Minutes of the Ordinary Meeting of the Penrice Community Council held
on Wednesday 9th November 2011

at the Horton Village Hall at 7.30pm


Members Present:                    Councillor G Roberts (Chair)

Councillor M Williams

Councillor A Glass

Councillor T Methuen-Campbell

Councillor M Barnett

Cllr J Bowen

 

Five members of the public were also present.                                                                                              Action

79/11                            Apologies for Absence.

 

None

 

Council decided to suspend standing orders in order to change the order of business.

 

80/11                            A Presentation by Mark James regarding the set up of localized first responder unit

within Oxwich / Penrice / Horton Area or establishing boxes for Defibrillators.

 

Mark James gave an overview of his long term experience in the field as a first responder and that he had trained the local Coastguard earlier in the year and that he was also trainer for all of Gower and as far as Burry Port.

 

1                          Rhossili  had invested in Public Access Defibrillators that would be put on Rhossili Village Hall and also the

National Trust Shop.  

 

2                      A First Responder scheme would include a pack including a defibrillator and also oxygen, which is more likely

to be used.  Surveys had been taken of the area of Oxwich and Horton in order to assess the need of one of these units and the survey found that the area would need to be widened to include Port Eynon, Rhossili and Scurlage. 

 

3                      Killay is having a First Responder Scheme.

 

4                      Through the local Fire Service, the Ambulance Service is only going to service cardiac cases and will not

service strokes, falls etc due to financial cut-backs.

 

5                      Requirements are; to commit 4hrs per week, no prior first aid experience is needed as full training is given.

Work needs to be in teams of two.  The cost of the First Responder kit is £1300 including VAT.

 

6                      Reynoldston Fire Station has been scaled down, one of the crew is however a Community Responder on a

Voluntary basis.

 

7                      A co-ordinator is needed to operate this service.  If all the areas mentioned above are involved it will be

easier to find more people to be involved in this proposed scheme.

 

8                      J Ellis from the floor asked: Who triggers the people to respond?

Ans from Mark James: Alerted by the emergency services.  Each person will receive a response bag and also

a mobile phone in order to be contacted. 

 

9                      S Osborne from the floor: If the first person is not available then is there a back up?

Ans:  Usually people work in teams of two and can be on call on the same evenings every week as an

example.

 

10         Grants are available to match fund for these units.  A Charity called Heartbeat UK will match fund.

 

 

 

80/11                            A Presentation by Mark James regarding the set up of localized first responder unit

within Oxwich / Penrice / Horton Area or establishing boxes for Defibrillators cont..

 

11         S Osborne from the floor:  If the person does die is the First Responder liable?

Ans: As long as the person has acted as per the recognized training courses then they are protected by vicarious liability.

 

12         A    P.A.D unit will cost £1750 but there is no match funding available for this.

 

Council considered that the Scheme and cost could be shared between the area Horton, Oxwich, Rhossili, Scurlage and Port Eynon and the relevant community councils.

 

Steve Roberts is the First Responder Officer who was in charge of 54% of Wales.

 

Council decided to contact all the other Community Councils and canvass local interest with the view of holding a public meeting in January 2012.  The Chairman to contact the Chairmen of the other Community Councils concerned.

                                                                                                                                                                                    GR

Council thanked Mr Mark James for attending the meeting and explaining the Scheme.

 

 

81/11                            Declarations of Interest

 

None

 

82/11                            To confirm the minutes of the Meeting held 19th October  2011.

 

Cllr J Bowen proposed that the minutes were a true and accurate record of events, seconded by Cllr A Glass.  Carried unanimously.

 

83/11                            Matters Arising from the Minutes.

 

Item 69/11 

Sub item 62/11    Cllr M Barnett reported that he was still awaiting a response from Steve Parry CCS, but will follow up. 

 

Item 69/11

Cllr A Glass it would not be possible to get a suitable newspaper kiosk for £200, so proposed that he would try and locate a second hand unit and if this was successful the Council would again consider this proposed service. Council agreed to reconsider if this proves successful.

            

Item 71/11 

The Clerk reported that clarification had been requested on the requirement for planning permission for solar panels in an AONB. The original complaint that was written on behalf of Mr and Mrs Mumby had been passed to a Team Leader for consideration.

