Jason Searancke, Chairman Mortimer West End Cricket Club Pam Critchley – Calleva WI Sheena Cartwright – Silchester Primary School Governor
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MORTIMER WEST END PARISH COUNCIL Minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting of the Council Date: Thursday 21st June 2018 Time: 7.30pm Place: Mortimer West End Village Hall Present: Cllr Nick Thurlow (Chair) Cllr Jonathon Bray Cllr John Robertson Cllr Andrew Arthur Cllr David Lister In Attendance: Christine McGarvie (Clerk) Cllr Roger Gardiner (Borough) Andrew Liddle – Divisional Director, Hills Quarry Products Richard Edwards – Englefield Estate Jason Searancke, Chairman Mortimer West End Cricket Club Pam Critchley – Calleva WI Sheena Cartwright – Silchester Primary school governor 3 members of the public Action 1 Apologies for absence County Councillor Rhydian Vaughan, Borough Councillor Marilyn Tucker and PCSO Luke Robinson sent their apologies. 2 Chairman’s Welcome and introduction to the meeting Cllr Thurlow welcomed everyone to the meeting and gave his report (appendix A). 3 Guest Speaker – Andrew Liddle. Divisional director of Hills Quarry Products The work in Benyon’s enclosure is a phased 10 year gravel extraction project. The first phase has been stripped and digging has started. Refurbishment of the plant has been completed. There will be 8 phases of work and they are currently doing wood stripping for phase 2. There is a website where more information can be found and Hills are holding regular liaison meetings with local groups. Hills are holding an open day on 21st to give residents the opportunity to see what goes on. They will also be promoting cycle safety during the event. The sites operation radius is 30 miles. Wet run trials have started and in July the site will start to sell on a regular basis. There are 2 vacancies at the site and also an apprentice position for a 16-year-old. There are 5 employees on site and also 4 or 5 drivers. The sites hours of operation are 7am until 6pm Monday to Friday and 7am until 1pm on Saturday. Lorry movements will be mostly between 7.30am and 9.30am in the morning and then returning to the plant by 4pm. 4 High Speed broadband in Mortimer West End – Cllr Andrew Arthur FTTP (Fibre to the Premises) – Ultrafast broadband is being implemented by BT Openreach in Mortimer West End. It is possible to get faster speeds on 4G mobile networks now with up to 30mbps available. APA 2018 minutes Page 1 of 13 21st June 2018 Action Although much of the infrastructure has now been installed by openreach it is not yet available. Residents should go to the website www.dslchecker and enter their home telephone number to find out if fttp is available. Once the service is available residents will need to contact an ISP (Internet Service Provider) to sign up to the service the ISP will then contact openreach to connect the service. Ultrafast broadband is only available with some ISPs but BT are not the only provider. Ultrafast broadband is an optional service and prices vary from around £42 to £55 a month at the moment. You can obtain speeds of up to 300mbps on this service. Voice over IP for voice calls also becomes an option with Ultrafast broadband speeds. 5 Borough Councillors Report See appendix B for full report 6 Organisation reports a. Englefield estate – Richard Edwards , Forestry manager. Currently carrying out tree felling and clearing ahead of the gravel extraction in Benyon’s. The phased work means that areas will be replanted as soon as the gravel extraction has been completed. A variety of species of trees will be planted. Hills website has more information on the restoration plan. The estate has been working with charities and community groups such as the Scouts. They are involved in educating children on the woodlands and the link between growing timber and what it can provide. Roadside tree safety surveys are still being worked through. They try to minimise road closures by doing the work at the same time as utilities road closures. Chapel road will traffic lights in the next few weeks so the roadside trees can be cut. 80 to 100 thousand pounds a year is spent on tree safety. b. Mortimer West End Cricket Club - Jason Searancke, Chairman Clerk The Chariman thanked the Gravel Allotment Trust for their contribution to the mower refurbishment. The club has 80 members including 53 juniors. It is a friendly village club which is inclusive. The club also supports Burghfield Football club. It is harder to attract younger players these days and they currently have no women players. Plans for the future would include improving the Pavilion. An issue was raised about people parking on Church Road when a match or practice is on. It is unclear whether this is when the football or cricket is on but Jason agreed to raise the concern