MINUTES OF A COUNCIL MEETING TO BE HELD ON TUESDAY 28th MAY 2024 AT 7.30PM PM VIA ELECTRONIC MEDIA AND AT THE VILLAGE HALL.
Mr D Williams, Mr Gene Taylor, Mr Harry Duff, Mrs Jane Dawkins (Chairperson), Mr David Mantle, Mrs Beth Carpenter and Mrs Lisa Spencer-Weiss.
In Attendance: S Dale (Clerk), County Councillor Jackie Charlton and PCSO Lee Garrett.
1 Election of the Chairperson.
JD was unanimously elected. Prop: GT, Sec: DM
2 Election of the Vice Chairperson.
HD was unanimously elected. Prop: DM, Sec: GT
3 Committee appointments:
Human Resources – JS (Chairperson), HD and MB
Finance – HD (Chairperson) GT, MB, JS
Rights of Way – DM (Chairperson), DW, LS-W
Planning – JD (Chairperson), LS-W, JS, GT
4 Appointments to outside bodies.
Llangynidr Community Primary School - BC
Village Hall – JS and BC
One Voice Wales – HD.
Appointment of a Well-being advocate, DW, to be confirmed in the June meeting.
5 Report of the County Councillor.
JC enjoyed the Annual Parish Meeting last week. Her surgery didn't have visitors but was still good value, the next one is to be held on 20th July 2024 in the hall – the day of Summer Sounds.
Highways – speed watch continuing to be successful, The Police Liaison Officer has visited Llangynidr, the 20 sign will be painted on the road as requested. No video is used to record vehicle speeds. Data goes to central speed watch. If someone is identified speeding on 3 occasions, then the 4th time they may be fined. It seems that traffic is slowing down over time.
Transport – It is important that residents respond to the PCC request for participation, on Transport, for example that the bus come into the village every time, a new flex i-bus or taxi's from Bwlch.
Road closures – communication not being read and Llangynidr is really difficult to re-direct around. The traffic lights are not up yet.
Two dropped kerbs have been requested, one in Cae Porth and the other in Forge Road.
The Area Traffic Engineer will come to Llangynidr to see the bridge lights again as they do not appear to be working correctly.
The County Councillor has proposed another village conversation on Social Care, to be run jointly with the Community Council.
Sustainable Powys is on-going.
Purdah means at County Councillors cannot talk about political matters with the Community Council.
The Welsh Minister Ken Skates has been informed of stock deaths on Llangynidr Mountain.
There have been 3 recent road deaths, one attended by Wales Air Ambulance. The new organisation to move WAA away from Welshpool gives better coverage for the whole of Wales. Information is in the public domain.
6 Apologies.
MB and JS.
7 Declarations of Interest.
None.
8 Signing of the Minutes.
April 30th 2024 and May 9th 2024 approved.
9 Finances.
a) Budget v Actuals and bank reconciliations for end of year and April 2024.
Approved.
b) Cheques approved May 2024.
Cleaning the car park (May) £40.00
Clerk’s wages and stationery allowance (May so) £567.40
Cleaning the public conveniences (May) £280.00
Car Park rates £89.20
Car park maintenance £90.00
British gas (elec. for the public toilets May) £27.53
One Voice Wales top-up payment see item 21 £27.00
Benches (2) £400.00
Viking toilet supplies £91.18
1
c) Cheques approved Apr 2024.
Toilet Maintenance petty cash £50.00
Cleaning the car park (Apr) £40.00
Clerk’s wages and stationery allowance (Apr so) £478.60
Cleaning the public conveniences (Apr) £280.00
British gas (elec. for the public toilets Apr) £28.28
Fencing material for Persondy Field £344.74
Car park non-domestic rates £86.00
One voice Wales membership £117.00
HMRC tax (reciprocal) £10.00
HMRC tax (reciprocal) £20.00
d) Spending Priorities 24-25.
