Minutes of the Full Council Meeting 1st February 2012
DRAFT & UNCONFIRMED
LANCING PARISH COUNCIL
Minutes of the Meeting of the Full Council held on
Wednesday 1st February 2012 at 7.45 p.m.
Present: Chairman: Councillor. Ann Bridges
Councillors: Andy Barnes,Melvyn Blackband, James Butcher, Brenda Collard, Mary Hamblin, Fred Lewis, Steve Martin, Morgan Nahid, Lionel Parsons & Ann Terry.
In attendance; Colin Hunt, Clerk to the Council.
The Chair opened the meeting and welcomed those members of the public present and apologised for the late start as the previous planning meeting having over-run.
81. Apologies.
Apologies were received and accepted from Cllrs Richard Burt and Simon Bridges
82. Declarations of Interest.
There were no declarations of interest.
83. Minutes of Previous Meetings:
83.1 Full Council held on 4th January 2012.
The Minutes of this meeting were attached to the agenda.
Two matters which needed correcting was apologies that had been received from Ann Terry which had not recorded and in relation to item 78.2, Cllr Lionel Parsons was also appointed to the sub Committee. Other than the above, the Minutes were accepted and agreed as a true record.
There were no other matters arising
83.2 Planning Advisory Committee held on 4th January 2012.
The Minutes of this meeting were accepted and agreed as a true record at the Planning and Advisory Committee meeting held on 18th January 2012
There were no matters arising
83.3 Planning Advisory Committee held on 18th January 2012.
The Minutes of this meeting were accepted and agreed as a true record at the Planning and Advisory Committee meeting held immediately prior to this meeting.
There were no matters arising
.
83.4 Finance & General Purposes Committee held on 18th January 2012.
The Minutes of this meeting were attached to the agenda and were accepted and agreed as a true record.
There were no matters arising
84. Chairman’s Announcements/Report.
84.1 The Chair informed Council that she had attended the Holocaust day memorial service together with other dignitaries from Worthing and Adur at Buckingham Park on Monday where a memorial tree had been planted. Later there had been a presentation by the son of Alfred Huberman on the life and incarceration of his father. The Chair had found the whole experience to be very moving.
84.2 The Chair gave a formal appreciation to the Clerk and his staff for their work in initiating the changes and improvements that had been achieved over the term of the Council. A list of the accomplishments was attached to the agenda.
85. Public Forum & Questions.
There were no questions from those members of the public present.
86. Correspondence or issues in respect of the District and/or County Councils.
There was no correspondence
87. Other Correspondence.
87.1 A list of recent email correspondence from a variety of sources is normally attached to the agenda for information. However since the last Council meeting in January there had been no email correspondence.
87.2 South Downs National Park Authority: Notification of Local Validation List Consultation - Adur and Worthing
From 1 April 2012, the SDNPA will be consolidating planning application processing into a single system with a list of requirements for validating applications that is consistent throughout the National Park.
Their requirements represent changes from the list of information requirements published variously by the 15 local authorities within the South Downs National Park. Consistent with DCLG guidance, they are consulting on these changes.
Consultation ends on 9 March 2012 and consultation documents can be found at the following web page:www.southdowns.gov.uk/planning
Members wishing to participate in the consultation were requested to access the web site, review the details of the consultation and complete the on-line form provided.
87.3 South Downs National Park Authority: Notification of a vacancy to sit on the governing body.
A vacancy had arisen for a new member to join the governing body of the South Downs National Park Authority. The Clerk passed the details to Cllr Martin who expressed an interest.
88. Report(s) of the Clerk.
88.1 Lancing Regeneration Consultation
Council was advised that BDP, who are the consultants appointed to undertake the regeneration study for Lancing, would be undertaking consultation at the Parish Halls on Thursday 2nd and Friday 3rd.February between 9am and 4pm (to 7pm on Thursday).
88.2 17 North Road
Council was advised that the legalities relating to the meanwhile lease for 17 North Road were nearing completion. Very soon the Council and AVA in partnership would be undertaking refurbishments and the hope was that the premises would be occupied early in March.
In discussions with AVA and BDP, the name on the shop front was favoured to be ‘Lancing Village Action’, which was considered to be neutral, welcoming and not too officious so as not to deter passers by looking in.
Council agreed with the branding and looked forward to the opening.
88.3 Schedule of meetings for the Municipal year 2012-13
Attached to the agenda was a draft schedule of Council and Committee meetings for the forthcoming Municipal year including the proposed dates for:-
§ The Annual Meeting of the Councilwhich, as a result of the local elections, was scheduled to take place in the second week in May on Weds 9h May at 7:00pm and
§ The Village Residents meetingwhich would take place on Thurs 24th May at 7:30pm.
It was RESOLVED to accept the calendar for the Municipal Year 2012/13 which will now be advertised accordingly.
88.4 The Beach Green Building Questionnaire.
Members were reminded that a questionnaire was enclosed with the last edition of the Village Voice asking residents to give their preferences to a range of options that were available at that time. The closing date was 31st January. However since then the building had been bought and the new developers were in the process of formulating plans for its future use.
Nevertheless it was considered that the consultation exercise had been worthwhile in engaging with the community and a number of those returned expressed their appreciation of the opportunity to ‘have their say’.
Council was aware that consultation was going to be the cornerstone of the newly introduced Localism Act and the concept of the ‘Big Society’ and it would continue to consult the community on important issues.
The Clerk circulated the results of the consultation at the meeting, where it was noted that the majority (70%) of the returns, preferred the option to buy and demolish the building albeit that circumstances had now overtaken events and that this along with the Council developing it for community use were no longer viable options.
However, the survey did show that the ‘Do nothing’ option was the least favourable and in this respect the Council should not sit back but help to resolve the issue.
Further updates on this matter would be reported as things develop.
88.5 Achievements in the Council office term 2008 to 2012.
With the term of office of the current Council coming to a close, Members were reminded of the achievements, changes and advancements made by the Council during the last four years and a list of the main accomplishments was attached as appendix A.
The last term has been extremely productive with a number of advancements made and the new Localism Act could provide the Council opportunity to further improve the community life for the residents of Lancing.
Council noted this matter and expressed a desire to publicise these achievements in a future edition of the Village Voice.
89. Report(s) of Representatives on Outside Bodies.
89.1 Cllr Ann Bridges informed Council that here was a meeting of the Lancing Youth Management Committee arranged for 28th February when it was hoped that a clearer picture would emerge relating to the future of the Committee.
89.2 Cllr Lionel Parsons, who was the Council’s representative on the AVS Management Committee, informed Council that he had attended a meeting recently and reported that it was hoped that 17 North Road would be open by the beginning of March and that the group were appreciative of the strong support that the Council had given to the project.
89.3 Cllr Fred Lewis informed Council that the Leisure Centre was doing well and had attained a healthy financial reserve although a large portion of this was earmarked for pension funds. There was still car parking issues and the company were seeking ways to increase parking spaces.
89.4 Although not a Council representative, Cllr Terry was congratulated on her recognition for the work she had undertaken in helping the elderly in the Community, which had spanned 25 years.
90. Any Other Urgent Business (Agreed with the Chairman in advance).
There was none
The meeting closed at 8.35 pm.
Colin Hunt
Clerk to the Council
2nd February 2012
Signed Chairman
Dated;
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