Parish council record

Annual Parish Meeting 2016

2016

Steve Barber from Northamptonshire Highways was the most colourful speaker in more ways than one!.
The Helmdon Annual Parish Meeting (APM) was held on Wednesday 27 April 2016 in the Reading Room on Church Street. Approximately 25 members of the public were in attendance and the meeting was chaired by parish council chairman Cllr John Coatsworth. Light refreshments were provided to give everyone a chance to chat and circulate before the business got underway.

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The first presentation was by Ed Bastow from Material Change, the operators of the Blackpits recycling centre. Ed described the various activities that go at Blackpits, including the composting of material from green wheelie bins, the receiving and bulking up of dry recyclables from blue wheelie bins and the production of methane gas from the anaerobic digestion of green crops, primarily maize. Ed said that the site continues to develop and continues to try to mitigate any impact on the local community in terms of odours and traffic movements. Ed also announced that in May the site would be holding its annual day when locals can collect compost FOC. (View Ed’s slides)

Responding to Ed Bastow’s presentation, Phillip Ward, chairman of the Blackpits Recycling Centre Monitoring Group, said that the group was trying to get a better understanding of the operations on the site so that any concerns can be addressed in context. For example, if there are a number of complaints on a particular day of the week then it could be possible to tie that back to particular activities on site. Phillip told the meeting that a new reporting form has been made available on the village web site (www.helmdon.com/report) for residents to report any concerns.

Next up was Graham Roberts from Sulgrave Parish Council to talk about Sulgrave’s project to upgrade its street lighting. Helmdon might look at doing the same so the purpose of the talk was to understand how Sulgrave had gone about it and what pitfalls they had encountered. Graham said that the project had taken five years and was not yet finished, so it is a lot of work. Sulgrave Parish Council engaged with residents to understand their needs and preferences. The community was presented with several options and views were sought on the preferred choice. In the end the community had decided to go for a good quality installation, rather than the cheapest. Sulgrave Parish Council worked with an independent surveyor/consultant and used an experienced local contractor. The total cost of the project will be c. £60,000 to replace twenty five lights and the LED fittings are expected to save £800 per year in running costs. (View Graham’s slides)

The final guest speaker was Steve Barber, Highways Safety Officer with Northamptonshire Highways. Steve had been asked to give a presentation on Vehicle Activated Signs (VASs) and Speed indicator Devices (SIDs). Steve informed the meeting that the highest cause of accidents is failing to look. Speed is the third highest factor but it is the one that most affects the severity of a collision. Steve explained the difference between VASs and SIDs and said that the most effective approach was to have a mobile sign that is only left in one particular place for a few weeks before being moved to a different location in the village. The devices cost between £1,000 and £3,000 and there are various other costs, including licenses and installation. A project cost of £5,000 would be realistic. Steve offered to carry out a traffic speed survey in the village to determine whether the perceived issue is indeed real and, if so, where the signs could be placed for maximum effect.

John Coatsworth then gave a report on behalf of the parish council and he started by thanking all the councillors and the clerk for their hard work over the past year. He said it had been a very busy time with the Western Power undergrounding works, the school field drainage project, the Grange Lane flooding issue, work to create new permissive paths, the transfer of land in Station Road to the parish council, and the ongoing work on the Local Plan in conjunction with South Northamptonshire Council. John reminded attendees about the parish council’s small grants programme and urged any group or organisation in the parish to apply via the web site. Finally, John said that the Best Village judges were due to visit on 17 May and that the village hoped for another good showing this year.

Helen du Bois, Clerk to Helmdon Parish Council, presented a financial report showing that the council had spent £35,671 in 2015/16 but that this figure included £22,808 on the school field drainage project, for which the council had received a grant in the same amount. The budgeted expenditure for 2016/17 is £24,432 with £16,142 of that funded by the precept and £8,165 from grants. (View finance report)

John then invited Helmdon’s two local government representatives to address the meeting: Cllr Simon Marinker, ward councillor for South Northamptonshire Council (SNC) and Cllr Ian Morris, division councillor for Northamptonshire County Council (NCC).

Simon Marinker said that it was his first APM in Helmdon following his election in May 2015. Simon gave an update on several local developments, including the announcement that a new swimming pool will be built in Brackley. It will be a 25 metre pool and the facility will be operated on behalf of SNC by Parkwood Leisure. Simon said that house building in Brackley is proceeding apace and that the new houses were selling well. The groundworks have been completed for a new Sainsbury’s supermarket and a medical centre. Simon had followed the Spring Farm Ridge saga and reported that the developers would be going to appeal in June but it is not known when the outcome will be announced. Finally, Simon gave an overview of the likely impacts on Helmdon of HS2 construction works. He said that there will be an additional 50 HGVs and 20 other vehicle movements per day on the B4525 associated with HS2 and more on the Radstone Road. Construction is expected to start at the end of 2017. (View Simon’s notes)

Ian Morris, who is now also the chairman of NCC’s Development Control Committee, outlined the changes in local government. He said that NCC is under huge budgetary pressure and that all councils would need to be entirely self-supporting by 2020 when it is thought that central government grants will cease altogether. Ian said that having three hundred principal councillors in the county was not sustainable and that it was time to look towards creating one or more unitary authorities in the county which would combine the services of the existing county and district councils. Ian announced that NCC had allocated an extra £14 million to highways including a Pot Hole Fighting Fund worth £711,000 which will be allocated between the county councillors, so he urged that any desperate highway issues be bought to his attention. Ian also announced that Cllr Jim Harker would be stepping down in May as Leader of the county council, and that the Police & Crime Commissioner elections were coming up and it was important that everyone voted. A member of the public asked what secondary school provision there would be in Brackley for all the new people arriving; Cllr Morris said that he would find out and report back through the parish clerk. (View Ian’s notes)

John Coatsworth read out a police report provided by Sergeant Micky Simons of the Brackley Safer Community Team, which showed that Helmdon has very little crime but that residents should not be complacent. The police would like residents to make use of social media to share local intelligence and alert people to suspicious activity (although 101 – non emergency, and 999 emergency remain the proper numbers to use to contact the police).

As the clock had ticked over 10:00 p.m. the chairman thanked all the speakers for their time and thanked everyone for attending. It was generally agreed to be one of the more informative and useful Annual Parish Meetings of recent years. The next parish meeting will be held on 26 April 2017 so why not put the date in your diary now!

Danny Moody

Topics: Parish council

Kept from the parish council's own records. Corrections and additions are welcome.