AMPORT PARISH COUNCIL

Minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting held on Monday 19^th April 2004 at 7pm in Amport Primary School.

Present: Mr Ian Morrison (Chairman), Mrs Preston, Mr Neville Geake, Mr George Bacon, Mr Ian Long, Mr Maurice Hardy, Mrs S.Hammer, Mrs C Mallam, Mr Southern - Suzanne Hoare (clerk)

Apologies: Lt Col Stephens ((Vice Chairman), Hampshire Police, Norman Arnell TVBC Councillor

In attendance: Mrs Unwin (Village Correspondent) Speaker and 7 members of the public

1. Apologies and Welcome

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting and gave the apologies of those who were not able to attend. He introduced Mr Freeman Smith from Neighbourhood Watch

2. The minutes of the previous Parish Meeting had been agreed at the May 2003 meeting and no matters were currently outstanding.

3. Neighbourhood Watch Report
The Chairman thanked Mr Freeman Smith for his work as co-ordinator of the Neighbourhood Watch network. Mr Smith then gave a brief description of how the scheme ran within the confines of Amport Parish.

4. Chairman’s Report
It is customary at this time for the Chairman to give a review of the past year and I am grateful to report that it has been a positive time.

On the planning front we have had to deal with slightly fewer applications than the previous year and bearing in mind the growth of Andover, I am grateful for this. I am also grateful to Test Valley for following our recommendations on nearly every occasion.

The Green has certainly taken up the lion’s share of our discussion time. First, the children’s play equipment. This is now fully installed and our thanks to Judith and David Pritchard for initiating the changes. Considerable effort went into the selection and placing of the various pieces and the result appears to satisfy both the residents on the Green and more importantly, the children who get so much pleasure from them. I recently attended a seminar arranged by Rospa on the litigation that can arise from play equipment and am grateful to Maria Long for volunteering to keep a regular check on the equipment. We would also thank TVBC and the Hampshire Playing Fields for their generous capital contributions.

It has been a new pleasure to see weddings taking place on the Green, and George Bacon drew up guidelines for use of the Green on these occasions. We intend to keep these celebrations on the Green for residents of the Parish and I pleased to say that we have been notified that another wedding will take place there this summer

In memory of Dick and Peggy Aubertin who were so much a part of parish life, we have planted a fastigiated oak on the Green and a suitable plaque will soon be in place.

We have also been establishing exactly the precise legal status and ownership of the Green and it is now clear that both sides of the Green are registered as such, but that the Parish only owns the Northern (larger) area. The ownership of the Southern section in front of the houses remains shrouded in mystery.

Both Neville Geake and Charles Stephens have been working hard at our new VDS, the previous one having been rejected by TVBC and this should be completed within the next few months.

In November we had a meeting with Ted Hart of the Highways Agency, which was also attended by the Chairman of Monxton and Thruxton Parish Councils. We were told that the gap in the A303 would certainly be closed for an 18-month period as from this month. We were able to put our concerns to him and did so very forcefully, but we cannot avoid this closure. He agreed that it was very rare for a gap once closed to be reopened, and our aim must now be to ensure that the village life is not going to be disturbed more that absolutely necessary and to this end would ask everyone concerned to do their own monitoring and list any traffic problem that happens during the next year and a half. At the end of the evaluation period we may then be able to provide some effective input.

This leads me on to Amport Talkback, which has just started, with a great deal of help from David Preston. This will be an enormously useful forum for most people in the parish to make their opinions known and will clearly grow in value as more people log in.

As to the precept, I am pleased to say that this has been kept at the same level as last year and that last year was lower than for the previous year. We were advised by the District Auditor that our reserves were on the high side as a result of the County returning legal fees, which we had paid but were not deemed to be our responsibility. However we are now advised by HAPTC that we should be prepared for more financial liabilities in the near future so it may not be possible to maintain this low precept after the current year.

I would like to thank Cllr Pat Pierce for his active help locally and at County level. Cllr Norman Arnell for all the help we need and get from Beech Hurst, and all the members of the Parish Council, half of whom came to local politics for the first time and all of whom have given me tremendous support last year. It has been a positively exciting experience for me but one I could not have handled without the discreet and efficient prompting from our learned clerk, Suzanne Hoare.

5. Finance

The clerk distributed copies of the Balance sheet for the year ended March 31^st 2004.

This gave details of all income and expenditure for the past year. There were no questions arising from the figures. Tim Southern explained that the council might soon be facing increased charges for services previously supplied by TVBC or HCC; this is already being seen with footpath maintenance. The overall balance for the year was £16,095.88 which was represented by the General Fund of £12,293.11 and the Village Hall Fund of £3,802.77.

6. Public Participation

Q. Mr Freeman Smith asked about the current situation regarding the Gap on the A303. The Chairman explained that the closure was likely to take place this month.

Q. Mr Mallam asked if continuing our membership with the CPRE might help with certain planning issues within the Parish, especially where top soil was removed without permission. The Chairman will look into this matter.

Q. Rose Wareham was concerned about increased dumping at the rear of the garages in Sarson Close. Tim Southern asked her to report cases to TVBC and monitor the situation for the Parish Council. The introduction of the new green refuse system may well lead to increased dumping.

The Chairman thanked everyone for attending and the meeting closed at 7.55pm.