Parish Council Notes – Oct 2014

Notes of the Bloxham Parish Council Meeting

Monday 6 October 2014

www.bloxhampc.co.uk

Councillor Geoff Mollard (Chairman); Councillors Mary Groves, Patricia Hopkins, Gloria Lester-Stevens, Stephen Phipps, Nick Rayner, Sue Slater, Andrew Taplin and Jenny Yates were all present.

The Clerk and Responsible Financial Officer Theresa Goss, District Councillors Christine Heath and Lynda Thirzie-Smart, County Councillor Kieron Mallon and John Groves were also present. There was one member of the public.
Apologies for absence were received from Parish Councillors Caroline Hone, Jim Golby and Robert Giles.

Minutes – The minutes of the meeting held on 1 September 2014 were agreed and signed by the Chairman.

Planning

Planning Applications – The Parish Council noted the planning applications which had been considered by the Parish Council’s Planning Committee since the last meeting. The results of applications which had been determined by Cherwell District Council’s Planning Committee were noted.
Bloxham Neighbourhood Development Plan (BNDP) – John Groves reported that following the consultation on the revised Local Plan, it had caused a few issues for the writing of the BDNP. However, a meeting had been arranged for Tuesday 7 October 2014 with Kate Gordon from CDC so that these could be discussed. The information from this meeting would be fed back to the NDP Steering Group.

It was not completely clear from the revised Local Plan, what the housing numbers for Bloxham were, however, it was reported that there was approximately 250 homes for Kidlington, and 1254 to be split amongst the rest of the category A villages.

Bloxham was still a category A village and CRAITLUS still stated that Bloxham was a sustainable village, because it had a school, shops and low carbon connectivity. In their submission to the Local Plan the Parish Council questioned this categorisation.

John also reported that he had met with Oxfordshire Playing Fields Association (OPFA) and they had produced a very detailed document about Bloxham. John agreed to forward this to the Clerk. The document covered recreation and the shortage of facilities, it noted that the Warriner School wished to have an all weather pitch and suggested this should be included in the BNDP and also suggested that the Recreation Ground should be registered as a recreational facility in perpetuity.

OPFA also detailed some sources of grant funding which should be investigated shortly.

John Groves was thanked for all his work on the BNDP.

Details on the Plan could be found on the web site. http://bloxhamneighbourhoodplan.co.uk/

Air Quality Assessment – The Parish Council would be requesting that Cherwell District Council (CDC) carried out an air quality assessment of the village as soon as possible.

Road Closure in Unicorn Street – The Parish Council was frustrated that this rebuilding work was taking so long to be completed. Whilst the work was being undertaken, the road was still closed, causing issues for surrounding residents.

Miller Homes Development on Tadmarton Road (14/01634/REM) – This planning application had now been received by the Parish Council and Councillor Yates suggested that residents should be alerted to this so that they could make their own comments. It was also suggested that potential buyers of properties on new developments in the village, should be made aware that they may not be able to secure a place at the Primary School unless their child was entering at Reception. In-year moves, would be highly unlikely.

Taylor Wimpy Development on Milton Road – The consultation event for the proposed development had been held on Monday 8 September 2014. A planning application had not yet been submitted to Cherwell District Council (CDC). It was highlighted that the Parish Council’s Section 106 wish-list should be forwarded to all CDC planning officers to ensure that it was taken into account when negotiations were undertaken with the developers.

Letters from OCC and CDC – The Parish Council had written to Caroline Ford at CDC and together with other nearby Parish Councils to County Councillor Ian Hudspeth at OCC with regard to planning matters in Bloxham. The replies which had been received, had been circulated to the Parish Council prior to the meeting.

The Parish Councillors all felt that both the did not address the points which had been made by the Parish Council. The Parish Council felt that the OCC replies were unprofessional, unhelpful and had poor content.

Bovis Home Development on Barford Road (14/00761/REM) – This application would be decided at officer level and not by CDC’s Planning Committee. The main areas of concern were drainage and siting of houses and parking spaces. Building work would also have to commence within one year of the application being approved. The Environment Agency was also objecting on the matter of drainage.

Cherwell District Council Local Plan – The Parish Council’s comments on the amended Local Plan had been submitted to Cherwell District Council. The Parish Council had also requested permission to address the Inspector at the Inquiry.

Village/Parish Council Matters.

Red Lion, Bloxham – It was reported that the offer made by the Red Lion Hub had been rejected and Fullers had accepted an offer from another company. However, the site was still being marketed, so the sale had not yet been completed.

Councillor Mary Groves confirmed that due to work commitments she was stepping down from the Steering Group and Councillor Robert Giles would be taking her place.

