NEWTOWN PARISH COUNCIL
Hampshire
Minutes of a meeting of Newtown Parish Council held on
Thursday 29th September 2022 at 7pm, Newtown Village Hall
Present: Chairman: Tony Webb
Councillors: Tom Reseigh, Bob Ward
In attendance: Clerk: Rebecca Cloke
Rob Stewart – Head Teacher, Horris Hill
Cllr Tom Thacker
30. Apologies
Apologies were received from Cllr Exelby, Cllr Curry and PCSO Joshua Revett.
31. Declarations of Interest
None
OPEN FORUM – none
32. Approval and signing of the minutes of the meeting held on 7th July 2022.
The minutes were approved by the Council and signed by the Chair. Nominated by Cllr Ward and seconded by Cllr Reseigh.
33. Update from Horris Hill Head Teacher.
The parish council welcomed Mr R Stewart, Head Teacher at Horris Hill. Mr Stewart introduced himself and gave the parish council an update on the developments taking place at the school following the acquisition by the Forfar Education Group.
Cllr Webb raised a concern, from local residents, that the school intended to put road barriers on the access road to the school. Mr Stewart stated that he was not aware of any imminent plans for this but would raise the concern with Governors at a meeting the following week. Cllr Ward also expressed a concern about continued access via the Penwood road but stated that generally residents were happy with the clearance work and signage that had been implemented so far.
Mr Stewart explained that the school was very keen to establish links with the local community and hoped to able to invite the local community to the Bonfire night event in November. Mr Stewart asked the parish council to get in touch if they had any further concerns to raise.
34. Report for “News from the Villages”
Cllr Webb briefed the councillors on his submission for the November “News from the Villages” to include updates on the Common winter work plan and work at the Village Hall.
35. Report from the Borough and/or County Councillor
Cllr Thacker briefed the council on his intention to produce a schedule of attendance for Parish Council meetings so as to try to attend four per year. He stated he would circulate update reports prior to each meeting.
Cllr Reseigh raised the issue of the being unable to deploy the SLR machine on the B4640 despite the previous SLR being deployed by Basingstoke and Deane in those locations under the same licence agreement. Cllr Thacker agreed to assist the parish council with this matter. Cllr Reseigh to forward the correspondence.
36. Report from the PCSO – written
PCSO Joshua Revett had provided the Parish Council with a written reports as he was unable to attend following the meeting postponement. The report included incidents in the vicinity, that had been reported in the previous 50 days and details of how to setup a Speedwatch scheme.
The clerk briefed the parish council on PCSO’s response to the report of motorbikes on the common by a local resident. The PCSO suggested that if local residents can record the vehicle registration they would carry out checks to see where they live and give words of advice. Furthermore, if it continued, he could issue a section 59 warning whereby the motorised vehicle driving in an anti-social manner could be seized.
Cllr Reseigh suggested further signage should be put up in “out of reach” locations to remind that cycling and motorbikes were prohibited. Cllr Reseigh to liaise with the clerk to order further signage.
37. Highways and Traffic issues
a) Cllr Resigh stated there was no SLR deployment data due to a delay in receiving the software from the supplier, however this has now been received and data would be available for the following meeting in November.
b) SLR deployment – Cllr Reseigh briefed the council that the SLR had been vandalised and the lock had been broken. Clerk to contact PCSO to enquire about the use of surveillance in areas such as this. Clerk to consider insurance claim if locksmith costs sufficient to warrant claim.
As per item 35, the Parish Council would pursue being able to deploy the machine on the B4640 with Cllr Thacker’s support.
38.
