Minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting of BEECH

Held in the Village Hall on Monday, 15 MARCH 2010 at 7.00pm

 

 

PRESENT:       Councillor Edward Neish, Chairman

                        Councillor Ian Gibson

                        Councillor Norman Miles

                        Councillor David Woodroofe                                                 

                        Councillor Gill Young                                                             1 Member of the Public

                        District Councillor Patrick Burridge

                        Mrs Sheron Gillard, Clerk to the Council

 

                       

 

APOLOGIES/OPEN MEETING

Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting, receiving apologies from Councillor Peter May and County Councillor Mark Kemp-Gee.

 

CONFIRMATION OF MINUTES

The Minutes of the meeting held on 16 March 2009, copies of which had previously been circulated, were confirmed.  Chairman Edward Neish signed the minutes as a true record.

 

CHAIRMAN’S ANNUAL REPORT

Copies of the Chairman’s report were made available to all present and would appear in full in the next Beech Newsletter.  He drew attention to the following points:-

He recalled the Council’s 10th anniversary celebrations in May 2009, noting that the Council continues to work on behalf of the village.  He highlighted the following areas of the Council’s work in the past 12 months:

Highways

Following the winter’s very harsh weather an application to HCC for two additional grit bins for Beech was anticipated to ease access to the more difficult areas of the village during periods of snow and ice.  Council was grateful to the Highways department who had continued with road maintenance in the village, despite stringent budgetary constraints.

Traffic Speed

The ‘Village 30’ programme had been successful in reducing the overall average speed of traffic but recent surveys indicated that the majority of traffic was still exceeding the speed limit, which the Parish Council found unacceptable.    Following lobbying by parish councils (including Beech) the Highway Authority (HCC) had introduced a licensing scheme to provide and manage the use of electronic Speed Limit Reminders (SLRs) for parishes.   Beech Parish Council was planning to enter a partnership with the neighbouring parishes of Medstead and Bentworth  to share the purchase costs and rotational use of an initial Driver Feedback Sign.  Parish Councillors  had consulted with each of the landowners adjacent to proposed deployment sites for the devices, who had, without exception, expressed their support for this initiative.  The Chairman stressed the importance of residents of Beech setting a good example by keeping to the 30mph speed limit.   It was expected that the Police would be carrying out speed enforcement in the coming months.

Development

Twelve planning and tree preservation order applications had been considered and commented on by the Parish Council, with EHDC, the planning authority, concurring with all but one of the Parish Council’s recommendation.

Proposed Beech Cemetery 

The Council await a response from the Abbey who had passed the matter to the Charities Commission.

Beech Village Hall

The Chairman congratulated the Village Hall committee for all their work in completing the redevelopment of the Beech Village Hall on time and on budget.  The Parish Council had provided the project with an overall contribution of £20,000 and supported the application for use of developers’ funds.

The Council had also supported Village Hall’s application to acquire from BT the red telephone box at the bottom of Wellhouse Road.

Parish Plan

The Parish Council had launched the process of creating a Parish Plan for Beech, which would identify the objectives and desires of the village and support and provide community evidence for future grant and project applications.  A Parish Plan steering committee was currently being formed to progress this undertaking. 

Representations

On behalf of the Council, the Chairman thanked Patrick Burridge (EHDC District Councillor) and Mark Kemp Gee (Hampshire County Councillor) who had continued to keep the Parish informed of what was happening at District Council and County levels and for all their lobbying on behalf of Beech.

Finance

The Council’s reserves remain safe with regular external and internal audit checks undertaken to ensure correct financial procedures.  The precept, the Beech Parish element of council tax, was to be maintained at £12,000 for the year 2010/11.

 

During his report, the Chairman acknowledged the excellent work carried out by the Beech Newsletter team and the Neighbourhood Watch group.  Before taking questions, he thanked all the Parish Councillors for their dedication, County and District Councillors Mark Kemp-Gee and Patrick Burridge for their continued interest and support, Mrs Sandie Fisher for auditing the Council’s accounts and Mrs Sheron Gillard for her work as Council Clerk.  He also encouraged all members of the village to get involved with their community, either through supporting the preparation of the Parish Plan and/or by joining the Parish Council at its elections next year.

 

QUESTIONS ON REPORT

There were no questions on the Chairman’s Report

 

REPORT FROM DISTRICT COUNCILLOR PATRICK BURRIDGE

The meeting welcomed Cllr Patrick Burridge who spoke of EHDC’s new collaboration with Havant Council, sharing a Chief Executive, Sandie Hopkins, and plans to extend this to other management levels and services.  It was hoped that these measures would bring about greater efficiencies and help to offset the decreasing government grants to the sector.  Following a 3 year freeze on EH District Council tax, 2010-11 would see an increase of about 2.9% (equating to about £4 per year on a band D property).

Much of his work had been focusing on the SE Plan requirement for the District to provide permanent pitches for 6 gypsy families and a site for travelling families.  These must be in an area providing good access to services.  Whilst likely to be unpopular, by providing such sites, the District would have greater power to evict gypsies and travellers  from other land.

The Chairman thanked Cllr Burridge for his attendance and his continued work on behalf of Beech.

 

REPORT FROM COUNTY COUNCILLOR MARK KEMP-GEE

Chairman Edward Neish read a written report from Cllr Mark Kemp-Gee in which he spoke of the work he had been undertaking on the Adult Social Care Select Committee and also as Chairman of the Hampshire Pension Fund Panel which looks after the pensions of all local authority workers in Hampshire.

He had noted the Council’s progress to back up the 30 mph limit with an SLR system with interest and promised to assist with road repair and drainage issues as necessary.

He reported that Alton Rural Division had been the worst hit in the whole of Hampshire.  As well as the extra salt bins to be provided from the County, he would be calling for greater use of our farmers for gritting and salting rural roads in addition to their snow-ploughing work as well as a much more flexible response where Highways personnel and machinery from all over Hampshire would come to the aid of particularly hard-hit areas.

On finance and performance matters, he reported that the County's share of Council Tax for the second year running would rise by a lowly 1.9%.  The County had achieved 3 star status from the Audit commission as one of the top three counties in England for performance and value for money.

He apologised for not being at the meeting in person and wished BPC an enjoyable and interesting Annual Parish Meeting.

 

MATTERS TO BE REFERRED TO PARISH COUNCIL MEETINGS

There were no matters to be referred to the Parish Council.

 

CLOSE OF MEETING

There being no further questions from the Public, the Chairman thanked everyone for their attendance and formally closed the meeting at 7.35 pm.

 

 

 

 

Signed:....................................................                                             Date: .......................................................                   

Chairman Beech Parish Council