PARISH COUNCIL

You are summoned to attend the Annual Parish Assembly and Annual General Meeting of Ropley Parish Council as detailed below:

Tuesday 1st May 2018 at 7.30pm in Ropley Parish Hall

AGENDAS

Annual Parish Assembly

1 Apologies for absence

None given.

2 Minutes of the Annual Parish Assembly held on 2nd May 2017 - to approve the minutes as a true record.

Council unanimously resolved that the Minutes of the meeting held on 2nd May 2017 were signed off at the June 2017 Ordinary meeting of the Parish Council.

3 Reports from the Parish a. Chairman’s report – Councillor George Brown Thank you everybody for attending tonight. For those who have not been here before, the format is that we hold the APM, where we review the past year. We then hold the AGM where we elect officials for the coming year. We then hold a regular PC meeting . Councillor Oppenheimer from County Council has kindly agreed to come and say a few words. As we have the opportunity, I will not be averse to a few questions from the floor. We are also joined by Councillor Louisson who will be making a report. As Councillor Louisson is kindly here every month, I will not be proposing to have a q and a session after his talk, but there will be another opportunity in the ordinary parish meeting at the end. I repeat myself from last year in thanking all the Councillors on behalf of myself and the village for continuing to serve. Each representative will be giving an update on activities in their responsibility, and of course don’t forget their roles are defined on myropley.org. I shall try and resist singling everyone out as we will get their individual reports shortly. I will draw your attention to the fact that this group of volunteers continue to take on whatever is thrown at them, and deal with it in a timely fashion. The financial position of the Parish Council is good. We have a precept that is adequate for our expenses and allows some contingency funding, and we also have CiL payments that are available for certain projects. Highlights: the MUGA has been built and is in use. It was a lot of teamwork that allowed it all to happen and Drew, Giles and Becky from the PC side put in a lot of effort to get it completed. Planning permission has been granted for the church rebuild, and notwithstanding the short term issues with access, it will be a remarkable achievement to get it rebuilt. More funds are required and we can all expect to see some fundraising initiatives in the months to come. I think we will be hearing about the cleaning of the village pond later, and there has been

major work done on footpaths in the village. We have conducted some investigation into the feasibility of a skate park following approached from villagers. The current status is that we are pursuing possible funding streams, whilst simultaneously asking the villagers to form a fund-raising committee to demonstrate the community support. There has been extensive work on putting up some netting on the cricket pitch facing the houses opposite following request from some villagers. Drew will be updating this further in the ordinary parish meeting later. The neighbourhood plan has finished the consultation period and the results are now being analysed. This is such a vital piece of work as the pressure on housing numbers continue, and the EHDC plan is already in danger of being out of date. It is remarkable to me, that fifteen years ago the whole mantra was that housing should be sustainable. This meant minimising traffic movements and encouraging locations that have mains services, good public transport, and local amenities and employment. What ever happened to that? Ropley has no mains gas, no mains drainage, only a bus service along the A 31, the one village shop. And yet the housing numbers keep coming. Planning has been frustrating this year. Several developments to which we objected have been approved, and most recently the Chequers development that we supported has been refused. Having a neighbourhood plan is no guarantee of a managed plan of development, unfortunately, but it will certainly help and I hope it can be completed soon. My thanks go to all the volunteers working on it, we will be hearing more from Simon on its current status later. We will be hearing from Derrick later on Highways. It all appears to be a bit random, as new yet wider tarmac appeared outside my house last week, and it was one of the best bits of road in the parish. Some of the potholes elsewhere are positively dangerous. The C18 junction signage continues to be ignored, and speed limits often appear optional. For my part, I remain in favour of further action on speed, and I will be trying to garner support this year. Sadly, penalties are the only real proven deterrent, but we can only work with what we are allowed. I would like to mention that Norma Day was recognised with a Lifetime Achievement award by EHDC, well-deserved and I would like to add my congratulations. Our District Councillor, Charles Louisson, deserves a mention for his hard work on the neighbourhood plan as well as all the planning issues in the village. Not all the decisions have gone the way we would like, but it is not for want of trying. The new ward boundaries mean that Charles will be spread further, but we hope we can still rely on his active support. I thank our clerk, Becky, for her hard work, even from the winter Olympics in Seoul. It is hard to credit that Becky has only been doing this for less than 18 months, given how efficient she is making us. Mine is the easiest job on the council, and is it thanks to the hard work of the Councillors and Becky. I now introduce Councillor Oppenheimer, who has kindly agreed to join us.

