Minutes of the Meeting of Coniston Parish Council held in the Library on Monday 15th December 2008.
PRESENT: D Coxon (Chairman), Mrs A Hall, Ms R Hext, P Hill & Mrs E Kelly; the Clerk, C Sargeant; and 4 members of the public (D Adams, B Bateman, Mrs D Dixon and Mrs R Park).

1. Public welcoming and receipt of matters for debate: Chairman welcomed the public. There were no matters for debate offered.

2. Apologies: Cllrs J Stoddart (incapacitated) & L Tarr (other commitment).

3. Declarations of Interest: of members’ personal and prejudicial interests in respect of items on the Agenda: Cllr Coxon (matters relating to LDNPA), Cllr Mrs Hall (matters relating to planning) and Cllr Hill (matters relating to E.ON). All councillors as Trustees of the Coniston Institute and Ruskin Museum.

4. Minutes of the Meetings of 17th & 24th November 2008 were approved, and signed by the Chairman.

5. Matters arising from those Meetings with reports of action taken:

5.a Item 5.a. Richard Leafe, Chief Executive of the Lake District National Park Authority, will attend the CPC Meeting in February.

5.b. Item 5.f. Clerk has the bench. Mrs Dixon attended this meeting to present a cheque. Mr Woodend has surveyed the site and will commence work in the new year.

5.c. Item 5.g. A constitution for the Amenities Fund has to be presented to High Furness Neighbourhood Forum before a grant can be made. Councillors adopted and signed the constitution. RESOLVED: thanks to Jeff and Janette Carroll.

5.d. Item 6.d. CPC acknowledged a need for extra grit bins around the village and is prepared to purchase the bins if Highways will guarantee to provide the salt to go in them. RESOLVED: Cllr Kelly to contact Highways to negotiate the siting and filling of extra grit bins around the parish.

5.e. Item 6.i. CPC has made it known to all concerned that, because Hoathwaite Farm is in the parish of Torver, it will not get involved unless invited to do so by Torver PC.

