ELSTED and TREYFORD PARISH COUNCIL

Minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting of Elsted and Treyford held in Elsted Village Hall at 7.30pm on Thursday 25th April 2013

Present: Mr A Leno (Chairman), Mr A M Shaxson (Vice-Chairman and District Councillor), and Councillors Mrs M-C Arrowsmith, Mr Beecroft, Mrs D Furneaux, John Spencer-Smith and Ms K Gilmore (Clerk). 17 Members of the Public, from the parish and further afield.

1. Guest speaker

The Chairman welcomed Dr Jonathan Dicks, a freelance archaeologist with a particular interest in studying the social and economic impact of the Roman occupation on southern England. His current research focuses on the rural villas in Wessex and has just written a book on the Romano-British villa at Sparsholt near Winchester. He gave a short presentation about the archaeology of the parish and last year’s “Big Dig” excavation.

The Neolithic and Bronze Age periods were characterized by hill forts and there are two nearby at Harting Down and Torbury Hill. Hill “forts” were actually not defensive at all but were used for social gatherings and keeping animals together. Typically these forts tend to be rectangular, bounded with a bank and ditch. There is a good example of this at Harting Beacon that the EAHS society visited earlier in the year. Tracks linked these sites together and the ditches that cross them are known as “cross dykes”. Their presence would clearly indicate the territory of a chieftain to anyone passing by. The parish shows lots of activity from these periods and therefore we can be hopeful of future finds like struck flints for hunting.

Elsted village church dates from the Saxo-Norman period and has a typical herringbone pattern. By looking at the north wall you can see the outline of former arches that have been blocked up (in 1873 according to Andrew Shaxson), and this gives an indication of how the building has changed over time. It is a little strange that the church is set back and not in the centre of the village, and why this is so is a mystery. The parish itself was shown on maps dating from 1610, together with deer parks, including Uppark. The spelling of Elsted has changed through the years, and was still shown as “Elstead” as late as 1763.

Dr Dicks concluded with a review of last summer’s “Big Dig” in a field behind Westfield Farm. The site was first excavated in 1975 by Martin Millet, then a recent graduate from UCL, who thought that there might be a stone building of three to four rooms, which was possibly a bath block. In 2011 a local amateur group from Liss had undertaken a “geophys” survey which gave the tantalising outline of a square. This determined where the two trenches A and B were dug last year. Despite a promising start the weather soon turned to rain, and what looked like a cobbled stone floor was eventually revealed as an outcrop of local clunch stone. This was “geology not archaeology” and it was time to call things to a halt. However there were some “finds” including cracked flints crazed by heating in cooking pots, and most importantly a ditch in Trench B. Sadly we didn’t find a temple or villa, but maybe next time!

EAHS will be holding future events including a Pottery Identification workshops on June 16th, please contact Mr Beecroft for details.

Mr Leno thanked Dr Dicks for his presentation.

2. Welcome and apologies for absence

After a short interval The Chairman welcomed everyone to the main Annual meeting. Apologies were received from Jane Fortin, Patricia O’Brien, Stuart and Morag Drew and ?? Barlow.

3. Minutes

Copies having been distributed the minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting held on 26th April 2012 were approved and signed by the Chairman (Proposed Mr Beecroft and seconded by Mrs Furneaux).

4. Reports

i) County Councillor’s Report

Mr Cherry was absent but had sent his apologies.


ii) District Councillor’s Report

Mr Shaxson gave his report as CDC District Councillor:-

Last year I said that financially things at CDC were a ‘bit woeful’. Perhaps I should remove the word ‘bit’. The only ray of light is the potential for benefits accruing from New Homes Bonus.

New Homes Bonus - this is paid by central government. Many Local Authorities are putting the money into a general pot. CDC are using it for community benefit, to ‘reward’ communities that take new homes. It is worth about £6,600 for each new house but it is unlikely that this parish will see any, as one-for–ones replacements don’t count! But it isn’t new money, and is paid for by cut-backs elsewhere.

Budgeting – despite the 2.7% increase in Council Tax, there is a need for further serious savings or income generation. As core services have to be protected by law, cuts from now on will hurt, with the removal of either someone providing a service or the removal of something cherished. The biggest (indeed only) area of income generation is car parks. If CDC is to put up charges by an appreciable amount the communities have to be involved as partners. If they are not told it will happen as ‘fait accompli’ consultation. There is a further need to consider joint working with other Local Authorities, and contracting out of some activities. Unlike

many organisations CDC is not as active as it might be in this regard.

Planning – CDC undertakes 98% of applications in the SDNP area. However significant applications are dealt with by SDNPA, including St Cuthmans. It is likely that there will only be one Development Management committee at CDC, following their May AGM. I will not be on it, but will have right to speak to committee and “red card” applications for committee decision. If parish councils object to DOM applications, but CDC officers are minded to permit, they will not come to committee as matter of course. But a red card can overcome this restriction. Some parishes object, and yet nobody turns up to speak at CDC – unlike our own parish as Andrew Leno does!

