MORTIMER WEST END PARISH COUNCIL Minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting of the Council Date: Thursday 16th March 2017 Time: 7.30pm Place: Mortimer West End Village Hall Present: Cllr Robertson (Chair) Cllr Jonathon Bray Cllr Andrew Arthur In Attendance: Christine McGarvie (Clerk) 17 members of the public Edward Crookes – Englefield Estate Cllr Marilyn Tucker (Borough) Richard Edwards– Englefield Estate PCSO Aimee Scott-Malloy Grant Munn - BT Glenn Peacey – HCC Apologies: Cllr Thurlow Cllr Roger Gardiner Graham Dennis (Hampshire Wildlife Mrs D Povey - Silver Circle Trust) Anthony Dench - Chairman MWECC Heather Sims (Village Hall Nick Munson – Mortimer Produce Show Committee) Adam Green - Burghfield FC Michael Hatch (Relief in Need) Marion Wyatt – Parochial Parish Church Action 1 Minutes of the Parish Assembly held on 17th May 2016 These were approved soon after the 2016 Annual Parish Assembly. The minutes were acknowledged. 2 Chairman’s Welcome and introduction to the meeting Cllr Robertson welcomed everyone to the meeting. He gave his report (appendix A). 3 Guest Speakers – Glenn Peacey HCC Superfast Broadband and Grant Munn (BT) Glenn gave an overview of the HCC Superfast broadband project. The government’s initial target was to reach 90% coverage. Which left 20% of the country without a solution. 80% of coverage was achieved with commercial money. There was then a £10million pound project , partly funded by the government and partly by HCC to reach the next 10% of properties. The second contract was to reach 95% of properties by the end of this year. The cost of reaching these areas increases as they reach more remote areas and the revenue potential becomes lower. 25,000 properties are expected to be upgraded during this phase of the project. There is now a 7.8 million additional fund with the aim of reaching 97.4% by end 2019. BT are currently drawing up a plan for this. There will also be a £1mill fund for match funding for community led solutions in order to reach the last 2.5% of properties. Glenn encouraged residents to check their postcodes on their website and register their interest so that they can be kept informed of developments. https://www.hampshiresuperfastbroadband.com/ Member of public asked whether the Access community fund is only with BT and the answer was that it is at the moment. However, there is also a ‘Better Basic Broadband subsidy’ which can be applied for if you have speeds below 2mb. APA 2017 minutes Page 1 of 18 16th March 2017 Action Groups of residents can use this grant together to use another supplier such as wireless. However, this source of funding is closing at the end of the year. Another member of the public asked if they had considered using Gigaclear. Glenn said that they did tender for the contract but didn’t have the required scale at that time. Grant Munn from BT Described how service for Mortimer West End is in the most part delivered from a cabinet Silchester 6. He explained that slow speeds are due to the distance of most properties from the exchange. Silchester 6 has a fibre cabinet next to the copper cabinet. If you are near to it you may get up to 67-80mb. 24mb and above is considered superfast. An alternative solution is putting fibre into premises, considered ultra fast. This is used where there is high density and also in very rural areas. Fibre into all premises in rural areas could end up cheaper. Some people in village are served by PCP 1 (which is in West Berks and not covered by this scheme) and some by PCP 6. BT will be surveying in the village during June/July. The hope is to provide an fttp (fibre to the premises) solution. The aim would be to implement this October through December 2017 although this is dependent on the outcome of the survey and problems could occur with blockages in the ducts. Properties served by the exchange in Mortimer are not covered by this project. There were several questions from members of the public How do cabinets cope with power supply interruption as this does happen in MWE? They have batteries in the cabinet. If the fttp solution is chosen you would need equipment in your house which would have a back-up unit. What speed service would we get? 200mb is the retail offer at the highest level. Will copper be obsolete in the future? Yes it will be in the future but not yet as needed for emergency services. There is a copper recovery programme What is criteria for choosing fttp versus another cabinet? Decision is made based on cost and potential revenue. They have to consider the amount of money in the budget. 