Minutes of the Meeting of Standlake Parish Council, held in the Youth Club, Church End, on 9th April 2024 at 7.30pm

Present:

          Mr. B. Parnham               Chairman

          Mr. Rippin                      Vice Chairman

          Mrs. J. Macdonald

          Mr. D. Jeffcoat

          Mr. B.Smith

          Mr. D. Bevan                   Clerk

 

          WODC Cllr. Mr. C. Maynard. Cllr. L. Nicholls, Mrs. E. Welch.

1.         APOLOGIES – Cllr. D. Levy, Mr. J. Clements, Mrs. A. Knipe.

2.         DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST – Mr. Jeffcoat, Mr. B. Smith. Both regarding 24/00594/HHD.

3.         PUBLIC ITEMS – Mr. Parnham closed the meeting at 7.33pm. Mrs. Welch briefed councillors on the application no. 24/00594/HHD. Mrs. Macdonald asked what the ground surface under the panels would be. Mrs. Welch said that the drawings showed the area being cleared and shingle laid, but she was aware that this was not necessary and could be left to grass. Mrs. Macdonald welcomed this from an environmental perspective.

Mr. Parnham thanked Mrs. Welch and reopened the meeting at 7.37pm.

4.         COUNTY & DISTRICT COUNCILLORS’ REPORTS – see Cllr. Levy, Cllr. Nicholls and Cllr. Maynard’s reports attached to these minutes. Mr. Parnham thanked Cllr. Maynard for his information from Thames Water and his suggested further questions. However, Mr. Parnham said he had not had time to read it in depth but would do so and reply in due course.

PLANNING – Notice of Appeal - Former Magdalen Farmyard Abingdon Rd.

 

24/00594/HHD: Installation of 56 ground mounted solar panels: Yew Tree Farm 49 Abingdon Road Standlake: Mrs Emma Welch. No objection.

5.             MINUTES - Minutes of the Meeting held on Tuesday, 12th March 2024, copies of which had been previously circulated to all members, were agreed as a true record, and were signed by the chairman.

6.        MATTERS ARISING

Sewage/Flooding – Nothing further to report beyond that raised in Cllr. Maynard’s report.

Roads/Speedwatch/20mph – Mrs. Knipe reported the following by email:  SpeedWatch:  If you would like to become part of the team helping make our roads safer please drop an email to speedwatch@standlakepc.org.uk - even if you can only give up an hour a month that would be great! During March 18 sessions were held.  102 offenders reported to TVP including 4 with no MOT; this information is then passed to DVLA by TVP.  We are still seeing an average of 1% offenders in the 30mph zones but 27% in the 20mph zones; hopefully this decrease will continue as awareness continues.

SID Devices [Speed Indicator Devices]: Dialogue continues with OCC about the units on Aston Road.  Additional units will require funding by the Parish Council.  As we come into the new financial year this can be reviewed.

White Lining/Dragon Teeth Marking: Ongoing dialogue with OCC.  Some may be funded by OCC; others will need to be funded by the Parish Council.

Traffic Calming: anything in this area needs to be funded by the Parish Council as no funds available from OCC. As frustrating as it is, no funding is available from OCC so will need to be funded by the Parish Council but of course any measures need to be approved and implemented by OCC.

Playground/Recreation Ground – On 30th March Mr. Parnham, Mr. Clements, and the clerk carried out an inspection of the playgrounds in company with Mr. Gary Pascoe. A large number of areas were identified for repair and refurbishing and an estimate of £904.76 has now been received from Absolute Solutions. Mr. Parnham proposed that this be accepted and this was agreed unanimously.

Environment/Nature Recovery Network - Mrs. Macdonald reported the following - Village Car Park. Gary Pascoe (Absolute Solutions) has successfully removed the brash and brambles from the car park. He did an excellent job, and the car park is now tidy. Paid for from SNRN funds.

New Burial Ground This new/extension burial ground is now being used. SNRN funds paid Chris Cleland to scarify an area in the burial ground, and the team have done further work here, and planted a variety of wild flower seeds.

Spring Litter Pick Saturday 20th April 10am -12pm in collaboration with the WI and the PC. Advertising is going out and posters displayed around the village. All volunteers welcome to participate!

Dog/Waste bin (Martins Lane, The Downs junction). Cllr. Maynard has successfully been in touch with WODC, who have confirmed that this well used bin is to be emptied and monitored on a weekly basis. Mrs. Macdonald said that there was a contact number to call WODC if bins were seen to be overflowing between scheduled emptying and she would be attaching a notice on the bin with that information..

7.         CORRESPONDENCE. – no correspondence.

8.         ACCOUNTS – The clerk reported that the accounts for FY2023/24 were completed and ready for audit. He thanked Mr. Jeffcoat for his help in producing an accurate opening statement for FY 2024/25.

Received: VAT refund £814.50

The following accounts received were approved: (paid*)

Chris Cleland – churchyard mowing               £372.50*

OALC – subscription                                       £318.71*

OPFA - subscription                                          £47.00* 

9.          DATE OF NEXT MEETING - Mr. Parnham said that the next meeting will be held in the Youth Club on Tuesday 14th May 2024 at 7.30 pm.

