Minutes remote Lands & Maintenance committee meeting 7 Oct 20

Wednesday 7 October 20

Held remotely at 7.30pm

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

1. Apologies for Absence
   1. All Cllrs were present.
2. Declarations of Interest not already declared under the Council’s Code of Conduct or members Register of Disclosable Pecuniary Interests.
   1. No declarations were made.
3. Minutes of the last meeting, held on 19 August 2019
   1. The minutes were agreed to be a true record and were to be signed accordingly by the Chairman.
4. Public Forum – Chairman made 3 points:
   1. He wished to record his thanks to Steve Laux and John Featherstone for their time, commitment and excellent work in re-instating the cobbles at the approach to HVH.
   2. The status of the Helperby cobbles was clarified. The transfer of ownership of the Helperby Main Street cobbles was complete; Brafferton & Helperby PC was now the legal owner of these cobbles and application for Title had been submitted to the Lands Registry.
   3. He had been booked on a Land Registry course which was cancelled during the covid-19 lockdown; he hoped to attend a similar course when available.
5. Main Street Management Strategy – a wide ranging discussion took place on what elements to include, what sort of plan to produced and what priorities to set:
   1. A map and plan should be produced which could be integrated into a possible Neighbourhood Plan in the future.
   2. Chairman proposed the committee should seek one additional co-opted member with an appropriate skill set for recommendation to the Council – resolved. Chairman to action.
   3. Items for inclusion: trees, cobbles, street cleaning & drainage, benches, bins, lighting, the Fountain, War Memorial, traffic/pedestrian issues, parking and village signs.
   4. Initial Priorities:
      1. Trees – one replacement plus 3/4 fresh trees (rowan or similar size) at selected locations, plus tree guards, to be planted in period Nov to Mar. Prices and types plus planting method to be researched by the Clerk for presentation at the next Council meeting.
      2. Cobbles – weed suppression plan required. Committee members to visit potential contractor to discuss method and costs. Chairman to set up.
      3. Street cleaning – Clerk to request advice from Hambleton District Council identify hire cost of pedestrian operated or ride-on machines capable of clearing leaf debris and gravel.
      4. Village name signs – village gardening group to be approached with intention of each sign being ‘adopted’ and provided with tended floral plantings. Council to provide planters and initial plants, bulbs etc. Chairman and Mr Laux to prepare proposal for presentation at the next Council meeting.
      5. Hambleton District Council to be approached by Chairman for advice on format and content of management plan.
      6. Traffic & Lighting – The Council was about to discuss both topics. The outcome would inform the committee on the way forward.
      7. Other items to be addressed at future committee meetings.
6. Cobbles Re-Instatement Plan
   1. Update on re-cobbling at the war memorial and lessons learned:
      1. Mr Laux presented a review of the cobbling works carried out to date. Costs are low using volunteer workforce but the work is very ‘man hour’ intensive.
      2. Lessons learned – it became clear that the mixture of granite gravel/chippings and the old sub-cobbles layer was critical if a durable result was to be achieved. Some sinkage was expected but the amount would not be known until vehicular use was allowed. It looked likely that a form of hoggin (self-binding gravel) would need to be chosen for further works. The old well, exposed during the work, had been photographed and entered on the Historic Environment Register with images and location plan.   Then, with approval from both English Heritage and NYCC Principal Archaeologist, it was back-filled with rubble and cobbled over (with a circular design marking its position). It was hoped that the new cobbles here would not form a puddle as had been the case previously. The new drain was working effectively but the Main Street drainage remained poor with sediment and root obstruction – NYCC had promised work to clear both and progress will be monitored. For future cobble re-laying a location for storage of materials was required and the criteria for re-laying finalised and recorded.
   2. Maintenance requirements and costs for cobbles, and other parish holdings
      1. The cycle of costs for tree surveys in Main Street, the Hornby, the Pinfold and Swale Green were known, as were the costs for tree surgery in Main Street and the Pinfold. To these would be added the costs, when known, of tree surgery along the Hornby and Swale Green. Clerk to incorporate these costs into the budget preparation for FY 2021/22.
      2. Long term maintenance of the cobbles was dependent upon the experience gained to date. It would become clearer as the first re-cobbling settled and reacted to the passage of vehicles across it. Once a re-cobbling method was adopted then a specific plan and costing will be produced for the approach to HVH driveway across the curtilage to the war memorial.
7. Date of next Meeting (the committee planned to meet quarterly in the future with the next date TBD)