5.f. Item 6.k. Cllr Mrs Hall and the clerk attended the meeting of the District Association of Parish Councils on Thursday 27th November 2008, at the County Offices in Kendal. The Minutes follow: Part 1 Update on the Parish Charter Chris Bagshaw, Cumbria Association of Local Councils (CALC), explained that Parish Charters have been signed by CCC, CALC on behalf of the parish councils and each of the District Councils. The Charter for South Lakeland was launched in March 2008. It includes actions for each party, and each organisation has agreed to concentrate on a few key actions. He went on to talk about the key actions for parishes in the Charter. These are: • IT – make efficient and effective use of IT & electronic communication methods available to parish councils • Training – identify the training needs of the parish clerk and councillors. Ensure that the identified training needs of the parish clerk and councillors are met. • Delegation procedure – adopt a standard procedure, including arrangements for delegation, which enable the council to respond within consultation deadlines set by the Principal Authority • Community planning – ensure the Principal Authority is aware of their views and aspirations, for example through the production of a parish plan • Quality parish status- keep under review the opportunities presented under the Quality Parish Scheme and consider seeking “Quality” status when national standards can be met. ACTION: Amanda McCleery to contact Paul Mountford, SLDC to email a text-only version of the Parish Charter to all parish clerks. Part 2 Meeting with Cumbria County Council 1. Parish Paths Initiative – Andrea Bonacker, CCC Countryside Access, explained that there are 11 people working in the Countryside Access Team based at The Courts in Carlisle. CCC is the Highways Authority and therefore legally responsible for public rights of way, but it has service level agreements with the 2 National Parks, Carlisle City and Capita to look after the rights of way. The Countryside Access Team is the 1st port of call if a member of the public has an issue with a right of way. The Parish Paths Initiative (PPI) is a grant-giving scheme. Parishes outside the National Parks can apply for a small grant (up to £1,000) on designated public rights of way. (NB. Parishes within the National Parks should contact their National Park Authority re- funding.) A parish can apply for a grant every year if it wants. Matched funding is not necessary. Parishes can recover 100% of material costs (e.g. gates, surfacing), contractors, purchase and hire of tools, training*, safety equipment and insurance for volunteers. Parishes can also recover 50% of the costs of seating and producing leaflets or information panels. The grant year begins in April. Once a parish has completed an application and work proposal, Andrea will visit the site and provide the parish with a map (so that they can survey the paths in question) and a PPI guidance manual. CCC decides which projects to support in June. The successful parishes then sign formal agreements and co-ordinate the implementation of the project. The final claim has to be submitted in February. The parishes pay for the work, and are then reimbursed by CCC through the claims process. *Some of this is run by CCC Countryside Access Team, for example health and safety or strimmer training. For more information contact: Andrea Bonacker, Countryside Access Team, Cumbria CC 2. Highway Stewards – Rob Lawley & David Graham, CCC Highways This new scheme began in April 2008, taking over from the pilot parish lengthsman scheme in South Lakeland. All 24 Highway Stewards for Cumbria (each with about 200km of highway) are now in post, with 6.5 working in South Lakeland. All are enthusiastic and committed to providing parishes with a good service. Key to the scheme is communication and for it to work best the Highway Steward liaises with a parish contact over work. ACTION: Amanda McCleery to chase 19 parishes in South Lakeland that have not provided CCC Highways with a contact name and telephone number. Parishes are positive about the Highway Stewards but would like more feedback on work planned and completed. Currently, Highway Stewards try to visit most parishes every 3 months for a whole week (NB. If a Highway Steward is sick or on holiday, then another time has to be arranged), but parishes have said that they would rather see their Highway Steward more often (say 6 weekly) but for less time (e.g. 1 or 2 days). As a result the length and frequency of visit to each parish is being reviewed. From 2009, 2-man Area Highway teams will work in the towns (e.g. Kendal, Ulverston, Ambleside), and again the town councils will need to provide CCC Highways with a contact name. These teams are 2-man because it is heavy work (e.g. lifting flagstones and cutting tarmac.) The speakers agreed that the collection of arisings (e.g. leaves, brushwood) is a problem in the towns, which they are trying to resolve. They explained that the Highway Stewards are for safety works, rather than long lengths of brush cutting. Councillor Ian Stewart suggested that those parishes, who want brush cutting undertaken, could contact their local county councillor and persuade them to use some of their £11,000 pa delegated Highways budget. 