10.       There being no further business, the meeting closed at 8.20pm.

 

Chairman   ....................................................................  Date …………………………………………………

 

County Councillor’s Report – Dan Levy

New special schools: The county council is planning two new special schools in the Didcot area to serve southeast Oxfordshire. One will specialise in educating children with Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) needs or Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) needs. Another special school is due to be built within the Valley Park development, and will specialise in educating children with Profound & Multiple Learning Difficulties (PMLD), Severe Learning Difficulties (SLD) and other needs. In addition, as many people know, we are building or acquiring small children’s homes to provide care in the county for those who would otherwise have to go somewhere else. This will provide better care for the children, at substantially lower cost. The home in Aston opened recently, and one is planned in Sutton.

 

Taking on potholes: OCC is launching a £7m programme this spring to refurbish nearly 100 roads across the county this spring from 8 April to 3 June. It is the biggest surface dressing programme for 20 years. The £7m is made up of £2.6m from the department for transport and additional budget for highways agreed in the 2024/2025 Lib Dem/Green budget (which was not supported by the Tories). This is good, but it will not make up the approximately £20m gap per annum between what we need to maintain our roads and what the government awards us. And as the weather gets worse, as appears to be the case, the pressure on our roads will continue to grow.

 

Money for cycling and walking: Oxfordshire has been awarded £2.384 million for improving walking and cycling infrastructure. The award will be used for expansion of the school streets programme countywide and projects in Abingdon and Witney.

 

Tenants welcomed into supported housing: Adults with learning disabilities and autism have moved into new accommodation in Witney, purchased by OCC. A further four homes are planned, including in Horspath.

 

EV chargers: Oxfordshire has won another £3.6m to upgrade EV infrastructure. This is of course a bit chicken and egg. Most people who buy electric cars only do so when they can charge them at home, but we need to make provision for those who are away from home or who can’t charge at home. And we need excess capacity so that nobody turns up in urgent need of charging to discover there is no space.

 

Elections.

Not County Council related, but there are elections for WODC on 2 May. There is one seat up in the Standlake, Aston and Stanton Harcourt ward and one in Eynsham, Cassington and South Leigh. Can I remind people that they will need to take ID to the polling station, or else get an Voter Authority Certificate, or apply for a postal vote.

All the details are on the WODC web pages.

Elections and voting - West Oxfordshire District Council (westoxon.gov.uk)

It has been a pleasure working with the two district councillors who are up for re-election.

District Councillor’s Report – Lysette Nicholls

Planning Related Issues: Eagle Farm - There is no planning application for Eagle Form, the officers confirmed again with me despite activity. Boreholes have been observed in the field and trees chopped down. Currently speaking with the TPO officer as a request has been made to have two trees assessed for TPO status.

Appeal lodged Magdalen Farmyard APP/D3125/W/24/3337046

5 Year Housing Supply & New Local Plan Consultation. 5-year housing supply already mentioned in the report by Cllr. Maynard. This is the second time in two years we have seen the 5-year housing supply challenged successfully and the only time in West Oxfordshire to my knowledge. Officers are looking at ways to ensure this is defended, however this places more pressure on the District to ensure the New Local Plan being consulted on is scrutinised something I highlighted very vocally on last year when we were consulted on the possible ideas for development, two of which were cluster and dispersed villages (Standlake and Brighthampton) which I was against as we need build houses in the right place with the right infrastructure.

Flood Risk Management Funding Opportunity OCC Should have had an email - grant available 5-50K. Expressions of interest should be submitted by 30th April.

District Councillor’s Report – Charlie Maynard

Thames Water

As I write this, Standlake sewage treatment works has been discharging raw sewage for the 308 hours non-stop - https://www.thameswater.co.uk/edm-map I received today some replies from Thames Water to the questions I asked them regarding the Standlake catchment in January. I’ve forwarded on those questions, TW’s responses and some proposed draft responses separately to the parish council. Standlake STW’s sewage dumping record is abysmal and more than justifies installing monitors, as have been installed at Aston and Brize Norton with the goal of better understanding where the worst infiltration is.  sewage network. The obvious massive problem is that Thames Water is fast heading towards Administration (i.e. bankruptcy) and the probability of Thames Water spending the money required to fix this problem is low.

West Oxfordshire District Council has been shortlisted for a national award for its work campaigning on sewage. I am ambivalent about this. We have made groundbreaking strides over the last two years since taking over the administration by bringing in conditions linking development to upgrades in treatment works and networks. We’ve also taken apart Thames Water’s extremely poor quality data and have forced changes in how they calculate the capacity of their treatment works. We’ve persuaded them (or forced them through strength of argument?) to change how they calculate catchment population, per capita consumption and the all important Environment Agency’s “multiplier”, with Thames Water now agreeing to apply a 3.0x multiplier with no exceptions when considering upgrades in sewage treatment capacity. This has all be achieved with the district council having zero statutory power over Thames Water. On the (very large) downside, it’s been a miserable couple of years seeing sewage endlessly spew into our rivers, with absolutely no end in sight. We need a government who is serious about addressing this issue, our current government certainly is not.

 

National Planning Inspector’s decision

A national planning inspector has ruled against the unanimous view of West Oxfordshire District Councillors, allowing a 120 unit housing development just west of Minster Lovell. This is very disappointing, doubly so as the inspector found that the District Council was not forecast to meet its Five Year Housing Land Supply. This highlights the extremely difficult task of staying within the 5YHLS and the multiple ways that developers are able to win at appeal, even if we are within the 5YHLS. There is lots of work being done to shore up defences. We will see down the track how successful these efforts prove.

 

Local elections on May 2nd

Please vote! Please also remember to bring ID as that is now a requirement nationally.