MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF TANGLEY PARISH COUNCIL
HELD ON MONDAY 18th JULY 2016 AT 7PM
AT TANGLEY PARISH VILLAGE HALL
50/16 OPEN FORUM
Mike Leavey objected to fireworks being let off during a function at the village hall as the locals had not been notified they were going to take place and it was a disturbance to dogs, wildlife and the local residents. He asked if the hirers had asked the VHC for permission.
Jacquie Waller also disliked the fireworks. She reported that somebody had told her that they felt that the farmers in our parish felt the residents were unappreciative with regard to footpaths. She asked if the trees planted in Kate Smith-Pearce’s memory could receive some proper maintenance and it was agreed that this was a matter for the village hall committee.
Chris Pitt continues to be frustrated by the slow progress with regard to Superfast Broadband. The parish are now not due to be upgraded until the end of Phase 2 in late 2018 when additional funding has been made available to BT to enable 95% of the country by 2017. He feels that BT and Hampshire Broadband are very bad at informing residents of the state of play and that they need to be told to communicate. He has written to Kit Malthouse to see if we can get upgraded by 2017. The cabinets and cables are in place so why the delay. BT has the monopoly on the infrastructure which creates a non-competitive situation. Cllr. Tim Rolt said BT tended to enable areas where they got the most properties upgraded for the lease amount of money spent and that the criteria for allocating funds was opaque. We need to get Kit Malthouse to challenge BT with Cllr. Tim Rolt’s support and get BT/HCC to convene a local meeting. Cllr. Rolt said a man in Upton receives faster broadband through a connection used by the local school. He will investigate this.
51/17 PRESENT
Brian Comley, Nigel Bull, Steve Kershaw and Martin Thomson. Cllr. Timothy Rolt (HCC) was also present and the Clerk was in attendance. 4 members of the public were present.
52/16 APOLOGIES
Apologies were received from Tim Strong, Charles Haswell, David Eldred and Cllr. Peter Giddings (TVBC).
53/16 MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING
The minutes of the meeting held on 23 May 2016 were approved and signed. The minutes were proposed by Steve Kershaw and seconded by Nigel Bull.
54/16 MATTERS ARISING
Robin Coupland has been contacted by the executors of the estate of Norman Longmate, author and historian, who used to live in Wildhern as they would like to place a commemorative bench on the playing field. The councillors agreed to this but the VHC should be asked where to site the bench.
Fireworks had been let off on the playing field during an event at the weekend and local residents are not happy. This is the first time it has happened but people hiring the hall should be told that this is not allowed in future. People hiring the hall for an event should also not be able to block book the tennis court either as local residents wanted to play last Saturday but found the court block booked on the booking system. This was apparently done to stop children from the function playing on the court but it was felt that it was not right that local residents were therefore unable to use the court on a Saturday.
55/16 HIGHWAYS
Ray Alborough, HCC Highways, has acknowledged our request for a TRO for double yellow lines in Sambourn Lane but has advised that there are two other schemes in the area which will take priority prior to any consideration being given to our TRO. Cllr. Tim Rolt is researching grant funding to help enable the school to move their crossing to the church gate and to get a path instated across the churchyard. He advised that the HCC road safety team, for which Mandy Ware works, has been reduced from 20 to 5 members of staff over recent years and that HCC Highways have had staffing cutbacks of 40%.
With regard to the width restriction signs in Goddards Lane, the clerk advised that Penton Mewsey have some simple entry signs into the village just beyond the private farm road going up to the grain dryer and she will photograph these before the next meeting as they may be a suitable alternative for Goddards Lane.
56/16 SPEEDWATCH AND SLR PARTERSHIP SCHEME
A speed of 51mph was recorded in Hatherden by a vehicle approaching from Tangley. A school parent was recorded doing a speed of 48 mph entering the village from Charlton. Two SSE vans were recorded doing over 40mph. Details of cars recorded doing over 50mph are passed on to the police and offenders receive a visit. If cars are caught twice speeding but doing under 50mph their details are also forwarded on. Data is regularly uploaded giving the recorded speed, time and car registration number to the police. The general feeling however is that speeding in Hatherden has been reduced.
