This report is about two meetings. The Village Hall committee room was packed for the October Parish Council meeting. Our discussions were accompanied by the music from Keep Fit in the main hall. It is great to see the hall fully used like this. In November we had to move to the school hall because so many members of the public attended. Thanks very much to everyone who contributed to the debates. Here are some of the main points discussed. If you'd like to know more, the council minutes are published on our village website www.longparish.org.uk .
Planning
The council objected to applications to
• relax the conditions for commercial use of the Turbine Barn at Forton to allow weekend working on various grounds including loss of amenity for local residents, security and road safety;
• allow retrospectively a metal chimney at 4 The Withies ;
• allow permanent permission for sporting clay pigeon shooting at Owls Lodge . This is a separate matter from the Olympic shoot which already has permanent permission. The sporting discipline has had temporary permission for many years during which it has been very little used. Tests have shown that greater use would result in a significant loss of amenity for some villagers because of noise.
• The Council had no objection to a wall and internal alterations at Honey Cottages , a satellite dish at Church Farm House, tree works at Foxponds and an extension at 1 Gladstone Terrace
• The Council supported an application by the School Governors to build 2 classrooms to replace the temporaries, a new playgroup and a school hall . This is an exciting project which will assure the future of our village school for many years to come also provide opportunities for wider community use. The council had reservations about the parking and asked the applicants and the TVBC to explore this aspect in order to minimise the impact on the school field whilst ensuring the safety of the children.
There had been a very constructive response from TVBC to representations about the draft local plan .
Estimates were approved for the production of the Village Design Statement . There will be a copy for every household when it is printed.
The dog warden gave an interesting and informative talk. He urged people to pick up after their dogs and confirmed that there is no objection to dog mess in plastic bags being put into green public wheelie bins. The Open Spaces Committee will consider how best to act upon his advice.
Following the summer's dry weather the water table is now at average levels. The Environment Agency has advised that the risk of flooding next year is around one in 30. Nonetheless the Council and the School Governors are pressing them, Southern Water and Highways to plan how to prevent floods should there be severe rain this winter and the various agencies have responded constructively.
Work is progressing well. See separate reports. Over 70 people have signed up as interested in broadband . If you are interested but have not signed up yet please look at the village website and use the form there.
The Clean Up day will be on 22 November (see separate article). In addition volunteers will be putting in a kissing gate at the south end of the Broadney on 13 December. If you can help please contact Jane Rowland.
The Council decided to continue its support for Hill and Valley to enable a copy to go free to every household in the parish. New notice boards have been put up in the bus shelters for public use. The church and the playgroup are developing their own areas for the village website using ‘Contribute' software. If your organisation would like to do the same please contact the webmaster. The Andover Advertiser will be featuring Longparish in their ‘Village View' at the end of November.
The next meeting is at 7.30pm on Monday 8 December in the Village Hall committee room. Our meetings are public and all parishioners are welcome to come and can speak. The agenda will be on the notice boards at the shop and in Forton a few days before the meeting.
Jeremy Barber Chairman
Tel 720459 email jeremy.barber@longparish.org.uk
The Village Plan group has recommended that we should have a reception where people new to the village can meet the movers and shakers who lead village activities. St Mary Bourne has been doing this with great success in for some years. The Parish Council will fund drinks and nibbles and the Church will help to organise it.
This is advance notice that the reception will be in the evening on Thursday 29 January in the Village Hall. So please put the date in your diary if you came to live here in the last couple of years or so or you are a mover or shaker. There will be more in the next Hill and Valley. In the mean time please reserve the date.