GREAT COXWELL PARISH COUNCIL

Minutes of the Parish Council meeting held in the Reading Room at 8.00 pm on Monday 11 September 2006.

PRESENT: M Durham in the chair, E S Daffern, A N Whiting and Mrs A Zinovieff; the Clerk in attendance. D/Cllr Mrs Judith Heathcoat and C/Cllr Roger Cox also attended.

1.             APOLOGIES

Mrs Burns sent her apologies.

2.             MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING

                The minutes of the Parish Meeting held on Monday 3 July 2006 were confirmed.

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3.             MATTERS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES

a.   Reading Room quotations for chairs and cupboard.  Philip Niass has kindly agreed to donate £200.00.  The Parish Council considered that the best use for the money was towards the cupboard, which had previously been discussed.  This was unanimously approved

b.    Salt Bin update.  The Parish Council unanimously approved the purchase of a new salt bin, to be located on the bend near the golf course.  The Chairman will arrange to meet Hamish Curring to decide on the best location for the bin.  It will be the village's responsibility to grit the road and the cost (£160) also includes replenishing the salt.  Mr Daffern suggested setting aside a budget for works such as this in the precept.

c. Environment Agency - piping at Pear Tree Farm update.   The Environment Agency agreed that the pipes are too small running through Pear Tree Farmhouse and it has spoken to the contractors as to what should be done to rectify the problem.  It will also follow this up to make sure action has been taken and the Chairman will ask for an update to make sure the work has been done to its satisfaction.

d.  Lamps at Old Willows.  The Vale of White Horse has sent retrospective planning forms to Old Willows in respect of the lamps.  The District Councillor's view is that it is unlikely that the lamps will be removed, as the view was that it was not appropriate to insist that this was done.  However, the Parish Council view the light pollution as the main and important issue as it has received many concerns about this.  The Parish Council agreed to await the retrospective planning application and would advise the Vale of its concerns.

e.  Chowle Farm House.  The Environmental Agency will investigate this further by visiting the site and report back to the Parish Council on its findings.

f.  Community Empowerment Award.  Great Coxwell Parish Council is one of the regional winners in the Young People category in the Community Empowerment Awards.  It was nominated by the Countryside Agency and NALC and the Commission jointly run the awards for Rural Communities.

4.             PARK FINANCES 

Party in the Park - due to the poor weather the attendance had dropped by over 600 people.  The event lost approximately £560.  The Parish Council did consider cancelling the event but this would have lost even more money.  Two people have come forward and offered to run a charity rock show and are happy to donate the monies to help make up the loss.  The Park Committee will be considering whether to run the event next year.  The WI and Church gave 10% of their takings to the Park fundraising.  Mr Daffern asked whether the council should consider finance in advance rather than in arrears but it was felt that a contingency over four years made reserves of cash and therefore if this happened, other events would be run to make up the deficit.

An item in an invoice for Mark Denée was outside the remit of what the Parish Council approved in advance.  Mike Durham will attend the next Park Committee and stipulate the Parish Council did not approve this spending money in advance.  Mr Daffern was asked to draw up a set of rules to which the committee must adhere, together with a budget.  Therefore, if it decides it wants extra work done on the park, this may have to be in lieu of grass cutting, or arranging for a working party to do the work.  This also applied to other expenses and in particular, providing the correct information for approval.  The notice board quotation has again been changed due to a price rise in April that hadn't been taken into account.

Annabelle's Nursery - it had been noted that the Nursery had held a sport's day at the park and the Parish Council had written to the nursery to point out that the park is privately funded for village use and to ask for a donation towards it.  It was agreed that Mike Durham would suggest that there is a standard fee agreed for this and perhaps look into putting a secure collection box by the gate asking for donations.

            Mr Durham will report back his findings at the next meeting.

5.             TEMPORARY ROAD CLOSURE IN GREAT COXWELL/LORRIES UP HOLLOWAY UPDATE.

Oxfordshire County Council had intended to close a section of the road by Pound Corner for three weeks and redirect all traffic via the Holloway.  Great concern had been expressed about the dangers of turning right out of the Holloway, together with the difficulties posed to the Riding School and Webb's business.

Mrs Heathcoat investigated this further and OCC has now agreed to close one lane at a time, so traffic will be able to come and go in the usual way.  Mr Durham is investigating a temporary place for the muck from the work to be dumped and is waiting to hear from Adam Twine.  He will also speak to the Riding School about how it will affect them and Webb's will relocate to Southdown while the work is being done.            Mr Durham thanked Mrs Heathcoat for her help with this issue.

Mrs Heathcoat also confirmed that following the Parish Council's query about the 7.5tonne limit going up the Holloway, she is waiting for a response to her question about a further road sign.

