October 2022 Parish Council Minutes

Barrington Parish Council Barrington Parish Council

Minutes of the Parish Council meeting held on – October 13^th, 2022

Present: Cllrs Alderton, Anscombe, Buchanan (left at 9.25pm), Hopewell, Kemp, Priddle, Quincey, Rhodes-Kemp, Walker and SCDCllr Van de Weyer, the Clerk and two members of the public.

1. Apologies, welcomes and introductions. Apologies were received and accepted from Cllr Cooper and CCCllr Kindersley.
2. Declarations of Interest and dispensations – there were no declarations made. It was noted that that application 03362/LBC and 22/03361/HFUL for 27 High Street is on the agenda again due to a change with SC planning, but Council has already discussed its response and will not be considering it again so Cllrs Kemp abd Rhodes-Kemp do not need to declare an interest.
3. Public Forum – there were no members of the public present.
   
   4. To ratify the decisions of the discussion meetings held on Tuesday 9^th August and on Tuesday 20^th September. The September meeting was postponed and then held by zoom due to the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth. The Clerk and RFO had delegated powers through the mourning period the draft Minutes for both these meetings are attached. It was proposed by Cllrs Anscombe, seconded by Cllr Hopewell abd agreed with all in favour to accept these minutes.
4. To take CCC (Cambridge County Council), SCDC (South Cambs District Council) and Clerk reportsA written report was circulated from CCCllr Kindersley the main points of which were:
   Buses- Thanks to those residents who have been in touch about the proposed bus cuts. Public transport is now the responsibility of the Combined Authority.

Fostering – Cambridgeshire County Council has launched an urgent appeal to encourage residents to consider becoming Foster Corers. Email: fostering@cambridgeshire.gov.uk Call: 0800 052 0078

EV charging provision Questions continue to arise regarding EV charging provision, for residential properties without on-site parking and access to home charging. South Cambs with its housing remit is looking at options for providing a limited amount of communal EV charging on suitable communal property in its ownership.

Workforce shortages and the Four-Day Week Trial. A three-month trial of a four-day week will begin in January for desk-based staff at South Cambridgeshire District Council.
A four-day week is when people work one less day per week but still get paid the same salary. A four-day week, which for a full-time employee at the Council would consist of 30 hours, can make an organization stand out from others and be more attractive to talent. It is also seen as a tangible incentive to encourage staff to stay.
In the trial, service levels cannot drop if a four-day week is to be considered as a viable option in the longer term.

The Visit South Cambs website celebrates first year – www.visitsouthcambs.co.uk

South Cambs trials plant-powered bin lorries in our latest step towards decarbonisation, South Cambs has conducted a trial with eight bin lorries using biofuels, cutting their net carbon emissions by 90%. During the past two months, Greater Cambridge Shared Waste, a partnership between SCDC and Cambridge City Councils, ran the eight vehicles on hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) instead of diesel.

Rough Sleepers – the County Council has won over £670k of funding as part of the national Rough Sleeper Initiative to continue to support Cambridgeshire Housing First which currently supports 37 former rough sleepers experiencing multiple disadvantage – and the new funding will mean it can now provide intensive support so that an additional 27 can benefit from Housing First.

Where is the civil parking enforcement scheme? An initial survey of the district was carried out by consultants who drove around the whole of South Cambs and listed any anomaly they could find in the Traffic Regulation Orders on the ground. The survey details were passed to Policy and Regulation who now need to rectify the anomalies. Once design work is complete it will be costed and hopefully approved by the Greater Cambridge Partnership (who are funding it) and then the implementation starts! Large scale lining work is not done over the winter period as the lines don’t set properly if it is wet or cold.
Just to remind you – this is all so parking tickets can be handed out by civil wardens rather than just the Police!

Fire & Rescue – Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service aims to improve the time its fire engines get to emergency incidents in rural areas by allowing some fire engines to be sent with three firefighters. Currently, although the Service aims to have five firefighters on each fire engine, it allows fire engines to go with four firefighters on board. It will only send three crews to bin fires or small animal rescues. This means a fire engine could arrive at an emergency in a rural area several minutes quicker than it does now.

Inflation – the Council is currently forecasting a small (£2.368 million or 0.5 per cent) overspend for 2022/23, mainly due to the effects of the expected level of public sector pay inflation for this year, which exceeds the estimates used in budgeting.
But what of next year and beyond? Inflation remains a significant concern in looking ahead to setting the Council’s medium-term financial plan for the next five years.

Support for residents in coping with the cost of living The Council is continuing to collate information about the various sources of help for individuals and households struggling with the cost-of-living crisis. https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/council/communities-localism/support-with-the-cost-of-living

A verbal report was given by SCDCllr Van der Weyer the main points of which were:

City access, buses and congestion charging.
Cllr Priddle asked if existing services are at risk. SCDCllr Van der Weyer replied that in principle more services should be added and that he is collecting people’s views.

East West Rail – maybe more announcements in the New Year.
Stagecoach – cuts of routes
915 Royston from Cambridge the Combined Authority has put out a tender for a new provider.
Greenways consultation to Melbourn will improve the junction at Foxton but does not currently include Barrington.
SCDC are supporting warm hubs

The Clerk had nothing further to report.

Matters Arising
Item 8 from September 2022 – unfortunately we were unsuccessful in obtaining additional funding towards the renovation of the play equipment of the safety surface.

Items for consideration

6. Plans for the Royal Oak – there was considerable discussion. The main points of concern were

The safety of the entrance – there is poor visibility.

The gap from the restaurant to the toilets looks too small for disabled toilet access and the door should open the other away to allow access.

Concerns over the rear terrace and the noise that could create for neighbours and concerns that if the car parking is reduced there will be more temptation to park on The Green.

7. 
   Finance.
   a) To approve the payment of accounts listed below and to approve any further invoices presented to Council that are not in the schedule (if any):

It was proposed to approve the payments listed by Cllr Quincey, seconded by Cllr Walker, and agreed with all in favour.