08.04.01 Present: Cllrs. Pellitt/Cowan/Wadley/Christey/Baldwin/Jones/Ovenden
R Hansell/W Hansell and Clerk
Guests: District Cllrs. Lloyd Jones/Record, Bob Halls, PC Sadler and 6 parishioners

08.04.02 Apologies: Cllr. Williams (personal), Cllr. Nielson (personal), Cllr. Rowbotham (ill)

08.04.03 Approve and Sign Minutes: Resolved that the March minutes is an accurate record. Agreed that Clerk sign the Minutes on behalf of Chair.

08.04.04 Register of Financial & Other Interests and Declaration of Interest on items on Agenda: Cllr. Ovenden declared an interest regarding discussion on Monkton Court Lane. Cllr. Cowan informed meeting that he was now a member of the Kent Coal & Communities.

08.04.05 Matters Arising: Cllr. Jones asked if Cllr. R Hansell had any update on obtaining compensation for the Bus Shelter at Shooters Hill, Cllr. R Hansell replied that he had not sent the letter yet but will let the Clerk have the draft.
Adjourn meeting
08.04.06 PACT Initiative: PC Sadler reported to the meeting that it had been reasonably quiet and trouble free apart from a couple of incidents with snowballs which had caused some criminal damage. PC Sadler has met with the Community Partnership Agency regarding some problem youths and he is working with Bob Halls and other agencies and the long term goal is to convict or evict. The old allotment site at Elvington had some ducks/geese kept on it and youths had killed some of these with air rifles and this was being investigated. Cllr. R Hansell asked if DDC were involved in any potential evictions and PC Sadler replied that this was a long term option and there were several steps prior to this. PC Sadler also informed the meeting that he has been out with the speed gun and that the problem is district wide.
Bob Halls reported to the meeting that he has very little to report and he was pleased people were making reports regarding the killing of the animals. Cllr. Jones asked if he had a progress report on the rear of the White Horse and Bob Halls explained that nothing had been done to date by the landowners but he is still dealing with it.

08.04.07 District Councillors report: A meeting is to be held to discuss the Healthcare situation in the parish and Cllr. Lloyd Jones will be attending this. Cllr. R Hansell confirmed that he will also be attending the meeting. Cllr. Lloyd Jones had requested that the Clerk was sent a copy of the report and asked that she is now put on the Distribution list. Cllr. W Hansell asked Cllr. Lloyd Jones if there had been a vote at DDC on the LDF Options and Cllr. Lloyd Jones confirmed that a vote had been held and it was for Option 3 -14,000 homes. Cllr. Cowan enquired as to what was the point in the consultation process if DDC had already decided on the Option and Cllr. Lloyd Jones explained to the meeting that it was a Government led process and the public have to be consulted and that it is a good thing to take part and that representations will be looked at and that the decision may be overturned. Cllr. Lloyd Jones was asked why, if SEERA are stating 8,100 homes for the District, are DDC going higher. Cllr. Lloyd Jones replied this was the recommendation of DDC’s planners and researchers. Cllr. Ovenden asked Cllr. Lloyd Jones if he would support this PC on the decisions that they took even if it went against DDC and Cllr. Lloyd Jones responded that he would. Cllr. Record read out the Vision statement from the document that was voted on in December 2007.
A lengthy debate took place on the LDF and Cllrs. Lloyd Jones and Record were asked to take back the concerns of the PC to DDC and they agreed to do this.
Cllr. Record confirmed that she is also to attend the Healthcare meeting.

08.04.08 County Councillor’s report: No report
Reconvene meeting
Resolved that Items 14 and 15 are moved up the Agenda.
08.04.09 LDF Update: Cllr. Pellitt reported on the Public meeting and the good attendance but was disappointed that there were not a lot of comments on the website. Cllr. Pellitt thanked those people that have helped with the LDF and distribution of the leaflets and suggested that the PC needs to push to get comments on the website. Cllr. Cowan stated comments must also be made about the Core Strategy as well as site allocations. Although a lot of the Parish Council’s in the District don’t have site allocations in their Parish they need to make comments on water/infrastructure etc. and it was agreed that the Clerk email to all Parish Councils asking them to comment. Cllr. R Hansell asked the PC if he could have permission to copy the Inspector’s report to leave at the PO and this was agreed.

08.04.10 Planning Information Day report/proposals: Cllr. Pellitt informed the meeting that he had attended this and found it very useful and informative and in view of Wigmore Lane he would like the PC to have a Statement of Community Involvement. It was agreed that Councillors should think on this and make a decision later in the year.

08.04.11 Expenditure Approval: Cllr. Cowan informed the meeting that the PC needs to have this set up and asked for the following Resolution to be agreed. Resolved in an emergency, expenditure of £100 can be authorised by any two of Chairman, Vice-Chairman or Chair of Finance, provided that such expenditure does not cause an overspend in the relevant budget category. Unanimous vote

08.04.12 Year end Financial report: Cllr. Cowan gave a rundown on the year end accounts. The carried over figure for year end was £48,000 and the aim is to be as prudent this year as last year and keep the precept lower. Cllr. Baldwin raised the question of Grants and that the PC are the most generous in the district and Cllr. Cowan agreed with Cllr. Baldwin and that at the present time it is hoped to maintain the Grants.

