MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL PARISH MEETING
HELD ON MONDAY 14 MAY, 2001 AT 7.30PM IN THE VILLAGE HALL, AMPNEY CRUCIS.
Present: 24 electors, District Councillor B Evans
Apologies for absence: Councillor David Vessey
Presiding: Councillor P Kelly
Clerk: Mrs H E Tonks
1. Minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting held on 8 May, 2000
The Minutes of the meeting were posted in the village. There were no objections to the factual record. Adrian Grazebrook proposed, Gerald Gaden seconded and the meeting agreed that the minutes be approved and signed.
2. Ampney Crucis Parish Council Annual Report.
The Chairman reported as follows.
The Parish Council has had no changes to its composition this year. The seven Councillors still represent specified geographical areas of the village.
Councillor Bruce Evans has continued to attend Parish Council meetings and support their activities whilst Chairman of the District Council, and Dave Gayler has been a useful point of contact for all County Council matters. We thank them for their support.
Janet Campbell has joined us this year in the role as Tree Warden for the parish, and comments on all tree works applications.
Meetings
The Parish Council has had six meetings during the year. Mark Ormrod and Ben Marsh from the Environmental Agency attended the March meeting, and explained the regulations on fly tipping included amongst their other duties. Eleven members of the public also attended the meetings at some point in the year.
This year we have received and commented on 31 different applications – of these 5 were for tree works and 4 were for Listed Building consents.
The District Council refused four applications, and two of these were taken to appeal. One appeal was upheld, the other dismissed.
The Council responds to every planning application, even if there are no objections, constraints can be attached to the approval. If you should have any concerns about a local planning matter, please contact the Chairman or your local Parish Councillor.
The grass-cutting contract has been awarded to the same contractor for the forthcoming financial year with a very competitive bid. Your views on the performance of the contractor would be welcomed.
A successful clean up day was held in the Burial Ground during the summer - thanks should go to Don Underwood who moved countless trailer loads of debris, and to the other volunteers who turned out to help. This help meant that the Parish Council did not have to pay for labour to tidy the area, and has meant that we have been able to eliminate this year’s precept allocation for this item.
Within the Burial Ground, there are a number of reserved spaces that are not named. There have been some efforts to trace the owners of the spaces, however, the Council are still not confident that these spaces can be used. Funds for clearing the bank of spoil at the bottom of the Burial Ground will be sought this year.
The precept for this year (2001/2) has been set at £4477, a reduction of 14.7%. In previous years, (but not last year!) the income has exceeded expenditure, and a small reserve has built up. Expenditure this year will exceed the amount set in the precept, but the Council felt it appropriate to now use some of these reserves.
The Council followed the strategy agreed last year when discussing the level of the precept.
q The precept will cover all annual running expenses of the Council, but will not cover ‘one-off’ projects such as the repairs to the Praying Cross. Funding for this type of project will have to come from the reserves.
q An amount is set aside in the precept to build up the reserves, namely for funding towards the triennial audit, and future burial ground maintenance.
Following a number of requests from many different organisations, the Council has laid down a policy for donations. It agreed that future donations would only be made to those organisations that benefit the village community and to village led enterprises where active encouragement from the Parish Council would help such enterprises to get additional funding from other sources.
Footpaths were walked up to early autumn, and problems were reported to the relevant authorities. However the onset of truly appalling wet weather followed by the restrictions in place to prevent the spread of foot and mouth disease has meant that the footpaths have not been walked for some months.
Once the footpaths are open again, Councillors will walk them to ensure that they are accessible to the public. GCC has yet to lift the restriction orders placed on footpaths.
A new footpath map was published last year, and is available from the Church.
A wonderful weekend was held in July last year, to celebrate the Millennium. Residents from throughout the village took the opportunity to attend events organised by the Church, Village Hall and the entertainment committee set up for the occasion.
The weekend was extremely memorable, and there have been calls to repeat the occasion! The next opportunity is the Queens Golden Jubilee in June 2002. Councillor Sally Hebbs and representatives from throughout the village are looking into possible activities to celebrate the occasion.
The Praying Cross on church path was in need of repair. Quotes were sought, under guidance from the District Council’s Archaeological and Conservation officer, and the project has been awarded to Wells Masonry, who did such a good job on the War Memorial last year.
Work will start on 16 May with written scheduled monument consent given by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport and monitored on their behalf by English Heritage.
The plastic fencing, which has caused some upset, was put in place at the insistence of our Insurers, until the works start but a fence will not be needed after completion.
