Agenda, decisions and minutes

Baldock and District Committee - Monday, 3rd December, 2018 7.30 pm

Venue: Baldock Community Centre, Simpson Drive, Baldock

Contact: Amelia McInally (01462) 474514 Email: amelia.mcinally@north-herts.gov.uk

Items
No.	Item
41.	APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE Decision: No apologies for absence were received from Councillors. Minutes: Audio recording – Start time of Item – 18 seconds No apologies for absence were received from Councillors.
42.	MINUTES - 3 SEPTEMBER 2018 To take as read and approve as a true record the minutes of the meeting of this Committee held on the 3 September 2018. These minutes are to follow. Decision: The minutes from the last meeting on 3^rd September 2018 were unavailable for sign-off so this will be postponed until the next meeting in March. Minutes: Audio Recording – Start time of Item – 25 seconds The minutes from the last meeting on 3^rd September 2018 were unavailable for sign-off so this will be postponed until the next meeting in March.
43.	NOTIFICATION OF OTHER BUSINESS Members should notify the Chairman of other business which they wish to be discussed by the Committee at the end of the business set out in the agenda. They must state the circumstances which they consider justify the business being considered as a matter of urgency. The Chairman will decide whether any item(s) raised will be considered. Decision: There was no other business notified. Minutes: Audio Recording – Start time of Item – 36 seconds There was no other business notified.
44.	CHAIRMAN'S ANNOUNCEMENTS Members are reminded that any declarations of interest in respect of any business set out in the agenda, should be declared as either a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest or Declarable Interest and are required to notify the Chairman of the nature of any interest declared at the commencement of the relevant item on the agenda. Members declaring a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest must withdraw from the meeting for the duration of the item. Members declaring a Declarable Interest, wished to exercise a ‘Councillor Speaking Right’, must declare this at the same time as the interest, move to the public area before speaking to the item and then must leave the room before the debate and vote. Decision: (1) The Chairman welcomed those present at the meeting, especially Counsellor David Levett and to those who had attended to give a presentation on grant applications; (2) The Chairman advised that, in accordance with Council Policy, the meeting would be audio recorded; (3) The Chairman drew attention to the item on the agenda front pages regarding Declarations of Interest and reminded Members that, in line with the Code of Conduct, any Declarations of Interest needed to be declared immediately prior to the item in question. Members who were to declare a declarable interest and who wished to exercise a ‘councillor speaking right’, had to declare this at the same time as the interest. Minutes: Audio Recording – Start time of Item – 43 seconds (1) The Chairman welcomed those present at the meeting, especially Counsellor David Levett and to those who had attended to give a presentation on grant applications; (2) The Chairman advised that, in accordance with Council Policy, the meeting would be audio recorded; (3) The Chairman drew attention to the item on the agenda front pages regarding Declarations of Interest and reminded Members that, in line with the Code of Conduct, any Declarations of Interest needed to be declared immediately prior to the item in question. Members who were to declare a declarable interest and who wished to exercise a ‘councillor speaking right’, had to declare this at the same time as the interest.
45.	PUBLIC PARTICIPATION Decision: Letchworth Rugby Club Richard Sell, Membership Secretary and Schools’ Coordinator at Letchworth Rugby Club thanked the Chairman for the opportunity to address the Committee regarding their grant application. 2^nd Baldock Scouts Ed Hartley from 2^nd Baldock Scouts thanked the Chairman for the opportunity to address the committee regarding their grant application. Baldock Allotment & Leisure Gardeners Association Richard Winter from Baldock Allotment & Leisure Gardeners Association thanked the Chairman for the opportunity to address the committee regarding their grant application. Minutes: Audio Recording – Start time of Item – 1 minute 47 seconds Richard Sell, Membership Secretary and Schools’ Coordinator at Letchworth Rugby Club thanked the Chairman for the opportunity to address the Committee regarding their grant application. Richard Sell informed Members of the following: · Letchworth Rugby Club was closer to Baldock town centre than Letchworth town centre and 50% of the members of Letchworth Rugby Club were from Baldock and the surrounding villages. Knights Templar was the closest secondary school. · The grant application was to help grow the delivery of rugby coaching undertaken in Baldock schools. At Knights Templar a previous 3 year satellite grant of £2,000 was awarded by Sport England and was about to run out. · Part 1 of the application request was for £500 to allow the club to deliver another 20 coaching sessions at Knights Templar in 2019. · Primary schools grant of £300 required to offer discounted sessions to coach during PE lessons. Primary schools in Baldock keen to take up this offer. · Children would benefit and this would promote active and healthy lifestyles. · All children would be given the opportunity to learn to play rugby and staff would gain