Minutes of the Annual Parish Council Meeting held on Wednesday 15 th May 2013 at 8.00pm in the Village Hall Present Mr C Broad Chairman Mr R Beech Mr A Candelent Mr F Dumbleton Mr B Morris Mr I Thompson Mrs J Woods Mrs M E Morris Mr S Lilly Mr I Binding ) Mr H Thomas ) Mr P North ) Ms S Adamou ) Clerk County Councillor Thames Water Representatives 6 members of the public 1. Apologies for Absence Mrs M Turner, Mr R Waite and PCSO D Clements 2. Declarations of Interest Mr Beech declared an interest in item Thames Water as he is a neighbour to the pumping station. The Register was signed. 3. Election of Chairman Mr Broad was proposed by Mr Morris, seconded by Mr Thompson and accepted by all. The Acceptance of Office was signed. 4. Election of Vice Chairman Mr Thompson was proposed by Mr Broad, seconded by Mr Candelent and accepted by all. 5. Officers Responsibilities Footpaths - Mr Beech Transport - Mr Dumbleton VHMC Mr Morris, Mrs Woods Local Stakeholder Group Mr Broad OALC rotate between Councillors Goodman link Mr Morris, Mr Broad AONB Mr Dumbleton Chilton Field and all planning applications will be dealt with by the whole Council. 6. Thames Water The Chairman welcomed the Thames Water representatives. Mr Thomas said that he would answer each question that had been raised in the 2 nd April letter. (i) Thames Water carries out reactive maintenance because the number of sewers is so great it is not possible to routine maintenance. (ii) Thames Water accepts that The Lane should have been cleaned up better. They are sorry it wasn t. 663
(iii) Thames Water agreed that the ditch by the pumping station needs de-silting to bring the level down to the bottom of the pipe. They have agreed to clean both sides of the ditch up to Mr Eaton s boundary. Thames Water is waiting to hear from Mr Eaton. (iv) As this work is considered operational maintenance, Thames Water is proceeding with the work. There will be a CCTV survey right up to the pump on The Green. Thames Water is waiting for a start date from the contractors. The CCTV will be able check the integrity of the foul water sewer and any roots will be cut out and the sewer lined. It will also look for any cracks. It is also possible that storm water is entering the sewer via the laterals from private houses. (v) The order for repairing Dene Hollow has been placed but the roadworks will be carried out after the other work has been completed. (vi) The build-up of silt will be cleared. (vii) Thames Water do not anticipate any improvements to the Pumping Station but Mr Thomas said he would look into it as the Parish Council noted there had been plans which were deferred. (viii) Thames Water acknowledged that their communications had been very poor but they will keep in contact and come to another Parish Council Meeting. They acknowledged that during the winter Customer Services were completely overwhelmed and did not cope. Customer Services is now being monitored to try and improve the service. Mr Woodley was surprised that 6 weeks on from the original meeting Thames Water still does not have a definitive timeline of events. Ms Adamou replied that they should be writing next week with some dates. Mr Thompson queried why the CCTV had to wait for the flows to drop, it is not possible to see anything when the sewer is full of water. Mr Dumbleton noted that it was very frustrating with so many agencies involved. Thames Water representatives thanked very one and said they would attend another meeting. 7. Open Forum (i) It was noted that Thames Travel have omitted the 9.46 from the new timetable again, the bus has been re-instated and Mr Dumbleton is following this up. (ii) Mrs Crennell complained that the grass had been poorly cut last time. The Clerk explained the area is only cut once a month and there had been a sudden growth spurt and it was also wet. (iii) Mr Woods said that the litter picker was not picking up very well in Main Street. The Clerk will speak to the litter picker again. (iv) Mr Softly reported that the Severn Road residents will be writing to Goodman regarding Duty of Care breaches by David Wilson Homes. 8. (i) Minutes of the last Parish Council meeting were signed as a true record. (ii) Minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting were signed as true record. 9. County Council Report Mr Lily reported that three Independent Councillors will join with the Conservative Group to form a majority administration following the May County Council elections. The results for the 63 divisions were 31 Conservative, 15 Labour, 11 Liberal Democrats, 2 Green and 4 Independent. The County Council has a 900m turnover, 127m savings have already been made but another 70m is still to be made. 664
