Nash Parish Council

Minutes of the Meeting of Nash Parish Council held on Thursday 20 November 2008 at 7.30pm in the Village Hall.

Present: Cllr C G Tomkins (Chairman), Cllr G F Culverhouse, Cllr D Gillow, Cllr A Taylor , Cllr E Watts

Apologies: Cllr Sir John Southby Bt

In Attendance: Mrs M S Hedges (Clerk)

49 Minutes of the Parish Council Meeting on 18 September 2008

The Minutes of the meeting on 18 September 2008 were approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

50 Matters arising from those Minutes

(i) Planting of Trees on the path to the Pond (Minute 37(i)): The Council noted that the proposed meeting had still to be arranged.

(ii) Motocross activities at Barnhill Farm (Minute 37(ii)): The Council discussed the email dated 12 November from Mr Dales. The Council was concerned about the implications for Nash if the two separate pieces of land owned by Mr and Mrs Lowe respectively were deemed to separate planning units for the purposes of the General Development Order. While 4x4 events caused minimal disruption to Nash, the noise from the motocross events could be extremely intrusive when the wind was blowing towards Nash. Nash residents would be dismayed if it were possible to hold more than the current 14 events a year. Mrs Hedges was asked to respond to Mr Dales on these lines. The Council considered whether it should take legal advice of its own so that it could make its representations to Aylesbury Vale Legal Department, that the units shared enough common facilities to be regarded as a single unit for planning purposes. Mrs Hedges agreed to see whether there was a way of obtaining some informal advice.

51 Membership of Parish Council and other appointments

(i) Vacancy : The Council noted that Councillor Shadbolt has resigned from the Parish Council. The Clerk reported that, since the returning officer had not received any response to the Notice inviting electors to ask for a bye-election, the Council was now free to co-opt some-one to fill the vacancy. A Notice would be put in the forthcoming Newsletter. Councillors were asked to think of possible people to approach to ask them to consider being co-opted.

(ii) Emergency Planning Officer (Minute 37(iv)): After discussion, the Council agreed to approach Greg and Sue Davies to see whether they would be willing to consider taking on this task.

(iii) Neighbourhood Watch Co-ordinator/membership of the Neighbourhood Action Group: The Council agreed also to seek volunteers via the Newsletter for this position.

52 Finance

(i) Payments authorised/approved: The following payments were authorised/approved:

a) John Hamilton: Repairs to Village Green and Recreation Ground £74.27

b) NJ Blackwell Garden Services: Grass-cutting, September 08 £211.80

c) NJ Blackwell Garden Services: Grass-cutting, October 08 £237.40

d) Nash Village Hall – hire of hall May to September 08 £105.00

e) A S Agricultural Services: Clearance of Reeds from Village Pond £500.00

f) Eon: Electricity Supply, September 08 £25.56

g) Eon: Electricity Supply, October 08 £29.12

(ii) Financial position: Cllr Taylor reported that the funds in the Parish Council accounts were:

Current Account £264.06

General Reserve £4,537.00

Recreation Ground Reserve £3,136.83

Total £7,937.89

The Council had received the second half of the precept.

(iii) Requests for donations: Cllr Taylor reported that he had received requests from Aylesbury Vale Dial-A-Ride. After noting that the Council had made an annual donation of £50 since 2004, the Committee agreed to make a further donation of £50.

(iv) Other financial matters: After discussion the Council agreed to continue to subscribe to Buckinghamshire Community Action, with the annual subscription for 2009 being £30. The Council agreed to defer payment of the subscription to SLCC until January 2009.

53 Planning

(i) New Applications: The Council noted the following new application and the comments it had made on it.

a) 08/02336/ATC 3 Wood End Remove one conifer to stump NPC made no objection

(ii) Applications approved: The Council noted that the following applications had been approved.

a) 08/01722/ATC All Saints’ Church, Stratford Road Removal of two cypress and one horse chestnut

b) 08/02336/ATC 3 Wood End Remove one conifer to stump

(iii) Application withdrawn: The Council noted that the following application had been withdrawn

a) 08/01398/APP Land at 1 Wood End Demolition of existing dwelling and erection of detached dwelling in enlarged residential curtilage.

(iv) Gypsy and Traveller Accommodation Needs: Partial Review of the SE Plan: The Council noted that Cllr Culverhouse had prepared the Council’s response, which had been posted by the due date of 21 November.

54 Milton Keynes Expansion/ North Bucks Parishes Planning Consortium:

Cllr Culverhouse reported on the responses by the NBPPC to the Government’s latest proposals for the development round Milton Keynes and in Aylesbury Vale. The Consortium had warmly supported the proposal to expand Milton Keynes east of the M1 and that the proposals for the expansion of Newton Longville were not so extensive as has been first suggested. The Government’s response was expected in the spring.

Cllr Culverhouse also reported on the concerns of Winslow, Little Horwood and Great Horwood about the Greenway development, now called Winslow Green. It was expected that a formal planning application would be submitted in the near future. There would be an exhibition, organised by the developers, in the Bell Hotel in Winslow on 21/22 November.

55 Aylesbury Vale Local Development Framework: Consultation on options for the directions of growth at Aylesbury:

Cllr Culverhouse agreed to examine this consultation document to see whether Nash Parish Council should submit a response (due 12 December 2008).

