1 STOURTON WITH GASPER PARISH COUNCIL ANNUAL PARISH MEETING AT STOURTON MEMORIAL HALL 6.30 PM THURSDAY 17 MAY 2018 www.stourton.org.uk PRESENT : Cllrs Mrs C Spencer (Chair), P Booth, R Higgs, N Hoare, D Marks. Mrs R Burrows (Clerk), Unitary Councillor G Jeans and 4 members of the public. 1. MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING held on 11 May 2017 were agreed and signed. 2. CHAIRMAN’S REPORT The Chairman reported on the Parish Council’s work throughout the past year. She thanked all the Parish Councillors for the time they give and their support for our community, George Jeans for his work for Stourton in Wiltshire Council and our Clerk, Ruth Burrows for her tremendously conscientious and tenacious work during the year. 3. STOURTON MEMORIAL HALL REPORT Cllr Richard Higgs read the report which had been provided by John Gallop. 4. KSCC REPORT Mr Charles Spencer read the report from David Barton of Kilmington and Stourton Cricket Club outlining their activities during the year. 5. WILTSHIRE COUNCILLOR JEANS’ REPORT Cllr G Jeans’ reported in his various activities throughout the year. 6. UPPER STOUR PARISH REPORT Crin Fearon’s report on St Peter’s Church was read to the meeting by Jane Joyce. 7. WHITESHEET ACADEMY REPORT Cllr Mrs Spencer read out highlights from the report. 8. WILTSHIRE WEST COMMUNITY POLICING TEAM – Peter Tscherniawski The Clerk said that no report had been received from the community policing team . The Chairman thanked all the organisations which had submitted reports for this meeting; each report is available on our website. 9. OPEN SESSION A member of the public thanked the Parish Council for all the work they had done for the community during the past year. The meeting closed at 6.57 PM Note: These are draft Minutes to be reviewed and formally ratified at the Annual Parish Meeting in 2019. 2 STOURTON ANNUAL PARISH MEETING CHAIMAN’S REPORT - 17 MAY 2018 During the year the Parish Council has worked hard and spent a considerable amount of tax payers precept in efforts to control the speed of traffic in the village. Stourton Lane the PC organised a metro count. The average speed of 9504 vehicles during a 14 day period last September was 36.3mph. This result comes within the permitted criteria and therefore Wilts Council did not feel any further action was required. However, in September the PC agreed to join with Kilmington and Zeals Parish Councils to form a consortium and apply for a grant from the South West Wilts Area Board towards the purchase of a Speed Indicator Device and, if successful, it would be used in Stourton Lane. The grant application was approved, the SID has been delivered and now Harry Parker is in charge of organising where it will be situated when Stourton has its turn to use it. To pay for the SID we had to take £200 from our reserves, and increase our precept by £350. In addition, to make signs more visible, Harry Parker cut back many overgrown shrubs around the signs and landowners were contacted regarding cutting back hedges. The missing “Stourton Lane” sign was eventually replaced in December. White Line repainting: Some requested white line repainting in the village has been done, but despite the repeated efforts by our Clerk to arrange completion of this work on Stourton Lane the narrowing lines have still not been repainted. The contractors have now stated the road edges need to be made good before they will repaint the lines and we are hoping to arrange for our Parish Steward to do this when we have a date for the contractors to do the work. We will not be paying for any of the work until everything has been done. B3092: Following a serious road traffic accident on the stretch of road outside Drove Lodge and a request from one of our residents that something be done to reduce the speed limit on this road, PC action ensured this was given priority by the Community Area Transport Group. The speed limit request was refused by WC, but the possibility of improving road safety by preventing overtaking is being investigated. WC deems it necessary to survey the whole section of the B3092 from Maiden Bradley to Zeals to see if double white (no overtaking) lines would be a viable proposition and CATG has confirmed the cost for the survey has been approved. Bells Lane: Following the approval of the National Trust’s planning application for a woodchip operation in Bells Lane, the residents have high-lighted their concerns about the amount and speed of traffic using this lane. In addition to the vehicles for the store, it is used as a local “rat run” and a large amount of