RESOLVEN COMMUNITY COUNCIL
The Monthly Meeting of the Council was held on Thursday 3rd October 2019 at 6pm in the Community Centre.
Present/ Presennol
Mr A. Morgan – Chairman/Cadeirydd
Councillors/Cynghorwyr
Mr. T. Jones, Mr B. Roberts, Mr I. Ace, Mr A. Jones, Mr N. Francis, Mrs D. Stroud,
Ms K. Kulik
County Member/Aelod o’r Cyngor Sir
Mr Dean Lewis
Clerk/Clerc
Mrs C. Payne.
87/19 Apologies for Absence/Ymddiheuriadau am absenoldeb
Mr N. Place, Mr K. Sims, Mr G. Evans
88/19 Declarations of Interest/Datganiad o ddiddordeb personol
Councillor T. Jones declared an interest in item 80/19
89/19 County Councillor/Cynghorydd Sirol – Report and Matters Arising
The benches along the B4242 in need of repair/painting – Ongoing
Building on line of canal needs clarification – The canal line is protected by an Act Of Parliament and cannot be built on. Some building has started in Abergarwed and clarification is needed to establish and protect this line. The Builder will be invited to attend the next meeting in November along with the Neath Canal Trust and Green Infrastructure.
More Dog bins – Obtaining a map of current dog bins and will respond in due course
Speeding Traffic through Abergarwed. NPT are prepared to install double yellow lines.
Issues raised by Councillors
There is excess water running down Waterfall Road which is need of a culvert to be installed
Residential parking in Thomas Terrace
Speeding traffic through Abergarwed – Can speed bumps be installed or signs to slow down traffic
The lane between the Church hall and Lyons Place is in need of clearing
Many of the yellow and white lines in the village are in need of repainting
Lane in Glyncastle in need of cleaning
Back lane of Lyons Place and path that runs between railway track and reed beds by rugby club
90/19 Minutes of the previous Meeting/Cofnodion y Cyfarfod Diwethaf
The Minutes of the Meeting held on Thursday 5th September 2019 were accepted as a true record.
91/19 Clerk’s report and Council Matters Arising/Materion yn codi o’r cofnodion ac adroddiad y Clerc.
The Clerks report was presented and approved.
Matters Arising.
It was agreed to design a generic business card for all councillors to use
92/19 NPT consultation on Draft Rights of Way Improvement Plan –
Councillors were made aware of this consultation document
93/19 Precept for next financial year
Discussions are ongoing
94/19 Financial regulations in Standing Orders – Procurement policy
Following recommendation from the finance committee it was agreed to lower our tender limit to £25,000
Resolved to lower tender limit in Standing Orders to £25,000
95/19 5 monthly accounts for approval
the accounts were presented an approved by the council
96/19 Tarian Community Challenge –
The fund is now open for applications and it was agreed to apply for the painting of the Resolven Community Hall
97/19 Correspondence Received
Planning Application P2019/5450 – 16 Glynneath Road, Resolven SA11 4DP- 2 storey side and rear extension. No objections recorded
98/19 Sub-Committee Reports
Parks/Environment/Hall committee – The minutes of the last meeting on 16th September were accepted as a true record – The next meeting will be on 9th October 2019 at 6pm in the hall
Finance/Funding – The minutes of last meeting on 26th September 2019 were accepted as a true record. The next meeting will be on 10th October 2019 at 6pm
99/19 Chairman’s Report
Report of OVW Area Committee Meeting Held in Resolven on Wed 18th September ‘19
The meeting was once again poorly attended with 9 Cllrs. representing just 5 Community Councils. Paul Egan expressed his concern and suggested part of the problem may be his recent practice of email minutes etc. and not sending out hard copies.
In the absence of the Chairman and Vice, the chair of Resolven CC was asked to chair the meeting.
The meeting commenced with a presentation by Alison Owen Project Manager of the Community Transport Association relating to connecting communities in Wales and engagement with Community and Town Councils. The CTA is supported by the Welsh Government until 2022.
Among the matters discussed during the meeting were Cllrs Allowances (£150) which were creating some problems for claimants with some who are on benefits actually being worse-off by the system.
Also discussed was the CiLCA qualification for Clerks which so few possess. It was the general opinion that if current clerks were obliged to obtain this qualification then many would resign. It is more for future younger blood.
Cllr. Trefor Jones gave an account of his Public Service Board meeting which was very informative.
Paul Egan made a request for articles /good practice etc. for publication in the monthly information bulletin.
Also Trefor Jones suggested for a presentation in the next meeting the subject of Cyber Security which was agreed upon.
The date of the next meeting is 4th December to be held at Glynneath.
100/19 Councillors Reports
The Application to Pen Y Cymoedd Community Fund for new frontage to the Library has been approved.
The Planning Application for wind turbines at Melin Court is now in with NPT. A further letter of support will be sent from the Community Council.
Cllr A. Jones has started painting the railings around the park.
Cllr Trefor Jones attended The Digital Inclusion meeting of Neath Port Talbot Public Services Board 3/10/19 and submitted this report
The meeting was held at Taibach Fire Station and was well attended, it commenced at 9:30 am.
The meeting began with a general discussion as to how to promote the digital inclusion aspect of the PSB at various social events such as the Food Fair in Neath, where a promotional stand would be present.
- Reports:
- a) Cyber Security Project – this was now an ongoing part of crime prevention by South Wales Police, though the problem was endemic. The importance of using and training “digital heroes”, within homes, schools and organisations was viewed as a positive strategy.
- b) Third Sector Project – evidently older people are harder to contact online and some are excluded by this. Perversely, the debacle surrounding the digital roll out of replacement bus passes had increased general public awareness of the provision. It was stated that Community and Town Councils need to continue the good work of having speakers on digital inclusion at their meetings.
- c) Digital Charter – most of the main partner bodies had achieved accreditation, though Natural Resources Wales and South Wales Police are yet to enroll. It was noted that the percentage on the population not online in NPT continued to be higher than average owing the demographic structure of the population.
Not surprisingly, Neath College are very pro-active in this regard and the Colleges of Wales had received £5 million of funding to introduce Visual Recognition and Wi fi on campuses. The use of the Cloud database was enabling schemes such as “bring your own device” to become normal within the County.
- 2. Buss pass roll out – a graphic supplied to the meeting showed that the civic centre s had been inundated with enquiries following the badly time roll out by Transport for Wales, and subsequent crash of the system. Paper forms were now available from the Welsh Govt, however, the processing of these was proving difficult because of the extra documentation needed for verification e.g. passport, driving licence, and lessons needed to be learned. It was agreed that NPT would produce its own easy to follow video guide, since there were 38,000 passes in NPT alone. Notice was also drawn to the fact that older holders who needed a new photograph were facing a more difficult digital task than younger holders whose image would still suffice.
- Digital TOTEM information boards – it was reported that these would be working at bus stations before the new year.
- 101 Emergency line – SWP reported that this would henceforth be available as an online service.
