Houghton Conquest Parish Council

HOUGHTON CONQUEST PARISH COUNCIL Annual Parish Meeting 12th March 2020 at 7pm AT THE VILLAGE HALL, HIGH STREET, HOUGHTON CONQUEST Present: PCllr L Lovell, PCllr S Beaumont, PCllr M Dobson, PCllr T Fry, PCllr H Quinn, PCllr P Bullock, Mrs G Wiggs (Clerk), 2 members of the public 1. APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE PC Dagley, P/UCllr R Hares, PCllr J Lay, PCllr B Whittaker 2. CHAIRMANS REPORT PCllr Liz Lovell: There has some significant changes to the members of your Parish Council with an almost complete change of personnel and we currently have one vacancy which we need to fill so if anyone present would like to join just let Gill know and she will advise you as to the next steps. Your Parish Council has worked hard over the past year to try and address the issues and concerns raised by residents. In some areas we have succeeded but others continue to rumble on. Traffic and speeding continue to be the major concern in the village. The road closures and increased vehicle numbers as the new housing fills up has fed into this. Hopefully the reopening of the A6 will reduce the number of heavy vehicles coming through the village. Your Parish Council have ordered a speed indicator device which will be used not only to inform drivers of their speed but also to collect data on vehicle movements. A recent police traffic management data collection exercise on Bedford Road showed 93% compliance with speed limits and it was suggested that our current traffic calming measures were sufficient so it will be interesting to see what the new devices reveal. If the trial is a success, we will purchase more devices in the future. The direction of the Bedford Road chicane is an ongoing issue which UCllr Hares is working to resolve. The new play equipment was successfully installed and has been well used and much appreciated by the children in the village. The youth have benefitted from a new shelter on the playing field near to the skatepark. Unfortunately, the skatepark itself is still waiting for some extensive repairs due to damage caused by vandalism. This is ongoing with quotes being sought. The Pavilion is currently being refurbished and refreshed in a project worth several thousand pounds. The works are partly required due to vandalism and in view of this we are reconsidering the positioning of the proposed MUGA. Two new bus shelters have been installed with two more proposed. These have been funded and installed by Central Bedfordshire Council using S106 monies paid by local property developers. In a first for the village Christmas lights were purchased and switched on in time for Christmas 2019. Monies have been set aside to expand them this year. We would like to thank Lisa Frangiamore for all her work to make this happen. Later this year, in May, we will be celebrating VE Day in the village at an event managed by our volunteer committee headed up by Rose Brooks and Emily Durdahl. Let’s hope we have an amazing turnout and make this an event we will remember for years to come. Your Parish Council are also looking at what can be done in response to the Climate Change Emergency and, in conjunction with Central Beds Council, hope to put forward a plan with guidance to help any resident who wishes to help reverse the process. We would like to thank all those members of the public who have raised issues over the past year and hope that we have gone someway to help resolve them. Thanks, are also due to George Maxted for continuing to litter pick and keep our noticeboards up to date. On a personal note I would like to thank Gill Wiggs for her outstanding support of the Parish Council and of her understanding and patience with what I am sure has at times been a very trying new set of Parish Councillors. I would also like to thank all of the volunteers who have been part of the Parish Council over the past year and I look forward to working with you all in the future. 3. REPORTS FROM REPRESENTATIVES Village Hall The Village Hall continues to host many groups, societies and activities for the village and surrounding areas. Regular groups include WI, Pioneers, Rainbows and Brownies, Whist, Carpet Bowls, Line Dancing, Baby Sensory, Quai Kwon Do, Garden Club, Art Society and others throughout the week. 1 These groups, with their rental of the hall go some way to meeting the running costs. However, the hall relies on more than just the regular meetings like these and weekend hirings for specific fundraising events, charity events and other social activities are a very important part of the funding. The year ended last March (2019) with a small surplus, unlike the previous year. This was as a result of a number of successful bookings such as the “Raise the Roof” event, where whilst the ticket sales and proceeds