Minutes of Lands & Maintenance Committee meeting 8 August 19

Thursday 8 August 2019

Held at 7.30pm in Helperby Village Hall

Present: Cllr Nigel Denison (Chairman) Cllr Chris Owens, Cllr Mark Darwin, Steve Laux and Roger Clements (Clerk)

1. Apologies for Absence
   1. Geoff Oxley was unable to accept the invitation to be co-opted to the committee.
2. Co-option to the committee
   1. Steve Laux confirmed his willingness to be co-opted and was duly confirmed as a co-opted member of the committee.
3. Declarations of Interest not already declared under the Council’s Code of Conduct or members Register of Disclosable Pecuniary Interests – Cllr Darwin declared an interest as an allotment holder.
4. Public Forum – no members of the public were present.
5. Cobbles Re-Instatement Plan
   1. Formulation of the ‘Cobbles Reinstatement Plan’ – Chairman welcomed Steve Laux to the committee and went on to outline the committee’s role. The committee will advise on and manage numerous land holdings for the Council as it undertakes a series of structural changes in the way Council land assets are handled. These land holdings and, in particular, the cobbles form part of the village’s appearance and character; it will be the committee’s function to manage these assets for future generations to enjoy and, in the process, to enhance amenity and the village relationship with its local environment. A management plan will be produced for the Council to approve which will require an agreed specification for the re-laying of cobbles by any contractor in the future; expert advice is being obtained on this matter. The likely sequence of the plan to be:
      1. The Village Hall project (see 5.3 below).
      2. Selection of criteria for ascertaining cobbles condition; colour coded Red, Amber and Green for prioritising maintenance work.
      3. Production of mapping identifying all parcels of Council land (cobbles, allotments and other) for Land Registration. This process is ongoing and some registration was initiated by Helperby Parish Council.
      4. Transfer of Manorial Waste land (mainly the cobbles) from the Lords of the Manor to the Council (see 6 below).
      5. Completion of Land Registration of all remaining parcels of land which the Council has legitimate claim to, including some where ownership is disputed.
   2. Purchase of a suitable computer to enable the photogrammetry survey to be completed – Agisoft, a specialist software company, has provided software licences enabling a photogrammetry survey of the cobbles to be produced; the survey is ongoing and will eventually produce a record and plan for every property frontage. To obtain the necessary quality of image cobbles need to be cleared of debris and vegetation; clearance by villagers to date was much appreciated. A computer with sufficient computing power, RAM and an advanced graphics card was needed for the software to function. A specification and recommended purchase would be presented to the Council for approval. Once the survey was completed in 2020 the computer would be available for use by the Clerk.
   3. Village Hall (VH) driveway and surface water drainage project – it was agreed to propose the following project to the Council for approval. The VH had indicated it was willing to transfer ‘its’ cobbles to the Council. Once this transfer was complete the project would commence by initially improving the surface water run-off from the VH driveway, then the cobbles would be re-laid from the VH driveway to Main Street incorporating the curtilage to the War Memorial. In preparation for the cobbles being re-laid a trial area would be re-laid at a yet to be selected site of some 3m x 3m.
   4. Timeline for the Village Hall driveway and surface water drainage project – NYCC has been approached to lay a spur drain from the street drainage to the VH driveway in conjunction with the re-surfacing work planned to Main Street in August 19 (NYCC was minded to do this but had not yet committed to a formal agreement). Project planning to take place over winter 19/20 with major works starting with the VH driveway surface water run-off work linking to the Main Street drainage spur in spring 20. The committee hoped that it may be possible to do the work around the War Memorial in time for Remembrance Day but obtaining the necessary quotations may prove too difficult.
6. Legal Issues – Cobbles
   1. Cobbled areas to be transferred to B&HPC from the Lord of the Manor of Helperby – research has shown the Church Commissioners (CC) to be the most likely owners of the title to the cobbled areas in Helperby. This could be deemed Manorial Waste. The CC have indicated their willingness to transfer any interest they may have to the Council but the legal costs of transfer will be met by the Council via a portion of the Hambleton District Council Making a Difference grant. Following transference of any interest the CC may have, the Chairman outlined a plan to register in sequence tranches of cobbles designed to leave any contentious issues to last.
   2. Cobbled areas to be transferred to B&HPC from the Lord of the Manor of Brafferton – a similar transfer of the Brafferton cobbles as Manorial Waste is agreed in principal with the Christian Faith Society. Subsequent Land Registration will then take place in like manner to that at 6.1.
7. Former Helperby Parish Council Allotments
   1. Status report of the former Helperby Parish Council allotments from Sandra Windross (SW) – SW was not present but had briefed Cllrs Denison and Owens and the Clerk on each allotment during a tour of the Raskelf Road allotments on 5 August (the allotments off Back Lane were not included in this tour). It was clear that although some allotments were well tended some were not. Furthermore, it appeared that some boundary renovation, general site clearance, division of some allotments and provision of better access may be necessary if lease holders were to be encouraged to adhere to their tenancy rules. Some land, believed to be in Council ownership, was neither in use as nor thought suitable for use as allotments. It was agreed that a meeting would be arranged with the Raskelf Road allotment holders to understand the issues and to contribute to the development of a plan for the allotments. Clerk was asked to provide guidance on the legislation governing disposal of parish council land.
   2. Status report of leases associated with each individual allotment – SW had provided the committee with the current list.
   3. Tour of the allotments – SW to be asked to undertake a further tour for committee members.
8. Legal Issues – Other areas in the Manors of Helperby & Brafferton
   1. In conjunction with the cobbles it was agreed that discussions would be held with the CC, as Lords of the Manor of Helperby, to transfer any interest they may have in other unregistered areas within the parish that the Council was currently responsible for. Chairman displayed a series of Land Registration maps and historical maps showing the current title holders where known and the registration status of the different parcels of land. Each was discussed with regard to its likely ease of acquisition of title with the Land Registry by the Council. Some areas were thought to have been registered based upon faulty title and may have to be challenged. The Swale Green map indicated a relatively complex area of ownership. It was agreed that the area of Swale Green which fell within the old Brafferton Parish boundary should be registered as Common Land owned by the Council and efforts made to agree transfer from other title holders to the Council, resulting in the whole being classed as Common Land under the ownership of the Council.
   2. Other areas within the original Parish of Brafferton to be transferred to B&HPC from the Lord of the Manor of Brafferton – in a similar manner to 8.1, areas were assessed for their likely ease of registration as Council land.
9. Public Information
   1. Means of keeping the community informed of developments with the cobbles and the allotments – Chairman agreed to write an article for the September issue of The Magazine. Further updates through the minutes, Council website, Facebook and flyers would be used when appropriate. When the project plan is sufficiently advanced a public meeting will be called.

Date of next Meeting (TBC)