COMMUNITY LIAISON COMMITTEE
Minutes of a meeting held on 23rd
November, 2011.
Present: Councillor Mrs. M. Kelly Owen
(Chairman); Councillor Mrs. J.E. Charles (Vice-Chairman);
Councillors Mrs. S.M. Bagstaff, R.J. Bertin, R.F. Curtis,
C.P.J. Elmore, A.M. Ernest, Mrs. V.M. Hartrey, N.P. Hodges,
H.J.W. James, R.L. Traherne and E.T. Williams.
Also present: Councillor A.D. Hampton.
Representatives of Town and Community
Councils:
Councillor L. Taylor (Cowbridge with
Llanblethian Town Council), Councillor E. Hacker ( Llantwit
Major), Councillor Mrs. J.R. Baker (Penarth Town Council),
Councillor Mrs. M. Hayley (Dinas Powys Community Council),
Councillor Mrs. S.A. Wilson (Ewenny Community Council),
Councillor A.R. Munston (Llandough Community Council), Councillor
M. Hurst (Llandow Community Council), Councillor J. Teague
(Llanfair Community Council), Councillor C. Tatton (Pendoylan
Community Council), Councillor Mrs. C.M. Evans (Peterston Super Ely
Community Council), Councillor S. Haines (St. Athan Community
Council), Councillor A. Wilson (St. Brides Major Community
Council), Councillor Mrs. G. Rawson and A. Evans (St. Nicholas
and Bonvilston Community Council); Councillor P. Castle (Welsh
St. Donats Community Council), Councillors P.B. Williams and I.
Moody (Wenvoe Community Council), Councillors P.J. Thomas and P.M.
Ball (Wick Community Council).
619 APOLOGIES FOR
ABSENCE –
These were received from Councillor
Ms.B.E.Brooks (Vale of Glamorgan Council), Councillor W. Bellin
(Colwinston Community Council) and Councillor D Pugh (Penllyn
Community Council).
620 MINUTES -
AGREED - T H A T the minutes of the meeting
held on 20th July, 2011 be accepted as a correct
record.
621 DECLARATIONS OF
INTEREST -
There were no declarations of interest,
however the Chairman took the opportunity to advise the Committee
that in relation to agenda item 5 she had not been involved in any
discussions on the matter prior to this meeting.
622 POLICE MATTERS
-
Inspector Mark Taylor informed the Committee
of the forces crime figures against targets at 23rd
November 2011 as detailed below:-
Violent crimes
Target 423
actual 416 8 under target
Burglary
Target 244
actual 187 57 under target
Autocrime
Target 469
actual 408 61 under target
In presenting his report the Inspector advised
of two arrests for burglary in Llantwit Major and that the force
had recovered a cannabis factory in Dinas Powys. Bonfire
night had been successful with only one incident recorded with
someone being arrested for throwing a firework in Cowbridge.
In Barry a number of fires had been set at a particular
location which had now received an alley gate with the appreciation
of the residents.
With the festive season approaching the Town
centre in Cowbridge would be “closed off “ for the Reindeer
parade. A number of officers’ shifts had also recently been altered
which had allowed for more Police presence in various localities in
particular to deal with the late night economy.
Members queried the number of Police officers
that were available in the area and were advised that over 200 PCSO
officers were due to be recruited in South Wales which was
centrally funded as opposed to the Police force budget. The force
had also recently recruited 50 new officers although it was
anticipated natural wastage i.e. retirement etc. would also take
place.
AGREED – T H A T Inspector Taylor be
thanked for his report and the positive comments.
623 DETERMINATION OF
PLANNING (AND RELATED APPLICATIONS: SCHEME OF DELEGATION) (DEER)
-
A Request for Consideration of Matter had been
received from Penarth Town Council as follows:
“The Town Council continues to be concerned
that planning applications where the Planning Officers decision are
at variance with the observations submitted by the Town and
Community Council are not routinely put before the Vale of
Glamorgan Planning Committee. It is this Council’s view that
such applications should be determined by elected members”.
The Operational Manager for development
control advised the Committee that the Vale of Glamorgan Council
was required by the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 to determine
planning applications within eight weeks of the date of the
submission of a valid application to the Authority. If this
deadline was not met, in the case of all minor applications, the
applicant had a right to appeal to the Planning Inspectorate of the
Welsh Government (WG). In addition, all Welsh Local Planning
Authorities were monitored by the WG in respect of their
performance in meeting the eight week determination
requirements. Both Westminster and the WG were keen to
encourage councils to meet the targets and speed up the planning
process through streamlining the planning application
process. The Governments’ Planning Advisory Service also
advises that it is good practice to maximise the number of
delegated planning decisions so that Authorities which can delegate
more than 90% of planning decisions, allow their Planning
Committees more time to focus on complex and controversial
applications.