4 Borough Councillors Report Report from Marilyn Tucker – Appendix B 5. Playground project – Appendix C from Cllr Nick Thurlow 6 Organisation reports Reports were given by the following organisations as follows: a. Englefield Estate – Edward Crookes and Richard Edwards – forestry manager. The estate is a family owned, land and property business. It is important that the estate is financially viable and can contribute to the local community. The estate owns 14000 acres of residential, commercial and farmland property. The impact of Brexit on agriculture has big implications both in the short term with effects on commodity prices and also longer term with the loss of CAP (common agricultural policy) support. Englefield are supporting a community project in Ufton to improve their broadband speeds using a wireless solution provided by Gigaclear. The estate has been working with Mortimer Parish Council on their NDP (Neighbourhood Development Plan). Ian Langrish the local warden is retiring at end of May. Mineral extraction –in 2011 Hanson submitted a planning application to extend gravel extraction in Benyons Enclosure, however due to the financial situation at the time it didn’t happen even though the application was approved in 2015. It is now likely that a new operator will be appointed in the next 3 or 4 months to APA 2017 minutes Page 2 of 18 16th March 2017 Action implement the extension outlined in this planning permission, with work to start at the first half of next year. The estate will look to set up a local liaison group with parish council once negotiations are complete. The project will go on for a number of years. Forestry management Many local groups have benefitted from visits to the Englefield forests including Silchester school, Scouts, Search and rescue dog training, and the Brownies. There has been harvesting work in Benyons enclosure. A tree safety survey is being done by an external contractor. Identifying those trees on highways that are a risk. Over the next 6 to 9 months some of these roadside trees will be removed or pruned to make them safe. The estate will also be replanting where trees have to be removed as their overall policy is to increase woodland. Benyons enclosure has 3km public pathways and 12km permissive footpaths. There are several diseases affecting trees in their forests which have to be taken into account when planning what to plant. Member of public raised issue of quad bikes in woodland. Advice is to phone 101 to report them. Bicycles are not allowed in the woodland and there are no plans to change this. The warden will be retiring this year. b. Hampshire Police – PCSO Aimee Scott-Molloy, Appendix D Clerk Responsible for Pamber and Silchester area which includes Mortimer West End. Incidents of quad bikes and motorbikes in the woods are still going on but Aimee explained that as a PCSO she has no powers outside of her own area and therefore incidents on the West Berkshire border are difficult to deal with. Residents should call 101 if they see a suspicious incident. Aimee stressed the need for greater home security and is happy to provide more advice in this area. Speeding – well aware of issues but resources are limited. Sheep on the road is a continual problem. Hampshire Alert is very popular and helpful. Question about speeding on chapel road. Residents concern about 50 speed limit on Chapel Road. Aimee to raise with colleagues. Beat report can be sent to residents and will be put on website by the clerk. c. Mortimer West End Cricket Club – Anthony Dench Chairman - Appendix E d. Parish Parochial Council – Marion Wyatt - Appendix F e. Trustees of the Gravel Allotment Trust – Cllr John Robertson Appendix G f. Calleva WI report – Appendix H g. Hampshire Wildlife Trust - Burnt Common – Appendix I h. District Annual Show – presented by Nick Munson – Appendix J i. Relief in Need charity – presented by Cllr Robertson. Appendix K j. Village Hall Management Committee – Appendix L k. Burghfield Football club – Appendix M 7. Election of village hall committee Chairman Heather Sims Secretary Virginia Bray Treasurer & Produce Show Rep Stephanie Merrison Parish Council Rep Andrew Arthur Silver Circle Rep Beryl Donnelly Committee Member Clive Rumble Committee Member Brian Totham APA 2017 minutes Page 3 of 18 16th March 2017 Action Members were read out to the meeting, no objections were raised and all were duly elected. 8. Open forum No questions were raised. 9. Any other business The meeting closed at 9.35pm Signed: …………………………………………………………………. Date:……………………………………… (Chairman) APA 2017 minutes Page 4 of 18 16th March 2017 Appendix A Chairman’s report REPORT OF THE PARISH COUNCIL FOR 2016/2017 Ladies and gentlemen, welcome and thank-you for attending our Mortimer West End Parish Assembly. I am John Robertson, chairman of your Parish Council and it is my pleasure to introduce the other councillors. It has been a year of change in the make-up of the council, our Parish Clerk Maxta Thomas leaving on 27th May and Fraser Brown leaving us in September last year.