b. Russell Oppenheimer County Councillor, Hangers Division County finances As has been well publicised, County Councils across the UK are facing financial challenges.

Due to a reduction in the Revenue Support Grant, as well as cost inflation and demand

pressures, Hampshire has had to find £140m of annual savings by 2019. In this context a rise in Council Tax was difficult to avoid. Council Tax rose by 3% from April

2018 whilst a social care levy of a further 3% has also been charged. It was a difficult decision to raise Council Tax but I believe we have done the right thing. The increase will help to ensure that we can continue to look after vulnerable people who need care, both elderly and young, whilst also preserving local services that are important to residents such as: • Housewold Waste & Recycling Centres • School Crossing Patrols • Community Transport buses Relative to many other Councils, Hampshire County Council is in a strong position. We are balancing the books. We have good technology which does not just enable us to reduce costs

– we also get an income stream by licensing our proprietary software to other Councils. Hampshire County Council has reserves of over £500m which enables us to make capital investments in improving the County, such as new roads and schools. 92% of pupils are getting their first choice school. And our pupils are still outperforming national averages at GCSEs and A levels. The population of Hampshire is ageing and this is a challenge we have to face. The proportion of the population aged 85 years and over is expected to increase by almost 30%, to 54,600 people by 2023. We await the Government’s Green Paper on Adult Social Care with interest. Highways contract Following several years of planning, on 1 August 2017 Hampshire County Council moved to a new 7-year highways contract with Skanska. The contract is worth a minimum £30m per year and there is an option to extend it for a further 5 years from 2024-2029. Skanska replaced

Amey who had been the contractor for the previous 7 years. The handover was well-handled and everything went smoothly.

Skanska have invested in high-tech new gritting machines and also in new pothole repair vehicles called “Dragons”. We are optimistic that we will see benefits from this new contract in terms of speed and quality of service. Hampshire’s roads are in very good shape compared to other counties but there is always room for improvement! We have a project called Operation Resilience which invests around £10m per annum in road resurfacing and improvement.

You can report any potholes or obstructions online at www.hants.gov.uk/roads and I also recommend following @hantshighways for those on Twitter. Future Skills Centre opens in Whitehill and The Future Skills Centre is the latest in a series of new, world-class technical training facilities which we at HCC are delivering across the County with a view to transforming the skills infrastructure in Hampshire. This facility has the potential to be a great resource for people in .

The innovative new building, built by Hampshire County Council and substantially funded by the Enterprise M3 Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), was officially handed over, on 13 October 2017, to Basingstoke College of Technology, which is operating the centre, and providing its comprehensive range of vocational training courses in the construction sector, including apprenticeships. The Home and Communities Agency secured an award of £3.8 million to fund the project, through the Local Growth Fund Grant from the Enterprise M3 Local Enterprise Partnership,

and then selected the County Council to build the new facility and identify an operator. The County Council also put £250,000 towards the building costs for the new centre. Although the focus is on training for the construction sector, the centre is the new local hub

for technical training and will host a broad adult and community learning programme for the

