NONINGTON PARISH COUNCIL

Report of a meeting held on Tuesday, 6^th September 2005

• Trafalgar Weekend. This will be the 21st-23^rd October and will be a village and national celebration. The first event will be on the 21^st this is a Wine and Wisdom Extravaganza and the quiz teams plans are almost complete. The firework display on 22^nd will be on Fredville Park and the fireworks have now been ordered and the insurance arranged. The Chairman is to meet with the new landlord of the Royal Oak shortly to see if he will continue with the commitment made by the previous landlord. This will provide childrens events on the afternoon of the 22^nd in the village marquee situated at the pub. Followed in the evening by a village buffet .A church service will be held on the 23^rd and possibly some additional events may be added. It is hoped that all the organisations in the village will be involved in these events.
• The P.C is holding a raffle to raise money for this weekend and these tickets will be on sale throughout the village from now until the draw on the 22^nd.
• Change of Banking arrangements. This has now been completed and the Parish Council now banks with the Co-operative Bank enabling the Clerk to use the Post Office in Aylesham.
• The Footpath walkers had a meeting and decided what problems would be presented to Melvyn Twycross, the footpaths officer when he had a site meeting with us on the23rd of August .The following was agreed, EE321 excess vegetation will be cut back by the pond group and the path reinstated and marked by M.T. The stile on EE309 is about 90 meters out of position, EE327 and EE314 require vegetation to be cut back These will be corrected by Melvyn Twycross.
• Pond and Playground. Awards for All have given the Parish Council £4277 to enable us to replace two pairs of existing swings; these will be supplied and fitted by Wicksteeds. The Parish Council unanimously thanks Awards for All for the efficient manner in which our application was dealt with. The SRB had been contacted with regard to funding for the new slide, the Parish Council stated that they would give £1,000 towards this if the SRB would put in £2,479, we should have a decision at the end of the month.
• Flytipping. Cllr Craggy stated that a good response was being received from Denise Axford at D.D.C. regarding this problem and that the rubbish was usually cleared within 2 days.
• Meetings attended – Cllr Holt Transport for Coalfield Regeneration, meeting in Wigan 13^th July. This meeting was organised by Coalfield Communities Campaign (CCC) a lobbying organisation, which claims to represent former coal areas in England, Scotland and Wales and to represent 5 million people. There were eight representatives from Dover, which represented a good turn out, the Dover voice could be heard quite convincingly. A strong letter from D.D.C. is to be sent to try and get better transport links for Snowdown and Aylesham and to move us from a ‘B’ list to the ‘A’ list. D.D.C. stated that infrastructure costs are to be shared between Snowdown and Aylesham regeneration – a subject to be followed up at the Forum. Cllr Rowbothom stated that CCC was set up over 20 years ago because of the closure of pits and formed a lobbying group. They set up a Coalfield Taskforce then a Coalfield Regeneration Trust and have done groundwork and research on issues that have to be addressed. Cllr Rowbothom assured the Councillors that they are a worthy organisation. District Councillor Knight stated that the roads were not mentioned in the Local Plan but that increased traffic in the future needs forward planning now.
• Cllr Tee Speed Watch Launch at Maidstone on 17^th August. This launched a partnership between Kent Police and the Kent County Council intending to work with Parish Councils to reduce the speed of offending vehicles and reporting those details to the Police. Details would be recorded on a data base, offenders caught twice would be reported to the Police and would receive a warning letter and leaflet, offenders caught 3 times would receive a warning letter and a police visit following by any action deemed fit. Volunteers would be needed to man the speed indicators and take note of offenders. We would also need to band together with other Parish Councils to enable the purchase of equipment. Cllr Rowbothom stated that 7/8 years ago a camera was purchased for £25,000 and that she would look into where it is now.

• Cllr Kaye Local Development Framework Meeting held at Sandwich Guildhall. This meeting was attended by many Parish Councils and was to provide information to help the DDC forward planning department. Similar meetings were to be held at Deal and Dover. All the rural representatives were concerned with similar things, affordable housing, transport, road improvements and better facilities in general. The presenters indicated that the district would probably only improve significantly if Dover achieved a better status, with more housing and businesses and a High Speed Train Link. In addition, there needs to be a secure future for Buckland Hospital.

• Mrs Catterall stated that cars parking near the telephone box when picking up or dropping off their children are creating problems for other road users. She asked for double yellow lines to be placed at the junction, but Cllr Mowat pointed out that it was already illegal to park on a junction and it might be better to contact the community policeman.

• Parking – Prima Glass. Nothing seems to change on this site, it is still a problem for cars meeting each other with nowhere to pull in. Cllr Rowbotham volunteered to find out if there were any limitations applied to the original planning permission when it was granted.