HIGHCLERE PARISH COUNCIL
Minutes of the
Council Meeting held at Highclere Village Hall on Tuesday 17th
February 2004 at 7.32pm
Present:
Councillor Ray East
Councillor Don
Langan
Councillor Amanda
Hosie
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11/04 To approve the minues of the Council meeting held on 13th January 2004 The minutes of the meeting
held on 13th November 2003 had been circulated, were taken as
read, agreed by all, and signed by the Chairman Jim Pearson. 12/04
Matters arising from those minutes 144/03 Recyling bins. There are bottle banks in place at Burghclere but they are not located at the Carnarvon Arms as previously suggested. There was a suggestion about thepossibility of having bins just at very busy times ie Christmas. The Council decided that having spent so much time on the topic they would leave things as they were for the present. 154/03 Proposed Lighting along Foxs Lane. The Chairman Councillor Pearson had spoken to Mr McIntyre who lives along Foxs Lane and is opposed to lighting along there. He had explained to him that if the proposed lighting went ahead the lights would only be pathway lights and so therefore should not be intrusive; also that only three were proposed between Heathlands and Woodlands estate. There was concern as the lights suggested were going to be attached to the electricity poles along a short stretch of Foxs Lane and if they were not high enough they might be subject to vandalism. The Council felt sure that if they were installed HCC would put them high enough up the electricity poles that they would not be vandalised and they would also have shatter proof glass in them and perhaps there could be wire mesh over them as well. The Parish Clerk had applied to HCC for funding for the project. 04/04 Correspondence – item 7. A questionnaire had been received re transportation of freight in West Berkshire. Council East had completed this. He had done a survey on the traffic through Highclere before Christmas and found that a lot of heavy traffic was now using the A34 and not the A343. There was talk about having a Park & Ride from Greenham to Newbury. The Council waited with interest to see what would happen. 13/05 Borough Councillor’s Report Unfortunately Councillor Tim Jardine was unable to attend the meeting. The Clerk had spoken to him about developments around Highclere & Penwood and it seems that all had been very quiet around our area. 14/04 To Note the minutes of the Planning
Committee Meeting held on 12th January 2004 Minutes of the
meeting had been circulated to the Council.
The main discussion at the planning meeting had been Coombe
Cottage. Since then another
application had been received from the developers of the land putting in for
demolition of the existing house to take place on the 1st
April. The Council had again been
very much against this and felt that the existing planning application should
be looked at first. 15/04 Correspondence received The following
correspondence had been received and relevant information copied to
Councillors: 1. HAPTC – A request for material for the Annual
Report. HAPTC hoped to include in
their annual report illustrations of the diverse range of activities Parish
and Town Councils throughout the county were involved in . The Council felt that they had nothing at
this time that they could send to HAPTC. 2. HCC – Traffic regulations proposal to extend the existing 40mph limit another
119 metres south of where the existing limit ends. The Parish Council were pleased that this was at last happening
and wondered why if they could extend it to the south they could not extend
it to the North. This had been
already mentioned in a letter sent to the HCC Highways Department. 2. The Boundary Committee for England – Periodic Electoral Review of Hampshire Council Council – Draft
Recommendations. Views were welcome
by 8th March 2004. The
Parish Council felt that there was nothing that was going to effect this
Parish so no views to express. 4. HAPTC – Legal Topic Note
30 (Revised) Nuisance. Copies were
available on request with a stamped addressed envelope. The Clerk was asked to order a copy. 5. B&DBC – Grants & Pension
- A discussion talk place about what grants Highclere & Penwood
Parish might be entitled to.
Councillor Drew would read through the document and see which grants
might be suitable for us. Several
that were on offer would not suit our area as we were far too small. The Clerk would ask for the application
forms and it would be an agenda item for the March meeting. 6. Basingstoke & District Training Consortium – Community Safety Awareness Workshop –
Thursday 4th March.
