MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE PARISH COUNCIL OF PIDDINGTON, HELD IN THE VILLAGE HALL, PIDDINGTON ON 20 th DECEMBER 2016 AT 7.30pm

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1 MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE PARISH COUNCIL OF PIDDINGTON, HELD IN THE VILLAGE HALL, PIDDINGTON ON 20 th DECEMBER 2016 AT 7.30pm Present: Cllr P Feltbower (Vice Chairman in the Chair), Cllr K Howard, Cllr M Terzino, Cllr M Nixon, Cllr A Coleman and Cllr L Willis. Action Apologies: Cllr F darby, David Hughes (CDC) Also Present: Public participation OCC Emergency Planning Carol Mackay, Emergency Planning officer for Oxfordshire attended the meeting to explain Parish Emergency Planning and to offer advice and assistance to parishes interested in developing their own Emergency Plan. OCC has 368 Parished communities and the top risk that has been identified is flooding, which can affect up to 200 of these areas. The next risk is power outages; Oxfordshire experiences at least 8 outages a week across the County. This can mean up to 5000 people without power, with most outages lasting between 8 and 12 hours although the current Emergency Plan standard is to plan for power outages which could last up to 10 days as faults can be difficult to locate and therefore take a long time to fix. If a Parish has an Emergency plan volunteers with the County Service will make contact with persons named in the plan to deliver whatever resources are required; with an Emergency Plan OCC can understand what resources a village has, and therefore can also understand what additional resources it would need in the event of an emergency situation. SSE has generators which can be supplied to areas in need, but they are allocated on the basis of priority, with hospitals and care homes etc supplied first, therefore the availability of a generator for Parish use could be of help. Electricity is needed to keep drinking water pumps running and OCC lost water supplies twice in She therefore suggested that the Parish may want to keep a (small) supply of bottled water and some basic food stuffs. SSE have a list of vulnerable people including those who need power to run medical equipment, as do Thames Water. Ms Mackay explained that OCC s own Emergency Plan was an overarching document that worked with those prepared by the Parishes to identify contacts and village needs. The Plan sits on a national data base, which can be accessed

2 by many local and national services. She showed Councillors a small pack (In Case of Emergency) which residents are encouraged to place at the back of the refrigerator and which gives details of residents next of kin, medical conditions, GP etc. If flooding is an issue she suggested the Village make contact with the national Flood Forum, who will advise on precautions, actions etc,. If the Parish Council was interested in holding a meeting dedicated to flooding she would attend with a number of experts and information for residents. MN/MT She also gave the Council samples of recommended ( caramel coloured) glow sticks( explaining that other colours were used by the Emergency services to identify particular issues) and blankets, which will be stored with other resilience material, once the issue of storage has been resolved. It was agreed that leaflets about managing Emergencies, the Vulnerable people Registers etc would be published on the Parish Web site. Cllr Coleman agreed to contact OCC to make arrangements for links to all relevant documentation for the website and Ms Mackay agreed to supply with any flood maps which the Parish may find useful, and comments on the draft Emergency Plan once it has been produced. 120 Declarations of Interest Cllrs P Feltbower, K Howard, M Terzino and M Nixon declared personal interests as members of the Village CLP group and Cllr Howard declared a personal interest as a member of the Village Hall Committee. 121 Minutes The Minutes of the meeting of 15 th November 2016 were agreed as drawn. /FD 122 Finance The Council noted the financial report given by the and agreed the payment of the following invoices:- Cherwell District Council (dog bins) Matthew Rudge (tree services) Piddington Village Hall (Hall hire) Mrs A Davies ( salary and expenses) HMRC ( tax) Cherwell District Council (election) The Parish confirmed that she had raised the issue about the invoice relating to the emptying of dog bins with CDC, who had advised that it was for the period April September, when dog bins are emptied twice a week over the

3 summer months. Councillors agreed to advise the if they were aware of any projects that would require provision being made in the Parish Council s budget for 2017/18. all 123 Community Led Plan (CLP) Community First Oxfordshire has now sent though the data from the CLP questionnaire, and analysis in the form of tables and graphs will be available in the New Year. The information available will be considered in detail by the steering group at a meeting in January. Concern was expressed by members of the steering group that the whole group had not received the data from Community First Oxfordshire before anybody else, so that the group could decide how to disseminate it. The Vice Chairman said she would circulate the data to all members of the steering group as soon as possible. Once the group has considered the information in detail it will report its conclusions to the Parish Council. PF 124/1 Resilience. Cllr Terzino will attend a meeting of the Village Hall Committee to formally request permission to site a generator adjacent to the Village Hall, and to erect a shed for storage of other equipment. Defibrillator The Parish Council has been offered two more defibrillators. It was agreed that an approach should be made to the Church to site one in the Church porch, and another could be located in Lower End. MT /KH 124/2 Parish land Jubilee Reserve BBOWT have met representatives of the parish Council, and made suggestions with regard to a maintenance proposal. Cost estimates are now awaited. The representative from BBOWT has suggested Councillors may be interested in visiting a BBOWT run Nature Reserve, and it was agreed that Councillors would find this helpful. Cllr Howard reported that he had seen a suggestion that community groups in Bicester could apply to CDC for SPARK funding, but he had been advised that Piddington was outside the SPARK Fund area. The was asked to question CDC as to the reasons for this comment as it was not apparent from the information produced. Widnell Park/Sports Field/Churchyard Maintenance FD FD BBOWT have made recommendations for the appropriate management of the meadow and the woodland area at Widnell park, which the Parish Council will

