Annual Parish Meeting

Minutes of the Annual Nash Parish Meeting on Thursday 14 May 2009 at 8pm.

Present: Chris Tomkins (Chairman), Marjorie Bell, Gloria Chaplin, Geoffrey Culverhouse, Barbara Dewhurst, Henry Eggleston, Elaine Elworthy, Trevor Elworthy, Carol Gillow, David Gillow, Margaret Hedges, Robert Jackson, Nick Kamm, Barbara Loxton, Steve Loxton, David Mander, Sue Mander, Margaret Morgan, Thelma Shadbolt, Jan Sofair, Sir John Southby Bt, Alan Taylor, Ron Unwin, Edwin Watts, Elaine Wylie, Graham Wylie.

Apologies: Eileen Horton, Mary Bowden, Miles Hedges, Vicky Southby.

1           Clerk:  Mrs Hedges was appointed Clerk to the meeting.

2          Minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting held on 8 May 2008

The Minutes were approved by the meeting and signed by the Chairman.

3          Matters arising from the above Minutes: None

4          Annual Report of the Parish Council for 2009/10: This report was tabled at the meeting and introduced by the Clerk. The following additional points were noted:

(i)      Church Farm: Mrs Hedges reported that AVDC planning officers had met with the agent who had submitted the application to build ten houses on the Church Farm site, and had explained all the objections to the proposal. AVDC would refuse planning permission but expected the application to be withdrawn.  It was likely that some housing would be permitted on the site if an appropriate application were submitted in due course.

(ii)    Whaddon Chase Green Infrastructure Plan:  Cllr Dewhurst explained that BCC were following the methodology used by Bedfordshire in developing plans for important green spaces. They were identifying what residents deemed important, such as footpaths, bridleways, recreation areas etc.  Whaddon Chase had been selected as one of the first areas for such a plan to be developed and would be taken into account in future planning for that area. There would be consultative meetings in Whaddon, Little and Great Horwood at the beginning of July and residents would be encouraged to attend and make their views known.

(iii)  Freedom of Information:  Mr Mander raised his concern that residents who had objected to the Church Farm development had so many of their personal details displayed on the AVDC web-site.  The meeting recognised the problem of obtaining a balance between making information readily available and disclosing personal details.

5          Possible pavement at the north end of the High Street

Mrs Hedges explained that the Buckinghamshire Local Area Forums each had a small budget to allocate for projects submitted by parish councils.  The bidding process was competitive.  In November Nash Parish Council had agreed to submit a bid for a pavement at the north end of the High Street in response to request made by a resident at a previous Annual Meeting to restore the pavement that had existed in the past on the west side of the High Street.  The Parish Council had recognised the safety concerns of those who walked up the High Street because the pavement stopped outside the Horseshoes.  It was impossible to see round the bend and the edge of the road was so muddy that pedestrians were forced well out into the road.

In preparing the bid, Mrs Hedges had talked to a number of residents and identified a number of concerns about the building of any such pavement, namely any pavement that went so close to windows that privacy would be lost, and how it would affect the new driveways installed at two houses.  Notwithstanding these problems, the bid had been submitted to see what was technically feasible with a view to discussing the proposal again with residents when the technical options had been evaluated.  BCC had provisionally allocated £19k for this project and Cllrs Gillow, Dewhurst and the Clerk had met with Simon Dudley of BCC to discuss the project the previous day.

Cllr Gillow explained that the pavement would have to be on the east side of the High Street, because BCC did not own all the land to make a pavement on the west side of the High Street, and BCC would not remove the hedges on the west side of the road.  If the pavement were to be on the east side of the High Street and went all the way from the existing pavement to the Whaddon Road, there were four problems:

a.    It would go close to some windows on Horseshoes.

b.    there were two trees (on Horseshoes land higher than the roadway) so that there would have to be a gap in the footpath at that point.

c.    the footpath would replace the part of newly created driveways on BCC land – but that would be at BCC expense.

d.    the footpath would go close to windows of 40 High Street

Some of these objections could be overcome by narrowing the road to accommodate a pavement, or by building part of the pavement on the west side of the road but each of these options raised other safety options.  After an extended discussion of all the issues, the meeting agreed that it did not support the building of a pavement at the north end of the High Street.  However, in the course of the discussion the meeting highlighted the mud on the road on the east side of the bend as one of the key safety concerns.  The meeting agreed that Nash Parish Council should go back to BCC and ask for a scheme to define the edge of the road round the bend which would prevent the road becoming so muddy.

6          Matters raised by Village Organisations

Neighbourhood watch: Mrs Chaplin reported that she had held a successful coffee morning in her house at which a presentation about safety in the home had been made by Buckinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service.  

That week, in conjunction with PCSO Nicole Bruce, Mrs Chaplin had organised a team of volunteer residents to use a portable speed indicating device to monitor speeds in  Stratford Road outside the church.  At the beginning of the week a number of people had been measured as exceeding the speed limit.  The registration number of the relevant car, its make and colour had been noted by would be entered on the police database.  While no prosecutions would result, offending drivers would be sent a warning letter and it was hoped that the exercise would act as a significant deterrent to speeding through Nash. 

Mrs Chaplin also reported that Nash continued to be rated by the police as a “low crime rate village”.

7          Matters raised by Local Government Electors on the current Electoral Roll

(i)      Bollards in  Thornborough Road : Residents asked about the bollards that had recently appeared in Thornborough Road .  Nobody present knew the reason that these had been installed, presumably by BCC.

(ii)    Dog bins: Mrs Wylie asked whether it would be possible to have dog-bins in the village.  Cllr Southby and Mrs Hedges explained that the Parish Council had discussed this on a number of occasions but had always taken the view that it was preferable to encourage residents to take their dog’s litter home with them.  Nash was a rural village and the Council did not wish to spoil its appearance with dog bins.  In addition to the cost of installing the bins, the cost of emptying the bins would require an increase in that part of the Council Tax raised by Nash Parish Council on an ongoing basis.

(iii)  Parking outside the Village Hall: Mrs Chaplin raised the question of who was responsible for putting out the cones when there was a function in the Village Hall that where the parking would overflow into the road.  This matter was referred to the Village Hall Committee.

(iv)  Grass cutting,  Thornborough Road : Mrs Shadbolt said that she was concerned that the cow parsley had been cut across the whole verge and not just the half of the verge next the Thornborough Road .  Cllr Southby explained that that grass cutting was AVDC’s responsibility. If there was a particular part that residents did not want to be cut until the blossom was over then the only guaranteed way was for residents to rope it off themselves.

(v) Thornborough Road: Concern was expressed that a double-decker school bus was using Thornborough Road .  This had happened some years previously and it had been agreed then that the bus would use the Thornton Road as it was safer for a vehicle of that size.

(vi)   Sign Posts: Mr Jackson expressed concern at the number of sign posts in Nash that were no longer vertical.  Mrs Hedges agreed to contact Highways on Call.  It was pointed out that residents could contact HOC themselves.

The Meeting closed at 9.25 p.m.