At a meeting of the Parish Council held on Monday 26th July there were present, Mr. J. Nichols, Chairman, Mr. P. Offord, Mr. J. Blowers, Mrs. T. Townend, Mrs. E. Hume, Mrs. G. Soanes, Mrs. E. Hilton, Mr. S. Perks, Mr. K. Wood and Mr. G. Alderton.
Apologies were received from Councillor B. Hunter; Mr. S. Lewis would be late but would endeavour to attend.
There were no declarations of interest.
The minutes of the previous meeting held on 28th June were approved and signed.
As there had been no new nominations received for the post of two Trustees to be appointed to the board of Blundeston Charity Trust, Mr. J. Nichols and Mrs. P. Reid were duly re-appointed. Mr. Nichols pointed out that although the appointment two years ago of 4 new Trustees had been controversial at the time, the business acumen of the present Trustees had been a great advantage to the Trust. As previously announced the next Area Forum is to be held in Somerleyton Village Hall on July 28th, the Chairman will attend this meeting. Following the receipt of a copy of a letter from the chairman of the Governors of Blundeston VCP School to the Parish Council representative asking for a meeting regarding the number of meetings the representative had missed, Mr. Perks had tendered his resignation from the Governors, the Clerk will inform the LEA at the appropriate time and will ask if the Parish Council, in its capacity as the Minor Authority, should put forward a replacement representative. Mrs. Soanes expressed an interest in this post if is considered necessary to replace Mr. Perks. The Chairman had prepared a draft letter to the residents of The Street asking for consideration when parking their cars, this was approved with one or two minor alterations and it was agreed that this should be delivered in the next few weeks. Mrs. Hilton gave a report on the recent meeting of the Party in the Park committee. It had been decided that the event would be held again next year despite the lack of support and help with clearing up on the day afterwards this year. There is going to be an appeal for more members to join the committee, and more muscle power to dismantle the marquee afterwards. Bin liners will be issued to each group of persons attending, in the hope that they will put ALL the remains of their party into these to be gathered up afterwards, this years aftermath saw plastic bottles, glass bottles, litter and a whole tablecloth complete with plates, cups and the remnants of a meal, among the rubbish strewn across the Millennium Green. Several Fund raising events have been arranged; there will be a Halloween Disco for children under 12 on October 30th in the Village Hall, possibly a Barn Dance in November and a Beach Party Disco in February! It was announced that Danny Steel had retired as Chairman of the Committee and Mrs. Hilton was asked to pass on the thanks of the Parish Council to Mr. Steel for all his past work on making the previous events so successful. It had been decided that the date for the event next year would be 18th June, which will be one week after the Flower Festival and Teddy Bear Parachute jump at St. Mary’s Church. The local representative of the Royal British Legion needed to order the poppy wreath for the Chairman of the Parish Council to lay on Remembrance Sunday, it was agreed that a donation of £25 should be made to purchase the wreath. The Chairman gave a report on the latest Northern Parishes Liaison meeting: Pc Boggis had reported that there had been a spate of burglaries in Corton, Somerleyton and Lound, and there was news that the Police force in Suffolk is being increased. There were still problems with the 30mph repeater signs on the B1074, and Waveney District Council have been made aware of this difficulty, the Council Highways Department feel that the distance between the signs is correct to allow prosecution of those motorists exceeding the limit, but the Police are of the opinion that the starter notices are not correct in some way. Mr. Wood will follow this matter up on behalf of the Parish Council. Robin Herne from the Community Drugs Action Team gave a very interesting talk. There was a general discussion on Playground equipment and those present felt disappointed that David Jessup had not contacted any of the Parish Councils in regard to the survey carried out by NPA as he had said he would earlier in the year. There were several common Planning issues in the Northern Parishes which were discussed such as even when a Parish Council representative attends and speaks at Development Control meetings the members take little if any notice of the issues raised by the Parish Council. Mrs. Soanes reported that she had attended a meeting in May where every Parish Council complained that the Planning Committee treated the views of Parish Councils with what appeared to be contempt. The next Northern Parishes Liaison meeting will be held on 23rd September at Oulton Community Centre. The Chairman closed the official meeting to allow Councillors to look at the plans displayed at the back of the Hall and allow parishioners to make comments on the plans if they wished.
The meeting was opened again as no member of the public wished to comment on the plans submitted for approval. 
The following plans were considered;
 
Mr & Mrs. Harrowven, Decoy Farmhouse, Marsh Lane. Conversion of existing Dairy Parlour to holiday unit
Mr. & Mrs. McKernan, 2, Meadowlands                    Single storey front extensions and alterations.
Mr. G Flaxman, 73, Lakeside Rise			      Construction of a front conservatory
Mr. & Mrs R. Burwood, 23 The Street		       First Floor front extension
Mr. Perks expressed his sadness and dismay that with all the extra building and alterations in The Street it was beginning to lose some of its Village character which is regretful.
The above plans were all approved.
M A S Services Ltd					       Proposal for building on land adjacent to The Loke.
It was agreed that at the moment there is nothing to remark on, as there are no plans submitted for the proposed development, the letter was requesting that the Parish Council consider the proposal and make a comment on this. It was felt that the term affordable housing is not used in it’s proper context in this case. The Chairman agreed to draft a letter for the Clerk to send making all the above observations clear to the applicant. 
Correspondence
A Questionnaire had been received from the Audit Commission regarding a Comprehensive Performance Assessment of the Local District Council, the Chairman agreed to complete and send off the form. A letter from the Hollywood Cinema had arrived giving details of how to deal with Car Boot sale stalls selling pirate DVD’s and Videos. 
Other Parish Business. Mrs. Soanes asked if there was any news as to when the Roadworks on Lowestoft Road would be finished. The Clerk had had no notification of the completion date. Mr. Wood reported that there had been 4 accidents recently on the B1074 recently involving Police presence and an ambulance in one case. Mrs. Hume reported an incident of a horse receiving slash wounds whilst grazing in a paddock in Flixton. There had been extensive flooding in Hall Road making the road impassable for a considerable time on two separate occasions recently during heavy storms, water gushes along Pound Lane and settles at the bottom at the junction with Hall Road. Anglian Water have surveyed the drainage system in Market Lane once more during the past week, the Council await the result of this latest survey.  It was noted that the white lines have still not been reinstated in Market Lane.
15 minutes for Parishioner Input.
Mr. Ffitch was concerned that there appeared to be an oily film on the Barkis Meadow/Market Lane pond, it was thought that this was probably the run off from the roads in Pickwick Drive and Micawber Mews and would clear in a few days, it was noted that the fish still seemed to be ok as did the resident duck population. The Chairman informed those present that St. Mary’s Church now had two bells working correctly and that this was due to Clive Ffitch’s determination to get the repairs done and also in raising the money to allow this to be done. 
There being no further business the meeting closed.