Minutes, Annual Parish Meeting, 2018 03
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HAM AND STONE PARISH COUNCIL Minutes of the ANNUAL PARISH MEETING held in Stone Village Hall on Monday 19 th March 2018 at 7.30pm 1. Attendance: Councillor& District Councillor P Wride Councillor E Stokes Councillor D Clark Councillor G Langdon Councillor P Case Councillor S Dunbabin Councillor C Miller County Councillor John Cordwell District Councillor Haydn Jones District Councillor Gordon Craig (after 8.30pm) Clerk: Mrs Eirian Vaughan Lewis 6 members of the public Apologies for absence – None recorded 2. Adoption of Minutes of previous meeting held on March 20th 2017 - these were accepted and signed by the Chairman as a true and accurate record of events. 3. Parish Council Chairman’s Report – Penny Wride: As Chairman of Ham and Stone Parish Council it is my pleasure to welcome to you tonight, this is your opportunity to tell us what we are doing right or wrong, and what we can do to improve the community of Ham and Stone. Jenny Nichols has stood down as clerk to Ham and Stone Parish Council and I am very pleased to introduce you to Eirian Vaughan Lewis who I know is well versed in the parish affairs. There is a major new project in Ham that is up and running and I am very pleased to be part of that is the new SGS college. It will help to address the technical skills shortage, provide a fantastic education facility for students from the age of 14 upwards and most importantly has room to expand, I would urge you to take the chance to take a look round on one of the open days. The Vale Orchard Issues have taken up much discussion; unfortunately, the developer hasn’t completed all the conditions of the original planning application. There are also problems with parking outside the school and I would urge the complainants to take it up with the former Chairman of the Governors and not the Parish Council who foresaw the problems and discussed it fully when the planning application was made. Thornbury Sort it Centre This is an ongoing saga and there are still discussions between South Gloucestershire and Gloucestershire County Council and maybe there will be a successful resolution after nearly three years of negotiations. Flooding issues I am pleased that I took Paul Helbrow the new Gloucestershire County Council Highways Officer for the area, around the parish. Over the Christmas holidays Lower Stone was badly affected and there were many contractors working to resolve the problems, which may continue for a while longer. Lisa Ellis our SDC Neighbourhood warden did visit many householders who were affected and made welfare checks and highways came around delivering sandbags to help protect properties. Lower Stone Lane has had some remedial work done over the last couple of weeks and we hope that it will solve the flooding around and in Pound Cottage. There are also some problems that Wessex Water is trying to solve with the pumping station in the dippy on the Stone Woodford border. We must pass on our condolences to the Booth family over the sad demise of Cis, Basil’s wife, she was for many years an unofficial clerk to the PC taking messages passing information about village issues and taking a photographic record of recent history in Stone and I hope that the PC will be able to access some copies of her photos to keep track on how the parish has changed over the 60+years she lived in Hall Farm. Thanks must go to Naomi Sergeant for running litter busters, volunteers are always welcome if you can help Naomi please contact her. The Stalkingham News would not be as successful without the hard work of the two Sues, Chopping and Angus. With all the chaos of the last year we haven’t missed an issue and got it out on time so it obviously a good team. Any-one can put an article forward for inclusion and we always welcome articles that are not time sensitive for filling up a page. Finally I must thank our parish Councillors for their support, my fellow District Councillors Haydn and Gordon and John Cordwell our County Councillor for his input. 4. District Councillor Report – Penny Wride: I have attended most meetings in Hamfallow, Hinton, Alkington, and tried to go to the Slimbridge meetings that didn’t clash with our own Ham & Stone Parish Council meetings. And the majority of Stroud District Council Meetings both full and committee. I regret that Berkeley Town Council meetings always clash with our meetings; hence the reason Gordon Craig cannot easily attend ours. Ham and Stone Parish Council is one of the lower precepts in the Stroud Council area, I am on the audit and standards committee and the community services committee, which are very interesting and give me the chance to challenge the spending and promoting the services that make a difference to people who live in the district. The budget of the District Council has been restricted and there have been staff reductions. The coalition who are the lead have spent some of the Council reserves and still think that they can spend money on vanity projects like the Sub Rooms, cultural and arts projects which bring in very little return to the Council coffers and then they reduce the grants such as those available to Citizens advice bureaux which does so much to help anyone in difficulty in the District. Planning Department has undergone some staff changes and the enforcement officers are being reduced, this is something that many Councillors are very concerned about, already we have noticed problems and planning conditions that need to be properly enforced. Some of the spare/empty Council offices at Ebley Mill have been rented out to raise some income but it will be beholden to the opposition Councillors like me to ensure that the budget is spent wisely and only on vital projects and not vanity projects. It will be a very difficult couple of years until the next election in 2020 but please be assured that I will work hard to make sure that the Council are aware that not every -thing revolves around Stroud and Stonehouse. Among the concerns that I have done for local residents have been planning issues, security, planning breaches and illegal trading ensuring that the new rubbish service Ubico fulfils its contract in our area we did have an on –going problem with some remoter houses being forgotten and that our waste bins were also not emptied promptly. Gordon, Haydn and I work very closely and are aware of the issues in our ward which is one of the largest in Stroud District from here to beyond Cambridge on this side of the A38. When I take people around Ham and Stone they are always surprised at how far reaching it is.But I know the ward very well so be assured that we try very hard to be aware of all that is going on and make sure that all is well in it. We are happy to be contacted and our details are on the back of the Stalkingham News.If you have any questions happy to take them. Vale Orchard update – District Councillors Penny Wride and Hayden Jones The Site Visit took place today. The Planning Officer agreed that the plot is outside the Village Envelope for development. The Badger Sett filled with concrete; Environment Officer concerned that licence for new settlement should have been granted by Natural England but will double check. The footpath appears to be in breach of conditions, Enforcement Officer to be called in to enforce with PROW. Management Co name was given to Officers but is it name only – Planning Officer will investigate. The previous developer’s name still on the business, although gone into liquidation. The Bat Roost apparently not secured into the ground. 5. County Councillors Report – John Cordwell: Mr Cordwell was invited to speak so he could give his Report and then leave to attend the Annual Parish Meeting in Kingswood: County Council Elections, May 2017 The Conservatives now have an overall majority on the County Council, having gained a net six seats from the previous position. Liberal Democrats retained all 14 seats they held and with all the same councillors! The composition now is: Conservative: 31; Liberal Democrats: 14; Labour: 5; Green Party: 2; PAB; 1. The outcome of this was that the Conservatives took all the Cabinet places and increased the size of the Cabinet from 8 to 9. With one exception, which the administration are not allowed to hold they took all the chairmanships of council committees including Planning which I previously held. All formal Shadow Cabinet positions were abolished. My roles on the County Council My committee memberships remain unchanged and I continue as my group’s lead member on these. (Environment & Communities Scrutiny Committee, Planning, Commons and Rights of Way, and Traffic Regulations Orders committees.) I also became a member of Gloucestershire’s Local Access Forum. I was previously a member of the Highways Contracts Advisory Group. This was replaced by a Highways Cabinet Panel, which I joined, to monitor the awarding of the three new highways contracts. I am one of the county’s two representatives on the Berkeley Site Stakeholder Group. I also chair the Stroud Road Safety Liaison Committee. More widely I continue as a representative on South West Councils and its Resources and Management Committee, and on the Severn Estuary Partnership. County Council Budget 2018/19 The council has had to absorb a continuing year on year reduction in Government revenue support grant.