MPC March Minutes

Present: Chairman Lord Marlesford, Vice Chairman Roger Waterfall, Cllr Diana Howard, Cllr Sam Catling, Cllr Heather McConville, Cllr Lesley Bensley & Cllr Richard Cooper
In Attendance: SCC Stephen Burroughes, ESC Carol Poulter, 1 member of the public and the Clerk.

1. Apologies for Absence

None

2. Declaration of Interests

None

3. Minutes of Meeting Held on 10th January 2021

The minutes were approved correct by the council and will be signed by the Chairman, proposed Cllr Catling, seconded Cllr Howard.

4. Matters Arising from the Minutes

B-17 Solar Farm, Old Airfield, Parham. To be dealt with later in the agenda. Professor Howard Wheater, the member of the public present, would like to inform the Parish Council that he has sent a letter of objection to ESC. His property sits opposite the proposed solar farm which will have a substantial visible impact as it will cover 200 acres of agricultural land and most of the airfield. The solar panels would sit 3 mtrs high and will change the character of the landscape immensely. Many are fond of the airfield as a museum and it would therefore be a significant loss. He has been advised that the whole area would be surrounded by a hedge, however this is not shown on the planning application. It will be a major deprivation to that part of the village and will have a very large impact. The Chairman thanked the member of public for his input.
Quiet Lanes – Marlesford. Cllr Waterfall informed that 6 single tracked, unclassified roads have been put forward as Quiet Lanes, a leaflet advising the village of this has been distributed to all households. It is apparent that the village does not want more signs/notices along the road side. However, the signs will be fitted to existing posts and SCC will be funding this. The Chairman thanked Cllr Waterfall for progressing the quiet lanes proposal so far and hopes that Keepers Lane will also be included.
Community Infrastructure Levy. The Chairman advised that the Parish Council should have received CIL money further to the development which was carried out at the Timber Yard, Marlesford. The Clerk will contact ESC to investigate. Currently the PC holds £3,105.76 CIL money. Could the PC consider using CIL money to help pay for repair works to the crumbling wall in the churchyard? The Chairman declared an interest in the Church. The wall is part of a listed building and is expected to be repaired. Cllr Waterfall advised that church funds cannot be used for the repairs. The Parish Council can expect a request from the PCC.

5. To Co-opt a New Member onto the Parish Council

The Chairman welcomed the application of Richard Cooper who has already applied for the vacancy, no other applications have been received. He will be a good asset and has already done a tireless amount of work regarding Sizewell/park & ride/4 village bypass. Proposed Cllr Waterfall seconded Lord Marlesford and was agreed by all to Co-opt Richard Cooper onto the Parish Council.

6. Finance

Statement of Accounts. Bank balances as at 26th March 2021, Barclays Community Account £5,581.96 (inc. £3105.76 CIL money), Business Premium Account £839.55. The statement of accounts was approved by all and will be signed by the Chairman.
Clerks Pay & Expenses – Invoices to pay Clerks pay £468.10, P30 £19.40 and expenses half year working from home allowance £100.00
Thank You letter received from the Citizens Advice Bureau This has been received, thanking for the recent donation of £100 which the PC had given to the CAB.
Printing costs for the Quiet Lanes leaflets. £36.50 due to be paid to PFP Print.
Hire of Community Centre. £60 due to be paid to Marlesford Community Centre. All of the above payments were approved, proposed Cllr Howard seconded Cllr McConville.

7. To Receive Reports from East Suffolk District Councillor Carol Poulter & Suffolk County Councillor Stephen Burroughes

ESC Cllr Carol Poulter report has been forward to all. She added that further to the current pandemic things are starting to look better and there is a good record of people who have been vaccinated, cases are down in Suffolk. ESC has been doing a huge amount for the vulnerable and lonely during the pandemic. She advised that she is the Chair person for the Community Partnership in this area and she invites a representative from Marlesford. So far the partnership has helped young people dealing with social isolation, due to lack of public transport and have therefore given money towards taxi services. Outreach provision has been given to young people. Do let Cllr Poulter know is there is a need for funding in Marlesford.

SCC Cllr Stephen Burroughes report has been forward to all. He welcomed new Councillor Cooper, the work he has done so far relating to Sizewell has been outstanding, Cllr Cooper will be a huge asset to Marlesford PC. SCC is now in a period of purdah with elections due to take place on 6th May. He passed on his thanks to all over the last 4 years and he is hopeful at being re-elected for the next 4 years. The vaccination process in Suffolk has been extremely successful. Government will not extend the legislation for virtual meetings, which must end on 7th May. Meetings after this must resume back to face to face and be socially distanced.

