Minutes of the Full Council Meeting
held Thursday 11 January 2007 at 1, Grange Road
(re-located from Parish Rooms due to access problems)
Commenced: 7:30pm – Concluded: 10:15pm
Present:
Cllr. Caroline Jones (Chair)
Cllr. Sylvia Tilford (Vice Chair)
Cllr. Keith Dale
Cllr. Kath Forrest
Cllr. John Horton
Cllr. Peter Jenkins
Cllr. Matt Palmer
Cllr. Peter Riley
Cllr. Mike Walker
Clerk:
Mrs Jo Griffiths
210/0607 Chairman's Remarks
Cllr Jones opened the meeting and offered a welcome to the visitors Simon D'vali from Highways Department at Bradford Metropolitan District Council and PC Stuart Hudson and thanked them for their attendance.
211/0607 Apologies for absence
None
212/0607 Disclosures of Interest
Cllrs Riley and Jenkins declared an interest in item 12 on the Draft Rights of Way Improvement Plan as they are members of the Burley Bridge Association.
213/0607 Public Participation
None
214/0607 To approve the minutes of the last meeting
It was proposed by Cllr Riley and seconded by Cllr Forrest that the minutes were a true and accurate record and signed accordingly.
215/0607 Matters arising from the Minutes
190/06 - Cllr Jenkins confirmed that it was still not clear who owned the land at Leatherbank where the potential encroachment was taking place. A fence had been recently erected and councillors agreed that the matter should be pursued further to stop the encroachment. Simon D'vali offered to help on this issue.
192/06 - Cllr Jones confirmed that nothing further had been heard on Burley House Field but that she and the Parish Clerk would be pursuing the matter with Asset Management at BMDC in the near future. Gaining village green status for the field in the future was noted as an aim of the parish council.
216/0607 Parking Review
Simon D'vali, Principal Engineer for Shipley had brought plans showing the first draft of highways improvements in response to the parking review. Mr D'vali emphasised that as yet no consultation with statutory bodies, local residents or the schools had taken place and that this was an opportunity for the council to comment and make suggestions.
TDP/N/AS/24192/1A - Issues around the station: Mr D'vali confirmed that adding a traffic island on Station Road at the junction closest to the station was not an option as it would be difficult for the buses to negotiate; further discussions were to be held with the bus company.
The proposed double yellow lines on Smithy Lane and Southfield Road were regarded as important to protect the junctions and it was confirmed the highways standard length of 15m for the double yellow lines would help improve access for cars turning into Southfield Road from Station Road.
Options to improve the access along Prospect Road were discussed. It was acknowledged to be important to protect at least one side of the highway and vital to protect the junction of Rose Bank and Prospect Road. Two possible ways of deterring all day commuter parking were; limited parking e.g. for a maximum of 4 hours at a time, or limited parking between 7am-10am, any solution was striving to avoid penalising local residents or occasional users of the station. Discussion took place of the issues surrounding enforcement of these parking restrictions with contributions from PC Hudson. Cllr Tilford raised concerns that stopping commuters parking on Prospect Road between Rose Bank and the station would then transfer the problem elsewhere e.g. further down Prospect Road and on Rose Bank where there was an issue with people parking on the pavements already and access for children attending Burley Woodhead school. Cllr Palmer had also been notified of two suggestions from members of the community to address issues along Rose Bank; to extend the length of the white lines outside Burley Woodhead school and to add double yellow lines around the corners of Heather Rise to stop people parking on the junction. Mr D'vali agreed to look at these two suggestions.
TDP/N/AS/24192/1B - Station Road and Main Street east of the junction with Station Road. The council had an opportunity to view the plans and make suggestions. There was general support for the proposed changes including formalising the parking bays on Station Road and restricting waiting times in the parking bays outside the Post Office to 1-2 hours on weekdays, and to the removal of the double yellow lines on Iron Row.
TDP/N/AS/24192/1C - Main Street, west of the junction with Station Road. There was a discussion regarding the removal of parking restrictions on West Terrace, residents in these houses were considerably inconvenienced by the lack of places to park. Highways felt that it was important to protect this main access route and bus route but members of the council made the suggestion that some formal parking bays be marked out along this highway with passing places in between to formalise the existing but informal arrangement that generally seemed to work. Mr D'vali to review this suggestion and report back, PC Hudson reported the problems caused by customers of Spauls parking on the pavement, Mr D'vali to look at this site.
Council urged Mr D'vali to look at the following issues in addition to the work that had already been carried out: Extending the pavement on Station Road between Hanover Way and Langford Lane.
Traffic bumps on Moor Lane were too small.
Traffic calming measures at the railway bridge, council had concerns shared by Mr D'vali about the width of the pavement at this point and a scheme similar to that at Ben Rhydding with single file access was suggested. Mr D'vali to report back.