16/02230/FUL
Hill Farm Erection of 8 no. dwellings with associated access, landscaping and parking No further update from B&D regarding this application and it is now listed as “Withdrawn Returned” on the B&D planning site
22/01711/LDPO
Model Cottage Removal of front elevation window, replacement with door and erection of a new porch
PC – no comment
Granted
22/01781/LBC
The Swan Inn Replacement of weathered and worn roof tiles PC – no comment
Awaiting decision
22/02030/FUL
The Old Post Office New detatched 2-bedroom dwelling and associated works
PC – no further comment
Granted
22/02506/FUL
Newtown Court Farm Erection of 3 no. new dwellings with associated access and landscaping
PC – no further comment
39. Newtown Common
a) Cllr Curry absent
b) Bylaw signage – The clerk briefed the councillors that she had been attempting to liaise with HCC on updating the bylaw signage at Jonathon Hill car park and get new signage for the village hall car park with minimal success. Cllr Reseigh suggested resending the email and copying in Cllr Thacker for support. Clerk to resend email.
40. Lengthsman
Cllr Curry absent
41. Jubilee trail
Cllr Ward and Reseigh to establish a route and bring the proposal to the following meeting to discuss. Cllr Ward suggested the trail could now be referred to as The Elizabeth trail.
42. Village Hall – funding request
a) Cllr Reseigh (Chair of Village Hall committee) had circulated a briefing document regarding the disabled access project at the Village Hall. Cllr Reseigh requested that the Parish Council donated a further £300 towards the works (£1,100 previously donated). This was proposed by Cllr Webb and seconded by Cllr Ward.
b) Bins and signage – further to previous discussion, it was agreed that the parish council would seek involvement from Cllr Thacker to seek resolution to the queries regarding sourcing bins and signage.
c) Cllr Reseigh had circulated a document including photographs of the construction of the village car park using locally sourced hoggin in keeping with the surrounding areas.
43. Finance reports
a) To receive the report on the budget for 2022/23
The clerk summarised the main variances to budget, year to date, in the income and expenditure and summarised the reserves held. The Chair checked the bank balances to bank statements. Received and approved.
b) SAAA central procurement opt-out
The clerk briefed the councillors that under the Local Audit (Smaller Authorities) Regulations 2015, the SAAA is responsible for appointing external auditors to all applicable opted-in smaller authorities, for setting the terms of appointment for limited assurance reviews and for managing the contracts with the appointed audit firms. (Smaller authorities are those whose gross annual income or expenditure is less than £6.5 million). She stated that the next 5-year appointing period runs from 2022-23 until 2026-27 and that the SAAA has undertaken a procurement exercise to appoint auditors to each County area from 1 April 2022. All authorities require an appointed external auditor even if the authority meets the criteria to qualify for exemption, as a Certificate of Exemption is required to be submitted to the external auditor and the auditor must be in place in case of objections from local electors. If the parish council was to “opt-out” there would be a need to follow various complex procedures required under statute to appoint our own external auditor. It was proposed that Newtown Parish Council would not opt out. Proposed by Cllr Webb and seconded by Cllr Ward.
44. Approval of payments
To ratify the following payments:
Date Ref Payment Method Payee Description Gross
15/Jul B035 BACS Heathland Management Services Bracken Spraying 1,020.00
18/Jul B036 BACS N & T Green Gym Common clearing 170.00
1/Aug B037 BACS Vision ICT Email hosting 21.60
3/Aug B038 BACS ICO Data Protection Fee 35.00
11/Aug B039 BACS Newtown VH c/o Good Exchange Disabled Access donation 1,100.00
To approve the following payments:
29/Sep B040 BACS Rebecca Cloke Expenses – mileage and postage 40.57
30/Sep B041 BACS Rebecca Cloke Clerk salary – Jul-Sep 616.18
30/Sep B042 BACS HMRC Clerk PAYE – Jul – Sep 154.00
45. Correspondence
The Clerk stated that she had received correspondence from Cameron Blackshaw, the new Hampshire Newbury Weekly News reporter. She had passed his details onto the Village Hall committee chair.
The Clerk stated she had received correspondence (via Cllr Reseigh) regarding the motorbikes on the common – see item 36.
The Clerk stated she had received correspondence regarding anti-social bonfires by a local resident. It was agreed that Cllr Ward would visit the resident concerned and speak to the individual.
46. Date of next meetings
Dates for the next meetings were set for:
Monday 28th November,
Monday 23rd January,
Monday 27th March
The meeting closed at 8:21pm
Signed ……………………………. Date……………….