MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL
PARISH MEETING Cllr M. 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 C. Bennett and Mrs A. Clark, Police Inspector Steve Williams, Police Constable Jon Palfrey and PCSO Ian Yeomans (Gloucestershire Constabulary), Captain Alex Mitchell, Roger Edgar (School Governor) and Mrs Anne Stuart (Village Hall Committee). Approximately 40 members of the public were in attendance. APOLOGIES Gloucestershire County Councillor S. Parsons had sent his apology as he
was away on urgent business. Roger Edgar apologised on behalf of Stephen
Richardson who was attending another function in Gloucester. MATTERS ARISING There were no matters arising. Before I start my report I wish to pay tribute to Dr Michael Bride one time Chairman of this Parish Council. Michael died a few weeks ago after a long period of ill health. I had the privilege of being on this council with him and I learnt a great deal from him. He was a man of tremendous integrity and he was dedicated to improving this village. He did his best for South Cerney and for that we should all thank him. Last week when I started to prepare this report, having reread all the minutes of the monthly Parish Council meetings for the year just gone, I was reminded just how much work your Parish Council has got through and also how many problems the village has been subjected to. We have experienced too many unacceptable problems most of which were the result of either broken promises or the lack action by those in higher authority. Fortunately, I realised that although those problems were serious, the overall situation with Cerney has been very positive and we as a community have achieved a great deal in the year just gone by. Let's deal with the problems first. We have been subjected to the most obnoxious situation of having the main pressurised sewerage pipe fracture three times in a few weeks depositing raw effluent on the public roads, footpaths, private gardens into ditches and then on into one of the major lakes. People living close to the Thames Water pumping station in Robert Franklin Way were particularly affected by the awful noise of tankers removing slurry to Shorncote all through the night on too many occasions. What was most upsetting was the apparent lack of urgency in Thames Water accepting that there was a major problem with into structural stability of the actual pipe mainly due to there being no records of when the pipe had been installed. It took a lot of community effort including some excellent work carried out by David Spencer and some hefty words by our MP Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, before they eventually accepted that the pipe was beyond its sell by date and was to be renewed. Let us trust that their promises are not hollow and that we do in fact see that pipe renewed in the next twelve months. The second problem also involves drains. The residents of Kingfisher Place have a problem with foul odours from the sewers and that is also taking too long to sort out. It does seem that Thames Water is taking action but we will be working with the residents to ensure that a satisfactory remedy is found. The next unacceptable problem is of course the filthy state of the main Spine Road and other lesser roads adjacent to the various lakes where works are ongoing. For several years this Parish Council along with several of our neighbours, both sides of the county border have been horrified by the mud and other debris deposited on those roads by the vehicles leaving those sites. I am sorry to say that this Council are at odds with both the District and County Councils as to the way in which to solve the problem. The higher authorities seem to have spent the past few years trying to get their neighbouring authorities to pay for the cleaning of the roads but as money is short in all exchequers no one would pick up the tab! Eventually, they have come to a sort of compromise situation whereby the Spine Road will be swept three times each winter and twice each summer with the £9,200 bill being split between the four authorities. There are two flaws in that set up. Firstly, five cleanings a year is not enough and secondly, why should we pay out of our Council Tax to clean up mess caused by contractors who should be made to do the job or more importantly, taken to Court by the Police and fined for depositing dangerous debris on the highway. In fact, at last year's Annual Parish Meeting one of the Police representatives promised that a PC Geoff Clay would be asked to keep an eye open for offending vehicles. I wonder if any drivers have been prosecuted? If not, let us hope that action will be taken in the very near future. Delays in getting anything done by higher authorities is a major concern to this and most other parish councils. Such delays are usually unexplainable and most times the people concerned seem to consider that there is no delay. Prime examples must be the installation of various traffic calming projects such as the interactive speed warning signs, the provision of a pedestrian crossing in High Street and the speed limit reduction on Cirencester Road. All of these have been "in the pipe line" for ages but nothing has been completed yet. We cannot explain why it has taken so long to get these relatively inexpensive jobs done but we hope that the newly formed Gloucestershire Highways set-up will be more proactive than they were under their old name. Another example is the proposed reopening of the sealed footpath between Upper Up and Ann Edwards School. I cannot remember exactly when the request that it should be investigated