56 CPRE

(i) Stop the Drop: Mrs Hedges reported that CPRE has provided a “Parish Council Toolkit”. Most of the suggestions were more appropriate to larger communities. The consensus was that Nash did not have a substantial litter problem.

(ii) Cllr Culverhouse had no other matters to report.

57 Recreation Ground and other maintenance

(i) Safety Surfaces in the Play Area: In Cllr Southby’s absence this was deferred until the next meeting. Cllr Gillow said that additional wood chippings were required under the most recent equipment and that item should be added to the quote being obtained.

(ii) 2009 Annual Inspection: The Council agreed to use RoSPA again.

(iii) Emptying of the dustbin during 2009: Councillors and Mrs Hedges agreed to empty the dustbin as follows:

(iv) Grass Cutting arrangements for 2009: The Council agreed that, if possible, three quotations should be obtained for cutting the grass twice a month from March to October with the debris should be removed after the first and last cuts and the cut immediately prior to the fete. The current contractor should be invited to quote again.

(v) Reeds at the Pond (Minute 42 (iv)): The Council noted that the work had been completed in early October and the monitoring report for the grant submitted to AVDC. The Council noted with regret that the stream immediately west of the Winslow Road had not been dig out. Any constriction that caused the water to back up increased the deposit of sediment causing the stream increasing the frequency with which the stream had to be dug out.

(vi) Nash Village Green: The Clerk reported that, despite chasing, no response had been received from BCC on their priority for improving the road in front of 7-13A Wood End. Cllr Taylor suggested that the installation of solid wooden posts round The Green would be attractive, and would deter large vehicles from mounting the Green.

(i) Local Area Forums: The Council noted that no-one had attended the meeting on 25 September. Cllr Gillow agreed to attend the next meeting on 4 December at Calvert Green Community Hall at 7pm

(ii) Local Area Forum Delegated Budget Schemes 2009-10: The Council agreed to consider the memo dated 21 October from the Clerk and the attached communication from BCC about bidding under this budget scheme. The total amount available for the Buckingham Local Area was £21k. A number of suggestions were put forward:

· A Vehicle Activated Sign: but it was agreed to defer asking for this until after Nash had been included in the Speed Limit review.

· North Bucks Way Bridleway: but it was not clear what priority this would have as a footpath rather than a highway.

After discussion, the Clerk was asked to discuss the preparation of a bid to extend the footpath at the north end of the High Street. Currently the road is being narrowed by the amount of debris on the road. Two families had small children and it would be much safer if there was a footpath for the mothers pushing the prams.

(iii) Temporary Speed Indicator Devices (TSID): The Council noted that temporary Speed Indicator Devices were available for hire at a cost of £100 for two weeks. These would be pole mounted and so did not require volunteers to man them. In view of the continuing concern of villagers about the speed of traffic in the village the Council agreed to hire such a device for Nash. The Clerk was asked to investigate this.

(iv) Update on BCC energy from waste initiative: The Council noted the letter dated 3 November on this subject.

(v) Health Communities Partnership: The Council noted that it had been invited to comment on the draft Strategy for Buckinghamshire (by 12 December). The document was available on the BCC website.

59 Aylesbury Vale District Council

(i) Freighter Service: The Council noted that the Freighter Service would next visit Nash on 22 January from 7.30am to 11 am.

(ii) Rest of District Spatial Strategy: Cllr Culverhouse reported that this was a document about how AVDC was handling growth outside of Aylesbury. Buckingham and Winslow were scheduled to grow, but Nash and other villages north of the A421 were in the lowest category where limited new housing would be permitted on a case-by-case basis but there were unlikely to be plans for substantial developments.

(iii) Local “Planning” Communications Group: Mrs Hedges tabled a circular that had been received that morning with the note of the meeting of the Group on 23 October. The Council agreed that it would wish to receive minutes of future meetings. The Clerk would ask to receive them by email for forwarding to Councillors on email and printing a paper copy for circulation to those not on email.

60 Freedom of Information Act: new Model Publication Scheme.

Mrs Hedges reported that Councils were required to adopt a new publication scheme by 31 December 2008 and it had been strongly recommended by BALC that Councils adopt the model publication scheme. The Council discussed the paper circulated by the Clerk and agreed on the balance of providing information by the Web or by hard copy as set out in that paper. Councillors agreed that they would not wish their telephone numbers and email addresses to be available on the web-site. On a proposal by Cllr Taylor, seconded by Cllr Gillow, Nash Parish Council agreed to adopt the model publication scheme with effect from 1 January 2009.

61 White Paper: Communities in control

(i) Extract from LCR September 2008: After noting the extract in the September issue of the LCR about devolution to local councils, Nash Parish Council agreed that it did not wish to have any powers additional to its current powers.

(ii) Consultation on Codes of conduct for local authority members and employees: Cllr Taylor agreed to prepare the Council’s response to this consultative document (due by 24 December).

(iii) Consultation on the making and enforcing of byelaws: The Council noted that the Chairman and Vice-chairman had considered this document and agreed that there was no need for Nash Parish Council to comment on it.

62 Dates of meetings

The Council noted that the remaining meetings in 2008/09 were on 15 January 2009; and 19 March 2009.

63 Circulated Documents: Councillors had no comments on the following documents that had been circulated:

(iii) Buckinghamshire Community Action, Annual Report and financial statements, 2007/08