The Vale of Glamorgan’s Scheme of Delegation
was attached at Appendix A to the report. It was also written
into the Scheme that any Vale of Glamorgan Councillor could call
for a planning application to be considered by the Planning
Committee as long as the request was made within 14 days of the
application appearing on the weekly list of planning applications
and subject to the request being substantiated by a good planning
reason or demonstration that strong local objections had been
received. Any Town and Community Council could therefore also
refer any matter to their local Councillor for the Vale of
Glamorgan if they so wished.
The report also highlighted that in the last
financial year the percentage of applications that had been
determined in the Vale of Glamorgan through delegated powers was
86% with some 162 planning applications being determined by the
Planning Committee. With specific regard to Penarth Town
Council, some 178 relevant applications had been determined through
delegated powers and 12 relevant applications presented to the
Planning Committee for determination. Further analysis of the
last six months of determinations between 1st March to
1st September 2011 had shown that there had been 98
planning applications for full planning permission related to
Penarth which had been determined by the Vale of Glamorgan under
delegated powers. Of these decisions all had been generally
in accordance with the comments of Penarth Town Council save in
respect of three where Penarth Town Council had recommended
approval but with some concerns and for Members’ information those
applications had been ultimately refused permission by the Vale of
Glamorgan. In the case of two further applications, no
responses had been received from Penarth Town Council at the time
of the decision and in one case a formal no comment had been made
as the Town Council’s response.
From the research it was clear that it was
only in very limited cases that a decision made using delegated
powers was out of accordance with the representations from the Town
Council. The officer further stated that in every case any comments
made by a Town or Community Council were fully considered and
assessed in the report prepared by officers prior to any decision
being made. The Council also had a duty to take into account
any representations made following consultation and when a decision
was made which did not accord with the representation of any Town
or Community Council, the relevant report would explain the
reasoning behind the decision. The report further highlighted
that failure to identify and follow procedure for delegating the
determination of planning applications to officers of the Vale of
Glamorgan would almost certainly mean that the Council would not
meet the targets set for it by the WG and this could have
consequences for funding the service in the future.
The Operational Manager informed Members that
the detail within the report had also been discussed at the Vale of
Glamorgan Planning forum and no adverse comments had been
received.
Councillor A.M. Ernest, also a member of
Penarth Town Council, thanked the officer for his response and
noted that in his opinion the views of Town and Community Councils
were very clearly reported to the Council, officers and Elected
Members and that there was also the facility of engaging with Vale
Members if representations were required to be made at the Planning
Committee meeting or to officers with delegated powers. The
representative from Penarth also took the opportunity to thank the
Operational Manager for his report and that she would report back
to her Council with the response for information.
The Chairman took the opportunity to remind
all present that any member of the public could also send any
comments on any applications not only to the Vale Council but to
local Town and Community Councils in their area.
Having fully considered the report it was
AGREED - T H A T the reasons for the Scheme of
Delegation operated by the Council in respect of Planning and
related applications be noted and the Operational Manager be
thanked for his detailed response.
624 VEHICLE ACTIVATED
SIGNS (DEER) -
Llandough Community Council had requested that
the issue of the criteria in use for determining the allocation to
communities for illuminated speed reminder devices be considered as
the speed of traffic was an issue for all communities in the Vale
of Glamorgan and it would be helpful to have a discussion on the
criteria that was used to determine the allocation of such
devices.
The Group Engineer of the Highways Project and
Traffic Management section stated that inappropriate speed was a
matter of concern throughout the UK and the Welsh Government (WG)
had considered that a partnership approach was a way forward in
addressing the issue and was concentrating on the three Es -
Education, Engineering and Enforcement. The Council’s Road
Safety Section (Planning Transportation Policy) was responsible for
education, training and publicity in relation to road safety
matters in conjunction with the Police and other
stakeholders. The Council’s Traffic Management Section
(Highways and Engineering) was responsible for investigating
incidents of perceived inappropriate speed, obtaining speed data,
receiving casualty reports from the Police and identifying actions
to be taken if appropriate. The report noted that South Wales
Police was responsible for collecting personal injury collision
data and for enforcing speed restrictions on the highway
network.
It was noted within the report that 26
locations in the Vale of Glamorgan had permanent Vehicle Activated
Signs (VAS) which had been chosen where inappropriate speed or
inappropriate driver behaviour had been proven as being of a major
concern and where formal enforcement opportunities were
limited. These sites were listed in Appendix B to the report
and with regard to the mobile VAS service , 18 sites around the
Vale of Glamorgan had been investigated with a view to identifying
suitable locations for the use of mobile VAS.
