AMPORT PARISH COUNCIL
Minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting held on Monday 18th
April 2005 at 7pm in Amport Primary School.
Present: Mr Ian Morrison (Chairman), Lt Col Stephens (Vice
Chairman) Mrs Preston, Mr Neville Geake, Mr Ian Long, Mrs C Mallam, Mr Southern
(Arrived 8pm), Mr Bill Gore. - Suzanne Hoare (clerk)
Apologies - Mr Maurice Hardy, Mrs S.Hammer
In attendance: Mrs Unwin (Village Correspondent) Speaker and 9
members of the public. Hampshire Police, Norman Arnell - TVBC Councillor, Mrs
Pat West -TVBC Councillor
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 Ricky Bourne - Longparish Parish
Councillor, Sgt Reeves - local police and Mr Freeman Smith from Neighbourhood
Watch
2. The minutes of the previous Parish Meeting had been
agreed at the May 2004 meeting and no matters were currently outstanding.
3. Talk by Ricky Bourne on litter control.
Mr Bourne reported that in the past the annual litter clear up in Longparish had
been less than successful and a new approach was tried. The parish magazine was
used to advertise the Adopt a Road scheme. The principle of the scheme allowed
anonymous volunteers to clear a part of the village they lived by or used
regularly. No time scale was imposed and people could join or resign at will.
The response brought forth 9 people none of who had been involved with the
parish before. These volunteers were given litter pickers, a reflective jacket
to wear if they wished and a risk assessment of the job. Since the introduction
of the scheme more people have joined and Mr Bourne felt overall the scheme had
been very successful. The Chairman thanked Mr Bourne for his informative and
amusing talk.
4. Report by Sgt Reeves and Mr Freeman Smith on Local
Policing.
Sgt Reeves introduced himself as our new Local Officer in Charge, only 48 hours
into the post. Pc Ian Robinson remains our beat policeman. Sgt Reeves reported
that the area was proactively policed and encouraged people to report all crime
as resources were deployed to meet needs. Addressing the concerns over
travellers, Sgt Reeves reported that if the land was legitimately owned then the
police would only become involved if the Council took any enforcement action.
Mr Unwin asked if the Holiday House Watch system is in place, Sgt Reeves
reported officially no, but unofficially yes. The Police were always happy to
help where they could.
Mr Freeman Smith commented that the travellers had not committed any crime so it
was not a matter for the Police. Mr Ayres, one of the Romany travellers,
identified himself and Ian Long asked what stage the planning application had
reached.
Cllr Pat West answered that the application had been submitted and it will now
go forward for registration. Following this the application will be dealt with
by officers under delegated powers or it will go before the Northern Area
planning committee if councillors so request. Mr Ayres has completed all forms
necessary at the present time.
Cllr Pat West asked Mr Ayres if the 2 vans, one of which appears permanent,
would be all that he would be applying for. Mr Ayres replied that the
application was for 3 vans, - he has 2 grown up daughters.
Residents of the Limes at this point expressed their concerns that further
Romany sites would be set up locally. Mr Ayres replied that to his knowledge no
further sites were planned. Cllr West finished the discussion stating that TVBC
were looking to provide 3 sites for the different groups of travellers that
exist and don’t mix. However even then Travellers were not compelled to use
them. Cllr West asked local people to report any further incidents to the Gypsy
Liaison Officer –George Summers at HCC.
Rose Wareham was concerned about travellers in Grateley Drove, she felt unhappy
that they could avoid council tax and other expenses and did not consider this
fair.
At 7.45pm 5 further residents of the Limes arrived at the
Meeting.
The subject returned to the site at Sarson lane and Mr
Hilton-Robinson stated that he had seen the road works needed to connect
services to the site but did not realise their significance. Residents were
upset the Mr Prescott had initiated different rules for a minority under the
Human Rights Act. Cllr West replied that each case was assessed separately and
Romanies had to prove their status before consideration was given to their
applications.
A final comment from the residents at the Limes indicated that the situation was
currently acceptable but they did not wish for further travellers/Romanies in
the area.
Ian Morrison thanked everybody for attending the discussion and hoped that it
had helped everybody’s understanding of the planning issues surrounding the
site.
5. Chairman’s Report
At this time, I report on the progress that the Council has made during the
previous year and I am grateful to confirm that it has been a period of gradual
improvement and consolidation.
On the planning front we have had fewer applications to deal with than for the
year before and usually these have been non-contentious. However we have had to
deal with the difficult applications on the field owned by Kieron Beattie and
although the Appeal Officer dismissed our objections, we are determined to be as
vigilant as possible to ensure that nothing is done which is outside the
consents, which have been granted. The Village Design Statement has been
shepherded along by Neville Geake and Charles Stephens and will be dealt with
under its Agenda heading.
