NORTH NIBLEY PARISH COUNCIL 2019


THE ORDINARY MEETING OF NORTH NIBLEY PARISH COUNCIL WAS HELD ON MONDAY 5th AUGUST 2019, AT THE VILLAGE HALL, NORTH NIBLEY, AT 7.30 PM.

Present: Mr Ken Brown (Chair), Mrs J Burton, Mr K Larkin, Mr D Palmer, Mr R Symons.


Five members of the public attended the meeting.


District Councillors: Mrs C Braun, Mr K Tucker

County Councillor: Dr J Cordwell.

The Acting Clerk: Cllr. R Symons


The Chairman opened the Parish Council Meeting.


  1. The Chairman invited apologies. Apologies were presented from Cllr. D Purnell, Cllr. D Roberts & District Cllr G James.


  1. The Chairman invited any Declarations of Interest. There were none. (But see Item 14 below).

  2. The Council noted that the Minutes of the Council’s July 2019 Meeting had not been finalised due to the absence of the Clerk. It was reported that the Minutes will be produced as soon as the Clerk returns to duty.



  1. There were no matters arising from the Meeting held on 1st July, not covered by agenda items.



  1. The Chairman opened the Meeting for Public Discussion and Questions. There were no comments or questions.

  1. The Council considered and commented upon the following Planning & Appeal Applications.


Application S.19/0608/FUL. Land opposite New Inn Waterley Bottom. Erection of agricultural/equestrian building. Change of use to mixed use agriculture/equestrian. (Amended drawings 28th June). Following discussion the Council agreed to Object to the application on the following grounds:

The Parish Council considers the amended plans do not overcome the fundamental objections submitted on 11th April and resolved to reaffirm these objections as follows:


(a) The proposed building is extremely large for the size of field and cannot be justified for such a small area. The size of the building is NOT essential for the maintenance of or enhancement of a sustainable farming enterprise and is therefore contrary to Local Plan Policy CP 15.


(b).The size and nature of the building will adversely affect the landscape and visual character of Waterley Bottom and the surrounding Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The location, materials and scale of the proposed building would not be sympathetic to or complement the landscape character and would conflict with Local Plan Policy ES 7.


(c). The proposed Building is sited very close to the country lane and would be visually dominant. The siting which would involve further earthworks would adversely impact on important mature trees and hedgerow and would be contrary to Local Plan Policy ES 8.


(d) The proposed building would create a precedent for similar buildings in the adjoining area as land is being sold off in small parcels which would accumulatively and dramatically adversely change the character and landscape of this area of quality landscape within the AONB.


(e) A large cattle building, although smaller than the proposed, on nearby land was found to be unacceptable to the planning authority in 2014. Ref S.14/2320/ FUL.


(f) Agricultural and equestrian buildings are not a ubiquitous feature of the valley as stated by the applicant. The valley is characterised much more by open fields with hedges and occasional barns normally associated with historic and established farmyards and farm businesses. These are normally set back from the road. Large individual barns within fields are not a normal characteristic of this part of the AONB.


  1. A building of this size is likely to result in additional traffic along the narrow and dangerous local roads to the detriment of road safety.


In reaching this decision the Parish Council fully supports the many objections submitted by parishioners and considers there are sound planning reasons to refuse planning permission in this case. The Parish Council requests these objections are fully taken into account and planning permission is duly refused by the planning authority.


North Nibley Parish Council considered this application on 5th August and resolved to SUPPORT the proposal and application.


  1. Following consideration of the Village Shop Planning Application the Chairman decided to bring forward Agenda Item 14 to discuss and agree how the Parish Council might be able to assist the Village Shop Association. (At this stage Cllr. Mrs. J Burton declared that she had an interest in this agenda item and left the Meeting.)

The Council agreed that as the Shop was no longer a commercial business it was appropriate for them to assist the Village Shop Association in bringing about changes to the premises in order to revitalise the building into a Coffee Shop and Village Hub. The Chairman invited representatives of the Village Shop Association to set out what help they were seeking from the Council. Various ideas and suggestions on how the Association might secure funding were discussed.

