Minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting and Parish Council Meeting Held at 7.30Pm on Monday 12Th March 2018 in Greys Village Hall, Greys Green
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ROTHERFIELD GREYS MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL PARISH MEETING AND PARISH COUNCIL MEETING TH HELD AT 7.30PM ON MONDAY 12 MARCH 2018 IN GREYS VILLAGE HALL, GREYS GREEN PRESENT: Susan Hems (Chairman) SH Michael Pearey (Vice-chairman) MP Nick Digby ND Richard Ovey RO For part of the meeting: David Bartholomew (OCC councillor) DB David Nimmo-Smith DNS Jane Pryce – Clerk JOP Members of the public/parishioners present for part/all of the meeting 3 Please note that page numbers start at the beginning of the year GAG = Greys Alert Grapevine email alert system CIL = Community Infrastructure Levy paid by developers to mitigate the impact of new houses. RFO = Responsible Financial Officer. The parish website is www.rotherfieldgreys.org.uk 1/18 APM minutes The minutes of the Annual Parish meeting held on 13th March 2017 were signed and dated by SH, as an accurate record. 2/18 Chairman’s Annual Report Cllr. Susan Hems We have held five meetings, each of which involved discussion of planning applications within and around our village. There have been 23 applications in total, each of which received due consideration. Nineteen has had ‘no strong views’, 3 have been approved and three we recommended for refusal – of these SODC refused one. One application was withdrawn, two were amended and re-submitted and three are awaiting a final SODC decision. The Highlands Farm development has again been a major source of consideration – it still has three applications in the planning stage, each of which we have refused: one for extra houses and another for over-large signage. The development is outside our parish but entry and exit to it is through our village and the increased traffic it will cause has been of great concern. To mitigate this increased traffic flow we have successfully erected new village gates with 30mph signs. While a little more tree clearance would increase their visibility, these are already having some effect at slowing the traffic. As planned, we have had a meeting with Harpsen PC to discuss part of the CIL (Community Instructure Levy) being passed to Rotherfield Greys for a pavement to protect villagers and 1 ROTHERFIELD GREYS MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL PARISH MEETING AND PARISH COUNCIL MEETING TH HELD AT 7.30PM ON MONDAY 12 MARCH 2018 IN GREYS VILLAGE HALL, GREYS GREEN walkers. We are now determined to take this request to Henley TC and to SODC to further advance our cause. On other matters: Our village website (www.rotherfieldgreys.org.uk) and alert service GAG (Greys Alert Grapevine) has been successful in communicating village events and are both proving popular. Our superfast Broadband is improving speeds near to the hub but should improve speeds for all us. We have carried out major repair work on our bus shelter/well housing, and are due to start much needed restoration work on the war memorial. This will begin in the spring and be finished in good time for the centenary ceremonies marking 100 years since Armistice Day on November 11th 1918. To mark this, the Church and PC are planning a village tribute beginning with a church service and traditional silence at 11am and culminating in the lighting of a beacon in the field opposite the church at 7pm. The PC have sponsored fireworks to celebrate and arranged for the Maltsters to be open for celebratory drinks and a BBQ. The Church can report successfully bringing the community together at Andrea’s Café (first Wednesday of the month), Bible Study groups on Monday and Thursday, and at the village Christmas lunch (98 out of a maximum of 100!). It is organising a new regular coffee morning for families involved with the Sue Ryder hospice, and can report that the Elizabeth Room has been busy hosting various groups including hand-bell ringers, chair caning and painting groups and the green gym. Structurally, the damp in the church’s vestry is the next problem to be targeted. Our parish council can report that we are to increase our social housing, with two new homes to be constructed in line with the Alms houses opposite the cricket pitch. These have been carefully designed to fit in attractively in this central location – with due consideration to the AONB. We can report three new ventures in the past year: the purchase and refurbishment of our village phone box is now underway; our village Boundary Walk (mid bluebell season) got off to a fine start last year and is to be repeated on April 22nd; and we’ve had a successful transition of our war memorial caretakers from Mr Denslow (who served 20 years and was duly rewarded) to Mr Green, our new and enthusiastic keeper. Our village spring clean was a great success last year, involving many villagers. And is to be repeated this year on March 18th (having been snowed off on the 4th). All thanks must go to councillors David Bartholomew as the Oxfordshire County Councillor and to Councillors David Nimmo-Smith and Charles Bailey for South Oxford District Council. To John Hill for his work restoring the War Memorial and Bus Shelter. To Nick Digby for taking on the role of Data Protection Officer; and to Richard Ovey for his deep knowledge of all things Rotherfield Greys. Also to Michael Pearey for excellent backup as vice-chairman. 