Minutes of the Ordinary Meeting held on Monday 15th October 2007 at 7.45 pm in Amport School Hall.

1. Present
Mr I. Morrison, (Chairman), Lt Col Stephens, (Vice Chairman), Mrs Sarah Hammer, Ian Long (arrived 8.05pm), Mrs Diana Preston, Mr Nicholas Hoare, Mrs Jean Arnell, Mrs Carolyn Mallam and Mrs Suzanne Hoare (Clerk)
Apologies, Tim Southern and Mr Bill Gore.
HCC Cllr Pat West, David Horne and 2 members of the public.
Tanya Garman and Ashley Smith, prospective Parish Councillors, were visitors.
The village correspondent was present.

2. Minutes of the Previous Meeting
The minutes were agreed and signed, having been proposed by Sarah Hammer and seconded by Diana Preston. Ian Morrison welcomed both Tanya Garman and Ashley Smith to the meeting.

3. Matters Arising from the last meeting
Cynthia Kirkup has spoken to her contractors regarding the toppled 30mph sign in Monxton Road.

The Green and Amport Fen
David Horne reported on the work completed by the Community Service volunteers which was regarded as a success.
3 trees came down in the recent storm and, as Ian Morrison and Charles Stephens were away, David Horne asked Clive Hutchinson to remove the dangerous limbs and the timber was left on site to use for bank construction or firewood by anyone in the Parish. The cost of this work was £300.
David Horne asked for approval to arrange another visit by the Community Service in November to complete more clearance and bank construction work, the workers will be on site for up to 4 days . This was discussed by councillors and approval was given with 8 in favour and 1 abstention. The sole cost will be the further hire of a Portaloo.
A Local contractor had complained that tree work was not being put out to tender and it was agreed that this should be done for all routine work in future. Tony Darbyshire and Greenheart will be added to list when seeking quotations.
Ian Morrison thanked David Horne for all his hard work and also thanked Charles Stephens who has also spent considerable time clearing the Fen recently.
Approval was given for pest control to be brought in to control the moles on the Green.

Footpaths and Highways
Footpath 13 still has problems with a tree down but this may have to wait as Bill Gore is away. The local ramblers are wishing to walk this path.
Robin Aisher is to be contacted again with regard to the posts at the top of Footpath 6, the posts are designed to prevent fly tipping IM
The footpath signs have yet to go up in Laundry Lane at Cholderton Clerk to follow this up.
The fallen tree adjacent to Nether Cottage was discussed, the ownership of the driveway of Nether Cottage needs to be determined as it is not thought to be legally owned by the parish Council - the Land Registry will be contacted - Clerk
The demolished bus shelter at Weyhill Fair has been reported to the Insurance Company and 2 quotes have been received £1870 and £2000 which will now be sent to AXA. We will await their comments before a decision whether to rebuild the shelter is made.

VDS
Charles Stephens is currently amending the VDS prior to an initial print run of 12 copies which hopefully will be available to Parish Councillors at the November meeting.

Tesco Application
Ian Morrison asked Pat West if she would like to update the council on developments.
Pat West informed the meeting that Goodman felt they had listened to all the points raised and had addressed them i.e.

Pat West firmly stated that it is still against the Borough Plan and expressed a concern that people should keep objecting right up to the last minute to ensure their concerns are heard. Pat West was asked if she could attend the November meeting to keep Councillors up to date with the application.

6. Planning Results

7. New Matter- code of conduct
Discussion took place on the eligibility to vote on school related issues by Parish Councillors who were parents of children who attended the local school.
Advice had been sought from HAPTC and Susan Tovey - the head of legal services at TVBC who tended to adopt the view that this could be considered a personal interest.
Sarah Hammer had been in contact with the Standards Board where the advice given would suggest that it is up to the Parish Council and the individual councillors to decide if their actions would be reasonable and not subject to bias. Further advice will be sought and it was agreed that a declaration of interests will be a regular item at the beginning of each meeting to allow transparency on all decisions made at that meeting.

8. Finance
The following cheques were presented for signature by Ian Morrison and Charles Stephens- all were approved by those councillors present.

2 cheques have been received from Thruxton PC (£80) and Grateley (£100) towards the publicity costs with regard to the Goodman application.

9. Co-option of new Parish Councillors
Tanya Garman and Ashley Smith have both been Parish Councillors in the past and when Ashley Smith realised that Tanya Garman was also standing for the vacancy – he stepped down and Tanya Garman was co opted as the new Parish Councillor. Ashley Smith said he would be available if any further vacancies arose and Ian Morrison thanked him very much assuring him that the council would be in touch in the future. Tanya Garman was then welcomed to the Parish Council.

10. AOB and Correspondence
An invite had arrived from John Hanson School for the presentation evening and Sarah Hammer has volunteered to attend.
Sarah Hammer also informed the meeting that Weyhill Parish Church was looking for help maintaining the church yard – David Horne commented that perhaps the community service volunteers could help.

Dates for the next meetings will be November 19th 2007 and December 10^th at 7.45pm at Amport School . The Meeting closed at 9.40 pm.