Minutes of an Extraordinary Meeting Of Gaydon Parish Council Held at Gaydon Village Hall, Gaydon, Warwickshire On Monday 15th July 2019 At 9.00pm

PRESENT: Parish Councillors: CLLR DAVIES (Chair), CLLR BOURNE, CLLR CLAXTON, CLLR HILL, CLL LEADBETTER, CLLR LEWIS and CLLR MIDDLEDITCH

IN ATTENDANCE: Eleven members of the publicand MR I WILSON (Clerk).

Apologies

No apologies were received

Declarations of interests and consideration of dispensation requests

There were no declarations of interest

Change of Use Planning Application – Village Field

CLLR Lewis reported that Stratford District Council (SDC) planners following their consultation on the application had asked that the parish council carry out ecological and archaeological surveys on the field. Planners had suggested that if these surveys were carried out over the summer the current application could continue. However, if there were no plans to carry these out within the next six months then withdrawing and resubmitting the application was recommended.

Discussions with planners had also identified that the existing application could be modified so that it did not specify play equipment, but merely the area being considered for recreational use. Consultation could then be carried out once the application had been considered on the type of equipment to include

It was agreed, with five parish councillors voting in favour, that the parish council would continue with the existing application and would therefore need to consider quotes already received from suppliers to carry out the ecological survey.

Ecological Survey

Three quotes to carry out an ecological survey which would meet SDC planners requirement had been received. The most expensive quote was for £936 and the cheapest was for £350 from The Habitat Biodiversity Audit Partnership (HBA), part of Warwickshire Wildlife Trust. The HBA survey would form part of the on-going biodiversity survey work this not for profit organisation was carry out for SDC.

Funding for Ecological Survey

The current budget included a reserve of £1961 for playground works and it was agreed that £350 from this would be used to fund the survey, which would be carried out by HBA as soon as possible.

Archaeological Survey

CLLR LEWIS had looked at some initial costings for the archaeological survey required by SDC planners to continue with the current application, the lowest price was around £900. The meeting discussed whether a geophysical survey should be included at this stage.

It was agreed that quotes for three archaeological surveys would be sought and considered for the next parish council meeting in August. This would include a quote from the Warwickshire County archaeology team, as suggested by planners.

Funding for Archaeological Surveys

The meeting heard that there wasn’t any money earmarked in the agreed budget, including reserves, for these surveys. Several grant funding opportunities were suggested by councillors and It was agreed that grant funding opportunities would be examined to cover the archaeological surveys. It was also agreed that the chair and clerk would also seek a face to face meeting with Stratford District Council to clarify whether s106 monies could be used for the surveys required by planners

Meeting Closed 9:50 pm