MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL
PARISH MEETING Present: Parish Councillors Bride, Mrs Chapman, Mrs Chubb, Mrs Gardiner, Gardiner, Harris, Mrs Spriggs, Councillors Mrs Clark and Jones (both CDC), Rev. J. Calvert, Roger Edgar (Chairman School Governors) and P.C. George Lager (Gloucestershire Constabulary) Apologies were received from Parish Councillors Dunn, Nicholas, Mrs Pearse, Cllr Parsons (GCC). There were 13 members of the public present. MINUTES OF LAST MEETING MATTERS ARISING Due to other commitments the report from P.C. George Lager (Gloucestershire Police) was promoted to next in the agenda. REPORT BY P.C. LAGER P.C. George Lager introduced himself as the Rural Beat Officer. This post could be described as a “Rural Watch” without impinging on Neighbourhood Watch. His “beat” included Horses, Public Houses, Churches, Schools etc and covered an area from Didmarton to Lechlade and Birdlip to Cricklade. Police Information Points would be installed and would include a notice board and confidential letter box contents of which would be collected on a weekly basis. This was not an ideal solution but was the second best and a step forward. There were 10 Rural Beat Officers in Gloucestershire with two currently assigned to the Cotswold District. To help the officers to carry out their duties a mobile police motor home, fully equipped with modern communications technology is being supplied. Gloucestershire is the first police district in the country to provide this service. QUESTIONS
PC Lager then left the meeting to return to duty. CHAIRPERSON’S REPORT Councillor Mike Stuart is reading this in my absence. Having said I would only serve one term as Chairperson I am still in the Chair and will be for the next year also, making my fourth term as Chairperson. I would like to say a big thank you to Maurice McKee whose help has been invaluable and another big thank you to all my fellow councillors for the help they have given me throughout this very difficult year. Thanks also to Cllr Stuart for stepping into my shoes at late notice on more than one occasion. I would also like to say thank you to our two Ward Councillors Mrs Anne Clark and Dr Leslie Jones; and to Councillor Shaun Parsons from Gloucestershire County Council. They have all in turn helped enormously throughout the year. I have been pleased to attend the USAF change of command ceremony at RAF Fairford and Beating of Retreat at the 29th Regiment last summer. I was also proud to lay the wreath on behalf of the Parish Council and the community on Remembrance Sunday. In addition to being Chairperson of the Parish Council I am also Chairperson of the Finance Committee and am pleased to report that the current financial position of the Parish Council is in good condition. Planning The Parish Council has considered 93 planning applications of which 2 were withdrawn, 54 granted and 11 refused by Cotswold District Council. We have had numerous meetings regarding the Westbury Homes planning application for the next phase including a public meeting and as you all are aware the Parish Council voted 6 votes to 4 not to object to Westbury Homes’ appeal which will be held on 28th of May at the Memorial Centre in Cirencester. Finance The precept has been set this year at £46,000 up from £31,540 which represents an increase of 30.7% on last year. It was necessary to make this increase to cover the planned improvements to the Upper Up playing field project. Village Maintenance The plans for the Upper Up playing field are nearing the final stages. Meetings have and are still taking place to discuss the final plans for the park. We are getting there ... so watch out for future announcements. The new Sports Pavilion is nearly ready for its occupants and I believe that the decorators are, as we meet, completing the interior. Mr Wrightson of Kingfisher Place is still very kindly cleaning out the ditch on a purely voluntary basis. Children from the village have been involved with Cllr King and Cllr Nicholas in the process of planning the re-equipping of the playgrounds and their input will be taken notice of. Best Kept Village/Bledisloe Cup South Cerney was judged winners of the Bledisloe Cup for the Best Kept Village in Gloucestershire, Large Village category and awarded a prize of £100. A further award of £250 and a plaque as regional winners was presented for the South West and Western England in the Older People Care Award category. Village Floods From further meetings I have attended with representatives from Thames Water, the Environment Agency, Fosseway Housing and various departments of the CDC, plans are now being put into action by all the professionals who are being very active regarding the serious problems of past flooding in South Cerney. We, as a Council, are still in close contact with all parties. The CDC is still keeping a finger on the very complicated issues and serious problems regarding the flooding especially in Berkeley Close. Thank you all for coming. I would like to remind you that most of us Councillors have full time jobs and at 10.30pm really find it very difficult to discuss issues, sometime we have over 