Minutes - 10 October 23

CROWTON PARISH COUNCIL

Minutes of Crowton Parish Council meeting held on

Tuesday 10th October 2023 at Crowton Village Hall

2023

PresentCllr Ralph Oultram (Chair) (RO), Cllr Richard Thorne (Vice Chair) (RT)

Cllr Jennifer Currie (JC), Cllr Roger Hammond (RH) Cllr Joel Rutter (JR)

Ward Councillor Lynn Stocks (LS)

Clerk T Whitlow (TW)

44 Apologies for Absence were received & accepted from:

Cllr Ross McCrickerd (RM) Cllr Bob Stubbs (BS) Cllr Elizabeth Stubbs (ES),

Ward Councillor’s Gillian Edwards (GE) & Phil Rimmer (PR)

45Declarations of Members’ Interests – none

46Approve Minutes The minutes of the Parish Council meeting on Tuesday 12th September 2023 were approved & signed by the Chair.

47Public Participation. No members of the public present.

48Ward Councillors reports:

Cllr LS reported that she had not had any response from Highways over the ownership of the boundary fence on the millennium Green.

Also that there is money in the members budgets if the PC require anything.

49 Matters arising from the previous minutes – unless an agenda item.

None

50Correspondence. TW confirmed 13 emails have been received in support of the Spacehive crowdfunding, which is very encouraging. TW

51Accounts/Financial

1.Cash book as at 28.08.23 approved.

2.Payments for approval.

Clerks salary October.

Frodsham Tree Surgery £300 – tree survey.

Wix web site £57.60.

Insurance £352.52.

3.Money received. Still awaiting donation from Factco.

52Highways – Highways zoom meeting has taken place with RM, RO, RT & TW present. Highways engineer has emailed clarification on several points raised. Station road work will be included in a program of works from mid-October although no specific date as of yet. Highways have taken ownership of the problems with the culvert on the Millenium Green.

Tree’s on Station Road – Roger has been in contact with a tree conservation officer, who will visit the site in the near future to ascertain if any have TPO’s.

Hand held speed device – Resolved not to purchase at present whilst the SID’s haven’t been in situ long, to revisit if the speeding continues.

53Millennium Green

1.External fence – This has been an on-going issue between the PC and Highways in respect of ownership. Resolved for the PC to accept, as trustee’s to the MG, ownership of the fence.

2.Trust Resolved to try to dissolve the charity status. TW has been in contact with the charity Commission and is required to write to them MOP has again kindly offered assistance.

3.To consider fundraising via Crowd Funding (Space hive) – JC & TW have worked on the spacehive crowdfunding and this is ready to launch. Resolved to go ahead with this project. The total cost of the project will be £11011 – much of which will hopefully be pledged by various CWAC initiatives, and a considerable amount in kind, via the volunteers, who have again offered to help. Many thanks to the Crewe Volunteer Group. Resolved that the PC will add £500 to the spacehive project at the appropriate time. TW

54Planning.

No new planning applications have been received since the last meeting, or any updates on current applications from LPA.

55 Budget.

To be discussed at the November meeting due to 3 members of the council not being present.

56Asset Maintenance & Register.

1.Tree Survey – The tree survey has been carried out. A lot of smaller trees were identified as needing work – The volunteers will look at this on their next visit. Although the report did indicate that some of the problems with the trees around the stream could be contamination – JC to contact the Environmental Agency to investigate this.

2.Parish Council Field - TW had received a response from the tenant that the land & hedges will be topped and cut in the coming weeks.

3.Trees on Station Road – see Minute 23/52

4.MG hedges – these require cutting - TW to contact the contractor who normally carries this out.

57Items for next agenda:

1st pass budget 2024/25. Crowdfunding for the MG.

58Date of next meeting. Tuesday 14th December

The meeting closed at 8.20 pm