October 2023

Minutes of a hybrid Monthly Meeting of Llangunnor Community Council held at Babell Zion Newydd at 6.30pm on Thursday 19th October 2023

PRESENT: Councillor Jennifer Slate (Chair), Geraint Bevan, Paul Totterdale, Elwyn Williams(*), Joan Evans, Stewart Bowen(*), Matthew Williams, Charlie Evans(*), Lee Whatley(*) and Ally Wadeward(*) joined at 8.05pm

APOLOGIES: Councillor Graham Slate

Also present Howard Davies (Clerk) and one member of the public present Robin Griffiths(*)
(*) joined remotely

Elwyn Williams

I would like to thank fellow councillors and the clerk who had attended and helped out at the Summer Event. The efforts of those persons helped to make the event a success. Given the weather and the last-minute decisions that had to be made to move the event to the school this put additional pressure on all those involved and meant having to cancel some activities and find replacement activities at short notice. Thank you to everyone who pulled together to make sure the event went ahead. I also want to report on the community children's workshops held in the summer. Cllr. Ally Wadeward undertook two craft workshops and the Chair, Cllr Jenny Slate, undertook two cupcake decorating classes which were both well attended. The Chair wished to let other councillors know that these events are not designed to make a profit but to promote engagement within the community. As such they were a success with requests for similar workshops in the future. It should also be noted that Cllrs Wadeward and Slate provided their time freely and provided materials at no cost to the council. In future if more councillors would be able to give some time we could provide more of these workshops. The Chair wished to thank Cllr Ally Wadeward for both organising the events and her support at both. I am sure you have all seen that works are ongoing in the park to move the substation and install the electricity to the park. The work is proceeding quickly and all being well should be installed in readiness for the Christmas Tree this year.

I dropped in to speak to the new owner of Brynmeurig Stores this week. He is very keen to improve the Shop and is currently waiting for Evri and Lottery to be installed. He wanted to offer support to the Council in any upcoming events. A Halloween 'Dress your House' competition has been launched with prizes being given from the Chair's Fund.

None

It was agreed and RESOLVED to approve the minutes of the monthly Council Meeting held on the 21st of September 2023 (Minute 10/23-5)

The clerk provided a brief update on the following issues:
i) Subcontractors working for National Grid are making good progress with installing an electricity supply to the park and relocating the substation, The Clerk advised that he had approached an energy broker recommended by One Voice Wales to source a competitively priced electricity contract for the park, and this should be to hand next week. The supply will be energised next week, and the area over the trench at the entrance will be tarmacked.
ii) Dynevor Trees have been instructed to carry out tree works, and ground works as per their quotes which were approved last month. It is likely that the ground works will not now be commenced until Spring, however the tree works will be undertaken hopefully over the next few weeks, subject to workload and weather conditions.
iii) Orders have been placed with Dragon Play to carry out repairs to the park equipment, and provision of a new mulch surface to the upper children’s play area, to replace the current grassed areas, and associated repairs. The artificial grass will remain.
iv) Outage of a streetlight near to Parc Y Swn, Blaengwastod Road has been reported to Carmarthenshire County Council.
v) The Architect will have the planning permission submission for the installation of CCTV at the park, ready to be sent in by the middle of next week. His costs as agreed £750, and there will no planning fees to pay as it is a “community project” which was welcome news.
vi) He had requested an updated quote from Dyfed Alarms for the CCTV given the last quote was dated Feb 23 and had now expired.
vii) Estimates for the provision of railings at the skateboard park, and monumental stone had been received and circulated.
viii) Met with Andrew Davies from Roman Solutions at the park on Thursday afternoon, and quotes for the supply of benches within the upper toddler area have been received and circulated to all Councillors.
ix) Paul Clever our Tree Consultant will attend shortly to undertake the biannual tree inspection which will be due by year end. As part of this inspection, he will survey the boundary hedge near to the skateboard park and across to the Lewis Morris Drive entrance to confirm ownership of the trees along this stretch, which will enable us to give specific advice to our neighbours on who is responsible for the management of overhanging tree branches on their side of the hedge, as currently we have three houseowners claiming it is our responsibility. This survey will give us a definitive document confirming ownership and responsibilities for the tree management along this boundary hedge especially on our neighbours’ side, as the number of complaints on this aspect is steadily increasing.

i) Finance

A further meeting will be scheduled shortly

Noted the minutes of the meeting which took place on the 25th of July have been circulated electronically and uploaded to our web page. A further meeting will be arranged shortly

Last meeting took place on the 7th of June. No recent meetings

Cllr Whatley who had agreed to Chair a “task and finish group” along with Cllrs J Slate, and C Evans to cover off specific areas of “The Finance and Governance Toolkit” that overlap with the responsibilities of this Committee, was asked by his fellow Councillors to circulate dates as to his availability to move this review forward, as their attempts to contact him had been unsuccessful

Meeting of the Events Committee took place on the 9th of October where minutes are being finalised and will be circulated this evening. The following proposal was received from the Committee and recommended for approval by full Council. To open a separate bank account for the revenue and costs associated with the running of Council Events to pass through, thereby maintaining a separate record for ease of reconciliation. After a robust discussion the proposal was carried, and the clerk instructed to contact our bankers Barclays to open a separate Events Account. (Minute 10/23 -07d)

At the Chair’s discretion she wished to seek the views of the Council, on seeking sponsorship from local businesses to sponsor one of the three trees that we are looking to erect this year, at the park entrance for the first time ever, and the usual sites at Towy Garage roundabout, and Nantycaws village. It was felt that these three locations offered prime advertising opportunities for local businesses to promote their businesses. An initial figure of £250 per site was suggested. Following a robust discussion, most of the Councillors thought it was a good idea and worth pursuing to see what the take up would be amongst the local business community. Additionally, sponsorship would allow us to recoup some of costs incurred in putting on the Christmas lights event. It was agreed that the Chair proceed to write to a selection of our local businesses. (Minute 10/12–7) It was agreed that the package would include a banner to promote their business, the cost of which would be paid for by the Council.

