HIGHCLERE PARISH COUNCIL
Minutes of the
Council Meeting held at Highclere Village Hall on Tuesday 13 January
2004 at 7.30
Present:
Councillor Ray East
Councillor Don
Langan (Acting Chairman)
Councillor Jim
Pearson – Chairman
Councillor Robert Drew
Councillor Amanda
Hosie
Also Present:
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01/04 To approve the minues of the Council meeting held on 11th November and the extraordinary meeting held on the 9th December 2003 The minutes of the meeting
held on 11th November 2003 and 9th December 2003,
having been circulated, were taken as read, agreed by all, and signed by the
Acting Chairman Don Langan. 02/04
Matters arising from those minutes 144/03 A short discussion took place on the recycling bins. It appears that the Chairman Councillor Pearson has had some contact with Councillor Potter of B&DBC and Sentinal Housing and there was some hope that the bins might be rehoused in one of the redundant garages near the Spar shop. There was a rumour that bins had been put into the car park at the Carnarvon arms by B&DBC. If this was the case the Council would be happy to leave things as they are. 149/03 The Mayor of B&DBC had held a reception in November which Councillors Pearson & Langan had attended. They had both found it very interesting and B&DBC were expecting to follow up on some of the comments made during the question time that followed. 153/03 The Council were still concerned that no replies had been received from HCC re Penwood Cross Roads/A343 even though letters had been sent on behalf of the Council by the Clerk and also by individual Councillors. 154/03 Lighting in Foxs Lane, Penwood. There was a short discussion on this and what was the way forward and exactly where were the lights going to be placed along Foxs Lane. HCC had offered 50% of the money towards the lighting and the rest had been put into the precept for 2004/05. It was agreed that Counillors’ Pearson and East would draw a sketch of the area pinpointing positions for the lights. The Clerk would contact the relevant person at HCC to say we would like to go ahead. 160/03 A short discussion took place about the salt bins. It had been noted that no money had been put into the precept for 2004/5 for them but it was hoped to put money into the precept for them in 2005/06. It is unlikely that even if we go forward with organising salt bins for this winter they would arrive before the warmer weather comes. Therefore the Clerk would look into them for next winter 2004/50 03/04 Borough Councillors Report Borough Council
Tim Jardine apologised for his non attendance at meetings but unfortunately
there had been quite a few family problems not least his young son when 8 weeks
old having to spend a lot of time in hospital. He did not have a
lot to report as it had been very quiet in Highclere and Penwood. He had been contacted by B&DBC re the
fencing at Penwood and agreed with the Parish Council that it was a good
idea. Councillor Jardine
did say he would certainly help us with a current planning application,
Coombe Cottage, by speaking at the development Control meeting when it is
called. 04/04 Correspondence received The following
correspondence had been received and relevant information copied to
Councillors: 1. HAPTC & B&DBC – update
on Members’ (Councillors) Allowances.
This correspondence was giving
some idea of what Councillors could expect if they decided that they would
take the allowance. This had been discussed
at a previous council meeting and the Councillors had decided that they would
not take the allowance offered. It
was noted though if you were a keen cyclists you were able to claim 50% of
the car allowances for travel by bike! 2. HAPTC – School Governorships. New regulations governing the constitution
of governing bodies came into the force on September 1st
2003. HCC were asking all governing
bodies to maintain their relationship with relevant minor authority and to
invite them to nominate suitable individuals when there are vacancies they
are seeking to fill. 3. B&DBC -
3- year Council Plan and Budget Strategy. Several items of correspondence had been received urging
Councillors to respond to this. Our
comments were due in on the 14th January. The Clerk would ask if we could have a
postponement till the following week.
Councillors Pearson, Castle, Langan and Somerset would read the
information sent and let the Clerk have their comments to be passed onto
B&DBC. 4. The Rural Housing Trust – A seminar on 3rd
February on affordable housing for local people. The President of the Trust HRH The Princess Royal would be
attending. None of the Councillors
were able to attend. Clerk would
respond on their behalf. 5. B&DBC - A
letter asking for comments on Development Control – Parish/Town Council
Training. The letter had already been
sent to the Councillors for their comments and the Clerk had already
responded. 6. Highclere PCC - A
letter had been received from Highclere PCC.
They were pleased with the improvements in the road markings on
several sections of the lanes leading to Highclere Church. They felt though at the triangle near
Brook House, there was no indication where the lanes led to and would like to
recommend that a sign is installed showing the direction to the Church at
that point. The Council felt that
this was a good idea. The Clerk will
speak to the relevant contact at B&DBC. 7. West Berkshire Council - A
questionnaire on transportation of freight in West Berkshire had been
received. This was passed to
Councillor East to complete 8. B&DBC -
Another letter asking the Councillors for their comments on the local
plan. This had already been discussed
under item three in correspondence. 9. Admission of Public to meetings
- A copy had been given to each of the Councillors 10. HAPTC - An event had been arranged on Wednesday 25th February to
exchange ideas on how far some Parish and Town Councils are in qualifying for
Quality Status. Clerk to attend. 11. B&DBC - Code of Conduct - Informing the Council
that the Electoral Services Division of the Council had taken over the
responsibility of maintaining the Register of Interests for Town and Parish
Councils. 12. B&DBC - Following on the Mayor’s reception in
November and the interest shown when they presented the progress being made
by the council in its e-government programme. They were now able to forward the supporting documentation and
the internet link. 13. Hampshire Constabulary - A letter from Superintendent
Paul Netherton, thanking the Council for their letter concerning the Village
Plan 14. defra - From the Minister for Rural Affairs the Rt Hon Alun Michael
writing on Equine issues. - no comment 15. HAPTC
- Quality Parish Status Bulletin informing
Member Councils of alterations in the fees to the Hampshire Accreditation
Panel on Quality Parish Status 16. B&DBC - Concessionary travel scheme 2004/05 -
asking the Council to put up posters relating to the date of issue for
the scheme. 17. Neale Turk Rochfort - Transfer of Justices Licence
and Protection order for The Red House Public House, Andover Road, Highclere. 18. HCC
- HCC were hoping to find Parish
Co-ordinators to take on the duties of a Parish Lengthsman. The Council felt that their contact with
HCC Highways Department was very good and there was no need to find a
volunteer for this. They noted that
this was only aimed at small routine works as more major schemes are already
covered by procedures elsewhere. They
wondered where was elsewhere? The
Council also felt with another cog in the wheel it would take even longer to
get routine jobs done and that HCC were trying to off load some of their
responsibility onto the village. The
Clerk will continue to act as contact point for Highways and will so inform
them. 19. B&DBC - A Compact for organisations working in
B&D. The councillors felt that
this was for larger villages and towns.
