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MINUTES OF THE PARISH COUNCIL MEETING HELD ON THURSDAY 7TH DECEMBER 2006. Present were: Mr. M. Wood. (Chairman), Mrs. P. Slimming (Vice Chairman), Mrs. B. McNeill, Mrs. M. Baker, Mr. C. Cumaranatunge, Mr. D. Dyson, Mr. R. Francis, Mr. B. Sargeant, Mr. I. Spencer. In attendance:- Mr. R. Liming Clerk to the Parish Council, County Councillor Mr. D Finch. District Councillor Mr. Nigel G McCrea. 2006. Apologies for absence. None received. 2007. Declarations of interest. Councillor Ms.M Baker declared a Prejudicial interest in agenda item 12, (Motion of acceptance that the Parish Council applauds the Planning Consent granted by B.D.C. for the Doctors Surgery. From Councillor Mr. D Dyson.), item 13. (Statements for the benefit and information of the Parish Council. Councillor Mr Cumaranatunge) Item 14 (Report on Doctors Surgery consent. Chairman Mr. M. Wood) item 15 (Steps to be taken with ref: to Title EX 705578) 2008. To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 12.11.06. The minutes were confirmed as a correct record subject to minute 2004. Sentence, Mrs. McNeill asked the question why? should have continued: Mr Cumaranatunge's response was that Mrs. McNeill should mind her own business, be included if it could be heard on the recording. Note. The alleged response could not be heard on the recording of the November meeting. 2009. To approve the 2006/2007 precept. It was resolved by members that two additions be made to the Draft Precept discussed in the November 2006 meeting.(1) That an additional £200.00 be added to the Sports Ground Committee’s grant of £6000.00, making a total of £6200.00. (2) That an additional £5000.00 be added to the Precept for the purpose of Matched Funding relating to the application for funding for the intended new Play Area, making the total Precept for the year 2006/ 2007 the sum of £27,606.00 2010. Correspondence received by the Parish Council. Letters received from Dr. W. Littler, Councillor Mr. D. Dyson and Councillor Mr. C. Cumaranatunge relating to the Doctors Surgery were referred to agenda item no 14, (Doctors Surgery report) report by the Chairman. A letter from Mobile Library Services in Essex requesting thoughts and comments on the proposed new criteria was read to the meeting. Members expressed the preference for a once weekly visit to the village and pointed out the difficulty’s for many people when having to access a static library. Advisory letters were read to members and referred to file. 2011. Planning Applications received for consideration. Application No 06/02409/Ful. 2 no Semi detached cottages with garages and alterations existing cottage on land adjacent to Old Oaks, Great Yeldham. Members deferred comment until drawings could be obtained. Applicaion No CC/BTE/146/06. Highway depot, Toppesfield Road, Great Yeldham. Members instructed the Clerk to contact Mr. J. Snow, E.C.C. and Mrs Lisa Cross, Public Rights of Way officer, E.C.C. and arrange a site meeting. 2012. Woodland Burial Report. Detailed drawings of intended grave areas have been completed and members will be invited to contribute their ideas at the next Parish Council meeting. 2013. Report on Police Planning Meeting. Councillor Mr. C. Cumaranatunge. It would seem that the wind of change is going to effect the Community Policing Strategy In the near future, There will only be one meeting per year with the public in 2007. The intended merging of the Police Districts will not be taking place. 2014. Matched Funding for Community Police. A letter received from Chief Inspector Mark Scofield, Braintree District Commander Central Division giving details of an opportunity to provide additional policing services to the parish by working in partnership together in the form of match funding one or more Police Community Support Officers. The cost of a P.C.S.O is £27,000 per year plus £1,088.00 start up costs. The Police Authority will agree to provide £13,000.00 as a partner with the Parish who fund the remainder by match funding by Precept. Members instructed the clerk to write to Chief Inspector Mark Scofield, thanking him for the offer but declining on principle. 2015. Motion of congratulation. Proposed by Councillor Mr. D. Dyson, The Parish Council applauds the planning consent granted by the Braintree District Council for the new Doctors Surgery on the Whitlocks Drive site and looks forward to the Great Yeldham Surgery being completed in the near future. Seconded Councillor Mrs. B McNeill and approved by members. In response the Chairman agreed with the motion with reservations as to the location, but thinking better that than no Surgery at all. 2016. Statements for the benefit and information of the Parish Council. Councillor Mr.C. Cumaranatunge. As requested by Councillor Cumaranatunge, the following statement was read to the meeting by the Chairman: 1. These statements are for the benefit and information of the Council. Because of the amount of subject matter involved and covered by my statements, to save time and not extend the meeting anymore than normal, I do not intend to make further comments at the meeting; I request the statements are read out by the Clerk or Chairman and to be minuted and recorded. 2. The letter from Sible Hedingham Parish Council The letter of support from Sible Hedingham Parish Council was posted and received by the Clerk to the Council long before the last meeting. It was produced by the Clerk at the meeting. The Chairman did not inform the members of its contents. I would suggest the Council Clerk write and thank all the Parish Councils who did write letters of support for the proposed Surgery a letter of gratitude. 3. My letter to Mr. M Wood in reply to the letter he wrote to J. Hunnable, and the clerk did not sign, to be included and presented with Mr Dysons letter to Mr. M Wood on the same subject. If it is possible to save time, copies made and given to members. 