Minutes of Upper Slaughter Parish...

Upper Slaughter Parish Council C/o Copperfileds, Colman, Temple Guiting. GL54 5RT Tel: 01451 850611 email:[email protected]

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Minutes of Upper Slaughter Parish Meeting

Held on Tuesday 11th April 2017 at 6.30pm in Upper Slaughter Village Hall

Councillors Present: Caroline Cleaver, (Chairman), Peter Von Holzing (Vice Chair), Freddie Keeling and Kris Lee County Councillor Nigel Moor and District Councillor Richard Keeling In attendance: Ruth Waller (Clerk) and 11 parishioners 1. Welcome and Introductions – The Chairman welcomed all to the meeting and made some brief introductions. Due to illness, the Chairman nominated the vice chair, Peter von Holzing to Chair this meeting. Cllr Von Holzing accepted this invitation and chaired the remainder of the meeting.

2. Apologies – None received

3. The following reports were then received:

a) County Councillor – Cllr Nigel Moor gave the following report: “It is four years since the last

county council elections. I am seeking re-election and in this report I want to explain the budget that

we have agreed for the forthcoming financial year.

Setting a budget for a county as diverse as Gloucestershire is a difficult balancing act. Political parties

have different priorities and different parts of the county have different needs and expectations. The

budget for adult care, public health and children and families which takes up nearly two thirds of the

total revenue budget of £497.682 million is always under pressure from rising demand but these

priorities need to be balanced in areas like the Cotswolds with the need of highways and flood

prevention. I believe that the budget whilst protecting the most vulnerable people in our

communities also provides a good basis for continuing improvements to the county`s infrastructure.

The revenue budget for communities and infrastructure is £83 million and to that should be added a

forward capital budget of over £200 million. I set out below some of the highlights:

Although the Police and Crime Commissioner has withdrawn from the Gloucestershire

Road Safety Partnership, the county council values this service and has allocated an

additional £390,00 to ensure that its valuable work continues.

Additional specialists to work alongside extra social workers to improve practice

including a focus on mental health and adoption - £500,000

Money to improve the process for traffic regulation orders to help keep our county

moving - £100,000

An additional £10,000 for every county councillor (from £20k to £30k) in the highways

local scheme - £530,000

Extra investment in highways - £9 million. This will continue our programme of

resurfacing rather than just filling pot holes.

An additional £500,000 for the lengthsman`s scheme. This scheme which provides

dedicated crews to work with town and parish councils to clear verges, clean out grips

and gulleys and clean signage for example have proved very popular and there will

now be a dedicated team for each of the six district areas in the county.


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Extra support for people with disabilities including tackling disability hate crime - £400,000

Investment to improve adults’ physical and mental health whilst reducing social isolation and loneliness including social prescribing - £600,000.

As a result of the Fastershire project, over 78,000 homes and businesses can now access speeds of over 30 Mbps. Phase 2 of the project looks to extend this further to over 35,00 additional premises across the county. Cabinet has approved further contracts to cover the rest of the county worth £12.7m.

Gloucestershire currently charges £41 per year less than the average county council, including the

adult care levy and £157 per year less than the highest charging. For an average band D household

the proposed total increase would be £45.25 per year, or £3.77 per month. The extra investment

mainly comes from additional central government grants and also an increase to the council tax

rate.”

Cllr Moor then answered some questions from parishioners relating to his report:

Q: How long will it take to pay back the loan planned for Highways maintenance and

monitoring?

A: Some of this money will come from the council’s reserves. The terms of any loan would

be open to negotiating

Q: Who would this loan be from?

A: this would be invested thoroughly and be open to negotiations.

Q: Why has some of the Planned highways work for this Parish not been completed?

A: Cllr Moor would contact Bob Skillern (Gloucestershire Highways) to discuss this further.

He promised to work with the PC to ensure completion of work by Highways dept and/or the

Lengthsmen Scheme

Q: What was the future for the Fire and Rescue Service in Gloucestershire?