from raffles etc went to the Church Roof Fund, the Village Hall bar did a roaring trade and the profits made a welcome addition to Hall funds. It is events like this that are needed several times a year in order to keep the Hall running and maintain and update the facilities available. In addition, there were other private functions - christenings, wedding anniversaries, parties and charity quizzes etc – that also helped towards the 2018_19 surplus and hopefully towards a 2019_20 surplus too. It was agreed at the last Village Hall AGM to re-focus meetings, hold them less frequently and concentrate them on the business of the meeting, rather than the activities of the various groups. The current year has seen a successful Race Night – specifically for fundraising – a great New Year’s Eve party night, the annual Village Hall Quiz and a joint quiz held by the Care Group and the Garden Club. The Art Society held their “Big Paint” and the Whist Club have always been successful in contributing through their regular whist evenings and various raffles. The surpluses made by the Village Hall, topped up by a number of grants, have seen a number of improvements made in recent times – notably the resurfaced car park and over the last 2 years, the resurfacing and subsequent repair of the Village Hall floor. New blinds have replaced old and worn curtains at all the smaller windows and plans are in place – grants permitting – for the replacement of the stage curtains and some refurbishment and equipment replacement in the kitchen and bar. The Hall is run almost entirely by volunteers and as with any volunteer organisation, there is always a need for new blood, particularly as those involved begin to reach the wrong end of middle age. Police First of all, please accept my apologies that I could not deliver this report personally. We cover the Ampthill, Flitwick & Silsoe and the Aspley Guise, Cranfield and Marston Moretaine Policing Areas which includes the surrounding villages. We look after 30 Towns and Villages in the Central Bedfordshire Area within the Community Policing function. We’re a Team of 2 Police Officers (PC Dagley & PC Jackson) based at Ampthill Community Fire Station, overseen by Inspector Masters & Sergeant Butler at Biggleswade Police Station. We also benefit from support within the Special Constabulary, from SPC Hayward and SPC Petch. We’re also supported by local volunteer Helen Armitage. Our wider team cover around 140 Towns and Villages in the Central Bedfordshire and Rural Bedford area between the Riseley Police Station and Biggleswade Police Station hubs. It’s important to emphasise that your Community Policing Team are not the sole Police presence within your Community. The Response Policing and Crime Investigation Teams are frequently in your area responding to incidents, undertaking enquiries, proactively patrolling through intelligence-led policing or simply passing through every day. In Community Policing, primarily, we are Problem Solvers and look to resolve Long-Term issues where it’s likely that we’re going to have a positive impact with our Partners, such as Central Bedfordshire Council, Social Housing, Schools and other stakeholders in the Community. When we’re not doing that, we’re helping to reduce the impact of crime by offering Crime Prevention and Reassurance to those who are or are likely to become Victims of Crime. We will assist our Response and Crime Teams with responding to incidents and helping with lines of enquiry where it’s within our capacity to do so and support the gathering and developing of Intelligence. We’re really keen to fuse traditional policing methods with new, modern policing methods and would encourage all residents to Like and Follow our Facebook page, where we will keep you up to date with what we’re doing, give you up to date crime information and crime prevention advice that is relevant to what it going on at the time. We can be found at @AmpthillCPT on Facebook where we’re most active, and @NorthBedsPolice on Twitter. We’d also like to keep you up to date with tailored emails about what’s going on in your area and give you alerts about urgent matters – you can sign up to receive these emails at www.bedsalert.co.uk. In the village specifically, crime has increased although perhaps not as keenly felt within the village due to the nature of those offences being particularly personal. This past year we have had different priorities as a local policing team. Through the summer our priority was Youth ASB where there was little impact felt within the village. Our Autumn and Winter priorities moved to Vehicle Crime, where a great amount of work has been undertaken which may be linked to the decrease in 2 Vehicle Offences within the village.

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