Councillor Drew expressed an interest in attending but there were no
times on the form. The Clerk would
find out and let him know. 7. B&DBC – Parish Council Tax Base 2004/05. The Council were surprised that there only seemed to be just over 58,000 houses in the B&DBC area. The Clerk would call B&DBC and find out if this was so. 8. HAPCT - Clerks’ Day Conference Sparsholt College – Tuesday 2nd March. The Clerk hoped to attend this meeting. 9.Community Safety – Work of the Anti-Social Behaviour Coordinator and the problem solving Group. Councillor East would like a copy. 10. SLCC – Regional one Day Conference – Quality Councils - 5th March. As the Clerk was already attending another conference that week she would not be able to attend this one. 11. HCC – Minerals and Waste Planning in Hampshire – Annual Report 2002/03. A summary from the annual report was included. Full copies were available at £12.50. The Council felt that this was not relevant to their area. 12. B&DBC – Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA). Following a recent CPA inspection B&DBC had now received its final report and score. They were delighted to announce the they had officially been rated as excellent by the Audit Commission. A full copy of the report is available on their website. 13. West Berkshire – Public Consultation on draft Park Way Planning Brief. Several of the Councillors had attended a meeting in Newbury where this was discussed. Subsequently the Chairman had also attended another meeting. It was noted that they were proposing more shops when several members of the Council felt that there always appeared to be empty units in the Kennett Centre. Surely it would be better to fill those before embarking on a very expensive building project for more. To help with the parking in Newbury and hopefully bring more people in there is a proposed Park & Ride scheme to operate from Greenham. Council Langan took the copy of the report. 14. HAPTC – Member’s Basic Allowances + outline lobbying letter. As the Council were not going to claim any allowances this was not relevant. They did feel though that it seemed unfair that coopted members could not claim for allowances. 15. HAPTC – Protocol on advice from HAPTC. At present only the Clerk or the Council chairman can make enquires on the Councils behalf. In instances when neither the Clerk or the Chairman are available to do this another Council member may request advise. 16. HAPTC – New version of the Model Financial Regulations. The Clerk was requested to send for a copy 17. HAPTC - Parish council 2004 Audit. Changes had been made to the annual audit. The deadline would now be earlier. Clerk had taken note of this fact. 18. B&DBC – A New approach to Traffic Calming. B&DBC were interested to hear council’s views on their traffic calming measure. Council East felt that though traffic calming measures could be a great help in some places, to many of them on the same stretch of road could cause traffic jams as the traffic would be going so slowly, so sometime it did not always help the flow of traffic. Councillors Drew and Farmer would discuss this and what improvements they felt could be made and then speak to Councillor East and report back at the next council meeting in March. 19. B&DBC – Rural Infrastructure Improvements. It appears that there is money available for such works as provision of new footways, rural bus shelters, notices boards and rural car parks. The Council felt that as there was a new bus stop at Blind Man’s Corner it would be a good idea to have a bus shelter. There had been talk about having the footpath extended through Highclere on several occasions before to make it easier to walk through the village. Schemes had to be in by 19th March, the Clerk would put forward proposals to B&DBC. 20. B&DBC – Local Plan Review – Availability of Representations. The local plan is now available to view in Parklands from February 2nd. Several Councillors expressed an interest in visiting it. The following
correspondence was available for the Councillors if they requested -
there were no comments arising. NHS - Kingsclere Locality Health Forum – next meeting date West Berkshire Council – Poster re Museum Local Councils News Sheet – January/February 2004 Farmers’ Markets 2004 Planning Hampshire’s Future – Winter 2004 The Playing Fields Association Safety Newsletter Avoiding Litigation – Playgrounds The Countryside Agency – Vital Villages Update 16/04 Penwood Village hall Lease This drawing up
and discussion of a new lease for Penwood Village Hall had now been dragging
on for many years. Initially when the
lease had expired before B&DBC would do anything about a new lease the
hall had to be brought back to a certain standard which was done. The Chairman
Councillor Pearson had spoken to the Solicitor dealing with this as we had
received his comments on the new lease in December and passed them onto the
village hall committee. Since then
the Chairman had sent a letter to the Chairman of the Village Hall
Committee. A discussion took place
and several suggestions were made. 1. Should we just
revert to the original lease which was very much simpler and only a couple of
pages, or 2. Should we take
the comments from the Solicitor and pass them onto B&DBC for inclusion or
deletion as indicated from the Solicitors comments. The Solicitor had pointed out that any comments and changes
should come from the Village Hall Committee as the Council were only
Custodians of the hall. The Solicitor
though it might be a good idea if he came and had a meeting with the Village
Hall Committee to go through the points he had raised. The Clerk would write to the Chairman of
the Village hall committee. 17/04 Update on Mobile Phone Masts and Emissions The Chairman
Councillor Pearson had spent some time communicating with B&DBC trying to
find out who could help us on this matter and had managed to get contact
names for a couple of the Mobile Phone companies. The Clerk had received an email from Orange suggesting a
meeting with themselves, Vodaphone and Three to discuss the local mobile
phone situation. It was suggested
that it might be a good idea to have them come to a Council meeting and they
could talk before the meeting started.
The Clerk would follow this up.
18/04 Bus Shelter Repairs The bus shelter at
Penwood was now about three years old.
Unfortunately it had been vandalised and one of the panels on one side
was broken and paint had been put on the back of the shelter. It was suggested that the back be painted
green. Councillor East would take
advice on what type of paint would be needed for it. The clerk would find out the cost of
repairing the panel. 19/04 Update on Village Plan Councillors’
Langan and Drew were now ready to complete the questionnaire that they had
been sent so would be doing that over the next few weeks. At this moment in time there was nothing
else to report. 20/04 Penwood Cross Roads Update There was concern
with the traffic calming bollards that had been put along the A343 at
Highclere as at night they were very difficult to see. The Council were still waiting a reply to
a letter sent to Keith Pauw in September 2003, when hopefully they would have
some answers to their questions. 21/04 Date and Format for the Annual Parish
Assembly It was suggested
that the Parish Assembly would be run on much the same lines as last year. The theme this year would be on recreation
and hopefully we would have several visitors from the recreational department
at B&DBC. As there are now two
community wardens we would invite them to attend the meeting and hopefully
have some input. The date of
Wednesday 28st April was suggested starting at 7.30pm. The meeting would hopefully last about one
hour and then refreshments would be served.
The Clerk would organise. 22/04 Accounts
for Payment The following accounts were passed for payment. W Bendle (litter warden) £172.53, C Corrall (litter warden) £155.76, D Mitchell (Parish Clerk salary) £478.00, HAPTC (Clerk training day) £38.00, SLCC (subscription) £73.00, 23/04 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 9th March 2004 in Highclere Village Hall, Jubilee Room at 7.30pm.
Planning committee meetings will be held as and when necessary.