08.04.13 Adoption of Vexatious or Habitual Complainants Policy: Cllr. Baldwin explained that this was a new policy and that it had been adapted from a District Council template. KALC had been contacted but did not have a model document for Parish Councils. Cllr. Baldwin explained why he felt that this Policy should be considered and Cllr. W Hansell stated that she had reservations about it and it should be discussed fully. Cllr. Wadley asked if it could be incorporated into the Complaints Policy. It was agreed to put this item on to the June agenda allowing Councillors time for further consideration.

08.04.14 Adoption of Amended Complaints Procedure: As 08.04.13 to put on June Agenda

08.04.15 Eythorne School Children’s Centre: Cllr. Jones reported to the meeting that the building at the School was nearly complete and he had attended a meeting to discuss how the Centre was to be run. Cllr. Jones explained that the Welfare Scheme had offered the School a strip of land, free of charge, for use as a Car Park with a caveat that the unmade road was made up, KCC had not made a decision on this and that it had been going on for some time. KCC had a Feasibility Study done by Consultants but Cllr. Jones felt it was of doubtful quality even though it took nearly 7 months to compile. Cllr. Jones has drafted a letter on the issue and it was agreed to send it both from the PC and the School. Cllr. Jones asked Cllr. Baldwin if he could ascertain the category of land that this strip fell under as it was critical. Cllr. Jones handed to Clerk copies of documents and will let her have the letter when it is finished.

08.04.16 Start time of meeting: Clerk reported that Mrs Howard had contacted her and requested that the start time on a Wednesday was moved to 1915 as she had received complaints about the meeting starting at 1900 with children still being around. Resolved that all PC meetings will start at 1915.

08.04.17 Committee meetings:

Finance Cllr. Cowan asked the PC if the 4 Waste bins allocated in this year’s budget could now be given the agreement to go ahead and ascertain prices etc. Agreed that prices are obtained.
Cllr. Cowan asked for agreement that the training/books budget should now be split and £400 allocated for training and £100 for books. Resolved that the training/books budget be split as above.
Cllr. Cowan reported that the Internal Auditor has agreed the books and a new Auditor had done the books this year. Cllr. Cowan read out the Statement of Annual Governance and the statements were agreed. Agreed that Cllr. Cowan sign the Annual Return form.
Clerk’s expenses will now be claimed monthly instead of quarterly.

08.04.18 Finance: Resolved that the following cheques are drawn and signed.

HMRC – PAYE 440.40 Northcliffe Media - Advert 143.82
Impact Office – Stationery 25.38 S Thomson – Salary 42.10
Mrs Gower – Salary 900.73 Mrs Gower – B/Band + LDF books 25.00
Phoenix Club – Grant 400.00 Eythorne PCC – C/yard Grant 518.00
Community Minibus – Grant 1000.00 Eythorne PCC – Clock Grant 193.88
Resource Centre – Grant 1107.29 Tilmanstone Miners Scheme – Grant 2000.00
Eythorne & Elvington Forum – Grant 400.00 Tilmanstone Welfare Bowls – Grant 874.84
Eythorne Rovers – Grant 500.00 Eythorne Baptist Church – Hall hire 10.50
Vision Accounts – Audit 150.00 Mrs Gower – Expenses 50.00
Youth Club – Grant 1500.00 Elvington Community Centre – Grant 1750.00
Whitfield Action Group – Grant 50.00 KCC – BACS Pension 325.50

08.04.19 Correspondence:

1. Clerk read out email from Mr & Mrs Groombridge regarding the BT phone box at Green Lane. Clerk to contact BT to ascertain if the phone box can either be removed or made to accept cards
2. Clerk read out email from Elvington Carnival requesting permission to use Elvington Playing Field every Sunday for a boot fair. Clerk to inform them that the PC do not agree this request as it was felt that to have vehicles on the Playing field weekly would cause damage to the surface.
3. Parish News – Clerk handed these out
4. KCC re: Hospital Access – passed to Cllr. Hansell
5. Kent empty property initiative – passed to Cllr. Ovenden
6. All other correspondence noted

08.04.20 Any Other Business: Cllr. R Hansell requested permission that the PC run a petition on the Hospital Campaign and this was agreed.
Cllr. Ovenden asked if anyone knew what was going on at Eythorne House and to look at this and report back to Clerk.
Close of formal business at 2100

08.04.21 Public question time:

Mr Birch raised his concerns as to what the PC are doing about the LDF and quoted from the Inspector’s report. Mr Birch felt that the leaflets distributed by the PC weren’t satisfactory and he wasn’t happy with these. Cllr. Cowan felt that the PC could do more to explain the LDF process/consultation to the parishioners. It was agreed that Cllrs. Pellitt/Cowan/R Hansell still respond on the sections that they had previously been allotted and that draft letters are also drawn up to assist parishioners when responding. Cllr. Ovenden informed meeting that her daughter’s previous offer of copying documents was still open and Clerk to email the letters to Cllr. Ovenden for her to arrange printing.
Meeting closed at 2120