Cllr Maxwell has written to the Clerk, expressing his wish to stand down as Chairman of the Parish Council. He has been Chairman since February 2003 and feels it is now time to let someone else take over. He does, however, wish to remain on the Parish Council.
Cllr Maxwell proposed Cllr Johnson, currently Vice Chairman, be appointed as Chairman. This proposal was seconded by Cllr Ross and agreed by the meeting. Cllr Johnson signed the relevant Declaration of Acceptance of Office of Chairman and took over the meeting. He thanked Cllr Maxwell for all he has done during his time as Chairman. Cllr Johnson will remain as Chairman of the Planning Committee.
The Chairman then invited John Angle to address the Council about the recent meeting held for those interested in forming a team to produce a Parish Plan. There was £187.62 left over after publication of the Village Design Statement and it was agreed that the Council would make this up to £200 and would donate it towards the cost of hiring a hall for meetings. The Clerk will speak to Simon Carter with a view to getting Parish Plan information on the Parish website.
The Minutes were accepted as a true record of the January meeting and were duly signed by the Chairman.
Cllr Maxwell has been told that any villages who want a 20 miles per hour speed limit can have it, but it may take up to 2 years to get it. Cllr Sanders thought it would be good if Highclere and East Woodhay Parishes could work together on the issue of speed.*
*ACTION: CHAIRMAN TO SPEAK TO HIGHCLERE PARISH COUNCIL ABOUT THE PENWOOD CROSSROADS.There are now only a few copies of the Village Design Statement waiting to be delivered to the more outlying properties in the Parish.
Cllr Johnson has responded to the 'Emerging Planning Guidance' from Basingstoke and Deane, which details the proposed changes to the planning documents on Design and Sustainability and Landscape and Biodiversity. He feels that the current documents are generally sufficient. However, he feels there is room for improvement on the 'design' aspect. Cllr Johnson feels the best way forward would be to keep guidance to a minimum and leave more room for 'discretion' in judging planning applications against the policies in the Local Plan. Cllr Sanders said he had told Basingstoke that he felt the document was too long, but he too felt it was important that Parishes respond with their views.
The South East Plan is at the Examination in Public stage. Cllr Johnson sought the views of Cllr Sanders and Cllr Maxwell as to whether it was still possible to raise again our objection to East Woodhay being included in the Western Corridor development. He wondered if Basingstoke and Deane would also be speaking, and Cllr Sanders confirmed that they would. Cllr Sanders said that we should write to Nicki Linihan-Mardon to express our concerns.*
*ACTION: CLLR JOHNSON TO DO THIS, COPIES TO HORACE MITCHELL (HIGHCLERE BC), CLIVE SANDERS (EAST WOODHAY BC) AND JOHN MAXWELL (CHAIRMAN, HAT, HCC).A planning application has been received to demolish the Garden House in Hollington Lane and build a large 5 bedroom house on the site of the former Herb Garden. A previous similar application was allowed on appeal. Access here could be a problem, as the road is very narrow and there are concerns of damage to verges etc. after the experience of damage in connection with the construction of Hayes at North End (see comments below under Highways).
Cllr Sanders was concerned about the access to sites where development is taking place. He felt that there should be a condition in the application which states the route vehicles should take when accessing the site. There are several areas in the Parish where damage is being caused to verges and roads by large, heavy vehicles travelling up narrow lanes which are unsuitable. He felt that there should be some Section 106 conditions attached too.
In light of all the work being carried out at Hollington House, Cllr Johnson felt it would be a good idea for some of the Parish Council to request a visit to the site in order to review progress. If there are any concerns as a result of this visit, then it may be necessary to ask Basingstoke and Deane to come and have a look, particularly in view of the property being listed. An amended application has been received to build an extension to the Manager's House.
Cllr Johnson attended the Telecoms Roll-out Meeting at Basingstoke at the end of January. He reported that the Telecoms Team will require a suitable site to be identified in Woolton Hill some time in the near future.
Cllr Kyle-Lawrence reported on progress regarding refurbishment of the playgrounds in the Parish. She was disappointed to be told that it was necessary to have 3 quotations for the work, having believed that everything was now in order and ready to go ahead. Apart from Basingstoke, one further company has been found, and Cllr Kyle-Lawrence is actively seeking one more as soon as possible as the Community First monies need to be claimed before the end of March.
A meeting is due to take place tomorrow afternoon at 2.30 p.m. regarding the siting of the glass recycling bins near Masons Court. Residents local to the site have been informed. They are currently scheduled to be emptied fortnightly, but this can be changed to weekly if required. Cllr Sanders wondered what was wrong with siting the bins at the Recreation Ground, but Cllr Kyle-Lawrence felt this was a bad idea. The Council will await the outcome of tomorrow's meeting. Either way, there will need to be a formal planning application submitted before the bins can be installed anywhere.
Hampshire IT people now have access to the CCTV, and training is taking place. The Chairman thanked Cllr Kernahan for all his hard work on this project.
