68/05  To approve the minutes of the Council meeting held on 14^th June 2005

The minutes of the meeting held on 14^th June 2005 had been circulated, were taken as read, agreed by all, and signed by the Chairman Councillor Pearson.

69/05  Matters arising

64.05 Feedback from the Anti Social Behaviour Meeting held on the 3^rd June 2005 at Penwood Village Hall  -  Several Councillors were concerned that since the ASB meeting in June nothing else seems to have been done.  The Chairman asked if minutes had been taken at the meeting.  The Clerk, who had not attended the meeting, said that there had been a report from the ASB Coordinator Jason Murphy and from Borough Councillor Horace Mitchell.  The Chairman also said that he had given two names to Councillor Mitchell of people who were interested in helping if an event was run for young people at the village hall and he was not sure if this had been followed up yet.

In the minutes it had said that Councillor Mitchell was looking into the non emergency police numbers being switched around.  Unfortunately Councillor Mitchell was unable to attend the meeting so it was not known if that had been sorted yet. The Clerk would follow up with him on this.

A discussion then took place on when an event should take place and it was decided if possible late September might be a good time to run such an event and this event should be a disco. The Clerk would get in touch with Jason Murphy to see if he could set things in motion. [Clerk’s comment: Cllr Mitchell has commented further in response to an email from the Chairman, suggesting that (a) the proposal was for a ‘fun event’ with interest for all ages rather than a disco and (b) other actions had been agreed that should precede planning for the event. Clerk will await response to these points from Chairman and Cllr Langan and will check the views of the Village Hall Committee.]

70/05  To note the minutes of the Planning Meeting held on Wednesday July 13^th 2005

The minutes of the last planning meeting had been circulated to all Councillors’.  There had only been one application that the Council were objecting to and that was land at Grey Tiles, Andover Road.

Councillor Farmer had sent a letter to the Chairman regarding his concern that when a planning application like this went to B&D with objections, it seems that B&D then send the application to HCC for their comments re the road and access.  Unfortunately it appears that when this is sent to HCC none of the objections are sent with it.  Therefore HCC are not aware of objections from neighbours or the Parish Council.  The Clerk was asked to write to B&DBC and to HCC expressing our concerns over this matter.

71/05  Borough Councillor’s Report

Apologies had been received from the Borough Councillor who was attending a meeting at B&DBC.  The Clerk gave a copy of his report to each Councillor.

His main points were that he had attended a SEERA meeting in July.  He had had to suspend his activities with the Planning and Development process at present because while personally an applicant. A process had been started to assess the case against ‘double taxation of parishes.

With regard to ongoing matters he awaited the reaction to the promised leaflet drop in connection with the community development around Penwood.  With regard to Penwood Crossroads he suggested that the new County Councillor be invited to meet with representatives from the Parish Council and himself to discuss how best to make progress.  (The Clerk had been in contact with the County Councillor, who expects to attend the September meeting Parish Council meeting.)

The Borough Councillor’s report can be found at the end of the minutes.

72/05 Feedback from the Sentinel Walk About held on June 23 2005

Unfortunately Borough Councillor Mitchell and Cllr East were unable to attend this walk about, and the Clerk was also unable to attend – the date had been fixed without consulting them.  Nothing had been received from Sentinel since this meeting or anyone from B&DBC.  The Clerk was asked to write to all concerned to find out if there was any follow up, notes or minutes that had been taken at the meeting.  Also the Clerk was asked to write to Sentinel and ask for a copy of terms and conditions that were issued to tenants.

The Council were concerned that there was several locked gates on the Heathlands and Woodlands area that were owned by B&DBC and even though they were locked and the Council presumed that B&D had the key a few residents seemed to be able to park the unwanted cars behind the gate.  The Council asked the Clerk to write to B&D regarding this.

