North Moreton Parish Council Chmn. Minutes of North Moreton Parish Council Meeting held at North Moreton Village Hall on 8th March 2016 at 9:15pm. Present: Mrs. R. Templeman (Chair), Mr. D. Tebworth (VC), Mrs. V. Gibbs, Mrs. S.C. Harrison, Cllr. J. Murphy and Mr. A. Wise (Clerk) RT opened the meeting at 21:15 hrs after the completion of the Annual Parish Meeting. 16/762 Apologies Mr. C.I. Shipton, Cllr. P. Greene 16/763 Report on OCC Report – See appendix 7 OCC and SODC . activities SODC Report – See appendix 8 16/764 Hear None representations from members of the public 16/765 Approve It was proposed by DT, seconded VG, that the minutes be signed as a true record. the minutes of the Carried nem con. meeting of 9.11.2015 16/766 Consider All action items had been completed matters, not taken elsewhere, arising from the minutes of the meeting of 9.11.2015 16/767 Receive Cllr. Tebworth reported on the Didcot Age Concern meeting that he had reports from attended earlier in the day. At the time of writing the charity was still awaiting Parish the impact of OCC’s budget cuts for 2016/17. Councillors and the Clerk 16/768 Financial 1. Approval of payments. It was proposed VG seconded DT and carried that the matters following invoices be paid: Parish Clerk’s wages, expenses, PAYE, Village Hall invoice and Defib spare parts. 2. Current financial situation. AW presented the current financial situation – attachments 2 & 3. 3. Chairman instructed by fellow councillors to offer the chairman of MCC a RT donation of £100 towards the costs of dealing with mole hills on the cricket ground. If this offer is accepted then payment will be made after the May meeting. 4. Clerk to do another VAT return to complete the current financial year’s affairs AW before the end of the month. 16/769 Planning 1. AW presented the current planning application situation – attachment 4 2. Clerk to investigate if there will be more than one Neighbourhood Planning AW Roadshow in Oxon this Spring. 16/770 Highways PTR (VG) reported to the meeting an update on the latest situation on the Oxon bus and Transport subsidies. - attachment 5 Chairman to contact Keith Stenning at Oxon Highways to ask if the loss of road due RT North Moreton Parish Council Chmn. to grass verge creep outside of the Membury/Harrison corner should be dealt with by either his team or the landowner, if they are in fact legally responsible. 16/771 CIS sent to the meeting via Cllr. Harrison a quote from Jenks for £585 plus VAT Recreation and to carry out the pollarding and canopying of the trees on the Recreation Ground. Playground As the trees are in the Conservation Area, they need to wait for permission from matters the SODC Tree expert before they can commence the work (approx. 6 weeks). Cllr Shipton to arrange for the playground matting to be jet washed before the Rospa inspection in mid-summer. CIS Chairman to arrange to meet Dave Powell of PAG at the playground to inspect the potential for a further gate to give access to the footpath behind St Peters RT Farm barns from the Rushcroft. Azalea Landscapes reported that they will be undertaking the PC’s grass cutting requirements for the forthcoming financial year at a rate unchanged from 2015/16. 16/772 Risk RT signed off appropriate parts on the current Risk Assessment Checklist. - assessment attachment 6 . 16/773 Respond 2 letters received from Mrs Howland and Mrs Bates to enquire of the Parish to Council if it could propose a solution to the current parking problems in Bear Communications Lane when the Village Hall is in use, in particular on Thursdays, which is also bin as the Chairman day. may direct Chairman will speak to Jon (St Peters Farm and road owner) and Janet, who RT uses the hall on Thursdays, to come up with a working solution that will be acceptable to all parties – hall users, residents and road owner. 16/774 Attend to .None any other business at the Chairman’s discretion 16/775 Date of Tuesday 10th May 2016 Next Meeting Closure RT declared the meeting closed at 22:40 hrs Signed: Date: Attachments: 1. Agenda 2. Financial Statements 3. Expenditure against Budget 2015-2016 4. Planning Application 5. Update on Bus Subsidies by PTR 6. PTR report March 8th 2016 Having just taken over from the chair as PTR I attended a meeting with other PTRs in Oxford where we had the opportunity to discuss the proposed cuts to the bus subsidy and how it would affect our bus services, with a representative from Thames Travel. Following that meeting and a deluge of emails, a group calling itself the Downland Transport North Moreton Parish Council