To be made available on conservation.ecclesfieldgroups.com [Version dated 2018-10-23 by JP]

Agenda for the Conservation meeting of
2018-10-23
at 19:00 in “The Stocks”

C.    Chair: RT.

D.    Agenda Items

  1. Reports by members attending Dr. Ian Fairlie’s lecture on Fracking wastes.

  2. Report of baseline radioactivity measurement of Blackburn Brook.

  3. Our bank account.

  4. Christmas tree for 2018/19.

  5. Conservation Banners.

X.    Any Planning Concerns. See the penultimate section.

Y.    Any questions or comments on the “Emails received”, “Information watch”, or “Issues remaining”. sections below; or any other business.

Z.     Confirmation, or change to the scheduled next meeting date, of 27th November..


On the Agenda Items

1. The Government’s consultation on permitted development rights for fracking closes on 25th October.

In case anybody wants to look into it further and perhaps register some comments, the Environment Agency (EA) are consulting on an industry proposal to “benefit some waste activities and installations though a reduction in their subsistence charges[Exec summary]. I think these subsistence charges rise withscores” which the EA derive by adding together amounts for each infringement. They give the example of a firm that releases NOx, SOx, and CO, and whose three scores would currently be totaled. Under the new proposals, they might only be penalized one score [Section 4.1]. Also, whereas currently, the EA only suspend scores for 6 months, even if improvements are still being carried out, they are now proposing that “...scores will be suspended for six months, and after this point we will carry out a review in order to consider extending the period of suspension further.” [Section 4.2]. Although the proposal seems to me like a relaxation, I don’t understand the constraints under which the EA have to work, or even parts of the proposal document itself. Also, the EA reported a major increase in fines for environmental offenses to £25.5 million for 2017, so I assume that they are doing some things right. The consultation ends on 29th October 2018.

3. RBS in Ecclesfield is closing, as is explained at https://www.thesun.co.uk/money/5040981/rbs-bank-branches-closing-job-losses-closure-list/


The items in the next few sections will not be gone through one by one, but can be discussed in any other business if any member wishes to bring them up.


Communications, e.g. on ecclesfield.conservation@gmail.com.


Information watch


Issues completed

Outstanding issues

If any members can help, or want to bring any of the following up for any other reason, they can do so in any other business.

* Our on-line archive and website need attention.
*    Designs for the pop-up banners are still in progress.
*      We have a fireproof trunk for storing archive material. Members might prefer a more generally accessible location if one can be found [As well as perhaps other things such as our Gazebo].
*      We still have plans to survey major trees within the Conservation Area.
*      Sheffield City Council’s alcohol licensing system is still not on-line. This not only makes it difficult for anybody to find out what restrictions apply to any licenses granted in the past, but we may be missing some of their new decisions, since we can only see the latest (2 week?) decisions.


New planning applications

The following planning applications and appeals were found by searching for Ward = “East Ecclesfield”, Parish = Ecclesfield Parish Council”, postcodes S35 9?? and S35 1TE, validated from 11th Sept to 21st Oct 2018. [You may be able to click on the underlined links, and then the [Documents] tab to see the drawings etc. Otherwise, just go to planningapps.sheffield.gov.uk/online-applications/, then enter the “Ref. No” for the application you are interested in.
The contents of brackets and italics are my interpretation - made after briefly scanning some of the planning documents]


Still pending

The next SCC Planning Committee meetings are on 16 October and 8 November 2018. Anybody interested may want to check the agendas as they are published at...
democracy.sheffield.gov.uk/ieListMeetings.aspx?CommitteeId=373 .


Decided


Alcohol Licensing