Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber - Guildhall, Bath. View directions

Contact: Sean O'Neill  01225 395090

Items
No. Item

75.

WELCOME AND INTRODUCTIONS

Minutes:

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting.

76.

EMERGENCY EVACUATION PROCEDURE

The Chair will draw attention to the emergency evacuation procedure as follows:

If the continuous alarm sounds, you must evacuate the building by one of the designated exits and proceed to the assembly point. The designated exits are sign-posted. Arrangements are in place for the safe evacuation of disabled people. The assembly point is: in front of Kingston Buildings, which is situated at the east end of Bath Abbey near to the taxi rank on Orange Grove.

Minutes:

The Democratic Services Officer advised the meeting of the procedure.

77.

APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

Minutes:

Apologies were received from Cllr, Charles Gerrish, Cllr Sally Davis and .Cllr Martin Veal.

78.

URGENT BUSINESS AS AGREED BY THE CHAIR

The Chair will announce any items of urgent business accepted since the agenda was prepared

Minutes:

There was none.

79.

MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE 22ND FEBRUARY 2017 pdf icon PDF 159 KB

Minutes:

These were approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

80.

UPDATE FROM LEADER OF BATH AND NORTH EAST SOMERSET COUNCIL

Cllr Tim Warren will give an update.

Minutes:

Cllr Tim Warren, Leader of Bath and North East Somerset Council, updated the meeting.

 

He said that the Cabinet had been reshuffled and new members had been appointed. He welcomed the new members and expressed his thanks to the retiring members.

 

He said that there had been a change to the Council’s transport policy. The coming into being of the West of England Combined Authority (WECA) had opened up new opportunities for addressing the area’s transport needs, and it had now been decided not to progress the East of Bath Park and Ride. Mark Shelford, the new Cabinet Member for Transport, was involved in the plans for Metrowest, as part of which a regular half-hourly train service from Severnside via Bristol and Bath into Wiltshire was proposed. It was hoped this would help reduce the amount of traffic coming into Bath. The Metrowest proposal had been around for some time, but the establishment of WECA increased the likelihood of its implementation.

 

The Inspector’s Report on Bath and North East Somerset’s Placemaking Plan had been received. (http://www.bathnes.gov.uk/services/planning-and-building-control/planning-policy/placemaking-plan).

 

There would be a further round of consultations this summer on the West of England Joint Spatial Plan. (http://www.bathnes.gov.uk/services/planning-and-building-control/planning-policy/joint-strategic-planning-strategy).

 

Tricia Golinksi, Parish Clerk of Saltford, asked whether the Metrowest scheme would include a new station at Saltford. Cllr Warren replied that it would probably not in the first phase because of timetable and funding issues. If electrification went ahead, it might be possible.

 

Parish Councillor Clive Fricker asked when work on Metrowest was due to start. Ashley Ayre replied that a decision would be taken by West of England authorities in October on whether to proceed and on what basis. There are three options. Option A would give a half-hourly service to Keynsham, Oldfield Park and Bath and enhancements on the Severn Beach Line. Option B would give an hourly service from Portishead to Temple Meads. Option C would give a half-hourly service from Portishead. Network Rail’s capital bill for Option C is massive and the Government would expect the local authorities to make contributions. The initial decision would need to be followed by feasibility studies.

 

Rosemary Naish expressed concern about the loss of social housing. She noted that a lot of social housing was going to be lost from the Foxhill estate. There was a lot of social housing in Clutton of the same age as that at Foxhill and owned by the same housing association. She sought reassurance that this was not going to be reduced. Cllr Warren replied that he could not speak on behalf of the housing association.

81.

PARISH CHARTER UPDATE

An update on progress with the Parish Charter will be given by Cllr Paul Myers (Cabinet Member for Policy, Localism and Partnerships) and Cllr Rosemary Naish (Clutton PC).

Minutes:

Cllr Paul Myers and Parish Cllr Rosemary Naish gave a joint presentation. A copy of their PowerPoint slides is attached as Appendix 1.

 

The consultation on the new Parish Charter will end on 31st July 2017 and the final document will be presented to Cabinet and Council for approval in the Autumn.

 

A delegate said that Batheaston PC had not received the consultation form.

 

In reply to a comment from a delegate, Rosemary Naish said that the Parish Charter Working Group tried to represent everyone in B&NES, including the residents of the two parishes whose parish meetings are not members of ALCA.

 

Presentation for Parish Liaison - July 17 pdf icon PDF 365 KB

82.

HOUSING AND ECONOMIC LAND AVAILABILITY ASSESSMENT (HELAA)

Issue raised by Cllr Rosemary Naish (Clutton Parish Council)

Minutes:

Lisa Bartlett updated the meeting. She said that the purpose of HELAA is to contribute towards the establishment of an evidence base to inform the Local Plan. Some of the sites initially identified might prove unsuitable for development. The Council was interested in the views of parishes on the appropriateness of sites. All parishes would be contacted shortly to arrange workshops, probably to be held in September. Lisa accepted the suggestion of Rosemary Naish that at least one of the workshops would take place in the evening or at the weekend to allow people in work to attend.

 

Further information about HELAA can be found on the Council’s website at

http://www.bathnes.gov.uk/services/planning-and-building-control/planning-policy/housing-and-economic-land-availability.

 

83.

