MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL PARISH MEETING
HELD IN THE VILLAGE HALL, SOUTH CERNEY
ON WEDNESDAY 18th MAY 2005.

Cllr Mr Stuart opened the meeting at 7.30pm.

Present: Parish Councillors Mrs F. Chapman, J. Caunce, Mrs E. Chubb, J. Harris, P. Jay, P. Nicholas, Mrs C. Pollard, D. Smith, T. Squire, M. Stuart, R. Webb, Cotswold District Councillors M. Baines, C. Bennett and Mrs A. Clark, Gloucestershire County Councillor S. Parsons, Police Chief Superintendent Henry, Police Sgt Guy Theophilus (Gloucestershire Constabulary), Captain Alex Mitchell and Sgt Steve Jelf (29 Regt RLC), Brian Clifford (Chairman of School Governors) and Mrs Anne Stuart (Village Hall Committee).

Twenty-nine members of the public were in attendance.


MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING

It was proposed by Cllr Webb and seconded by Mrs A. Stuart that the minutes as published were a true record. Cllr P. Nicholas and Cllr Mrs E. Chubb abstained as both were absent from the meeting last year. The remainder of the meeting was all in favour.

CHAIRMAN’S REPORT

2005 Parish Council Chairman's report

After last Wednesday’s Parish Council meeting, Tony Squire, Peter Jay and I stayed on in the Committee Room to put the final touches to our application for the Village of the Year competition, all twenty two pages of it! This is a national event with the first stage being in the competitor’s home county. The winners of each county then go on to regional and hopefully, national stages. In 2001 South Cerney won a South West regional prize and this year we want to do as well if not better.

My reason for telling you this is because when we had finished that marathon bit of paper work, we all came to the conclusion that South Cerney is a pretty darned good place to live in. The different things that go on in this community, the number of people who give so much of their time, skills, money, care and good old-fashioned love for their neighbours is wonderful. I didn’t realise just how much good work there is until my two colleagues brought their input to that form

These past twelve months have been hectic and the next year seems to going to be just as busy. Your Parish Council have been involved in improving the village with projects such as the completion of the Robert Franklin Way Playground; working with the young people in fine-tuning the mountain bike track at Upper Up; planting some forty or more hardwood trees in the village (most of which were purchased by individuals or families wanting to commemorate someone or a special event); working with CDC on the Jubilee Gardens People’s Art Park scheme (almost finished!); working with CROWS and the Community Service “Punishment in the Community” teams in making the footpath from the end of Church Lane over the Downings to Bow Wow; providing two more children’s football pitches to assist the Cerney club to get their highly successful junior soccer teams up and running. And that is after the normal routine work involved in keeping this old village ticking over.

We also won the Bledisloe Cup for the second time in four years. That’s not bad considering that it is not permitted to enter the year following a previous win. The judges were extremely glowing in their comments on how our village was looking last year and a lot of that had to be due to the excellent work done by our grass-cutting contractor Adrian Gibbs and to our own Eddie Curtis who is the main stay in our fight against litter around the place. As always our sincere thanks to everyone who regularly picks litter and helps to improve the standard of our village.

A community such as ours is not entirely run by a Parish Council but many other groups do their own thing and by doing so enhance everyone’s lives to varying degrees. For example, we have the sterling efforts of the Play Group in their rebuilding project. They have to raise a great deal of money to do this and your Parish Council has included a sum of £5,000 in this year’s precept as a contribution to their efforts.

Another truly amazing effort was made in raising enough money to replace the entire fishing fleet destroyed by that disaster in the village of Kosgoda in Sri Lanka. Sue and Derek Poulton deserve a joint medal as big as a bucket for organising the event held at the Cotswold Hoburne where over six hundred people enjoyed one of the most successful fun evenings most of us can remember. In doing so they raised almost £15,000. That money went directly to the fishermen with no delay and with no other agencies involved.

