BEPTON PARISH COUNCIL
an: Mr. Howard Ewing
Clerk: Mrs. Lorraine Grocott BA (Hons): Local Policy
23 West Meade, Milland, Nr Liphook, Hampshire, GU30 7NB
Tel 01428 741393… Email: postmaster@milland-wsc-pc.gov.uk

MINUTES of the Meeting of BEPTON PARISH COUNCIL
Thursday 27 November 2014 at the Park House Hotel, Bepton

Present: Mr H Ewing (Chairman), Mr M Balmforth, Mrs C Bower, Mrs R Hart
Mrs L Milner, Mrs H Hollowood, Mr G Ryan
Cllr. Gordon McAra (County Councillor)
Cllr. John Cherry (District Councillor)
1 Member of the Public

371. Apologies: There were none.
372. Declaration of Interests of Members on Agenda: On Finance/ precept
Mrs Hart – By her husband’s connection with Outward Bound,
Mr Ewing – By his connection with Haslemere Swimming Club
373. Minutes of the Meeting 25 September 2014 were agreed and signed as amended

374. Reports from the County and District Councillors
Report from Cllr McAra, County Councillor
a) Midhurst Fire Station has lost its 2nd engine however they will be replacing its primary engine with a new one.
b) The County Council has to make a saving of £124m over the next 4 years. WSCC is in a slightly better position than other councils as it has had such low grants over the past 10 years. It is the intention of the Government that council tax maintained grants will be reduced with the final reduction by 2019. In future the County will focus on commissioning services as opposed to running services. The recent survey highlighted local concerns about the state of the highways in the County so it is most likely that they will keep the road repair budget at a higher level.
c) Pendean sand lorry movements– Concerns have been raised about the increase in sand lorry movements. An application was made to the National Park to alter their planning permission and it has been agreed that they will stop lorry movement on Saturdays. Lorries will now run in the middle of the week. This will provide a lorry reduction of 20% although this will still cause a problem. Pendean is an important site for silica sand extraction.

Report from Cllr Cherry, District Councillor
a) Admission is now free to the Roman Novium Exhibition opposite Chichester Cathedral.
b) CDC has approved the Local Plan for Chichester. It was noted that 50% of the District is not included as it is in the National Park.
c) In order to get the Local Plan approved by the inspector new housing is planned for the southern part of the district. This is important as it clarifies, for developers, the numbers of houses and sites allocated for development. There are 240 houses approved at present with 435 in the pipeline.
d) There is a gradual reduction in funding to the District Council by government. It has now dropped to 1/6 of their income, £635K less is now received. They are managing their finances with a 5 year forward looking budget which is being rigorously adhered to so that they can keep ahead of the wave. They are now getting revenue from other sources particularly from property rental and development. It is hoped that CDC will be ahead of the cuts in 2020.

Minutes of Bepton Parish Council meeting 27 November 2014
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375. Matters arising –
a) Severals Green – It has now been clarified that the area known locally as Severals Green is Highway verge and is the responsibility of WSCC. Highways currently mow it in their cycle of cuts. In between those cuts it is mown by Chris Clayton. The trees need to have their crowns lifted and the Chairman offered to write to Highways asking them to include this into their tree surgery programme.

376. Chairman items
a) There has been no feed-back or further development on the Minerals Plan.
b) WSCC have been attending to the ditch on the Bepton Road.
c) The Clerk’s computer has to be replaced. The request from Bepton is for £125 toward the replacement. This was agreed. The remaining amount will be covered by Milland.
d) The ASM/APA for 2015 – It was agreed to try and encourage more local people to attend.

377. Newsletter for the autumn – Mrs Bower has produced a Newsletter for distribution.

378. COUNCIL REPORTS – Finance
a) Statement of accounts

The above payments were approved by the council.

b) Mr Buckler has completed the six month internal audit. His report is as follows:-
1. Replacement cheque no.700 should have been Minuted as a substitute for cheque no.682 for SLCC.
2. Counterfoil 705 Cox Manning £144 only has 1 initial
Counterfoil 712 Zurich Insurance £243.80 only has 1 initial.
3. Invoice 701 Park House Hotel £87.50 not initialled – Email approval to pay.
708 Park House Hotel £35 not initialled
710 – SSALC £29 has only 1 initial.
4. Risk Management – Legal Expenses £100,000 needs adding to the Schedule.
5. Clerks’ Expenses – Postage is now 53p so needs updating. Petrol costs may need reviewing.
6. Draft Financial Regulations amendments are as follows:-
a) Does a member of the council verify bank reconciliations etc. each quarter? (Page 5 2.2)
b) Should not all the amendments be initialled by the chairman?
c) Page 9 6.4 [one] needs striking out
d) Page 11 6.17 [two of] etc. to be defined
e) Page 14 duplicated Remove
f) Page 15 11.16, 11.1f, 11.1h [£60,000] sum to be agreed
g) Page 16 reference to be made to standing orders
h) Page 17 14.2 [£250] to be defined
(i) Page 18 suggest “to be notified to the council.”
Minutes of Bepton Parish Council meeting 27 November 2014
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Precept proposals for 2015/16 – Proposed by H Ewing and seconded by G Ryan. Agreed.

