Council Meeting – 24 June 2024

Minutes of the Meeting of Great Longstone Parish Council

held at 7.00pm on Monday 24^th June 2024

in Great Longstone Village Hall, DE45 1TB

Present: Cllr Long (Chair), Cllr P Barrett, Cllr J Rigby, Cllr A Douglass, Cllr J Cox (from Item 66/24)

In attendance:  Simon Headington (Clerk), plus 2 parishioners until the end of Item 66/24 (Item 4 on the Agenda).

63/24  Apologies for absence from members.

Cllr Briggs. In addition, apologies we received from County Cllr A Sutton and District Cllr Boothroyd

64/24  Declarations of disclosable pecuniary interest relating to items on the agenda.

There were no declarations of disclosable pecuniary interest.

65/24    Standing Orders suspended to allow for public comments

Standing Orders were suspended at 19:05

Parishioners raised concerns regarding the existing parking congestion in the area close to the school and that this could be exacerbated if “The Old School Building” becomes a residential property.

Standing Orders were resumed at 19:10

66/24   Planning application NP/DDD/0524/0534 (The Old School Building).

The Clerk was instructed to respond to the request for comments to object to this application on the grounds that:

• It does not meet a local housing need. Peak District National Park Authority (PDNPA) Core Strategy Development Plan (Adopted October 2011), Policy HC1 (New Housing), says that new housing (includes the conversion of existing buildings into housing) will only be permitted in White Peak villages if it meets one of a number of criteria, none of which applied in this application.
• No effort was made to look at the retention of this site for community services or facilities. This building had been used for the education of village children from its constructed in 1876, until the pre-school charity was forced to close at the end of 2022. Policy HC4 (policy document as above) requires the retention of community services and facilities, unless it can be shown that there is clearly no further demand for the facilities.
• This proposal does not include any provision for vehicle parking. This is contrary to PDNPA Development Management Policy 2019 (Appendix 10 Parking Standard) that requires that a dwelling house that is a new build or a conversion, and which has 2 or 3 bedrooms, must have a minimum of 2 parking spaces.

Further the Council found that the application was unclear as to the precise development area in question, for instance the “Application Block Plan” not agreeing with the Land Registry Title Plan.

67/24  Proposal: To transfer £1,300 from Admin Budget to S137 Budget to pay for new bunting and to instruct the Clerk to buy the bunting in time for Village Week in July 2024.

Agreed, all in favour.

68/24  Proposal: To instruct the Clerk to set-up a Direct Debit to pay the annual fee to the Data Commissioner for the Council’s registration.

Agreed, all in favour.

68/24  Proposal: To instruct the Clerk to undertake the “Certificate in Local Council Administration” (CiLCA) course, at a cost to the Council of £800.

Agreed, all in favour.

69/24  Proposal: To review and approve new Financial Standing Orders (based on the updated model guidelines issued by NALC in April 2024)

            Agreed, all in favour.

70/24    Dates of next Parish Council meetings:

10^th July 2024
11^th September 2024
13^th November 2024

The meeting closed at 7.30pm

Simon Headington
Clerk to Great Longstone Parish Council
Tel: 07968 295258