The local societies all knew each other and were not overlapping with
each other. 20. B&DBC - Planning, Environment and Transport
Quarterly Bulletin. More copies were
available if needed. 21. B&DBC -
The new published Register of electors for 2004 had just become
available. The Clerk had requested a
copy 22. B&DBC - Consultation on Draft Supplementary
Planning Guidance for Telecommunications etc. The Council were still concerned about the emissions from these
masks. The Clerk would try and
arrange to have a talk from one of the companies involved. 23. B&DBC - Street naming for the Highclere Garage Site. The Council were pleased to see the
B&D had taken note of their suggestion for Rutherford Close for this new
development. The following
correspondence was available for the Councillors if they requested -
there were no comments made from it. Hampshire’s
Water – Recruitment of Water Champions SPISE
News – Winter 2003 West
Berks – Heritage News B&DBC
– Mayor’s Charity Ball – 20th February NALC
– Local Council Review B&DBC
– Borough Rural Strategy – Leaflet Vol
dot Comm – News, Voluntary Services West
Berks – 2025 vision HCC
– Hampshire Highways News and Annual Report Basingstoke
& North Hampshire Community Health Council Basingstoke
& North Hampshire Community Health Council – Final Annual Report HCC
– Information Centre – News for Customers – Autumn 2003 Winchester
City Council – Bulletin – November 2003
05/04 Penwood Village hall Lease The updated lease
for Penwood Village Hall had been received from the lawyer Mrs Levy at
B&DBC, comments had also been received from the Council’s own solicitor. The Chairman Councillor Pearson and the
Clerk had had a meeting with the Chairman and Treasurer of Penwood Hall, who
had no comments to make and would leave it to the Parish Council to finalise. As Councillor Pearson had been involved
with this for sometime it was decided to ask him to look at the point our
solicitor had pointed out and then hopefully we could feed the alterations
back finally to B&DBC. 06/04 Date and Agenda for Meeting at Penwood Village Hall re open space behind the Spar Shop A date had been
set for 21st January for this meeting. It was decided that this was too soon. A discussion then took place on what
exactly was best for this area. The
Clerk had spoken to Ian Harris at B&D and there was nearly £7,000
available from different accounts for work on open spaces and recreational
areas. Not a lot would be able to be
done with this amount of money. The
area was very uneven and if a football pitch was put in a lot of work would
have to been done to clear tree stumps and level the land. Also after that there was the cost of
mowing the area. The Council then
discussed whether a cinder track could be put in so the youngsters of Penwood
could ride the go-karts etc on the land.
The Councillors did wonder if the children would actually use this
piece of land as it was slightly away from the houses, whilst where the young
childrens’ play area there were street lights and houses nearby. The Councillor
decided that perhaps a youth shelter would be the most useful thing but not
on the ground behind the Spar Shop but on the ground where the play area
is. This would then be useful for
young mothers with there children and then in the evening for older
children. 07/04 Village Plan The Clerk had
written to the Parishes bordering onto Highclere and Penwood, Newbury Town
Council and the Superintendent at Hampshire Constabulary informing them that
we are working on a village plan. A
letter had been received from the Superintendent, the chief executive at
Newbury had telephoned the Clerk and they are also in the process of doing a
Town Plan. The Clerk at St Mary
Bourne had also replied. 08/04 Penwood Cross Roads/A343 update The Council were
still concerned that nothing was being done about this junction and the
traffic calming through Highclere. The Clerk had been
informed some time ago that work was due to start on the second phase of
traffic calming through Highclere in the Autumn. As of now nothing has been started. The Clerk had written to the appropriate people and they were
looking into it. Several
Councillors were concerned that we had still not received a reply to our
letter sent in September 2003 although a request for a reply had been asked
for several times. The Councillor
realised that to have something major done especially at the cross road would
cost a lot of money but there were probably cheaper ways of over coming some
of the problems such as a refuge in the middle of the road. It was agreed that the Clerk would write
to the Chief Executive at HCC Councillor East
had spent three weeks doing a traffic count at the cross roads and felt that
a site visit was needed. The
engineers from JAG are willing to help us but we need to agree what questions
we need to ask them. 09/04 Accounts
for Payment The following accounts were passed for payment. W Bendle (litter warden) £127.40, C Corrall (litter warden) £117.20, D Mitchell (Parish Clerk salary) £478.00, D Mitchell (Telephone and email) £50.15, D Mitchell (expenses for December meeting) £11.50, Viking Direct (stationery) £182.43. 10/04 Councillors’ matters arising to be included in
the next agenda No matters arising. |
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There being no other business, the meeting closed at 9.43pm.
The next full Council meeting will be on Tuesday 17th February 2004 in Highclere Village Hall, Jubilee Room at 7.30pm.
Planning committee meetings will be held as and when necessary.