Cllr Maxwell has spoken to the gentleman who has been illegally parking his cars in the car park at the Recreation Ground. The gentleman apologised, and it has not happened again since Cllr Sanders updated the meeting on the situation in The Chase, where a sewage pipe has burst, the second leak in the space of a few months. The burst pipe is 36 years old, and 9 metres of it has split. The Environment Agency does not know the level of the pollution, but believes it is less than before. Thames Water are considering whether it is necessary to replace much of the pipes. If so this could cause much disruption around the area of Penwood Crossroads.
No additional problems have been identified since the last meeting. The dip in the road near the tennis court has not yet been repaired, and the broken finger post sign at Blindmans Gate has not been replaced. However, the hole in the road outside the Hitchmans Yard site has been filled in. Traffic accessing Hayes is destroying chunks of the road in North End. Cllr Sanders is speaking with the Area Surveyor, Steve Goodall, and the site manager at Hayes about this. He also has PC Matt Deery looking at the situation to see if the road can be closed off as unsafe. Many local residents are complaining, but no- one seems to be taking responsibility.
Cllr Sanders feels that the Safer Routes to Schools scheme needs addressing. The schools have clear views on the matter, and the situation needs resolving. The Chairman felt that a special meeting should be held to enable the relevant people to discuss the situation in detail. Cllr Kyle-Lawrence felt that the issue was not speed but dangerous driving, with cars going onto the pavement. Cllr Sanders felt it was both a speed and dangerous driving issue, which needed to be resolved in terms of the lay-out of the road. The 14th March was suggested as a suitable date for a meeting.*
*ACTION: CLLR SANDERS TO LIAISE WITH SCHOOL HEADS RE SUGGESTED DATE AND SUITABLE VENUE.A list of income and expenditure was presented and cheques duly signed.
Cllr Powell showed the meeting a picture of the planned Twinning Sign. It is proposed to put up two signs, one at Blindmans Gate and one at the other entrance to Woolton Hill, near the Gainsborough Stud crossroads. She asked if the Parish Council would pay for the addition two flags on the sign, at a cost of £160. The meeting agreed to sponsor this with a donation of £200. Cllr Sanders asked of it would be possible to also have a Woolton Hill sign around Blindmans Gate. There are two on the road from Ball Hill into Woolton Hill, and one of them could be moved. All were happy for him to arrange this.
Cllr Powell also asked for a donation for the Silver Band towards the cost of their Corn Exchange Concert. The meeting agreed to a donation of £100.*
*ACTION: CLERK TO ARRANGE DONATIONS.The Clerk left the room while the meeting discussed her salary increase. She had provided copies of the relevant information and recommendations from HAPTC. The meeting agreed to the increase as recommended in the documentation.
She has signed up to be part of the 'Community Responders' team, a group of volunteers who will be trained up to be called upon in case of emergencies, including use of defibrillators. The team will cover the area from Wash Common to North End, Ball Hill to Highclere.
The Boundary Committee has made suggestions to reduce the number of Councillors in Basingstoke and Deane. They have recommended that the area covering East Woodhay, Highclere and Ashmansworth Parishes be amalgamated and have two Borough Councillors instead of the current three. The aim is to have as close to 1900 voters per Councillor as possible. The recommendations are out for consultation, but are unlikely to change.
The Clerk informed the meeting of the various documents she had received since the last meeting, and Councillors were given the opportunity to peruse these.
The field is now let to Mrs. Joyce Kidd. A cheque for £500 for the first year's rental has been received, as well as a cheque for £130 towards the fees incurred in getting Dreweatt Neate to draw up the lease agreement.
In the absence of PC Matt Deery, Cllr Sanders gave a short report. It is possible that rural policing may be removed, and may instead be based at Basingstoke rather than Whitchurch, where it is at present. A study of the balance of rural and urban policing is currently being carried out. Cllr Sanders and James Lewin, Borough Councillor for Burghclere, have written to complain about this. There was a report in the recent Basingstoke Gazette, and Cllr Sanders suggested getting a copy in order that the Council can respond.
Norman Powers gave a short report in his capacity as Parish Footpaths Officer. Hampshire County Council would like to change all the stiles to gates, and Norman provided photographs of the sort of gates which are being recommended. There are very few places along the Parish footpaths which comply with the new recommendations, and many of the existing stiles are quite wobbly. The Chairman asked whose responsibility it was to ensure the existing stiles were safe, and Norman confirmed that it was the responsibility of the landowner to maintain them in a safe state. If Norman finds any which are unsafe, he usually passes the details on to Hampshire Footpaths for them to contact the landowner direct. Cllr Maxwell informed the meeting that Hampshire's budget for footpaths works out at around £11 per footpath per annum, which is nowhere near enough to replace the stiles. It was suggested that landowners be approach to replace any which are unsafe with new gates. Cllr Sanders wondered if it would be possible to carry out an inventory of the footpaths to see how many there actually are, while at the same time identifying which need replacing. Cllr Maxwell volunteered to split the Parish into around 6 chunks in order to make it easy to carry out this task.*
*ACTION: CLLR MAXWELL TO ORGANISE.It has been noticed that the No. 44 Bridleway us currently blocked. Norman was unaware of this, but has promised to investigate. He may need to get Hampshire to come and remove the trees.
This will take place on Tuesday 24th April. There will be no speaker, but the Clerk will try to persuade some local organisations to do a table display.