The Parish Council asked if the company who had made the offer to Fullers had contacted the Red Lion Hub to investigate whether they could work together. Councillor Groves confirmed that this did happen, but it was not pursued as it appeared the company wanted to develop the garden area.

The Chairman reported that he received an email from the owner of Bloxham Pharmacy with a proposal to work with the Red Lion Hub, which involved moving the pharmacy onto the Red Lion site but also incorporating some of the Red Lion Hub ideas. However, this was not promptly followed up by the Steering Group and the Chairman had apologised to the owner of the pharmacy on behalf of the Parish Council for this. It was felt that this opportunity may now have been missed.

The Parish Council emphasised that CDC should not approve the change of use from business to residential use and anticipated that this would be the case.

Further details could be found at http://www.redlionhub.org.uk/

Jubilee Park Management Committee – The next meeting of the Committee was being held on Tuesday 28 October 2014 at 7.30pm at Jubilee Hall, Bloxham.

Following the last meeting of the Committee, members of the new Committee had been working hard on a number of tasks, including ensuring that the hire agreement was up to date, ensuring compliance with all legislation especially health and safety issues at the Hall opening new bank accounts, building a web site, as well as the Project Team working on the proposal for a new building.

The Chairman highlighted that any new building would not be ready to use for at least 3-5 years therefore the Parish Council would need to spend some money fairly soon, so that the Hall was in a decent state to be let out in the interim.

The Slade – Prior to the meeting, Councillor Stephen Phipps had circulated an update on The Slade.

Councilor Phipps reported that OCC had agreed to pay for the removal of the trees from both culverts, clear the stream of fallen branches, for the Headwalls of the culverts to be repaired and the boundary fence to be repaired.

Their own contractors had quoted for the culvert work however this was an unacceptable price which they rejected and asked if the Parish Council knew of any local contractors who would be willing to quote.

Contact details for Terry Eden and Martin Corbett had been passed on, having confirmed with them that they could do the work. Both had worked for the Parish before.

Marie Jones had confirmed that the trees above the culverts had already been removed by OCC. Marie was working on notices for The Slade for when it was transferred and she would also arrange for a new notice board to be installed.

Recording of Meetings – The Clerk had obtained further advice on this matter from the Oxfordshire Association of Local Councils (OALC) and they had stated that the legislation and guidance only permitted a refusal to allow filming of a meeting where the filming would cause a disturbance to the meeting. Any person wishing to film a meeting, had a legal right to do so.

Footpath, Rear of Milton Road – A resident attended the meeting and with regard to the proposal by Taylor Wimpey to build 30 houses on Milton Road, he asked whether the footpath which ran behind the Council houses on Milton Road was still a public footpath, as it was an ancient right of way. It had been removed from the footpaths register many years ago, possibly before the 1930’s, and the Parish Council was unsure whether it could be included again. The Parish Council agreed to look into this matter.

Bloxham Youth Club – Bloxham Youth Club had re-opened on Tuesday 9 September 2014 from 7pm to 8.30pm at Jubilee Hall, however, more volunteers were still needed to help run it. If you anyone was interested in helping, please email bloxhampc@aol.com for more details.

Defibrillators in Bloxham – This item was deferred to the next meeting of the Parish Council as no response had been received from the ambulance service.

Parking and Speeding Issues in Bloxham – Prior to the meeting, the minutes of a meeting held on 1 October 2014 between the Chairman and Councillor Jenny Yates and Thames Valley Police had been circulated to the Parish Council.

The meeting had been very useful and there were a number of actions which would be followed up by Thames Valley Police, including the monitoring of parking, especially around the school as well as speeding on vehicle coming in and leaving the village and better monitoring of Jubilee Park.

Remembrance Sunday – Remembrance Sunday would be on Sunday 9 November 2014 and there would be the usual road closures through the village from approximately 10am to 1pm.

Bloxham Post Office and Co-op – The Chairman had received a letter from a member of the public about the rivalry between the two shops, asking for the Parish Council to intervene in the matter. The Parish Council had already spoken to the owner of the Post Office and offered some advice.

Bloxham Christmas Tree Festival – The Parish Council agreed to sponsor and decorate a Christmas tree to raise funds for St Mary’s Church.

Drop-in and Chat Sessions – These sessions were being held on the second Saturday of each month, from 1030am-1130am at the Ex-Serviceman’s Hall. Please come along and meet your Parish Councillors!

Annual Parish Meeting (APM) – Due to the General Election being held on 7 May 2015, the APM would now be held on Thursday 23 April 2015.

Meeting Dates

Future meeting dates for Bloxham Parish Council were as stated below. They would all commence at 7.30pm in the Parish Rooms, Bloxham, unless stated otherwise. However, please check the agenda on the Parish Council notice boards and web site during the week prior to the meeting.