6.             PLANNING APPLICATIONS

a.             GCO/2759/4 - Orchard End, erection of a single garage.    The Parish Council had no objections to this application, as long as the neighbours are happy.

b.             GCO/148/10 - Chowle Cottage, erection of garage and conservatory.  Notice of Permission received.

c.             GCO/19659 - Orchard Cottage, erection of single storey, etc.  Notice of Permission received.

d.             GCO/17752/2 - Cotswold Lodge, proposed extension.  Notice of Permission received.

                e.             GCO/17752/2 - Faringdon Golf Course.  Planning Inspectorate Appeal dismissed.

f.              GCO/8308/12-X  Pear Tree Farm, construction of 3 two-storey dwellings.  Notice of Refusal received.  Mr Durham spoke in support at a recent Development Control meeting and was grateful for Roger Cox's support as well.  However, this application was refused.  Mr Durham has been led to understand that in principle, the Planning Officer may be happy for two dwellings, although plans have not yet been submitted.  The Chairman also pointed out that while the village had been very vocal in its support for this application, it would help if residents did attend these Development Control meetings as the more people who go, the better.  At this meeting only the Chairman and Vice Chairman attended.

g.             GFA/19649 - Land Adjoining Coxwell House/Winslow.  Following the Parish Council's concerns over street furniture, the Vale has responded stating that the final location of street furniture will depend to a large degree on the technical judgement of the County Highways Authority.  As such, it cannot be guaranteed that the final location will not be in Great Coxwell Parish.

h.             GCO/18275/6-E - Land South of Coxwell House - Appeal against Enforcement Notice. The Parish Council has written to the Planning Inspectorate to unanimously support the objections to this Appeal and wholeheartedly supporting the Planning Officer's views.  It stated that use of this agricultural land to store building materials is a serious breach and should not be permitted.

i.              GCO/2087/20-X - cessation of existing lorry park use (Chowle Estate). The Parish Council has written to the Vale confirming that a building of appropriate height and size would be preferable to a lorry park.  However, it strongly feels that this should not be considered until the applicant has complied with the existing requirement to put in a turning lane. 

7.             CORRESPONDENCE

Bills

The Parish Council approved payment of the following bills:

Greenbarnes Ltd (outstanding amount on park notice board)     £152.95

BDO Stoy Hayward LLP (external audit fees)                 £250.00 + VAT

Mark Denée (grass cutting Park and Reading Room)                    £515.00

British Gas                                                                                             £43.06 + VAT

Thames Water                                                                                      £18.35

Clerk's half yearly remuneration (inc tel allowance)                       £414.00

Other

a.             Environmental Health Inspection.  The Reading Room was recently inspected and the VWH has confirmed that the room is now more than satisfactory for the purposes for which it is currently used.

b.             External Auditor.  The Clerk confirmed that the external auditor has now completed the audit for 2005/2006 and there were no matters, which came to its attention, which required the issuing of a separate additional issues arising letter.  Therefore, the Annual Return was presented to the Parish Council now that its audit opinion has been given, and it was therefore recorded that Annual Return has been unanimously approved and accepted by the Parish Council.  The Notice of Conclusion of Audit is currently displayed on the Parish Council notice board. It was agreed that £120.00 of the bill will be allocated to the Reading Room "pot" as the expenditure on the Reading Room had taken the bill into the next income/expenditure bracket and £120.00 was the increase for this.

8.             OTHER BUSINESS

a.             Neighbourhood Watch. There is nothing new to report in the village.  However, in other areas distraction burglaries have become a regular occurrence.  Mr Daffern confirmed that a complaint had been made about not communicating details of the incident at Badbury Clump in June.

b.             Footpath behind the Stables.  The Chairman thanked Mrs Heathcoat for all her hard work in getting this footpath resurfaced.  Mrs Heathcoat stated that £70,000 had now been spent resurfacing the footpaths from Faringdon to Great Coxwell.  She asked if a working party could be set up to clear the stinging nettles as if they aren't cleared, the footpath would be viewed as not being used.  Mr Durham thought this was a good idea and will look into this.

Mrs Heathcoat will again revisit the clearance of  "Siberia" as the job to get this footpath back to its former glory was felt too big for a working party.  Mr Durham felt confident that Mrs Heathcoat would do as much as she can to achieve this.

c.             Damaged Reading Room curtain.  The damage done three months ago doesn't appear to have been repaired.  This will be investigated.

d.             Update by C/Cllr Cox.  Mr Cox updated the meeting on various issues, including the building of approximately 3,200 new dwellings and associated local shops, services, etc around Didcot West, with 700 new houses at Harwell; the confirmation of Thames Water's intention to use the Compulsory Works Order procedure rather than the conventional planning application route; the Vale becoming the licensing authority and responsible for dealing with applications for Premises Licences permits, etc; the future of the 67/67a bus service and a proposed new recycling site for CDs, DVDs, Videos, etc at Gloucester Street Car Park.  Further details of these points can be obtained from the Clerk.

e.             Next Meeting.  The next Parish Council meeting will be held on Monday 9 October 2006 at 8.00 pm.