The Minutes of the Annual Ashwell Parish Council meeting held on Thursday 31 May 2018 at 7.30pm.
Present were David Pettifer, Chairman; Tony Graveling, Vice Chairman; David Thwaites; Ward Councillor June Fox; Clerk was Sally Harnett.
There were 3 members of the public.
1 Apologies were received and accepted from Wendy Cheesman, abroad, and Brian Farr, unavoidably detained.
2 The Minutes of the previous meeting were agreed and signed.
3 The election of officers for 2018/2019 was as follows. Tony Graveling proposed David Pettifer as Chairman, seconded by David Thwaites and passed unanimously. David Pettifer proposed Tony Graveling as Vice Chairman, seconded by David Thwaites and passed unanimously.
4 There were no Declarations of Interest.
5 Matters Arising from the previous meeting. Advertising posters at the roadside: an email has been received from Neil Tomlinson at RCC with a document of 32 pages explaining the proposed new policy at RCC. June Fox will make enquiries. Data Protection Officer: Parish councils now do not need to appoint an Officer, but must fill in forms to comply with the law on privacy. A meeting will be arranged to sign these forms. It was commented that much of the information that must be kept secure in hard copy is openly available on the website at RCC.
6 Finance report from Tony Graveling.
The full report is attached to these minutes.
It was resolved to renew the Parish Council Insurance with Community Lincs Insurance Services at a cost of £274.96, proposed by David Thwaites, seconded by David Pettifer, passed unanimously.
It was resolved to approve the accounts for the year ending 31 March 2018. Proposed by Tony Graveling, seconded by David Thwaites, passed unanimously.
The Chairman then signed the accounts.
6.1 It was resolved to approve the Governance Statement for 2017/2018, proposed by David Thwaites, seconded by Tony Graveling, the Chairman and the Clerk then signed the Statement.
6.2 Resolution to approve the Accounting Statement for 2017/2018, proposed by David Thwaites, seconded by David Pettifer, passed unanimously. The Chairman then signed the form.
The Chairman thanked Tony Graveling for his report.
7 Planning.
The list of applications and results as at the date of the meeting was circulated.
The main issue in Ashwell is the future monitoring of compliance with the many Conditions in the Planning permission granted for Manor Farmyard. Emails have been received from RCC Planning and RCC Building Control stating that RCC does not monitor any building projects. RCC suggested that residents watch proceedings, but this is believed to be impractical due to problems with access for the public to building sites. Councillor June Fox will consult with RCC for more clarification.
The St George’s Barracks Consultation. Councillor Fox advised very careful examination of the proposal. It should be noted that there is a quarry yet to be worked out in the middle of the green space detailed. The plan is now to use the current roads instead of new roads. The suggested 3000 houses will increase the Rutland population by 25%, and will be larger than Uppingham. It has been found that young people tend to not buy smaller houses, these are more generally taken up by older “downsizers”. Questions were asked in the meeting about the original owners’ right to buy back their commandeered property. The very active North Luffenham Golf club has been warned of closure. The project has been based on a plan at Hampshire County Council, but this is considered to be not a fair comparison with Rutland.
An urgent extra meeting will be held by APC to more fully discuss the response to this plan.
8 Highways report by David Thwaites.
RCC suggested in the past that gates could be installed at the entrances to the village to slow down traffic, it was decided that these would make little difference to speeding drivers. It was stated by a resident that the speed reactive signs did not make a great difference. Brookdene: A resident has submitted a copy of his letter to RCC Highways, and APC will write a supporting letter, this has been an ongoing problem for a significant length of time. APC will ask to be informed when a decision is made on how to properly solve this problem. Railway crossing temporary closure will not now take place on 26 June. Direction signs at Oakham Business Park for emerging lorries will be handled by the Property Team at RCC.
9 Public Session. There was no subject put forward.
10 The Clerk attended the church service in Oakham to celebrate the retirement of Sir Laurence Howard as Lord Lieutenant of Rutland, and the church parade to celebrate the 100 years of the Royal Air Force.
11 RCC Parish Council Forum. The minutes of these meetings are available on line at RCC.
12 Correspondence Received. There have been letters from other parish councils asking for support in concerns over the St George’s Barracks Plan. An APC meeting is to be arranged. A letter has been received from Langham Parish Council regarding professional dog walkers using the village, resulting in dog fouling in Langham. Ashwell does sympathise with the problem, but on the whole there is no such problem in Ashwell.
13 AOB for the next meeting. The commemoration of the end of the 1914-1918 war will be discussed more fully at the next meeting. The Rutland bus service contracts come to an end shortly, more information is needed on future services.
14 The next meeting is fixed for 6 September.
15 The meeting was declared closed at 08.25pm.
Signed: Dated: