ASSOCIATION OF PARISH & TOWN COUNCILS

MINUTES OF THE MEETING

Held on Tuesday 10th July 2018 At Village Hall PRESENT

Alastair Clark Chairman PC John Keane Vice Chairman TC David Jackson PC Simon Ambler Crookham Village PC Geoff Beaven Dogmersfield PC Adrian McNeil PC Jan Hyatt Elvetham Heath PC Marilyn Robson Elvetham Heath PC Peter Wildsmith Fleet TC Liz Ford PC, Long Sutton and Well and PC Patricia Hughes Hart DC Bob Aylmer PC Meyrick Williams PC Tony Spencer Yateley TC

18/431 Welcome and Introductions

All welcomed to the AGM at Rotherwick Village Hall.

18/432 Apologies

Apologies for absence were received from: Claire Inglis (on behalf of PC), David Bell ( PC), Jane Worlock (Hook PC), Steve Burridge (Rotherwick PC) and Andrew Renshaw (Winchfield PC).

18/433 Minutes of the Meeting held on 10th April 2018

The acceptance of the minutes was proposed by Marilyn Robson and seconded by John Keane and all being in agreement; they were duly signed as an accurate record of the meeting.

18/434 Matters arising from Minutes of the Last Meeting

There were no matters arising from the minutes of the last meeting.

18/435 Hart District Council Report and Update on Local Plan Inquiry and Adoption and Other Items of Interest

Patricia Hughes presented the Joint Chief Executive briefing and it is also given below.

HDAPTC Minutes 2018-07-10 v03 Issued 361 Hart District Council Report for HDAPTC July 2018

Peer Review

Further to the last meeting of HDAPTC, the Council has now considered the findings of the Peer Review and approved an action plan.

Thank you once again to those who took part in the discussion, it was really helpful to provide a rounded external view of how the Council operates.

The Peer Review noted that Hart benefited from strong parish and town councils and that these structures were helping support neighbourhood planning with seven communities across the district, working towards neighbourhood plans (with three already formally adopted)

The Peer Review noted that there were some perceptions that the council could do more to communicate effectively with Parish Councils. As part of this, I have been trying to get round to all the Town and Parish Councils and would like to formally thank the following for their hospitality so far;

Odiham, Yateley, Hook, Dogmersfield, , , Church Crookham and Winchfield

And I still plan to try to get round as many as possible!

In the meantime, we have revamped our Parish Newsletter. This is the third of our newly AC formed newsletters following on from the Peer Review. We’d like to check that the information is being shared with you all and seek feedback on the content?

Training

As you’ll see in the newsletter, we still have some further training opportunities that you may wish to take up, alongside our Councillors.

Hopefully you’ll have found the training so far, as useful addition to the training that you have available to you via HALC etc.

A request has been made with regard to whether Parish and Town Councils can join us for our regular training on Planning, Conservation and Licensing. We don’t see any significant barriers to this – albeit, this training has now been completed for this year – as it takes priority over all others, to enable Members to attend the relevant Committee. However, we are going to put in interim training later this year.

If Parish and Town Councillors and Clerks are keen on planning training in particular we might be able to arrange a bespoke opportunity later this autumn but we would need to guarantee attendance by all if this is to be cost effective and above all worthwhile.

Planning

Local Plan The Local Plan has been submitted to the Secretary of State for examination. The Inspector examining the Plan has been confirmed as Jonathan Manning. Mr Manning is a senior Inspector, who currently is examining the Breckland Local Plan and previously examined the East & West Sussex Minerals and Waste Plan. Officers have been liaising with our Programme Officer regarding Examination dates. Whilst nothing has yet been confirmed, we are expecting the hearings to take place over a 2-3 week period from mid-November.

HDAPTC Minutes 2018-07-10 v03 Issued 362 Pre-Application Contact Having discussed this with Nick Steevens we think it might be best if a small group of Parish Councillors met with him again because there are difficulties in finding a practical solution that would meet the needs of all parish and town councils without being too prescriptive or arbitrary. It could be picked up under the Charter which was suggested at the last meeting of HDAPTC in April.

Major Planning Appeals We have received the long awaited planning appeal against the refusal of 750 homes at Pale Lane – it is likely to be a 2 week public inquiry some time October. Because of the scale of the development it is common for the Secretary of State to make the final decision on such appeals which means that we probably won’t know the outcome until early in the New Year. We still have no indication of when the decision will be made and we are also still awaiting an appeal to be lodged against the refusal of planning permission for the retirement village in Crookham Village.