The disturbance allowance (£20000) and the compensation for rights (£1027.68) has now been banked (less the £12 for bank transfer). Council will consider how to spend the sum. The aim is to benefit the whole village so Council will survey the community. Clerk to action.
10 Public Participation.
PCSO Lee Garrett gave a report for the month (1/5/24 to 28/5/24).
There were 14 calls, 3 concerning welfare, 2 domestic, 3 related to the bridge, he suggests signs be put up to say “proceed with care” . There was a report of a license plate theft. 1 call reporting a theft from a garden. 1 report of inconsiderate behaviour in the car park, Lee recommends videoing the miscreants to report to the police. 1 attending two dogs (one XL Bully and one lab cross) loose on the mountain, they are in the dog pound now. Report of a scam call, apparently from a local number, it would be easy to be caught off guard!
11 Planning Applications:
24/22803/OUT Nantllaedhy. Dyffryn Crawnon. No objections.
12 Correspondence:
a. 27/4/24. Arrangement for the trimming of the trees on the A40 corner turn down from Bwlch to Llangynidr which obscures vision of on coming traffic. Clerk to refer to Cwmdu and District Community Council.
Maintain and continue with arguments for lights on the bridge- increasing traffic. Llangynidr bridge is grade 2 listed and the lights would be before the bridge . Crickhowell bridge is grade 1 listed and has lights. CADW refuse to have lights on Llangynidr Bridge as they would be unmanageable. On going with Community Council.
Duffryn Road parking for pre-school and after school pick ups. Clearly indicated on road as no parking, but some individuals persist, forcing traffic into a blind corner. An accident waiting to happen. The school has asked parents not to park there, but it is still happening. School Governor to ask for the message to be relayed again.
Flix in the sticks? CF Talybont and Llanfoist in liaison with village hall, £5 entrance ? The village hall is actively considering putting on films.
The resident closes with a thank you.
b. Members allowance advice from One Voice Wales. Circulated.
13 The 23-24 audit is due on the 30/6/2024, Prop and Sec.
Clerk to email the audit to HD.
- review of internal controls. Approved.
- Approval of the internal audit (advice was received concerning contractors) and annual governance statements, Approved.
- Signing of the Annual Governance and Accountability Return 2023-24 Approved and signed.
14 The land registration, lease and statement of accounts Prop and Sec.
The Councillors were relieved that Village Hall would be able to pursue grant funding for their projects, but were not happy that the lease had apparently been arranged unnecessarily. Clerk was instructed to write to the solicitors and offer to pay for the land registry work (£1054 including VAT).
The Community Council will consider, at the June meeting, the matter of the upkeep of the toilets.
15 Discussion of the riverbank and choice of actions.
Clerk to take advice from the Assistant Commons Registration and Definitive Map Officer at Powys County Council.
16 Green man traffic meeting update.
No further news yet.
17 Road closure update (if available).
The contractors are seeking to have temporary traffic lights installed as soon as can be managed. This should ease the problems with the diversions.
18 Clerk, deputy clerk contracts and arrangements to be approved.
The prospective Clerk has decided not to pursue her application. Clerk to continue in post temporarily. Council wishes the Clerk to work 40 hours per month (her contract), clerk to gather information about out sourcing parts of the work for Council to consider.
19 Report of the Annual Parish Meeting and Annual Report 24.
A request was made at the Annual Parish Meeting to fit a bench near to the bus stop (public toilets side), the village hall and the Community Council will manage the project between them (to be confirmed at the June meeting). Report approved.
The annual report was also approved.
20 Co-option for casual vacancy.
A resident will be approached, and invited to a meeting as there has been no response to the advertisements.
21 One Voice Wales has requested a top up of £27 for membership.
Approved.
22 Any other business (for information only).
None
Date of next meeting; Tuesday June 25th, 2024.
The Chairperson closed the meeting at 9.30pm, there being no further business to discuss.