STORRINGTON & SULLINGTON PARISH COUNCIL

Minutes of the Meeting of the Recreation and Property Committee held in the Chanctonbury Room, the Sullington Parish Hall, Thakeham Road, Storrington, on Wednesday, 11th June, 2008, commencing at 8.00pm.

Present:  Mr. R. Dawe in the Chair, Mr. R. Carter, Mr. A. Head, Mr. C. Mason, Mr. D. Roper, Mrs. L. Wheatley.

1.    Apologies for Absence were received from Mrs. Davison (in London) and Mrs. Worthington-Leese (previous engagement).  The reasons for absence were duly ACCEPTED.

2.    Election of Chairman.  Mrs. Wheatley Proposed Mr. Mason, Seconded Mr. Head and AGREED.

    Mr. Mason duly took the Chair.

3.    Election of Vice-Chairman.  Mr. Dawe Proposed Mrs. Wheatley, Seconded Mr. Roper and AGREED.

4.    To Receive Declarations of Interest from Members.  Mrs. Wheatley declared a personal interest in item 11 – Cricket, because her husband was a member of the Cricket Club.

5.    To Approve and Sign the Minutes of the last Meeting held on the 7th May, 2008.  These minutes were duly AGREED to be a correct record of the proceedings thereat and were signed by the Chairman.

6.    Matters Arising :-
   
(a)    Minute No. 174: Inspection of Play Equipment – Cootham Hall.  No reply had been received from the Chairman of the Trustees of the Hall.  Therefore it was felt that a letter should be written to the organizer of the playgroup that was held there and they should be given a couple of weeks to respond.

7.    To Consider the Inspection of Play Equipment Reports.  A quotation had been received to repair/renovate and make safe the majority of the equipment at Meadowside for the sum of £1,080.00.  This should be ACCEPTED.  The Clerk advised that she had contacted Playdale regarding the Crosthwaite Tower that required a new ramp and rope, but they were not able to locate what was meant and required a photograph.  H.D.C., would be willing to put in a pathway to improve the access to this area.  H.D.C. Rangers should be asked to cut back the hedges and undergrowth around the edges because currently this area was not the Parish Council’s responsibility.  Anna Chapman of H.D.C., was to chase up about a new licence for this area between the Parish and H.D.C.
   
    At the Storrington Recreation Ground it was reported that the lower fixing bolts were missing.  Following the last report these had been tightened and then they went missing, so spare bolts were installed.  It should be checked whether the last repair was before this report was produced.  The Clerk mentioned that it had been suggested to her that bolts should be used that once screwed in did not come back out again.

8.    Report on Sullington Play Project.  The situation was now that due to the continual vandalism of the current play area, that the project should be suspended for the time being until the peak of destruction had passed.  Regarding the suggestion of having a skate park, the problem was that this would be very costly and the neighbours could have difficulties with this due to possible noise problems.  There would still be a need to provide for younger children.  There was a mobile one coming to Storrington during the summer.  The application for grant assistance would be heard at Viridor this week.  There had still been no reply from Star Energy.  The suggested new start date was early 2009.  The Crime and Reduction Partnership had set up a Task Force and they suggested that do nothing until get that under way.  They should be permitted to get agencies together to see what they could do.  Mrs. Wheatley reported that on the 19th June she had a meeting with some of the youngsters in order to try and find out what they wanted.

9.    Front Door, Sullington Parish Hall.  Installation of the new locking system had started and the majority of the wiring installed in this building.  However, the workmen had now left site and would not be back until late next week.

10.    The Glade :-

(a)    To approve the invoice from Dolphin Ecological Surveys in the sum of £450.00.  This was duly AGREED.

(b)    Five-Year Management Plan.  This was a comprehensive, positive plan and contained nothing that could be disagreed with but did require a great deal of voluntary work.  This was AGREED in principle.  The next stage was for the Storrington Conservation Society to call a public meeting of the residents from around The Glade.  It was AGREED this meeting could be held in the Sullington Parish Hall at no cost to the Society.  One of the suggestions made was that there should be a fence erected between this area and the road ‘The Glade’ as a demarcation line and to prevent vehicles parking on there.  The Storrington Conservation Society was given the go-ahead to proceed with this management plan. 

11.    Cricket Field :-

(a)    Quotations for Drainage Works.  Due to the problems experienced with the football field, the Council had cancelled the proposed drainage works of the cricket field within the Infrastructure Improvements contract.  An agronomist had been employed to undertake proper measurements.  He had made various recommendations and pointed out that the whole field needed re-grading. He recommended three companies to undertake the work.  Three quotations were now to hand :-

        M.J. Abbott Limited in the sum of £51,042.00 plus V.A.T.
        Kestrel Contractors Limited in the sum of £45,000 plus V.A.T.
        Grassform Limited in the sum of £23,958.78 plus.V.A.T.
 
    However, Grassform did not state re-grading of the field, but ‘topdressing’.  It should be checked whether this was the same.  This company had also included some provisional additional items, i.e., sand banking, follow-up work or sand injection.  It should be checked whether any of these were required.  It was suggested a 15% contingency should be allowed for.  Subject to a satisfactory response about the re-grading, it was AGREED :-

        To proceed with Grassform.
 
