Manorbier.com
Meeting on Tuesday 3rd September 2002
Data Protection Act
The council decided, after much deliberation, to register under the data protection act after receiving advise from PCC with the clerk being the data controller. Suggestions from some councillors that there should be a £50 fee to access this facility and the proposal by Cllr. Morgan that the fee should be based on the time spent by the clerk gathering the information was rejected by Cllr. Calver as being excessive and a similar fee to that charged by PCC £10 should be adopted.
Planning Applications
Four planning applications were received and the council voiced approval for all applications.
Cllr. Calver declared an interest in two of the applications and did not take part in the discussions. He did however raise concerns regarding the plans received by the Community Council for the Glan-yr-Mor application in that they differed from the plans he had inspected at the National Park office. Cllr. Thompson declared that this did not matter as they were only deliberating on the plans received. He also voiced his concern that the Community Council did not receive information on the National Parks planning decisions. At which point Cllr. Thompson replied " it was no concern to us" and it was up to the applicant to query decisions to which Cllr. Calver replied that surely we have a right and duty to comment on National Park decisions as the Council is representing the entire population of the ward.
Parking in Fields outside Celtic Haven
Cllr. Meyrick informed the Council that parking had taken place in the field outside the Celtic Haven complex and Cllr. Thompson proposed that the National Park be informed and asked to enforce the restrictions on the car parking. Cllr. Calver reminded the council that at the previous meeting the council had supported the application for recycling facilities to provided at the complex, which would be available to members of the public, without having seen the location for the facilities. Cllr. Thompson intimated that the council had not approved the application just raised no objection which Cllr. Calver suggested was exactly the same.
Satellite Dishes
A letter was received from Cathy Milner regarding the requirement of planning permission for the siting of satellite dishes and that it would be more appropriate to lobby Elected Politicians. Cllr. Calver proposed that a letter be sent to the Westminster member Nicholas Ainger and the WAG member Christine Gwyther.
New Access Road at 36 Dewing Avenue
Correspondence was received from the secretary of the Skrinkle Tenants and Residents Association ( STAR), regarding the controversial decision by the community council, to support the application by Mr. John, 36 Dewing Avenue, Manorbier, to apply for a new roadway to his house. The view of STAR had been requested by the community council after County Councillor Griffiths put forward the scheme under Any Other Business at the council meeting of 3rd July 2002. STAR had already sent a letter on the issue on the 27th June 2002 to PCC raising concerns regarding a dropped kerb and driveway being constructed to 36 Dewing Avenue and had received assurances over the phone from the Housing Department that this would not be considered. The Association referred the community council to a letter sent to Mr. Barrie Davies, Pembrokeshire County Council on the issue. At this point Cllr. Morgan suggested that as the scheme was now abandoned there was no need to read out the letter and was supported by Cllr. Thompson and the chairperson Ms Beynon. Eventually after much discussion the letters were read out thereby allowing all council members to be fully informed.
Contents of Letter
The tenants association, after consulting its members in the area surrounding the proposed application, was vehemently opposed to the application on the grounds of safety, loss of green amenity area and the associations long term aim for this area starting with a jubilee garden and the promise from Pembrokeshire County Council to create a small woodland garden. Whilst being deeply sympathetic to Mrs. John it felt that Mr. John was using his wife's illness in a despicable manner to obtain his own ends. Mr. John had tried to mislead everyone to try and get this facility put in place after stating that the SPDC had given him permission to cross the area with a caravan, ( which upon investigation turned out to be permission to cross it once with a caravan ). The association felt that Mr. John was using his wife's illness to achieve his aims of gaining a private driveway to his home, (probably paid for by the taxpayer) and at no time has the Pembrokeshire County Councillor ( Cllr. Griffiths ) consulted with STAR on the issue to see how nearby residents felt about the proposal and indeed it is felt that our Pembrokeshire County Councillor was trying to railroad this proposal through as Mr. John is a long time friend of hers ( ...... the old pals act! ) . The association would also ask the Community Council to address the issue of Mr. John crossing the amenity area unaccompanied quite unnecessarily and supplied photographs as evidence.