Chmn. Action Group was formed by PTRs from the local villages and other interested parties. This group met together and keep in contact through email to discuss updates and to share information. We now know that the subsidies have been cut but our buses will continue to run until at least July 20th2016. Meanwhile we are engaging with Thames Travel in discussions about how a bus service can survive and have put a note in the North Moreton news encouraging people to use the existing services and, if they have a concession card, to consider paying full fare in order to increase the revenue. We have also asked residents to get in touch with me to let me know how much they use the existing services and what they would ideally like to see in the future. Would they use a faster and more regular service between Didcot and Wallingford for example? Downland Transport Action Group are working on saving the 131 service and the 94/95 services and we have let them know that our preferred option is a diversion of the X2 between Wallingford and Didcot on a more regular basis. This is an idea that we mooted to the Thames Travel rep at the initial meeting and he said they might look into it. Failing that we will work with the group to save the 131 and the 95 service if that is practical and continue to look into options that allow for travel by public transport for our villagers. Veronica Gibbs PTR North Moreton 7. Risk assessment checklist 8. OCC Report - February 2016 BUDGET As reported last month, prior to Christmas, Oxfordshire County Council (OCC) went out to consultation on possible additional budget cuts totalling £51m, which at the time was believed to be the worst-case scenario. It was hoped that when central Government confirmed the local government settlement that not all the 95 savings measures consulted on would have to be taken. As it transpired, due to a change in the funding formula which unexpectedly penalised shire counties, the settlement was even worse than expected and the total additional savings required now total £69m. Councillor Ian Hudspeth, the leader of OCC, said: “The clear message from our budget consultation in the Autumn was that making proposed savings would have a real impact on people and communities. We had hoped our original savings options would be a worst-case scenario and that we would not therefore have to go ahead with them all. We are desperately sorry that we now have to consider all these savings, but will be doing everything we can to help communities manage the impact. We have found a series of short-term measures, including drawing on reserves, to buy time before we have to make yet more new savings to cover the difference between £51m and £69m. Our approach remains the same: we want to try to protect the most vulnerable people in Oxfordshire – by which we mean those adults who need help with basic personal care and children at risk of abuse or neglect." By law, OCC has to produce a balanced budget and Cabinet has made the necessary recommendations that will be debated by Full Council on February 16th. This includes a proposal to raise Council Tax by 3.99%. PROPERTY, BACK OFFICE AND RESERVES North Moreton Parish Council Chmn. There have been misleading media reports that OCC could reduce its financial challenges by selling property, cutting the back office and drawing on reserves. The reality is that OCC has already sold more than100 properties realising over £62 million that has been used on capital projects. Furthermore, 26 leases have been terminated saving over £2.1 million pa. With regard to back office functions, the number of directors has been cut by 50%, senior managers by over 40% and staff generally by 30%. Various services are already shared with other councils and partners, and further options are being explored to find even more back office savings. Reserves are already being drawn upon and will soon become low compared to expenditure. BACKLASH AGAINST SHIRE COUNTIES SETTLEMENT Up to 50 MPs are understood to have signed a letter demanding changes to the Government’s proposed settlement with local government, which was published last month. The letter calling for shire councils to be given more money has been sent to the Communities Secretary, Greg Clarke, before a final deal is laid before the Commons within the next fortnight. The Government insists the proposal is a good deal because it also allows local authorities to set their own business rates and increase council tax to make up the shortfall. But one Conservative MP said: “There are a lot of us who are absolutely furious about this.