traffic at times uses it to access the overflow NT car park. We have been in contact with Wilts Council and expect additional signage in the form of large SLOW circles will be painted on both sides of the road during the next few months. WC Winter Salt Scheme We experienced difficulties with the supply of salt that we ordered last October but the Clerk will ensure that a Snow Plan is signed off prior to next winter. We expect this will avoid a repeat of the problems experienced and we will continue to work alongside the National Trust to keep the majority of the roads clear of snow. Website Many thanks to Cllr Nick Hoare who has designed and implemented our new website 3 www.stourton.org.uk which replaces the one set up originally via HugoFox. Nick will be our webmaster and will ensure all our agendas, minutes and notices are displayed and kept up to date. I’d also like to thank Nick for the lamination of agendas and minutes which are put on the Home Farm notice board. Public Access Defibrillator Following a switch to E.On for the supply of electricity to the kiosk we have saved approximately half of the cost of our electricity over the past year. In January we set up a 4 year maintenance contract with the suppliers. Many thanks to Cllr Pat Booth who has taken on responsibility for the defibrillator and provides monthly check reports to Community Heartbeat. Donations The Council makes donations to Mere Link Scheme, St Peters LCC and The Parish Magazine. Councillors We are sad to lose Harry Parker who decided the time had come to leave the council after 33 years as councillor and the last ten years as chairman of the council. We are very grateful for his contributions to Stourton during that time – and thank him for volunteering to continue managing the SID in future. I’d also like to thank Audrey Hoare for all her work for the village in her time as councillor. She too has decided to relinquish her role as parish councillor. We will be co-opting two new councillors. Parish Steward We are very grateful to Cllr David Marks who continues to liaise with our Parish Steward and is regularly monitoring and checking that we make full use of his time. David has also refurbished our Stourhead noticeboard and cleared the footpath which runs from the bus shelter out to the B3092 which had become extremely overgrown and impassable in some sections. He has also done some repairs on the bus shelter. I thank him very much for all that he does. I’d like to thank all our Parish Councillors for the time they give and their support for our community, George Jeans for his work for Stourton in Wiltshire Council and our clerk Ruth Burrows for her tremendously conscientious and tenacious work during the year, in particular her persistent efforts to get all the various road issues sorted out. 4 Report by Stourton Memorial Hall to the Stourton with Gasper Annual Parish Meeting (due to be held on 17 May 2018) 11/5/18 The Stourton Memorial Hall (SMH) is a registered charity. SMH lease and Trust Deed d. 21/12/1973: “The demised premises shall be held upon trust for the purposes of a village hall for the use of the inhabitants of the parish of Stourton in the County of Wilts without distinction of political religious or other opinions including use for meetings, lectures and classes and for other forms of recreation and leisure time occupation with the objective of improving the conditions of life for the said inhabitants.” The calendar year 2017 was very good for the hall and for the benefit of local residents. The big events included the annual village show and a fireworks party for the village. Regular events such as Friday Zumba continued along with Film Nights. Surplus funds led the SMH committee to begin a programme of charitable grant making, to further deliver the objectives of the SMH We started by placing an advert in the parish magazine looking for local worthy candidates/causes in need of some financial help. We gave away a total of £2,263 in 2017 mainly for training, education and sport for local youth, but also funded a new ‘clapper’ for a bell at St Peters. Local residents also benefitted by using the hall for parties and weddings at heavily discounted rates – for example we were pleased to be able to accommodate Jeremy Davis’s birthday party. The total cost of running the hall is currently approximately £17,000 per annum although this increases in any year if we decide to upgrade equipment. In 2017 our income was £21,000 which included £4,000 of donations from Hoares Bank’s Golden Bottle Trust and also £8,500 of income from wedding bookings.