wider community. Hampshire innovating to find new ways of caring for people new care project At HCC we are innovating to find ways to improve care. Two examples over the last year are as follows: • Hampshire County Council is working directly with Amazon to become the first local authority to use new Amazon Echo technology to help older people live independently in their homes for longer. The pilot project will provide 50 adult social care clients with a modified version of the device to remind people when to take medication or check when their carer is due to arrive. It will also connect to other technology in people’s homes such as movement sensors so it can remind people to have a drink when they enter the kitchen. • Our pilot tracker scheme for people with dementia was evaluated as a success following its first year of operation, and is now being rolled out. The scheme is available to people living in the Hampshire County Council area who are at risk of going missing as a result of living with dementia or other memory-loss illnesses. The scheme is led by Hampshire County Council, and Argenti Care Technology Partnership. The number of missing person episodes for the people taking part has more than halved. If anyone wishes to explore the option of a tracker device for someone they know, the phone number for the Hampshire adult care services team is 0300 555 1386. Parishioners raised several concerns. - Potholes were raised as a major issue and it was felt that some techniques and materials not up to purpose. 3 million has been allocated from Government to tackle potholes in Hampshire. - It was felt that in general there needs to be better accountability and transparency from local government.

c. District Councillor – Cllr. Charles Louisson EHDC’s finances remain in strong health despite the continued reduction in government support grants that will end completely in 2018/19 - this year. You only have to look at the financial stress being endured by some councils, such as Northamptonshire, to understand EHDC's strategy of investment in commercial property. While not universally popular, this has delivered strong returns of around 6%, replacing the lost grants and allowed a freezing of council tax for this year following last year’s 2% cut, all while maintaining front line services, with no redundancies. The fiscal performance of the council has also been improved through extended deployment of our services such as planning, litter and parking enforcement to other local councils such as Hart and Waverley, and an extension of our back office sharing and rationalisation program that was started with our joint venture with Havant BC and has been now extended to include 6 councils in the south of . Within the council the debate is turning to the future fiscal direction, and whether, in the light of significant council tax increases from county, social care, fire & rescue and police, the small absolute decreases that the district is able to offer are worthwhile versus the alternative of improved services with frozen or minimally increased council tax. Locally I have been involved in a number of issues through the year, including the

replacement for the Alton Sports Centre, car parking charges in the District, the Ropley Neighbourhood Plan, as well as several significant local planning applications such as the Chequers and the Gypsy and Traveller pitch on Lyeway Lane. While I and other councilors were not successful in turning the tide on the Sports Centre and Car Parking discussions, I do believe that there is now evidence that lessons have been learnt and a more open and inclusive style of public engagement may be forthcoming. There have been significant engagement opportunities on the future of the brewery site in Alton - it is however critical that the public engage if they want to shape the future of their communities. One good example of community engagement has been our Neighbourhood Plan, where the public consultation closed just over a month ago. As I am sure Simon will highlight we received over 700 comments from almost 200 responders to the draft plan and the Steering Group are now involved in analysing those, and where appropriate, proposing alterations to the policies. Turning to planning, I think we are all disappointed that the Chequers situation remains unresolved, but the battle continues. Following the council's refusal decision, we made adjustments to the draft Neighbourhood Plan to make the Chequers an allocated site so that once the plan is made, the principle of development is given and only the design would be at issue, but that may mean another year or so before development could start. In parallel discussions are starting between the council and developer as to what would be an acceptable layout and design that could be applied for earlier. The Gypsy site decision on Lyeway Lane was another bitter disappointment, and in this case I believe we were victims of continued changing government legislation. The primary reason for permission was the lack of a five year land supply for Gypsy and Traveller sites in the district (in common with most councils), which leads to a presumption of permission. The lack of supply is primarily because twice in the last five years the government has changed gypsy legislation, causing ongoing work on the gypsy land supply to be torn up and restarted. One of those changes was the requirement for councils to review their local plans every 5 years. I have now become part of the Local Plan review group at Council and one of my targets is to ensure that the council has a five year gypsy land supply as soon as possible. We are currently facing a further application for housing on the quarry site. There is a site visit from the planning committee this Friday and this will most likely be followed by a planning committee discussion of the application in the next few weeks. On the grant front, this year I supported the Ropley Fayre towards the provision of Defibrillators, Ropley Cricket Club towards Cricket Kit for the girl’s team and Ropley Pre- School and Playgroup as well as two grants to other villages in my ward. Speaking of wards, the Local Government Boundary Commission has completed their review of the East Hampshire wards, which was last done in 2003. Since then the population of the area has increased significantly, and the distribution of that population has changed driven by strong growth in Alton, , Bordon and with much slower growth in the more rural areas. The Commission tries to keep the number of electors per councillor as equal as possible and this has resulted in a need to increase the area of many of the rural wards to include more electors and so achieve that equivalence. These changes take effect from the Local Government elections in May 2019. From then, Ropley will be part of the newly formed ward of Ropley, & Hangers which includes the six parishes of Ropley, Hawkley, , , and & . This grouping collects together rural parishes with similar issues such as poor broadband, lack of public transport, limited affordable housing and minimal infrastructure so that a common approach can be taken to improving these services. On other district issues I took part in the consultation with Southwestern Railway that has resulted in an improved timetable from later this year, in particular with reduced journey