The new SCC financial year will see an extra £2mil added to the budget for drainage & flooding issues. This will help to rectify problems which the land owners and Environment Agency have been faced with. All schools went back on 8th March and there have been no incidents of Covid in schools.

8. Sizewell C - To Include Four Village Bypass (SEGway) & Proposals for Park and Ride at Wickham Market

The Chairman informed the Council that on 19 March he had sat in on a (virtual) meeting between Dr Dan Poulter MP and Baroness Vere the Roads Minister, on the need for urgent improvement to the A12 (including re-trunking from Ipswich to Lowestoft). The meeting had been disappointing as the minister had claimed there was no support for the four Village Bypass (SEGWAY) from either the Suffolk County Council or Transport East. Councillor Poulter reported that Dr Poulter had subsequently held a meeting with the Leader of the County Council at which some prospects for change had emerged. The Chairman said that the good news was that Dr Poulter had been elected by his fellow MPs as the parliamentary ambassador to Transport East.

Cllr Cooper gave his report as follows; There are a number of issues on which to update you relating to the two major Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs) that are currently going through the planning process (Development Consent Orders -DCOs). These are the Scottish Power Renewables (SPR) proposals for East Anglia 1 North and East Anglia 2 windfarms and their substations at Friston, and the EDF proposals for Sizewell C nuclear power station.

Scottish Power - We are nearing the end of the Examination by Planning Inspectorate (PINS). The Examination ends on 6th April. It has taken the allowed 6 months. PINS has 3 months to put its decision together and then pass its recommendation to the Secretary of State (BEIS). The SoS then has 3 months to accept or reject PINS recommendation. This is exactly the process that will be followed for Sizewell C (SZC)

There has been a huge amount of opposition to the onshore proposals for a substation at Friston, not only is it considered to be a massive blot on the rural landscape on the edge of Friston, but this application is seen as a Trojan horse for further transformers, which are not part of the current applications, but which could be located on the same site. I have taken part in a number of hearings and traffic issues and Marlesford Bridge have climbed up the agenda.

I have pushed the issue of cumulative impact of the SPR and SZC projects potentially coinciding. HGV movements for the two projects could more than double the current A12 HGV movements to over 2,000 per day.
Road safety has been raised as a major issue on what the Examiners now recognise is an unimproved stretch of the A12. We have now extracted from SPR some footpath improvements on the northern side of the A12 between Bell Lane and Marlesford Road – we have yet to see the plans.
SPR have not yet decided which port they will use to bring in the Abnormal Indivisible Loads (AILs). They could potentially use Lowestoft (their preference) or Felixstowe. Marlesford Bridge only becomes an issue if they use Felixstowe for the 288t transformers. If Felixstowe is the choice then there would be no actual works to the bridge, but SPR would bring in a temporary bridge deck which (under present proposals) would be assembled on the Kenyon’s meadow and then craned into place on the existing bridge for each particular AIL.

Sizewell C

The SZC Examination is just over 6 months behind Scottish Power’s. On 23rd March the Preliminary Meeting opened. This is not the start of the Examination itself, but a procedural meeting to check that they have picked up all the issues. The 6 months for the Examination start from the end of the Preliminary Meeting period on 15th April. At the meeting on 23rd I, along with Farnham and Stratford St Andrew pressed the Examining Authority (ExA) to give a full day to the examination of the Two Village Bypass proposals. This is where we will be able to make our arguments about the current design and the need for a Four Village Bypass.
We have commissioned and received a landscape and visual impact assessment of the Southern Park and Ride (SP&R) (paid for by Marlesford, Hacheston, Wickham Market and Campsea Ashe). It is technical but highlights a number of issues on visibility and impact within the landscape and picks up on night-time impacts. We will continue to argue that it is in the wrong place, but as they have no alternative site, we are probably going to have to argue for the best mitigation we can get. We have already achieved reinstatement of a screening bund for the entire length of the NW side of the SP&R.
We have been working closely with Wickham Market and other parishes on how to address traffic issues through WM when the SP&R opens. There is no satisfactory solution and the B1078 between BorderCott Lane and Rackham’s Bridge is going to be terribly congested. EDF have come forward with some proposals for slowing traffic down(!) and improving safety.