50 items of correspondence and my ongoing ambition is to close the meetings at 9.30pm but I fail most times. REPORT FROM CLLR MRS ANNE CLARK (CDC) We have now had nine months of working with the new Political Management scheme, which resulted in CDC’s case of having a Leader with Executive Committee, Community Committee, Environment and Economy Committee, Overview and Scrutiny Committees and one Planning Regulatory Committee which serves the whole District. I have served on this Committee as Vice Chairman and have been reelected to serve for this coming year. The consultation time for the Parish Councils’ comments on planning matters has been reduced to three weeks, which is in line with the rest of the country. We are operating 80% delegation by Officers, which we find is about right, although the Government requires us to work towards 90% delegation, and that the applications should be determined within an 8 week period. Larger applications take longer than this. All Ward Councillors are made aware of all applications being determined, and if a refusal notice is going out this is discussed with the Ward Councillors first. Les and I certainly make a point of discussing all the applications in our Ward with the officers. The applications brought to Committee are the larger applications and the more controversial ones, or where the Officers are recommending refusal and they would prefer a Committee decision. The draft local plan for 2001Ð2011 is now nearing completion and will go out for consultation later in the summer. As you know, no land has been allocated for development in this plan for South Cerney. The application, therefore, made by Westbury for 150 houses was refused. Westbury have appealed against this decision and there will now be an inquiry starting on 28 May and the Inspector’s decision will now be a recommendation which has to be forwarded to the Secretary of State for his approval. I have also served on the Capital Grants Panel and am pleased that South Cerney this last year has benefited from £600 towards the improved access into the Playing Fields and £500 for the Website from the Ward Projects Fund. This fund will be phased out after this present financial year and we have all been allocated a much smaller amount per Ward for this year, but there will still be some money available. The Community Grant money will also be reduced over the next 12 months and I am sure Les will report on this in connection with future budgets. The alterations to the CDC offices are nearing completion and have to be totally finished by the end of June.The public areas, Council Chamber, Committee rooms etc, will be available for use by the public for conferences, receptions etc, and this will be well publicised in due course, and we hope they will be well used. I have acted as a substitute on the Executive Committee on several occasions, and would like to mention that Les has been re-elected with a unanimous vote for this coming year. He is held in high regard as our Leader, and chairs the committee extremely well. They are very focused and examine all the items in great detail before making sometimes very difficult decisions. We are always happy to attend your Parish Council meetings and would like to thank the Parish Council for the support its gave us during the year. REPORT BY COUNCILLOR DR LESLIE JONES (CDC) A precised account of Cllr Jones' report to the Annual Parish Meeting follows. Cllr Jones informed the meeting that CDC had reorganised itself on a Committee system in September last year. He explained his new job as Leader of the CDC and the implications for the Revenue Budgets on Council Tax bills. Currently income of £16 million was made up of approximately 25% in Council Tax, £5 million from central government and £5 million in fees and sale of council houses. At the next local council elections in May 2003 the Water Park Ward would have three elected members serving Preston, South Cerney and Somerford Keynes.
REPORT BY COUNCILLOR SHAUN PARSONS (GCC) A precised account of Cllr Parsons' report to the Annual Parish Meeting follows. Cllr Parsons reminded the meeting that he had been re-elected last June. GCC now operated a Cabinet system of 10 members with executive power. There was a balance of 53 members who acted as scrutineers. There was no overall political party in control but a coalition of Liberal Democrats and Labour form the administration. It was hoped that the reorganisation would give a more corporate approach and better integration between the different departments within the County Council. The budget spend is approximately £445 million of which most goes on Education followed by Social Services. Instructions from central government can be confusing with the Home Office demanding that certain measures are taken but the Treasury contradicting the amount of money available. For example central government ask that 8.2% of the budget is spent on Police but only provide 5.2%. The difference is made up through Council Tax. Cllr Parsons said that there was less discretion now where money was spent and consequently road repairs suffered but safety was of paramount importance.