3. Preparing your community for an emergency – Chris Briggs, CCC Emergency Planning Unit. This presentation was cancelled as the speaker was ill. 4. Locality working – Dianne Whitehead, CCC Area Support Manager, thanked parish councillors for attending the parish summits, which were held back in the autumn to discuss local area partnerships (i.e. clusters of parishes working together on common issues, with budgets and services being devolved, like with Grange and Cartmel community board). She said that the information from the summits (e.g. discussions on geographical boundaries for these clusters) was currently being collated and would be sent out to parishes in South Lakeland shortly. Janette Jenkinson of Ulverston Town Council felt that there was still a lack of understanding amongst parish councils as to what local area partnerships are and what would be involved in establishing and running them. Peter Ridgway of SLDC understood that parishes do need answers to a variety of questions. In fact, parishes felt that they need to discuss the idea of locality working further (e.g. what services will be devolved? What will be the local area partnership’s relationship to the police, NHS or National Parks?) To this end Guy Richardson of CALC suggested that CALC could bring the parishes in South Lakeland together in an event in the spring 2009, as part of the next round of consultation on locality working. ACTION: Parish councillors invited by Councillor Ted Walsh to attend any future meeting of Grange and Cartmel community board to see partnership working in action. ACTION: Amanda McCleery to organise a special meeting of the District Association to discuss locality working, which coincides with the consultation period of CCC & SLDC, probably spring 2009. Part 3 Association Business 33/08 Present: Amanda McCleery (Secretary); Chris Bagshaw (CALC); Guy Richardson (CALC); Tony Rothwell (Chairman of Association & Kendal); Jo. S. Clarke (Vice President, CALC); David Peters (Natland); Charles Bulman (Helsington); Sheena Thompson (Blawith & Subberthwaite); Linda Nicholson (Blawith & Subberthwaite); Leith Hallatsch (Windermere); Allen Green (Lakes); Leslie Johnson (Lakes); John Watson (Levens); Robert Cass (Grange-over-Sands); Ron Shapland (Grange-over-Sands); Allan Muirhead (Kirkby Lonsdale); Ian Kell (Skelsmergh & Scalthwaiterigg); Alan Baverstock (Milnthorpe); Brenda Kell (Skelsmergh & Scalthwaiterigg); ? Slinger (Kirkby Ireleth); Anita Benson (Grange-over-Sands); Matthew Dobson (Crosthwaite & Lyth); Jim Bland (CCC); Ted Walsh (Cartmel Fell); Olive Clark (Preston Patrick); Stan Simpson (Staveley-with-Ings); John Poole (Hawkshead); Geoffrey Marvin (Burneside); Sue Partridge (Haverthwaite); Mandy Lane (Colton); Peter Harrington (Colton); Pat Jones (Ulverston ); Helen Irving (Ulverston); Janette Jenkinson (Ulverston); Anne Hall (Coniston); Chas Sargeant (Coniston). 34/08 Apologies for absence: Alan Day (Kirkby Lonsdale); Jacky Davidson (Helsington); Paul Rogers (Burton-in-Kendal); Lucien Procter (Skelsmergh & Scalthwaiterigg); Robert Leach (Grange-over-Sands); Carol Hayton (Holme); Debbie Cowperthwaite (Upper Allithwaite). 35/08 Minutes: The minutes of the 137th meeting held on 4th September 2008 were agreed as a correct record. 36/08 Matters arising from the minutes: Urswick Community Travel Plan: Mrs Stainton (Urswick) had questioned whether such a plan existed for Urswick. Dianne Whitehead had provided evidence to the Secretary of a meeting at which it was discussed. Impact Housing: The Secretary had altered the document “Choice based lettings & parish councils. Procedures for 106 agreements (based on Carlisle) to reflect the situation in South Lakeland (e.g. the names of newspapers). ACTION: Amanda McCleery to discuss the altered document with Impact Housing Officer for South Lakeland & to report back to the Association. Dog Control Order at Milnthorpe Parish Council: Secretary explained that Alan Baverstock of Milnthorpe Parish Council has agreed to speak at the March 2009 meeting of the Association, because tonight’s agenda was already full. 37/08 Election of representatives to: Affordable Housing Task Group (Local Strategic Partnership): Councillor Mike Whelan of Helsington parish council was elected to represent the District Association on this group. ACTION: Amanda McCleery to give Affordable Housing Task Group the contact details of Councillor Whelan and vice versa. South Lakeland Crime & Disorder Reduction Partnership: Councillor Allan Green of Lakes parish council was elected to represent the District Association on this group. ACTION: Amanda McCleery to give South Lakeland Crime & Disorder Reduction Partnership the contact details of Councillor Green and vice versa. South Lakeland Forum of Council for Voluntary Services (CVS) Councillor Gwen Murfin of Kendal town council was elected to represent the District Association on this group. ACTION: Amanda McCleery to give South Lakeland Forum of CVS the contact details of Councillor Murfin and vice versa. 