Minutes
Page last updated on Friday, January 21, 2011
ASHURST AND COLBURY PARISH COUNCIL
MINUTES OF THE PARISH COUNCIL MEETING HELD ON 16th NOVEMBER 2010
AT THE CHURCH ROOMS COLBURY
Present:
Councillors S Arnold (in the Chair), D. Bryant, M. Coaker, C. Hubbard and P Sopowski .
Apologies had been received from Cllrs Frost, Kershaw and Sturgess, and District Cllr L. Puttock. County Cllr Mans was at another meeting but expected to get in later.
In Attendance: Parish Clerk L. Griggs, District Councillor D. Tipp, PC White, PCSO Quinn and 7 members of the public.
The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting
1. DISCLOSURE OF INTEREST IN AN AGENDA ITEM
The Chairman reminded Councillors that if there was any item on the agenda which would warrant a Councillor submitting a Form C they should do so now.
The Chairman also reminded Councillors that if any item arose during Public Participation which warranted a Form C they should declare it immediately.
2. MINUTES
a) The minutes of the last Meeting, which had previously been circulated to all Councillors, were approved unanimously and signed by the Chairman.
b) Matters arising. Railway site.
The Clerk confirmed that the Exhibition of the plans would be held in Colbury Memorial Hall on Monday 22nd November from 2pm till 7pm. He hoped all Cllrs would attend some time during the day.
c) The Chairman reported a discussion with the Manager of the Co-op Welcome Store regarding the allegation that the Council objected to an application for metal shutters to prevent further burglaries and advised him that the Council had received no such application. He noted that and said shutters were no longer under consideration but that a more up market system was being planned.
3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
The Chairman asked PC White to give a report. He went through the Beat Report for October and noted a new trend of youngsters throwing eggs and other foodstuff at and through windows. One incident involved a pumpkin being thrown though the window at a house with small children inside which was very frightening. One person had been arrested and another's parents were being visited to let them know their child was involved. There was also a team from Southampton who had robbed the local store and were known to be targeting similar local shops. Arrests had been made. He also thanked the Neighbourhood Watch and other residents for their help in identifying issues and helping the police to apprehend offenders.
The Chairman said on behalf of residents who use the 'Green Bag Waste System' it has been reported to me that NFDC has sent out letters to residents on this system asking them to pay by direct debit. They have no problem with that but are angered that they have to commence payments in February 2011 when the financial year runs from April to April. Why do they have to pay two months in advance? She asked District Cllr Tipp to raise this matter with NFDC.
The Neighbourhood Watch representative asked what support the Parish Council would receive from NPA/NFDC or elsewhere under the new provisions for allowing them to challenge planning appeals bearing in mind that developers had large financial resources. It was agreed that challenging appeals was very expensive if the appeal was lost and it was therefore not likely the Council could take such a risk..
4. HIGHWAYS MATTERS
It was noted that the Salt Bins supplied by HCC were now in place and inside the lid was a phone number for anyone to use when the bin needed refilling. Cllr Bryant asked the Clerk to tell HCC that the bin at the junction of Deerleap Lane and the A35 was too close to an oak tree. If the salt leached out in wet weather it would kill the tree.
5. RECREATION GROUND
a) Cllr Bryant reported that there was always ongoing work to keep the area tidy and safe. The Committee would be recommending to the Council a new piece of equipment to replace the small seesaw that had been removed for safety reasons.
b) Cllr Coaker reported that public exhibition of the Friends of the Park plans had gone well but attendance had been poor. However those who came with an open mind had gone away with a positive attitude to the plans. The Chairman thanked Councillor Coaker for his report and also for his patience with two particularly difficult residents at the public meeting.
c) Cllr Bryant reported that the man renovating the Notice Board in the Recreation Ground had been ill for some weeks and apologised for the further delay. He proposed to talk to him again and if the work could not be completed quickly he would propose going elsewhere.
6. PLANNING
a) Cllr Sopowski gave a report on planning activities since the last meeting.
b) The Chairman said that at this mornings NPA meeting regarding 1 Whartons Close, the National Park had granted the application . She pointed out that this was an application for a double garage which has under floor heating, a toilet and patio doors. Rather palatial for a garage I did explain that according to their own website on the development control spatial this application is within 500 metres of a SSSI area, but this and other comments were not taken into consideration/
7. ACCOUNTS
a) The cheques issued since the last meeting were approved.
b) It was noted that the Precept Meeting would follow the Affordable Housing Exhibition on 22nd November at Colbury Memorial Hall
8. GRANTS
a) The Council agreed that the request from Elliot Olsen was not within the regulations for local Council grants.
b) The request from the NFCAB Ltd was considered but the Council noted the large funding it received from NFDC, who also funded the Parish Council, and the little information on the very large salary costs. It was agreed the Clerk should write suggesting they submit a new request when the full year audited accounts were available with details of staffing and salaries.
c) The request from NF Disability Information Centre was considered but refused.