was made but it was probably at this meeting in either 1999 or maybe 2000. Granted this is not a straight forward task but surely it cannot take six or seven years to sort out? The worrying thing is that we have been informed that such cases can and do take ten or more years to complete! We understand that this file is sitting on the desk of what was the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister so anything can have happened to it! One final moan is about the allocation of the Second Homes Council Tax. This parish has probably the highest concentration of second homes in the county and we should be forgiven for thinking, even expecting to get some financial benefit from the increase in the council tax element paid by the occupiers of those buildings. As it turned out this council's application for money to improve the facilities for our young people was turned down as the CDC consider in their wisdom that it is easy to obtain money from other sources for such projects. The Parish Council does not consider that to be a satisfactory situation and request that the CDC do consider that this parish deserves more recognition and adequate financial support from the Second Homes pot. So much for the down side. Despite all the problems we have had a very positive even upbeat year with some considerable successes. Last summer we won the Bledisloe Plate which is awarded to the overall winner of the preceding year's small, medium and large section winners of the Best Kept Village competition. So we have won three out of the five prizes available in that competition so far this century. We also won two category awards in the Gloucestershire Calor Gas Village of the Year competition and came home with a thousand pounds in prize money. The categories we won were for the Environment and Safer Villages. The excellent work we have had done at the Upper Up park with the planting of the super trees around the lake played a big part in our winning the first section and our having pursued through the civil Courts the person who had vandalised a village notice board was a factor in our winning the other. Let us hope to do as well if not better this year. The Village Plan has been completed after a considerable amount of work not only by parish councillors but also with excellent input by members of the village and from our very good friends from GRCC especially Melanie Tarrant. Cllr Christina Pollard must be thanked for the many hours of work she put into that plan. We now need to put the Plan into action and to do so we need a lot of help from you the public. We have set tasks and have in fact already achieved some of the items on the plan. The rest are more than feasible to complete so let's get on with it. One of the main objectives of the Village Plan is the formation of a Youth Parish Council. Any one who has ever attempted to ask a teenager what is needed or what they want will know that the answer is more often than not "I don't know". To get to the root of what young people want is to get a group of them together and let them sort out what they want in their own time and in their own way. Also, give them a budget within which they can spend on their section of the community and then see what happens. With the help of the CDC's Youth Participation Officer, Claire Dowan, South Cerney is the first to have set up one of these Youth Parish Councils in the Cotswold area. I know that we all await with great interest the feedback we will get from these young people. Let us congratulate all of them who are giving up their time to work on behalf of their age group. Any day now we will complete the purchase of the relatively new Pocket Park at Jubilee Gardens. Many of you will remember that this council were opposed to the building of houses on the fringes of that area a few years ago and to prevent the further erosion of the remaining green space we offered to purchase the land from the CDC for £1. To avoid their having to keep the area maintained they agreed so we have another amenity area in our community. If you have not seen that little area do go and have a look. It is a very pleasant piece of ground which has been well landscaped before we bought it. Ongoing maintenance is always a major part of our budget and this past year we have had to replace the old safety surfaces below various pieces of play equipment at Upper up and at Cerney Wick. To ensure that our little ones are safe when using the playgrounds is of prime importance. We have again used the services of those people doing their service to the community on the direction of the courts. Both Young Offenders and the adults in the Community Payback teams have worked on several schemes around the parish and we hope to continue using them again this year. They have saved us a considerable amount of money over the past few years doing work that otherwise we could not have afforded. Building work continues apace around the parish with the almost completed Winchcombe Gardens development in Berkeley Close and the very grand second homes at the Landings. On the commercial development side the industrial park called the Evergreens is very impressive until you count the number of cars parked outside the businesses already in operation. Tony Squire counted in excess of two hundred vehicle movements last week which is impressive until you count the number of cars parked outside the businesses already in operation and we have several commercial units yet to be occupied. The resulting increase in traffic flow through our village must adversely affect us all and it is imperative that we do formulate a traffic management