HORSPATH ANNUAL PARISH MEETING Minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting held on Monday 30th April 2012 at 7.30pm in Horspath Village Hall. Present: Mr T Ayres Apologies: Mr J Dobson, Mr C Henderson, Mr P Dobson Mrs J Carr (District Councillor). Mr P Ewart Mr M Harris Mr D Horsley Mrs A Julian Mrs H Palmer Mr S Turnbull Mrs S Watson Mrs H Kogel, Clerk Mrs A Purse (County Councillor) Mr R Bell (District Councillor) PC Mel Stafford (Thames Valley Police) Public: 8 1. APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE - Apologies given for Mr James Dobson, Mr Henderson and Mrs Carr. 2. MINUTES FOR APPROVAL The minutes of the Annual Parish meeting held on 26th April 2011 were approved, all in favour. The minutes were signed as correct. 3. THAMES VALLEY POLICE - PC Mel Stafford Matters to report: Between 1/4/12-28/4/12 there were 3 calls made by Horspath residents to Thames Valley Police. They consisted of: Miscellaneous calls – 2, Anti Social Behaviour – 1. It may of interest to note that between 1st April 2010-28th April 2011 TVP received 127 calls from Horspath residents and between 1st April 2011-28th April 2012 TVP received 96 calls from Horspath residents. Please note that TVP now has a new non emergency number which is 101. Theft from motor vehicles - There have been a number of thefts of cars and/or thefts of items from cars around the Stadhampton, Little Milton, Drayton St Leonard, Watlington and Henley areas. The following information may be useful to reduce the risk to your vehicle. Most offences of theft from vehicles are opportunist. If valuable possessions (e.g. handbags, laptops, sat navs, iPods, mobile phones, cameras) are left on show inside a vehicle it is much more likely to be targeted by thieves. Even items of little value such as shopping bags, CDs and clothing may tempt a potential thief to break into the vehicle to see whether they contain anything else worth stealing. Offences can take place during the day or night whether a vehicle is parked in a driveway, on the street or in a public car park. Typically thieves will smash windows to gain entry, sometimes they will break door locks or, on older vehicles, they may prise the door away from the body of the vehicle. The following is just a small sample of crime prevention and reduction advice for motorists, more detailed information is available on the TVP website or alternatively please call one of the NHPT for a crime reduction appointment on the non-emergency number 101. When leaving your car close all windows and lock your car. When parking at home use your garage, if you don't have a garage park in a well-lit area. Don't leave anything on display in your vehicle. Take all your personal possessions with you even if you are only leaving the vehicle for a few minutes, it only takes seconds to break a window. Remove sat nav holders and visible sat nav ring marks from windscreens. Leave the glove box open to show that there is nothing inside. Fit an alarm or immobiliser to your car. Do not store your vehicles documents in your vehicle Crime Statistics: The Home Office National Crime Mapping website gives the public access to street- level crime information as well as information on their Neighbourhood Policing Teams, Neighbourhood Priorities and Events - details of Have Your Say and other neighbourhood activities. Log on to www.police.uk, type in your local postcode or neighbourhood name and then click on ‘Find out more’. Actions: Could you please send any Thames Valley Police Neighbourhood issues that have been raised during this meeting to our attention at your earliest convenience by sending an email to: [email protected] PC Stafford reported an incident at the weekend at Butts Road where youths were reported to causing a lot of noise. PC Stafford checked the location on several occasions and there were no problems so hopefully it was a one off incident. Mrs Lewis reported the on-going problem with parking at school peak times. Cars are parking dangerously on the corners of roads, and also on the pavements which is forcing pedestrians, pushchairs and wheelchairs to walk on the road. PC Stafford will inform PCSO Ken Cooney and arrange a more frequent Police presence to stop this problem. Mr Harris commented that parking on pavements is also a problem in Gidley Way, Butts Road and Cuddesdon Road. PC Stafford stated that before the Police can take action for this offence they need to receive a complaint from a resident. If there are any specific cars repeatedly parking on pavements, residents are asked to inform PC Stafford. 4. STATEMENT OF PARISH COUNCIL ACCOUNTS 2011/12 – Un-audited. A statement of un-audited accounts for 2011/12 was circulated. The statement of accounts had not at this point been reconciled with end of year bank statements. There were no questions raised. 5. STATEMENT OF PAROCHIAL CHARITIES ACCOUNTS 2011. A statement of accounts for the year ending 31.12.11 was circulated. No comments made. 6. CHAIRMAN’S REPORT – Mr David Horsley It hardly seems a year ago when we were last here and having been asked to chair the Parish Council meetings for the last 12 months, I will now give you a brief update on the main issues we have been dealing with over the last year. These include primarily the closure of the Post Office during my first six months and the Methodist Chapel in the second six months, agreeing some additional works to the Burial Ground, and the ongoing attempts by various landowners to concrete over the Green Belt around our village. The closure of the Post Office was frustrating and upsetting for us all and it seems likely that the service will never now return. The Parish Council found itself being lobbied by residents to save a Post Office which the Post Office was happy to leave open. This has caused substantial inconvenience to both residents and businesses. Last August we tried to find a way for both the Post Office and the shop to work together until a long term solution could be found but in the end the difficulties proved insurmountable and an important village community asset has been lost at present. Which leads neatly into the future of the Methodist Chapel. The Friends of St Giles Church are hoping to secure the future of the Methodist Chapel whereby we, as a village, can take on the liability for the running costs in order to try and keep the building for community use. I personally fear that the Methodists want to maximise their return on this and if this is the case and the only way the building can be kept is by paying an open market commercial rent or purchase price, then there is probably no way forward at present. Our overtures to the Methodist Circuit that the people of Horspath have a stake in this building having already contributed towards this asset and wish to keep it for community use are still under consideration. The status of the vehicular access remains unresolved, so selling the property for housing could be difficult and a stalemate seems to continue. As with all our village assets, it remains a case of ‘use it’ or ‘lose it’ and it was simply the lack of any interest in ‘using’ this facility apart from by St Giles Church & the Gardening Club which, together with the covenants resulted in the plans to convert it to housing. It remains the Parish Council’s objective that the building does not fall into disrepair and that we do not end up with two separate, competing, village halls. As far as the Burial Ground problems are concerned, perhaps some explanation would help. When the land was originally purchased, the Parish Council was unaware that there were a series of field drains crossing it from the field adjacent to College Way draining into the ditch which runs alongside the recreation ground. So when the gravediggers dig a grave they can accidentally cut through one of these pipes, and when it is wet or raining, the pipe simply leaks water into the grave. The problem was never urgent because the water table has been at record low levels for the last few years, also as we now know where the field drains are, we can space new graves accordingly. Following discussions with various contractors, and indeed following the input from Keith Brooks, he and others advised that the simplest and cheapest way to solve the problem permanently was to deliberately cut the drains inside the field and redirect the flow around the burial ground into the ditch with a natural gravel drain. So with thanks to Dennis Walker who is allowing the work to take place on his side of the wall, the work will take place as soon as we are sure that there are no birds nesting in the hedge with the spoil being taken through that hedge and used to extend Max’s Mound around the cricket pitch, rather than being taken away at further cost to landfill. Which incidentally, is why the cricket club kindly cut down the Leylandi trees at that location. Martin Harris has kept us up to date throughout the year with the continued determination of various landowners to vary the status of the Green Belt around Oxford. The new Government Planning Policy caused a national outcry when it was first launched, but the revised version seems to have taken note of the many of the concerns raised about the Green Belt.