Another person who must be thanked for his sterling work is our Vice Chairman Tony Squire. If you want a Mr Fixit, he’s your man. This last year Tony has done so much for Cerney but his outstanding effort must be the way in which he dealt with the terribly upsetting desecration of our War Memorial. Some idiots pulled it down on New Year’s Eve and unfortunately it failed to miss hitting them on the way down. Tony went to work and not only arranged for the repairs and rebuilding of the Cross but he also had the rest of the memorial cleaned. To cap it all raised all the money required plus a bit more. Naturally Parish Council knew what was going on but Tony did the job. Fantastic effort Tony, and thank you. I would like to remind you all that a dedication ceremony will take place at the Memorial at 12 noon on 12th June. I hope to see you and more there.

Every time there is an unsolved crime or problem in any community fingers are always pointed at the youth. Unfortunately, most anti social behaviour is caused by young yobs but thankfully, not all young people are yobs. In fact, in this village we have I suggest only a very small number of problem youngsters. Most of our younger people do not cause us any trouble. That is despite the lack of facilities for them. There is a Youth Club run by Jan Lodge and a band of helpers all of whom work under very restricted budget and in a village hall that is not ideal for their purpose and needs, but there is always a good group of kids at the meetings. It is a very limited facility but an extremely valuable one for which this community is really grateful. Thank you Jan for all your top class work. In appreciation of all that you have done on behalf of the Parish Council I would like you to accept this bouquet of flowers.

A relatively new scheme for the children is the youth football being run by the South Cerney club. On Saturday mornings the Upper Up car park is overflowing with cars and last weekend I counted well over 60 adults plus other teenagers watching two matches and some four or five groups being trained. The club deserves a big vote of gratitude for their efforts.

Then we have the mad young devils for whom we constructed the Mountain Bike track. If ever there was a success that is one. They have a marvellous time spending probably more effort constructing ramps than they spend jumping over them. They cause us no problems whatsoever except when the want another twenty tons of soil to build even more jumps. If there is an example of what young people can do with just a little help from their elders, this is a very good one.

When we do get vandalism, and we have definite proof of the perpetrators we take action. This Council has worked with the Police in a few cases but have also then taken civil action to recoup the costs of repairs. We had damage to a piece of Playground equipment last summer and with excellent help from WPC Nicola Nolan, successfully extracted all the money from the four men responsible. We took another person to Small Claims Court and he is paying of the repair bill plus court fees over a period of months. I hope that news of our way of doing this has got around to others and is having a civilising effect.

So what do we have for this coming year? In setting the annual precept your Parish Council have included not only the sum of £5 000 for the playgroup rebuilding but also we have had to set aside another £3,000 to replace the failing safety tiles below the various items of play equipment in all the 3 playgrounds. We were also obliged to set aside another £2,500 to comply with the new allowances for Parish Councillors as instructed by central government. We were able to restrict the increase in precept to £10,000 above last year’s figure. The total precept for this year is £61,295, which represents an increase of 62p per month on a Band D dwelling. It is worthwhile noting that your Parish Council constantly seeks funding from outside sources for all projects we undertake. I know that this village gets top class service from your Council and very good value for the relatively small amount you pay in way of the Parish Precept in relation to the massive sums that go to the larger councils.

This coming year will bring the new Village Plan. We are currently working on the details and have been for several months. On 23rd June there will be an open evening when everyone can comment on what has been suggested. Please do make the effort to come to that, as your views are needed. The final Plan should be prepared by the end of the year and will give us several worthwhile projects to work at and to even further improve the environment we are fortunate to live in.

This is a great team of Parish Councillors to work with and my sincere thanks to you all for the support you have given. However, I know that all of us agree that without our clerk, Maurice McKee we would not have such an easy job. Maurice, many, many thanks for the top class service you put in, for the great craic we have, and for everything you have helped to achieve for this village.

Finally, I want to again thank all the Parish Councillors and District Councillors for their dedication to our community. It is not an easy job to do and apart from some pretty small allowances we do not get paid. Why do we do it? Maybe because we enjoy it or maybe it’s because we are so very fond of this special old village.


