West Knoyle Parish Council

Parish Clerk – Mrs. L. C. Wood

Minutes of a Parish Council meeting held on Monday, 20^th June 2022 at 7.30 p.m. in West Knoyle Village Hall.

Present:  Councillors Paul Yates (Chairman), Marcus Randall (Vice-Chairman), Mrs. Alex Davies & Tony Davis.

Meeting convened at 7.35 pm with Public Session

• None

Apologies for absence received from Councillor Paul Vita and from Wiltshire Councillor George Jeans.

91. To receive any declarations of disclosable pecuniary interests and other interests from Councillors on matters to be considered at the meeting.

Members are invited to declare disclosable pecuniary interests and other interests in items on the agenda as required by the West Knoyle Code of Conduct for Members and by the Localism Act 2011.

• Marcus Randall declared a personal interest in planning application PL/2022/04301

92. Minutes –RESOLVED that the Minutes of the Parish Council meeting held on Tuesday, 17^th May 2022 be approved as a correct record of proceedings on proposal made by Cllr. Randall and seconded by Cllr. Yates.

93. Matters Arising
94. a) Report on West Knoyle Platinum Jubilee celebrations – Cllr. Yates reported that the beacon event took place on a glorious evening and there was a good turnout of people that came along. He said that the daytime event was very well organised and very well attended and councillors all said that they had received very good comments about the events. The Clerk read out an email from Cllr. Paul Vita which commented on what a great job the Jubilee Committee & associated helpers did and thanked Paul Yates for the beacon event too.  An email from Corinne Leonard of the Village Hall committee confirmed that about 100 villagers (including about 15 children) attended the event which was incredible.  Leonard listed some of the expenses on flags, balloons, bunting etc. which amounted to £113.97 and members of the Parish Council agreed to send a cheque for £114 to the Village Hall Committee in order to cover these expenses and to write a thank you letter to the village hall committee to praise them for organising such a successful event and thank them for all their hard work. 

94. Planning
95. a) To consider consultee responses to the following planning applications:

Members had a long discussion and raised concerns as to residential/agricultural curtilage of the site, justification for the pole barn and height of the barn and also about privacy issues in relation to the proposal for a Juliet Balcony on the rear elevation of the extension.  It was RESOLVED on proposal made by Cllr. Yates, seconded by Cllr. Tony Davis and carried with a vote of 3 for and 1 abstention (Cllr. Marcus Randall, having declared a personal interest in the above planning application refrained from discussion or voting on the matter) to object to the planning application for the following reasons:

Residential/Agricultural curtilage – The Parish Council would like some clarification as to the residential (garden) curtilage of the site and the agricultural curtilage of the site.  Members thought that the split was broadly in line with the screenshot attached (taken from the Wiltshire Rights of Way map). 

Pole Barn – the Parish Council could not see, within the planning statement, any reason or justification for the erection of the pole barn.  Is it to house animals, feed, equipment?  Furthermore, the Parish Council is concerned about the height of the proposed pole barn which is approximately 6.5m from ground to ridge.  The planning statement says “the barn would be of a similar design to the barn at the neighbouring property as can be seen from the photograph below”… the photograph shows a barn that is less than 3.5 metres in height and so it would not exactly be similar.  The Parish Council could not understand, if vehicular access to the barn is needed, how it would be made given that there would appear to be no vehicular access shown on the plans.

Extension – the Parish Council does not have any major concerns about the size of the extension which is quite large.  However, members expressed concern that the extension would utilize much of the residential curtilage of the land owned by the applicant and it may subsequently then be necessary to apply for planning permission to increase the residential curtilage (garden) of the property by extending the boundary into the agricultural.   Concern was raised about the inclusion of a Juliet Balcony on the rear elevation of the extension and it was pointed out that this would look out over private land owned by a third party and all agreed that a regular window, rather than full height window with Juliet Balcony, would be more acceptable in terms of intrusion/privacy.

95. Footpaths, Highways, Traffic & Transport
96. a) Highway and footpath issues for parish steward – Cllr. Tony Davis reported that the Parish Steward had been in the village a couple of times and filled a few potholes and cut back verges at junctions and visibility splays. Randall reported that the footpath from Stoney Bridge to the telephone box has become quite narrow and is now difficult to walk along with a pushchair. Cllr. Davis said that he would ask the Parish Steward to side out the footpath on his next visit.  Cllr. Alex Davies raised concerns about a dangerous roadside ditch in Barrowstreet Lane.  It was pointed out that highway work was actually being carried out there at the present time and it was agreed that this would be investigated before any reports were made.

96. Play Area
97. a) Report on schedule to carry out actions identified in Annual RoSPA Play Area Inspection report – Members agreed that they were satisfied with the work that had been carried out by Alvian Ltd. Randall said that he would go to the play area again to get some of the algae off.

97. Finance, Policy & Resources
98. a) Audit of Accounts for the year ending 31^st March 2022:

1. To consider the Accounting Statements prepared & signed by the Responsible Financial Officer (RFO)
2. To receive and note the Annual Internal Audit Report
3. To approve the Annual Governance Statement (Section 1)
4. To approve the Accounting Statements (Section 2)
5. Certificate of Exemption – To confirm that West Knoyle Parish Council meets the qualifying criteria to be exempt from a limited assurance review by the external auditor and to RESOLVE to certify West Knoyle Parish Council “exempt” from External Audit.
6. Chairman & Clerk sign the Annual Governance Statement and Chairman signs the Accounting Statements
7. Notice of Public Rights & Publication of Unaudited Annual Governance & Accountability Return & to note commencement date for the exercise of public rights (as set by the RFO)
8. Chairman & RFO to sign the Certificate of Exemption

1. b) Payments – RESOLVED to approve the following payments:

98. To approve DRAFT Complaints Policy for West Knoyle Parish Council (DRAFT Policy attached) – members approved and adopted the DRAFT complaints policy without amendment.

99. Date of next meeting – It was agreed that the next scheduled meeting would be held on Tuesday, 13^th September 2022

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Members are reminded that the Parish Council has a general duty to consider the following matters in the exercise of any of its functions:  Equal Opportunities (race, gender, sexual orientation, marital status and any disability), Crime and Disorder, Health & Safety and Human Rights.