Mr D'vali confirmed that he would attend the Neighbourhood Forum on 18 January and the next meeting of full council on 8th February 2007. Cllr Jones thanked Mr D'vali for his attendance and very informative contributions.
217/0607 Request for purchase of a bike by the police
Copies were circulated of a letter from the police outlining the proposal for a bike and its benefits to the village. A contribution of £200 was being sought by the police from the three parish councils of Ilkley, Menston and Burley, the bike would be particularly important for the PCSOs who could not drive police vehicles. PC Hudson explained that the bike would allow the PCSOs to access the different areas of the village at greater speed and therefore allow them to be more efficient. Cllr Palmer enquired why the police were not paying for the bike themselves when they had surplus funds that were not being spent. PC Hudson reported that the police were seeking to work in partnership with local organisations, similar schemes with other parish councils were proving successful and that this particular scheme would provide immediate benefit to the local community.
There was full support for the use of a bike by the police although reservations about why it was necessary for the police to request funds from other organisations. It was proposed by Cllr Riley and seconded by Cllr Forrest that the funds are granted to the police for the purchase of the bike.
PC Hudson enquired if any of the council were interested in the Speedwatch scheme; Cllr Dale raised concerns about the speed of traffic on Bradford Road and will contact PC Hudson about Speedwatch.
218/0607 The Grange
The valuation report had been received on the Grange, Cllr Jones confirmed that a copy had been sent to Mohammed Shabir at Bradford Community Housing Trust and that it was hoped a meeting could soon be arranged to discuss the detail with BCHT and their development company. Cllr Jones expressed some concern that the initial valuation of the building at £1.2 million would make it too expensive for conversion to social housing.
Cllrs Palmer and Jenkins had received information from Bradford College claiming to be proof of the college's ownership of the Grange under the Freedom of Information Act. The information did not appear to provide convincing evidence of ownership. Cllr Palmer reported that the costs of the new logo for Bradford College were £200,000. Cllr Jones thanked Cllr Jenkins for all his hard work in researching the ownership of the Grange. Cllr Jenkins gave a brief summary of his findings so far: 1905 transfer of ownership to Burley Urban District Council confirmed and a certified copy can be obtained if required. Documents relating to the transfer from BUDC to Ilkley Urban District Council in 1937 not found, minutes of BUDC for 1936-7 do not contain any reference of the transfer of the Grange; minutes of IUDC for the period 1934-41 do not contain any reference to Burley Grange. The 1974 transfer of the Grange from IUDC to Bradford Metropolitan Council cannot be traced as the records for 1970-4 are missing. The Land Registry has no record of The Grange as a registered title after September 1974. (Post meeting note: All records for the year 1986 when the Grange was transferred from BMDC to Bradford College are still retained by Bradford Council and any further search must be conducted through BMDC.) Council agreed that the information should be passed to Ian Strong at YLCA as there seemed to be a strong case for questioning the ownership of the Grange.
Cllr Jenkins reported that Bruce Speed had suggested two people who might be able to help in preparing schemes for use of the Grange, David Aynsworth, Estate Manager of Broughton Hall, and Fiona Kelly, the architect who had been involved in the refurbishment of the Queen's Hall. A meeting with Andy Welsh, Chief Executive of Bradford College has been confirmed for 23rd January. Cllr Palmer urged the council to have a proposal to put forward to Bradford College. Cllr Jones requested a meeting of the sub-committee that was established to work on the issue of the Grange; this was agreed for 20 January at 8.30am at Cllr Jones' home.
219/0607 Parish Room
The valuation report had not yet been received and the Parish Council's interest in the property had been registered with Sanderson Weatherall the agents handling the sale.
220/0607 Budget
Cllr Jones circulated the draft budget for the financial year 2007-08. This was the first opportunity the council had to look at the budget and Cllr Jones emphasised that a decision did not have to be taken today and that all figures were provisional. Cllr Jones explained the format and content of the budget and asked for questions or suggestions for amendment. The budget had been prepared on the basis that the running costs of the council be covered by the annual precept and that the reserve received from Ilkley is maintained for unforeseen expenditure. The proposed increase in the Parish Clerk's working hours from 12 to 15 per week had not yet been discussed by council but provision had been built into the budget should this be approved. Repairs and renewals had been built into the budget this year on the assumption that this money be ring fenced to pay for upgrades to IT provision in future years. Also new for the next financial year would be the allotments, these had been calculated to be revenue neutral as it was anticipated that some money would need to be spent on them over the next year. £8,550 had been set aside for projects, Cllr Riley urged the council to set aside an amount each year from within that for community projects by local groups. In order to avoid clashing with some BMDC grants e.g. community chest, it was agreed that the council should look at setting up a procedure for applying for funding and guidelines for determining eligibility.