Listed Buildings – National Parks have a responsibility - and cultural heritage role – to ensure that listed buildings are properly looked after. A recent study of 5,200 listed buildings in SDNP showed 86 (1.48%) at serious risk, 266 as being vulnerable to neglect and further decline.

iii) Elsted Village Hall

Mr. Leno gave the report for Elsted Village Hall:-

The Village Hall AGM is on Thursday 16th May at 7.00 p.m., so I am not going to spend too long going into detail and, if you want to ask the Trustees any difficult questions, go along to the meeting! The Village Hall has had a successful year, and the Village Hall still retains a healthy bank balance which many other Village Halls would envy in these financially constrained times.

The Village Hall remains a popular venue for parties and weddings and is fully booked at the weekends throughout the summer. The success of the Jazz Night, which was again a sellout, helped to boost the income for this year.

The Trustees are always looking for new ideas and will support any individual or group that wishes to promote local events and activities. If you have an idea and wish to develop it talk to us. Charities are offered the Hall free of charge.

All the local organisations who continue to use the Hall and its facilities are thriving but as always they welcome new members, so if you play Cricket, Bowls or Tennis or would like to learn, do come along. The Bowls Club in particular would love to see some new faces, so if you are at a loose end on a Wednesday night at 6.15 p.m., you would be very welcome.

Community events such as the Diamond Jubilee Party, Harvest Supper, the rejuvenated Carol Concert and the Save the Children Bridge Afternoon, have again been very successful and regular bookings for Pilates and Yoga mean that the Hall is in use nearly every day. The establishment of the Elsted Historical and Archaeological Society has also been supported this year and the Rude Mechanicals travelling theatre was particularly popular, as was the production of Ruddigore by Heather Coulson.

Last Sunday, over 40 people turned up to decorate and spring-clean the exterior and interior of the Village Hall and playing field. As you will have seen, they did a great job and thoroughly enjoyed themselves. The Trustees provided refreshments and the Hall is ready for another busy year. A big thank you to all who attended.

A couple of other dates for your diary: - The Village Summer Party is on Sunday 29th July and the Jazz night will return in November.

We should thank all the Trustees for their hard work, and in particular Jenny Shaxson for the bookings, Russell Kyte and John Spencer-Smith for maintaining the playing fields, Tony Walker who oversees the day to day maintenance and, finally, thank you - the residents of Elsted and Treyford - for supporting the Hall.

iv. Parish Council Chairman’s report

Mr. Leno gave the report for the parish council:-

This is my second year as Chairman and there has been no let-up in the activity despite being a small Parish with no direct services. The creation of the SDNPA and the consultation on its new policies has required continuing effort and this is likely to continue until 2015. In addition, Central Government policies, such as the Localism Act and the new National Planning Policy Framework, are creating additional roles for small communities and the need for Parish Councils to keep up to date.

This year there have been 28 planning applications to respond to (5 up on last year and an incredibly large proportion considering that there are only about 110 dwellings in the Parish). Of the 28, a number have been complex and controversial. We have met to discuss them all and some on a number of occasions to consider amendments. We seem to be having some success in persuading Chichester District Council that our views have merit and should be taken seriously.

Much of my time last year was taken up organising our Diamond Jubilee festivities with the help of the Jubilee Committee. I hope that you will all agree that it was a very enjoyable day, despite the weather and it was gratifying that so many people turned up and took part. There were well over 200. Our thanks should go to the Jubilee Committee, Local organisations that helped to fund it and all those who helped on the day. There is also the legacy of a new signpost in Elsted, the Jubilee Tapestry and the Community Photograph. (Thank you John, Trish and Heather).

The Parish Council’s small fund of £200 to support local Charities has been given to the Samaritans, Rother Valley Together, West Downs Search and the Sussex Air Ambulance.

The Emergency Plan, which in our case is about providing local salt supplies, has proved worthwhile this year given the extreme cold weather and, talking of highways, we have constantly reported the potholes and appear to have had some success in securing better road surfaces in the Parish.

The long-standing saga of our request for a 40 mph limit through Elsted Marsh appears to drawing to a successful conclusion, as it appears to be funded by WSCC in the 2013/14 financial year. There is still some way to go but at least the scheme has been approved in principle.

Our County Councillor, John Cherry, is unable to attend tonight but I am able to report that despite the severe financial position the County Council appears to be trying to be more responsive to local needs.

Now a few general issues -

The repair of the St Christopher Statue in Treyford has been progressed but additional and expensive work has been found necessary. Revised quotations are being sought and work should be carried out this year.

The Treyford Conservation Group reinvigorated last year by Andrew Fellows has continued to tackle Treyford churchyard, and I must thank Mully for continuing to keep Elsted Green mown and I am sure that Alistair Shaxson is pleased that the white lines have been reinstated in the of the road through Elsted!

With the Jubilee celebrations and the localization of Council administered benefits, we have slightly increased the parish precept this year. The total budget has increased from £2,520 to £2,626.

My thanks to Andrew Shaxson for his assistance during the year and to all the parish councillors for their efforts on your behalf this last year. My thanks, on your behalf, to Kay for being our Clerk and tackling the endless changes in Local Government. Finally, my thanks to you for coming tonight.


5. Open Forum and Questions from the Public

There was only one question which was why doesn’t CDC charge more for planning applications ? Mr Shaxson replied that although these charges have been doubled recently, the charges are subject to central government limits.

The Chairman thanked all for coming.

There being no further business, the meeting closed at 9pm.

Chairman:………………………………………………Date:……………

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Annual Parish Meeting 2013