Parish Councils


downsmail.co.uk Boughton Monchelsea


Elections Cllr Stephen Munfordwas elected chairman and Cllr Ian Elliswas elected vice- chairman.


Annual meeting A resident asked that a hearing loop be made available in the village hall for those residents who might need it.


Local plan Cllr Munford summarised the parish council’s draft response to Maidstone Council’s draft local plan and said the parish councilwas supporting KCC’s response. The parish council had objected to the inclusion of land behind Church Street in the list of homes.


Christmas tree Cllr Colin Bracking said he had obtained prices for 12-15ft living trees, with the best price being £250. Cllr Munford proposed that the council continues with a cut tree each year, and thiswas agreed by all members.


Projector Cllr Munford thanked Cllr Jonathan Gershon for sourcing and buying a new projector on behalf of the council.


Emergency plan Cllr Bill Brown said the plan had been updated to include a link to the Maidstone Council plan covering north ward. He said he was still waiting for the radio licence.


Big Lunch Cllr KirstieWilliams said she had signed up for The Big Lunch, a street party type event.


War memorial Cllr Brown said members had not come to any agreement at the previ- ous meeting. He proposed that an agree- ment in principle be made for a war memorial to be erected in the Church Street play area. Cllr Elliswas against this and sug- gested that a living memorial would be more appropriate. Cllr Munford proposed that Cllr Brown be given delegated powers to spend up to £1,000 on a memorial plaque, listing the names of those fallen, to be fixed perhaps on the village hall. A vote was taken, with 11 in favour, two against and one abstention. Cllr Brownwas to pursue it.


Old photos It was noted that photos of the old memorial hall were on display in the social club. Cllr Angela Whybrow agreed to investigate, with a view to obtaining copies to display in the village hall.


Poppy field Cllr Williams suggested a memorial poppy field could be sown in northward. She agreed to investigate this.


Lyewood Farm Cllr Ellis asked the clerk to write to Mr Friday regarding claiming back £1,500 towards legal expenses incurred in relation to the Lyewood Farm option agree- ment.


St Peter’s Church A request had been received for grant funding towards the ex- tension to St Peter’s churchyard. It was agreed a detailed breakdown of costs was required so that an informed decision could be made. The clerk was to write to the church to ask if a representative of the church should attend the next meeting to an- swer any questions.


Footpaths Regarding land next to Boughton Monchelsea Place, a KCC notice had been posted on Church Hill saying that a state- ment and a map had been deposited by a local landowner to let KCC know about ex- isting public rights of way across its land and to declare that it had no intention of dedicating any further routes to the public. An email had been received from Mrs Stephens expressing concern about this. This


was discussed and it was felt that that al- though walkers wanted to walk across the land in general, the rights of the landowner should be respected by sticking to the foot- paths. Any resident could take this up with KCC if they felt it appropriate.


Walk meadow Cllr Munford said the term meadow was not a description of the use of the land but just the name by which it had been known over many years. He said flora and fauna abound in the meadow and the contractor would soon be mowing the paths.


Village hall and recreation ground Cllr Whybrow said Chris Ross had stood down as treasurer at the previous committee meet- ing. Ten new committee members had joined with Terry Tuck staying on as chair- man and Alison King was taking over as vice-chairman.


Parkwood Farm reservoir Cllr Peter Herrin said thewater level in the reservoir had now returned to normal butwater had been seep- ing through fissures in the dam walls and a concrete slab would need to be built to stop this happening. As a temporary measure sandbags had been placed at the base, but on two occasions vandals had thrown these into the river. Cllr Herrin noted that the long-term plan would be to arrange for the reservoir management to be taken on by a more appropriate body.


Footpath Cllr Bracking spoke about the poor condition of the footpath between the east end of the Quarries and Brishing Lane. The surface had been eroded by floodwater over the winter andwas furrowed. Cllr Munford suggested that the council should request a meeting with the KCC footpaths officer to discuss a long-term solution. The clerk was to arrange this.


Broomfield and Kingswood


Safari Due to a clash of dates with other local events, the garden safariwas cancelled for this year.


GrantsKCCCllr Jenny Whittle had received confirmation that each member now has only a total of £25,000 to allocate for com- munity grants and/or local highway proj- ects.


Celebrations Councillors congratulated bor- ough ward Cllr Peter Parvin on his 80th birthday and 60th wedding anniversary.


Police The area PCSO allocations had been announced. PCSO Richard Kirby would re- main at Broomfield and Kingswood and also cover Leeds, Sutton Valence and Langley.


Handyman Two applicants for the position of handyman were interviewed by council- lors. It was decided to offer the contract to Mark Reynolds.


Plan Maidstone Council had responded to the draft neighbourhood plan that several points would need to be addressed by the steering group. A meeting would be arranged at the end of the public consulta- tion period. Councillors had been made aware that a petition against the neighbour- hood planwas at the post office.


Sports field The edges of the field had been flailed and up to two metres of ground pre- viously lost to brambles and saplings had been recovered. The area was quickly over- growing again.Anew rubbish binwould be ordered for the field.


Yellow lines KCC had reviewed the need for double yellow lines near the school and said there had been no reports of serious ac- cidents there, but to contact the police if there were still concerns. The clerk was asked to write to head teacher Emma Hick- ling to ask if a letter could be sent to parents requesting consideration for other road users when parking near the school.


Kerbs Dropped kerbs had been requested in Chestnut Drive, Cayser Avenue and Grav- elly Bottom Road. Enquirieswould be made with Kent Highway Services.


Signs New signs on the A20 about HGVs had not been erected correctly and would have to be changed.


Drain KHS had responded to the query about the land drain in Pitt Road that was uncovered and potentially dangerous, stat- ing it was not in its remit. The clerk was asked to re-contact KHS.


Outing Bookings for the pensioners’ outing were disappointing with only 44 out of the 52 seats taken despite extra advertising.


Crop spraying Cllr Peter Page reported that the tenant farmer on Leeds Castle land be- hind and to the east of Broomfield Road had been spraying crops, in high wind, contrary to National Farmers Union guidance. Con- cerns were raised about possible damage to garden plants and the health of a nearby res- ident. The clerk was asked to contact the Leeds Castle chief executive.


Speed Following an enquiry about 20mph speed restrictions for the village of Kingswood, KCC had stated there had been no speed-related incidents in the past three years and therefore no evidence of a safety problem that could be addressed by lower- ing the limit.


Chart Suon


Parking permits Before the start of the meet- ing some parishioners spoke regarding the residents-only parking permits. It appeared there had been some misunderstanding. One of the residents who had previously complained about the parking on Amber Way, which led to the parking signs/permits being purchased by the council, was asked to give out the permits to residents on behalf of the council, as required. However, this caused some unrest with other residents. The idea of the permits was to deter Lilypie customers from parking there and not other residents. Cllr Peter Forknall had since spo- ken with some of the residents and the un- used permits had been returned to him to be given out as required. The situation seemed to have calmed down and no further action was needed at this point.


Memorial Field A parishioner complained about the parking of cars on the footpath to the field during football matches. Clubs had been asked not to park there but itwas hard to stop them. Itwas hoped thingswould im- prove once the footpath had been repaired.


Police report There had been one crime reported during the previous month – a vehicle interference in Norton Road.


Footpath leaflets Itwas agreed that these be printed by PlanXpress at a cost of £126 plus VAT.


Football pitches Members noted that after pulling out their first team, Coxheath and Farleigh U18s have a second team who wish to use the pitch on42


Maidstone South July 2014 33


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