The Ampney Crucis Times has gone from strength to strength over the last year, and provides an invaluable means of communication. Elizabeth Gerber has now joined the two original editors, David Vessey and Fran Huckle.
The village Website is also proving to be successful. Frank Skinner tells us that he has had 2600 visits to the site. More use could be made of it by village organisations, see the flyer on the home page or contact Frank.
The 2001 Village Directory is now available from any of the Councillors, or from the Parochial Church Council at a cost of £1.
The main part of the village is now totally covered by Neighbourhood Watch. There have been a few instances of burglaries in the village, and some vandalism, including the breaking of some of the leaded lights in the Lych Gate.
Neighbourhood Watch can be effective, and the Council ask you to be as vigilant as possible.
Fly tipping is still a problem in places – if you see it happening, please notify the District Council.
Following the very wet weather this year, there has been some flooding in the village. The Parish Council has allocated £500 towards the shared costs of drainage works to the ditch adjacent to the Burial Ground; however, the work has not yet been carried out by the County Council.
Drainage at the War Memorial site is now much better, thanks to works undertaken during the last year, and it is understood that further works will go ahead near the Crown of Crucis to alleviate some of the flooding there.
GCC have taken note of the state of the pavement on Hunt’s Hill and it is included in the work programme for the coming year.
There is still a problem with flooding from the fields at the back of Durncoat Cottages – water eventually ends up running across the village street into the burial Ground and ditch. The Clerk is in negotiation with the County Council, however there is little progress yet. The flooding could be eased if the ditch at the back of the properties is kept clear. This is the responsibility of the owners of the properties.
Following the repairs to the War Memorial, members of the Gardening Club have replanted the area, thanks go to Roy Dunford and other members for all their work.
The replanting was funded by a grant from the District Council’s Ward Project Fund, as were the repairs to four of the benches in the village. Regrettably, the remaining two wooden benches were deemed irreparable.
Church Walk was resurfaced during the summer, funded partially by a grant from the County Council, and with support from the PCC and the Parish Council. We are looking at providing setts for the corner of Church Lane but the County Council’s quote was very high and we are re-examining possible alternatives.
Discussions have now started between the school and the Parish Council to decide whether it would be possible to have a playground in the village using school land. Discussions are still at a very early stage, but should you wish to be involved, please contact one of the Councillors or Kim Hartshorne from Malt Cottage who is helping to co-ordinate this issue.
Finally the Parish Council would like to thank all those who have contributed in any way to the life of the village in the last year without their help the village would not be such a pleasant place to live in. Thanks go also to those present for attending tonight’s meeting.
q It was confirmed that the Praying Cross would cost no more that £900
q The Council were asked to check that the signs for footpaths BAC2 and BAC27 were in the correct place.
q The progress of the Cripps proposals was queried. The Chairman of the Ampney Crucis Association was due to speak later in the evening and would update people. The Parish Council will be consulted on the application by CDC, and given the importance of the proposal, will hold a public meeting. The Parish Council will comment on the application as it does on all applications.
q Harold Stevens has repaired one of the benches.
q The War Memorial site still floods. Councillor Evans explained that a new soak away had been installed, but the water table was too high to allow the water to drain away.
3. Parish Council accounts for the year ending 31 March, 2001
The Clerk presented the accounts, which had been drawn up in the format required by the Accounts and Audit regulations, 1996. The Council’s Internal Auditor, Councillor Vessey, had audited the accounts.
The amounts of the ‘other’ payments and receipts were queried, a request was made for the addition of footnotes. The format will be discussed at the following Parish Council meeting.
4. Accounts of Village Charities
4.1 Village Hall Charity
The Accounts and Annual report were presented to the meeting.
4.2 The Robert Pleydell Educational Trust
The Accounts and Annual report were presented to the meeting.
4.3 John May Charity.
During the course of the year 2000, the trustees agreed with the Charity Commission a procedure for winding up the charity, as its assets are too small to enable it to meet its objectives.
Following advertisements in both the Parish Newsletter and the Ampney Crucis Times and a public meeting called to discuss the future of the charity, applicants were invited to apply for small grants. No applications were received.
The charity has now again advertised its decision to spend its capital as income. After the statutory notice has expired, it is the intention that a committee consisting of one long-term resident, the Rector and Mr J Ducker will decide how to distribute the capital among no more than five residents who would appreciate a small sum.