plan in the near future. This parish is so fortunate to have such dedicated people living here. So many work for the good of the community, often in such a way that most of us do not realise they are doing so much. Your Parish Council has done a great deal this year and I have the honour of being their Chairman. No Chairman could ask for a better group to work with. The wide range of expertise these people bring to the village is so beneficial to us all. The level of attendance is very high, unlike many councils in other parts of the country. Thank you all for your excellent work. Thanks have also to go to our top man, our Parish Clerk, Maurice McKee. Maurice has maintained the high level of keeping this Council on track through the maze of bureaucracy that we have to contend with. He condenses our still over long meetings into minutes that are precise and concise. Most importantly he deals with some quite difficult situations with commendable patience. Thank you Maurice for all your efforts, may they long continue. This year we have been able to cut the level of the Council Tax precept
by some £4,295 to a total of £57,000. This total figure represents an annual
rate of £42.19p per Band "D" dwelling in this parish. Your Council members
are all extremely proud of this parish and have budgeted to implement those
items listed in the Village Plan, besides the ongoing works that keep this
village as one of the best in this part of the UK for you to live in. Two important targets on his agenda were crime reduction and crime detection. The first would be achieved in partnership with local communities and the second was for the police. In the period from1st April 2006 until yesterday 16th May recorded crime in the area was down by 10 percent. Detection of crime which resulted in a sanction was up 2 percent from 30 to 32 percent. In the South Cerney area last year there were 21 crime instances reported and this year it was 22. Comparing South Cerney with the rest of the INA there was less than 1 percent crime reported here. Important venues at which residents could meet face to face with their local police force were the PCCMs which were Police Consultation Committee Meetings. These meet four times a year throughout the area. The last one was held in Tetbury and the next was scheduled for Birdlip to which invitations would be issued. Inspector Williams was heartened with the formation of the South Cerney Youth Parish Council as a way in which to encourage youth to become involved with their community. The Safer Community Team based at Cirencester was composed of one Sergeant, 2 Police Constables and 5 PCSOs. Recent news articles regarding issues with PCSOs had been distorted and he wished to provide a factual account although he acknowledged that there were lessons to be learnt by all concerned. Health and safety were serious considerations and in this case it was the operational use of radio communication equipment which had caused concern to the management team. After evaluation it had been decided that the risk was minimal. He then addressed the problem of mud on the Spine Road which interested and concerned him. It was difficult to police as the road had shared responsibility with the neighbouring Wiltshire Constabulary. There were four major companies in the vicinity of the Spine Road which have licences to operate and the state of road cleanliness is one of the conditions with which they must comply through the use of wheel washers and/or road sweeping activities. If there is a complaint he suggested that it be reported to the Highway Agency which would then assess the situation and if there was a problem it would clean it up and charge those responsible for the exercise. He emphasised that the Gloucestershire Constabulary had always had a duty to police the area including South Cerney and he gave his personal commitment that this would remain the case. He then introduced PC Jon Palfrey who explained his duties as the local Rural Beat Officer. Jon explained that it had taken him 10 years to get into the post and he was especially keen as he was local from a rural farming background and was now doing the job in which he was most interested. He positively endorsed two main aims: 1. it was important to report anything that was of concern to law and order (telephone 0845 090 1234) as intelligence was one of the main weapons police used to fight crime and 2. he gave numerous ‘dos’ and ‘don’ts’ on self protection and how to behave in securing your property which would help dissuade thieves from stealing it. A new idea to mark one’s property was now available. It was marketed under Smart Water and if painted on it was nearly indestructible, indelible and extremely hard wearing. Commercially it was available at £40 minimum charge but the police have a kit available at only £15 and he encouraged the audience to make use of this offer. Q. David Roberts produced a ball bearing which he
alleged had been catapulted through the window of his disabled wife’s
downstairs toilet. He suspected that it had come from BSC9, an adjacent
footpath which he pleaded with Inspector Williams is more regularly
patrolled. BSC9 was one of the busiest paths in the village as it was a
through route between the public houses and the fish and chip shop. He
complained that although he had reported the incident on 8th May he still
awaited a visit from the police. Q. Jenny Roberts reported that elderly
residents of Box Bush had complained to her that they were experiencing
abuse. Q. Jenny also complained about pavement
parking which made it difficult for disabled and elderly to use footpaths.