2 ROTHERFIELD GREYS MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL PARISH MEETING AND PARISH COUNCIL MEETING TH HELD AT 7.30PM ON MONDAY 12 MARCH 2018 IN GREYS VILLAGE HALL, GREYS GREEN And finally, if I could thank our clerk, Jane Pryce, who does a tremendous amount to keep us on track and keep up momentum on all our worthwhile projects. It was agreed to add SH as a signatory for the bank. 3/18 Oxfordshire County Councillor’s Report The full report can be found on the website which details the subjects below: Annual Report 2018 to Rotherfield Greys Parish Council Responsibilities In addition to representing the interests of residents in the nine parishes in my Division and my place on Full Council, I am Cabinet Member for Finance & Communication. Parish Council Meetings Eight other parishes in addition to this one. Infrastructure Funding Bid Growth Deal Social Care Costs & Council Tax The rising cost of social care continues to put pressure on council tax. Household Waste Recycling Centre (HWRC) update When I first joined OCC, the HWRCs were under threat and it was planned to have just three centres for the whole of Oxfordshire. Our HWRC would have been in Didcot! I campaigned hard against this. In July OCC signed a new Household Waste Recycling Centre (HWRC) contract that secured all seven existing sites in the medium term, with no change to the sites opening hours or days. 1 million tonnes of rubbish transformed into energy at Ardley plant OCC and its partner Viridor have marked the one millionth tonne of residual waste received at Ardley during December. The Ardley plant converts black bin waste into electricity, rather than burying it in landfill. It produces enough energy to power 38,000 homes and can export up to 27MW per hour of electricity to the grid. Ox-Cam Expressway This is a massive government inventive to build a motorway standard road. And some garden towns along the way. The position of this is not known. Key Rotherfield Greys Issues I have kept you up-to-date on issues such as the closure of the A4155 and Caversham Quarry restarting and the third Reading Bridge. 4/18 South Oxfordshire District Councillor’s Report Planning permission for signage at Highlands Farm had been granted. Community grants (Capital grants) – these grants the District Council wants to be used to keep a community thriving. This is for major projects such as village halls and sports halls. This opens 15th March. And two other rounds opening in July and October (budget permitting). Councillor grants will be available from May. Grants of £10,000 had been allocated, which is £5,000 each councilor (Cllr Charles Bailey being the other) would be available. 3 ROTHERFIELD GREYS MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL PARISH MEETING AND PARISH COUNCIL MEETING TH HELD AT 7.30PM ON MONDAY 12 MARCH 2018 IN GREYS VILLAGE HALL, GREYS GREEN The South Oxfordshire District council tax went up by 4.5% this year which is the first time in 9 years. This amounts to £5 per household increase for a band D house. No increase in SODC car park charges in Henley. The Local Plan (for housing) which doesn’t effect this parish too much as it is protected by being in AONB. The major house building is more to north of the district running down from Thame to Great Milton round to Wallingford and across to Didcot. And Emmer Green. More enforcement needed and more people to make sure we keep on top of this. Questions were asked about the Lamb enforcement. Would it be a pub? Or a house? It should end up with something that the community and the District Council is happy with. But this is an on-going enforcement. The clerk asked if the bus shelter stone replacement be considered for a grant? This was confirmed. 5/18 War Memorial Annual Report Mr. Green was unable to attend. The clerk gave the following short report. The work on the war memorial has been agreed and deposit paid £2,917.99. The total cost is £7,294.80 (VAT £1,215.80). This is booked for spring. Many oak posts have been hit and replaced by John Hill and Mr. Green. Two vehicles going cross country through the triangle had been reported (with again, loss of oak posts).