The capital of the charity on 10 April 2001 was £125.80 and is held in the charity’s account at Lloyds TSB.
5. Report from District Councillor
5.1 Councillor Evans made the following report:
q The District Council has now agreed that the streamlined system be the new political system for the District Council, subject to approval from Government. The Council will have three committees, who will have 9 members each. These committees will be an executive committee, a community committee, and a separate planning regulatory committee. Full Council will meet 4 times a year.
q The Community plan and budget process has started
q The target of 600 new houses has nearly been met, and the target of 100 houses per year for the next two years is on target.
q The District Council have also been concentrating on flooding, foot and mouth, and the petrol crisis.
q Future projects for the District Council include improvements at the Corn Hall, Corinium Museum and Trinity Road offices, a new pool at Bourton, and a possible new sports complex at Kingshill.
q Councillor Evans confirmed that the new committees would have delegated powers, but full Council would still set strategy parameters, and budgets.
q Councillor Evans confirmed that planning decisions should be quicker, as Councillors will meet more often. More decisions would be delegated to officers.
5.2 John Ducker, Chairman of the Ampney Crucis Association made the following report:
During thelast year, only one planning application has raised questions which the Association felt it ought to address. This concerned the application in respect of The Builders Yard, Park Close. The application proposed the creation of a small laboratory and two houses. It appeared to present issues regarding both the uses to which the site could be put and the status of all the land lying south of the Lannocks. The Committee therefore felt it ought to oppose the application. The CDC rejected the application, but the applicant decided to appeal their decision. An informal hearing on the appeal was held by the Planning Inspector on I 6 January 2001, and the Association was represented. In due course, he decided to reject the appeal.
The situation now is that the owner has carried out limited work to make the site usable for his purposes. So far, this work has not raised matters of general concern to the village. Nevertheless, the scale of future use of the site is a matter of potential concern to the Association and this will be monitored.
In July 2000, it was reported in the national press that the Prime Minister had made a statement regarding road surfaces which had implications for the surface of the Cirencester By-pass, which was an earlier matter of concern to the Association. The matter was subsequently taken up again by residents with Mr Clifton-Brown, the Member of Parliament, but so far there have not been any new developments. This too is a matter which the Association should monitor.
At the time of the last Annual General Meeting, action in regard to the Cripps land following the Referendum was awaiting resolution of the question of access to the proposed shop. The landowner had access to the field through an area of land required by the Fosseway Housing Association for the construction of two houses; it was proposed to exchange this access for the access required to the proposed shop. Though this was simple in principle, the Housing Association appeared to have no need to press ahead with the negotiations. I am glad to say that this issue has now been resolved and a suitable access secured.
Also outstanding at that time was the final wording of the contract and trust documents, This too awaited the resolution of the access question. There were also some questions the committee had to sort out in regard to the trust deed. For a variety of reasons it has taken a long time to resolve these matters, but the committee agreed the final wording of the documents at its meeting on 19 April, 2001.
It has now been agreed between the parties that the planning application for the scheme should be submitted to the Cotswold District Council as soon as the application form can be completed and the supporting documents assembled. There have been no changes in the design particulars presented to the village at the time of the Referendum. The only changes made have been some wording changes in the documents, which we believe reflect an improved appreciation of the interests of the village, and the final details of the shop access. A copy of the signed Trust Deed and Contract, together with the essential plans, will be placed in the Village Hall as soon as they have been engrossed and signed.
Consideration of the application by the CDC is likely to take longer than normal in view of the scale of the scheme and the variety of individual components. The Committee of the Association will report progress to the village as events unfold. The Parish Council will of course receive a copy of the application for its comments in the ordinary course of events, and the normal procedure for submission of comments on the application will also apply.
Meanwhile, the committee will commence more detailed work to seek grant funding for implementing the various aspects of the scheme which would benefit the community. Beyond a certain point, however, matters will pass beyond the responsibility of the Association and the trustees will assume larger responsibilities.
This is obviously an important time in the history of the Association and the committee is conscious of the need to keep the village fully apprised of events as the CDC considers the scheme.
Following questions from the public, Mr. Ducker confirmed that
q The village will be kept informed of developments, including a public meeting if necessary.
q The scheme financially depends on the houses to be built at the foot of School Lane.
Councillor Evans reported that a timescale for resurfacing the A419/417 should be announced in the summer.
Councillor Kelly thanked everyone for attending.
The meeting closed at 8.30pm.
Signed: …………………………………………….. Date: ……………………………