She suggested that a ‘drop box’ would be a good idea for residents to leave
suggestions and complaints for action. Mrs Selina Kingsbury informed her
that such a box existed in the Post Office. Malcolm Hood supported the idea that residents report all suspicious
incidents in their neighbourhoods as this would enhance police intelligence.
PC Palfrey agreed that it was better that an incident be reported many times
than not at all. Sinead Peare, YPC member, suggested that youths should be
stopped before they could act in an illegal fashion. Inspector Williams
dismissed this idea as it was not always possible to determine if youths
were intent on unlawful acts or not. Cllr Stuart concurred that information
was a two way thing and feed back was a necessary part of the formula. He
then thanked the police contingent for their time and input. The police then
left the meeting to return to their duties. Over the last 12 months the regiment has continued to provide movement support of troops and equipment worldwide; including postal and courier support. Current operational commitments include a significant number of personnel from the regiment being deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan and the Balkans; in addition small detachments have been / are deployed worldwide in support of Exercises and ongoing commitments. The Regiment's prowess in the sporting arena has grown from strength to
strength; of particular note are the ladies ski team one of whom represented
GB on the Nordic World Cup circuit and members of the Silver Stars Display
team who represented GB in the World Sky Dive Championships. The Spine Road has been pretty busy with building works, the hotel on Lake 6 is now underway and the first amount of Section 106 money of £50,000 is due to be paid shortly. It is hoped that a small amount of this could be awarded in Grants, the applications would need to be in connection with nature conservation, wildlife improvements etc., and in talking to the Officer I stressed that I hoped South Cerney would top the list for this. Perhaps the Parish Council, School or some other organisation will put forward a scheme. Work is continuing on the old jet ski lake, Lake 10 is shortly to receive permission for the lodges there to start and there is an application in for a Motel opposite the Gateway Centre. This work has caused the Spine Road to be continually dirty and the Water Park Joint Committee has secured some new funding from the four local authorities for the road to be cleaned with a suction cleaner five times a year, but I am afraid in very wet weather the problem is still there. I have been part of the Project Board responsible for the new Leisure Centre which I am pleased to say is open and everyone is very pleased with it. Do visit if you haven’t already done so. I would like to congratulate Clive on his appointment as a Portfolio Holder at the Annual Meeting last week and I will leave him to explain what that covers. REPORT FROM CLLR C. BENNETT (CDC) It covers crime and disorder, promoting enterprise, marketing and Stow Fair. A fair old package of trouble. It cuts across several departments of the council and will involve working with partners from other organisations in and outside Gloucestershire, including our friends in the Police. Naturally, I am looking forward to the new job. At least I think I am. It means me dropping off the Licensing and Planning Committees. I had completed three years as Chairman of the Licensing Committee and the constitution requires me to step down as Chairman after three years. I really enjoyed my time as Chairman of Licensing, especially during the transition to the new Licensing Act and its impact on drinking hours. Last November the Committee spent a whole week dealing with appeals from members of the public against opening hours requested by some pubs under the new act. That was the main hump but there have been several other appeals since then for the licensing panel to deal with. Although I am no longer on Planning I will still be able to speak on applications that relate to the Ward. Having danced through the daisies along the river bank trying to avoid the numerous piles of dog mess I have asked the District Council’s dog warden to pay a bit more attention to the footpaths in the village where some inconsiderate dog owners allow their pets to foul. It is offensive as well as being an offence. The dog warden has agreed to make random visits to the village. So dog owners: you have been warned. There is an ample supply of free poo bags provided by the District Council in the village Post Office, so there is no excuse for dog owners not to clean up after their pets. The warden will also check that the dog mess bins are emptied regularly. Returning to my cabinet job, I think we are all aware that this is a very safe area with very little crime. However, there are occasions when there are activities taking place which