PARISH OF WEST HAGBOURNE MINUTES

ANNUAL PARISH MEETING HELD ON 20^th MAY 2006

Meeting held “Broomsticks”, West Hagbourne

Present:

Cllr. Phil Taylor (Chairman of Parish Council), Cllrs Marion Judd and Sue Totterdell (Parish Councillors), Cllr. Patrick Greene (County and District Councillor), Roger Sweet (these minutes), Bridget Pickup, Margaret Hedger, Eleanor Bowey, Mary Wiley, Betty Kendrick, Ted Kendrick, Tom Barker, Eve Setch, Dave Totterdell, Jeff Powell, Peter Mitchell, Andrea Mitchell, Simon Ford, Charles Keevil, Penny Keevil

1 Welcome by Chairman

Phil Taylor opened the meeting and welcomed everyone attending.

2 Annual reports

Phil Taylor explained that copies of the Annual reports of the Parish Council, William Tyrrell Trust, Village History Group, Parish Plan Steering Group and Patrick Greene’s County Council and District Council reports were available at the meeting.

Sue Totterdell thanked everyone who had participated in the parish plan

Marion Judd gave a resume of the history and function of the William Tyrrell Trust and its ability to make small grants. She said the Trust intended making a small grant to Julia Tiller and the triplets following the death of her husband, Steve Gore. Marion also mentioned the formal requirement for a tenancy agreement for the allotments site.

3 County Council and District Council reports from Cllr Patrick Greene

Cllr Greene summarised the main points in his reports

4 Village Association Report

Peter Mitchell gave a verbal report of the activities of the Village Association during the past year. The Association had held a successful Pimms, Pate and Puddings lunch and a successful bowls evening. The next event would be a Village Mystery Trail and Garden Lunch at Broomsticks in July.

The Village Association has also made a donation to Julia tiller and her family.

Jeff Powell proposed thanks to the Village Association for their efforts.

5 Open Forum

	Action
Land opposite the Horse and Harrow: Margaret Hedger asked about progress on the clearance of the land opposite the Horse and Harrow. Phil Taylor explained that a contractor had been appointed but had failed to do the work.	Parish Council
Andrea Mitchell asked what the land would be used for. Phil Taylor said it would be good to clear the land anyway but any plans for a hall would depend on planning, availability of grants, etc. and the outcome of the proposed extensions to Hagbourne Village Hall.
Patrick Greene said the Parish Council should seek a grant from SODC for a meeting hall if it goes ahead. Phil Taylor assured him the Parish Council would!	Parish Council
County Council’s decision on future waste disposal: Marion Judd asked Patrick Greene how heat produced if a decision is made to incinerate waste would be used. Patrick Greene said it would be good if any such heat could be used beneficially.
Didcot West: Phil Taylor asked Patrick Greene whether recent Council proposals meant the gap between Didcot and West Hagbourne is to be lost. Patrick Greene was unaware of any such proposals. Marion Judd asked for a dedicated gap to be maintained between the village and Didcot.
Marion mentioned public concern over overhead power lines and the relevance of this on the proposed Didcot East new housing.
Phil Taylor mentioned the concerns about additional traffic through the village as a result of Didcot West. He said that suggestions for a Harwell bypass would not help West Hagbourne and drew attention to the alternatives for a West Hagbourne bypass that were displayed at the meeting. Patrick Greens said that the proposal for a Harwell bypass came from the Didcot integrated study. He referred to the expected new traffic model and said the planners were probably waiting for the outcome of this. Mary Wiley asked whether the future water shortage was being taken into account. Patrick Greene said he had been participating in a water review which included a suggestion that provision is made for “grey” water to be recycled.
Skips for garden waste: Andrea Mitchell asked if the Parish Council would provide one again this year. Phil said the Parish Council had allowed for providing skips in the budget but wanted to see how successful the brown wheelie bins would be. The majority of those present seemed to want a skip to be provided for autumn waste too large for a wheelie bin and would like it in October.	Parish Council
Marion Judd thought SODC ought to make conditions for green issues when granting planning permissions.
Experimental removal of white lines, etc.: Peter Mitchell asked when this was going to happen. Phil Taylor said that the next step would be to meet the traffic engineer and agree with him where lines and/or signs would be removed. The white lines outside Green Thatch would remain.	Parish Council
Closure of Hagbourne Hill: The road is due to be closed in June for significant road repairs. Phil Taylor said the effect of this would be interesting. Hugh Lewis is constantly videoing traffic through the village. Work swap scheme: Sue Totterdell said that as suggested in the Parish Plan a proposal for a work swap scheme is shortly to be launched whereby people with specific skills could do jobs for others in exchange for them doing a job in return.
Future boundary changes: Bridgett Pickup asked if the Parish boundary would be changed as a result of Didcot West. Phil Taylor said this would be considered by the Parish Council at the right time.	Parish Council
New village notice board and map: Sue Totterdell said that several people had passed favourable comment on the new notice board and how good it looks. Phil explained that the old notice board needed extensive repair which would have been uneconomical and the new one had been purchased with the help of a grant from the Village History Group.
The Parish Council might still find a use for the old notice board.	Parish Council
Mobile library: Roger Sweet said that the mobile library would again be stopping in the village and hoped it would be supported otherwise we will lose it again.
Local bus routes: Bridget Pickup asked about whether changes to the local bus routes were planned. Patrick Greens said he was not aware of any. Planning of bus routes is done jointly by the County Council and the bus operator. Bridget would like the service to Wallingford reinstated. Patrick Greene said the County Council person responsible for bus services is Alan Field.
Loss of train services from Didcot: There was concern about plans to cut the number of trains stopping at Didcot. Patrick Greene was asked to add this to the list of actions	Patrick Greene