9/5/19 BOW BRICKHILL PARISH COUNCIL Minutes of the Annual Village Meeting held on Thursday 9 May 2019 Present: Cllr R O’Rourke (Chair); Cllr J Price; Cllr P Ball; Cllr R Ford; Cllr B Thompson In attendance: Tony O’Rourke (Clerk); Ward Cllr D Hopkins Public: Robert Hill (WWFC); Chris Sitzberger (The Greensand Trust); Bob Holland (The Greensand Trust); Frank Morris; Elizabeth Morris; Sue Malleson (BBNW); Diana Kesterton; Donald Kesterton; Stephanie Warren (WI); Stuart Leeming (BBPCC); Kay Leeming; Alan Preen (ASTRA); Mary Preen; Sarah Plumb (Youth Club); Olivia Harrison-Read; Alex Poppleton; Kim Gallacher; Nick Wagstaff; Ian Sheratt; Celia Sheratt The meeting commenced at 8.18pm 1.0 Apologies for Absence Ward Councillors Alice Jenkins and Victoria Hopkins; Thames Valley Police; Pam McBurnie (Headteacher, Bow Brickhill C of E (VA) Primary School); Jo Gadsby (Little Stars Nursery); Sally Pepper and Sarah Travell (1st Bow Brickhill Brownies) Vote of Cllr Ball proposed a vote of thanks to all those who had made the refreshments: Thanks May Butcher (who had made the cakes), Mary Preen and Nick Wagstaff. Unanimously agreed 2.0 To Confirm the Minutes of the Annual Village Meeting of 10 May 2018 To approve the minutes of the meeting held on Thursday 10 May 2018 as an Agreed accurate record. Signed by Chair 3.0 Chair’s Annual Report Cllr O’Rourke had been re-elected at the Annual Parish Meeting as Chair. She read her report as follows: “…Barely a month after taking up the position of Parish Clerk/Pavilion Manager/RFO, Tessa Taylor resigned, with immediate effect, on the day of the June 2018 Parish Council Meeting, giving, as her reason, that it was impossible to do the job in the originally allotted part-time 20 hours per week. I have since been given to understand, from an unimpeachable source, that this problem is common to many Parish Councils throughout the country – what once was a part-time job is part-time no longer. I have also been told, on many occasions, that it is very difficult indeed to find a Parish Clerk at all. In its modern, post-Localism Act 2011 incarnation, the role itself has changed materially from its 2010 specification. The population of the village has increased with the development of Brickhill Sands, supporting the Parish Councillors in the battle against the existential threats presented by Plan: MK has almost become a job in itself, and, because the Parish Precept has not been increased in many years, it has become vital to aggressively market the Pavilion as a hall for hire in order to reduce the cost to the public purse of meeting the day to day requirements of the village. I’m sure you will join me in thanking my brave (some would say foolhardy) husband, Tony O’Rourke, for stepping up to the plate and taking on the role of I accept these minutes as a true and accurate record of events Signed………………………………………………………….. Date………………………. 9/5/19 Clerk/RFO/Pavilion Manager. I would also like to thank the former Parish Clerk, Becca Gurnett, for filling in at the last minute to Clerk the June 2018 Parish Counicl Meeting. I would also like to thank councillors Julian Price, Ross Ford, Philip Ball and Beverley Thompson, for their hard work and enthusiasm in recent months, former councillors Sally Milford and Robert Jones, our Pavilion Caretaker Andy Wright and Pavilion Cleaner Gerald Crosby, and our brave and tenacious Ward Councillors David Hopkins, Alice Jenkins and Victoria Hopkins who have been unstinting in their advice, help and support over the past year. Plan: MK In December 2017, Bow Brickhill Parish Council submitted to Milton Keynes Council (‘MKC’) a formal response on behalf of the village to the Proposed Submission Plan: MK. In February 2018, Sue Malleson, Cllr David Hopkins and I attended a Delegated Decisions Meeting at which former MK Councillor Liz Gifford was persuaded by Cllr Hopkins, to approve two public consultations each on the South Caldecotte Development Framework Supplementary Planning Document (‘SPD’) and the Draft Caldecotte C Development Brief. In June 2018, Sue Malleson and Cllr Hopkins attended the Planning Inspector’s Examination Hearings on our behalf and reiterated the principal objections raised by Bow Brickhill residents to the proposals for South Caldecotte and Caldecotte Site C. Since then, a number of revisions have been made to the South Caldecotte Development Framework SPD and the Draft Caldecotte C Development Brief, resulting in the document for the former, which will go out to public consultation between 8 May and 3 July 2019, and the latter, which went out to consultation between 18 March and 29 April 2019. Sue Malleson, the Parish Clerk, Cllrs Hopkins and Ford, and I have, over the past year, attended numerous meetings on the subject of Plan: MK and its likely impact on the village. The Plan, in its entirety, was adopted (or ‘made’) by MKC on 20 March 2019, with 40 votes in