To date the following information had also
been collected:
- the existing speed restriction at the
location
- the length of highway being considered
- the number and severity of personal injury
collisions at the site
- the collision rate measured in collisions /
10 million vehicle km
- the date of the speed / volume survey
- the percentage of vehicles travelling at a
speed above the Police prosecution level.
The Council currently had two battery operated
mobile VAS which were used at suitable locations around the
Vale. The survey data collected for the 18 sites had been
analysed and the sites had been put into a priority list.
Seven locations had been identified as being appropriate for the
siting of a mobile VAS as detailed below:
- Maendy Road
- A48 Bonvilston
- Unnamed Road, Llanmaes
- Station Terrace, East Aberthaw
- Lavernock Road, Penarth
- Cowbridge Road, St. Athan
- Severn Avenue, Barry.
No specific funding was currently identified
for additional permanent or mobile VAS. The Council’s Traffic
Management annual operational budget was used to maintain the
mobile VAS and to install foundations and sockets at appropriate
locations as required. The Council’s Traffic Management Team
also managed the siting and maintenance of the mobile VAS
throughout the Vale.
The representative from Llandough thanked the
officer for the full details of the current situation and advised
that in his area speed was a major concern. In noting the
cost of the mobile provisions as approximately £3,500 he could
understand that the budget constraints for the Council had to
ensure that priorities were given in various localities.
However he requested that the officer also consider the possibility
of working with the Police to arrange for a mobile unit at the
Memorial Hall site at Llandough. The Group Engineer agreed
that, following the request from Llandough, traffic speed data
would be collected and reviewed. In addition, he stated that
officers would be making further bids in respect of VAS for use
throughout the Vale, but reiterated that there were very limited
resources available. A suggestion was also made during the
meeting to the possibility of Town and Community Councils
considering purchasing their own equipment, but again with limited
resources this was considered to be unlikely.
The representative from Llandough then again
thanked the officer for the details contained within the report and
to the Committee for the debate.
Having fully considered the report, it was
AGREED - T H A T the contents of the report be
noted and the officer thanked for the detail provided.
625 CREATIVE RURAL
COMMUNITIES -
The Committee received a presentation from
Rebecca Haves, the Programme Development Officer, regarding the
work of the service. Creative Rural Communities (CRC) was a
regeneration and economic development initiative led by the Vale of
Glamorgan Council in partnership with various public, private and
voluntary sector organisations. The aim of the initiative was
to provide the people of the Rural Vale with the power to control
the future of their communities. The service worked in
partnership with public, private voluntary and community sector
organisations in the area with funding utilised to enable the
partnership to help with individuals, groups and communities
throughout the Rural Vale with the CRC providing vital support for
a wide range of potential projects that would benefit those
communities, both now and in the future.
The projects it was currently involved in were
detailed as:
- Pride in our Villages
- Pride in our Services
- Pride in our Heritage
- Pride in our Farming Families
- Community Foodie
- Pride in the Vale
-
- Community
engagement
- Slow
tourism.
Community consultation was currently taking
place as an exercise to asses what was important to members of the
community following which, a list of aspirations and actions would
be put into a written document.
The project Pride in our Villages aimed to
enhance local pride in distinctiveness in villages with grants to
address physical development needs identified by communities.
Pride in our Services Rural Hubs Grants were capital and revenue
grant aid to support the conversion / diversification of existing
service facilities to offer shared uses for the community based on
the “Pub is the Hub” model determined by the local
community.
The Rural Footpath Scheme supported new public
rights of way to provide the missing links within the rights of way
network from villages and existing paths to and from coastal and
other key land based assets within the Vale. The service was
also looking at encouraging more cycle paths and using Creative
Rural Communities funding to establish certain cycle paths in the
Rural Vale.
Pride in our Heritage, was an investment into
the Rural Vale’s natural, cultural and built heritage with a grant
application of £70,000. Pride in our Farming Families aimed
to provide rural farming families within the Vale of Glamorgan the
opportunity to supplement their farming income by diversifying into
other business areas and Pride in the Vale under the Slow Tourism
scheme would consider three key strands of activity which had been
identified, namely outdoor activities, local food and the arts /
culture, promotion of the natural heritage of the area.
An initiative called the Community Foodie was
about engaging with local people in the growing and celebration of
food through a shared interest and understanding. The
objectives would be to encourage and facilitate joint working
between land owners and local people, seek alternative uses for
under used land, contribute to developing local food cultures,
celebrate the diversity of the roles of food in communities,
develop horticultural skills through shared knowledge and
expertise, increase the amount of produce grown locally and
increase availability and consumption of local produce.
In making her presentation Ms. Haves took the
opportunity to encourage all Town and Community Councils to
consider the schemes that were available and provided Committee
with her contact details as detailed below should any wish to
receive further information or consider the issues in further
detail:
Rebecca Haves
Programme Development Officer
Creative Rural Communities
The Old Hall
High Street
Cowbridge
Vale of Glamorgan
CF71
7AH
Tel:
01446 704799
E-mail: rhaves@valeofglamorgan.gov.uk
In considering the report Councillor R.F.