It was agreed that the Village Shop Association would present an application for funding in line with the Council’s Grant Application proforma. The Council agreed to support the funding of Electrical, Building & Plumbing works to a maximum of £5,500.

The formal application will be presented to the Council for sign-off and payment at the September Meeting.

(Cllr. Mrs J Burton returned to the Meeting.)

  1. The Council noted the following three Planning Application decisions:




It was reported that the Parish Council has received a number of complaints regarding current activities at the “event field” at Ashen Plains.


There are a large number of tents/vehicles on site in the field in front of the big barn and the Pyrites Craft event was in full swing. The Council noted planning permission has recently been refused for event use of the barn including the field in front which forms part of the cartilage of the barn. The Officers report to S.19/0447/COU states that the 28 day PD rights do not apply to this field as it forms part of the cartilage of the barn. In addition it appears that no Temporary Event Notice has been granted by Stroud for this event.


It was decided that this potential breach of planning control should be brought to the Enforcement Officer’s attention for investigation.



8. The Council received a written District Council Report from Dist. Cllr. Mrs. C Braun. Dist. Cllr. Tucker explained that following discussions with the Head of Planning a matrix clarifying various types of applications and how they are treated will be produced and he will present this at the September Meeting. It was agreed that how AGR applications are handled in future may continue to be an issue.

Dist. Cllr Mrs Braun informed the Council that a number of local residents attended the recent Community Climate Action Group Meeting and demonstrated interest in how improvements can be achieved in access from North Nibley to Wotton under Edge. The Chairman thanked District Councillors for their report and input.



9. The Council received a written County Council Report from County Councillor John Cordwell. There were no matters arising from Cllr. Cordwell’s report. The Chairman thanked Cllr Cordwell for his report.



10. The Chairman invited Councillors to report on any Meetings attended. It was brought to the Council’s attention that a large mobile home has recently been erected at the 'Swinhay Smallholding' at the bottom of Church Lane, Nibley Green. Councillors agreed that this seemed to be in contravention of a recent Planning Decision and decided that the matter should be brought to the attention of Planning Enforcement at Stroud DC.

  1. Parish Council Finances.

The Council approved payment and raised a cheque for payment of an invoice for repairs to Council noticeboard. Cole Builders. £60.00

  1. The Council received and approved a written Cemetery and Closed Churchyard Report. See aside. It was agreed that the Headstone Grey Granite Inscription should be approved. However whilst the 7"x7"x7" cube, sitting on an 8" square base 2" thick, all in Lunar grey granite for Kenneth John Brown was acceptable, it cannot be approved for installation until the required 12 month period had passed.

  2. The Council received a verbal update on Speed Awareness matters. Cllr. Symons had held conversations with David Hawker at PCC and Charles Pedrick and he is confident to report that the police will support the Council in their use of ANPR.

In the absence of the Clerk it was agreed that Cllr. Symons would contact Highways Lighting to progress with the installation of the new posts, the first stage of the process.

Once ANPR is installed it will be necessary for the Council to agree on who would take responsibility for managing the data generated by ANPR cameras, following the guidance received from the Clerk to Kingswood PC at the July Meeting. The Council agreed that the Clerk and one Councillor should take responsibility for this role. The details of how this should progress will need to be agreed once ANPR is installed.

  1. Councillors expressed a number of concerns that the Council’s activities were not being reported in “On The Edge”. The OTE editorial team had previously reported to Councillors that they were not receiving updates from the Council. Councillors agreed that it was important to get their work reported in OTE and it was agreed that on this occasion Cllr. Mrs Burton would do a report on this August Meeting. In future the Council would expect the Clerk to regularly submit such reports, if necessary following guidance from the Council on what matters should be reported.



  1. There were no items of Correspondence to report.



The meeting closed at 9.00pm.



The next Meeting of the Parish Council will be held in the Village Hall on Monday 2nd September.