Second DRAFT

LONGPARISH PARISH COUNCIL

Minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting held in the Village Hall, Longparish, on 8^th April 2002 at 19.30

Those present:

J Barber (Chairman), M Barber, S Bevan, A Bremridge, MJ Darrah, R Dawnay, C Dryden, J Ellicock, G Goodliffe, D Gould, F Gould, M Hull, A Hulme, P Jarrett (Clerk), Cllr. J Neal, S Rowlands, D Snow, R Streetfield, T Sweet, J West, R West, H Yelf.

The Chairman opened the meeting at 19.35 and welcomed members of the public and councillors. He then asked that a one-minute silence be observed in memory of Winnie Smart whose funeral was to take place the following day, 9^th April.

1. Apologies

Apologies were received from Jonathan and Alice Evans, Martin Coppen, Ian Bush, Ricky Bourne

2. Minutes of Annual Parish Meeting of 12^th March 2001

The Minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting of 12^th March 2001 were issued and received by those present.

3. Matters Arising

There were no matters arising from the last minutes.

4. Chairman’s Report

The Chairman’s introduced each member of the Parish Council, and then gave his report. This had been a very busy year. He thanked everyone who had turned out to support the work of the council to maintain and improve our village.

The Council appointed a new Clerk, Paul Jarrett at the start of the year. He had settled in well and was proving a great asset to the council.

There were some changes in the membership of the council. Jo Clear joined at the start of the year to replace Nick Reeve. Two councillors were retiring. Rupert Dawnay who was chairman for four years and led the council through some difficult times, including four changes of clerk and and John Woodcock who brought generations of knowledge and experience of the village to council meetings.

The Council had adopted the Government's new code of conduct on Ethical Standards.

The Open Spaces committee, chaired by Jenny Jolliffe, had done a lot. There were two clean up days and a terrific amount of work was done on the cemetery, the village hall car park and the stream. He thanked the young people who looked after the Ashburn Rest, co-ordinated the restoration of the grindstone and cleaned benches as part of their community service for the Duke of Edinburgh's Award. The grindstone was being restored at no cost to the village because of the generosity of an anonymous benefactor.

The cemetery, thanks to Clive Kent and the playground, thanks to Ned Christian were looking very good. Thanks were also due to David Gould for administering the cemetery as Clerk to the Burial Board and to Fiona Gould who was compiling a complete list of who is where and the inscriptions on the memorials and to Gloria and Nigel Goodliffe for installing the millennium bench and Kath Hewlett for coming up with the idea.

The allotments were all let and two new kissing gates have been installed on the footpath by the allotments. They are much easier to use than stiles.

The playground had been well used but during the year the Council had become increasingly conscious that there was not very much to do for older children. The Council had decided to help by providing a skate facility. It would probably be a half pipe like the one at East Woodhay but nothing was finally decided yet.

Roads and bridges were a perennial problem and the last year had been particularly bad because of flooding.

The council paid for a copy of Hill and Valley to be delivered free to each household and there was a huge amount of information about the village on our website at www.longparish.org.uk. A show of hands indicated that most of those at the meeting used the site. The chairman thanked David and Fiona Gould for the work they had put into making it so good.

There would soon to be significant changes to the bus arrangements. Timetables were being worked out and details would be published later.

The Council was subsidising a party for the Queen's Golden Jubilee to be held on the cricket ground on Sunday 2^nd June.

Gloria Goodliffe chaired the planning committee. This year that work had been very time consuming. As well as the normal run of planning applications there were two controversial matters. One, concerning land at Gladstone Terrace, had been resolved following an appeal. The other was the proposal for a shooting ground at Owl's Lodge Farm. This had been hugely complicated because of the technical nature of the reports, judicial review proceedings, the vast amount of correspondence and the way the matter was handled by the Test Valley Planning Department. The Chairman thanked everyone who contributed to the various meetings.

These controversial planning applications had made the Council keen to understand more about the planning process. Bob Gregory, Test Valley planning officer and Mrs Maddie Winter the new Test Valley Head of Planning had kindly given two training sessions. This helped councillors to understand better how the Council can influence planning decisions which will affect the village.

The Council had, for some time, been working on a Village Design Statement and Mrs Darrah had kindly agreed to take this to the next stage. But in the course of this work, and particularly after the Mrs Winter's presentation it had become apparent that we needed a Village Plan. The Village Design Statement would be part of it but we needed to consider wider issues such as housing. services. community buildings, land use and design, transport and countryside access. So the Council would be working in the year to come, with professional help, on a Village Plan. The fundamental question was what we wanted our village to be like in the future. If we did nothing then the population would gradually get older.. Our school, shop and pubs would come under threat as the population dropped.

The idea of a village plan tied in with the main theme of for discussion later, the Longparish Community Project. Many people had contributed but he singled out Stuart Bevan for thanks. He had chaired the steering group and was shortly to retire after 14 years as chair of the village hall committee.

Finally he thanked all the councillors for their hard work during the year and for the support they had all given him. At the close of the Chairman’s report, Cllr. Neal offered a vote of thanks to Mr Barber, and to the members of the Parish Council, for all their hard work over the past year.

5. Accounts 2000-2001

Copies of the accounts were distributed, and the Chairman, as Responsible Finance Officer for 2000/2001, explained the figures.

