Minutes of Annual Parish Meeting April12th 2012

ORLINGBURY PARISH COUNCIL

Minutes of Annual Parish Meeting
Held in Orlingbury Village Hall
Thursday 12th April 2012


PRESENT
P Allen (Chairman), B.Rootham (Deputy) Cllrs Bailey (County Council), A Campbell, P Meadow-Jones, N Reynolds, C Turnell Mrs A.McLaven (Clerk), and 3 Members of the public, John Cook, Charlotte Cook and Evelyn Jarrett

APOLOGIES
G.Timms (Borough), Nigel Cole, Sylvia Rootham and Steve Miles sent their apologies, which were accepted.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF 14th April 2011
These were approved as a true and correct record

DISPLAY
A visual display of the following documents was provided to demonstrate the works of the Parish Council, its development programme and progress overall:

a) The Parish Council Development Plan: its purpose and priorities

b) The Centre of Village Sign showing location

c) The Information Lectern; showing design location and contents

d) An annotated photograph of the Rectory Lane Corner showing scheduled works for this year

e) A progress chart on the 2088-12 development plan

f) Photographs of key areas in the village showing standard of neglect and disrepair prior to developments being achieved

CATERING
The Guides under the direction of Jane Smith provided refreshments for people attending the meeting, Councillor Allen thanked them for their good work.

REPORT ON THE PARISH COUNCIL BY COUNCILLOR ALLEN
Elections last May secured three new councillors and two further councillor co-options have achieved full strength in membership. A requested review by the Wellingborough Authority this year could enable growth by a further two councillors. This will assure coverage of responsibilities in an ambitious new Development Plan and the early achievement of key objectives. We continue to meet monthly though members of the public whilst eligible to attend, have rarely, joined us this year. We regularly, see the Wellingborough Borough Councillor representing the Northern ward, he is on hand to comment and sometimes feed-back our concerns to the Borough Council. Minutes are regularly, available on the village blog, which is maintained by Rod Derry and on the village website run by Andy Gosling. Copies of draft minutes are placed in the village notice board which is unlocked to enable people to take them out and read them. The Parish Council Newsletter combined with a Welcome section for new villagers is published on a thrice yearly basis and run by Councillors Campbell and Meadows-Jones.

New Councillors all attended an introductory meeting where roles and responsibilities were discussed. A new set of standing orders has been adopted. We trust that villagers interested in the works of the Council will attend monthly meetings as observers and will seriously consider putting up for election if, following review of membership, an expansion in numbers is confirmed by the Wellingborough Authority.

Part of the function of the Parish Council is to study planning applications and to uphold current regulations. This year the Council also contributed to the review of Borough Planning Regulations. Our view that any expansion of the village should continue to take place within the existing planning envelope was endorsed by the Wellingborough Authority.

Our second, 4 year Development Plan has just been approved. It builds on the previous Orlingbury PC Development Plan. It briefly, consists of 3 priorities, which are:

Procedures and responsibilities

- Improvement of consultation and decision making

- Assuring relationships with key organisations

Roads and pathways

- Road safety

- Improvement of Roads and Pathways.

- Maintenance, lighting of pavements and pathways

Development funding

- Completion of gateways to village

- Completion of Section 106 village agenda by designing and erecting a village sign and lectern.

Each Priority area has target dates by which elements are to be achieved and each Councillor is responsible for part of the plan.

We regularly report on progress in these areas at Parish Council Meetings. It will be clear to villagers that elements relating to development funding have taken longer than expected to achieve. However, we are pleased to observe that the village gateways have been erected and those who remember the old village signs will be only too aware of improvements. Changes include speed restrictions being extended on the Harrowden and Pytchley Roads and the additional installations of speed-check posts to enable the use of our Speed Indicator signs on each road. Sadly, the village Speed Watch initiative involving trained villager volunteers has been ended by the Police though; we are informed that Police cameras continue to visit the village. Villagers involved in that initiative are invited to be part of the team created to erect maintain and position the electronic speed warning sign shared with Isham Parish.

Progress in the last year stalled on the erection of the centre of village sign and information sign. We hope that both will be in place by December.

An audit to be conducted this year on roads and footpaths will, reveal a substantial improvement in the up-keep of boundary hedges in the village. This is not only a matter of neatness and civic pride but more especially, a matter of public safety as ill- kempt or overgrown hedges restrict the view of motorists and prevent pedestrians from walking safely in the village.

An increasing hazard is the parking of cars across pavements. Whilst it is accepted that roads are narrow in places, motorists should always leave sufficient space on footpaths for pedestrians and wheel chairs to pass safely and for access to key facilities e.g. post-boxes and entrances.

During the last four years, as has been stated in previous reports, improvements have been made to village roads and footpaths. The verge at Rectory Lane on the Old Rectory side is still a problem area and there are several hazardous pinch-points on footpaths (particularly on the Harrowden Road), these require the attention of the Highways Authority.

I can report that the final instalment of section 106 money has been awarded by the Norlinton Close Developers and the Wellingborough Council.

