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Home , Maiden Bradley, Stourhead, Stourton with Gasper, Warminster

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STOURTON WITH GASPER PARISH COUNCIL ANNUAL PARISH MEETING AT STOURTON MEMORIAL HALL 6.30 PM THURSDAY 17 MAY 2018 www.stourton.org.uk

PRESENT : Cllrs Mrs C Spencer (Chair), P Booth, R Higgs, N Hoare, D Marks. Mrs R Burrows (Clerk), Unitary Councillor G Jeans and 4 members of the public.

1. MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING held on 11 May 2017 were agreed and signed.

2. CHAIRMAN’S REPORT The Chairman reported on the Parish Council’s work throughout the past year. She thanked all the Parish Councillors for the time they give and their support for our community, George Jeans for his work for Stourton in Council and our Clerk, Ruth Burrows for her tremendously conscientious and tenacious work during the year.

3. STOURTON MEMORIAL HALL REPORT Cllr Richard Higgs read the report which had been provided by John Gallop.

4. KSCC REPORT Mr Charles Spencer read the report from David Barton of Kilmington and Stourton Cricket Club outlining their activities during the year.

5. WILTSHIRE COUNCILLOR JEANS’ REPORT Cllr G Jeans’ reported in his various activities throughout the year.

6. UPPER STOUR PARISH REPORT Crin Fearon’s report on St Peter’s Church was read to the meeting by Jane Joyce.

7. WHITESHEET ACADEMY REPORT Cllr Mrs Spencer read out highlights from the report.

8. WILTSHIRE WEST COMMUNITY POLICING TEAM – Peter Tscherniawski The Clerk said that no report had been received from the community policing team .

The Chairman thanked all the organisations which had submitted reports for this meeting; each report is available on our website.

9. OPEN SESSION

A member of the public thanked the Parish Council for all the work they had done for the community during the past year.

The meeting closed at 6.57 PM

Note: These are draft Minutes to be reviewed and formally ratified at the Annual Parish Meeting in 2019.

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STOURTON ANNUAL PARISH MEETING CHAIMAN’S REPORT - 17 MAY 2018

During the year the Parish Council has worked hard and spent a considerable amount of tax payers precept in efforts to control the speed of traffic in the village.

Stourton Lane the PC organised a metro count. The average speed of 9504 vehicles during a 14 day period last September was 36.3mph. This result comes within the permitted criteria and therefore Wilts Council did not feel any further action was required. However, in September the PC agreed to join with Kilmington and Parish Councils to form a consortium and apply for a grant from the South West Wilts Area Board towards the purchase of a Speed Indicator Device and, if successful, it would be used in Stourton Lane. The grant application was approved, the SID has been delivered and now Harry Parker is in charge of organising where it will be situated when Stourton has its turn to use it. To pay for the SID we had to take £200 from our reserves, and increase our precept by £350.

In addition, to make signs more visible, Harry Parker cut back many overgrown shrubs around the signs and landowners were contacted regarding cutting back hedges.

The missing “Stourton Lane” sign was eventually replaced in December.

White Line repainting: Some requested white line repainting in the village has been done, but despite the repeated efforts by our Clerk to arrange completion of this work on Stourton Lane the narrowing lines have still not been repainted. The contractors have now stated the road edges need to be made good before they will repaint the lines and we are hoping to arrange for our Parish Steward to do this when we have a date for the contractors to do the work. We will not be paying for any of the work until everything has been done.

B3092: Following a serious road traffic accident on the stretch of road outside Drove Lodge and a request from one of our residents that something be done to reduce the speed limit on this road, PC action ensured this was given priority by the Community Area Transport Group. The speed limit request was refused by WC, but the possibility of improving road safety by preventing overtaking is being investigated. WC deems it necessary to survey the whole section of the B3092 from to Zeals to see if double white (no overtaking) lines would be a viable proposition and CATG has confirmed the cost for the survey has been approved.

Bells Lane: Following the approval of the National Trust’s planning application for a woodchip operation in Bells Lane, the residents have high-lighted their concerns about the amount and speed of traffic using this lane. In addition to the vehicles for the store, it is used as a local “rat run” and a large amount of traffic at times uses it to access the overflow NT car park. We have been in contact with Wilts Council and expect additional signage in the form of large SLOW circles will be painted on both sides of the road during the next few months.