times between both Alton and Petersfield to Waterloo. Thank you for your continued support.

d. Highways Report – Councillor Derrick Speed 1. Potholes and general road maintenance. As these are reported to me, I report them. However, anyone can report these issues online at fix my street or by calling ‘0300 555 1388. Patience is required, as lack of money and resources can cause delays. White lining in the village centre suspended until access to the church is resolved. 2. Projects. You may remember from previous reports that a number of major projects have been dragging on. a. A31/C18 Junction. This has now been partially completed in that the road markings have been changed. However, the proposed bollard I not yet in place. This was progressed yesterday with a site visit with the traffic management officer who is already actively working to complete the project. b. A number of minor accidents have occurred on the C28 in the area. The middle section of the road between the sections of road at either end of the C18 is now to be resurfaced. The scale is said to be 2-3 months. We have asked for white line along the edge of the road and I have a site visit arranged for Thursday this week to ensure that we get what we want. Certain sections need haunching and this will have to be discussed alongside the road repairs. 3. Ropley Society have asked that the redundant signs along the A31 should be removed. I have discussed this with Highways who will get various contractors to remove them. They are contractors and not Highways property. 4. Speed Indicator Devices. Following complaints about speeding on the Petersfield Road I have been looking at S.I.Ds and have a meeting tomorrow with traffic management to access suitable locations.

e. Hampshire Association of Local Councils (HALC) – Councillor Derrick Speed. I have attended 2 of the 4 meetings held in 2017/18. Environmental Workshop: The contract for grounds maintenance, street cleaning and waste collection and disposal is due to be reviewed in early 2019. They wanted Parish Councils and parishioners views to ensure that they are aware of any changes that need to be made. We were asked to consider the issue by answering the following questions, 1) What do you like about the current service? Most people seemed to be relatively happy. 2) What needs changing? Under the heading of grounds most comment centred on the reduced grass cutting rota in rural areas or lack of it completely. Apparently the frequency of cutting is under Highways and depends on their budget. Demands for more regular street, gutter cleaning and drain clearance. (only one gully sucker in the whole of Hampshire). In general most were satisfied with the waste collection system. a) no chance of reverting back to weekly collections. b) however no plans to change it. c) glass collection considered to be a bonus in East Hants, as other Towns and Parishes. d) Should we fall in line with other Authorities and have green bins for recycling with changes

to the colour of recycling and garden waste bins. There was no support for this as there is already confusion about what can be recycled and changing the colour coding would only make it worse and would cost a lot of money. ( Did you know that you can now put aerosols in the recycling bin?) 3)What is unnecessary? No real comment. General feeling seemed to be that we want more not less. 4)What do you think about paying for some services? Using the tips for instance. It appears that the viability of some will be raised again. This was not received with any degree of enthusiasm. Although some Councils are happy to take various jobs now done by the Council (mainly Town Councils). It was pointed out that costs would be higher if individual parishes had to go outside the County Council contract. I said that we would not want to have to organise services out of our precept and that we do not have experience or time to take on more work. 5)How can Parishes and the Local Authority work better together? Better communication and consultation but not by the scatter gun approach that appears to be the case at the moment. There was a plea for more transparency from the Council (HCC) and District Councils.

