At a meeting of the Parish Council held on Monday 13th October in the Village Hall Blundeston, there were present, Mr. J. Nichols (Chairman), Mr. J. Blowers, Mr. G. Alderton, Mr. P. Offord, Mrs. T. Townend, Mr. S. Lewis, and Mr. K. Wood. Pc Hill and 14 Parishioners attended.
Apologies were received from Mr. T. Prettyman, Mr. S. Perks, Mrs. E. Hume and Councillor Brian Hunter. A letter of resignation had been received from Mrs. E. Socratous. The Chairman expressed the Parish Councils regret at Mrs. Socratous’ decision.
The minutes of the previous meeting held on 8th September were approved and signed.
There were no declarations of Interests.
The Chairman reported that he had spoken to other Parish Councillors at the recent Northern Parishes Liaison meeting about the proposed Skateboard area in Blundeston and was told that the siting of the surface should be carefully considered as the activity tended to generate a great deal of noise. It was generally felt that the most suitable site would be on the south side of the Village Hall, as this area would cushion the sound between the Village Hall and the Playground wall. The Clerk was asked to contact the Volunteer Bureau who had expressed an interest in the scheme and see what progress they had made and also get an estimate for hard surfacing the area.
Planning. The following plans were considered.
Mr. & Mrs. Watson. Parkhill – proposed side extension, dormer windows and garage at Greenacres, Church Road.		This was approved.
Mrs. J.M. Kozersky, New Costessey	- proposed construction of a Barn style dwelling on Plot 2 off Market Lane. 			This was refused on the grounds that it was A. outside the Local plan. B. That it was a new building and not a barn conversion anymore than the previous application for plot 1 was. C. It was not a dwelling for an agricultural worker. And D. the proposal was totally outside Policy H17. 
Environment Agency Flood defence works on Land north of Burgh Road, Wheatacre Beccles. This was approved; Mr. Wood took the description of the work to be done, to study further.
Land adjacent to The Brambles Lound Road. Amended Plans had eventually been received by the Parish Council, but this gave no time to comment of the revised plan, therefore the Chairman had requested to speak at the planning committee meeting on 15th October where he would re-iterate the Parish Council’s previous reasons for refusing the earlier proposed plan.
Mr. & Mrs. Gorringe 8, Orchard Close. Revised application for a front extension – this was approved.
Mr. Nichols reported that Waveney Fencing had modified the fencing around the Pond at Peto’s Corner and that it was now satisfactory. He also expressed the thanks of the Parish Council to Mr. F. Edwards who had painted the concrete posts and the rails so efficiently.
Mr. Nichols also pointed out that the submission from the Environment Agency was mainly sent to the Parish Council as a courtesy, the area in question was actually opposite to Blundeston Marshes.
Accounts The following accounts were proposed for payment by Mr. Alderton and seconded by Mr. Offord.
	Waveney Fencing.	(Peto’s Pond)		£674. 29.
	B.M. Shaw (Clerk’s salary July/Aug/Sept)			237. 50
				Plus 1/3 telephone rental		   9.  16
							£246. 66.
	J. Nichols	(Chairman’s telephone rental)	      9. 16
Correspondence.  A Draft map of Common Land and Rights of Way in each of the two Villages had been received from the Countryside Commission, before these were fully approved and the questionnaires completed Mr. Nichols asked Mr. Offord to check the Blundeston map and Mr. Wood took the Flixton Map, they were asked to report back to the next Parish Council meeting. Details of a Suffolk Biodiversity Partnership event at Lackford Lakes had arrived. Information had been received regarding a Suffolk Wildlife Trust Pond Management Course. Issue 12 of Suffolk C.C. Travel brochure had arrived.  There was notice of a Waveney Crime and Disorder Reduction evening to be held in Beccles on 15th October, and a Suffolk Drug Action team meeting to be held in the Kirkley Centre on 15th January. There was also information on a Tree Council event. The Chairman then reported on the latest Northern Parishes Liaison meeting, there had been no speaker at this meeting and a great deal of the meeting had been spent discussing Anti Social Behaviour. It was also reported that Suffolk Acre seemed to provide cheaper Insurance for Parish Councils. Public rights of way were also discussed. Pc Hill then gave the Police Report, there had been two crimes reported in the past month, 1 of theft and 1 of fraudulent use of a vehicle tax disc, this compared with a total of 7 crimes being reported in the same month last year. Pc Hill said that this drop in crime was repeated overall in this area. The Chairman said that perhaps this reduction had been helped by the fact that there had been a larger Police presence in the Village lately. 
Other Parish Business
Mr. Alderton asked if the clerk had received any news from Anglian water, it was reported that a letter of acknowledgement had been received. Mr. Blowers reported that the Playground inspector had asked him to remove the junior goalposts from the Children’s Play area, he also asked for the damaged chain link fencing around the stile to be removed. Mr. Blowers also reported that the slide had been damaged and that W.D.C. have agreed to carry out a repair to this. During the discussion with the representative of the Local Council Mr. Blowers had been informed that the Council itself no longer uses fibreglass slides as they are very prone to damage by vandalism and they now install stainless steel slide chutes. Mr. Blowers had obtained an estimate for the replacement of the present slide with stainless steel and this came to £1,200. 00, Mr. Blowers offered to investigate the possibility of acquiring a grant for this. The Clerk had asked for the sand in the base of the slide to be topped up. Mr. Blowers informed the Councillors that Mrs. Hilton had secured a grant of £6,000 for new play equipment for very young children to be placed in the Play area. As the owner of the hedge in the Loke had not yet trimmed the hedge, which had disrupted the electricity supply to the cottages in the Loke earlier in the year, the Clerk was asked to write to the Electricity Supplier enclosing a copy of the letter sent to Mr. Pease and inform them that he had agreed that he would get the hedge cut.  Mr. Wood raised the problem of traffic exceeding the speed limit along the B1047 Pc Hill agreed to pass on his comments, Mr. Wood also reported that a deep freezer had been dumped in a field entrance at Flixton, the Clerk was asked to report this to W.D.C.  The Chairman gave a report on the recent meeting of Blundeston Charity Trustees the Trustees are keen to fulfil the requirements of the Trust and will continue with the successful scheme of giving book tokens to University Students living away from home, but want to change the method of giving vouchers at Christmas to Parishioners. They would like these to go to individuals where the receipt would make a difference to these persons at Christmas and not just a blanket distribution of vouchers to all those eligible, as in previous years. Parishioners are to be asked to apply for help and may then be asked to give details of their financial position. Mr. Blowers asked if this was a means test and Mr. Nichols agreed that it could be seen that way but this was the road the Trustees wanted to take. Several Councillors felt that some parishioners would be too proud to apply.
The meeting was then opened for Parishioner input.   
Mr. Sturman commented that the planning department had handled the whole affair of the Land adjacent to the Brambles very poorly and he felt that the opinions of the Parish Council were not treated reasonably. A parishioner said that the new rubbish collection system of having two lorries on alternate weeks could cause a traffic problem down The Street. Another Parishioner asked when the yellow lines would be put in place at the junction of Orchard Close and the Street, but the Parish Council had not been informed of any timing of this. The Village Quiz is to be staged on Monday 10th November and John Blowers, Simon Lewis and Keith Wood agreed to represent the Parish Council at this event. Mr. Lewis announced that the Jubilee Committee had organised a Boogie night on Saturday 22nd November and a Barn Dance in February.
There being no further business the meeting closed at 8.25p.m.