REPORT BY MR GRAHAM JAMES ON BEHALF OF THE VICAR, REV J. CALVERT Due to the absence of the Vicar, Rev. J. Calvert, Mr Graham James gave a report on Church activities to the Annual Parish Meeting. The Church continued to be strongly involved in the local community but more youth helpers were required. There was a monthly service held at Cerney Wick and during August services would also be held at Cotswold Hoburne. There were three main tasks to be undertaken: 1. to improve attendances in Down Ampney; 2. provision of youth facilities and 3. encourage new residents to the village to become involved in Church matters through a welcome pack. The Vicar had recently been appointed Chaplain to the army camp. The toilets were now in use and the organ was being rebuilt and its full operation was expected shortly. REPORT ON ANN EDWARDS SCHOOL BY ROGER EDGAR, CHAIRMAN OF SCHOOL GOVERNORS Personnel Governors' Activities Curriculum and SATS Other Extra Curriculum School Activities Footsteps - Educating towards a more sustainable future D.A.R.E. Project Other Activities REPORT FROM MIKE STUART, CHAIRMAN OF THE VILLAGE HALL MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE Preparing a report for an AGM is always an interesting project. It is surprising how many things can be so quickly forgotten until you look back through the Minute Book. This is particularly so when the year has been a very busy one such as we have just experienced. It has not been an easy one by anyone's standards but we have got through a lot of work and I think that all in all, the Hall is in better condition now than it was this time last year. We have had changes both in the make of this committee and in the caretaker department. We lost our old friend Jean Blackburn the long serving representative of the Art Club. She has been replaced by Derek Lucas who is a welcome addition to our team. Diane Cook retired from her caretaker role after many years of top class service to tills village. She was a hard act to follow and we did in fact have very few applicants for the vacancy. Fortunately, Fiona and Nigel Keates stepped into the breach and they have settled into the job superbly. It has been useful having Nigel present at several of the committee meetings as we have received up to date information on the day to day miming of the hall. Many thanks to them both. Long may they continue. The various projects we have completed include the refurbishing of the kitchen. That was a really good example of how we can pull together. The work party of volunteers carried out the removal of the old units and another group put the new ones together. Mike Smith did sterling work and rewired the area charging a fraction of the normal price for such a contract. David Dunn supplied the new units at cost and we got them installed by a local fitter at a realistic expense. All in all we got a new kitchen at a low cost and at the same time we had an enjoyable few days. Thanks to all concerned. We continued the improvements for disabled users. A new doorway has been provided by altering the old fire exit and by providing a much-improved even pathway to it from the public highway. Tills was financed by a grant of £600 from the Ward Fund from the CDC and that was topped up by another cheque from the local Scope organisation in the sum of £300. At the same time lighting to the path was installed. It has been a major improvement. The main problem we all encountered in the past year was without doubt the terrible enigma of the possibility of our being given a new hall as a Planning Gain if Westbury Homes obtain planning approval for extra houses on the CAMAS site. Tills application is subject to an appeal, which will be heard at the end of this month. Initially, we were told that we would be given the site plus half the building cost, leaving the village to find at least £200,000 to complete tile project. Tills meant that we had to look at all feasible ways in which we could if the situation came to a head, find the necessary money. It was proposed that the existing hall be valued to enable tills committee and the Parish Council to have all possible figures available if it meant that it was ever proposed that we should sell this hall to finance the new one. I will repeat yet again that at no time did we ever propose nor did we ever vote on putting this hall on the market, as some people believe we did. As it stands at present, if Westbury do obtain approval to build the 150 new houses, and it is by no means a certainty that they will, then we have been told that a new hall will be included in that development and that Westbury will pay for it in total. If that does happen then there could be a case for this village to keep tills hall going alongside the new one. We have some interesting weeks in front of us. The uncertainty of the future of this hall meant that the committee put on hold the major improvements to the toilets. We have the planning approval and building regulations all passed and a builder lined up to do the work but naturally his tendered price will need to be reviewed when we decide to start. We have until October 2004 to get these works finished but we intend to make the necessary decisions as soon as the future of this hall has been set. Financing any village hall is a nightmare and this one is no exception. If anyone wishes to see them I have copies of the annual accounts here tonight. They show that despite the increase in bookings over the past year, we continue to be unable to break even and I must emphasise that without the annual contribution from the Parish Council this hall could not be kept going. To be self-financing we would require the hall to be used regularly during the daytime most days of the week. There is no way in which this is likely to happen unless we permit business use and even that is unlikely to happen. However, there is a new scheme starting this coming Saturday when we have the first of hopefully many film shows sponsored by the CDC. All the net profit goes into the hall funds. If my mathematics are correct, we stand to make £1.50 minimum profit per person - so if 50 turn up on the night we can make at least £75. It will be interesting to see how many people turn up on the night and how the money rolls in. Many thanks to Sarah and David Smith for taking over the majority of the running of tills project and also to Hilary for her input as well. With the exception of the Parish Council I suggest that the village hall committee is perhaps one of tile most active organisations in this community. Being made up of representatives of many local organisations plus some elected members, we get a really good cross section of the village at our meetings. We have some pretty hairy discussions, at times very warm to say the least but when it comes down to brass tacks, we are all there to achieve the same objective namely to provide South Cerney with as good a village hall as we are able to. OPEN FORUM Members of the public were encouraged to question their representatives from the Parish Council, District Council and the County Councillor on matters of concern.
There being no further business Cllr Stuart closed the meeting at 9.30pm. |