REPORT BY POLICE CHIEF SUPERINTENDENT HENRY AND POLICE SERGEANT THEOPHILUS

Chief Superintendent Henry explained how his role as a Divisional Commander in the Gloucestershire Constabulary dovetailed with that of the District Councils’ jurisdiction in the county. The Cotswold & Stroud Police Division stretched from Chipping Campden in the north to Kingswood in the south and from the outskirts of Gloucester city in the east to the Wiltshire border in the west. The Division was responsible for the policing of nearly two-thirds of Gloucestershire geographically. The Cotswold and Stroud Division was further sub-divided into the Stroud and Cirencester sub-divisions. Stroud was controlled by three sub-divisions namely Stonehouse, Dursley and Stroud town. Mr Henry emphasised that his priority was crime reduction and he would much rather achieve that than inform a victim that his or her crime had been solved. The most difficult type of crime to solve was that carried out by travelling criminals as they were hard to identify but overall the only category of crime increasing was that of violence which was mainly due to the change in the method of counting. The biggest change in the organisation this year was the introduction of the Community Safety Team based in Cirencester, policing of which was in the very capable hands of PC George Lager who at the moment was recovering from a heart attack. The meeting wished him a speedy recovery.

Sgt Theophilus illustrated his report with the following table which gives a breakdown of the type and number of crimes in comparison to a previous year.

At a time when crime trends nationally and elsewhere in the county are rising we are particularly pleased with the overall figures for the parish of South Cerney and Cerney Wick.

Overall crime has been reduced by 21 crimes which amounts to a reduction of 15 per cent and of the crimes recorded for the period 2004–2005 24 per cent were detected. It was not feasible to have zero crime so therefore when numbers are small it is very difficult to reduce the percentage difference. In South Cerney last year there was one drugs offence whereas the previous year there were two but this gives a percentage change of 50%.

Sgt Theophilus asked the meeting for generic questions as individual cases could not be discussed.

QUESTIONS

On completion of the questions Mr Henry and Sgt Theophilus left the meeting to return to duty.



REPORT FROM CAPTAIN ALEX MITCHELL, 29 REGT RCT

Personnel from the regiment at South Cerney, Duke of Gloucester Barracks are currently serving in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Balkans; in addition small detachments have been/are deployed worldwide in support of exercises and ongoing commitments. Over the last 12 months the regiment has continued to provide movement support of troops and equipment worldwide; including postal and courier support. The regiment’s prowess in the sporting arena has grown from strength to strength; particularly with the ladies ski team who became the RLC champions in February, and the Silver Stars Display team who have a number of members representing the UK in the forthcoming World Championships. Worthy of note is the tremendous support that the Silver Stars have given to charitable organisations (country wide), it is believed that they helped to raise in excess of £150,000 over the last 12 months. The Duke of Gloucester Barracks Open Day has been scheduled for Sunday 24th July; everyone is welcome to attend.

Cllr Stuart thanked the 29 Rgt RLC for their generous donation of £500 to help with the repair of the War Memorial which had been presented yesterday 17th May. He then asked Cpl Steven Walker, 29 Regt RLC to officially present the signed, numbered print to the Village Hall. The print depicted the Squadron at work in different theatres and Cllr Stuart thanked Cpl Walker for this personal gift.


REPORT FROM CLLR M. BAINES (CDC)

Cllr Baines explained that he was one of three elected members of the Cotswold District Council which represented the Water Park Ward of which South Cerney and Cerney Wick were part. He reported that the political structure of the District Council had politically changed from a Committee to a Cabinet structure under Conservative control. He observed that because of the changes his work load as a District Councillor had drastically reduced and he had not enough to do.