Curtis urged the service to consider discussions with local land
owners for the possibility of establishing badger watches which he
considered the Vale of Glamorgan could offer and suggested that
farmers be provided with an opportunity to diversify into this
area. Councillor H.J.W. James urged the officer to ensure
that the information presented was available on the website in as
clear a way as possible to not only advertise the service but
encourage Town and Community Councils and local communities to
engage in the process.
In responding to a question regarding the use
of the grant for cycle paths in Dinas Powys, Mr. Chappell, Head of
Service, advised that Dinas Powys was classed as a Rural Area in
some respects and that the service had the flexibility within the
programme in particular to look at issues of signage and the
possibility of setting up some cycle paths in the area. He
referred also to some of the issues facing the project in that some
roads would not lend themselves easily to the establishment of
cycle paths but that further work may have to be undertaken to
assist. Councillor James advised Members of the grants that
had been received to date from Sustrans for cycle routes and that
the Council had identified various areas and would also be making
further bids for further improvements. In particular he referred to
the scheme that had taken place at Barry Comprehensive which had
proved immensely successful and the Welsh Government had been so
impressed that they had provided a further £200,000 extra
funding. The Chairman thanked Ms. Haves for an encouraging
presentation following which it was
AGREED - T H A T the presentation in relation
to the projects within the remit of the Creative Rural Communities’
service be noted and that all present be encouraged to work with
the Creative Rural Communities officers to consider whether a
project would be suitable for their area.
626 THE BIKE PROJECT
-
The Training Manager, Pippa Jones, provided
the Committee with an overview of the work undertaken at the
bicycling recycling workshop at Holm View Centre. The purpose
of the Bike Workshop was to deliver quality training opportunities
to local unemployed and unwaged people through renovation and the
resale of old and unwanted bicycles, to improve the local
environment by reducing dumped bikes and to encourage healthy
living through increased cycling. The Bike Workshop had been
set up in 2001 as part of the Environmental Task Force on the New
Deal programme offering training opportunities to young
people. It offered job seekers work experience, employability
skills, hand tool skills, accreditation and personal development
including self confidence. For the community it offered
access to reasonably priced bicycles for all ages, free bikes to
local community groups, repairs and servicing, reduced the amount
of scrap going to landfill and increased bike usage to improve the
health and wellbeing of local residents.
Bikes were collected from all areas of the
Vale of Glamorgan, from the two civic community sites and from
local residences where donations had been offered. The
workshop also offered a Dr. Bike services for schools and events,
serviced bicycles for local Police officers and encouraged
volunteering opportunities for anyone who wished to
participate. The service was advertised in the Gibbonsdown
Grapevine, the Glamorgan Gem and leaflets were also available.
With regard to the financial situation the
following information was provided to the Committee:
|
Income
|
2010-11
|
2011-12
(to
date)
|
|
Bikes
|
£3,291
|
£2,807.50
|
|
Trainees
|
£2,650
|
0
|
|
Expenditure
|
|
|
|
Staff
|
£16,824
|
£16,355
|
|
Stock
|
£250
|
£500
|
The current prices for bikes were listed
as:
Revamped bikes for sale:
Adults
£25 - £35
Children
£5 - £15
Servicing and repairs:
Full
Service
£15 plus parts
Puncture Repairs £2.50
The Training Manager further informed
Committee that, during the summer months, youngsters regularly
visited the Bike Shop for repairs to their bikes which had been
repaired as swiftly as possible in order for the children to use
their bikes during the summer months. Members congratulated
the Manager on the successful service and also took the opportunity
to suggest other ways of advertising the service, for example
through the Castleland Ward newsletter and the Holton Road Renewal
Area Office. Ms. Jones requested that if anyone had a bike
that they wished to donate this could be collected from their homes
on Tuesdays and urged Members of the Committee to contact
Mr. Wayne Mayor, Project Supervisor at the Holm View Centre,
on telephone number 01446 721974 with their details. The
Chairman urged all Town and Community Council representatives to
apprise their respective councils of the service and the contact
details should further advice and guidance be required and to
publicise the service.
Having considered the presentation it was
AGREED - T H A T the officer be thanked for
the information provided, congratulated on the service provided and
that further advertising be undertaken to raise awareness of the
project.
627 FIRE SERVICE
STATISTICS - INFORMATION ONLY -
The Fire Service figures for the Barry,
Cowbridge, Llantwit Major and Penarth Fire Service areas for the
period 2011/2012 were presented to Members for information.
AGREED - T H A T the Fire Service statistics
as detailed in the report be noted.