with his members and ask them to park in the village hall car park when the recreation ground is full. Clerk to also raise the issue with Burghfield Football Club. c. Trustees of the Gravel Allotment Trust – John Robertson The parish councillors are trustees of the Gravel Allotment Trust which is responsible for the recreation ground and the allotments. Use of the Recreation ground is rented out to Mortimer West End Cricket Club and Burghfield Football Club on a yearly basis. There are seven allotments which are currently all taken. There is an annual ground rent of £20 per plot. Since our last Annual Parish Meeting the equipment in the Children’s Play Area has been renewed with modern units and the rubber mats have been replace with green bonded rubber mulch. These renewals should ensure that the play area will provide a safe and challenging facility for our children in the years to come. APA 2018 minutes Page 2 of 13 21st June 2018 Action d. MWE Village Hall committee – Cllr Andrew Arthur gave the report provided by Heather Sims Brian Totham is the new treasurer. Accounts are healthy and the Village hall is now making a small yearly profit. Woodland Walk will be held on July 15th which is one of the biggest fundraisers of the year. A Quiz night will be held in October. There are regular bookings in the hall for Pilates, spin classes, MWE produce show and lots off one off bookings for parties. Doors were replaced with high security doors last year with financial support from the parish council and borough council. Roof needs some significant work and the committee are currently seeking sources of funding. A defibrillator was installed on the outside of the hall, paid for by First responders. Grounds maintenance work was done this year and the committee are looking for volunteers to do some ongoing tasks maintenance at the hall. Heather Sims thanked the Village Hall committee for all their hard work over the past year. A question was asked about whether the heaters could be upgraded. Quotes have been received for replacing the current heaters so this is being looked at. f. Calleva WI – Pam Critchley An update was given on the many events that have been held over the year including a mini Antiques Roadshow, a talk on Berkshire churches, a talk on shoes, Yoga session and traditional storyteller. The AGM was held in March and a resolutions meeting. g Silchester C of E Primary School – Sheena Cartwright governor See appendix C for report. g. Other reports were displayed from County Councillor Rhydian Vaughan (appendix D), St. Saviours Church (appendix E) , Burghfield Football Club (appendix F) , AWE Local Liaison committee (appendix G) and Stratfield Mortimer Relief in Need Charity (appendix H). 8. Open forum A suggestion was made that the parish council could put articles in Silchester Clerk Magazine which is delivered to residents in order to promote their work. Clerk to look into this. A resident asked why the speed limit on Welshman’s road is 50 mph. Issue to be Clerk raised with County Councillor and discussed at the next parish council meeting. Clerk to add to agenda. 9. Any other business The meeting closed at 9.04 pm Signed: …………………………………………………………………. Date:……………………………………… (Chairman) APA 2018 minutes Page 3 of 13 21st June 2018 Appendix A REPORT OF THE PARISH COUNCIL FOR 2017/18 Ladies and gentlemen, welcome and thank-you for attending our Mortimer West End Parish Assembly. I am Nick Thurlow chairman of your Parish Council and it is my pleasure to introduce the other councillors. Firstly, I would like to thank John Robertson, our outgoing Chairman for his 9 years of service as a councillor and Chairman, I am delighted that he is remaining on the Parish Council. Jonathan Bray and Andrew Arthur are in their second years on the Council and I would like to thank them both for their significant contributions to in supporting the village. Andrew is now vice-chairman of the council. I am pleased to welcome our latest Parish Councillor, David Lister – who joined us 2 months ago. The appointment of David is significant in that we are now at full strength as a Parish Council, the first time in several years. Lastly, I would like to introduce the Parish Clerk, Christine McGarvie – who manages all aspects of the operations of the Council. As members of the Parish Council, all of us participate in other local bodies and charities, notably Basingstoke & Deane Association of Parish & Town Councils , Clarke’s Educational Trust, The Village Hall committee, Mortimer Relief In Need Charity, the AWE Local Liaison Committee and the Roman Town Advisory Committee. I will now give you my Report for the past year. As everyone is aware, there have been significant developments in the area of Gravel Extraction on Welshman’s road – with the company Hills taking over the operations of the site.