REPORT FROM CLLR CLIVE BENNETT (CDC)

Licensing
I remain as chairman of the council’s Licensing Committee. The new Act is generally regarded as a bad piece of legislation which will only help line the pockets of the legal profession. The draft guidance notes are about two to three inches thick. Two extra staff have been taken on to cope with the volume of work expected. The department is drawing up a ‘simple guide’ to the new legislation which will be available to Parish Councils on request. It’s not ready yet. The three pubs in the village will all have to apply for premises’ licences and the ‘landlords’ will have to get personal licences. If they want to remain as they are at the moment with no changes to the opening hours the application is basically rubber stamped. If they want to vary the hours, say until l am on Friday and Saturday, or they want to have live music on a few nights each week and there are no objections, that will also go through. It’s only when there are objections that the committee will become involved. A warning: The committee will have just four considerations when looking at an application: Prevention of crime and disorder; public safety; prevention of public nuisance and the protection of children from harm. Main interest for most people is how it will affect village halls. A straight conversion from old licence to new costs nothing (free). If hall has a bar and would sell alcohol (Chedworth is an example) then the conversion to new licence costs £100. There will be an annual fee of £70 for the licence in either case. These fees have been set by central government. Green wheelie bins were a great success as were the free long life light bulb. I think between us we gave away almost 600 packs in the ward.

QUESTIONS

REPORT FROM CLLR A. CLARK (CDC)

One of the Committees I serve on is the Joint Water Park Committee which is made up of the two County Councils and two District Councils dealing with the strategy of the Water Park. This sometimes gives me the opportunity to feed in the concerns of the Parish Councils, i.e. the state of the Spine road and cycle way etc. It also gives the four Authorities the opportunity to consult each other and agree on matters regarding the Water Park and I think the Committee now works well. However the Planning Committee which I and Cllr Bennett (CDC) serve on has a huge number of applications in this Ward and particularly this Parish. All applications go out for consultation to the Parish Council, and the Planning Committee here works very hard on these applications, and we always try to put the point of view of the Parish at the meetings. Ninety five percent of applications are delegated now, which is the target set by Government, and as a result we received a delivery grant of £294,000. It is worth mentioning that objectors or supporters together with a Parish Councillor and Applicant can come and speak at the meetings, this has proved very valuable to the Committee. I sit in at as many of the Parish Council meetings as possible, and we try to follow up on any matters that the Council ask us to.

QUESTIONS

The Chairman welcomed Cllr S. Parsons (GCC) as the recently re-elected member of Gloucestershire County Council representing the area.

REPORT FROM CLLR S. PARSONS (GCC)

Cllr Parsons (GCC) explained that elected Conservatives now had an overall majority of three and were in control of Gloucestershire County Council. Cllr Parsons had been appointed to the GCC Cabinet. He stated that responsibility for road safety rests with GCC Highways but responsibility for cleaning and maintenance was confused. For example street furniture was the responsibility of the GCC but sweeping the carriageway was that of the CDC. Other complications were the number of authorities involved as the road traversed two counties involving two District Council and two County Councils. He encouraged the Parish Council to continue to apply pressure wherever possible to make the road safer. Under planning permissions operators’ lorries must have their wheels washed before joining the carriageway although infilled sites do not generally have this obligation as permission should have been granted before the problem manifested itself. What is now needed is a proactive instead of a reactive response. He was trying to organise an overlord to whom the Parish Clerk could report instances regarding mud, dirt or dust on the highway. He believed that it was important to deal closely with Parish and Town Councils which had problems on local roads. He had liaised with GCC Highways and the Parish Council over the planned reduction in the speed limits along the Cirencester to Preston Toll Bar road. Money was now in place for the installation of the interactive speed limits. The pedestrian crossing was currently delayed because written objections to the first site had been received. A plan of where the new site might be placed was in the post. Further consultations could take up to six months but he was sure that by the end of this financial year the crossing would be in place. The cyclepath from South Cerney to Cirencester was under discussion but making it possible would take time but one had to start somewhere and the route along the canal showed most promise. The largest single element of the Council Tax was Education which accounted for 66% of the budget. Other demands included Social Services, Environment, the Fire Service, Roads and Trading Standards. There had been an increase in Council Tax of 47% over the last four years. As Chairman of the Water Park Joint Committee he reported that the Regional Development Agency had a conceptual plan amounting to £100,000 plus which was now £15,000 short of target. It would be used to define a plan of how the Water Park faces the future. Settlements in the area had suffered through its development and now needed to be consulted. There was no master plan at the moment.