Related to this, it is obviously important that as little SZC traffic as possible uses the B1078. We have got commitments from EDF on roadside signage and HGV monitoring – we are trying to extend the monitoring to LGVs as well. Little Glemham and Marlesford have been working with EDF and Suffolk County Council (SCC) to design A12 mitigation measures to cover the eventuality that we don’t have a Four Village Bypass by the time SZC starts. We have made reasonably good progress and EDF are indicating that they accept our proposals. SCC will secure the mitigation through a s106 or s278 agreement. Proposals sent with e mail.

The big issue as far as the DCO is concerned is the changes to their application that EDF proposed in Nov./Dec. 2020 and submitted to PINS in January. Primarily the changes try to address the freight issues and look to increase the amount of construction materials transported by sea and rail. Many people are skeptical that EDF will be able to implement the changes, but in their “best case” HGV movements per day drop by 300 (1,000 down to 700 per day).

As I have seen with the SPR Examination, the issues are highly technical. The applicants are supported by a battery of consultants and heavyweight lawyers. As individuals keep reminding the Examiners, we are very largely “lay people” putting ourselves up against the experts. We have to rely on SCC and ESC to help fight our battles and we need sympathetic and incisive Examiners. The experience of the SPR hearings has been good and the Examiners made an excellent job of holding SPR to account.

SCC Cllr Burroughes informed that his own ambition would be to achieve a 4 village bypass. It is not the route which is the problem it is purely the funding and the lack of will in which SCC has to move forward. After the county elections he will try to press forward to get this done. He would like to meet with Cllr Cooper, the Chairman and the leaders of SCC & ESC to make the case and he is happy to lead on this. The Parish Council may wish to consider an extra meeting to discuss a structure to take forward.

Cllr Cooper informed that he has been working with EDF & SCC to get some mitigation for Marlesford & Little Glemham and has made some progress. Marlesford is likely to get 2 crossing points, 1 at Bell Lane & North of Marlesford Rd junction. EDF have committed to funding the works through S106 or S276. The Police and Crime Commissioner for Suffolk have written a letter of support for the Four Village Bypass.

9. Scottish Power North Sea Wind Farms

Cllr Waterfall has nothing to report since the last PC meeting. There is still a huge amount of uncertainty of what will happen. If Marlesford is the route to be used, a temporary bridge would be constructed over the current bridge on the A12 at Marlesford to help take the weight of the transformers. Each transformer weighs 288 tonnes.

10. B-17 Solar Farm, Old Airfield, Parham

Cllr Waterfall informed that he has spoken to the stakeholder manager at Low Carbon who was unaware of the history of the old airfield. There is a lack of information on the proposed solar farm. However, it is obvious that all construction vehicles would come through Marlesford. Trees would need to be planted the southern end to shield the site and this would be insisted upon. Much of the scenic landscape would be lost. He would suggest a letter of objection along the lines which the member of the public has said and he is happy to draft. The existing, much smaller solar park on Parham Airfield gives £5,000 a year to Gt Glemham. Suggest that Low Carbon give money to the 3 neighbouring Parishes if the B-17 solar farm goes ahead. It was agreed that Councillor Waterfall would write a letter of objection to the Solar Park application. Particular reference to be made to the points raised by Professor Wheater.

11. To Approve the Risk Assessments

The GDPR risk assessment, financial risk assessment and the risk management policy & risk assessment were circulated to all prior to the meeting. No amendments need to be made to them since last year, therefore approved by all, proposed Cllr Howard seconded Cllr Waterfall.

12. Reports from Parish Representatives

SALC – Cllr Bensley advised that no meetings have taken place to report on.

Planning – Cllr Waterfall advised that the B17-Solar Farm application is available to view on the ESC website.

Firs Bowling Green – Cllr Waterfall informed that he is moving forward with this and now has copies of all the legal documents. He does still need to get the opinion of an estate agent on the value of the land. All legal documentation has now been signed by the Parish Council and certified as true copies, which now need to be sent to the Land Registry by the Parish Clerk. The Parish Council will become the Trustees (the statutory body). Forms DL & FR1 to be completed. The Chairman thanked Cllr Waterfall for all his work.

8.35pm Cllrs Burroughes and Poulter left the meeting.

Footpaths & Access – Cllr Catling has nothing to report, but he thanked Marlesford Farms for the work carried out at Pound Lane which is now accessible for wheelchairs and pushchairs.

Highways - Cllr Howard has nothing to report.

Website – Cllr Howard informed that she has been updating the website will all of the Sizewell information.

13. Correspondence

None.

14. Any Other Business