upset people. These may be happening on a regular basis. Please do not be afraid to report these events. If you do not want to report them directly to the police then give me a call. If something is happening in the middle of the night I would appreciate the call in the morning. If an incident is not reported then, statistically, it did not happen. Often something can be done to stop the activity. Part of my new responsibilities will mean that I will be working more closely with Claire Dowan, Youth Participation Officer and I will have some influence on the distribution of grants and having crime and disorder as part of my new portfolio I can hopefully influence the location of cctv cameras. Cllr Stuart reiterated Cllr Bennett's assertion on reporting incidents stating that it was more effective if people rang in to complain as this would create a noticeable hot spot and bring the event to the notice of the authorities. Q. A resident enquired when would CDC stop holiday home development? A. Cllr Mrs Clark (CDC) explained that each
application was treated individually. Q. What about the condition of the Lakeside
car park? Speaking without notes, Mr Squire drew the attention of the meeting to Graham James, a resident, who was noteworthy as the Bishop’s Visitor to Schools. He reminded those present that all would be welcome to see the Bishop and other church dignitaries consecrate the extension to the graveyard on July 11th. It should be quite a spectacle to see the main participants dressed in their robes to perform the ceremony. Of the residents in Cerney Wick, 91 out of 95 had agreed to convert part of the church there into a community centre and so guarantee its existence. The glass in the West End Window, circa 1320, in All Hallows Church
needed to be rejigged as it was becoming loose. Work carried out in 1862 by
Victorians was no longer reliable. Mr Squire said that he would be
organising fund raising events to pay for the repair and was confident that
the large sum needed would be achieved.
The hall is now up to a high standard. On the work front this year has been somewhat quieter. Not so on the lettings. Due in no small measure to the hard work of the Caretaker, who keeps the hall looking so good, our lettings have increased yet again by 15%. Whilst the hall has been let on most evenings for a number of years, we were pleased to see that it is being used quite substantially during the day. One afternoon project we introduced was Tai Chi, which has been very well supported. David and Sarah Smith continued to run the Cerney Cinema until February of this year, when they left to concentrate on their own production in the form of a baby daughter. We were very grateful for all the work they put in running this project and wished them well. Mike took on the running of the Cinema, with the assistance of Hilary, Tommy Walker and myself and the help of Brian and Anne Viner. In the winter months attendance at the cinema was down, due almost certainly to the inclement weather and poor choice of films (which is outside of our control). However attendance in the last 3 months has been excellent and we have raised a considerable amount of money towards village hall funds. Over the course of the year there have been numerous small jobs which have needed to be attended to, many of them undertaken by Mike and Peter at no cost to the hall. Our thanks go to them, especially Peter, who, after many years, is standing down from the post of Treasurer. Thankfully he has agreed to stay as an elected member of the committee. At this point I would like to thank the Parish Council for their continued support. Without their generous annual grant, which more or less covers our massive insurance premium (in excess of £3,000 per annum) we would have had insufficient funds to continue running the hall. Although I should add, this year, for the first time ever, taking into account all of our expenditure, we did make an overall profit of £106. Finally I am pleased to say that the Trustees of the Village Hall continue to be very proactive. Attendance at committee meetings is excellent and generally everyone works for the good of the hall.
Thank you to everyone. Raymond Fenton promoted the Parish Council web site and encouraged residents to log on. Roger Edgar added that the school site had a link and could be accessed easily. Graham Stanford congratulated the Parish Council on the spring display of daffodils throughout the village. Cllr Stuart reminded him that it was the South Cerney Gardening Club which was responsible for the original planting of the 5,000 bulbs. Mr Wrightson wished it to be known that in his opinion the Cerney News was a very good and informative publication and those involved in its production and delivery should be congratulated. Jenny Roberts said how very welcome the harvest parcels had been. There being no further business Cllr M. Stuart closed the meeting at 9.35pm. |