A: There is a possible business case for current partnership between counties (sharing

services). Further information will be made available as consultations continue.

b) District Councillor - Cllr Richard Keeling then gave his report, highlighting some recent Cotswold

District Council decisions:

“CDC agreed to yet again freeze the Districts share of Council Tax. The charge is now the 16th

lowest in the country.

The car parking charges in the main towns (Bourton on the Water, Cirencester, Moreton in

Marsh, Stow on the Wold and Tetbury) are frozen and the free after 3:00pm initiative is to

be continued until the end of March 2018.

An allocation of £225,000 has been made for design and planning reports for the proposed

scheme to add a deck to the Waterloo car park in Cirencester.

Following a report by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee an additional £42,000 has been

allocated to increase the Planning Team’s enforcement capability.

Each District Councillor has been allocated £750 to assist with planned activities to celebrate

the end of WWI.

Each District Councillor has been allocated £2,000 to assist local fund raising schemes for

additional defibrillators.


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CDC has allocated an additional £100K for flood relief schemes.

The Councils plans to work collaboratively with West Oxfordshire DC; Forest of Dean DC and

in part Cheltenham BC is progressing and further reports relating to the 20:20 Vision will be

made available in the coming weeks.

Although still not yet a signed deal it is hoped that the Tour of Britain cycle race is likely to

finish in Cheltenham and transit through the Cotswolds. It is scheduled for September.”

c) St. Peter’s Church: Rev Canon Katrina Scott gave the following report: “The Church Community has had a good year. Highlights include:

Anthea and Wayne’s 50th wedding anniversary celebration in July

A great village Harvest event in October

Christmas celebrated with a large Carol Service with villagers of all ages taking part

We began a new ‘tradition’ in Lent 2016, with the weekly soup lunches. This continued into 2017, and it has been particularly pleasing that so many Upper Slaughter residents have taken part.

A Fantastic Fete in July – thank you to everyone who ran and contributed to the day

The rebuilding of the church clock, which has begun to chime and tell the time again from March 2017. We were able to go ahead with this work thanks to the donations of many in the community

We are working well with the wider Benefice – sharing resources and supporting one another

We are progressing plans to look into the possibility of building a small toilet in the churchyard. A number of less mobile, older regulars are finding a need for a toilet on site and we have been working with an architect to draw up plans.

Along with our village fete, this July we will celebrate St. Peter’s Day with a celebration in Church on 2nd July at 11am.

A tough aspect to the year has been Rev’d Sue Cox’s illness. She has been coping with her heavy treatments with great faith and positivity. Looking ahead, I am delighted to say that at our Annual Meeting last week, our Churchwardens and PCC Secretary agreed to stand again – Anthea, Liz and David, ably assisted by Wayne, are fantastic at ensuring the smooth running of our church. We thanked Penny for her many years as our treasurer. She has managed to present a clear picture of our finances and ensure that we keep things as even as possible. As Penny has stepped down, Francis has stepped in as a ‘stop gap’ treasurer.” d) Thankful Villages - The Clerk read out a brief statement from Darren Hayman.

“My name is Darren Hayman and I have been making a film and song project about Britain's Thankful

Villages. As you probably know a Thankful Village is a village where every soldier returned alive from

World War One and Upper Slaughter is one of them.

The project is ultimately a music project with the songs being released on three albums but it is also a film project with stories and songs from every village. The project can be viewed at thankfulvillages.co.uk/ For the entry for Upper Slaughter I bought along Judy Dyble, the original singer of Fairport Convention who lives close to your village. We wrote a song about moving and shifting populations