On the Green which is now the specific responsibility of Carolyn Mallam, we have
supplied more telegraph poles to prevent cars from trespassing; slightly amended
the Rules governing private parties: and, sadly, had to have removed an
excellent rope swing which had been set up by one of the residents as this
clearly presented a Health and safety risk. However we do hope that it can be
re-installed in time for the ROSPA officer’s inspection next month so that he
can give us advice on how we may have it as a permanent feature. I would like to
thank, publicly, Maria Long who has regularly and conscientiously inspected all
the play equipment as recommended by ROSPA and for her willingness to do this
for the coming year. We have also appointed a new contractor for mowing the
Green and have arranged to have more cuts than in the past. This will be
reviewed at the end of the mowing season.
Stroud’s Green improvements continue along lines set by Hampshire Wildlife
Trust and I am pleased to report that there is still sufficient ring-fenced
funding to cover these costs for the immediate future.
Footpaths are now under the supervision of Maurice Hardy who has arranged that
we have our 1st cut next month carried out by Hampshire County at
their expense and a new contractor has been appointed for the subsequent cuts. I
feel sure that l will soon see a great improvement in the maintenance of our
paths.
We have also reported cracks in Waterloo Bridge to Hampshire Highways who have
informed us that they will carry out repairs during the summer holidays, as this
will entail closing the bridge to cars once again.
During the coming year we will be investigating ways in which the speed of
traffic through the village can be reduced and we have also been giving
consideration to ways in which volunteer parties can be responsible for keeping
selected areas of the Parish tidy – and we will work along the lines suggested
by Ricky Bourne.
We have been in close contact with the Gypsy Liaison Officer at Winchester about
the travellers off Skew Road but have once again been told that there is no help
that he can give.
On the Capital Expenditure front the major items have been the Grant of £1,000
to Amport school towards their new gates and the provision of 3 new salt bins
which have been placed, one at the end of Wiremead lane in the hope that we
never again have a repetition of what happened to the van de Pett’s just after
Christmas, and 2 in Sarson lane which is extremely treacherous for drivers when
there is ice about. We have managed to keep the Precept at a lower level than
that of three years ago but, although we still have the cushion of capital
resulting from the return of fees on the Denning Matter, there will be
inevitable increases in costs --particularly under the headings of insurance,
and mowing.
I am sorry to say the Amport Talkback, which was set up by David Preston, has
hardly been used at all but maybe current issues may encourage greater use next
year. However in the search for improved communications in our widespread Parish
we did hold one of our regular meetings in the Weyhill Fairground Hall and this
was attended by quite a few of the Fairways residents. We are repeating the
initiative for our June meeting.
Finally I would like to thank all members of our Council for putting in so much
voluntary time in trying to sort out many of the problems, some very minor but
equally some of major significance. Unfortunately George Bacon resigned as he
found he had too many other commitments but we have been very lucky in
persuading Bill Gore to join us in the bear pit.
My own task has been made extremely easy by the enthusiastic efficiency of our
clerk; Suzanne and we all owe her a bouquet of thanks for the quiet way in which
she makes sure that we nearly always avoid bureaucratic pitfalls.
6. Village Design Statement
Neville Geake gave a brief update on the project.
The draft village design statement is on the website and copies are available
here tonight for anyone wishing to make comments on the text.
Each of the 5 sections has a set of recommendations and these are the key points
to comment on.
Once the consultation period is over the text and pictures will be brought
together ready for publication.
The VDS has as much effect as the energy put into it.
Ian Morrison thanked Neville and Charles for their hard work.
Richard Unwin asked when the consultation period would end. A. The end of May.
Mrs Bacon asked whether areas in and out of the conservation area were treated
differently A. No, all areas receive the same consideration.
Local villages are currently having the boundaries of the their conservation
areas re- evaluated. This is likely to affect Amport shortly.
7. Finance
The clerk distributed copies of the Balance sheet for the year ended March 31st
2005.
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 £14,546.78, which was represented by the General Fund
of £11,800.01 and the Village Hall Fund of £2,746.77.
8. Public Participation
Q. Mr Fitzpatrick, the Limes –The current law as presented by John Prescott
must be open to challenge?
Clr Arnell replied that Planning Law is just that until it is changed. If
permission is given in a decision then it is not open to appeal, however if an
applicant fails in an attempt to get permission then it can go to appeal . This
surely is very one-sided.
Q.Mr Pettit – Should salt bins be situated on Keepers Hill? The problem here
would be who would spread the salt. The Chairman thought the whole subject of
road safety would benefit from further discussion on the return of Maurice Hardy
The Chairman thanked everyone for attending and the meeting
closed at 8.30pm.