Minera Community Council Meeting held on Wednesday 16th June 2021

 Commencing at 7.15 pm and conducted by Zoom videoconference

Present: Cllrs: J Edwards (Chair), H Field (Vice-Chair), W Blaze, D Kelly, A Roberts, J Belton, W Ollerhead, T Grundy, N Jones

Clerk: Mr D Hinchliffe

Apologies: Cllrs A Fisher, H Eustace, J Marsh

Two residents of the community were present as observers, who were welcomed by the Chair and thanked for their interest in Community Council activities.

The Chair welcomed Cllr Nigel Jones to his first full Council meeting, hoping that his time with Minera Community Council would be mutually rewarding and enjoyable.

28/21               Declarations of interest

28/21.1            There were no declarations of interest.

29/21               Ratification of the minutes of the previous meeting

29.1/21            The minutes of the meeting held on 19 May 2021 were proposed as a correct record by Cllr H Field and seconded by Cllr W Blaze.         

30/21               Matters arising

30.1/21            The Clerk advised the meeting that the rocking horse head was now advertised for sale on EBay for £275, this being the purchase price plus a small sum to recover interim administration. The listing would renew automatically every fortnight and interest would be monitored.

30.2/21            As noted at the previous meeting, the new bin at the entrance to Minera quarry was still not in place, so would be chased up once more by the Clerk.

30.3/21            The Clerk advised that Scottish Power had attended to the vegetation in the Minera culvert on the promised day in early June, and had scheduled the site for re-inspection in October. The Clerk had phoned the office to thank the team personally for their prompt attention to the problem.

30.4/21            The Clerk had written to Kerry Williams at WCBC to thank him and his team for their hard work in keeping abreast of pothole issues in the Ward. Kerry had in turn returned his thanks to Minera Community Council for the kind words, which were much appreciated.

Cllr D Kelly added as a footnote to discussion of this matter that Darren Green had just retired from WCBC Highways team, and would be greatly missed for his insight and experience.

31/21               Attenuation ditches at Eversley Court

31.1/21            Cllr D Kelly had contacted WCBC subsequent to the previous Council Meeting and had engaged in dialogue with the relevant WCBC officers. He summarised the position for the benefit of the meeting.

31.2/21            It had been established that the attenuation scheme may need to be stocked with suitable aquatic and semi-aquatic plants, and that this would be a suitable issue for affected residents to take up with WCBC and the developer.

31.3/21            Cllr D Kelly added that the SUDS team at WCBC had reviewed the construction of the ditches subsequent to his request that they do so, and had established that the ditch level needed adjusting to marry with the outflow pipe. Work was in hand to correct this.

31.4/21            Cllr D Kelly concluded by noting that residents ought to contact the management company who would be responsible for the maintenance of the attenuation scheme for details of the service which they would be purchasing.

The Chair invited the attending residents to add any comments of their own. It was duly noted that one ditch was currently dry due to a lack of recent rainfall, but otherwise the area was as discussed at the previous meeting.

32/21               Police report

32.1/21            The Clerk advised the meeting that PCSO Lydia Edwards had been in touch to apologise that no PCSO was available to attend the meeting, but that she would be happy to receive details of any issues for her attention arising in the meeting.

The Chair asked the Clerk to request that North Wales Police provide a brief report for the meeting in unable to attend, and to confirm whether a minimum quarterly attendance in person at meetings was the service standard being observed by NWP.

33/21               Minera Community Council Chair’s report

The Chair had circulated his report, and raised two issues from it for further discussion:

33.1/21            The condition of the concrete footpaths in front of the Min y Grug old persons’ bungalows was dangerous and needed urgent attention. One resident had already contacted WCBC about this and the Chair asked the Clerk to raise the issue with WCBC Housing on behalf of Minera Community Council, copying in Cllr D Kelly.

33.2/21            A resident had complained about inconvenience caused by temporary traffic lights on Gwernygaseg Road. A road closure notice would have caused less disruption, but there was a suggestion that erecting lights was easier in terms of obtaining permission and authorising paperwork.

34/21               County Borough Councillor’s report

Cllr D Kelly briefly commented:

34.1/21            The previously reported incident of fly tipping at Tomlinson’s had again been raised by a resident. The dumped items were on private land and therefore not addressable by WCBC. There was additionally speculation about the intentions of new owners of the site, but as yet no certain details of whether a sale had been accomplished were available.