valuable knowledge and the confidence to teach the children how to play. · Strong links would be built with the schools so that children could enjoy playing rugby both in and out of school. · The Club would offer the schools ‘rugby scholarships’. PE staff would identify suitable candidates and there would be guidelines for selection of talented children or from families whose circumstances meant that the membership fee would preclude them from participating. Scholarship would waive the first year’s membership and then it would be £60 (half price) for subsequent years. In response to questions from Members, Richard Sell advised that: · The £1,100 for matched funding would be the cost of the membership fees which would be waived as part of the ‘scholarship scheme’. In Baldock nine scholarships would be given to the schools. The club would also contribute towards the cost of the kit and on occasion would even provide some children with kit if that were the reason they were prevented from playing. · Sport England reviewed their funding model and the satellite grants were no longer available. · The grant money would allow services to be delivered at Knights Templar in 2019 up to February half term and then from September/October and also enable the PE lessons at primary schools to be provided. · At the end of 2019, Knights Templar would need to source other grants. With the primary schools, given the incentives of discounted sessions they may be able to contribute to the PE lessons going forward or would be to seek further grants. · The club was aware that it would not be able to approach the Baldock Area Committee again until 2020 and the funds requested were sufficient to last for two years. The Chairman thanked Richard Sell for his presentation. Audio Recording – Start time of Item – 13 minutes 20 seconds Ed ... view the full minutes text for item 45.
46.	LOCAL PLAN UPDATE To receive a presentation from Councillor David Levett, Executive Member for Planning, Enterprise and Transport regarding the Local Plan. Decision: Councillor David Levett thanked the Chairman for the opportunity to address the Committee regarding the Local Plan Update. The Chairman thanked Councillor David Levett for his presentation. Minutes: Audio Recording – Start time of Item – 33 minutes 50 seconds Councillor David Levett thanked the Chairman for the opportunity to address the Committee regarding the Local Plan Update. · Councillor David Levett informed Members that the Inspector had issued his main modification recently so the update regarding what had happened so far with the local plan, the current status and future plan: Background: · ‘Preferred Options’ document approved for consultation on 24/11/2014 which ran from 18/12/2014 – 05/02/2015; · 8,382 responses – 15,500 individual comments from those responses; · There were major revisions and a submission version was approved for consultation on 11/04/2017. The consultation period ran from 19/10/2016 – 30/11/2016. There were 2,459 responses and 5,675 individual representations; · Public Hearing with an Inspector in Letchworth. Originally scheduled for 8 days however there were 28 days of hearings in total which ran between November 2017 to March 2018; · There were 400 representations and included input from the public, councillors and MP’s, developer’s landowners, neighbouring authorities, health, education, transport, environmental authorities, various pressure groups, parish and town councils and public bodies; · During the Hearing additional work and background information was requested by the Inspector and extra work was volunteered to give extra substance and explain things in more clarity. This was submitted in June 2018. Updates followed as there were two legislative changes and information in local plans, particularly regarding environmental assessment that meant extra work was required; · Inspector requested further clarification following these which were submitted in November 2018; · Inspector’s main modifications and supporting documents were published on 19th November 2018; · Special Cabinet meeting scheduled for 10^th December 2018 at 3pm which was to grant approval for consultation on the following: · Inspector’s proposed main modifications to the plan; · A sustainability appraisal which looked at those modification in context and made sure that the plan was still viable; · There were some additional documents which were submitted to the Inspector as requested by him; · All these documents were located on the main council website under local plan; · The consultation, assuming approved by Cabinet was on 10^th December 2018, ran for six weeks from 3^rd January 2019 to 14^th February 2019. Due to the volume of the documentation, plenty of time was given for everyone to go through it prior to the full consultation process; What had not changed: · Fundamentally the same plan was approved for submission by full Council in April 2017. There were no changes to the housing requirement had not changed. The identified need still needed to be met in full. A reasonable contribution needed to fulfil Luton’s unmet housing needs and Stevenage’s employment needs; · The land marked as greenbelt release, was to be released from the greenbelt. A large area however was designated around Offley and Whitwell between Hitchin and Luton which stopped the encroachment into North Herts as new greenbelt. This was being pushed to be included as it was extremely rare to put new greenbelt in. The Inspector accepted that and included extra greenbelt. The ... view the full minutes text for item 46.