38/08 Items of Interest from Parishes 50/50 Toilet Partnership with SLDC: The majority of parish councils with toilet blocks have received letters from SLDC informing them of significant increases in their contribution to the costs for 2009/10. The parish councils are unhappy because there was no consultation about these increases or any details in the letters as to what the costs are for. Furthermore, the letters were received after the parish councils had set their budgets for next year, as SLDC asks them to decide on the precept in November each year. ACTION: Amanda McCleery to organise a rapid meeting between Lawrence Conway, SLDC Director and the relevant parish councils in order to discuss this issue. “Together We Can” pilot in Ulverston: There were 6 “Together We Can” pilots, one for each District, with Ulverston chosen for South Lakeland. The idea behind “Together We Can” was that the various service providers (CCC, SLDC, police, NHS, Cumbria Fire & Rescue & youth organisations), working together, put extra resources into an area for a week of intensive activity to “top up” the work that they normally carry out. The work followed discussion with local people about what needed to be done. Janette Jenkinson of Ulverston Town Council said that it was an excellent event, where issues were resolved and things got done on the ground. 39/08 Reports from Representatives to Other Bodies CCC South Lakeland Local Committee (Allan Muirhead): Councillor Allan Muirhead reported first on the September meeting of the Local Committee. It agreed to increase councillors’ allocation for local priorities as the highways budget was underspent. It agreed that some of the areas given to just one Highway Steward may be too large. It deferred a decision on the closure of the central reservation gap on A591 at Prizet crossroads, near Kendal. Next, Allan Muirhead reported on the November meeting of the Local Committee. It debated with Highway Engineer Nick Raymond as to whether local community priorities or CCC policy should dictate Highways budgets. It discussed the need for a policy on sandwich boards. The Committee is starting to think about 2009/10 budgets and projects. Morecambe Bay Partnership’s Seminar on a Regional Park, October 2008: Councillor Ian Stewart attended this event on behalf of the District Association, but Amanda McCleery reported to the meeting. The seminar brought together the local authorities and other agencies to consider a Regional Park for the Morecambe Bay and Duddon area. The participants agreed that the Morecambe Bay Partnership should pursue this idea further, and to this end the Partnership has secured funding from the Regional Parks Exchange for consultation with a wider number of organisations. More information on the seminar and the consultants’ study to develop the concept (spring 2008) can be found on the Partnership’s website. South Lakeland Area Police Community Liaison Forum: Councillor Anita Benson reported on its November meeting. Ms Nicola Brooker (from Cumbria Police Authority) spoke about the Home Office’s Green Paper that proposes allowing the public to directly elect the majority of a police authority’s members. Another proposal is that in future there will only be a single top down target for police forces on improving public confidence. Chief Superintendent Paul Kennedy then spoke about local policing with overall crime reducing 10% from April 07 to April 08 in Cumbria, but the fear of crime has not dropped. SLDC Overview & Scrutiny – Resources Committee: Councillor David Peters reported that some reorganisation at SLDC is planned. The Rural Proofing task group has agreed to add rural proofing to SLDC’s equality policy on age, gender etc. The White Paper task group has agreed to invite CALC representatives as witnesses to a task group discussion on local area partnerships, as SLDC councillors still know very little about locality working. 40/08 Dates, Venues and Times for Future Meetings 5th March 2009 - Gilpin Bridge Inn, near Levens, 7pm: Presentations from Land Registry and on Milnthorpe’s dog control order 4th June 2009 - Kendal Town Hall, 7pm: Hosted by SLDC 3rd September 2009 - Gilpin Bridge Inn, near Levens, 7pm: AGM of the District Association 26th November 2009 - County Offices, Kendal, 6pm: Hosted by CCC