34.2/21            The open issue of resuming youth outreach activities in Minera had been pursued with the relevant officers at WCBC. Cllr D Kelly had established that outreach staff were being recruited and a draft SLA for Minera was to be drafted, but that no commitment could be made to begin activities before September.

Following a short discussion, the Chair asked the Clerk to make contact with the Youth Service on behalf of Minera Community Council with a view to having a quotation based on four hours per week of MUGA-based activities as soon as possible, with a proposal to be tabled at the next Projects Meeting on 1 July.

35/21               School Governor’s report

35.1/21            Cllr W Ollerhead commented that the Governors had not met since the previous Council Meeting. He had, however, confirmed that the Headmaster was keen to engage the children in the formal opening of Minera play area on either 9 or 16 July. The school was happy to deal with any paperwork relating to photography and safeguarding relating to the presence of children at the event.

Following a short discussion, the Chair asked Cllr W Ollerhead to propose 9 July in the afternoon for the event, and asked the Clerk to add the arrangements for the event to the agenda for the next Projects Meeting.

35.2/21            The upcoming vacant position for a second School Governor was discussed. The issue would be added to the agenda of the next Council Meeting, and would be suitably publicised on the website.

Susanne Allcroft now joined the meeting.

36/21               Community Agent’s report

Susanne’s report had been circulated and was taken as read. She added a few observations around the main topics:

36.1/21            There had been a large increase in referrals in the month, which was pleasing. There were still few referrals coming from Five Crosses, however, but Dragon Dinners were now covering this part of the ward, and would be dropping off leaflets to publicise the Agent’s service.

36.2/21            A grant of £500 had been secured to fund the re-start of the Tuesday meetings at the Tyn-y-Capel. The meetings were much appreciated and had been greatly missed by all attendees.

36.3/21            One iPad was still in hand to be issued, with 6 units now in use. Other Community Agents were now getting behind the service following good publicity generated for its benefits using Facebook. One user had done so well with her device that her story had been used by WCBC to generate a news item with ITV news. Filming had been completed and a broadcast date was now awaited.

36.4/21            A Meet the Agents session hosted by WCBC had featured only 7 of the 18 Agents in post. It had nevertheless been useful, and activities such as walks, art sessions and IT training were now being discussed.

The Chair once again thanked Susanne for her excellent work in the Minera communities, and she left the meeting.

37/21               Correspondence

The Clerk had circulated summaries of correspondence throughout the month. Two items were discussed at further length:

37.1/21            Cllr D Kelly asked the Clerk to clarify the legal position which had been enacted with respect to Council meetings. The Clerk responded to advise that face to face meetings were set to re-start within overall Covid-19 guidelines. The law would now require, however, that any face to face meeting must have a facility for any attendee to be present virtually if desired. The law stated that a minimum of ‘hearing and being able to be heard’ would be required.

37.2/21            Cllr W Blaze asked the Clerk if any paperwork was routinely received by Minera Community Council in support of monthly playground inspections by WCBC. The Clerk advised the meeting that such reports were not received, although the annual safety inspection reports were, and were routinely copied to all Councillors for information and any necessary action.

The Clerk undertook to contact WCBC to organise receipt of the monthly reports in future. These would be checked on receipt and any issues of importance circulated for attention.

38/21               Grants and donations          

38.1/21            An email had been received from Wrexham Community Broadcasting, adding requested details of the organisation’s commercial income streams. Following a brief discussion, it was decided not to offer financial support at the current time.

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39/21               Financial matters

39.1/21            Following a brief recital by the Clerk of the financial activities since the previous Council meeting, the financial report was proposed for approval by Cllr W Blaze and seconded by Cllr J Belton.

39.2/21            The Clerk provided a summary of work done since the previous meeting to clarify the terms and coverage offered by the two tendering entities for the insurance contract for the year to 31 May 2022. After a brief discussion to confirm that both tenders fully covered the insurance requirements of Minera Community Council Cllr H Field proposed and Cllr J Belton seconded a proposal that the insurance contract for 2021/22 be placed with BHIB.

39.3/21            The schedule of payments, listed below, was proposed for approval by Cllr H Field and seconded by Cllr W Blaze.