On street enforcement

HCC have decided that, subject to further negotiations, they wish to centralize existing on street parking arrangements. Historically Hart has (as have many district councils) run the on street parking enforcement under an agency agreement.

However, the funding HCC have provided to the council has dwindled over the years and the level of subsidy Hart has been making to this service has increased accordingly.

Cabinet agreed on Thursday that we should continue to negotiate with on the following basis

 That there would not be a significant increase in areas of the district covered by parking controls such as parking meters or permit schemes.

 That any additional income created through limited expansion of parking controls is offset against the current deficit in service costs, with payment to Hampshire County Council once this deficit is cleared.

It must be reflected that HCC may not wish to proceed on this basis as they believe that through increased use of permit scheme or other on street controls, they may be able to establish a service which is more cost effective.

Housing Growth

The MHCLG has invited all the Chief Executives across Hampshire to a meeting, with Homes with a view to discussing

 The ambitions to increase housing supply in the county of Hampshire  Challenges around planning for and delivery above Housing Need  The infrastructure required to unlock more land for housing  How MHCLG and Homes England can use funding and technical knowledge to support the delivery of more housing.

Both Daryl and I will be attending – it will be an interesting meeting, as each district and borough is in a very different place with regards to their Local Plans and delivery goals. However, we thought you might find it interesting to note the tone of the discussion.

HDAPTC Minutes 2018-07-10 v03 Issued 363 Ledbury Case – Standards Matters

The Monitoring Office is aware of the Ledbury Case and is considering the issues associated AC with it. Would HDAPTC like to nominate a couple of Members to meet with him?

Patricia Hughes Joint Chief Executive Hart District Council

Simon Ambler advised that a trip on the Canal is being organised and will be part funded by Hart District Council. Dates to be confirmed.

18/436 Hart Charter

There is currently one volunteer and it would be beneficial for an additional two clerks to get involved.

Ideas should go to Katie Bailey who is the Corporate Strategy and Policy Development Manager at Hart District Council.

It was also suggested the NALC ‘One Community’ could be a useful document for the Charter.

18/437 Joint GDPR Training between Hart/HDAPTC

It is on-going. Refer to section 18/438 question regarding GDPR training.

18/438 Parish Questions for Hart District Council

Q; Will the Peer Review outcome be sent out? A: It is on the website and it will be emailed out as well. Post meeting update: Peer Review Report and Draft Action Plan were emailed to Parish Clerks and Representatives on 15/07/2018.

Q: What is the status on Hart DC GDPR training? A: Current GDPR training has finished. New training in the Autumn will be advertised on the Hart Parish Link. Post meeting update: Hart Parish Link emailed to Parish Clerks and Representatives on 13/07/2018.

Q: Could questions unanswered in the Hart DC GDPR training be followed up post training course? A: The training course is limited to the package provided by the supplier.

Q: Do you think it is likely the date will slip for the inspection of the Local Plan submission? A: Hearing is currently expected to be mid-November.

Q: If Hart DC loses the Pale Lane appeal does it impact the Local Plan? A: No, Pale Lane is not included in the Local Plan but it would impact the New Settlement discussion.

Peter Wildsmith from Fleet TC provided a comment on street parking in the High Street, explaining that Fleet TC do not want to introduce significant additional controls on parking but the decision will be with Hampshire CC.

HDAPTC Minutes 2018-07-10 v03 Issued 364 18/439 Chairman’s Report

Hart District Association of Parish & Town Councils Annual Report - June 2018

Chairman Alastair Clark Secretary Melanie Pride

Our quarterly meetings this year have been well attended by representatives from our twenty one Parish and Town Councils and the Joint Chief Executives from Hart District Council.

As in previous years the Hart District Council Local Plan and housing numbers has continued to take up much of our time and has sadly created a certain amount of friction between the urban Parishes who do not want more housing and the rural Parishes who wish to protect their green fields from development.

The inclusion of a possible new rural community comprising several thousand dwellings which are, according to the current methodology of calculating housing numbers, not required will no doubt be thrashed out in front of the Government Inspector later this year with one Parish Council submitting many hundreds of pages of evidence against it. The need to increase the footfall in existing declining town centre shops versus the probable building of more out of town shopping centres with inducements such as free parking does not seem to carry much weight with planners and developers.