QUESTIONS

    


REPORT FROM ALL HALLOWS CHURCH

Cllr Squire in his role as Church Warden made this report because, as he explained, the Vicar, Rev John Calvert was on a sabbatical. This was his first break in 37 years and was richly deserved. Mr Squire thanked the Parish Council for paying for cutting the grass in the churchyard and for financing the graveyard wall extension which would be dedicated in July or August this year. Every year £30,000 was needed for the quota to keep the church open and all help was gratefully accepted.


REPORT FROM THE HEADTEACHER STEPHEN RICHARDSON AND READ ON HIS BEHALF BY BRIAN CLIFFORD CHAIRMAN OF THE GOVERNORS OF ANN EDWARDS SCHOOL

Personnel
We have seen very few changes in staff this year. Diana Goodinson rejoined our team, Mrs Julia Nicholas joined our team in the office and Mrs Karen Griffiths and Mrs Jo Causer were taken on as a teaching assistant and a part-time teacher respectively. We have met the challenge of providing all teaching staff with their statutory entitlement to PPA (Planning, Preparation and Assessment) time from September 2005. Before I started at the school in September I was involved in interviews to replace two established members of staff. The governing body has also seen changes with the reconstitution process now complete; we have welcomed two new governors Mr Paul Borrow and Mr Chris James. Other governors have been allocated a new title. On our annual PLASC (Pupil Level Annual Survey Census) we had 301 children on roll and it looks as if there will be about 34 children joining us in September.

Curriculum and SATS
All the children in KS2 and Y2 have just finished their optional or statutory SATs and our SATs results for 2004 were very pleasing, with excellent progress being made by children within the school and pupils achieving well at the end of KS2. The school continues to offer a good quality of education for its pupils and they receive a broad and balanced curriculum. We remain a category 1 school within the LEA.

Other extra curricular school activities
The school continues to offer a full range of after school clubs including for example, football, netball, tag rugby. cricket, rounders, cookery, gardening, Spanish, computer, chess, racquet skills, bug club, scrabble club. modelling/warhammer club and judo. These are well attended by the pupils. We have held adult learning courses at the school working with the Family Learning centre and Parentline Plus. Our Y4, Y5 and Y6 children have either taken part in or will soon be taking part in residential visits to The Wilderness Centre, Braeside and SCOEC. We have recently contributed artwork to the Gateway Centre, Deer Park School and the Village Flower Show.

Footsteps – Educating towards a more sustainable future
We have continued our link with the Joel Omino School in Kisumo and we have received their Golden Tapestry for display at the Commonwealth Games. Our tapestry is nearly completed.

Other projects
We have had visits from the Lifestyle Education Bus, various theatre groups. Nick Williams the Birdwise man and the children have visited SCOEC for two days. Pupils have taken part in the Dance Festival, schools swimming gala and played a number of sporting fixtures against other schools.

Question

REPORT BY MRS A. STUART, SECRETARY VILLAGE HALL MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE

We are coming to the end of our mammoth renovation/redecoration of the village hall. I hope you agree it is looking good. The curtains should be replaced shortly and a blind placed on the door, and then all will be complete and we can sit back and do nothing – I don't think! As with all community buildings, especially ones such as our village hall, there is always something that will need to be done, repaired or replaced, but the major expenditure is now, for the moment, complete.