47.	BALDOCK, BYGRAVE AND CLOTHALL COMMON NEIGHBOURHOOD PLAN UPDATE To receive a presentation from Baldock, Bygrave and Clothall Common Neighbourhood Planning Group. Decision: Michael Bingham thanked the Chairman for the opportunity to address the Committee regarding Baldock, Bygrave and Clothall Common Neighbourhood Plan Update. The Chairman thanked Michael Bingham for his presentation. Minutes: Audio Recording – Start time of Item – 55 minutes 23 seconds Michael Bingham thanked the Chairman for the opportunity to address the Committee regarding Baldock, Bygrave and Clothall Common Neighbourhood Plan Update. Michael Bingham informed Members of the following: · Neighbourhood Plan was produced for Baldock, Bygrave and Clothall Common including all the parish by roads, Clothall and the town of Baldock; · People were unhappy with the scale of development being proposed for Baldock in the Local Plan due to significant issues, particularly with the highway aspects of site BA1, which had not been fully resolved. The Neighbourhood Plan was about trying to get the best out of whatever does happen as a result of the Local Plan. It was all about securing a better future and more specifically to add what was in the Local Plan in terms of the facilities provided, ensuring that the character of the area was safeguarded and that new development was of a high quality; · The Local Plan was a large document containing many policies however after great consideration, there were areas where additional safeguards could be added which was the intention of the Neighbourhood Plan; · There were lots of steps needed to prepare the Neighbourhood Plan and they were half way through the process so there was initial engagement with the community, a lot of research, reviewing of the background documents, production of the Local Plan, other relevant technical documents including those produced for Hertfordshire County Council who were promoting the major developments around Baldock; · Knights Templar School did a project which was now a regular feature for year 8 and most students were thinking about the future and how they envisaged it. There were concerns about environmental quality and sustainability of new developments; · The draft plan was nearing completion and modifications to the Local Plan were being finalised. Endeavours were being made to align the Neighbourhood Plan with Local Plan as far as is possible; · There was no requirement to abide by every word in the Local Plan and the Neighbourhood Plan had to conform to the strategic policies of the Local Plan but it could depart from it if there was a justified reason; · The Neighbourhood Plan would be consulted upon in 2019 which would then go to an examination which may or may not go to hearing; · Neighbourhood Plan would be subject to public referendum and if it were to pass this, it would then need to go to Statutory Development Plan. The Neighbourhood Plan when finalised would carry just as much weight as the Local Plan by law in making planning decisions; · There were three main blocks of policies, only 15 in total. Some of which were general that added to the Local Plan and applied to the area as a whole; particularly extra material on heritage and on green space had been added. There were then policies for specific sites in the Local Plan so this was where we added to the details or the stipulations in the ... view the full minutes text for item 47.
48.	BALDOCK COMMUNITY EVENTS To receive a quarterly oral update on Baldock Community Events. Decision: Members discussed the following: · Baldock Christmas Fair – 1^st December 2018 · Christmas Carols – 18^th December · Baldock Beast – February · Spring/Summer Dinner Dance Minutes: Audio Recording – Start time of item – 1 hour 10 minutes and 22 seconds Baldock Christmas Fair – 1^st December 2018 Christmas Fair held last Saturday was a great success despite the weather. Consistent attendance throughout although this was a little sparse whilst raining. High Street crowded for light switch on and excellent local music bands appearing from the afternoon onwards. The bands did not charge for their time. Funds were not available to pay the bands! Great community spirit. 1,500 – 2,000 people thought to have attended. Grateful thanks sent to all the teams setting everything up and cleared things away at the end, especially Counsellor Val Shanley who worked like a Trojan from 7am! Without his Land Rover and stalwart work they would not have achieved as much as they did. The tree looked fantastic when lit up last year. NHDC had been let down by their Surrey supplier whose trees came from Germany; so they needed to look at local suppliers who were accountable to the community. Grateful thanks to Stuart Matthews and the Festival Committee for all the hard work they did with the Rotary Club to provide, set and organise the augmentation of the lights on the Christmas tree. The first phase of the lights were provided by the Council however Stuart made a fantastic difference. Lights were improving on an annual basis. In April permissions would be obtained from the shops to install all the wiring in preparation for the lighting at the end of 2019. Christmas Carols – 18^th December Carols would be held around the Christmas tree at 7pm. Baldock Beast - February 7^th Event. Bookings were already being taken and they hoped to exceed 500 entries in 2019. Spring/Summer Dinner Dance Consideration was being given to a dinner dance / spring ball from the Old Town Hall in April/May. The Arts & Heritage Centre Group had been approached and they were in favour of it. It would not a big affair. It was undecided on the theme - black tie/Hawaiian evening.
