Ascott Under Wychwood Parish Council Meeting Held On Monday 9 July 2018 In The Tiddy Hall At 7.30pm

Parish Councillors

• Philippa Carter
• Peter Rance
• Graham Ranson

County Councillor

• Liz Leffman

District Councillor

• Jake Acock

Parish Clerk

• Angela Barnes

Members of the Public

• No members of the public

Apologies

Apologies received from Cllrs Sandy Timms and Brian Leach.

Minutes of the Last Meeting

The Minutes recorded from the meeting held on Monday 11 June 2018 were approved as a true record, duly signed, dated and filed.

Declarations of interest

There were no declarations of interest to record.

Financial Report

Income

Costs

*Part of the £500 annual provision
** The PC assumed a 1% increase, but lower paid staff were given a substantial national pay award.

Financial Regulations

These were discussed and it was agreed to carry this forward to the next meeting.

Internal Audit

This was carried out by Margaret Ismail and is now complete – a full report to follow

External Audit

This was now complete and the Annual Statement and supporting paperwork had been sent to Moore Stephens, the newly appointed auditors. The Clerk reported that Christina Clarke from Moore Stephens had contacted her today to ask for confirmation of the dates the public were made aware that the accounts were now complete and could be viewed. This is known as Public Rights. The Clerk confirmed that the dates were from 10 June to 10 July 2018. Moore Stephens explained that this was not quite the 30 days and asked that the PC leave it displayed for another 8 days. Moore Stephens also advised that a copy of this should be displayed on the Website. The Clerk explained to the auditors that the PC were in the middle of dealing with GDPR and the Website was part of this. They empathised with the PC, but advised that a copy must be displayed on the Website. The Clerk had advised Stuart Fox accordingly.

Reports from County and District Councillors

County Cllr Liz Leffman

CCllr Leffman reported that a paper on recycling has been presented to improve the rate of recycling.

She also reported on the way the CAB applies for grant funding from WODC is changing and they may have to apply for up to 10 different applications in order to get the same funding.

District Cllr Jake Acock

(a)Thames Water and Flooding/Sewerage:
D Cllr Acock has been in contact with Lawrence King who is the drainage engineer at WODC and he plans to ask how and when Thames Water will be improving the sewerage situation in Ascott. He will be calling TW to a meeting to discuss this, alongside Cllr Carter and Lawrence King. (Meeting date tbc).

(b)Speedwatch:
D Cllr Acock is currently setting up Speedwatch in Lyneham and waiting for Ascott PC to confirm when they have volunteers and then both groups can attend training together.

(c)Dawls Close and Parking:
D Cllr Acock has been in touch with a resident about parking on Dawls Close. There have been occasions when Emergency vehicles have had problems accessing residents/properties because of excess parking on the roadside. However, some properties do not have dropped kerbs and have been advised that they should not, by law, drive over the kerb to access their front garden. OCC Highways have quoted £2,000 per dropped kerb. D Cllr Acock is trying to arrange for kerbs to be dropped without tenants having to find £2,000.

Public Time

There were no members of public and so no public time recorded.

Planning

Approved

18/01617/HHD PROPOSAL: Single storey extension at Croft Barn 49 High Street Ascott Under Wychwood – APPROVED
18/01018/HHD 3 The Green Ascott under Wychwood Proposed first floor pitched roof side extension – APPROVED.

Appeal Ref: APP/D3125/W/17/3179654 12-18 London Lane, Development of 5 dwellings – Allowed 15 December 2017: (Original Application Ref 17/01067/FUL, dated 30 March 2017 -Refused by notice dated 10 July 2017) Keep listed for reference.