WC Winter Salt Scheme We experienced difficulties with the supply of salt that we ordered last October but the Clerk will ensure that a Snow Plan is signed off prior to next winter. We expect this will avoid a repeat of the problems experienced and we will continue to work alongside the National Trust to keep the majority of the roads clear of snow.

Website Many thanks to Cllr Nick Hoare who has designed and implemented our new website 3 www.stourton.org.uk which replaces the one set up originally via HugoFox. Nick will be our webmaster and will ensure all our agendas, minutes and notices are displayed and kept up to date. I’d also like to thank Nick for the lamination of agendas and minutes which are put on the Home Farm notice board.

Public Access Defibrillator Following a switch to E.On for the supply of electricity to the kiosk we have saved approximately half of the cost of our electricity over the past year. In January we set up a 4 year maintenance contract with the suppliers. Many thanks to Cllr Pat Booth who has taken on responsibility for the defibrillator and provides monthly check reports to Community Heartbeat.

Donations The Council makes donations to Mere Link Scheme, St Peters LCC and The Parish Magazine.

Councillors We are sad to lose Harry Parker who decided the time had come to leave the council after 33 years as councillor and the last ten years as chairman of the council. We are very grateful for his contributions to Stourton during that time – and thank him for volunteering to continue managing the SID in future. I’d also like to thank Audrey Hoare for all her work for the village in her time as councillor. She too has decided to relinquish her role as parish councillor. We will be co-opting two new councillors.

Parish Steward We are very grateful to Cllr David Marks who continues to liaise with our Parish Steward and is regularly monitoring and checking that we make full use of his time. David has also refurbished our noticeboard and cleared the footpath which runs from the bus shelter out to the B3092 which had become extremely overgrown and impassable in some sections. He has also done some repairs on the bus shelter. I thank him very much for all that he does.

I’d like to thank all our Parish Councillors for the time they give and their support for our community, George Jeans for his work for Stourton in and our clerk Ruth Burrows for her tremendously conscientious and tenacious work during the year, in particular her persistent efforts to get all the various road issues sorted out.

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Report by Stourton Memorial Hall to the Annual Parish Meeting (due to be held on 17 May 2018)

11/5/18

The Stourton Memorial Hall (SMH) is a registered charity. SMH lease and Trust Deed d. 21/12/1973: “The demised premises shall be held upon trust for the purposes of a village hall for the use of the inhabitants of the parish of Stourton in the County of Wilts without distinction of political religious or other opinions including use for meetings, lectures and classes and for other forms of recreation and leisure time occupation with the objective of improving the conditions of life for the said inhabitants.”

The calendar year 2017 was very good for the hall and for the benefit of local residents. The big events included the annual village show and a fireworks party for the village. Regular events such as Friday Zumba continued along with Film Nights. Surplus funds led the SMH committee to begin a programme of charitable grant making, to further deliver the objectives of the SMH We started by placing an advert in the parish magazine looking for local worthy candidates/causes in need of some financial help. We gave away a total of £2,263 in 2017 mainly for training, education and sport for local youth, but also funded a new ‘clapper’ for a bell at St Peters.

Local residents also benefitted by using the hall for parties and weddings at heavily discounted rates – for example we were pleased to be able to accommodate Jeremy Davis’s birthday party.

The total cost of running the hall is currently approximately £17,000 per annum although this increases in any year if we decide to upgrade equipment. In 2017 our income was £21,000 which included £4,000 of donations from Hoares Bank’s Golden Bottle Trust and also £8,500 of income from wedding bookings. In 2018 the wedding income is drastically reduced and (unless more weddings are booked for this year) has fallen to £3,500. We don’t know why this is the case but other village halls report the same problem. We are investigating advertising.

As a result of the fall in wedding hires we have suspended the charitable grant giving for 2018 and will not re-run the fireworks event this year. That said, the village show is being held on Sunday 12 th August (note - one week later than previous years), and also a winter village feast free to all villagers on Saturday 8 th December.