http://hthankfulvillages.co.uk/


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and linked it to the river that flows through Upper Slaughter. (A link for the song is available from the clerk if requested) The project has been covered in the national press including the Guardian, The Financial Times and the Independent as well as several appearances on Radio 4. I have also gained funding from the British Arts Council and as part my application to them I have agreed to play several shows in the village communities where I gathered these songs and stories. I was wondering if you might want to have me play one evening or afternoon in your village hall. I could do a 45 minute hour show or presentation about the project and share songs and stories from the Thankful Villages with the residents of your village, ideally before July. As the project has funding from the Arts Council I don't need any payment, in fact if you did want to charge anything or charge for refreshments we could raise some money for local charities. Thank you in advance Darren Hayman." Following discussion, it was felt that it was insufficient notice to arrange anything before July. However, it was agreed to invite Darren back for the WW1 commemorative events to be held in 2018. Action: The clerk to contact Darren Hayman to invite him back to Upper Slaughter for the WW1 commemorative events in 2018. e) Police: The clerk gave a brief summary of the police report for Upper Slaughter from Bob Hardie, receptionist at Stow police Station.

“1. The annual number of Crime related incidents has dropped from 5 to 2 (2015/2016 to 2016/2017), i.e. 1 crime incident every six months during 2016/2017

2. The number of Road Traffic Collisions has dropped from 3 to 2 (2015/2016 to 2016/2017), i.e. 1 RTC incident every six months during 2016/2017

3. The number of reported ASB (anti-social behaviour) incidents has increased from 2 to 3 (2015/2016 to 2016/2017).i.e. 1 ASB incident every four months during 2016/2017

Last Summer a key issue for Upper Slaughter Parish Council was that of increased parking, and the potential risk of Road Traffic collisions resulting from said parking. I would like to take this opportunity to highlight the fact that parking in general terms does not fall under the remit of the Police, unless dangerous, or completely blocking the highway/footpath. Based on the attached report, and the drop in RTC’s, should the Parish Council still be exercised by parking issues, I would recommend they take it up with the CDC under whose aegis the Parking Enforcement Officers operate.”

It was agreed by Councillors that the full police report could be distributed by email as an

appendix to these minutes. (Appendix1) Action: The clerk to distribute the full police report (as an appendix) with the minutes to those on the Council’s distribution list. These will also be available on the council’s website: www.upperslaughterpc.org.uk 5. To consider The Villager Bus serving this village: Following discussion from the floor, a vote was taken on the proposal of Upper Slaughter being included in the Village bus Service route. Those present unanimously agreed not to pursue this any further.


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Action: The Clerk to contact the Chairman of The Villager to notify him of this decision. 6. Annual report from the Chairman of the Parish Council: The Chairman’s report for 2016-17 was

read out by Cllr Von Holzing:

“Upper Slaughter Parish Council’s membership remained constant this year with Councillors being

re-elected into their respective roles, as follows:

Caroline Cleaver – Chairman

Peter von Holzing – Vice Chairman and Planning Lead

Frederika Keeling – Planning

Kris Lee – Finances

Kevan Windridge – Highways

Our Clerk, Ruth Waller continues to support and advise the Council. The Council budget has enabled

us to fund additional professional Clerk’s training this year and we are already realising the benefits

of this investment through the informative advice and guidance on the required practices of running

the Council. This provides us with the assurance that we are compliant with the Government

guidelines.

Activities during the year: The Council has had a reasonably busy year handling a range of matters.

The ongoing changes and additions to Government policies and guidelines for Parish Councils

continue to impose an increasing workload on councillors to ensure that we are compliant with

statutory obligations. The ensuing volume of work does feel somewhat disproportionate to the size

of our parish, and although the Council has investigated whether there are any exclusions for smaller

Parish Councils, the response has been that all Parish Councils should follow the same processes and

handle the same information. In the case of some of the recent public consultations the volume of

paperwork that requires reviewing in order to determine whether a comment is appropriate, has

been quite onerous.

A summary of the Council’s main activities this year follows:

Council Governance: The Parish Council website is now well-populated (www.upperslaughterpc.org.uk) and provides online access to key information relating to Parish Council business. This enables us to be compliant with the Government’s new Transparency Code. Whilst we will continue to post information on the village noticeboard for those parishioners who do not have internet access, we anticipate that the website will increasingly become a required key focal point for the Parish Council to communicate and share information. The website also contains summary information about the village and upcoming events but its focus remains as a public repository of matters relating to Council business. The contribution of Councillor Lee to the establishment and design of our website is very much appreciated.