73/05  Update on the Village Plan

Councillor Langan reported that timing had slipped on this due to the late delivery of leaflets to certain parts of the village.  Leaflets had now been distributed to residents in Penwood Heights.  Unfortunately there had been a couple of errors with addresses of contacts for people.  The Chairman had spoken to people and hopefully this was now sorted out.  It was hoped that the leaflets for Heathlands and Woodlands would be ready in the next couple of days and distributed soon after that.  The Clerk had distributed leaflets to leaders of local playgroups etc.  Unfortunately there were a couple of groups she could not now give leaflets to till September as they had already closed down for the summer.  She had spoken to the leaders though and would be giving them leaflets to pass out to the parents of the attendees of their clubs in September.

Cllr Langan explained because of the above the steering group had postponed their end of June meeting.  He was hoping that they would meet early August and by then there would be some feed back from the people who had received a leaflet.  As he had mentioned before, they had about 30 people interested in joining a focus group but they were hoping to pick up another 20 or so people with this method.  Hopefully at the next meeting they would be able to get people sorted into focus groups and leave them then for several months to discuss where they thought the way forward was with there particular topic.

Mrs Sue Roberts who was attending the meeting and who is a member of the steering committee was asked is she had any further comments, which she did not have.

74/05  Penwood Village Notice Board and Penwood Village Bus Shelter

There had been concern for some time with regard to the condition of the bus shelter and the notice board at Penwood.  The bus shelter was the responsibility of the Parish Council for the first five years, then B&D would take over the maintenance of it.  The Council presumed at that time the shelter needed to be in good condition.  The bus shelter was now approximately four years old. Because of activity now in trying to smarten up the area to the South of Fox’s Lane through Penwood, the Council decided that they need to do something about the shelter.  The Clerk was asked to find out how much it would cost to repair the shelter.  The notice board has been sprayed several times with paint and also has had super glue put in the key lock.  The Clerk had found a way round this so the notice board was still able to be used.  It was felt that if the board could be cleaned up it would probably look quite respectable.  No councillor volunteered to do this so the Clerk will find out the cost of having it done by a contractor.

75/05 Penwood Village Hall – Possible Film Club

A suggestion from the ASB meeting that was held in early June was that perhaps a Film Club in Penwood Village Hall might be of interest to locals.  The Chairman Cllr Jim Pearson had looked into this and found some other villages that did run a film club successfully.  It seems that to hire a film (which were normally DVD’s these days), would cost between £60 to £100 depending on how long the film had been released.  He had discussed the possibility of the Film Club with the Treasurer at Penwood Village Hall and he had been quite positive about it.  The Chairman had also spoken to a gentleman who was involved with a Film Club at High Wycombe and he was willing to lend the Village Hall a projector and screen once or twice (as long as someone collected it), so the village hall could see how it went.  The Council were a little concerned about the idea in case a great deal of money was spent and it did not work out, although in principle they did think it was a good idea.  The Chairman would look into a little more and do a flyer to go through peoples doors to see what response the Council get to this idea.  The Council also felt that though they were happy to help with this perhaps with a small cost at the beginning of the venture it would be up to the village hall to run with it once started. [Clerk’s note: In response to an email from the Chairman the Borough Councillor has recommended that any effort to ‘test the market’ for this should be part of the village plan programme; also that he thought grant support might be available from BDBC but would not be forthcoming unless there was (a) evidence of demand; (b) a costed plan and (c) someone/team committed to running the club.]

76/05  -  2004/05 Accounts to be approved

The clerk had been to see the internal auditor who had audited the accounts.  There had been a couple of questions that needed asking and a couple of slight amendments but there were no errors with the accounts themselves and he was pleased at how they had been presented.  Cllr’s Castle and Langan said that they would like more information with the accounts.  Namely how much had been put in the precept for each item and if we had overspent or even under-spent so they could have a better understanding of them.  The Clerk explained that she did this when the precept was being set but this was just to sign off last years accounts which had been audited and judged to be in order by the internal auditor.  It was decided that in future that the Accounts would be an agenda item twice a year about two months before the precept was set and also about two months before the Clerk brought the audited accounts to the meeting.  This way the Council would be able to see at a glance if they were keeping close to the precept.

