The Minutes of the Ashwell Parish Council meeting held in Ashwell Village Hall on Tuesday 7 September 2021.
Present were Val Harvey, Tony Graveling, Brian Farr, Councillor Alan Walters. Clerk was Sally Harnett. There were no members of the public present.
1 Apologies for absence from the meeting.
Councillor June Fox, unwell.
2 Declarations of Interest
Mr Val Harvey, the village hall notice board at 6a.
3 The Minutes of the last meeting were agreed and signed.
4 Chairman of Ashwell Parish Council.
Mr Val Harvey was proposed by Tony Graveling, seconded by Brian Farr, elected unanimously.
5 Matters Arising from the last meeting.
Public Forum: County Councillor Alan Walters was invited to speak on health matters in Rutland.
He is a member of Rutland County Council Cabinet representing Health Care, and he praised the work of the team with whom he worked, the officers in Rutland Council doing the bulk of the work. Local teams and local authorities are directed by the Central Government to work together, Rutland has always done so, ahead of many councils. The new instructions from central government are to try to get patients home from hospital, and not to have to go into care homes.
Rutland County Council does not actually perform the care, but does have responsibility for care. RCC money can go to Health, but there is a difficulty in that the local surgeries are privately owned practices.
In the reorganisation of Leicestershire and Rutland hospitals it is claimed that 55% of patients go to Peterborough. Leicester has 3 hospitals. There is a move to close the General, and a way must be found to ensure Rutland patients at that hospital are not to be disadvantaged. Rutland County Council has been very active in fighting for the interests of Rutland residents.
A great concern about the future in increasing the use of The Leicester Royal is the current very big parking problem, with queues of over an hour being experienced to get onto the car park. Plans have to be made for patients to visit the LRI 1 to 2 hours before their appointment time, to allow the time needed for parking.
There is much need for increasing the use of Oakham Memorial Hospital for medical and specialist services, meaning less numbers of cars on the road to and from Leicester hospitals. There are no plans to stop what services there are in Oakham at present, but any future
additional services cannot be guaranteed. A “Walk-in Care” facility is needed, although Rutland does have an out-of-hours on-call service. Oakham Memorial Hospital should be made available to be used as a half way house between hospital and home, but that would not guarantee that only Rutland patients would be sent there.
The economics govern all future plans. There is section 16 available, an amount of £56,000.
Rutland residents feel “kicked around” by Leicestershire Community Health.
To sum up, RCC will continue to fight for Rutland residents, to gain fair consideration and respect in health matters. RCC has a transport manager who covers hospital transport.
Councillor Walters was thanked by the Chairman for his informative presentation.
5 continued.
Co-option of 2 more parish councillors. A notice has been prepared for inclusion in the September Wellspring. Councillors will also spread the word.
2nd defibrillator. Discussion is ongoing on this subject.
The licences for the memorial bench and new notice board are in hand. There are site checks to be made by APC for the new notice board, with information to be sent to Highways.
The request for the cycle/footway road crossing at Langham Place to be moved to a safer place has been recorded at RCC, ref. ITCP-2021-28. A reminder will be sent.
40 limit signs on approaches to Ashwell. Considered a safety measure by residents, discussions have been going on with RCC for some time, and will continue.
Rutland Local Plan. RCC held a special meeting to decide on its future. Mr Graveling attended, and the council voted by a slim majority to withdraw the Local Plan. A new Rutland Local Plan will be started, taking 4 years to prepare. It was remarked that all the efforts that went into Neighbourhood Plans in villages across Rutland appear to have been wasted. It was commented that being without a Local Plan could cause problems in development in Rutland.
Social events in Ashwell are now increasing, with the reopening of the village hall. A communication from Tracey Pollard at RCC includes the proposal to park a coffee van on occasions in Ashwell.
The old parking sign adjacent to the village hall has been removed by RCC.
6 Public forum.
There were no further items proposed for discussion.
7 Finance report by Tony Graveling.
The present balance stands at £8540.36
A donation of £300 was sent to Rutland CAB on 26 March 2021 as agreed.
A VAT refund of £40 was received from HMRC for the 2020/2021 financial year.
APC has not received requests for donations since the last meeting.
Sally Harnett, Clerk, was thanked for all her work, and wages of £434.00 for 36 hours 10 minutes work since 25May2021 and £4 for a diary 2021/2022.
The cost of hiring the Village Hall for Parish Council meetings is £10 per hour.
The Chairman thanked Mr Graveling for his work and report.
7a Village Hall update.
The kitchen is now complete, flood damage has been repaired, new storage boxes are in place. Broadband is now in place.
8 Planning
The clerk will check with RCC what checks are made by RCC that applicants are complying with Conditions imposed on developments. It is considered that parish councillors are duty bound to make certain that conditions are observed. A Condition imposed on a recent tree felling has not yet been complied with. A reminder will be sent to RCC.
The recent application for 40 additional storage containers at Eastfield Farm has resulted in heavier haulage traffic in Ashwell, particularly on the narrow bridge nearby.
9 Highways
Bushes near the narrow bridge in Cottesmore Road near to Eastfield Farm impair the sight of oncoming traffic for drivers of cars in both directions. A repeat request for action on road safety at this bridge will be made to RCC. APC will suggest a traffic priority notice at the bridge.
APC has requested an inspection of the junction of Langham Road and Oakham Road, (used by many pedestrians, cyclists, users of prams and mobility vehicles), by RCC road safety officers.
The issue of crossing the road at Langham Place has been raised on the online form at RCC, item number ITCP-2021-28 with RCC.
The information regarding the use of the FixMyStreet facility on the site of RCC will be sent to The Wellspring. The site is for the use of the public to report certain issues of concern. There is information of what to report on that site.
Councils only should use the Highways and Transport online web form: https://rutland.force.com/customer/s/highways-concern
10 Correspondence
Mr Owen Mace in Australia requested help in tracing any of his Bullivant family in the Ashwell area. The request has been forwarded in Ashwell.
“Changing Connections” leaflets, Tracey Pollard will be informed that 150 leaflets could be distributed in Ashwell if she provided them.
11 Police
PC Laurie Appleton has agreed to attempt to cover Ashwell more, speeding in the village is continuing. Some interest has now been shown for a Speedwatch group to be formed by residents with support from the police.
12 Any Other Business for discussion at the next meeting.
The possible closure of Lloyds Bank, Oakham.
A request for a mobile post office van to visit Ashwell.
A village book exchange.
The New Local Plan for Rutland, updates.
Street drainage in the brook area.
13 Dates of the next meetings
Tuesday 7 December 2021.
Tuesday 1 March 2022.
Tuesday 24 May 2022.
Tuesday 6 September 2022.
Tuesday 6 December 2022.