6. School Report

Mrs Darrah reported that the school had been classed by OFSTED as a ‘Highly Effective School’. Numbers were slightly down for demographic reasons, but were expected to return to normal next year..The staffing was stable. Toilets in the main building had been refurbished, but the temporary classrooms were worse than it was believed last year. It was hoped that replacement buildings would be provided shortly.

7. Village Hall Report

Mrs Goodliffe reported that finances were satisfactory, and a good range of entertainments had realised a profit of £400. Bookings were up, but this may have resulted from Hurstbourne Tarrant’s hall currently being out of order. New fixtures and fittings had been purchased, including Gopack tables; chairs; a cooker, china; and a Notice Board. Minor repairs had been carried out to heaters and security lights. The fire systems were satisfactory, but the curtains required fire retardant treatment. A reliable and competent cleaner had been appointed.

8. Parishioners Comments

Mr Bevan enquired on the situation regarding the Long Bridge at the Cleaves. He hoped that it wouldn’t be closed for too long. He said that the reported storey of vandalism had been somewhat exaggerated; the hand-rail has been loose for a considerable time. Mr Barber replied that Hampshire County Council had declared the bridge dangerous, and will remove the existing spans prior to the start of the fishing season. The bridge will then be replaced in the autumn by a new wooden structure.

9. Reports and discussion on the Longparish Community Project.

The Chairman said that the project was founded to address four main issues

1. The village hall is almost a century old and at least a hundred thousand pounds would be needed to repair and refurbish it. Even then we would be left with a fundamentally old fashioned building, badly sited on a dangerous corner.

2. The two temporary classrooms at the village school are on their last legs. The school is badly in need of a hall and vehicle access needs to be improved.

3. The Playgroup has to meet in a cramped, ageing Portacabin.

4. The church does not have toilets or facilities for meetings

Since the Project won village support at the exhibition in March 2001, the Project committee, which met monthly, had faced some problems that have slowed progress. These include the trusts and legal problems associated with selling the current village hall, and restrictions on grants which make funding a project designed to benefit the whole community, including the school and church, surprisingly difficult. Mr Barber asked a speaker from each of the main interest groups to explain the present position.

The School

The circumstances of the school have changed, as governor, Tim Sweet, told the meeting. The Community Project as originally planned would have solved two major problems for the school: new classrooms added to the school would have replaced the over-30 year old temporary classrooms, and use of the Community Hall would have supplemented the existing inadequate school hall, which has to be used as a classroom and does not meet current educational requirements. When the Community Project began, the governors were advised that they were unlikely to get much government funding as the temporary classrooms were thought to be in reasonable condition. An inspection last year showed that the classrooms were in a poor state and since Christmas they had been evacuated 5 times in high winds. The governors were relieved to be told that this meant that a bid for a government grant would be supported by the Diocese and Hampshire Education Authority. In March 2002, the Diocesan advisers went further and said that the school had a good chance of receiving funding for a new school hall as well as the classrooms, if a combined application was made.

This created a dilemma for the governors, many of whom are closely involved in the Community Project, as a new school hall would substantially reduce school use of a Community Hall. It was, however, so clearly in the interests of the school to have its own hall that they had agreed to commission the architect to go ahead with preparing plans and will apply for funding in the autumn.

The Playgroup

Sarah Rowlands, speaking for the playgroup, explained that it is flourishing in terms of numbers and has been highly praised by Ofsted but it might have to close if it is not re-housed in 2003. It was therefore working closely with the school and going ahead with applications for grants and had also commissioned the architect.

The Church

The church also has an interest in the Project and churchwarden, John Young, said that he hoped that the church’s need for toilets and a meeting room might be accommodated in the school or playgroup buildings.

The Village Hall

Stuart Bevan , as Chairman of the Village Hall Committee and of the Community Project team, then explained the many problems associated with the village hall, which was built in 1910 on church land and run by the Parochial Church Council until 1964, when it was leased to the Parish Council. The hall would have to close in 2004 unless new facilities for the disabled were built at a cost of about £20,000. To modernise it would cost nearer £130,000, and still it would be badly sited. The meeting agreed that it would not make sense to build a new Community Hall next to the school as planned, if the school builds its own hall. Mr Bevan said that he had spent 14 years as Chairman of the Village Hall Committee trying to keep the hall open and welcoming, but it had been an uphill struggle, and he wondered whether the village was really prepared to support a hall. He had hoped to see the Project through to a successful conclusion within the next couple of years, but he now felt that the timescale would be longer, at least for the village hall, and that younger people should address the issues raised by the news about the School. So he would be retiring as chair of the village hall at the AGM on 22nd April.

Fundraising

Fiona Gould spoke for the fundraising group who would continue in being and wait to see whether the school bid is successful. If it is not, there will still be a case for the original scheme. She suggested that an alternative focus for the Community Project might be more sports facilities and better transport. The village should be consulted.

Possible Village Plan

Jeremy Barber, Chairman of the Parish Council, said that assessing village needs will fit in well with the Parish Council’s belief that the village needs a Village Plan. This might involve encouraging some new homes in the village, including “affordable” housing. Development could bring funding for new facilities. Those at the meeting indicated that they would not oppose this sort of change, although someone said, “it depends whose backyard it is in”.

The feeling of the meeting was that the options should be kept open until the outcome of the school bid and the effect on village amenities was known. In the meantime it was important to keep the village hall going and the Parish Council should start work on a Village Plan.

There being no further business the meeting closed at 22.30