2 DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST  There were none.

3 APPROVAL OF LAST MONTH’S MINUTES
Mr Tuck asked for two slight amendments to the Highways section and the Minutes were then approved and signed by the Chairman as a true and accurate record of last month’s meeting.

4 QUESTIONS/COMMENTS FROM PARISHIONERS
There were none.

5 COUNTY/DISTRICT COUNCILLOR
Mr Hobhouse had nothing to report. Mr Crawford asked him about Somerset County Council’s plan to come up with a regional solution in dealing with the budgetary gap with a public/private partnership and asked why the County Council did not employ someone to run the back office. Mr Hobhouse replied that there were three offices merging into one under the ISIS scheme. This means Somerset County Council will make money from other counties for running their office and they will save £100m in procurement alone and IBM are putting the discipline in place for them. Mr Crawford asked where was the value in having a commercial company coming in and Mr Hobhouse said there was a guaranteed saving over 10 years of £100m but the belief is more like £200m.

Mr Lewis asked if the waste and recycling arrangements had gone to plan over the Christmas period. The Clerk confirmed that all had gone well except for Ainstey Drive being missed off the wheelie bin collection on 31^st December. She had reported this on 2^nd January as a missed collection and they came the following day. She asked why the telephone number she had for the waste department now goes through to the generic Customer Services and Mr Lewis confirmed he would look into this.

6 HIGHWAYS
The Clerk read out an email from Scott Davies of Highways in response to the questions asked at the last meeting. Mr Tuck said the drainage system was choked. If the gulleys were cleaned and all carrier drains jetted this would solve the problem but because their maintenance is so poor it has compounded our problems. He also reported the gulley outside 1 Green Close was still full. It was agreed that Mr Tuck take photographic evidence and the Clerk will pass this onto Highways.

7 LOCAL PLAN/VILLAGE DESIGN
Mr Crawford said he had heard nothing about the affordable housing since the last meeting.

8 CRIME/NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH
PCSO Thelma Mead reported the theft of wheelie bins from Sparkford Parish Hall and an assault in December. The wheelie bins were found and the assault is being investigated at the moment. She confirmed she had spoken to Highways about the double white lines in The Avenue who have confirmed that this has been reported, noted and logged and that they will send someone out to look at it.

9 PLANNING DECISIONS  One planning decision had been received:

07/05244/FUL - Demolition of conservatory and erection of garden room and replacement garage. The Coach House, Ainstey Drive, Sparkford. Mr & Mrs Nurse. APPROVED

10 PLANNING APPLICATIONS None have been received.

11 MATTERS ARISING There were no matters arising.

12 PAYMENT OF ACCOUNTS
a) Clerk’s Salary & Expenses

The Clerk’s salary of £89.16 and expenses of £12.11 were approved.

13 CORRESPONDENCE No correspondence had been received.

14 ANY OTHER BUSINESS
Mr Tuck asked about the repairs to the footbridge over the Cam. He said Alan Rankin has taken away the stile on the west side and removed the foot bar but that it was still dangerous. It was agreed that the Clerk would contact Alan Rankin to obtain a timescale for the repairs. Mr Hobhouse said there was a County Council budget which could cover these costs if need be.

The Clerk reported on some training sessions being arranged by SSDC on the New Code of Conduct. It was agreed she would email the details to all Councillors so they could chose which session to attend. Mr Crawford would contact Councillors to see if they needed a lift to the sessions.

The Clerk confirmed that the Parish had received the £500 grant from SSDC to help cover solicitors costs for the playing field lease but that she had still not received the lease and, despite emails and telephone calls, had been unable to contact Ian Clarke, the District Solicitor, to find out why. Mr Lewis said he would speak to Mr Clarke about this.

15 QUESTIONS/COMMENTS FROM PARISHIONERS There were none.

16 QUESTIONS/COMMENTS FROM COUNCILLORS There were none.

17 ITEMS FOR FUTURE AGENDA There were none.

18 DATE OF NEXT MEETING Monday, 4^th February 2008.

KB/08.01.08