Minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting of Scampton Parish Council.

Held on Tuesday 12.05.2009 at Pollyplatt School, Scampton.

Present: Councillors M. Deacon (Chairman), S. Ulyat (Vice Chairman), R. Patterson, Mrs L. Green and Mrs C. Nicholson, Clerk Mrs B. Coleman and 5 members of the parish.

Apologies were received from Cllr. D. Bennett, Mr Charlie Hebborn and a number of parishioners.

Minutes of the last Annual Meeting, held on 13th May 2008 were taken as read and signed by the Chairman as being a true record of the meeting.

Welcome and Introductions.

The Chairman introduced the members of the Parish Council and welcomed Mr Roger Patterson who had replaced Jim Spurr. He thanked Jim, who had resigned due to relocation, for all his hard work for the Council. There was now a vacancy on the Council and anyone interested should speak to the Returning Officer at West Lindsey.

He welcomed Squadron Leader Alastair Scott, O/C Base Support at RAF Scampton, Gill Angel, the Base Community Development Officer, Peter Heath County and District Councillor, Ian Cotton, Police Community Beat Manager, Greville Burgess, Principal Road Safety Coordinator with Lincolnshire Road Safety Partnership and Paul Coleman, Editor of Village Venture. The Head Teacher and caretaker of Pollyplatt Primary School were thanked for the use of the school hall.

CHAIRMAN’S REPORT.

Village Magazine

The Chairman reported that the Village had two excellent schools, a pub and a church. He went on to say that he was also on the Village Venture Magazine Committee like all other chairmen/women in the Springline parishes. The Village Venture nearly went bust earlier in the year but since Paul Coleman had taken over as Editor and Business Manager things were once more on a viable footing.

Concerns

The Council received more complaints about speeding in the village than anything else hence the invitation to Mr. Greville Burgess to talk about the problem. The past concerns regarding parking on the village main street had almost been eradicated but through traffic was still a major concern.

General

  1. Councillors had recently attended a joint District/Parish seminar at WLDC to discuss planning, flooding and policing and were still working on the flooding problems, awaiting the Pitt Report, due in autumn 2009, when the Government would declare who will be the lead body responsible for flooding. A lot of work had been undertaken by the council and individual home owners to protect properties in the future.
  1. The Council were looking into the rejuvenation of the village green area, including a new bus shelter, and a memorial to the Red Arrows. A competition had been held for the school children to design their ideas for the green. The designs were innovative and contained some good ideas, the winner was Jessie Latham.The entries were on the table for residents to look at. Some initial design ideas were on view and residents were asked for their opinions.
  1. The council had changed grass cutting contractors to reduce costs. There is regular liaison with the RAF who are aware of the concerns regarding the Spar shop; the condition of the roads on the camp etc. and the council now keeps detailed records of any concerns/correspondence about such matters - in order that contractors and housing associations cannot in future abrogate their responsibilities.

Presentation.

Road Safety

The concerns regarding the B1398 traffic trough the village were put to Mr Burgess in great detail and at some length. He responded by outlining the history of the Road Safety Partnership, which had been formed in 2000 following excessive deaths and injuries on the county’s roads. He explained that enforcement alone does not work, it has to go hand in hand with education. They work predominately in schools on road safety, bike wise and pedestrian training, looking at key issues and trying to reduce accidents. Everyone must take responsibility for road safety – it is not always someone else! He would be happy to take away the concerns of the parishioners and to consider the installation of speed signs at each end of the village. The Parish Councils have the right to put themselves forward as champions of Vehicle Activated Signs where data has indicated that they would be beneficial. He explained about various driving schemes including Safe Young Driver (which is free) and Pass Plus. He reiterated that road safety was a serious matter but that training was effective and fun. It was agreed that the council would write to the RSP and put forward a compelling case for speed reduction signs through the village/

RAF Update Squadron Leader Scott reported that at the moment RAFAT (The Red Arrows) will be moving to Waddington in 2011 but in any case the Red Arrows would still be using the airspace over Scampton. Air Control will move to Coningsby in 2014 and that plans were being made for the drawdown of RAF Scampton. The remainder of the site would be left with Defence Estates, either to find another user or to dispose of the site. Up to 2014 the RAF would be responsible for the maintenance of the site. The hangars are listed buildings and will be maintained so that they are viable for the use of the RAF and those who may have to follow. Community Forums are held and residents concerns were passed to the relevant person/agency. Both the RAF and civilian police were trying to maintain the speed limits on the camp. Families week would be held between 25th and 31st May and all were welcome. He explained that as more houses were disposed of the residents would be responsible for the roads, which would never be adopted by the County Council (due to the width of them) and the RAF were aware of the concerns and would take the issues forward.

Policing.

PC Ian Cotton explained that policing had gone back to the nearest thing to the village bobby with the neighbourhood policing teams. It provided access to the police and gave the ability to say which issues we would like addressed. The main areas for targeting were Hemswell Sunday Market (counterfeit and stolen goods), speeding on the B1398 (which was a significant problem) and anti-social behaviour on Scampton Camp. He thanked the parishioners for being proactive.

Cllr. Peter Heath.

Cllr Heath emphasised the issues that had been looked at by the District Council, all mentioned above and also offered a word of caution about management schemes i.e. the maintenance of private roadways - which may happen on the camp properties.He said that eventually people wouldn’t pay and the roads would then deteriorate. He explained the scheme for the introduction of council elections every four years had been defeated as there had not been a two thirds majority. He thanked everyone for their support.

Vote of Thanks. Mrs Margaret Pratt then thanked the Parish Councillors, on behalf of parishioners, for all their hard work over the previous year.

The next Parish Council Meeting will be on Thursday 4th June 2009 at 7.30pm at BSA Hall, Aisthorpe.

Being no further business the meeting closed at 9.10pm. It was followed by refreshments.

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