49.	GRANTS & COMMUNITY UPDATE PDF 176 KB View the background to item 49. View the decision for item 49. To bring to the Committee’s attention details of recent requests received for Area Committee Grant Funding, made by community groups and local organisations, which conform to the Authority’s Grants Policy approved by Cabinet on 14 June 2016. Additional documents: BALDOCK AND DISTRICT COMMITTEE BUDGET , item 49. PDF 107 KB Decision: RESOLVED: (1) That grant funding of £800 be awarded to Letchworth Rugby Club to help grow the delivery of rugby coaching undertaken in Baldock schools. This would be split between Baldock Town and Baldock East as follows: Baldock Town: £416 (52%) to be taken from 2018/2019 base budget Weston/Sandon: £112 (14%) to be taken from 2018/2019 base budget Baldock East: £128 (16%) to be taken from 2017/2018 base budget Arbury: £144 (18%) to be taken from 2017/2018 base budget (2) That grant funding of £600 be awarded to 2^nd Baldock Scouts To purchase more tents and equipment. This would be split between Baldock Town and Baldock East as follows: Baldock Town: £410 (76%) to be taken from 2018/2019 base budget Weston/Sandon: £40 to be taken from 2018/2019 base budget Baldock East: £130 (24%) to be taken from 2017/2018 base budget Arbury: £20 to be taken from 2017/2018 base budget (3) That grant funding of £2,000 be awarded to Baldock Allotment & Leisure Gardeners Association for the purchase of 4 new notice boards. This would be split between Baldock Town and Baldock East as follows: Baldock Town: £300 (24%) to be taken from 2018/2019 budget Baldock East: £950 (76%) to be taken from 2017/2018 carry forward budget and the remainder from 2018/19 base budget REASON FOR DECISION: To improve the services provided in Baldock and the surrounding District. Minutes: Audio Recording – Start time of item – 1 hour, 25 minutes and 53 seconds RESOLVED: (1) That grant funding of £800 be awarded to Letchworth Rugby Club to help grow the delivery of rugby coaching undertaken in Baldock schools. This would be split between Baldock Town and Baldock East as follows: Baldock Town: £416 (52%) to be taken from 2018/2019 base budget Weston/Sandon: £112 (14%) to be taken from 2018/2019 base budget Baldock East: £128 (16%) to be taken from 2017/2018 base budget Arbury: £144 (18%) to be taken from 2017/2018 base budget (2) That grant funding of £600 be awarded to 2^nd Baldock Scouts To purchase more tents and equipment. This would be split between Baldock Town and Baldock East as follows: Baldock Town: £410 (76%) to be taken from 2018/2019 base budget Weston/Sandon: £40 to be taken from 2018/2019 base budget Baldock East: £130 (24%) to be taken from 2017/2018 base budget Arbury: £20 to be taken from 2017/2018 base budget (3) That grant funding of £2,000 be awarded to Baldock Allotment & Leisure Gardeners Association for the purchase of 4 new notice boards. This would be split between Baldock Town and Baldock East as follows: Baldock Town: £300 (24%) to be taken from 2018/2019 budget Baldock East: £950 (76%) to be taken from 2017/2018 carry forward budget and the remainder from 2018/19 base budget REASON FOR DECISION: To improve the services provided in Baldock and the surrounding District.
50.	WARD MATTERS AND OUTSIDE ORGANISATIONS - MEMBERS' REPORTS To receive any oral reports from Members regarding Ward matters and Outside Organisations. Decision: Members discussed the following: · Highways. Minutes: Audio Recording – Start time of Item – 1 hours, 39 minutes, 30 seconds Highways Councillor Muir advised that in the last 5-6 years every road which had been resurfaced had been paid £90,000 with the exception of one. In 2019, money was allocated to Simpson Drive and all around the back of Thurle Close. All the parking and laybys outside the garages opposite Baker’s Field were all Highway’s land and the state of the roads there were terrible. Also to come out of next year’s budget would be various pavements around the town and a zebra crossing in South Road.
	Audio Recording of Meeting MP3 35 MB

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