DIRECT SERVICES COMMITTEE

Minutes

 6^th OCTOBER 2009 6.52pm

Present: Cllr Lumley [Mayor & Portreeve], Cllr Mrs Winfindale, Cllr Mrs Gold [Deputy Mayor & Portreeve], Cllr Mrs Jones, Cllr Thomas, Cllr Long, Cllr Mrs Coakley,

              Officers: Vernon Anderson, Town Clerk

              Members of the Public: Nil

1.           Apologies; Cllr A Coakley

2.           Minutes 

              The minutes of the Direct Service Committee meeting of the 1^st September be approved as a correct record of proceedings and duly signed.

3.           Finance

              a)  Summary of accounts. The summary of the accounts to the 30^th September were received.

              b)  Approval of Payments

4.         For Decision – Consultation; Review of Designated Public Places Order (DPPO) 2009/2010 – Cornwall Council

            A letter had recently been received from Cornwall Council with regard to reviewing DPPO’s or for existing DPPO’s added to them. The closing date for this consultation is very short (15 October) therefore the matter has been placed before this committee as it has an outside services remit although it should have be considered by the Finance and General Purposes Committee.

            The Clerk informed the committee that he had spoken to Police Sgt Brett Phillips about this issue and as Callington was covered by a single DPPO there was no requirement to add any further orders. With regard to Kelly Bray Sgt Phillips felt that there was no requirement for a further order to cover areas of this parish.

            As there was no requirement to make a formal decision the report was received and noted.

5.         For Decision – Anti Social Behaviour; Saltash Road Car Park

Cllr Long has had a number of complaints regarding the excessive noise of drivers who are using the car park as a race track and general meeting place in the evenings at weekends and causing a disturbance to neighbours.

Although members discussed the problem at length they could not identify what action they could take to alleviate the problem as the Police are already aware of the situation and there is little other that can be done other than to close the car park at night which would not be popular with local residents who park their cars there at night.

Councillor Long agreed to respond to the complainant and the Council acknowledged that it will continue to liaise closely with the police to kerb anti social behaviour in the car park.

            As there was no formal proposition the report was received and noted.

6.         For Decision – Launceston Road Recreation Area

Cllr Mrs Coakley asked the committee to consider replenishing the bark chippings, putting on a lock to the toddlers play area and replacing one of the large push swing seats in the Launceston Road play areas.

The Clerk also brought to the attention of the committee the state of the footpaths. The tops of these have now washed away leaving the loose stonework exposed.

Members of the committee also spoke about a S106 agreement with the developer of the Skitta Hill housing that should release some capital for the purposes of buying additional equipment at the recreation ground. The Clerk is to investigate the progress of the S106 agreement.

Resolved.

Proposed by Cllr Long, seconded by Cllr Mrs Coakley and unanimously agreed that the Clerk investigates the cost and use of alternative surfaces to repair the footpaths, investigates the cost and use of a magnetic catch for the toddlers play area gate, investigates the cost of alternative seats for the larger swing seat in the toddlers area and that rubber matting be laid down by the fitness equipment during the winter period.

7.         For Decision – Variation to Premises; Licence for Sale of Alcohol

There have been recent changes to legislation that now allow for a premises committee to become the licensee for the sale of alcohol rather than a named individual. This would allow for the sale of alcohol to take place on the premises without the need to use the license of other named licensee as it currently does (i.e. through the Lions Club).

In effect this would allow the Council to operate a bar for the sale of alcohol whenever it wished to do so long as it complies with current licensee regulations, therefore it could hold stock for sale during events such as weddings and private parties should it be satisfied that there are proper controls in place.

Resolved.

Proposed by Cllr Mrs Gold, seconded by Cllr Long and unanimously agreed that the Clerk applies for the variation to the premises license (for the sale of alcohol) and brings back to this committee a suitable policy for adoption to ensure proper controls are put in place.

8.         For Decision – Commercial Waste; Town Hall & Premises

Currently the Town Hall has no commercial waste facilities in place. Recyclable waste is placed in the domestic bins (Co-op car park) and other non recyclable rubbish is put out with the domestic waste (taken home and put out with household rubbish.

There have been recent issues over the siting of the commercial waste bin for the new owners of the Red Panda as they are no longer permitted to use the area behind the Fish and Chip Shop. This bin is now sited within the Pannier Market.

Resolved.

Proposed by Cllr Long, seconded by Cllr Mrs Gold and unanimously agreed that the Clerk investigates the cost of commercial waste collection for the Town Hall with a view to sharing the resource with other Pannier Market tenants and that the Clerk immediately contracts a clinical waste collection for the ladies toilet and baby changing facilities.