5.g. Item 6.l. Cllrs Coxon and Hill represented CPC at the Planning Training Seminars, Staveley, 1st December.

5.h. Item 6.m. Reminder: All councillors (and the clerk) will attend the Code of Conduct Training session at Market Hall, Hawkshead, on 16th December (7pm).

5.i. Items 7.c./Extra 5.a. The Precept for 2009-10 was finalized at £14,600: Clerk’s salary and expenses - £3,600; Conveniences - £2.900; Election ’08 expenses - £540; Fees and subscriptions - £700; Insurance - £1,100; Lighting - £1,500; Local grants - £1,950; Maintenance - £2,310.

5.j. Item 11.d. Cllr Mrs Kelly had established that the responsibility for the loose wiring on the pavement walls along the A593 through Gateside was that of the land owners and not Highways. RESOLVED: Cllrs Coxon and Mrs Hall to contact relevant parties.

5.k. Item Extra 6.b. The clerk contacted neighbouring parishes about networking and to date has received responses from Hawkshead PC, Egton with Newland PC and Satterthwaite PC.

6. Matters arising since those meetings:

6.a. Bridge Public Conveniences: After a month of negotiations, SLDC issued this press release: South Lakeland District Council is optimistic of reaching agreement with parish and town councils to keep 15 public toilets open. SLDC shares the cost of running toilets in Kirkby Lonsdale, Ulverston, Lakes, Lower Allithwaite, Milnthorpe, Coniston, Windermere and Grange. SLDC and the town and parish councils each pay 50/50 of the costs involved. However, costs for SLDC and the parish and town councils have rocketed this year due to the credit crunch and spiraling energy and utility prices which left both partners facing huge increases in the amount of money they spend on them. Now SLDC has decided to limit the increases for parish and town councils to just five per cent but has warned that the future costs must be addressed. They will continue talks throughout the coming months about how toilets are run and financed in the future. Lawrence Conway, Director of Customer Services, said: “From day one we always said we would listen to town and parish councils but they need to be aware that the financial reality is such that it is a bitter pill that must be swallowed. It has helped start a debate about how important these facilities are to the community and how town and parish councils want more control over what happens to them. That’s what we will be exploring in our talks with them in the near future.” Mr Conway added: “The costs to the public purse of keeping these toilets open in 2008 are very different to what they were five years ago. It is not what we charge that has risen, but what others are charging us such as the utility companies. It costs every household in South Lakeland £16 to spend a penny and it is going up and that needs to be addressed.” A major review is expected to take place in 2009 to look at how toilets can be most effectively run in the future. It will include examining if parish and town councils want to take on their running as part of a desire by some communities to have more control, and ambitions by SLDC and the Government to give more power to them.

6.b. Bench request: Mr J Carroll had contacted the clerk with this reminder: that not long after his father died, the PC offered to contribute towards a memorial seat. He asked if is this offer was still open and was it possible to have that seat in the playground when it has been refurbished. RESOLVED: to honour the offer when the playground has been refurbished.

6.c. Slantriggs: Past and present attempts to secure building permission for this site have been and remain unsuccessful. Alastair Cameron writes: I explained to the owner as nicely as I could that she would have a struggle getting planning permission for her new-build. The site is some distance outside the development boundary and therefore wouldn’t even be considered an ‘exception site’. Also the old Slantriggs building is derelict and any re-build there would be considered a new-build. I also explained that exception sites were controlled by Government regulations, not just the National Park’s own rules. It was really very sad to have to explain this to her but I don’t think we should give anyone false-hope when clearly their application would be refused by the planners and also, if it went to appeal, by the inspector. The only possibility would be if the development boundaries were changed as a result of the forthcoming review to include Slantriggs – but I think that is a long shot!

6.d. High Furness Neighbourhood Forum The next meeting will be held on Wednesday 28th January at Hawkshead Market Hall.

7. Financial Transactions: RESOLVED:

7.a. To issue cheques: To SLDC for public conveniences (3rd quarter) £691.31

To E.ON for street lighting (November) £80.00

To R J Airey for bus shelter maintenance £68.05

To Glasdon for Mrs Dixon’s bench £402.43

To C Sargeant for clerk’s salary and expenses (including retro increase) £540.00

To SLCC for subscription £82.00

7.b. To approve accounts for signing by Chairman: Done.