A villager has just found a Pilates teacher and a new Pilates class is starting on Monday afternoons.

John Parfitt who has run the hall as our manager for several years decided to stand down – we are very grateful for everything he has done. We have taken on Helen Baker (who also runs the Friday Zumba class) as the new manager – early days, but she is doing really well. Julia Ledbury continues to give sterling service as our cleaner and is also the ‘face’ of the hall for most of the hires.

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Audrey Hoare remains our chair, whilst other committee members are Chris Topham (secretary), Johnnie Gallop (treasurer), Richard Higgs, Graham Puxley, Sarah Bolshaw, Louise Harris, and Charlotte Toop. Our recent AGM saw the re-election of the committee and was attended by a good number of local villagers. The committee were very grateful indeed for the support.

The SMH would very much like to work in close partnership with the Parish Council, especially with regard to future grant giving (we hope to re-open the scheme when funds allow), and any other suggestions/ideas.

We wish you a successful annual meeting and apologise for not being able to deliver this report in person.

Best wishes,

The SMH committee.

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KSCC 2017/2018 In the 2017 season KSCC ran 3 adult teams and 6 junior sides. Club membership was similar to previous seasons, approximately 90 members (65 below the age of 17). The club is run almost entirely by volunteers, with only one person paid to help with groundwork for a few hours per week.

The 1 st and 2 nd XIs play in the league on Saturdays. There is a Sunday XI which plays friendly matches 1 or 2 times per month. A Tuesday/Wednesday evening side playing local teams is 20 over matches has been revived for 2018.

The junior teams consist of U9s, U11s, U12s, U13s, U15s and U19s (2018). In addition the ground is used for District Matches by the North Cricket Association (which organises games against other districts in Dorset for U10 to U13 age groups), there will be 5 of these games in 2018. In 2017 the ground was also by used for Dorset U14s (4 games), Somerset Over 50s (1 game) and Somerset Over 70s (1 game).

The club maintains close links with local primary schools, in particular Whitesheet, St Georges, Bourton, Wyke and Milton on Stour. We held a cricket tournament for teams in years 5 and 6 each year during the summer term 2017.

During 2017 work was required to repair the pavilion floor and steps (£7500). The cost of refurbishing the pitch and nets was approximately £11,000. The following organisations contributed to the refurbishment of artificial surfaces: Wiltshire Council £5000 Stourton Parish Council £3400 Kilmington Parish Council £1600 Tesco (Bags of Help) £1000

Pavilion repairs: Stourton Parish Council £2400 and Wales Cricket Board £3000 KSCC £2100

We are very grateful for the support of all these organisations.

Our gang mowers were stolen in August 2017. We have has support from the following to replace them: Landfill Communities Fund £2500 Wiltshire Council £1000 Co-op Communties Fund £760

In addition we have invested in training and match equipment in recent months to the tune of £2200 with support from Wiltshire Council (Youth Communities Fund) £1700 and Donald Kennington (£500). We would not be able to make these expenditures without this support. Increasing membership fees to cover these types of purchases is not a realistic proposition.

David Barton (Chair) May 2018 7

Cllr George Jeans’ 2018 Annual Report

Wiltshire Council last year this time was in Purdah, a period that runs for six weeks. Mere Division. Mere had the highest turnout this election for Wiltshire Council at 57.86 with 2010 persons voting. Of the surrounding village parish councils Stourton has been most interesting where ten percent of the population put up to sit on The Stourton Parish Council. I am told the next four years will be the most difficult period for recently elected councillors in recent history. 45 million pounds in cash will need be saved in the next four years against maintaining safeguarding for children and an ageing population.

It saddens me the Mere branch of Lloyds Bank which is adjacent to The Old Ship that has also closed and will now all become private housing taking some of the vibrancy from the heart of Mere. I have supported our local car parks to be free to help keep some vibrancy. I admit it is a challenge, to draw a comparison car parks were underused, now after recent events they are free and they are full to overflowing, with many people and vibrancy however a balance has to be maintained. The Wiltshire Council are now proposing Salisbury Car Parks be free between 10 and 4, thereby discouraging those coming to work in the Cathedral City. Since the Mere Town Council relined the Salisbury Street Car Park, its 77 spaces seem to be sufficient, however with the Hill Brush Site development this may increase the spaces required. For one reason it is for infrastructure requirements as above that I cannot support the application for about 130 dwellings on Gillingham Corner. A Gillingham now suggest with banks and shops closing in the high street to implement some free parking.