Mr Lilly noted that the A417 which runs through his area is a problem for many of the Parishes. He is arranging a meeting at County Hall in the next two months with a representative from each Parish to discuss the problems. The County Council is making an enhanced bid to get control of the A34. Mr Woods asked Mr Lilly his position on the upgrade of the Chilton interchange, given the Parish Council s opposition to it. Mr Lilly said that he has to look at the problems across the whole of his area not just one specific area. The meeting that is to be set up will be the correct forum to discuss the problem of the interchange. Mrs Woods said there was a problem with the maintenance of the fire extinguishers in the Village Hall as OCC had cancelled the contract with Chubb and gone over to Carillion who were not offering the same terms. 10. District Council Report From the written report it was noted:- (i) Investigations are still continuing re dog waste. (ii) Tesco s have submitted a planning application for a Tecso Dot.com Centre at the former Esso Research Centre, Milton Hill. (iii) Rural businesses across South Oxfordshire and the Vale of White Horse are being invited to celebrate the success of the LEADER Programme. (iv) Hospitality and retail businesses are being invited to go along and join in the celebrations with the launch of OxTrails, the new multi-format trails that will take visitors and residents around places of interest in South Oxfordshire and the Vale of White Horse. (v) A number of local authorities have come together to form Green Deal Together which is offering this scaled down Green Deal assessment to 60 householders on a first come first served basis. (vi) Nearly a thousand people attended fifteen exhibitions across the Vale of White Horse, between 28 February and 13 April, which explained how the district is likely to change over the next 16 years. (vii) Irresponsible companies dumping business waste and a few lazy individuals flytipping their household waste has led to a rethink over recycling banks across the Vale. The District Council is looking at removing the large green mixed recycling bins from its bring bank sites. 11. Chilton Field Village Hall Improvements Percolation tests for the new drainage field are to be carried out on 16 th and 17 th May. The Working Group and the VHMC will be meeting with the Architect to discuss fixtures and fittings. 12. Planning (i) Applications Considered by the Parish Council Retrospective application for an advertising board in V formation P13/V0577/RET David Wilson Homes Chilton Parish Council does not object to this application but would like a condition attached that the permission should only be for 5 years or until last house sold, whichever is sooner. It should be noted that an application needs to be made for the Bovis signs that are adjacent to this application. 665
Application for chiller plant enclosure CLRC Rutherford Labs P13/V0628 No objections. Application for improvement works to the Village Hall - Chilton Village Hall P13/V0815 No objections. (ii) Applications Determined by the Vale Permission to demolish existing attached garage and erection of new attached garage with first floor above. Erection of a single storey rear extension. 26 Crafts End Chilton Didcot OX11 0SA P13/V0329/HH Permission to erect 2 no. freestanding signboards. (Two different sites within Harwell Campus) Harwell Science & Innovation Campus Chilton Didcot Oxon OX11 P13/V0223/A Permission for installation of 416 solar panels. Diamond Light Source Ltd Diamond House Harwell Science & Innovation Campus Didcot Oxon OX11 0DE P13/V0472/FUL 13. Matters Arising from last Parish Council meeting (i) Litter The Clerk has spoken to the Litter Picker. (ii) Swing Chains Swing chains have been replaced and also the shackles and bolts. (iii) Play Equipment Tape for hand ropes has been ordered. (iv) (v) (vi) (vii) Matters Arising from APM School Report The Clerk has spoken to Mrs North re cars in Avon Road. Bee Orchids The Clerk has notified OCC. Underpass The Clerk has asked OCC to clean up the underpass. Dog Fouling A note to be put in the next Chronicle that dog waste bags can be put in the grey bins. 14. Finance (i) The Internal Audit has been carried out and the Internal Audit section of the Annual Return signed. (ii) The Parish Council approved the Annual Return. (iii) The Parish Council approved the Annual Governance section of the Return. The Return will be sent to the External Auditors. (iv) The VHMC has agreed to donate 8,000 towards the Village Hall improvements, a first stage payment of 5,000 has been made. As the VAT cannot be reclaimed on any items purchased with this money the donation will be used exclusively for non- VAT able items. 15. VHMC Report Mrs Woods reported that the Chubb contract to test fire extinguishers had lapsed due to OCC changing contractors. A new contract has been arranged directly with Chubb. 666
The Management Committee thanked Mr Morris for all his hard work in applying for grants towards the Hall improvements. A resident from Chilton Field is interested in joining the VHMC and may possibly act as a key holder for the new community room. 16. Play Equipment Inspection The last inspection was carried out by Mr Thompson and he will carry out the next one. 17. Correspondence From the circulated list it was noted:- (i) CPRE had sent information about their new transport toolkit. The information was given to Mr Dumbleton. 18. Dates of Meetings The previously circulated list of dates was agreed. The Chairman closed the Meeting at 9.43pm 667