8. Planning:

8.a. Planning Application: 7/2008/5632 Location: Sun Hotel, LA21 8HQ RESOLVED: to support the application. Councillors deemed the Design and Access Statement accompanying this application addressed the issues that concerned them and were confident that the visual impact on the landscape was negligible. Councillors were mindful of the permission given to Planning Application 7/2007/5697.

8.b. Planning Application: 7/2008/5637 Location: Hollin Brow, High Hollin Bank, LA21 8AG RESOLVED: to support the application. Councillors, familiar with the location, considered that the erection of the garage with gym room was sufficiently hidden from the road and its impact on the landscape was negligible. They agreed that the development would make the manoeuvre on to and off the B5285 easier for all users. Though they found some incongruity in the access to the gym and its stated need, they thought the climb would in its own right provide good exercise.

8.c. Planning Application: 7/2008/5643 Location: Boating Centre to Yewdale Beck to B5285 [Cllr David Coxon declared an interest (professional) and did not participate.] RESOLVED: to support the application. Councillors were keen to register how important they considered this development to be for all users, local and visiting, able and infirm, pedestrian or other. They acknowledged how much thought had gone into the proposals to rectify all the obvious existing problems with the route.

9. Correspondence: RESOLVED: to note that since the last meeting the clerk had received and informed councillors of the following:

CALC Training Opportunities in 2009

SLDC Register of Electors 2008/09 for Coniston Parish

CALC Circular for December/January

Friends of the Lake District December E-message

Friends of the Lake District Overhead Wires Project Newsletter 2008

Cumbria CC SERVICE X12 proposed change to improve connections

Rural Services Network Latest Weekly Rural News Digest - 20 November 2008

CALC The Gazette - Community Led Planning

Cumbria CC Cumbria Youth Support Services November Newsletter

CALC Chief Constable's Presentation to the AGM

Clerks and Councils Direct Magazine November 2008

The Clerk Magazine November 2008

10. Reports:

10.a. Coniston & Torver Housing Group: Alastair Cameron (14 December) submitted a note on the progress with the Housing Projects: Old Furness Road: After nearly 2 years of no progress I am pleased to say that the Old Furness Road scheme for 5 affordable houses for Coniston families has now made a significant ‘lurch’ forward, thanks in part to the efforts of Richard Leafe, the LDNPA chief exec and our MP Tim Farron. The National Park’s head of Property Services, Martin Curry, has managed to arrange for the Land Restoration Trust to take over the ownership of the rock face which leaves them clear to sell the land for housing to Home Housing Group. The project manager Elsa Brailey tells me that Home Housing has finance earmarked for the scheme, planning permission was granted a long time ago so it should now move forward again. It just shows how dogged determination can win in the end! Church Field: This project is also moving forward after a number of misunderstandings were sorted out. The scheme is for 11 houses and the project manager Lyn McKenzie is wanting to push the work forward in the New Year. Mairi Lock had commented that she felt the revised layout for the site looked good. She still needed to check distances between the new properties and neighboring ones but, if they are as previously discussed with the architect, then they will be acceptable. Hopefully Mairi may manage to confirm this before the end of the year. Further projects: We still need to develop an estimated 25 further affordable houses for rent to satisfy the current need, and this is of paramount importance. We are also pushing hard to get some projects for own-build on family-owned land started. I have a meeting arranged with the LDNPA solicitor to try to find a way to do this safely without potential future loss of property to the week-end home market. ‘Key Partners’: Because of the work-load involved I hit on the idea of ‘appointing’ key-partners to champion the various projects and make sure they continue to move forward. My brother will do this for Butcher Moss in Torver, Rev Mark East will do the same for the Church Room scheme, I will stick with Old Furness Road and Church Fields and Anne will progress with developing a list of villagers interested in a self build on family-owned land. Should mean things move forward better in the future.

