Minutes of the Meeting of St Mabyn Parish Council held on Tuesday, 5th March 2013 in the
St Mabyn Memorial Hall at 7.30pm.
Present: Cllrs. A Finnamore (Chairman), N Embley (Vice Chairman), Mrs A Bunney, Mrs H Barrett,
D Masters, G Brindle, Mrs C Bray, M Menhenitt, M Grigg.
Also attending: Mrs J Hoskin (Parish Clerk)
48 members of the public
1.Public Session: The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting and announced that the public session would be extended until 8.15pm to allow everyone to address the council, if they so wished.
The majority had attended to express their views on Agenda Item 6 – Planning Application PA12/00423 for the erection of a wind turbine on land South West of Trethick Farm. Mr Martin, the farmer applying through an agent for the turbine, was also present along with members of his work force.
The consensus of pubic feelings established that most people present objected to this application for reasons of visual impact, the proposed location, the effect on the school, and issues that may affect public health.
The Clerk had received copies of letters of objection and the Chairman stated that the comments had been noted but advised anyone wanting to make a comment either for or against the application to write directly to the planning department to enable the comment to be registered as an individual comment rather than have a reference made within the one response from the Parish Council.
The meeting requested a show of hands to gauge the feeling amongst those present as to whether or not people objected, supported or abstained.
Mr Martin explained his reasons for having a turbine to subsidise the energy costs for his farming business.
One parishioner suggested that the Parish Council should decide on suitable locations within the parish for renewable energy sites.
Another parishioner announced that a second public meeting was being held on Thursday, 7th March 2013 to discuss the options of having a community turbine. This was independent to the Parish Council.
The Chairman stated that all planning applications received by the Parish Council were considered on their own merit regardless of their proposals.
A separate matter questioned an update from the Parish Council as to whether or not any progress had been made by the Parish Council about issues relating to the speed of traffic travelling through the village. The Chairman stated that talks were being held with the police and the Parish Council were awaiting their recommendations on this matter.
(The public session closed at 8.05pm and 43 members of the public left the meeting).
Police: A report from PCSO Lloyd Paynter was read by the Clerk. A new Inspector had recently joined the police covering the Bodmin and Wadebridge areas, and a temporary additional member of staff had been placed onto the Bodmin Rural Neighbourhood Team.
Recent reported crimes consisted of an assault following a road related incident, a drink drive offence and the theft of a camera from a property at Longstone.
Planning for a rural “Farm Watch” scheme was still ongoing and it was hoped to launch the scheme at the end of April 2013.
Cornwall Council: No report received.
2. Apologies for non attendance were received from Cllrs. R Chadwick, J Rowe (Cornwall Council) and PCSO Paynter (Police).
3. Members Declaration of Interest: Cllr M Menhentt declared an interest on Agenda Item 6 – Planning Application PA13/00802.
4. Minutes: The Minutes of the Meeting held on the 5th February 2013, as circulated, were confirmed and signed by the Chairman.
5. Matters Arising:
Item 8 CC Local Maintenance Project – Footpaths: The clerk had obtained “dog fouling” notices and these had been put up around the village by Cllr M Menhenitt.
Item 10 Neighbourhood Planning event – Cllr Mrs H Barrett stated that she would have endeavoured to attend this event had she known of the date and venue. Cllr Mrs H Barrett was unable to attend the previous meeting.
Item 12 Community Network Meeting – The Clerk and Cllr Mrs A Bunney responded to Cllr Mrs H Barrett’s question that information from the Community Network was available should any councilor wish to see it.
6. Planning Applications / Planning Matters:
PA13/00423 Mr Paul Millinder, Clean Tech Investments Ltd, land south west of Trethick Farm,
St Mabyn – Siting of one 50m high wind turbine, 77m to blade tip with three blades and a rotor diameter of 54m, temporary access track, compact transformer housing and associated works.
The Clerk notified the Council of the copies of letters of objection received and circulated passed around for councilor to read. Councillors were made aware of the objection by Egloshayle Parish Council.
