OPEN SESSION: There were no members of public who wished to speak. MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF RINGWOOD TOWN COUNCIL Held on Wednesday 31st October 2012 at 7.00pm PRESENT: Cllr W S Rippon-Swaine (Town Mayor) Cllr S Burgess-Kennar Cllr N J Chard Cllr L C Ford Cllr J D Heron Cllr G J O’Reilly Cllr M A Steele Cllr S M Stokes Cllr B H Terry Cllr M H Thierry Cllr A Wiseman Cllr B Woodifield IN ATTENDANCE: Mr T Simpson, Town Clerk Jo Stannard, Deputy Town Clerk Mr Nick Hunt, Principal Engineer, New Forest District Council (NFDC) Prior to the meeting, the Town Clerk reported that apologies for absence had been received from Cllrs Frampton and J Terry and Student Advisor Nuala Brothers. C/5330 DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST Cllr Thierry declared a pecuniary interest – see C/5337. C/5331 PRESENTATIONS – GRANT AID The Town Mayor presented grant aid cheques of £800 to Sophie Dubber of Forest Forge Theatre Company for its outreach work in the town, and £500 to Alastair Duncan of 3rd Ringwood Scout Group towards an extension to their premises. Ms Dubber thanked the Council for its grant, which meant a lot to the Company. Outreach work in the town was an important element of the work carried out by the Company and they wanted Ringwood to be proud of them. She invited Members to attend the next production, Midnight is a Place, at Greyfriars on 8th December. Mr Duncan explained that the scout hut was a 60 year old building, which had recently been refurbished. They were now embarking on a major extension to meet the needs of existing users and to reduce waiting lists. The Council’s grant would be helpful towards achieving this target. On another subject, Mr Duncan offered his congratulations on Ringwood Gateway, which he said was a superb development, particularly the public square. C/5332 RINGWOOD POLICE REPORT Inspector Simon Tribe and Sergeant Mark Roberts presented a report (Annex A). He referred to recent incidents of arson in the public toilets and asked if it was possible to reconnect the CCTV camera, so that it would be possible to apprehend the offenders. The Page 1 of 4 Town Clerk commented that this issue had already been raised with the District Council and was currently being investigated. Members were pleased to hear that drug use was being tackled, as this appeared to have increased recently. The Police had been in touch with Ringwood School and were looking at the best way to deal with this issue. C/5333 PRESENTATIONS – FORMER TOWN MAYORS The Town Mayor presented copies of the portraits now displayed in Ringwood Gateway to former Town Mayors Cllr Brian Terry, Cllr Christine Ford and Cllr Michael Thierry and Honorary Freeman Cllr Neville Chard. C/5334 MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING RESOLVED: That the minutes of the Meeting held on 26th September 2012, having been circulated, be approved and signed as a correct record. C/5335 RECREATION, LEISURE AND OPEN SPACES COMMITTEE Cllr Terry presented the minutes of the Recreation, Leisure and Open Spaces Committee meeting held on 3rd October 2012 . RESOLVED: That the minutes of the Recreation, Leisure and Open Spaces Committee meeting held on 3rd October 2012 be received. C/5336 PLANNING, TOWN & ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE Cllr Burgess-Kennar presented the minutes of the Planning, Town & Environment Committee meeting held on 12th October 2012. RESOLVED: That the minutes of the Planning, Town & Environment Committee meeting held on 12th October 2012 be received. C/5337 POLICY & FINANCE COMMITTEE Cllr Thierry declared a pecuniary interest in Annex A (a) List of Payments relating to Forest Newspapers, as he is the proprietor. Cllr Heron presented the minutes of the Policy & Finance Committee meeting held on 17th October 2012. F/4896 – Cllr Thierry wished to thank everyone involved in the Official Opening event, which was a credit to the town. F/4900 – The Town Clerk reported that, despite promises from Southern Electric Contracting that the work would be completed last week and continued chasing from the office, the work to reconnect the clock in the Furlong Car Park had still not been carried out. Cllr Rippon-Swaine agreed to take up this issue with Hampshire County Council, which had a contractual arrangement with SEC for the street lighting PFI. Page 2 of 4 RESOLVED: That the minutes of the Policy & Finance Committee meeting held on 17th October 2012 be received. C/5338 A31 SUBMISSION DOCUMENT The Town Mayor congratulated Cllr Thierry on a comprehensive and professional document. Cllr Thierry referred to it as a document that reflected the input of the people of Ringwood, it had not been written by officers and had no references to technical terms. He proposed that the Town Mayor write to the Transport Minister responsible for Highways asking him to