At our July 2017 meeting, which was attended by our local police Inspector, we received a moving presentation from a Parish Councillor and some of the local parents regarding the increase in drug dealing and other activities exploiting young people on our public open spaces in and around the local schools and community centres. The police listened very carefully, acknowledged that they were trying to address the problem and said that they needed much more community help to identify the problem areas together with cctv and other evidence. It was of course stressed that no personal risks should be taken by confronting the perpetrators.

Our Association, together with Fleet Town Council continues to have places on the Joint Management Committee and currently there is much discussion about transferring ownership of the canal from Hampshire and Surrey County Councils to the Canal and Rivers Trust but as always there may be costs involved.

Our January meeting received a report from the new Leader of Hart District Council regarding their new Corporate Plan and this was followed by an offer from Hart Council to invite the Parishes to attend District Councillor training sessions on GDPR.

The meeting held in April received a report and update on the provision of public transport in Hart and the hard work that has been undertaken by residents to work with the County Council and bus companies to maintain and improve the bus network in our area.

We are still awaiting a decision on the implementation of CIL which is being delayed until after the Local Plan has been adopted next year so at the moment Parishes are still not benefitting from this development levy which is a great pity.

As always we must record our appreciation for the support received from Officers and staff at HALC, Hampshire and Hart.

18/440 Treasurer’s Report and Approval of Audited Accounts

The accounts have been audited by our independent examiner, Mrs Claire Inglis.

The association finished the year with reserves of £568.06 an increase of over £100 from the

HDAPTC Minutes 2018-07-10 v03 Issued 365 previous year.

Expenditure remains static at £300 per year for secretarial services. Last year the full grant of £400 was received from HALC to cover the cost of a new laptop. This has now been ordered at a cost of £317 but has yet to be invoiced. As no unusual expenditure is anticipated in the coming year, I would suggest requesting a grant of £300 to cover the regular annual expenditure leaving reserves of around £250.

Jan Hyatt 25 June 2018

Post meeting note: Copies of the accounts were circulated in the meeting and will be attached to the email distributing the minutes. All agreed the accounts could be signed off.

18/441 Election of Officers and Representatives for 2018/2019

Two nomination forms were received and proposed the existing post holders continue for another year. On block this was unanimously agreed with all in favour that the posts continue as follows:

Chairman Alastair Clark Vice Chairman John Keane Treasurer Jan Hyatt Auditor Claire Inglis Representative on the Hart DC Standards Committee Alastair Clark Second representative on the Hart DC Standards Committee John Keane Third representative on the Hart DC Standards Committee Dave Argent Director on the Hampshire Association Board Alastair Clark Second representative on the Hampshire Association Board John Keane Third representative on the Hampshire Association Board Tony Spencer Fourth representative on the Hampshire Association Board vacant Representative on the Basingstoke Canal JMC Alastair Clark Rights of Way and Countryside Access Action Team Representative on the Hart DC Community Safety Partnership Alastair Clark

18/442 Secretary’s Comments

GDPR privacy policy for HDAPTC is work in progress. The intention is to have a short simple policy. Examples from other parishes that have already created a privacy policy will be considered as a template.

18/443 Parish Reports Comments and Feedback

The new process began and the parish reports were received, consolidated and circulated as a separate document prior to the meeting.

At the meeting there was an additional comment as follows:

 The new audit regime – there appears to be limited resources dealing with the submissions and SAAA seem to be struggling with the volume of work. One submission was reported as lost; others are sending theirs registered post for the hard copy and sending an electronic copy.

 The new Parish Reports process was considered favourable. HDAPTC Minutes 2018-07-10 v03 Issued 366 18/444 Hampshire Association and NALC Reports

Alastair Clark advised members that Steven Lugg, Chief Executive of HALC, is very ill in hospital and has been on sick leave for several months. Dawn Hamlett has been asked to temporarily stand-in as Chief Executive and, with the support of the office staff, they have been managing business as usual effectively. The work that had started on tidying up the Memorandum of Understanding and Articles of Association has been abandoned for now due to the amount of work involved.

The Communications Officer, Michelle Ledbetter left her role last week.

18/445 Reports from Other Organisations

Basingstoke Canal - The transfer of ownership and the financial implications from the County Council to the Canal River Trust is being considered.

18/446 Dates and Venues for future meetings

Tuesday 9th October 2018 – venue to be confirmed

Meeting closed at 20:43 hrs.

HDAPTC Minutes 2018-07-10 v03 Issued 367