Introduction of the East Hampshire District Community Team. The team is split into 3 groups, dealing with, 1)Community infrastructure dealing with large projects like the Shipwrights Way etc. 2)Health and wellbeing - Sports Development - Affordable school holiday care -Dementia training. - Identification of loneliness and isolation. 3)Community Development -Help in organising events with publicity and grants. eg (Festival in 4 Marks on 9th July) -Help with pre and after school groups. They are keen to work with Parishes but we must approach them with our requirements.

f. Footpaths- Councillor Tim Day Ropley has one of the best footpath networks in Hampshire, proof of which is the increasing number of groups travelling them. I think the fact you can select many different routes with hardly any “road footage” is one of the main attractions, plus of course the great scenic walks. Our 2 organised Boxing and Easter Monday walks together attracted over 400 walkers, thus helping to keep our footpaths open. All in all our footpaths are mostly negotiable without problems and should mother nature decide to tip over a tree now and again, then a bit of nudging of the respective land owner or County Council gets the problem solved. I would like to thank Brian Lambert who has been my eyes and ears on several occasions and has helped in getting obstructions cleared over the past year. I also record my thanks to Giles Stogdon who undertook and oversaw the modernizing of the path that runs from Dunsells to Hale Close.

g. Parish Hall Management Committee – Councillor Tim Day. The Parish Hall continues to be the centre of community events for Ropley, from its cloak of St Peters Church to club and society bookings, with other hirers being modern dancing, line dancing, keep fit, grown up drama, children’s drama, dog training, play school, brownies, music events and ballet etc., plus lots of individual party dates. In fact, our bookings secretary

is turning away potential hirers as the hall is unable to accommodate them. All in all, a very popular facility run by a small representative committee on behalf of the Parish Council. Despite increase expenditure in 2017 the Hall still had an excess of income over expenditure of £7,982.47 which was a slight increase on the previous year. Income from lettings showed a slight increase, we are grateful to the Parish Council for the grant towards the insurance premium and also to the Boxing Day walker organisers who donated the profits to the Hall. Further donations come from Playgroup’s Pram Race stall and the purchaser of the old hot water boiler, while the fil nights continue to contribute approximately £750 to funds. The largest increase in expenditure came from repairs and maintenance – a gas leak in the underground pipework during the coldest week in February cost £1800 to repair and necessitated another delivery of gas. We became aware in the summer that our fixed electrical circuits were overdue for inspection and this was undertaken at a cost of £540. This will need to done on a regular basis- at present every 5 years. The boiler service is another annual cost to be taken into consideration (£125.00) and then there are the repairs due to wear and tear- waterproofing the flat roof (which problem and hopefully be finally rectified at the same time as the planned extension work) and replacement florescent tubes. The Chubb fire annual inspection resulted in a replacement extinguisher and the cost thereof. Miscellaneous expenditure: two items of equipment were replaced in 2017- the water boiler and the vacuum cleaner. But the main topic in the life of the Hall is, of course the plan to extend the hirer of the hall to enable more storage space and to replace part of the building that is past its sell-by-date. As you know, the original 2 storey plan has been pared down to a single flat roof extension which is currently about to go out to tender, with the time-line hope of completion this year…also included in the plan are improvements to the stage lighting facilities, which will benefit any booking requiring use of the stage. Refurbishment expenditure was minimal in 2017, but if the extension plans go forward as hoped, the Hall’s cash reserve will be needed. We must ensure that the Hall continues to operate at a profit. To this end the Management Committee agreed in September to increase the hourly rates with effect from 1st January 2018. Finally, I wold like to express my thanks to Ken Ingle for acting as our independent examiner of accounts and drawing them up in their clear and concise format. I am pleased to report that he is willing to act in this capacity again next year.