4 look to pursue over the medium term. From April 2017 there will be two cuts per month for the Widnell Park grass area, the Playing fields (including frontage) and the church. The car park will also be sprayed at the beginning of the season. Meadow: Following discussions with BBOWT the following work will be undertaken for the meadow : - spraying to eradicate ragwort, nettles and dock when the growing season starts - meadow to be cut by farmer twice., ideally end June/July and end October with grass to be taken away. - The Council s grass cutting contractor will cut two paths through the meadow alongside the perimeter at no extra charge and this will then be added into general grass maintenance. Maintenance of the area for the next two years will include seeding in 2018/19. Woodland: The area has now been cut back and cleared. BBOWT s representative suggested a quarter of the trees that were overhanging the pond (including odd branches) should be cut back, as they were currently depositing too many leaves into the pond. The Parish Council agreed to use the balance of the Environmental grant to complete this work and clear the pond of leaves and debris.it was also recommended that the Parish Council arranges the woodland area to be strimmed on a monthly basis for which quotes are awaited. 124/3 Home to School Transport Ongoing. MT 124/4 Allotments The Allotment committee was asked to consider amenities provided and rent charged, to feed into budget proposals at the next meeting. LG 124/5 Green Gym/Funding opportunities Ongoing. FD/MT 124/6 Southern Gas Networks A number of residents have expressed interest in having gas installed, provided the cost did not exceed the 700 connection charge per property. Cllr Terzino will check with SGN the level of response to their correspondence 124/17 Proposal to amend the boundary of the parliamentary constituency covering Piddington MT

5 Minutes of a meeting between parishes affected by the Boundary proposals and the leader of Cherwell District Council have been circulated. The legal requirement with regard to the numbers of residents is difficult to overcome, but will require re consideration as Bicester expands. The Parish Council has lodged an objection to the proposals, and will therefore be consulted and have another opportunity to respond at a later stage. 124/8 Bicester Planning Consultation meeting Cllr Feltbower attended this meeting on 7 th December. CDC are reviewing their Local Plan as there is a need to make provision for an additional 4,400 houses that cannot be accommodated within the area of Oxford City. The Council noted the proposals, but asked the to ask CDC to ensure that there was adequate provision of GP and Acute Hospital services to respond to an increase of some 20,000 homes in the area, and the ensure that any further expansion of Bicester included sufficient investment in the road infrastructure to reduce the road congestion currently experienced in the area. 124/9 Oxford to Cambridge Expressway The clarified that proposals are still at a very early stage, with no detailed routes available. However there would seem to be three main options : Route 1 following the railway line ( which is also to be extended) Route 2 Along the route of the A4421 Routes 1 and 2 may involve an new route around Oxford with an m40 junction near merton on Otmoor. Route 3 A road leaving the A 34 at the Chilton interchange and connecting with the M40 near Watlington before going on to Thame and Aylesbury. The has had discussions with a number of Councillors, who have suggested that Aylesbury are very keen for the road to pass close to the town, and therefore the front runner at present is Route 3. This would also avoid extensive compulsory purchase of properties fronting the A34 at Botley. The confirmed that she will arrange for any further developments to be reported to the Council. 125 Planning Applications Planning decisions 127 Police Nothing to report. 128 Highways

6 OCC have confirmed that the defect in the road over the railway bridge by Lower Cowleys Farm has been reported to their Bridge engineer. The was asked to chase the delivery company referred to in Minute 115/16 for a response. 129 Circulated between meetings: Only as referred to in minutes above. 130 Any Other Business: 131 The meeting closed at 9.30pm. For Info 132 DATES OF MEETINGS th January 2017, 21 st February and 21 st March

7 Piddington Parish Council Monthly Financial Report Parish Council Meeting 20 December 2016 Payments processed since last meeting Nov-16 PVH Nov-16 Mrs A Davies Nov-16 HMRC Nov-16 CDC Receipts processed since previous report 0.00 Bank Reconciliation Statement dated 30 November 2016 Items not yet cleared: Savings Account 9, Current account 20, Receipts Payments D Kerwood Lymphoma research OALC OALC cancelled 0.00 CDC Net Total 28,921.27