379. Planning report – Mrs Hart – Councils Response to Applications
SDNP/14/01404/CW
The Old brickworks, Bepton Road requests temporary permission for 5 years to separate and crush stone and concrete from soil to create material to be used to backfill electricity cable trenches. Letter of objection sent. This has been referred to the SDNP committee. Approved with many conditions.
SDNP/14/02271/HOUS 7 SDNP/14/02272/LIS
Bepton Hotels Ltd requests permission to erect a conservatory at The Old Cottage. Letter of no objection sent. Refused.
SDNP/14/03131/FUL 7 SDNP/14/03133/LIS
Mr Mark Bilsland of Padwicks Farm requests permission to convert and extend the main barn to create a holiday let. Letter of no objection sent. Pending decision.
SDNP/14/04564/DCOND
Mr D McFarland on 1 and 2 Heathland Cottages requests the discharge of condition 3 relating to SDNP/14/02901/FUL. Letter of no objection sent. Approved.
SDNP/14/04602/HOUS
Ms D Furneaux of 3 Heathland Cottages requests permission to demolish the existing rear projection and to erect a two storey rear extension and to make alterations to the side elevation to include new openings. Letter of support sent. Pending decision.
SDNP/14/05653/HOUS
Ms J Glue of 2 Heathlands Cottages requests permission for a 1012mm increase to the proposed rear two storey extension from the approved application SDNP/14/02901/FUL. Letter of support sent. Pending decision.
Minutes of Bepton Parish Council meeting 27 November 2014

Report on SDNP Meeting 23 October 2014
The SDNP’s Local Plan is planned to be submitted to the Secretary of State in late 2016 for adoption hopefully in mid-2017. It is likely to have an end date of 2032. This Local Plan will replace existing local plans and Joint Core Strategies but will not cover Mineral & Waste issues. The park covers 187 parishes and 1600 sq. km which is too much for one planning team but they need to prepare an evidence base to underpin the Plan. To this end, the SDNP would like parishes to help validate their evidence which is based on two major inputs.
Firstly, the Settlement Hierarchy study looks at services/facilities available within parishes, and uses this to apply a score to each settlement. This study will highlight development opportunities in the Local Plan showing those parishes with the highest level of services/facilities which are therefore considered more sustainable and may be more suitable for higher levels of development. To this end, Bepton is shown to have one place of assembly and one public house resulting in a low score.
Second, the Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHLAA) identifies wide ranges of potential land for housing across the whole Park. Sites come from a variety of sources, including sites submitted by landowners or developers or sites previously assessed by district councils. At this stage, the SHLAA list is to be treated as confidential between parishes and the park. The fact that a site has been mentioned does not mean it will be allocated in the Local Plan or will be granted planning permission. The SHLAA list is to be updated regularly.
Other matters arising at the meeting include
1. Paper copies of planning applications will remain available for those parishes which need them but the SDNPA will want to move away in due course.
2. The Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) allows LPAs to raise funds from developers who are undertaking new building projects in the area. It replaces a number of existing Section 106 contributions. For the SDNP, the timeline for CIL is adoption by October 2015. The proposed charges for residential dwellings in the Midhurst/Petworth area is £150 per sq.m with £200 elsewhere. If a parish has a neighbourhood plan, 25% of CIL goes direct to the parish and, without, 15%. CIL will in turn lead into the SDNP Infrastructure Delivery Plan where parishes can submit projects.

380. Environment and Amenities –
Emergency planning for winter season – Mr Balmforth advised the gritting route is still valid i.e. from Frogmore to Bugshill Lane and just beyond Linch Farm. ACS are the contractors and they will use a tractor pulling a spreader. If the snow fall is more than 4” they will use a snow plough before gritting. The Chairman will put the Winter Plan onto the website. Mr Balmforth will circulate the plan and map to councillors. The SSE Emergency Tel: No: 0345 072 1905.

381. Highways/Rights of Way (RoW)
WSCC have advised that regular RoW inspections will be reduced from 15 months to 9 months in 2016.

382. District /County Organisations
a) Midhurst Area Cycling – Minutes of the meeting on 4 November had been circulated.
b) CPRE meeting 26 November – Mr Balmforth reported that Woolbeding w Redford PC were in the process of raising £80K within the community to fund their Rule 6 Appeal against Balfour Beatty regarding the refusal of planning permission by SDNPA of the Durand Academy proposal.. The on-going consultation over the County Council’s Mineral Plan. The National Park’s stance on ‘fracking’.

383. Other Matters – Mrs Hart advised that she would not be present at the meeting in January.

Date of next meeting – 22 January @ 7.00pm, The Park Hotel, Bepton

Chairman: …………………………………. Date: ………