It is important to underline the areas of work that Councillors continue to play a key role in:

• Representing our community

• Striving to improve quality of life in the Parish

We again invite all those interested in the work of the Parish Council to attend meetings as observers to take part in sub-committee work.



REPORT FROM THE COUNTY COUNCIL FROM COUNCILLOR BAILEY

The County has decided not to increase the Council Tax this year, although they are still under financial pressure, but it is not so dramatic this year. Councillor Bailey is vice chair of the Council this year and from May should become Chair, after 42 years of service. At the end of 2013 there will be County Council elections and it has been decided to reduce the number of councillors from 70 down to 50. Councillor Bailey represents 10 Parishes and this will increase to 14 Parishes once the new areas come into effect. Many Councillors will then find themselves representing areas they don’t know.

The Parish Forum last night discussed the Localism bill and it was very difficult to comprehend, as it is not sure what effect it will have on Parish level decision making. There is a facility for the Parishes to identify community assets and if they are put up for sale for example the council can use measures to make sure it is not lost as a community asset. Community groups may want to take over assets and it needs to be monitored.

Councillor Allen felt that Parishes should work closely with the Principle Authority as costs of both financial and human energy would be too much for a small Parish Council

REPORT ON THE BOROUGH COUNCIL FROM COUNCILLOR TIMMS

Councillor Timms was not in attendance, and had not provided a report.

There was discussion of Wellingborough Borough Councils reduction of services and that environmental services have been taken over by a company called Norse, and any profits will be shared with WBC. The workers still work from the same depot and it is anticipated that running costs will be less.

REPORT ON NEIGBOURHOOD WATCH- CHARLOTTE COOK

The Neighbourhood Watch scheme is continuing to operate well in Orlingbury. It is good to see the NHW signs and Smart Water signs up in places around the village. The last year has not passed without incident. There were 5 incidents between April and October. Just because they may be few in number does not mean they are less traumatic to the people concerned so we must not be complacent.

I would like to thank Judy Norton who kindly provided me with the local farmers names, addresses, telephone numbers and email addresses. These were then passed on to NHW and the Police so that a Farm Watch could be reinstated. There have been a lot of thefts from farms so we must be vigilant and if we see something strange going on, especially after dark, we should phone the Police who will check it out. It does not matter if it is a false alarm but if it saves machinery costing thousands of pounds from theft, it will be worth it.

All areas in the village have a “street” coordinator and anyone can contact those coordinators if they are concerned about something going on in the village, or in an emergency, phone directly to the Police.

POLICE = 999 or 101

NHW = 01604 432 436.

REPORT FROM ORLINGBURY AND ISHAM SHORT MAT BOWLS CLUB BY EVELYN JARRET

The above club now has a membership of 19 players, some have been with us since the opening of the Orlingbury Village Hall or before, but over the last year 3 new members have joined us and are enjoying the challenge of ‘beating the bias’ of the bowls and the length of the mats. We meet on Monday and Friday evenings 7.30pm – 9.30pm with a short break for tea/coffee and biscuits and also on a Tuesday afternoon from 2pm – 4pm (no break).

Should anyone like to come along and try their hand please just turn up to have a go. We have a selection of bowls in our cupboard (flat soled shoes or slippers should be worn)

This year we have a new Chairman – Alistair Jarrett, new Treasurer – Sue Marsh, new Secretary – Evelyn Jarrett (01536 516108) and a new Match Secretary – John Wilson to arrange friendly games with other clubs.

The club annual subscription is £5 and £1.50 per evening and afternoon. There is no obligation to come along 3 times a week and there will always be someone available to give you advice.

The club will have a ‘target bowls’ stall at the Orlingbury Fayre on Saturday, 16th June.

We have 3 mats and spare bowls and members from Isham, Orlingbury, Burton Latimer, Wellingborough, Kettering and Northampton – so come along and try your hand; we are a mixed bunch of all ages.

REPORT FROM THE VILLAGE HALL BY BARRY ROOTHAM

The village hall is used virtually every night of the week, and has a full booking diary for the next 12 months. The committee is looking into electrical safety and organisations using the hall may need to have items they bring in to the hall to be used PAT tested.

REPORTS WERE RECEIVED FROM THE FOLLOWING ORGANISATIONS

The Joseph Manning Trust, Over Sixties, Brownies & Guides, PCC, Village Fete Committee, Church Warden, Young Church, Green Team

The reports are available from the clerk. Copies of all reports are kept on file.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS

There was discussion on how much the council has progressed, with the gateways and getting hedgerows cut back. It is anticipated that the centre of village sign and information board will be completed by the end of this the Queens Diamond Jubilee Year.

Councillor Reynolds is preparing a short questionnaire to profile the village and establish what everyone feels is needed, such as footpath maintenance and a Youth Club.

It was agreed to write to the Police and say that we are disappointed they did not contact us to say they could not attend, and encourage them to attend in future.

There being no further business the meeting closed at 8.40pm with thanks to all attending.