(b)    Complaint about condition of field.  Two Trustees of the Cricket Club had written complaining about the condition of the field.  Recently there had been problems with the weather resulting in lush growth of the grass and whereas a weekly cut normally was sufficient with not picking up the grass, recently when cut it had left a great deal of cuttings laying about. 

    It was reported that the surface of the practice area was too rough which meant that the Club were not able to use it.  Silver Tower Services should be asked to advise as to what was wanted and requested to provide a quotation.

    There were apparently holes in the window frames of the cricket pavilion and these needed repairing as water could get in. 

    With regard to the suggestion that the trees were a hazard to the playing of cricket, Mr. Roper had visited site and advised that he was able to walk under them without them causing a problem, but apparently the trees overhung the outfield boundary.  This aspect was to be dealt with by the Planning and Development Committee.

12.    Football Club would like to install an outside tap with locking nut at the Pavilion as they need to water the ground for long periods of time.  It was AGREED :-

    To give the Football Club permission to install an outside tap with locking nut at the Pavilion.

13.    Position of Leisure Centre Refuse Bins.  It was reported that the Trustees of the Leisure Centre would be writing to the Council with a revised proposal, but still using the eastern end of the storage buildings which they felt would answer the issue of people being able to get on the roof.  They were seriously concerned about the fire hazard and the current location could give access to the roof of the Leisure Centre.

14.    Path, Storrington Recreation Ground – to consider quotation from Tarmac Ltd.  The path from the car park to the Leisure Centre had been re-surfaced as part of the Infrastructure Improvements.  However, this had been unsatisfactory from the onset.  The idea had been to make the path level with no ridges or possible trip hazards, but not to be in black.  A suggestion had now been made to put kerbs in and tarmac which would cost £16,593.00 plus V.A.T. for black or £18,360.00 plus V.A.T., for natural gravel.  However, another supplier had been located that had another material that could be appropriate and Mr. Dawe would be going to a demonstration of this next week.
 
15.    Health and Safety.  No health and safety matters were raised.

16.    Documents for Councillors to Read.  None.

17.    Chairman’s Announcements.

(a)    Allotments.  The Clerk had attended a site meeting at Ravenscroft with W.S.C.C’s land agent regarding a new licence/agreement for this area.  It was intended to grant the Parish Council a 5-year Licence under the Landlord and Tenant Act that would allow the Parish Council to sub-let to allotment holders.  (The previous Licence that the Parish Council was given did not allow this!).  However, there would be a break clause such that the Parish Council could be given 6-months notice of termination at any time during this period should any part of the area be required for any form of development.  So the Parish Council would then need to give the allotment holders 6-months notice to get off the land.  It was explained to Mr. Pontin that should this occur at the wrong time in the growing season the Parish Council would have to pay the allotment holders compensation for the loss of the crops that they had on their plots. 

Football Area – this would be an area of approximately 30m x 18m in the South East corner of the site.

The bounds of the site were walked to check the accuracy of the map that Mr. Pontin had been given.  It was noticed that there was one large plot (possibly 2 together) where membrane had been put down all round the area with loose stones spread on one large section with pot plants on them.  Also they had laid paving slabs most of the way round.  They had raised beds throughout with wooden edges and Mr. Pontin felt that this could not possibly be for private consumption and could well be commercial.  There were two sheds and two propagating structures with tomatoes in.

Half way down the northern boundary there was a large oak tree that stood in the neighbouring land, but overhangs the allotments.  There was quite a lot of dead wood and Mr. Pontin felt that the Parish Council should write to the neighbour to inform them of this as everyone that knew about the problem would be liable should something fall and hurt someone. 

Along the western boundary there is a dog-leg in the site and at this point a house in Browns Lane had installed a gate from their property into the allotment site and had made a small vegetable patch there.  This was well hidden at the moment because the grass was very high but, amongst this high grass there is a ditch which is on the line of the fence before the dog-leg (not at the edge of the site).  This ditch was covered in grass such that it could not be seen.  The Clerk felt the Council should ensure that this ditch was always plainly in sight otherwise someone could hurt themselves and the Council would be liable.

The hedges need cutting, but this was normally undertaken by the Council later in the year.  There was a definite need to get the unused plots strimmed again together with the edges of area.
Mr. Pontin would be making contact with a draft agreement and details of suggested rent.

        Following discussion it was AGREED :-

    Garden Care should be requested to strim and rotivate the empty plots to get them back into good order ready for new allotment holders and to expose the ditch.

(b)    Amberley Road.  A Freedom of Information request had been received and a reply drafted.   Mr. Mason had had a meeting with two allotment holders from Amberley Road, who did not want to move and were happy with their plots, but still they could see why the Council was doing what was proposed and they would move.  They had asked whether there would be a transitional period.

(c)    Vipers Football Club.  It was reported that the Vipers were offering members free tickets to watch matches of The Swans at home.

(d)    Leisure Centre use of Recreation Ground.  The Leisure Centre should be advised that drainage works would take place on the Cricket Field from September and the field would, therefore, be out of bounds.

    There being no further business the meeting closed at 9.12 p.m.