9. REPORTS FROM REPRESENTATIVES ON OTHER BODIES
Cllr Coaker had attended the Friends of the Park exhibition of their proposals on 30th October, the Annual Transport Representatives meeting at Winchester on 6 November and the HCC Winter Service update on 9 November also at Winchester.
Cllr Hubbard had attended the Friends of the Park exhibition on 30th October and the Remembrance Service at the Colbury Church on 14th November.
Cllr Bryant had attended various site meetings on the allotment project.
Cllr Sopowski had attended the New Forest Consultative Committee meeting which had received an informative presentation on animals in the forest. There had also been a discussion on the possible revision of selecting members for the NPA Board. There may well be a cut back in numbers but the issue was whether they should be appointed and if so how, or directly elected and again if so how. NPA were holding meetings to take the views of the interested parties as well as the public. A decision to be made at the next meeting.
Cllr Arnold had attended the following:-
- Meeting with residents from Knightwood Close – re planning application for abungalow at the rear of 12 Wood Road.
- Meeting with Councillors Max Coaker and David Bryant - re planning application for
changes to the recreation ground.
- The public meeting of Friends of the Park – re the refurbishment of the recreation ground. On hand was Mr. Schofield the Chartered Surveyor who is a Professional requested by the funding group who was able to put the majority of peoples' minds at rest with the changes.
- Meeting with resident at the NPA office re her concerns with their property built on the former Grant Garage. This has now been resolved.
- HCC Winter service meeting along with Councillor Max Coaker. We have a record of this meeting if Councillors wish to have copies
- Newsletter Committee meeting.
Cllr Tipp had been to a meeting at NFDC discussing the successor to the Local Plan. The document was going out for consultation but as Ashurst and Colbury was under the NPA it was not directly of interest to this Council. He also mentioned the One Voice web site which he said was a good source of information on the NPA.
Cllr Mans said HCC expected to hear soon on the amount of the support grant the Government would be providing. It was expected to require savings of £150m over the next three years and while year one should be OK the other two years would be more problematical. HCC had been through the most radical review of services ever carried out by HCC and while 70 managers would be leaving other changes could be made by using voluntary redundancy and natural wastage. Although Hampshire had a below average number of public sector workers, which might make the job situation less of a problem than elsewhere, it had an above average number of retired people the costs of which had risen by 80% over the last eight years. In regard to the NPA it was important to have a good local input to the issue of selecting representatives. The NPA was going through a difficult time with funding likely to be cut by 30% over the next three years.
10. CORRESPONDENCE
a) The list of correspondence had been circulated and items were available for anyone to see.
b) The Chairman reminded councillors of the AGM for the New Association on 18th November at 7pm.
11. COMMUNITY PLAN
Cllr Coaker said the group had congratulated the Council on securing land for allotments and it was agreed that the group should provide support for the project. Disappointment was expressed at the closure of the Church Youth Group. A resident interceded saying that a new format of groups for different ages was under consideration and it was hoped to re-open in the New Year.
12. VILLAGE DESIGN AND CHARACTER APPRAISAL
Cllr Hubbard said she was busy sorting out the information from questionnaires and ideas given at the fete. A questionnaire had been given to local businesses to get a different view and a further questionnaire was being prepared for users of Colbury Memorial Hall. She had written to the schools to get views from children on local places. She expected to start writing the draft in January. Another article would be in the next Newsletter.
13. ALLOTMENTS
The Clerk advised that the allotments were moving forward but until funding and planning approval was received progress was slow. It was hoped all that would be in place by the end of the year and subsequent progress would depend on the weather. Applications now totalled 34, 18 from the former Totton waiting list and 16 in response to the articles in the Newsletter.
14. CHRISTMAS MEETING AND CAROLS
The Chairman invited all to the Christmas meeting and said that after considering residents request for a quieter location the Happy Cheese had agreed to let us use the grassed area in front of their building for the carols and also to provide chairs for the band.
15. OTHER ITEMS WHICH THE CHAIRMAN DEEMS IMPORTANT
None
16. ITEMS FOR DISCUSSION AT THE NEXT MEETING
None
There being no further business for this meeting the Chairman closed the meeting at 9.05pm
Signed S R Arnold - Chairman Dated 21st December 2010
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