutes as a
true record.
86 CO-OPTION OF PARISH COUNCILLOR
a) Cllr Orson explained that we have not been able to find anyone to co-opt as Councillors for
the Eastwick Parish and the search would go on (post meeting note as the PC elections will
be taking place in May this item will be taken off the agenda).
87 ACCOUNTS
a) The Clerk presented the report of the accounts summary to the Council; these were agreed
and accepted by the full council. Proposed by Cllr Harvey and seconded by Cllr Marston.
b) Hire of the Village Hall for the passed year, it was discussed and agreed a cheque for
£210.00 to be raised.
c) Churchyard maintenance and service of mower. It was agreed that in addition to £400.00
that is normally given towards the maintenance of the church yards this we would pay for
the service of the lawnmower which came to £33.84. A cheque for £433.84 was raised.
d) Web site – this would be the last maintenance charge we will pay for the existing web site
and a cheque for £110.00 was raised.
e) STOP Harlow North donation – a cheque for £110.00 was raised.
f) Items b – e were proposed by Cllr Harvey and seconded by Cllr Marston and accepted by
full council.
g) Insurance – the level of fidelity guarantee insurance was reviewed. Cllr Jenkins will
investigate options with other insurers to compare costs.
h) Risk Assessment – to be reviewed at our April meeting,
88 PLANNING AND ASSOICATED APPLICATIONS
a) 10 Gilston Park House – revised application of IZONIL plaster to basement wall, this
application has been approved by Development Control.
b) High Gilston, Gilston Lane – the installation of a greenhouse – this application has been
approved by Development Control.
c) Terlings Park – there will be a consultation open to all residents on Saturday 19th March at
the Village Hall, Pye Corner.
89 WEB SITE
a) A written report was given by Cllr Orson which states – The design brief for the website has
been completed with submission of photographs for inclusion on the site. Parishcouncil.net
has provided a draft home page for feedback and comment before the remainder of the site
is uploaded. The draft home page has been reviewed by the parish councillors and the
Parish Plan Steering Group and comments given to Parishcouncil.net.
b) The next stage will be for the website to be made available for loading content before the
domain is transferred and the site goes live. This work should be completed by the end of
April.
90 STOP HARLOW NORTH CAMPAIGN
a) Cllr Jenkins informed the meeting that statistics on the East Herts LDF consultation can be
found on the SHN web site. SHN has also responded to Harlow Councils LDF consultation.
b) They have still not had any response from Harlow North Joint Venture on the request for a
copy of their site assessment.
91 PARISH PATHS
a) The footpaths report has only one outstanding item:
16FP
Bank collapsed near
New footbridge installed
None
bridge
satisfactorily
92
93
94
95
96
97
b) Memorial Seat for Albert Towse – This was discussed at length and the Clerk will obtain
three quotes for discussion at the next meeting.
c) Rights of Way Improvement Plan – Cllr Orson will circulate our draft response again via
email before submission.
PARISH PLAN
a) Cllr Geddes reported to the meeting that last meeting was held on 13 March.
b) Parish Council to consider the future role of the Parish Plan Steering Group and will arrange
a meeting with the steering group after the May elections.
HIGHWAYS
a) Cllr Marston reported to the meeting that the footpath along Pye Corner has been cleared to
its full width and the works around Eastwick Lodge roundabout have been completed.
CORRESPONDENCE
a) None.
ITEMS BROUGHT FORWARD AT THE DISCRETION OF THE CHAIRMAN FOR
INORMATION ONLY
a) None
ITEMS COUNCILLORS WOULD LIKE TO BE ADDED TO THE NEXT AGENDA
a) None.
DATE OF NEXT MEETING
a) The date of the next meeting will be on Monday 11th April 2011 at 8.00pm. This is the
Annual Parish Meeting followed by the Business Meeting of the Parish Council
Meeting closed at 9.35pm.
WRITTEN REPORT FROM CLLR MIKE NEWMAN (DISTRICT COUNCILLOR)
EH Council’s priority over the past month has been to set the budget for coming years in the
light of the significant reduction in the ‘formula grant’ from central government and taking
account of the general economic climate.
Its net expenditure in 2010/11 was budgeted at £18,889k but as a result of measures taken
throughout the year, the anticipated expenditure is £17,733k. Of this £8,182k is provided by the
‘formula grant’ and £9.916k from Council Tax. (Note these figures do not quite balance because
there are some other sources of income and some adjustment of reserves).
In 2011/12 the formula grant will fall to £6,046 (26% and before falling more in subsequent
years) and the total raised from Council Tax will by 2.5% to £9,249k. (In fact Council Tax will
not rise because Central Government will grant an additional 2.5% if the tax is ‘frozen’) So the
net expenditure in 2011/12 is budgeted at £16,143k – ie £2.7M less than budgeted this year and
£1.6M less than actual expenditure this year.
The great majority of these saving will come from cutting back on the programme of capital
expenditure (from £6,865k expected this year to £5,435k in 2011/12 and 3,866k in 2012/13.
Further saving are expected form continuing internal efficiency improvements and staff
reductions.
The full budget is, inevitably, extremely complex and some components which might be of
greatest interest at Parish level are down n the detail rather than within the headline which I
have provided here. Moreover I do not claim to understand every detail of the budget!
However if the PC has any specific questions relating to Council services and capital assts then I
will do my best to answer them, or at least, find someone who can answer.
WRITTEN REPORT FROM CLLR ROGER BEECHING (COUNTY COUNCILLOR)
1. Budget has been agreed without any trouble from public disturbance as in some counties.
Identified £135m savings up to 2014/15. Another £65m are being looked for.
2. Overall budget is £806m plus school budget of £756m.
3. Library Sawbridgeworth loses 6 hours a week opening. But is open lunch times and looses
these hours on two mornings closures but open those afternoons.
4. Mobile library will cease in some areas, and be replaced by a Home Service.
5. NHS consortia of GP’s will be the commissioning agents for services. Likely to be 4 to 6
groups in Hertfordshire. Some East Herts surgeries are likely to look to PAH and Essex for
service commissioning. It will possibly be a difficult arrangement to set up.
6. Highways 6000 tonnes of salt in stock and more arriving. 60 new bins were ordered but not
delivered as they were stuck in the snow in Scotland. Some of there are nor being used to
replace bins stolen over the winter.
7. Potholes make up 90% of the complaints about roads 6480 defects notified 3500 have been
repaired so far.
8. Localism and the Big Society. Herts Local programme has a number of projects on piloting
and on trial. These are Place Portals, Community Profiles, E mail Bulletins, Member
newsletters, Take Part pathfinder, Public Engagement Partnership, Highways Discretionary
Budget (£90,000), Locality Budget 9 £10,000), Participatory Budgeting (£50,000).
9. Established a shared Internal Audit Services saves £100,000 a year with East Herts, North
Herts, Stevenage, Welwyn/Hatfield.
10. Finally remember “if we had AV voting system at the last election Gordon Brown would
still be Prime Minister”.