With the support of the Clerk, the Council has invested significant effort into reviewing and revising various statutory governance procedures this year, including the Standing Orders, Code of Conduct, Financial Regulations, Risk Management and the Assets Register. The Council has agreed to continue to subscribe to GAPTC (Gloucestershire Association of Parish and

Town Councils) to take advantage of their advice and support services as well as training courses. In

http://www.upperslaughterpc.org.uk/


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addition, this year, the Council also voted to subscribe to the Council for the Protection of Rural

England.

Planning :There have been few significant planning applications to deal with this year –many have been associated with managing tree conditions. In response to some applications, whilst welcoming improvements, the Council has also voiced concern about the increasing number of holiday and weekend cottages in our small village, which results in an ever smaller permanent community of residents. In addition there have been requests to comment on various Local Plans which have been under public consultation.

Highways: Some good progress has been made this year in engaging with Gloucestershire Highways to undertake a number of small repairs to roads (particularly potholes) in and around the village and to repairing and improving signage. Particular focus has been on improving drainage and water flow to reduce the risk of road flooding and ice. In this respect, it appears that the introduction of the Gloucestershire Highways Lengthsman’s Scheme has facilitated faster progress with such minor works. We remain proactive in our engagement with Gloucestershire Highways to secure allocation of budget for further work to progress our outstanding list of improvements and repairs during this coming year.

We continue to be concerned about road safety and the speed of an increasing volume of traffic passing through the village, especially given the parallel increase in the numbers of walkers in and around the village roads and footpaths. Of growing concern is the volume of traffic choosing to pass through the ford in both directions – apparently for the “novelty experience”. This is particularly hazardous in winter when the water dripping from the vehicles can freeze on the roads, causing a further risk to pedestrians and other drivers.

Finances: The Council’s finances continue to be on a sound footing and the precept has not been increased from last year. The main expenses are for the clerk’s salary and insurance. This year the Council decided to use some of the funds to secure training for the Clerk such that we can receive appropriate professional advice and guidance in the increasingly complex running and administration of the Council. We were also fortunate in a successful application for a Transparency Fund Grant in support of the establishment of the Parish Council website.

Other: The defibrillator in the phone box remains operational and the batteries were replaced this year in line with maintenance guidelines. The original plan to set up a village emergency telephone system in cooperation with South West Ambulance is still in abeyance, pending a decision from South West Ambulance.

The Council continues to engage with the Lords of Manor Hotel and the General Manager,

Michael Obray, has provided advance notification of large hotel events this coming year as well as

introducing some new initiatives such as the GL54 local dining discount scheme for pre-booked

lunches and afternoon teas and tours of the hotel’s new herb garden.

I would like to thank all the Councillors for their continued support and dedication of time to

progressing a wide range of Council business during this past year.”


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7. Questions from the floor to be answered by Councillors:

A resident asked for clarification relating to the comment on the Precept in the Chairman’s report. Cllrs responded by confirming that the precept had not been raised in 2016-17.

Another resident asked for an update on Buckle Street. He raised further concern regarding the number of lorries using this route and the speed of traffic in general especially past the children’s nursery. He suggested the possibility of another speedwatch. The clerk provided an update from Bob Skillern. Further discussions relating to this would take place at the next Council meeting in May. Cllr Moor offered to work with the Parish council on this particular matter and would also attend the May meeting.

Action: The clerk to investigate what further actions are required to enable a speedwatch to take place on Buckle Street. Action: The clerk to invite both Bob Skillern and Nigel Moor to the Council meeting on the 15th May to discuss these particular concerns relating to Buckle Street. This council meeting will take place after the Annual meeting of the Parish Council.

8. Closing Comments from the Chairman – The Chairman thanked everyone for attending and there being no further business, closed the meeting at 8.25pm.

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