During the past 12 months we have had the Gloucestershire Community Service workers decorating the hall. These are people who are doing punishment in the community. The majority of these people have no painting/decorating skills and I am sure you will agree that, under the guiding eye of excellent supervisors, they have done a very creditable job. There is still a certain amount of snagging to be done but we have been assured that they will continue to work on the hall until we are completely satisfied with the result. We have been delighted to find that almost all of the community workers have taken pride in what they are doing and I think it shows.

As I am sure you are aware this service is free (with the exception of a small administration charge) so saved the community a great deal of money – we only had to purchase the paint. There was some inconvenience in the fact that this work was carried out over an extended period, but worth it in the end.

At this point, and I have to admit to a personal interest, I would like to mention the village hall caretaker, my daughter Fiona, ably assisted by her husband Nigel, for all their hard work in keeping the hall clean and tidy and producing accurate bills for the Treasurer. I think you will all agree the hall not only looks good, but smells good to, thanks to them. I must also thank Peter Jay, the Treasurer, and especially Mike Stuart, the Chairman, who have put in many hours free of charge, with Mike, following a request from the Community Service Supervisors, opening up the hall and liaising with the supervisors as to what they will do on that day, then calling in to see them pack up and leave in the afternoon; this task carried out every Wednesday and Sunday since work started in the autumn last year and taking up a minimum of 3 hours a week.

At this point I, on behalf of the Village Hall Trustees, would like to thank the Clubs, groups and firms using the hall, with one notable exception, for their forbearance with the disruption caused and some dust that was missed (it seeps into the stacked chairs and is easily missed by anyone cleaning the hall). The majority have been very supportive and we really appreciate it.

Also during the past 12 months we have totally transformed the committee room, creating a room suitable for meetings and conferences. We have lined the walls with pin-board, including white board, and purchased tables and chairs set out permanently for meetings. When not required for meetings these tables do stack well and are also lighter and more easy to move around than the previous tables.

We are very grateful to David and Sarah Smith who have continued to run the Cerney Cinema every month. At no cost to us Sarah drives around the Cotswolds on the Saturday to pick up the equipment, then stores it at home for the next village to pick it up on the Sunday morning. Attendances have been mixed, with less people attending during the winter months, due in part, no doubt to the weather, but also the choice of film, which is, in the main, outside of our control. However, with the summer now upon us, and an excellent choice of film, attendance at the last two have been excellent. Late last year the committee decided to apply for an occasional drinks licence for the cinema. Mike duly attended court and is now the licensee. This has proved popular and greatly added to our monthly income at the cinema. We also run a monthly raffle, organised by Hilary Thornton, ably assisted by Tommy Walker – they both do an excellent job. At the start of this venture the committee felt they would like the money raised to go towards a specific item in the village hall. Consequently the cost of purchasing the majority of the padded chairs (roughly £1,750) has been raised from the Cerney Cinema. So once again, thank you to David and Sarah Smith, Hilary and Tommy.

On 22 May last year we held an Open Day in the village hall when the Brownies placed a time capsule in the loft to celebrate 50 years (51 years actually) of there being a Brownie pack in the village.

We, in conjunction with the South Cerney Players and Flower Show Committee, have purchased a full set of demountable staging. Other minor works have been carried out – all in all a busy year.

Despite all the disruption the lettings for the hall, and therefore revenue raised, have risen again for the fifth year running, totally in excess of 70% in the past 5 years. However, were it not for the Parish Council, who vote a grant of well over £3,000 to the Village Hall Committee every year, we would still run at a loss as our Insurance Premium per annum is a massive £2,700 and rising.

The Trustees of the Village Hall are a very proactive committee. Attendance at committee meetings is excellent and everyone works for the good of the hall. However, I think special thanks should be given at this point to Peter Jay and Mike Stuart who, as I have mentioned before, put in a great deal of time, run around purchasing paint, banking money, and generally overseeing everything that goes on, all at no cost to the hall. Believe me if we paid the going rate for their services, the village hall would cease to exist.


There being no further business Cllr M. Stuart closed the meeting at 9.30pm.