Minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting of Pamber Parish Council
held in The Memorial Hall, Pamber Heath on Monday, 9th May at 8.00pm
Present were Parish Cllrs. C. Goss, P. Kingston, Mrs. M. Hale, R. Gardiner, G. March, G. McGarvie, D. Snook, T. Young; Mrs A. Witchalls, Mrs J. Tyson. Also present were Mrs. E.A.Knight, Clerk; Miss L.Browne, Clerk; County Cllr. K. Chapman; Borough Cllr. Mrs. M. Tucker; M/s K. Williams, Silchester School; Ms Aimee Scott-Molloy, Hampshire Constabulary; Chairman of St. Stephen's Hall, and 19 members of the public.
- Minutes.
The minutes of the last meeting were approved and signed as a true record.
- Matters arising.
There were no matters arising.
- Reports on the Parish –
a)Chairman’s Report.
The chairman reported that it had been a mixed year for Pamber Parish Council. Some planned projects have been delayed or cancelled and the provision of affordable housing has been delayed again. A report about affordable housing sent by HARAH was then read out. Setting up of the Parish Lengthsman scheme is nearly complete, with Pamber PC as the lead Parish and Bramley within its cluster, with two more to join shortly. He thanked Mr Huitson, who has volunteered to run the Book Exchange in the telephone kiosk in Little London.
The council had faced criticism from some parishioners over the planning application at Berry Court and official complaints against some councillors were lodged. The Monitoring Officer found the councillors not to be in breach of the code of conduct and the subsequent appeals against this decision were also not upheld. Councillors were reminded to take greater care when completing their Register of Interest forms.
Cllr. Goss thanked Mrs E.A. Knight for her wonderful work for the council and welcomed Leonie Browne as the new Clerk.
b)Reports from the Schools.
i) Silchester School: M/s Williams reported that she had joined the school last year and that she was enjoying her first year as head. The National Society Statutory Inspection by the Church had resulted in an ‘outstanding’ grade. It was the aim of the school to meet the needs of all learners and that she wanted the best outcome for the school and the aim was for well rounded education. Results showed that the performance of the school was once again above the national average. The school has just received its 3 year accreditation as a Fair Trade School. There is currently no Breakfast or after school club but there are now a number of pre and post school clubs available to children.
The chairman thanked Ms Williams for her report.
ii) The Priory School
A written report had been received and was made available to the public.
c)Police matters.
Hampshire Constabulary: Ms Aimee Scott Molloy, the new Beat Officer, reported that incident reporting in area is significantly lower compared to last yea and the national average. The three current Policing priorities for Pamber are dwelling burglary, non-dwelling burglary and traffic offences. She reported that Operation Safe For Me is being launched at the end of this month, with advice and enforcements to promote good behaviour.
Ms Scott Molloy mentioned the issue of speeding, explaining that with roads of limits of 30mph, external road traffic teams need to be brought in. Complaints have been acknowledged and the local police unit is trying extremely hard to get this resolved but with little success. A replacement for Dean Stickland is currently being searched for but in the mean time Ms Scott Molloy will get the speed van out in areas between the hours of 7-9 am as requested by the general public.
The Chairman thanked Ms Scott-Molloy for her report.
d)Pamber Forest Warden. No report
e)Impstone Pre-School
A written report had been received and was made available to the public.
f)The Allotments.
No report
g) Pamber Heath Memorial Hall
A written report had been received and was made available to the public.
h) St. Stephen’s Hall.
The Chairman reported that the situation with St. Stephen's Hall was significantly better than last year. The committee now had access to the bank accounts and has brought all utility bills up to date, as well as reduced the hall insurance premium and negotiated a refund and compensation from the bank and water utility company. Much of the interior hall had been repaired and decorated and redecoration of the outside is ongoing.
The committee has 8 members and a number of volunteers, with a range of skills between them. They plan to work on fundraising ideas as well as maintaining and improving the facilities of the hall-an online domain has been registered and this will be publicised over the next few weeks. The Chairman thanked the PCC for their continued support with funding for the existing facility, along with the committee, volunteers and Danni Berry. He is going to forward his report to the Planning Committee as last year's negative report was used to support the Berry Farm application.
Cllr. G. McGarvie asked whether the accounts had been sorted out, the answer to this being yes. The Chairman thanked Mr Ellis for his report.
i.)Pamber Forest Advisory Committee.There was no report but Cllr. J. Tyson reported that there has been unseasonal weather this year with a good forecast acorn crop. Volunteers have carried out coppicing in certain areas and if anyone is interested in joining one of the volunteer groups to let the wardenor the clerk know. There is a major project on bats being carried out-bat boxes have been installed to look for more bat species.
j.) County Councillor’s Report.
Cllr. Chapman announced that he will not be seeking re-election next year but will be Chairman of the Council for the next 12 months. He mentioned that the Council had planned and saved for the predicted budget cuts of 19%. However, the actual budget cut was 39% so there is a tremendous deficit to cover.
k.)Borough Councillors’ Reports.
Cllr. Tucker reported that the Government grant was cut by 1/3-£800,000, but council tax was only increased by 1.98%. She reported that there is a new Chief Executive and Executive Director of Borough Services. The Conservatives won the majority at local elections, with Roger Gardiner winning his election for this ward very well.
Cllr. Tucker mentioned that the Government have suggested that planning permission should not be required for certain development and have consulted on it but this has been met with substantial opposition. There were ongoing discussions with NewRiver Retail to redevelop the Leisure Park in Basingstoke as many of the facilities were in need of upgrading. NewRiver have proposed to upgrade and enhance the whole of it (except Milestone Museum) and will include a Designer Outlet Village. The latter would pay for the improvement of the other facilities.
The Council were endeavouring to support more individual homes for those wishing to self-build, as well as working towards improving video coverage of the top of the town. The nearby car parks have increased free parking from half an hour to one hour which is very popular.
Finally, Cllr. Tucker mentioned that improvements are being made to many roads, such as the A340, A30 and A339. This should improve the flow of traffic once completed.
Cllr. Gardiner gave details of various events that had taken place and thanked everyone for voting. He thanked Marilyn for summarising most of the issues due to be raised.
The Chairman thanked the county councillor and the borough councillors for their reports.
- Parish Matters
A number of Parishioners raised concerns over the way in which the issue of St. Stephen’s Hall had been handled by the Council. They felt that the St. Stephen’s Committee needed the opportunity to show that they continue to improve on the management of the hall. Reference was made to the outcome of the consultation last year and the Chairman pointed out that it was a consultation and not a vote and explained that the whole Parish of Pamber had been given consideration. It was asked if the Management Committee had a say in the lease arrangement. Cllr. Goss replied that he didn’t know until he had sought legal advice but would keep everyone informed.
The question of the open forum not being minutes was raised by one Parishioner, who felt that a record of open forum should be kept. The Chairman said that legally, items raised are not included on the minutes, but they are noted and action is taken. Cllr. Gardiner reminded the public that items raised may be considered for public participation as long as notice is given.
The meeting closed at 9.52 pm.