Farnham Parish Council
Minutes of the Annual Public Open Meeting
held at The Museum on Monday 9th May 2016 at 7.30pm
Present: Chair Penny Everard(PE), Vice Chair Gail Sadd (GS), Cllr Ned Miller (NM), Cllr Roy Vincent (RV), Clllr Roy Bartlett(RB), Clerk/Cllr Tracey Hartles(TH).
Parishioners in Attendance;Jillian Glass ,John Benjafield, Ray Wise, Diana Targett, Graham Ryder, Gill Baverstock, Edwin Sadd, Geoff Parnell, Richard Williams, John & Barbara Williamson, Caroline Coleman.
1. Minutes of the Annual Public Meeting 2015 were read out by TH and signed as a true & accuraterecord by the Chair Penny Everard.
2. Review of the 2015/2016 by the Chairmanof the Parish Council.Penny Everard gave a review of 2015/2016 as follows:
NM stood down as Chairman at the AGM. We would like to thank him for guiding the new councillors through their first year. He has agreed to stay on the council so we will be able to access his wealth of knowledge.
Julian Lowndes resigned at the end of last year and we would to thank him for all his hard work over many years. Roy Bartlett has been Co opted on to the council.
The Council is now Penny Everard/Chairperson, Cllr Gail Sadd Vice Chair with responsibilities for Footpaths. Cllr Tracey Hartles/Parish Clerk. Cllr Roy Vincent -planning, Cllr Ned Miller -Highways/Floods/Snow & Ice,Cllr Roy Bartlett –Playground, Cllr Vicky Forbes-Tree Management. The new Cllrs attended training course, TH attended Budget Course.
Ditches at the bottom of the village were cleared by Rushmore Estate. The Parish notice board was refurbished by Gail & Ed Sadd, thank you. The Old Drove running alongside Elmwood House is for tenants use only & the gate must be kept locked. With regard to parking outside The Museum Inn, 3 No Parking signs had been put around the front of the pub, they are small but the situation has improved slightly.
Planning- Tree works at Winklebury Cottage, Marky’s Cottage & South Chase Cottage. No Objection.
Planning Applications – Bussey Stool Lodge, Sarunds House & Scrubbity Cottage. No Objections.
Neighbourhood Plan- Henry Peterson from Field Cottage came to a meeting to discuss the possibility of doing a neighbourhood plan. We discussed it with a Senior Planning Officer from NDDC. It means a great deal of work and commitment and as we can not protect the playground in a neighbourhood development plan as we do not own the land, we decided not to go ahead at this stage.
Traffic through Newtown is an ongoing issue & NM will keep us informed.
The Well House- we contacted Rushmore Estate & repairs are in hand.
Clean for the Queen- organised by Gill Baverstock with the support of the Parish Council. This was a great success, if you call 41bags of rubbish & sundry items a success. It has been suggested that we do this on a regular basis.
We would like to thank Graham Ryder who litter picks all the year round & all the other people in the village who get on & do things for the benefit of our community.
Penny thanked all her fellow Councillors for their commitment & hard work.
3. Finance: The Financial year end spreadsheets were circulated showing the expenses & income for the financial year end 31/03/16. We have £1864.90 in the account. The Precept will be £3500.00 for 2016/2017.
4. Matters to be discussed:
a. Buses –We no longer have a bus coming to the village. Service 20 now runs between Blandford & Salisbury. Dorset Community Transport is being used by a parishioner.
b. Mobile Library-Under review yet again. It is almost certain that there will be no mobile library service in Dorset except to residential homes
c.Newtown Update: Cllr Miller reported that NDDC will not put restrictions on the top road. Richard Williams asked if we can obtain a detailed report of the traffic count last summer. NM will contact highways.
d. Website: The Parish Council have purchased the domain name for FarnhamParish Council. In 2017 all Accounts & Standing Orders must be published online. We are in the process of setting up a website for Farnham, which will be able to host lots of other information for our Village, we hope this will be up & running soon & will keep you posted.
5.Report by Gill Baverstock on behalf of the P.C.C. Tables have been purchased by the P.C.C.
They aim to continue to raise money for the Church & other charitable organisations. In spite of having to spend money on the fabric of the church where it cannot always be seen they feel their finances are in a relatively healthy state. Tim Tustin has joined Gill as a church warden.
6. Allotment Society Report by Ed Sadd –.Ed gave a short talk about the village Allotments- some plots are still available, and it would be lovely if the children from the village would come and join in and have a go at growing their own vegetables.
7. A Difribullator was discussed for the village, parish council will find out more information.
There being no other business the meeting closed at 9.00pm
Datesigned…………………..
Chairman of Farnham Parish Council