1 Apologies for Absence: Mr R Palmer, Mr L Port and Mr H Warden.

Absent: Mr W Davis.

R Palmer offered to step down as Vice Chairman, as his work commitments will mean he is not able to attend meetings on a regular basis. It was agreed to defer any decision until May 2005, the normal time for elections of the Chairman and Vice Chairman.

2 Declaration of Interests

a) P Mottram and C Hockey declared an interest in the planning application for 27 Lamprey’s Lane.

b) C Hockey declared an interest in the planning application for Willowbrook.

c) B Herrick declared an interest in the planning application for Wesley Cottage.

d) After discussion it was decided that it would not be necessary for B Priddle to declare an interest in Isle Moor Lane, but it was noted that his nephew owns the field.

3 Busy Bees Pre-school

Janette Warren gave a short presentation explaining the improvements that the Busy Bees Pre-school hopes to make. The removal of the hedge at the recreation field has created more space where they would like to create a safe outdoor play area for the children. Protection is needed for the windows on the road side and the preference would be for window grills rather than high fencing, but an option that allows the windows to be opened needs to be found. The Fire Service Safety Officer is visiting to advice. The estimated cost is £7,000, of which £4,000 is for paving, but they are hoping to obtain some more quotes but this is proving to be difficult. The clerk will provide a list of the local contractors used by the Parish Council.

4 Late Correspondence

This will be dealt with under the appropriate agenda item ie play inspection reports and planning decisions.

5 Agreement of Minutes

The minutes of the monthly meeting held on 7 December 2004 were signed as a correct record.

6 Matters Arising or Raised by Members

a) R Beale reminder the Parish Council that he had made the same point about the need for a foundation under the church pier at an earlier meeting.

b) It was confirmed that the owners of Norris House have been successful in their application to SSDC to change the name of the house to St James House.

c) P Mottram reported that Community Speed Watch has stopped at present as two people have withdrawn their services, leaving only three trained people. There are five people waiting to be trained by the police, but despite frequent contact with the police, no training has yet been organised as PC K Wright now spends 95% of his time working on school matters and only 5% on Community Speed Watch. P Mottram has offered to carry out the training but this is not acceptable. A local driver has verbally abused S Wallis. Inspector P Sabin will be at the Community Speed Watch Co-ordinators meeting and will be made aware of these problems.

d) There are rumours in the village that the surgery will be moving to the new hospital. The two Parish Council representatives on the South Petherton Hospital Working Party have already made these concerns known. There was a meeting with the Friends of South Petherton Hospital in December but the Parish Council representatives were not invited so an update on progress will be requested.

e) Officially, Parish Council donations should be for the benefit of local residents, but the auditor has advised that any donation to the Tsunami appeal is unlikely to be queried. It was agreed that as support and rehabilitation will be needed for many years to come, a decision would be deferred until later in the year.

f) Parish Councillors were asked to give consideration as to whether there was anyone in the village that they would like to nominate for the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List.

7 Planning Verdicts

The verdicts on planning applications received during the month were reported.

8 New Planning Applications

a) 03483ful Replacement windows at 27 Lamprey’s Lane. The Parish Council recommended approval.

b) 03557cou Formation of a conservation/wildlife pond on land to the rear of Willowbrook, North Street. The Parish Council recommended approval.

c) 03597ful Change of use of existing agricultural barn and conversion to domestic accommodation at bridge Wood Barn, Drayton Farm Lane. The Parish Council had no objections but did have concerns about access.

d) 03566out Erection of two bungalows at St Michael’s Church, Lightgate Road. The Parish Council had some concerns about parking in Lightgate and St Michael's Gardens when there is a church service, as this piece of ground is used on some occasions for parking, but would no longer be available. The Parish Council recommended approval.

e) 03429lbc Installation of a window at Wesley Cottage, North Street. The Parish Council recommended approval.

f) 03500ful First floor extension at 17 West End Close. The Parish Council recommended approval.

g) 03637tca Reduce in height one cherry tree, one silver birch and removal and replacement of one conifer at The Lanterns, Coles Lane. The Parish Council recommended approval.

h) 02556ful Amended application for erection of two storey extension to replace attached garage, erection of porch, conservatory and detached single garage at Brook House, Over Stratton. The Parish Council confirmed that they should repeat their earlier comments, noting that the amended buttresses were in line with their recommendation.

9 County Councillor’s Report

a) J Sharpe has supported fourteen different projects in his ward. In South Petherton with £250 towards the Young People’s Parish Council visit to the Houses of Parliament, £100 to investigate a water supply at the allotments, £700 towards a replacement light in the arch at the entrance to the David Hall, £400 to improve disabled access on footpaths, replacing the statue outside SP Junior School with a steel deer and a railing on the steps from Palmer Street to Summer Shard.

b) Residents have been asked to make their views on the SCC budget known through ‘Your Somerset’ newspaper.

c) J Sharpe reported that it had seemed likely that the South Petherton bus service operated by Safeway Services would cease but they have now accepted a subsidy and there will be an improved bus service starting in January 2005, approximately one per hour.

d) Under the SCC review of crime and the perception of crime, it appears that the value of burglaries can be directly related to the amount spent on drugs.