COMMUNITY INFRASTRUCTURE LEVY - UPDATE ON NON-PARISHED ALLOCATION AND LAST YEAR'S DISTRIBUTION

Raised by Chris Gittins, Clerk of Timsbury Parish Council

Minutes:

Lisa Bartlett updated the meeting on the process that had been followed for last year’s allocation. That process had been reviewed, and a project had been established to help the Council better link CIL spend with infrastructure included on the Council’s Infrastructure Delivery Plan. Parishes would be contacted individually in connection with this.

 

Rosemary said that a major concern had been that no parish had been successful in bidding for funds and no feedback had been given on why they had not been successful. It would be helpful if feedback could be provided. Lisa said she would take that on board; last year had been the first year of the CIL and officers were reviewing how the process and communication could be improved.

 

Cllr May commented that the application process had been very bureaucratic and that Keynsham, Whitchurch and Compton Dando had considered that putting in a bid had been well beyond their capability. Lisa replied that work was being done to simplify the process.

 

Mike Townley, Clerk of Batheaston Parish Council, noted that Town Parish Councils were supposed to receive 15% of CIL from development in their area and suggested that if CIL was raised in a parish, it should all be spent in the parish. Lisa replied that CIL is designed to support the provision of infrastructure across the district and 15% or 25% (with a Neighbourhood Plan) is specifically allocated to local councils to cover local infrastructure needs. Where the money was to be spent was a budgetary decision for the Council. Parishes were supposed to be able to spend their 15% on what they liked, but the Government found this problematic for accounting purposes.

84.

PAPERLESS PLANNING UPDATE

Raised by Cllr Martin Robinson, Dunkerton Parish Council

Minutes:

Lisa Bartlett and Sarah Jefferies gave a presentation. A copy of their PowerPoint slides is attached as Appendix 2.

 

Parish Councillor Martin Robinson thanked Lisa and Sarah for their presentation. He urged those who had not done recently to visit the Council’s planning web pages. They were now clearer and easier to read and much more user friendly. He looked forward to the further agreed changes being progressively implemented.

 

In reply to comments made by delegates, Parish Cllr Rosemary Naish said that transparency grants were available through ALCA for the purchase of laptops, screens, projectors and the installation of a broadband connection. Grants were also available to pay broadband connection charges for a couple of years. Parishes which were interested in exploring the possibility of a grant should contact Deborah White at B&NES ALCA.

 

Dawn Drury (Chair, Compton Dando PC) asked why some applications are not appearing on the website within ½ a day of their notification email.  Sarah asked parishes to let Planning know when this happens. The web site updates twice a day, 12pm and 6pm Monday to Friday.  It is a data heavy process and takes about 30 to 45 minutes.  Because of this updates cannot take place more frequently, as otherwise the performance of the site would be degraded. A notification done at 9am for example will not show until after 12pm.  She believed that this was advised on the notification.

 

Mike Townley (Clerk, Batheaston PC) said that after opening a document on the website it was no longer possible to return to the documents list, because the ‘back arrow’ had gone.  Sarah replied that on the old planning pages documents used to open in the same window as the list, and so there was a back button. The new page opens the documents in a new tab, and it is possible to switch between pages by clicking on the tabs. You can also right click on a document link to open it in a new window, which will allow you to view two drawings side by side.

 

Cllr Karen Warrington said that where an applicant had no agent there were no contact details for an application, which could cause problems on site visits. She wondered whether the contact details for the applicant could be provided to the Ward Councillor and the parish. Sarah said that unfortunately this was not permitted by the Regulations.

 

Parish Liaison July 17 pdf icon PDF 176 KB

85.

PARISH RECEPTION/CONFERENCE IDEAS

Cllr Paul Myers

Minutes:

Cllr Paul Myers said that during the work on the Parish Charter, parishes had referred to the Bath City Conference and had suggested that this should be expanded to include the whole of B&NES, or that alternatively there should be a dedicated conference for parishes to allow more time and opportunity for interaction between parish representatives than was possible within the limits of the Parish Liaison Meeting. He had spoken to Cllr Bob Goodman about the possibility of expanding the Bath City Conference, but he had wanted to retain this successful event in its current format. He therefore felt that the concept of a B&NES and Town and Parish Conference could be explored. He invited delegates to say what they thought would be useful. He suggested that speakers might be invited to such an event from other parts of the country. There were a number of community spaces throughout the area where events might be held. He suggested that a conference might be combined with the Chair’s reception for parishes. The event, if successful, would develop over time in the direction that people wanted it to go. He invited feedback from delegates, which could come via an email to him.

 

Cllr Bob Goodman said that, as Cllr Myers had suggested, the Bath City Conference had grown by a natural progression in the way that residents had wanted.

 

A delegate said that it did seem sometimes that the rural aspects of B&NES did get crowded out by the dominance of the City of Bath.

 

Parish Councillor Rosemary Naish said that she would be very concerned if the PLM was replaced by an event for all residents. There did need to a forum that focussed on issues specific to towns and parishes. She suggested that one of the PLMs should be extended, so that delegates could discuss topics for which there was insufficient time at the ordinary PLMs.

 

Cllr Myers suggested a small team of four or five people should begin planning a half-day conference and that anyone who wanted to take part in this should contact him or Rosemary. The Meeting agreed to this proposal.

86.

DATES OF FUTURE MEETINGS

The date of the next meeting will be:

 

26 October 2017, at 6.30pm in the Community Space, Keynsham

 

The following dates are proposed for 2018-19:

 

21st February 2018

24 October 2018

20 February 2019

 

In addition a half-day conference for parishes is proposed for June 2018 on a date to be agreed.

 

 

 

Minutes:

The next Parish Liaison Meeting is scheduled for 26 October 2017 at 6.30pm in the Community Space, Keynsham.