A meeting of the Parish Council was held on Wednesday 13th September at 8pm in the Village Hall.

A)                Present: Mr J. Norris (chairman); Mr Pennington (vice-chairman); Mrs Bridges, Mr Davies, Mr Seabury, Mrs Blenkins, Mr Rogers, Mr Pinches, and Mr Maydew. Councillor Nutting and PC Larry Smith also attended.

B)                 The minutes of the previous meeting, previously circulated were approved and signed.

C)                There were no declarations of interest.

D)                Matters Arising.

1.      District Councillor Chaplin – the chairman expressed his sadness following the sudden death of Councillor Chaplin. A card had been sent by the clerk, on behalf of parish council, expressing everyone’s sympathy. Mr Chaplin asked the clerk to convey his thanks to the parish council for their message of goodwill.

2.      The parish council went into the churchyard to familiarise all councillors with the problems of insecure memorial stones. After some discussion, on returning to the village hall, it was agreed to ask a local stone-mason to inspect all the gravestones in the cemetery. When this was done a notice would be placed in the parish magazine and the vicar informed. It was hoped the notice would highlight the problems and draw it to the attention of the families of the bereaved.

E)                 Planning Applications:

1.      Change of use of barn to holiday accommodation with associated alterations, new vehicular and pedestrian accesses, following demolition of existing outbuildings at the Malthouse Enchmarsh. No objections were raised and planning permission has been granted.

2.      Replacement of all windows affecting a Grade 2 Listed Building at Shootrough Farm, Leebotwood.

3.      An appeal to the Secretary of State against SABC’s decision to refuse planning for a certificate of lawfulness to continue the use of the land for the stationing of a caravan for residential purposes at Sunnyside, the Gutter, was read out to the Parish Council. The Clerk had contacted the planning department and currently no action was needed. It was agreed to support the original objections to the application.

4.      Outline planning for the construction of a cattery and kennels at Larchwood Farm, Longville. Mr Rogers agreed to visit the site and report back to Council.

F)                 Roads and Ditches

The clerk was instructed to inform the Divisional Surveyor of problems in the following areas: the road to Lea Hills, as it leaves the village, is breaking up and there is a bad pothole in the layby between Plaish and Gretton. There is a problem of illegal parking of a caravan on the Hoar Edge road from Enchmarsh. The clerk was instructed to inform the Chief Executive of SABC about the problem. The Parish Council was pleased with work on the Wilstone ford and the blocked drain at Enchmarsh. A request for slow signs at Gretton would be forwarded to the divisional surveyor as well.

G)                Churchyard

The final cut of grass cutting in the churchyard has been completed. It was agreed to organise the annual clear-up in the churchyard on 4th November 2006, starting at 10.30am It was also agreed to tidy up around the silver jubilee oak tree opposite the Royal Oak.

H)                Correspondence

It was agreed that Mr Maydew and Mr Davies would attend the SABC display awards evening to collect the trophy for winning the spring bulb disp0lay. Mrs Blenkins and Mr Maydew agreed to attend the meeting at Concorde College, between SABC Councillors and the general public. Mrs Bridges and Mr Pennington agreed to attend the joint-meeting between parish and borough councillors. Mrs Bridges and Mr Maydew agreed to meet before the next meeting to begin the update of the parish emergency planning register.

Following the informal meeting with the local CLA representative at the last meeting, it was agreed that the clerk needs to clarify the problems on the Cwms Lane with the county council. It was also important that parish council is informed of any changes in the status of the bye-way.

I)                   The date for the next meeting will be Thursday 23rd November 2006 at 8pm.

J)                   A review of conflict of interests was carried out and all councillors present confirmed that to the best of their knowledge, there had been no conflict of interest.

K)                There was no other business. The chairman thanked Councillor Nutting and PC Larry Smith for attending and their contributions to discussions.