Minutes of Parish Annual Meeting May 2008

Minutes of the meeting of the Steeple Aston Parish Annual Meeting held on Monday 19 May 2008 at 7.30pm in the Village Hall Committee Room.

PresentMr Preston – Vice Chairman, Mr Hotson, Mr Ferguson, Mr Coley, Mrs Lee (Clerk) and one member of the public – Mrs Whybrew.

  1. Apologies: were accepted from Mrs Mason, Mrs McKinley & District Cllr Macnamara
  2. Minutes of the last meeting: The minutes of the last Parish Meeting held on Monday 21 May 2007 were read and signed as a true record proposed by Mr Hotston with unanimous agreement.
  3. Chairman’s report – Mr Preston presented the Chairman’s report on behalf of Mrs Mason.
  4. Public Participation: None.

The meeting closed at 7.34 pm.

Chairman’s report

Looking back on my report last year it is very evident that 2007/8 has been a real success story.

The Teenage Facilities, then in a mid-stage limbo because of the failure of the Big Lottery bid, are magnificently completed, within the year, and appear to be a big success with the young people who have supported it so well. Here I would like to thank Richard particularly who has put a tremendous amount of work and remarkable fund-raising talent into seeing the project through. It has been a complete transformation of the whole site and I think we have gained a lot of attractive and usable space and facilities for everyone.

This year Steeple Aston won the Oxfordshire Calor Village of the Year competition. We won rather to the surprise of those who did the presentation event but mainly due to the Teenage Facilities project and the young people who backed it, and the success of the then new village web site, which continues to go from strength to strength. We are tremendously lucky in having such vibrant, informative and comprehensive village coverage through SA Online and SAL.

The Village of the Year win catapulted us into the next round and also brought the press to S.A.. The village has buzzed with media on several occasions since. The next round of the competition involved many villagers in what was a remarkable 2 hour presentation event for the judges, finishing in an excellent lunch at the Village Hall with most of the organisations and clubs in the village taking part and proving to the judges what a truly special village S.A. is. It was very impressive seeing the spirit of the community at work and the real pride in the village on show from all quarters. Many thanks go to everyone who took part in this and gave their time so willingly. If we don’t do well this time it will not be for lack of effort and the generous providing of vintage car transport by Malcolm and Mark Elder was certainly the icing on the cake for the judges!

The next big project is the Parish Plan. This will be backed by the PC, but not run by us, and thanks to Julia Whybrew who has volunteered to lead the process. This is at the very beginning, with an open meeting having just been held, so it will be interesting to see progress on this during the next year.

Progress is also being made on identifying a second Affordable Housing site, following the high response to the ORCC questionnaire sent round recently. I hope a suitable site will be found and that SA will be able to increase the number of houses at reasonable prices for local people.

The usual business of the PC has continued, overseen by our excellent clerk, Sue. We have new maintenance contractors who seem to be working out well, Risk Assessments, Code of Conduct and Child Protection policies have been reviewed and updated.

Planning still is a significant aspect of PC’s business. Meetings on the revision of the planning process have been ongoing at CDC and SA has fed into these.
Planning applications, after a bit of a lull, have increased again with several extensions to existing properties proposed. The saga of the RAF Upper Heyford site continues with an appeal pending.

The profile of village policing has been improved with the arrival of PCSOs. A spate of lead thefts has recently increased the local crime rate. R.P. has volunteered to take on the role of a ‘NAG’ which should improve still further communications with the local police force.

The AGM report is an opportunity to thank people. The various committees, Play Area, website, S&R and SAVH for the work they do for the village and most importantly, all of you, including Sue our Clerk (and the SAL reporters who willingly sit through and report on our meetings) for the support you give and the time you spend, working for the PC and the village.

Thank you all.

Margaret Mason

Minutes of Annual Parish Council Meeting May 2007

Minutes of the meeting of the Annual Meeting of the Steeple Aston Parish Council held on Monday 21 May 2007 at 7.30pm in the Village Hall Committee Room.

Present Mrs Mason, Mr Preston, Mr Hotson, Mrs Willatt, Mr Coley, Mrs McKinley, Cllr McNamara County Councillor Jelf, Mrs Lee (Clerk) and two members of the public.