10.b. Coniston & Torver Housing Group Meeting, 5th December 2008: Alastair Cameron (14 December) submitted the following Minutes: Those present: Anne Hall – Parish & District Councillor; Elizabeth Brown – hosted the meeting; Rev Mark East – Coniston PCC, (on behalf of landowners); Nick Monk – Coniston PCC; Lyn Mackenzie – Eden Housing Association; Alastair Cameron – Chairman of the Group; Chas Sargeant – Clerk to Coniston PC. Apologies: Mairi Lock – National Park Authority; Stuart Woodall – Day Cummins Ltd. (architect for Eden Housing); Elsa Brailey – Home Housing; Tony Whittaker, SLDC; Rosemary Hext – Coniston Parish Council; Andy Lloyd – CRHT; Judith Derbyshire – CRHT; David Coxon – Chairman, Coniston Parish Council; Hugh Cameron – Chairman, Torver Parish Council. (Adverse weather caused many of the team members to abandon their journeys to Coniston on the day.) Home Housing schemes: Old Furness Road: Considerable progress has now been made to adopt the rock face at the rear of the Old Furness Road site at Coniston. An e-mail had been received by AC from Martin Curry, head of the National Park Property Services Team, part of which is included below: The meeting expressed their thanks to Martin, Charlotte Kimber and their colleagues for the work they had done to secure this outcome. It will now be important to progress the project speedily. Elsa Brailey had been unable to attend because of the weather but AC would contact her to discuss this progress. Butcher Moss: Elsa Brailey had e-mailed AC confirming that there had been no progress with the Butcher Moss scheme at Torver. However the scheme is not in jeopardy as the site is already owned by Home Housing. AC will arrange a meeting between himself, Hugh Cameron and Elsa to discuss progress. Eden Housing Association Schemes: Church Fields Site: A presentation had been made by AC to the Coniston Parochial Church Council and several misconceptions had been cleared up. The plans were now for 11 units rather than 12. Day Cummins had re-drawn the plans to include these changes and other issues of concern raised by Mairi Lock. Mairi Lock had commented that she felt the revised layout for the site looked good. She still needed to check distances between the new properties and neighboring ones but, if they are as previously discussed with the developer, then they will be acceptable. It was hoped that a further meeting would be held between Stuart Woodall, Lyn Mackenzie, Mairi Lock, and ADC at Murley Moss to push the project forward. Church Rooms: This scheme is waiting to start. Mark East had passed details of the standing charges for the site to Lyn Mackenzie. Establishing Key Partners: To ensure that projects progress smoothly between Housing Team meetings, AC proposed that each project should have a ‘key partner’. The ‘key partners’ proposed for the current projects would be: • Church Room projects – Rev Mark East • Old Furness Road and Church Field projects – Alastair Cameron • Butcher Moss project – Hugh Cameron • Project to promote private development on family-owned land: Anne Hall to liaise with village families who were interested and draw up a list. Alastair Cameron to continue to work with planning authorities to secure a safe means to carry this out. The roll of the ‘key partner’ for each of the current and future projects would be to ‘champion’ the project and push it forward as far as they could with the planning authority, land owner and housing association to ensure good progress is maintained and to iron out problems. All appeared in agreement with this proposal. Further Sites: A view had been expressed that, once the current schemes had been completed, further development should concentrate on private build on family-owned land. However AC had calculated that a significant number of affordable homes for rent were still required and a further 25 should be the minimum target. Thereafter it may be the case that further development should concentrate on private build, but covered by strict permanent occupancy clauses or shared-equity schemes. AC had yet to review with Mairi Lock the sites previously identified as potentially suitable for housing. The Housing Authority should also be involved in this process. Once potential sites had been reviewed details would then be put into the open domain. A number of landowners had expressed an interest in private build on land they owned. At least one would be prepared to allow additional housing association development to take place as well. Action – 1. AC to review the previous list of possible sites. 2. AC and Mairi Lock to discuss the list. 3. Anne Hall to arrange a further open meeting with the community. Next Meeting: The date of the next meeting was set for Friday 13th February at 10am.