9.         For Decision – Police Action Day; Use of Saltash Road Recreation Ground by the Mounted Police and Parking of Horsebox(s).

During the Police Action Day on Wednesday 14^th October there will be a strong police presence in Callington. The police have requested to have use of Saltash Road Recreation Ground for the day to allow the mounted police to operate.

Resolved.

Proposed by Cllr Mrs Winfindale, seconded by Cllr Long and unanimously agreed that permission be granted to the police for parking their horsebox(s) in Saltash Road Recreation Ground on Wednesday 14^th October and be free to patrol within the park area with the horses.

10.       For Decision – Use of Town Hall for Callington Arts Venue (CAVe) Events.

The Portreeve has organised a number of community art events within the Town Hall over the forthcoming year. In order to secure the events through Carn to Cove and other similar organisations he has had to agree to a level of income for them to put on a show. With Carn to Cove this is £215 or 80% of the ticket sales, whichever is the greater. If less than £215 is taken on any given night the loss will have to be made up. As the events have not been formally agreed by this committee this cannot be from the public purse.

Although the Clerk recognises that this matter has not formally been agreed it would be fair to say that it has full support from individual councillors.

The Clerk has suggested to the Portreeve that there should be a constituted entertainment committee that is separated from the Town Council. This would enable them to hold a bank account to manage the cash and enable them to apply for funding from relevant arts and community chests.

Resolved.

Proposed by Cllr Long, seconded by Cllr Thomas and unanimously agreed that the committee supports the formation of an independent entertainment committee but does not agree to underwrite any losses (free use) with regard to future hall hirings.

11.       For Decision – Town Hall Redevelopment Project; Building Control Plans.

The Town Hall & Premises Committee reviewed the plans for the Town Hall redevelopment at the meeting held on the 11 August which facilitated better use of space in the bar/cafe and committee room area. Following discussions with the architects and Cornwall Council Building Control the final plans are ready for submitting to Building Control for formal approval. The final plans were viewed on the night of the meeting.

The groups that initially made negative comments have also had an opportunity to comment before the tendering process commences.

Subject to tendering it is anticipated that building work can start early February 2010 and the management of events for that period will very much be dictated by Building Control for safety reasons.

Resolved.

Proposed by Cllr Long, seconded by Cllr Thomas and unanimously agreed that the final plans be submitted for Cornwall Council Building Control approval.

12.       For Decision – Older Children’s Play Facility at Saltash Road Recreation Ground.

The serious matter of safety was been brought to the Clerks attention earlier today when a member of public raised comment about 6” nails protruding from the structures upper level.

As this issue was of a serious nature the Chair agreed to the matter being considered as an urgent item. (not scheduled on the public notice).

On speaking to the senior groundsman the Clerk has discovered that, in Mr Denley’s opinion, the whole structure is in need of immediate removal to safeguard against potential accidents due to its poor condition.

On closer inspection the Clerk has ascertained that much of the structure is in need of urgent repairs (not by a general handyman) or else removing. All the lower planks on the upper structure have been nailed rather than bolted so the nail incident could continue to recur should a vandal be persistent in kicking them out.

The monkey bars (and support bar) are rotten which could result the runners breaking causing injury, the swinging bridge has a number of protruding screws showing through which could easily cuts a child’s head should they run underneath without looking and the rope climb is badly frayed and is liable to snap should an adult or older child be feeling energetic enough to climb using it.

There are also issues about the younger children play area. The tunnel was recently broken and is awaiting for responsive repair, there are parts of the fencing that have protruding nails or broken jagged edges and holes in the wet pour have been backfilled with cold pour tarmac.

Several issues were raised at the last (external) annual inspection but it did not condemn the equipment at that point in time but is know from previous reports that both units should be closely monitored.

The Clerk has recently applied for Playbuilder funding which targets the age group that benefit from the older children’s equipment. There is no guarantee that this bid will be successful and this is the last year of the three year funding stream. This bid does not facilitate the replacement of the younger children’s area.

Resolved.

Proposed by Cllr Mrs Winfindale, seconded by Cllr Long and unanimously agreed that the Clerk orders the immediate removal of the larger play facility and that the smaller unit undergo repairs as soon as possible to make safe the tunnel.

And that

Under the Public Bodies (Admission to Meetings) Act 1960 (as extended by s.100 of the Local Government Act 1972), the public and accredited representatives of newspapers be excluded for the following resolution on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 by virtue of the paragraph specified against the item.

There being no further business the meeting was declared closed at 8:45pm

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