I have been encouraging as have my fellow Area Board Councillors the local parish and town councils I attend, to allow and promote very small social housing schemes in the same vein as that developed in recent years at Gasper to house local workers and those with local connections. In my opinion Gasper has been very successful. In decades to come, if such housing is not allowed, it is unlikely any key workers will be able to afford to live in our rural area. The Wiltshire Council housing needs survey is so complex in my opinion it does not give an accurate picture. Others and I locally are aware of the situation and a locally developed housing needs survey is required, which I will encourage Mere Town Council and other parishes to do. To make it clear all I am promoting is very small schemes,that are controlled for local workers or those with local connections.

Develop Planning for which I sit on the Southern Area Committee, meetings are now brought forward to 3pm rather than 6pm as is now, this may be more difficult for working people to attend.

The South West Area Board have helped finance two minibuses, which are mainly for youth use, however can be used for other community functions. I have taken some sheltered housing residence and young people (Brownies and Guides) plus “Youth Club” members by minibus. Community busses in Europe are not possible without an operators licence, the UK has an exception. This has been questioned at national level, I have sent letters of support for our UK system, it appears common sense may prevail

The mini recycling site was closed on the 17 th July, last year in Mere Salisbury Street car park. You now need a utility bill or like when attending recycling sites, therefore you will need stay in your own county, now being the closes. The good news is from July I am informed, your black box will be for glass only, however most plastics except black plastic will be able to be placed in the blue recycling bin. The collection days or times may change. 8

South Community Safety Group meet four times a year, with invited representatives from and Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service. Being the Area Board representative I chair the meetings.

I attended a passing out function of Salamander last July at Mere Fire Station. The primary aim of Salamander is to work with young people in Wiltshire and provide them with experiences that will help them to learn new life skills and gain confidence. However, in recent years, the remit has been expanded and now work with a variety of organisations across the public, voluntary and private sectors. The South West Wiltshire Board helped provide funding and I was very impressed how in a week, a group of young people had been brought together to function as a team, operating professional equipment, working at heights and so on. This is a well worthy use of public funds and services in my opinion.

The Gillingham Corner Junction in Mere could pose danger for those walking back to Mere, a hedge has been cut back and The Area Board CATG are looking at further measures, it is one of their top 5 priorities.

Thank you and any questions please.

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St. Peter’s Church

I am very pleased to be able to report that at long last, all the building and roofing works at St. Peter’s Church have now finished, and, just as important, we have the funds to make the final payment. Even after some tremendous rain a few weeks ago, the church is still as dry as a bone!

Building works started on 3 January, and we were set fair for a May completion with Bishop Ed booked to bless the roof, when we discovered that the roof of the South Chapel was held up only by the internal plasterwork. Just when everything else was finished, and clean, we had to demolish and completely rebuild the Chapel.

Now St. Peter’s has a lovely new lead roof (and a state of the ark alarm system, which rings in a call centre in , who then call me – there is no audible alarm). The bells have been restored; we have a new bell; new ropes and, thanks to a grant from the Stourton Memorial Hall, we have a new clapper for the new bell. We are very grateful to all for their generous support.

More importantly, our worship has continued with barely a break: our monthly services are always well attended, and we enjoyed special services with Bishop Edward, and with Bishop Nicholas, who did a turn at ringing the bells. We celebrated Ascension with a choral evensong; we held the Remembrance Day service and we also held the traditional Carol Service on Christmas Eve.

During the year, we have welcomed 7 new babies into our church family; started 12 young couples in their new lives together; and helped 3 families mourn loved ones. In particular, we will miss Elizabeth Bullivant, who died at end of the year. Hers was the inspiration behind the (originally twice) yearly Flower Festivals – once with rhododendrons in May and once in September with hydrangeas, a speciality of Stourton House, in memory of her husband, Colonel Anthony Bullivant. We are very grateful to the NT for generously allowing us to pick flowers from the Gardens for the May Flower Gala, and for the mowing of the churchyard.