Chairperson Ms Beynon queried the validity of the association officer that had signed letter on behalf of the association and her surprise that a meeting had taken place to discuss the issue. Stating that there were a hundred houses on the estate and that only eleven residents had signed the petition.
Confusion arose after a letter was received from Pembrokeshire County Council that the project was still in being and that it was surprised that the Council were supporting the proposal after being informed by an official that Cllr. Calver purporting to represent the Community Council had objected to the scheme. Cllr. Calver asked for a letter to be sent to the Council to name the official as he always stresses that he was acting as a community councillor and not on behalf of the community council which is his right. His only part was to contact the Council because of requests made by local residents.
Footpath to School from Jameston
Correspondence was received from Mr. Tony Wales in answer to a letter from the Community Council with referring to donating land for the construction of a footpath from Jameston to the Manorbier village school.
Mr. Wales launched a scathing attack on the community council over the lack of progress made over the non-application under the safe routes to school scheme. He was extremely concerned that he was prevented from contributing to a debate at the previous meeting when Cllr. Griffiths proposed that a letter be sent to Mr. Wales to inquire if he would be prepared to donate a strip of his land for a safe route similar to the donation by Cllr. Thompson. Mr. Wales suggested that local democracy was being stifled by his being precluded from taking part and asked the community council to advise him if his rights under the Human Rights Act had been infringed under article 10 freedom of expression. He requested that a copy of a letter sent to Councillor Griffiths of the 8th of August which clearly set out his position on the donation of land be read out.
This letter of 8th August 2002 by Mr. Wales together with photographs is reproduced on another page and can be viewed by following the link here.
Letter Link
The letter and photographs are by kind permission of Mr. Wales.
After the letter had been read out Cllr. Thompson stated that she wanted a copy of this letter to County Councillor Griffiths as this was the first she new of its existence. Cllr. Calver also asked for a copy as his name had been mentioned. Cllr. Calver queried Cllr. Thompson's involvement in the magnanimous gesture as he understood the application for the creation of the footpath and a proposed future housing development had been made by Pembrokeshire County Council to the National Park. Cllr. Thompson replied that neither she or Mr. Thompson had been involved in the application. Concern was raised regarding possible encroachment on Penuel Chapel land to which Cllr. Thompson said that as far as she was aware this was not the case. Councillor Calver queried whether Mrs. Thompson should declare an interest to which she agreed and he then suggested that it may be appropriate for her to leave the room.
Cllr. Calver reiterated his previous concerns that the provision of a safe access to the school should be part of a comprehensive scheme which included a car parking area near the school. He urged caution on this as he had received a copy of a letter which had been sent to the National Park from residents in the area surrounding the proposed housing development site indicating their total opposition to the proposed development. Mention was also made in the letter that the owner already had access at the Bier Cross end of the field and used this entry for dumping rubbish, which was periodically bull dozed over to hide it.
The local residents could possibly be persuaded that a parking area would be an alternative which would alleviate the problem of parking near the school.
Notification to Landowners Requesting possible donation of Land between Jameston and Manorbier School
The clerk informed the Community Council that all the landowners had been sent letters regarding the donation of land. Cllr. Calver suggested that they should be all treated equally into possible benefits e.g. access to land for future housing development. At this point the National Park supplying information on decisions regarding planning applications was again raised. The clerk now informed the council that she did in fact periodically receive information from the National Park in bulk form. When asked by Cllr. Calver what happened to them she said that the decisions were read out to which Cllr. Calver replied that he had been to all council meetings and he could not recollect ever hearing the decisions imparted to the council to which Cllr. Meyrick agreed.
Public Participation in Meetings
The chairperson, Ms Beynon, addressed the suggestion by Mr. Wales in his letter that she was being controlled and stated this was not the case and then stated that "when he was elected he could participate in debates", however the reason why he was excluded from taking part in the meeting was because if she had allowed him to speak she would have had to allow Mr. Holmes, who also attended the meeting, to speak on the access to 36 Dewing Avenue.
It was pointed out to Ms Beynon that Cllr. Morgan had advised her of the chairperson's prerogative to allow members of the public to speak at a meeting.