4. Established procedures deliberately flouted. During his address to the Parish Council. The District Councillor, Nigel McCrea made a statement that the District and County Councillors have no right to either attend or take part in any part of the Parish Council meetings. On the contrary, during my discussion with Mr Mark Wood the subject of declaration of interest in the proposed surgery, Cllr. McCrea decided to butt-in despite my protestations he insisted and carried on. The Chairman instead of answering me, decides to allow Cllr. McCrea to speak and give his views on the matter, refused to allow me to continue. Cllr McCrea is no lawyer nor an authority on Parish Councils, he had no right to butt-in the way he did unless he had a personal interest in what was discussed. The clerk Mr Liming is the legal officer of the council, he is the only one who could have advised the chairman on this matter, he was not consulted. The Chairman then allowed councillors McNeill and Francis to speak instead of allowing me to continue. Note: Cllr. McCrea had answered these allegations in his address to the meeting ahead of the minuted items. 5. This statement is regarding an incident after the Planning meeting in Halstead on the 21.1.06. after the surgery had been passed Ms. Baker made a verbal threat to Cllr. Dyson, Dr. Littler and I, who were sat at the last row, on the way out of the hall, ‘See you in court’. None of us made any remarks to her. The same Councillor made a statement that respect should be shown to all colleagues, according to the minutes of the last meeting. The Planning meeting was held in a public place. 2017. Doctors Surgery, Report on Planning Consent. The Chairman stated that he very little to add to what had already been discussed apart from the fact that the Officer had informed the Planning Committee that the committee could disregard any covenants within the 106 agreement and had recommended that it be passed. 2018. Steps to be taken with ref: to Title EX 705578. Reference was made, by the Chairman, to letters received from Councillors Mr. Dyson and Mr. Cumaranatunge. Copies of both letters had been circulated to all members and the Chairman requested reference to them as he continued. On the 21st November Planning consent was granted for the doctors Surgery. There were two matters arising. One was the matter of contacting the Developer, (mentioned by Dr. Littler,) The second matter relates to contacting J. Hunnable. The Chairman continued, on the second day it occurred to me that the next obstacle to be dealt with was the vendors covenant. “I spoke to Mr Warner at Ashley House to ask if they, as the developer, would deal with this or if they preferred the Parish Council to deal with it. He replied that his preference was that the Parish Council deal with it. I understood that Ashley House were coordinating the progress of the site, though under general instructions from the doctors. I was not aware that this had changed, that they are no longer retained, at least for now, by the Doctors, and that all communication should be through Doctor Littler. When Dr. Littler spoke to me on the 22nd I explained the position and apologised and he accepted the apology. He then reported me to the Standards Board. He complained that I had raised concerns about legal issues that had not been upheld by the District Council legal team and furthermore that they were not the concern of the Parish Council. Dr Littler also said that there had been no vote taken by the Parish Council to allow me to contact the developer. The Standards Board findings, amongst others, were that it is not considered that members need approval from the council to speak to others about matters that concern them. They made no findings about the matters of fact. That meant that other parts of the complaint were not covered. The letter from Dr. Littler to the clerk refers to my alleged spurious legal challenges to the project. Dr. Littler also requested that further correspondence from the Parish Council could be dealt with by the clerk and that he should be informed of any further correspondence from the Parish Council regarding the surgery project. On the second matter, I produced a draft letter to J. Hunnable, (copies circulated to all members), to be sent from the clerk (subject to his agreement) explaining that the Parish Council were the current owners of the site and asking him if he represented the owners of land which has the benefit of restrictive covenants over the land. Two members of the Council had objected to the letter and it was not sent.” The Chairman had then written to Mr. P Dempsey of Braintree District Council who had confirmed that the covenants he had referred to were only those contained in the 106 agreement. As two councillors had questioned the chairman’s conduct the chairman referred this also to Mr Dempsey who replied: “So far as your conduct is concerned, the existence of the covenant in question, because it appears in the Land Registry Title which is open to the public, is a reasonable issue for any Parish Councillor to raise a concern about. I would see no problem with any councillor taking the matter up directly with the beneficiary of the covenant because it is a legitimate matter of concern”. The Chairman then recommended that legal advice be taken in order to prevent delay in the long term to the Surgery. Councillor Dyson stated that he did not wish for the complete schedule to be scrutinised because of the cost factor. He then proposed that legal advice be obtained from Birkett Long, Solicitors Under Title No EX705578, dated 2 May 2003. Second Schedule. Item Two. Area Hatched Red on site plan. "We are building a Doctors Surgery, not a Village Hall. Can you investigate if this is going to cause any problems or not?" Seconded by Councillor Mr. B. Sargeant. The Clerk was instructed to write to Birkett Long. Chelmsford. 2019. Accounts for payment were considered by members and approved for payment. The Chairman closed the meeting 22.20hrs

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