Both Jane and I are extremely grateful to everyone on Stourton LCC who support us so well, especially Betty and Dennis Chapple, for their tireless work on behalf of the church. We are very grateful to the Parish Council for their support. CRIN FEARON 15 May 2018 10

Report from Whitesheet School May 2018

This has been an encouraging year of change for the School. Our interim Head left us in December having done an excellent job of establishing the School on a firmer footing. In January we welcomed our new permanent Head of School - Vanessa Higgins. She was warmly welcomed at a service in Zeals Church which was well attended by children, parents and church members. The Bishop of Ramsbury formally commissioned Vanessa during the service.

The Spring Term was busy with Aimee Brown Key Stage 1 Teacher leaving to take up a new position after many years’ service at the School and a longstanding teaching assistant retiring to focus on family commitments. Mrs Edmed, who had been teaching in Key Stage 2, moved in to Key Stage 1 as the new class teacher and Head of Early Years. Mrs Edmed has spent many years teaching Key Stage 1 and she is a fully qualified Forest School Teacher. Mrs Edmed is currently delivering Forest School to Key Stage 1 and we are very excited about her plans to develop an outside area at the Kilmington Site as a Forest School Teaching space. Key Stage 2 are currently being taught by Mr Carpenter on s short –term contract until the end of the summer. The position of a permanent teacher for Key Stage is currently being advertised – interviews will take place on Tuesday 22 nd May; this is a key appointment for us and we intend to make sure that we secure the very best teacher for this position.

The site at Kilmington has been kept in good order with a recent ‘Family Clear-Up’ day – this was very well attended and there was a great sense of community spirit as everyone worked hard to re-fresh inside and out ready for use. We have had a number of curriculum days at the Kilmington site – Dragon Chasing and the Great Americas were enjoyed by both the children and families. The Kilmington School site will continue to be used for Curriculum days, alongside ‘Challenge and Chance’ activity days. We are very pleased that the kitchen at Kilmington is now in full-time use providing meals for our children at Whitesheet. The site is also available for community use and is an excellent environment for a range of activities.

We are in need of more Governors to play an active part on our Local Governing Board – it is a very exciting time in the school’s development to become a Governor. The Chair of Governors would welcome any enquiries and is available to discuss with anyone interested the role of governors and the part they play in the life of the School.

We continue to receive advice and guidance from our Academy (DSAT) who are working with us securing the future of the School and working to continue to raise standards. Jane Dhillon-Delany our Hub Improvement Lead is working one day every 2 weeks in school with the Head of School on strategic development and planning. DSAT also provide excellent training opportunities for all staff to further their professional development.

‘Talk for Writing’ a programme by Pie Corbett has been introduced this year to raise standards in children’s writing – it has been a huge success so far and we have been 11

delighted to see significant improvements in all children’s writing. All staff are working hard to ensure that children are set appropriately challenging targets to ensure that progress remains high. The number of children working at Age Related Expectations and above in the core curriculum areas is increasing and we are now really pleased to see more children working at Greater Depth.

The development of the Foundation Curriculum is now our key focus as we move into the summer term. We have made the decision to invest in the Cornerstones Curriculum Design which will provide an exciting and stimulating platform for children’s learning in the foundation subjects – their curiosity and desire to learn will be fuelled by such topic titles as ‘ ‘Scrumdiddlyumptious’ and ‘Potions’ – it has been used to great effect in many other DSAT schools and we are can’t wait to get started! Extra-curricular activities offered to the children continue to grow as we run sessions with both specialist coaches and staff after-school. Year 6 pupils all recently passed their cycling proficiency - hopefully we will start to an increasing number of them cycling to school and for pleasure. The school pool has had a makeover with a generous donation from the Zeals Youth Trust and we are all looking forward to taking a dip as the weather continues to improve.

We are very lucky to be supported by a fantastic group of parents and our ‘Friends’ group continues to work tirelessly to raise money through brilliant fund-raising events - we are very grateful for their tireless commitment and enthusiasm.

All in all….this has been a great year so far and we look forward to exciting times ahead as our school continues to grow in strength and numbers.