The Parish Council object to this application for the following reasons:- - the location is considered to be inappropriate - the visual impact a turbine of this size will have on the local area - this development would be detrimental to the surrounding designated area of historical interest - the size of the turbine is out of scale and character with the rural agricultural LCA33 - the AM nosie disturbance to young children in St Mabyn School and Pre-School which is within 600 meters - the cumulative effect this would have on the local community.
PA13/00802 Henrietta McLachlan, Parkside, Station Road, St Mabyn –
Removal of existing pitched and flat roofs, construction of replacement pitched roof with extended flat roof, conversion of existing roof storage into habitable accommodation. Support.
Cllr M Menhenitt declared an interest and abstained for this application.
Planning Decisions:
PA12/11630 Mr Nick Boyle, Tredethy Farm, Helland – Removal of condition 5 (fence planting) attached to decision notice PA11/09778 (installation of a solar photovoltaic array and associated equipment with a maximum height of 2.6m and a maximum installed capacity of 50kw) – Approved.
Planning Matters:
PA12/10847 Mrs B Gillespie, rear of Village Hall, Wadebridge Road, St Mabyn –
Change of use from agricultural land to pre-school play area. The Clerk had received information from the Village Hall Committee stating that further information was required from the pre-school to address issues relating to back wall, access and drainage and their thoughts on whether or not the play area could be re-sited away from the neighbouring property.
7. Accounts / Financial Matters: Councilors approved the cheque payments presented. The finance report is issued as Part 2 of these minutes.
8. CC Local Maintenance Project 2012/2013: Nothing to report.
9. Playing Field: Inspection reports were presented by Cllr D Masters who offered to continue the inspections for the forthcoming month. The timbers on the swing bridge between the two towers were deteriorating . Repairs to the tyre swing were to be completed along with other maintenance work to be carried out by the Councils working party once the weather improved.
The Clerk agreed to obtain legal advice on aspects of the legal agreement for the field in relation to car parking and would obtain this information with minimal costs to the Parish Council.
10. Neighbourhood Plan – to consider the contents of the Cornwall Core Strategy document, once received, and the advantages of creating a parish plan. The Clerk reported that the final draft of the Core Strategy document had been completed and Cornwall Council would be circulating this to Parish Councils within the next few weeks. Agreed to await to establish the information contained in this document.
Cllr G Brindle was to attend a Neighbourhood Planning Event on Friday, 8th March 2013.
11. Correspondence: The correspondence file was circulated.
Town & Parish Council Newsletter – March 2013 (to be copied to Cllrs Mrs H Barrett and Mrs A Bunney)
South West Water – “:What’s in the pipeline 2015-2040”
Cornwall Council – Email confirming reason for road closure at Trethick Farm (private duct installation works).
Cornwall Council – Seeking the appointment of Town and Parish Council representatives and lay members for the Cornwall Council’s Standards Committee.
Clerks & Councils Direct magazine.
EDF Energy – Notification of tariff price changes
Cornish Mutual – Information on the Community South West grant available for one community in the region.
Fields in Trust – “Have a field day” a community event
12. To Agree / Discuss:
Cornwall Council Community Network Meeting – Nothing to report, no recent meetings held.
To consider refurbishing the seat on “The Cresent” donated in the 1960’s by the W.I.-The council was notified that a local resident had refurbished the seat. The Council agreed to take on this responsibility along with the maintenance of other parish seats in the future.
To arrange a date for the Clerks annual review (Staffing Committee) The committee agreed to arrange a date in March 2013 for this review.
Renewing the cleaning contract for 2013/2014 for the public toilets/bus shelter – Agreed to offer this contract to the current contractor, Ms McNary.
Forthcoming Elections on 2nd May 2013 (Cllr Mrs H Barrett) Item deferred, Cllr Mrs H Barrett was unable to attend this meeting. The Clerk reported that nomination forms would be automatically issued to existing councilors and notices advertising the elections would be published on the notice boards.
13. Parish Matters / Any other Business:
a) St Mabyn Memorial Hall – It was noted that vehicle parking for those using the hall, in particular the Young Farmers Club, caused disturbance to local neighbouring residents.
14. Date of next Meeting: Tuesday, 2nd April 2013 (Annual Parish & Parish Council).