h. Recreation Ground, Councillor Drew Fielding. The highlight for 2017 was the opening of the new Multi User Games Area. It is proving to be a great success, and a real asset for the whole community. Credit and thanks to Ropley Lawn Tennis Club, our District Councillor, EHDC, the LTA and of course the Parish Council and members of the parish for making this happen. Work is now well underway towards the provision of lighting for the MUGA and the necessary funding has already been secured. It is hoped to have it installed later this year. Recreation Ground maintenance continues with OCS for grass cutting and bins maintenance; verti-draining, feeding and weeding have been carried out and our hedges given an annual haircut. We have benefitted from bi-monthly visits from the Lengthsman who has worked on the recreation ground, car parks , footpaths, gullies and road signs. Our current Lengthsman has just resigned and recruiting a replacement is underway. The play park had its annual safety inspection in October and there were no issues requiring other than routine attention. The recreation ground policy has been finalised and published. The policy prioritises usage

and stipulates conditions of use and management, particularly for private events; priority will continue to be given to sport. An application has been submitted to EHDC for the installation of safety netting along part of the Vicarage Lane boundary of the cricket pitch for the protection of neighbouring houses. This has not been without its challenges and the process continues. There had been some concerns from the football club over membership, particularly from the men’s team in the last season. The Vets team has continued to play and it is hoped that next season we will have a reinvigorated men’s team back on the Rec.

i. Ropley Neighbourhood Plan, Councillor Simon Perkins – Chair Ropley Neighbourhood Plan In the last 12 months, the Ropley Neighbourhood Plan has taken a large step forward in progressing to publishing an Emerging Draft Neighbourhood Plan and sought the feedback from the Public with the Regulation 14, Public Consultation Process. This has now been completed, the results consolidated and being reviewed. During 2017the team developed the RNP from a series of Objective based Policies to a Draft Document of 24 separate Policies which the Parish Council signed off in February. Progress was delayed by Historic England requesting a Strategic Environmental Assessment which took six months to complete and was included in the Regulation 14 process. With this document in place and the Parish Council approving the Polices and Emerging Draft Plan, the Team launched Public Consultation with a Parish Meeting in March and went online with a Consultation Tool provided by FutureDynamix (Guy Whittaker and Alan Parsonson). The Public Consultation was publicised by adverts in Local Papers, postcards to each house in Ropley and a banner on the Recreation Ground. The Tool was accessed from the MyRopley Website and asked each respondent to Grade each Policy from Strongly Object to Strongly Support and then provide a Comment. Throughout the 8 weeks Consultation process, the RNP team held Morning or Afternoon Drop In Sessions in the Coffee Rooms to support the Public with an understanding of the Policies and review large scale Maps. When the tool was finally closed, the Team were encouraged by the response rates. Overall, there have been 191 replies to the Consultation tool, a mix of Online, Postal and Paper based returns with over 650 Comments made from parishioners, Land Owners and Regulatory Bodies. Overall, the RNP was supported with an average rating of 8.2 out of 10, with no single Policy having a negative score. The next few months the RNP Team will now sift through these responses, group and then respond to each and every one of them. Each Policy is then open to amend, update or remove based on the Consultation Responses. It is difficult for use to provide a definitive date for completion, as the work is by nature, complex. Once we have a completed document, the RNP Team will request a meeting with the Parish Council to review the changes and seek approval at the following PC Meeting to escalate the Plan to Regulation 15, handing over to EHDC. j. Pavilion Committee & Sports Club - Bob Archer, Chairman, Ropley Sports Club Having taken over from David Forrest at the AGM in November, this is my report for the Ropley Sports Club and Sports Pavilion. David Forrest led the committee in making good progress in regulating expenses after the problems that had arisen previously. Building on this progress, we continue to keep a very careful eye on income and expenditure. We have accepted a quote for the outside decorating to be done this summer which will include some remedial work on the external woodwork. The alarm system will also be updated and to safeguard the security of the building all keys