57/16 DEFIBRILLATORS (AED’s)
It was agreed that we should commit to the HeartSafe monitoring scheme for checking our AED’s but it is a long term commitment. It costs £49 + VAT per annum per unit. However it makes the people checking the units accountable for carrying out regular inspections. The information is submitted using a QR reader on a smart phone. It is a safe-guarding procedure.
We need to diary a date to warn us when the cabinet warranties are due to expire as they are only valid for 2 years whereas the units have warranties for 7 years. Steve Kershaw will find out what it would cost to replace the cabinets if this is in fact possible whilst retaining the units. Emergency lighting, key safes and stickers need to be funded. The clerk will see if we have any developer contributions which could be used for this.
58/16 FOOTPATHS
John Hobbins has supplied supporting evidence that the footpath alongside Whistlers Farm is in fact an unmettled ‘road’ and as such no gate or stile should be installed to deter farm vehicles from using this path.
It seems inevitable that all the permissive paths we have been extremely lucky to have had access to over the past 10 years courtesy of Jon Capes will revert to arable land in October 2016. It does not seem likely that we will be able to obtain agreement to keep the footpath from the school to the playing field without the agreement of the landowner for this path to be adopted by HCC as an official footpath. The Chairman will have one last conversation with Jon Capes on this matter. It may be that an informal arrangement can be agreed.
A parish footpath walk will be organised for the Autumn so that an audit can be carried out with regard to missing footpath posts and way markers. A request can then be submitted to HCC Rights of Way to have these items replaced/reinstated.
59/16 PLANNING
16/01604/FULLN – Roundaway Farm, Copse Lane, Tangley – Extension to cottage/annex.
Rebecca Hughes from Fowlers Architects attended the meeting and advised that there were currently two dwellings at Roundaway Farm – the farmhouse and a farm cottage. The current owners currently live in the farmhouse but wish to extend the cottage and obtain permission to convert the barns into an annex for use by the cottage. There are no agricultural ties. Once the cottage has been extended the owners will move into it and sell the farmhouse. They have applied for a new access drive into the cottage from an existing field entrance.
This planning application was reviewed and the parish council agreed to support it but to withhold filing comments until the deadline of 4 August 2016 as the plans arrived too late for the application to go on to the agenda and this will therefore give time for any comments to be received by the clerk before we officially support this application.
Plough Farm
The parish council had an informal discussion recently about Plough Farm and it was agreed to do nothing at the present time as current planning laws and the TVBC Adopted Local Plan make any sort of planning permission unlikely. It was felt that an affordable housing scheme would not generate enough return for the land for the owner at only £10k per plot. The current tenants lease expires in September 2017 and the area manager of Lohmann GB has informed the clerk that they wish to continue to lease the site on an on-going basis.
59/16 FINANCE
The internal audit took place on 23rd May 2016 and John Murray’s resulting letter has now been received and was reviewed at the meeting. The only matter outstanding at time of audit was the end of year payroll submissions which were carried out by Hyson’s Accountants and which John Murray has now received.
The Clerk advised that the bank balance is £5,781.93 after all cheques and payments had been reconciled to the last bank statement. The bank reconciliation was then signed by The Chairman as a true account. The following cheques were then approved and signed:
000888 - £5,585.52 Wicksteed Leisure re. slide (retrospective)
000889 - £125.00 John Murray – internal audit (retrospective)
000890 - £321.54 Clerks Salary (June – retrospective)
000891 - £321.54 Clerks Salary (July – post-dated 31/7/2016)
000892 - £3,883.20 Bingham Ground Services – cricket wicket
60/16 PARISH IMPROVEMENT PROGRAMME 2015/16
The VHC are obtaining quotes for improving the playing field entrance gate areas.
The cricket wicket has now been extended so all the sports committee projects are finally finished and everything is operational and in use.
61/16 CORRESPONDENCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE MATTERS
The clerk requested that the October meeting date be changed from 24th October 2016 to 7 November 2016. There were no new items of correspondence.
The Village Hall risk assessment register was presented to the Chairman which he signed (?)
The meeting finished at 8.46pm
The next meeting of Tangley Parish Council will take place on
Monday, 12th September 2016 at 7pm at Tangley Parish Village Hall.