favour, 9 abstentions and 4 against. Three of those four brave votes opposing the Plan came from our own Ward Councillors. In spite of this outcome, we will continue to fight the proposals for South Caldecotte and Caldecotte C. Indeed, on 14 March, a group of Developers leafleted a select few Bow Brickhill residents, inviting them to attend a ‘ Public Exhibition’ to be held at the Church Hall, on the subject of the proposed South Caldecotte development. In response to this, we sprang into action and, with the help and support of our Ward Councillors and a plucky band of village residents, we produced our own flyers and delivered them to EVERY home in the village, explaining the necessity of attending this ‘exhibition’ to tell the developers exactly what we thought of their plans for the so-called ‘Employment Site’, its huge warehouses and the massive increase in HGV traffic it will inevitably generate. The Parish Council has instructed a firm of planners and a transport consultant to produce for us the best possible response to the South Caldecotte SPD consultation and, together with councillors from other towns and villages I accept these minutes as a true and accurate record of events Signed………………………………………………………….. Date………………………. 9/5/19 impacted by the development, formed a ‘Supergroup’ to give more power to our collective ‘voice’ on this issue. We have not forgotten the 3,000-house development between the village, Woburn Sands and Browns Wood (the ‘SEMK Urban Expansion’) included in Plan: MK. Again, Cllr Hopkins, Sue Malleson, the Parish Clerk and I have attended a number of meetings on this issue and will keep you informed of our progress. The reason for the prioritisation of these issues has been one of urgency, dictated by the timing of MKC’s programme of consultations, nothing Noted more. Littering and Adult Safeguarding Over Christmas 2017/18, matters came to a head regarding the activities of a resident we all knew as “the lady”, who habitually imperilled herself and others by wandering in and out of the road, placing branches etc. in the path of oncoming traffic and strewing the footpath with dangerous litter including broken glass, animal faeces and used sanitary products. After much discussion with Thames Valley Police and the Adult Safeguarding Team at MKC, Social Services eventually intervened and, I understand, “the lady” is now safe and in the care of her family elsewhere in the Milton Keynes Noted area. Improvements to the Pavilion and Playing Fields Over the past year, a number of improvements have been made to the Pavilion and surrounding area. In terms of maintenance, and in order to further reinforce security at the Pavilion, new doors have now been installed. The Pavilion now also benefits from an EE 4G router which provides WiFi access without the need for digging up the road to install cabling, and allows the heating at the Pavilion to be controlled remotely by a Hive system, thus keeping gas and electricity costs down. Funds obtained from the S106 Agreement attached to the Brickhill Sands Development have enabled us to: • Install new acoustic panels and lighting in the Pavilion – thanks are due to Cllr Price for leading this project and the new Public Arts Project; • Refurbish the children’s Play Area, replacing much of the equipment and the ground coverings beneath it – thanks are due to former Cllr Sally Milford, who led this project; • Provide hard-wearing outdoor picnic tables and benches, now sited on the periphery of the Playing Field, giving an attractive picnic area and seating – I lead this project and would like to thank Andy Wright, Cllr Ford and our Parish Clerk for helping with the installation of these heavy Noted items. Thanks for this are also due to former Cllr Ann Sidgwick, who applied for the S106 funding from MKC for this purpose. Pavilion Bookings and New Classes for 2019 Our Parish Clerk/RFO/Pavilion Manager has been working his socks off to fully utilise the Pavilion as a community resource, generating valuable and much- needed income for the village. I accept these minutes as a true and accurate record of events Signed………………………………………………………….. Date………………………. 9/5/19 In addition to the ongoing bookings for Little Stars, the various prayer groups, the Line Dancing classes and community groups including Buckaneers, MK Gems, the WI and the Youth Club, we can now offer residents Tai Chi, Noted Kickboxing, Ballroom Dance and pre-natal Yoga classes on a regular basis…” 4.0 RFO Statement of Accounts and Report Full Report and Financial Statements can be found at Appendix A The Annual Governance and Accountability Return (AGAR) to Year End 2018/19, RFO Report, Financial Statements, Bank Reconciliation and Budget Cost Report had been adopted at the Annual Parish Council Meeting and copies were appended to the Annual Village Meeting Agenda and Chair’s Report for the information of residents.