10.c. Notes on Parish Plan Meeting, 11th December 2008 Alastair Cameron (13 December) submitted the following Minutes: Those present: Lorna Cooper, Brian Birtwistle, Peter Hill, Alastair Cameron & Charles Sargeant. Guest: Julia Wilson (Action with Communities in Cumbria). Apologies: Ibby Brown, Anne Hall & Gill Irwin. 1.Alastair Cameron introduced new members of the team and, for the benefit of the guest and new members, summarised past operation of the Coniston Parish Plan Team. 2.Julia Wilson then explained how the project should progress for a Team that was planning to undertake an update of a Parish Plan. 3.JW recommended that a pre-questionnaire stage should be included where clubs, societies and other organisations are able to comment on their concerns using the ‘glad, sad and mad’ criterion that was used for the last Parish Plan. 4.AC commented that Anne Hall was planning to organise a Parish Council open meeting to review housing and other matters. JW suggested that such a meeting would be an ideal venue for receiving comments and opinions. 5.JW also recommended that the three local authorities that represent Coniston should be contacted and informed of the plans to update the Parish Plan. 6.An application for grant funding should be made to JW within the next two months to cover the cost of carrying out the Parish Plan. The maximum grant that would be awarded was £500. There was a general discussion on a few problems that still exist after the last Parish Plan exercise. The main one was the fate of the Institute. During the last Parish Plan survey the proposals for a re-design of the Institute had become the 4th issue of greatest concern to the community (after affordable housing etc). Since then a number of smaller surveys had been carried out amongst the community which strongly suggested little support for a major re-structure of the Institute. However a small group within the Institute Committee was still extremely keen to carry out such a re-structure. JW recommended that members of the Institute Committee and Parish Council should be contacted by e-mail to ask to clarify the present plans for the Institute following the surveys of opinion carried out in the village. The next meeting would be set as soon a date for the Parish Council open meeting was known. The meeting closed at 8:25.

10.d. Twinning with Solto Collina: Rosemary Park and Derek Adams gave a report on the visit to Solto Collina last month. Mr & Mrs Adams, Mr & Mrs Stoddart and Mrs Park were warmly received and excellently treated. They sought the Council's blessing on the proposed twinning with Solto Collina and on proposals for the fund raising and return match. The Italians have suggested they will send a small delegation in February/March. RESOLVED: to support.

10.e. Police Report: Nothing.

10.f. Highways Report: Cllr Kelly said current issues had already been dealt with (Items 5.d. & 5.j.).

10.e. Brief Summary of Opinions Made by Those Attending the Institute Coffee Morning on 16th August 2008: Cllrs Ms Hext and Mrs Kelly presented the summary: At the coffee morning two options were displayed for future refurbishment of the Coniston Institute. Those attending made comments which are summarized as follows. Option 1 – Renovate but make no changes to the internal structure and room layout. Keep the fixed stage. 85% in favour of Option 1. Option 2 – Renovate with major changes to the internal layout of the building. 5% in favour of Option 2. No comment either way – 10%. Lots of specific comments were made by those attending. A summary of the top four concerns is given below: 1. Do not want the present fixed stage removed – 37 comments. 2. Keep internal layout and features but improve each area – 31 comments. 3. Must be kept as a village facility. Should not include a conference centre. Other places better for this. – 22 comments. 4. Young people’s community space upstairs must not be partially or totally lost – 5 comments.

10.f. Cllr Mrs Hall: Expressed concern about adaptations been made in the Library without the proper consultation with the Committee.

11. Public questions and comments:

11.a. Mr B Bateman: Expressed concern about the design of the Museum extension: one section of the new build sticks out to partially block an existing window.

12. Date of next Meeting: RESOLVED: to be held on Monday 19th January 2009, 7.00pm in the Library.

Meeting closed at 9.30pm.

Signed: David Coxon, Chairman Date: 19th January 2009