:: Cllr C Evans left the meeting at 7.05pm and rejoined from home at 7.35pm ::

Riverside Association -

One Voice Wales - Cllr Whatley had attended both the recent Area meeting and the Innovative Conference at Builth Wells. Reports to follow. He further advised that the AGM had to be cancelled due to lack of members attending in person, and will now be re arranged for a future date to be delivered virtually

School Governors - No meetings had taken place

Town Forum - No meetings had taken place

Training -

The Chair went through a detailed spreadsheet for the event and was pleased to report that the event had come in within budget, generating a healthy profit of £859.67. Please see attached Appendix 1 at bottom of minutes for full details.

:: Cllr Ally Wadeward joined the meeting virtually at 8.05pm ::

After a short discussion it was agreed to go for the dark brown colour, with a tinge of red from the samples provided for the mulch surface to be applied to the upper play area. (Minute 10/23–10)

The clerk reminded Councillors that he had circulated The Independent Remuneration Draft Annual Report – February, being a consultative document, where feedback from Councillors would be most welcome, and this would need to be received before the closing date of December 8th 2023

Cllr Whatley gave a detailed report of his attendance at the recent One Voice Wales Area meeting, and the Innovative Practice Conference. For further information on The Innovative Practice Conference please see Appendix 2 attached

The draft CCTV policy drafted by the clerk was discussed at length. The clerk emphasised that he had followed the format of policies drafted by other local Community Councils, and it had also been scrutinised by Carmarthenshire County Council as part of our Sustainable Community Grant. And had been accepted without further comment

He advised that this was a fluid document, and would be populated with further information if required, prior to commissioning, as it became available from our installer Dyfed Alarms. As a small number of Councillors had some points that they sought clarification on the Chair suggested that these be emailed to the clerk, so that he could respond to them, and the item be relisted on the Agenda for our November meeting for adoption.

Cllr D E Williams declared an interest as his brother is handyman

It was Resolved to approve with (Minute 10/23–14)

A) Council is requested to consider and approve the following items of expenditure:

Extra Meetings
Events Committee - 9th October 2023

1 X £50 = £50 this equates to £40.00 after tax. (Extra meetings - @ £50 meeting – salary includes 11 meetings + AGM, all others treated as extra meetings over 4 hours will be paid at £100. (Minute 0920-F4)

B) Council to note receipt of income: None

The following correspondence be noted/action taken:

Cllr Williams advised that October been relatively quiet to date, but his diary for the final week of October had been filled up with Council meetings, with numerous meetings, some of which he would not be able to attend due to clashes. He advised that he had been approached by a small number of residents about the rumours circulating regarding the future use of Ty Penbryn and was pleased that the owners had that evening provided a statement via Facebook, and local press as to their future to convert the building into a high standard conference centre, which would also be available for corporate retreat

• Cllr Bevan asked if we had received any update from Carmarthenshire County Council re the proposed feasibility study on creating a new controlled exit out of Charlie’s car park onto Pensarn Road. The Clerk advised that he had recently spoken with C. Cllr Edward Thomas Cabinet Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, who informed him that Ainsley Williams who was overseeing the feasibility study, and with whom we had met with as a group at County Hall last year, had been away on annual leave and he could catch up with him on his return, and then advise us of the present position here.
Action point: The Clerk agreed to keep on short diary to ensure that a timely update is received on this proposal. Additionally, he asked The Clerk to report a tree that had fallen into the river Tywi behind the Howard’s Garage, on the station side of the river, however he was unsure of the ownership of this strip of land that the tree stood on. It was suggested that we approach the County Council in the first instance. Action point: Clerk agreed to report the matter to Carmarthenshire County Council in the first instance, and should it not be within their field of responsibility, asking them to point us to appropriate authority • Cllr Whatley asked if the Council were going to take part in the Daffodil planting initiative this year. The Chair was pleased to advise yes, and arrangements were in hand. Cllr Wadeward advised that it had been raised at a recent PTA meeting, where the Headmaster was present, and he has agreed in principle to help. He further asked if we could install a key press at the park, to save on the cost of cutting new duplicate keys. Clerk advised that there were sufficient keys now in circulation, where keys are held by Cllrs Slate, Diane Evans, and the clerk in addition to Carmarthenshire County Council ground staff, National Grid and Dragon Play have their own locks for the gate chains. Given the recent problems encountered with digital locks for the toilet, and that there were sufficient keys now in circulation he did not see the need for the provision of a key press at this current moment in time
• Cllr Wadeward wished to update the Council on the following points: i) The School would be available free of charge for refreshments after the Christmas Lights Switch on scheduled for the 29th of November. ii) Given the change of venue, which was forced upon us, as with increased numbers attending last year, it was felt for health and safety reasons that we seek a larger local venue, as we have outgrown the number of people that Babell could accommodate comfortably. It was suggested and agreed that a letter to be sent to Babell explaining the rationale for the planned move to the school and thanking them for their fantastic support of this event in previous years. iii) The PTA had discussed our offer to help them with a Bingo fundraising evening to take place around next Easter, where they would run the event, and retain all profits, and we would help, and possibly consider some prize money.
• Cllr C Evans wished to echo the clarity of the recent press and media announcement regarding the future of Ty Penbryn, as he and some other Councillors had been asked about its future in view of recent rumours that had been circulating locally

The next meeting will be held on Thursday 16th November at Babell Zion Newydd

Every effort has been made to check the above for accuracy however if you find a mistake please contact us.