receive the document and petition, and to facilitate a meeting with the Town Council, and also write to Desmond Swayne MP asking him to lobby the Minister. The Town Mayor thanked Nick Hunt, Principal Engineer at New Forest District Council, for attending the meeting and invited him to speak. Mr Hunt reported that contact had been made with the Highways Agency, and it was hoped that a meeting would be held in December for all interested parties to give their views to Desmond Swayne MP, who would be asked to champion the lane addition proposal. It was hoped that the lane addition scheme would be included in the Highways Agency pinch point funding. However, the scheme did not meet two key criteria – cost and delivery date (as approval was required by Secretary of State due to environmental issues). Cllr Heron said that it was an opportune time and reference should be made to the pinch point funding in the Mayor’s letter to the Minister, as an exception would need to be made. Cllr Chard agreed with the principal of the motion. However, he was concerned about implementation and drivers ignoring any new signage. Cllr Thierry explained that it was hoped to bring redundant posts back into use with signs helpful to drivers. RESOLVED: 1) That the final submission document (Annex B) be approved. 2) That the Town Mayor write to the Minister responsible for Highways asking him to receive the document and petition, and Desmond Swayne MP asking him to lobby the Minister. C/5339 COMMUNICATIONS TO BE RECEIVED The Town Mayor reported the following: 1. A meeting, organised by Jacqueline Brown, Churchwarden, was to be held at 7.30pm on Monday 26th November at Ringwood Gateway to discuss provision of a Foodbank for the needy in Ringwood. All Councillors were invited to attend. 2. A letter of thanks for the Council’s support has been received from Christine Smith and Howard Cox of Ringwood Carnival. The Carnival had been a great success and crowds of people had enjoyed the new public square outside Ringwood Gateway, where bands were playing. The groundstaff had done a great job preparing the Village Green for the funfair. The street collection raised a record amount of £4,760, which would be distributed to local charities. 3. A letter of thanks had been received from Un-Nite Club to Cllr Brian Terry and everyone involved for the special gift of £249.45 from the Mayor’s Fund. Page 3 of 4 4. Cllr Paul Vickers had received the Council’s letter regarding concerns about the new layout of the Furlong Car Park. This was due to be discussed by the District Council in December. 5. Following the recent visit to Devizes Town Council by a delegation from the Council, a story had appeared in This is Wiltshire regarding the possibility that Devizes would adopt a similar Student Advisors scheme. 6. The official opening of Ringwood Gateway on Monday 29th October by HRH the Duke of Kent went smoothly; a formal recognition of the importance of the new building and the Gateway Square to Ringwood. He thanked everyone involved with the organisation of the event, which was complicated due to the need for special security and protocol measures. In particular, thanks were given to the Deputy Town Clerk, Jo Stannard, for the exceptional work she had done to make the event such a success. C/5340 REPORTS FROM COUNTY AND DISTRICT COUNCILLORS District Councillor Heron reported that a meeting had been held to discuss use of developers’ contributions in Ringwood, with a focus on sporting facilities in Long Lane. District Councillor Ford reported that a phased scheme would be required to deliver the Long Lane scheme to allow smaller projects to also be delivered in the town, such as the proposed riverside walk. She also referred to discussions about the possible introduction of parking charges for the disabled. A meeting had been held about the PFI street lighting scheme, which was due to be implemented in Ringwood in May 2013. Cllr Rippon-Swaine reported that a new Landscape Planning Officer was taking up post at the District Council next week and it was hoped that he would be able to carry out some work on the design of the Long Lane scheme. Ringwood Society had been in touch with the District Council regarding the retention of heritage lamp standards; this was something that would be brought to the Town Council for consideration. District Councillor Woodifield had attended, on behalf of the Town Mayor, the Mayor of Yeovil’s ball, which had been an excellent evening. County Councillor Rippon-Swaine presented his written report (Annex C). C/5341 FORTHCOMING MEETINGS Recreation, Leisure & Open Spaces 7.00pm Wednesday 7th November Planning, Town & Environment 2.00pm Friday 9th November Policy & Finance 7.00pm Wednesday 21st November Full Council 7.00pm Wednesday 28th November There being no further business, the Town Mayor closed the meeting at 8.20pm.