Apologies:. were accepted from Mr Ferguson

Election:
Chairman: Mrs Mason was unanimously elected as Chairman and signed her declaration of acceptance
Vice Chairman: Mr Preston was unanimously elected as Vice Chairman
Responsible Financial Officer: Mrs Lee will be the Responsible Financial Officer for 2007/8
Play Area Sub Committee: It was unanimously agreed that the committee of Mr Preston and Mr Ross should be re-elected.
Website Committee – It was unanimously agreed that the Committee of Mrs McKinley, Ms Coleman, Mr Cox, Mr Brown, Mrs Whybrew, Mrs Bell, Mrs Taylor & Mrs Holmes should be elected and authority was delegated to enable the committee to co-opt members to fill the spaces left for village reps as required.

Adoption of Standing Orders and Financial Regulations- It was unanimously agreed to accept the Steeple Aston Parish Council Standing Orders & Financial Regulations as amended for May 2007.

Minutes of the 2006 Annual Meeting These were read and signed as a true record with unanimous agreement.

Matters arising: None.

Financial Report: Copies of the year end accounts had been circulated. They were unanimously approved and signed subject to the internal audit which Mrs White will do over the next few weeks. Clerk to check the item in the 2005/6 accounts with regard to footpath on the Fenway and advise Mrs Mason Action: Clerk.
It was agreed to arrange a financial meeting at the end of September to look at the Council finances and budgets Action: Clerk to organise.

Chairman’s Report: Mrs Mason presented the Chairman’s report and a copy is attached.

Any Other Business: None

The meeting closed at 7.52pm.

STEEPLE ASTON PARISH COUNCIL

CHAIRMAN’S REPORT- May 2006

Since the last AGM many things have been achieved.
Some of the landmarks in the past year are:
The proposed sale of the bund land at Lawrence Fields has at last been successfully completed.
The repair of the War Memorial, again funded by grant aid and generous donations, has also been completed.
The Adventure Play Area now has some new equipment thanks to the grant from Charter Housing.
The project for a ‘wheeled sports facility’ adjacent to the Village Hall was abandoned during the discussion stage but has been replaced by an equally ambitious project now underway for teenage facilities, BMX, MUGA and teen shelter, and here I would like to thank Clare, Dorothy and particularly Richard for the work that has gone into this project so far, and also Nicholsons’ Nurseries for their involvement.

It is also a good moment also to thank all those who have sat on the committees running the buildings, Village Hall and Sport and Recreation Centre. The SAHV and S&R building committees are no longer sub committees of the PC and the buildings now operate under formal Licences to Occupy, but I would like to record my thanks to all those who have worked with us and continue to make these facilities available for the village.

The Play Area sub- committee continues to inspect and maintain the play area, which keeps this much appreciated facility in excellent shape and I would like to record our thanks to them.

The work of the Parish Council continues to become more diverse, more bureaucratic, and more demanding of time and expertise and I want to thank both Lynne, our super-efficient clerk who is at present on leave, and also Julia, who has again nobly taken over as temporary clerk, without whom we simply could not function. She does the job superbly and I really appreciate her willingness to step into the breach.

I would also like to thank all of you for all that you do. I am constantly amazed by the commitment, patience and dogged determination to get things done shown by all of you. It is a great credit to Steeple Aston that you all are all prepared to work so hard and give so much of your time to the village. You are a great team and you all deserve much thanks.

Margaret Mason
15.5.2006

Top

Minutes of Parish Annual Meeting May 2007

Minutes of the meeting of the Steeple Aston Parish Annual Meeting held on Monday 21 May 2007 at 7.30pm in the Village Hall Committee Room.

Present Mrs Mason (Chair), Mr Hotson, Mr Preston, Mrs McKinley, Mrs Willatt, Mr Coley, Mrs Lee (Clerk) and one member of the public.

  1. Apologies: were accepted from Mr Ferguson.
  2. Minutes of the last meeting: The minutes of the last Parish Meeting held on Monday 15 May 2006 were read and signed as a true record with unanimous agreement.
  3. Public Participation: None.

The meeting closed at 7.34 pm.