10 District Councillors’ Report

a) The new licensing act comes into force on 7 March 2005. K Ronaldson will advise J Churchill, the Blake Hall secretary, of the requirements. SSDC will be offering a 1½ hour training session on the completion of the necessary forms.

b) ‘Wheely’ bins were introduced to 5,500 homes in SSDC area in October 2004, with household waste collected every two weeks, recycling collected every week and the kitchen ‘caddy’ collected separately. Before the introduction of ‘wheely’ bins there was 14kg of household waste and 2kg of recycling per household. Since the introduction this has changed to 6kg of household waste and 8kg of recycling and remained at that level. Somerset was the top county for recycling in December 2004. It remains questionable whether recycling is cost effective, as the market for recyclable materials has changed. It was noted that commercial waste could still be buried. Concern was expressed about the kitchen food waste during the summer months. This currently goes to Southampton but Wyvern Waste has applied for planning permission for a fermentation plant to process this.

c) SSDC have been invited to London on 19 January 2005 to be interviewed to become a Beacon Council. Eleven councils have been selected; two rural and nine city boroughs.

d) It was queried why a fee of between £50 and £150 is payable for replacement windows that come under building control but SSDC officers have no time to inspect the work.

11 Recreation Field Matters

a) C Willy reported on the South Petherton Recreation Users Group (SPRUG) meeting. A grant of £7,000 towards the MUGA has been received and the improvement to the children’s play area is to be discussed with

R Palmer.

b) South Petherton Football Club has not paid their rent for 2004 and The Brewers Arms Football Club has not paid for the past two years. Both will be reminded and if no payment is received by next month consideration will be given to withdrawing the recreation ground facility.

c) The Pavilion Committee has written to the Wheatsheaf Football Club about the extremely poor state in which they have left the changing rooms; ten times worse than the visiting team, so poor weather and a muddy pitch is not the reason.

d) The Cricket Club still feels that the high netting needs to be replaced and they have been asked to obtain some quotes.

e) There will be a meeting on 28 February 2005 to which any of the young people interested in having a skateboard park in the village will be invited, to establish what level of interest there is in progressing this further.

f) Lord Hardy of Petherton opened the garden of remembrance in 1946 and Paul Turner is keen to get the schools involved in supporting this. In the short term he has offered to do some of the cleaning of the stone. There is also one tree that is too large and needs attention. C Willy and P Turner will work together on this.

B Herrick invited P Turner to one of the SP Junior School Governors’ meetings to discuss this.

g) There are two items on the play inspection reports that require urgent attention.

h) It was noted that the caretaker has not yet spent or returned his float of £100.

12 Lengthsman Scheme

a) From eleven applicants, five have been short listed and will be interviewed on 25 January 2005. The panel will be one Parish Councillor from each of the five parishes and D Harvey. D Perrin from SCC Personnel Team will be attending in an advisory capacity.

b) D Harvey will be the co-ordinator for South Petherton and any requests/suggestions should be made through him

13 Highway Matters

a) Repairs to the kerbs in Crown Lane are now urgent

b) Extra fencing was needed on the bank by the steps in Bridge Road, so there will be an additional invoice for this work.

c) The residents of Bramble Drive had requested that there should be a sign in West Street warning of a dangerous junction, but after discussion if was agreed that this was just one of many such junctions and this idea would not be pursued.

d) It was noted that although the advise is that ragwort should be sprayed or pulled up prior to flowering, as there are 285 seeds per flower head, SCC are the worst offenders with ragwort on verges and roundabouts.

14 Street Lights

SCC have now said that the proposed site for the new light in Hele Lane is not suitable and have proposed re-siting it on the corner. M Davidson will consult with the residents in the area to ensure they are happy with the new position.

15 Allotments

Th first meeting of the allotment holders has been held and proved to be most constructive. The lane on the left side needs to be levelled, a skip is needed to clear the rubbish and quotes for fencing and a water supply will be sought. It has been agreed that meetings will be held quarterly with the Parish Council acting as the facilitator and providing the pavilion as the venue.

16 Footpaths

a) J Sharpe has given £400 specifically to improve footpath access for the disabled. H Brunton has revised the proposal for this. B Priddle was asked to call a meeting of the Footpath Committee to discuss this and other footpath matters prior tot he next Parish Council meeting.

b) The proposal for altering the status of Isle Moor Lane will also be discussed by the Footpath Committee.

c) P Attwell, at SSDC, will be contacted about some footpath maps

(J Sharpe and P Robathan left the meeting)

17 Cemetery Matters

a) Quotes for repairing the drive are awaited.

b) One quote has been received for removing the conifers near the memorial wall; L Port will be asked to get two more quotes and then arrange for the work to be carried by the contractor providing the best quote.

(K Ronaldson left the meeting)

18 Churchyard Matters

Nothing to report

19 Pavilion Matters

a) The pavilion was not opened over the Christmas period this year.

b) There have been some problems with the Whearsheaf football club, see 11c.

20 Village Plan

B Herrick reported that there had been a 71% response to the Village Plan surveys; the better the response, the more notice will be taken when applying for funding. There is a meeting on 12 January 2005 to summarise the responses. B Herrick was thanked for his hard work that had gone into achieving this.

21 Approval of Cheque Payments

Approval was given for cheques drawn as indicated on the list attached to these minutes plus a cheque for £309.64 to Avoncrop. The cheque to SSDC for the planning application was cancelled, as it was no longer required.

The meeting closed 9.43pm

Minutes Approved by: Chairman………………………

Date………………………..