Verbal  advice from the Planning Department was currently that Planning permission is not required providing that the panels are not higher than the ridge height, that they are placed on a pitched roof, that they do not exceed 200mm.  Permission is however needed if they are on a listed building and on a flat roof.

This information however, is in the process of being updated.

 

Item 76/11  No 1

The Chairman reported:  The Horton Fireworks had once again been extremely successful having a good clear night and was well attended.  It was well run with no incidents.  Council decided to send a letter of thanks to Courtney Grove.                                                                                                                                                                 SC

Item 76/11

Council had attended training on the Code of Conduct, which had proved informative on certain issues.  Mr Roderick Jones, Deputy Head of Legal, Demographic Services had taken the training session and had advised the Council that he would now report to the Standards Sub Committee that this had been attended by the list of names on the attendance list.

 

84/11                            Community Councils.

None

 

85/11                            Correspondence.

           

1                      CCS  - Public Consultation on new Planning Guidance for Swansea  - Car Parking Standards       Noted

2                      The Big Lottery Fund – South Wales Events to help rural communities                                         Noted

3                      CCS – Rural Business Plan and newsletters                                                                                Noted

 

86/11                            Financial.

                                                                                               

Clerk Salary and expenses                                            

 

Council had received a letter from the external auditor, Mazars advising that there are no issues on the Annual Return for the year ended 31st March 2011.

 

The Council approved the Annual Return and the RFO and Chairman signed section 3 of the Annual Return.

 

87/11                            Planning.

 

A                      Application no: 2011/1328  Mr J Woodley  Frog’s Hop, Oxwich

 

Council considered the application and were advised that the building was 500mm longer that what was originally given permission for.  The Council had no objection to the amended application.

 

B                      Application no:2011/1484  Mrs S Owen  Coastlands, Oxwich

 

Council were reminded that when the original application to build on the land, that was the original plot, it was agreed that the bungalow would be demolished.  This did not happen and the bungalow has since been sold and is now a holiday home.

Concern was raised that was this contrary to the original conditions of the previous planning permission.

 

Council felt that there were no objections to homes being built in this location, however there was objection to the style being proposed in this application as the new bungalow seemed not to be in keeping with the area and should be more like a traditional Gower Cottage.

 

Concerns were raised as flooding can be a problem outside this location and could affect a property on this site.  Council felt that if a more vernacular proposal was re-submitted this would be acceptable.  The Council highlighted that the character of the village will be lost if the style of the new houses does not retain the character of the village properties.

 

88/11                            Land adjacent to Shore Cottage – Update.

 

The Chairman advised that the solicitor had quoted £250 +VAT to action the ‘boundary agreement’.  Council felt that it could not spend any additional costs to progress the sale.

 

J Ellis from the floor advised that the reproduction of the plan presented by the solicitor had not been satisfactory.

 

The Clerk suggested that to move forward the best course of action would be for Ms Ellis to action the ‘boundary agreement’ with the Land Registry and that would enable the sale to proceed.  The application form was quite straight forward and advice on completing the form can be sought directly from the Land Registry.

 

J Ellis advised that she would contact Mr and Mrs Mumby to discuss this further.

 

89/11                            The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Beacons  - 4th June 2012

 

Cllr M Williams had spoken with the Oxwich and Penrice Community Hall committee and reported that they had not thought that far in advance and therefore had no plans.

 

The December meeting of the Council would be a budget meeting and this could be considered at this time.

 

Cefn Bryn was suggested as a possible location or a bonfire on the cliffs. 

Decided:  All Cllrs to discuss with people in the community.

 

90/11                            A warning sign to be located at Oxwich car park /beach to show that there is a rip tide

and strong offshore winds at this location have been requested.

 

Cllr T Mehtuen-Campbell agreed that it would be acceptable to erect a warning sign in this location. He also informed the Council that a new boat lane sign was planned to be erected.

 

The wording to be decided.  Could be produced on a fairly small budget.  Cllr G Roberts to action.                      GR

 

91/11                            Matters Outstanding.

 

Cllr A Glass reported that the Broadband Project was progressing and that he had received about 60 grant forms from Oxwich.  More to be collected from Horton and Penrice also.

 

92/11                            Public Questions relating to the Agenda.

 

None

 

93/11                            The Date and Venue of the Next Meeting.

 

14th December 2011  Oxwich and Penrice Community Hall

 

Date_______________Chairman__________________________