are being tagged and signed for before changing the security codes. In the 13 years we have been open we have supported a number of events, both sporting and non sporting, and continue to do so in conjunction with our usual day to day football, cricket, Pilates, darts, etc. k. Friends of St Peter’s – Alison Wood Rebuilding the Church Since the fire, we have concentrated our efforts on supporting the PCC to plan for the rebuilding of the church. We would particularly like to thank Andy Bonner for taking on the role of Co-ordinator for the rebuilding project. During the late summer of 2017, the PCC obtained planning permission from EHDC and a faculty from the Diocese to rebuild the church. This was a wonderful achievement and the result of much hard work by the architect, the PCC and specialist consultants. We now know that about £500,000 will need to be raised to help complete our new church. The Friends will be working closely with the PCC and helping with fundraising events to achieve this sum. Financial Position Bank assets and investments at the end of 2017 totalled £117,570. Total income raised in 2017 was £9,572. There was minimal expenditure (£190) on printing, hall hire and the purchase of some charity collection buckets. Since The Friends of St Peter’ was formed in 1982, £197,353 has been raised to help fund repairs to the fabric of the church. Membership Membership and support for The Friends remains fairly static. At the year end there were 86 members. The Committee is keenly aware of the need to attract more members, especially younger people. Parish Council Support The Friends very much welcome the active involvement of Cllr Jenny Nops on the Committee and at fund raising events. We would particularly like to thank the Parish Council for agreeing to let us use the ‘Little Rec’ last June for additional parking for the Ropley Open Gardens event. This was a great success and resulted in £2,800 being raised for The Friends and for the Rosemary Foundation, a local ‘hospice at home’ service. l. The Ropley Society - Vice Chair Roger Langridge The Ropley Society, it’s 33rd years old, continues to grow & flourish, remaining one of the largest organisations in the village with now over 320 members. The main aim of the Society is to provide a forum for those who are concerned in preserving, enjoying and protecting the environment and character of Ropley Parish and thus, for example, the Society is ever watchful in investigating and acting on controversial planning situations, supporting local residents’, when assistance is requested.

We help & involve ourselves in community and assist, where possible, village organisations by giving cash grants as funds permit. Last year we gave grants to the Village Pond Committee and Friends of Ropley School. Past support has also been given to the Village Shop, Friends of St Peter’s, Ropley Amateur Dramatics Club and Ropley Horticultural Society. We also organise an annual Village Spring Clean along the roads and lanes in the village. The 2018 clean-up is almost complete and so far volunteers have collected over 37 bin bags of rubbish. We organise an annual village Calendar from photos submitted to our annual photographic

competition, 2017 had a good response from villagers and for this year the competition will have 2 additional categories and prizes for younger photographers. We communicate to the village community, through our membership email list, publicising planning applications/ decisions and general information on events in the parish. This is the only form of communication many receive on village matters.

Socially in 2017 we held several talks including “life as a submariner aboard the submarine HMS Alliance” and “The role of Ropley Community First Responders” little known by many. We also organised a guided walk in Winchester under the theme of King Alfred and the Anglo Saxons. This year’s programme includes talks on Glass Engraving and ‘The Siege of Basing House’. There will also be a walk to assist fund raising for the St Peters Appeal. m. The Ropley Fund, Councillor George Brown In the period 01.01.17-31.12.17 the fund has appreciated net 11%. There were no disbursements in the period. Current funds stand at £19,324.24. BALANCE SHEET 31.12.16 31.12.17 Permanent Endowment Fund £11,794.11 £12,887.54 Investment Fund £3,858.65 £4,216.40 Deposit account £1,635.68 £2,205.20 Bank Account £15.06 £15.06 Total £17,303.50 £19,324.24 n. Ropley Pond Committee