On the basis of the budget proposed the precept figure would be £8.40 per household, last year's figure had been £7.50 but this had been for only 10 months of the year. Proposed by Cllr Palmer and seconded by Cllr Walker the budget for 2007-08 was unanimously agreed by council.
221/0607 Draft Rights of Way Improvement Plan
Cllrs Riley and Jenkins had studied the documents provided. Cllr Riley outlined a brief summary of the content. The plan identified the current network of Rights of Way, the consultation process that had been followed, the results of the consultation process and the conclusions that large numbers were in favour of improvements to the network (easier access, better walking routes and disabled access) as well as improvements to the maintenance of the existing rights of way (better signposting, more maps, establishing new routes where existing routes were fragmented). The plan took in the views of walkers, cyclists, horse riders, motorised users and the disabled. The report also identified cross-boundary issues and promoted accessibility.
The action plan makes two references to Burley Bridge and it was the recommendation of Cllrs Riley and Jenkins that the only amendments they could identify related to this point. It was their view that both references be strengthened as follows:
Para 3.9.4 Current wording:
A major cross boundary issue is the crossing of the River Wharfe at Burley-in-Wharfedale. Again this links in to cross border issues with regard to high density settlements on the Bradford side and a lack of connection in some cases to NYCC side particularly highlighted at the Burley crossing which is a complex issue in itself.
Suggested amendment:
Full stop after 'NYCC side' and replace last 13 words with the following sentence:
'The only viable option to resolve this significant blockage in the footpath network for this area, would be the construction of a bridge'.
Heading : ROWIP Action Plan - Large scale projects beyond the scope of the current LTP allocation : Current wording :
New bridge across the Wharfe at Burley. This requires cross boundary working with North Yorkshire and fundraising by the Ramblers Association.
Suggested amendment ; Replace second sentence with :
'This would be a significant improvement to the footpath network and requires cross boundary working with North Yorkshire and fundraising by the Ramblers Association'
These amendments were proposed by Cllr Riley and seconded by Cllr Jenkins, a vote was taken and it was agreed to pass the resolution on a majority of 7 votes to 2.
Cllr Riley proposed that a member of Council be nominated to work with the Burley Bridge Association, Ramblers Association and other interested groups on the subject of the bridge, this item to be added to the agenda for the next full council meeting.
222/0607 Applications for funding - planters
Parish Clerk had details of a number of schemes that the council could apply to for funding to buy new planters, this information to be passed to the maintenance group for further consideration.
223/0607 Maintenance Issues
Cllr Jones gave an update on progress towards completion of the toilet. The latest information was that all outstanding work had now been completed but an additional problem had arisen with the floor. Bradco had suggested an alternative and were hoping to finish the project imminently.
224/0607 To approve the appointment of Cllr Riley to the board of trustees of Burley and Menston Charities
Proposed by Cllr Palmer and seconded by Cllr Walker the motion was unanimously agreed.
225/0607 Reports from councillors on any other meetings attended
Cllr Tilford reported from WRUG. Resolution of the train carriage issue was hoped to be imminent with positive news to report. The light at the station had finally been replaced. Cllr Tilford would relay concerns from a member of the local community to WRUG about the timing of morning trains to Bradford. There were new schedules for cleaning of the stations, it was hoped that this would improve the appearance of the station which over the holiday period had been very untidy with negative comments from the community.
226/0607 Correspondence
A letter had been received commenting on the newsletter and its readability, some discussions were held on this matter and it was agreed to make some larger print copies available. Parish Clerk to send reply thanking them for the comments and addressing some of the issues raised.
There had been one further volunteer come forward for the police contact point.
Metro had responded to the Parish Council's letter urging them to extend the Hoppa route to include Holme Grove and agreeing to review this with the new providers of the service.
Bingley Voluntary Action has sent information on their Wheels 2 Work scheme that is open to all young people aged 16-25. For a nominal fee a moped may be rented to assist young people who have trouble accessing public transport in getting to further education, training or employment. Councillors were urged to think of individuals that this may assist.
The Chamber of Trade had sent a copy of their newsletter.
Parish Clerk was in discussion with Malcolm Wright at Parks & Landscape at BMDC about the state of the playground in Grange Park, it was currently very water logged. It was hoped that Malcolm Wright would come out to look at the condition of the park with a view to making some recommendations for improvement.
Cllr Jenkins forwarded a letter received by the Burley Community Council, a copy had also been received by the parish council regarding key services in rural Yorkshire.
227/0607 Schedule of Payments
Proposed by Cllr Riley and seconded by Cllr Tilford, the schedule of payments was received and accepted.
228/0607 Any other business
None
229/0607 Date & time of next meeting:
Neighbourhood Forum - 18th January
Planning Committee - 23rd January
YLCA Training - 1st February
Full Council - 8th February