The Council were happy with the accounts.  The Clerk would complete the forms and they would be sent to the external auditor.

77/05  -  Correspondence Received

1.  B&DBC – Temporary Traffic Regulation Order – road closure – Grotto Lodge Lane, Highclere.  This is on the very edge of Highclere and should not affect anyone.

2.  B&DBC  -  Design & Conservation awards – deadline has been extended to 22^nd July.  The Council had received a letter about this award in June.  The Council felt that they did not have anything to put forward for this award.

3.  Hampshire Police Authority – Appointment of independent members to Hampshire Police Authority.  The Policy Authority were asking for people to put themselves forward to become an independent member of Hampshire Policy Authority.  None of the Councillors felt that this was for them.

4.  B&DBC  -  Recycle for Hampshire – A form had been enclosed to respond to this.  All Councillors’ had been given a copy and some had already completed the form.

5.  B&DBC  -  Night-Time Economy Vision Questionnaire.  This was based on Basingstoke town and not this area of Hampshire.  Several Councillors’ took the questionnaire to complete the Clerk would also complete the questionnaire

6.  HAPTC  -  Hampshire Countryside access forum – update following earlier event  -  This was just keeping the Council up to date on this topic.

7.  B&DBC  -  Local Plan Inquiry  - This was informing the Council that the Local Plan Inquiry was now closed and they would let the Council know the outcome in due course.

8.  DEFRA  -  Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005 -  This act will have an impact on the parish council if they wish it to.  The Act will not place any new duties on the parish council.  The extent to which a parish may wish to exercise the new powers will be up to the individual parish.  The Council decided that this parish was too small to take on these responsibilities. 

9.  B&DBC  -  Change of Property address  -  11 Arkwright Close  to  Edgewood, Tubbs Lane.  The Parish Council were not happy with this change for safety reasons.  At least if the house address is Arkwright Close it is much easier for the emergency services to find it.  The clerk will write to B&D and let them know the Council’s feelings.

10.  HCC  -  New Funding for Countryside Access Improvements.  There were several deadlines set for this funding the final one being 13^th January.  The Council felt that funding from this source might be useful for the Village Plan.   As the Village Plan was still at such an early stage the Council did not know what funding it might need in the future but they certainly felt that they would need some.  The clerk was asked to write to HCC letting them know that they were interested especially for funding for the Village Plan and if they had not applied by the final date would they be able to apply later.

11.  Mrs Liza Nelson  -  Mr & Mrs L Nelson were interested in buying the Red House, Andover Road.  It had suddenly come to their notice that there was someone else interested in buying the Red House and converting it to an Indian take away and restaurant.  Mr & Mrs Nelson were concerned as they were hoping the buy the pub and keep it as a village pub and were the Council aware of this.  The Council were not aware of this at all.  The pub would not be able to change its use without planning consent and no application has been made as yet. The Clerk was asked to write to the Nelson’s to thank them for their letter and that they would not probably support a change of use as it would be a great loss to the village if the pub went.

Other Correspondence (available for Councillors to review)

Hampshire Police Authority  - Annual report 2004/05

B&D – Office Closure etc  -  All Councillors’ had been given a copy.

HCC  -  Hampshire Now.  There were spare copies which were passed round to the Councillors who wished to take a copy

HCC  -  Hampshire Country Guide.  There were spare copies and these were passed around to the interested Councillors.

78/05  -  Accounts for Payment

The following accounts were passed for payment.  Inland Revenue (PAYE/NI) £200.14, A Hosie (mileage expenses) £15.15, W Bendle (litter warden) £167.82, L McClelland (litter warden) £53.43, C Corrall (litter warden)  £128.76,  D Mitchell (salary) £600.72.  Cheques drawn and signed between Council meetings, Highclere Village Hall Building Fund £1,500, BT (telephone costs) £30.94.

79.05 Councillors’ matters arising to be included in the next agenda

Up to date account of the accounts against precept set.