Matters Arising

(a) Wychwoods Working Together – refer to notes from meeting held with Milton and Shipton PC

(b) Sign at the Ascott Earl Sheepwash – ongoing

(c) Footpaths Deregulation 1 January 2026
Cllr Carter reported that the Cotswold Warden Gerald Simper, Adrian Tremlett (ex Chadlington PCllr), Rachel Livingstone (British Horse Society) have given advice on Public Footpath regulation 2026. Residents Sue Richards and Juliette Heselwood have shown interest in forming a working party to carry this forward. Ongoing

(d) Defibrillator – Ongoing

(e) GDPR – Cllr Leach has been leading the Councillors and the Clerk on this and good progress has been made. Cll Carter presented the Privacy Notice to the meeting for approval. This was proposed by Cllr Rance and seconded by Cllr Ranson. Cllr Carter reported that developing the PC section of the Ascott-under-Wychwood Community Website was a work in progress.
Cllr Carter proposed the recommended changes to the email addresses of the Clerk and the Councillors. This was seconded by Cllr Ranson.

(f) Allotments

Cllr Leach reported that the Groundsman had cut back the wild plum trees and Cllr Leach had cut down weeds and grass on the unused allotments. He reported on revisiting the possibility of have water at the Allotment site – Ongoing

(g) Christmas Tree sheath and electrical amp – Ongoing

Risk Assessment & Ground Maintenance

Ongoing

Community Emergency Plan

Nothing to report

Transport

BUSES

WOCT, Margaret Burden has provided, in confidence, to the Wychwood’s PC Transport Reps, their latest 210 service usage stats. They show an encouraging upward trend. They intend to run a user survey too, and Cllr Rance provided one observation re timing of their last return bus from Witney. No direct meeting has been held. WOCT have received further grant assistance from Cllr Leffman, and they are exploring means to acquire another bus, better suited to our roads!

TRAINS

The Halts service remains vulnerable to cancellations, most recently, an evening return, cancelled at such short notice at Oxford, that taxis home meant a 7pm arrival, rather than 6pm by train!
From 7-22 July, due to major engineering work forcing closure of Oxford station, the Halts service becomes a bus, leaving Ascott at 07:10 rather than 07:43, and taking close to an hour to get to Oxford! The evening return is equally unattractive. That engineering work is posted to allow a half hourly service to Marylebone, and much better operation at Oxford itself. Seeing is believing.

Roads

Cllr Rance used Fix My Street to get three severely blocked road drains cleared, albeit needing a repeat posting as one drain was overlooked by the OCC team on their first clearance visit.

As agreed at the last PC Meeting, on Tuesday 19th June, Cllr Leffman arranged a site inspection at the River Bridge with James Wright OCC Highways and Cllr Rance, to consider ways of reducing the risk of traffic incidents. The morning timing, proved perfect to see numerous examples of bad driving, close shaves and the dangerous environment.

James Wright accepted that some actions were justified and proposed to have the sight line from Chippy Hill improved by cutting the significant verge vegetation, getting the excess road grit removed from that side of the road, have the road edge white lining reinstated to emphasise the narrow bridge itself, and to add warning signage on both existing “Road Narrows” signs. He also proposed that the Ascott side, Road Sign, be moved closer to the bridge, to avoid current hedge masking, and to increase its impact on road users.

Good progress has been made in that Cllr Rance gained Cornbury Estate approval for the relocation of the road sign, as it is placed beside their field, and the Chippy Hill verge overgrowth has been cutback by OCC.

Reports from Organisations

(a) Ascott-under-Wychwood Sports Club – The leak to the ladies’ toilet has been repaired. Thank you to Simon Gidman and Nick Carter for watering the pitch. The outside light to the Pavilion has been broken and Cllr Carter will call an electrician.

(b) Library – Nothing to report

(c) Helpers – Nothing to report

Correspondence

Email

OALC Update
OCC Oxfordshire Stakeholders Highways briefing
Mark Hopwood GWR – reminder of Oxford Rail upgrade work
Marking the Death of a Senior Figure

Post

Clerks & Councils Direct

Any Other Business

A leaflet about Speedwatch volunteers, vacant allotments and residents cutting back vegetation from their verges has been agreed and is to be distributed .

The Parish Council response to Paul Jackson’s letter was approved.

There being no further business, Cllr Carter declared the meeting closed at 9.40pm and confirmed the next meeting will be held on Monday 10 September 2018.

Cllr Philippa Carter (Chairman)
Date: 10 September 2018