At the Parish Council's annual meeting last May I reported that although the village pond was looking very sorry for itself, plans were in hand to carry out extensive works over the coming 12 - 18 months. A detailed survey was undertaken by the Hampshire Wildlife Trust in late May last year, a full assessment with recommended works was delivered by the Trust in August 2017, and a request for funding to cover the cost of the suggested works in the sum of just over £5000 was made to the Council last December and approved. This allowed the first stage of the works to be carried through in the late winter when large stretches of the pond edges were cleared, branches that had fallen into the pond and had become embedded in the silt were removed, and a revetment was built using timber piles that will facilitate the re-profiling of the pond area when the further works are carried out in Phase 2. This work should be done in the summer when water levels have dropped to a workable depth. Funding permitting, we are hoping that some tree surgery work can be done in the late Autumn which should encourage the growth of marginal plants next year. The irony is that, having reported last May that the pond had dried out and needed more water, this May, when we need a dry pond to get on with the works, it's nearly full! For all our sakes, we need a hot, dry summer. o. Police, Constable Nops. This year the local station closed and relocated the main service to Alton. There is no front office, but you can meet PC Nops for community-surgery between 2.30 and 3.30 every Thursday at Ropley village shop. There has been a recent theft at the railway line with the targeting of scrap metal.

Summer time will see peddlers in the area. They must be able to produce a peddler’s certificate, which includes a Police heading. Ropley Society indicated that they would willing to send relevant material on to their members.

4 Notice of matters from members of the Parish to be referred to Parish Council meetings None reported.

None received.

Close of Annual Parish Assembly Meeting closed 20.41

Annual General Meeting

1 Election of Parish Council Chair and Vice Chair

The Chair and Vice-Chair formally resigned in accordance with AGM protocol.

The Clerk asked for nominations for Chair of the Parish Council for next year. Cllr Brown was proposed by SP & seconded by DS. Vote carried. GB accepted for a further year. No other nominations or expressions of interest were made.

Vice Chairman: The Clerk asked for nominations for Chair of the Parish Council for next year Cllr Derrick Speed was nominated by JP and seconded by DF. Vote Carried. No other nominations or expressions of interest were made.

2 Appointment of Committees and representatives

Recreation- Cllrs GS, DF & JP Planning- Cllrs. JN, SJ, JC, JP & GB Highways- Cllr. DS Footpaths – Cllr. TD Communications- Cllr JP Neighbourhood Plan- Cllrs. SJ & JP Finance- Cllrs. GB & JC Village Hall- Cllrs TD Sports Club- Cllrs GS, DF & JN Friends of St Peters- Cllr. JN Ropley Fund- Cllrs. GB & JN

Proposed by DF, seconded by DS and all in favour of the appointments.

3 Signing of Declaration of Acceptance of Office agreeing to observe the Code of Local Government Conduct (as required by part 111 Local Government Act 2000)

All Councillors signed a declaration of Acceptance of Office and gave to Clerk.

4 Dates of forthcoming Council meetings Tuesday 5th June 2018 Tuesday 3rd July 2018 Tuesday 7th August 2018 Tuesday 4th September 2018 Tuesday 2nd October 2018 Tuesday 6th November 2018 Tuesday 4th December 2018 Tuesday 8th January 2019 (second week of January) Tuesday 5th February 2019 Tuesday 5th March 2019

Now available on theMyRopley website

Close of Annual General Meeting Meeting closed 21.07pm

Please note that the May Ordinary Meeting of Ropley Parish Council will follow after the AGM. Please see separate agenda for information.

Signed: B French Clerk to Ropley Parish Council