Full Council Minutes

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Reports

3.1 Report from Mr F Allgood (County Councillor)

Titchfield Lane Speed Limit

The new 40 mph speed limit along Titchfield Lane and Fontley Road will come into force on 26 February, it has been confirmed by Hampshire’s executive member for the Environment. This follows a long campaign for such a speed limit and at last all the legal and administrative hurdles have been overcome.

Springles Lane

The formal notice that Springles Lane will be closed to through traffic will be published in January. This is formally known as a Prohibition of Driving (Except for Access) Traffic Regulation Order. It is hoped that barriers will be place soon afterwards. The measure is strongly supported by Whiteley Parish Council which is concerned about heavy traffic using Leafy Lane, some of which use Springles Lane and Leafy Lane as a short cut to work in Whiteley industrial estates.

Church Cross-roads

I had a meeting with the Priest-in-charge of Wickham and churchwardens to discuss proposals for traffic lights outside the church on the A32. They are supportive in principle but have asked for a briefing for the Diocesan Board on the implications for the church. I am trying to arrange such a meeting in early January in order the progress this scheme.

Outlook Grim on Council Tax

The Government has confirmed that the revenue support grant for Hampshire will increase by 2.7 percent for 2007-8 at a time when the retail price index is 3.5 percent.

In order to maintain services at the current level council tax will have to be increased by at least 7 percent. So in order to keep any increase under 5 percent, there will have to be substantial savings and efficiencies. The main pressures are coming from rising demands for adult social care, the complexity of the needs of vulnerable children and the need to tackle increased waste volumes.

Advice for Croatia

As one of the top councils in England, Hampshire has been asked to advise Dubrovnik County in Croatia on how to meet the criteria for joining the European Union. Hampshire has been advising Croatian leaders on how to develop its economy and it is hoped that one spin-off from this work will be increased opportunities for Hampshire business in southern Europe.

Police Community Support Officers

Winchester District has been allocated 18 of the Police Community Support Officers. One of these will be stationed at Bishops Waltham to patrol Wickham and Denmead. It is hoped this officer will be recruited in the New Year for two months training before taking up duties in the spring of 2007.

Happy New Year

Finally, may I wish all members of the Parish Council a Merry Christmas and every success in 2007.

3.2 Report from Mr P Clohosey  (District Councillor)

In answer to a question at the last meeting regarding recycling, the rates of recycling in the alternate collection pilot areas has increased by 50%.

Wickham residents have received letters regarding the plans for alternate waste collection starting in 2007.

The Winchester District Local Plan Review has been adopted.

At a WCC joint meeting with Havant BC, the first phase of the West of Waterlooville development was approved comprising 450 houses.

6.17.1 WCC Housing Forum (Cllr Mrs J Hollis)

The Forum included the launch of Winchester Housing Board by Margaret Newbigin, Group Director A2 Winchester, and the Housing Board’s Chairman.  The keynote speaker was Mr. Chris Cobbold, DTZ Consulting and Research.  He spoke about the great need for affordable housing, particularly units for single people in the city where some students were living six to a room.  Workshop sessions took place to see what two objectives should be given priority from lists supplied.

I was in favour of the need to:

On new homes

1.                  Ensure housing meets the needs of local communities.

2.                  Improve the supply of affordable homes for those who live and work in the district, (generally agreed by the forum).

On existing homes

1.                  Taking action to tackle climate change, including energy and water efficiency, recycling and encouraging renewable energy.

2.                  Ensuring affordable housing is of a high quality, (generally agreed by the forum).

On inclusive society

1.                  Improving access for those living in rural areas.

2.            Improving the supply of sheltered housing, (there was some debate on this subject, with a split vote).

I was not in favour of:

1.                  Ensure housing support for recent migrants, (on the grounds that there is inadequate support for the indigenous population and this should be addressed as a priority).

Affordable Housing

The uptake of shared equity housing has fallen by as much as 65% in some areas.  This has been due to a number of factors, the principle factor being that lower paid key workers now need nine times their average annual wage to buy into a scheme.  Many are simply unable to raise a mortgage.  A number of shared equity properties therefore remain vacant.

A factor that I found surprising was, if a key worker should no longer be classified as a key worker, through job change or job loss, that worker would no longer be entitled to retain their homes – in some cases being given six months notice to sell.

In an effort to ease the situation, the Government has launched new home-buy shared equity schemes.  These became available from October of this year.  Buyers can buy as little as a 25% share and subsequently buy in 20% blocks up to 80% or even 100% in some cases, (stair casing).  The Housing Association retains the freehold ownership.  I am much in favour of this new initiative.

6.17.2 WCC Climate Change Action Planning Event (Cllr Mrs J  Hollis)

Climate change is a natural phenomenon and, as such, is unavoidable.  It is, however, true that man has had an effect on this process, more by felling the rain forest than by generating CO2, (one good size volcano emits more CO2 during eruption than man has done since first he learned to rub two sticks together).

Because climate change is inevitable, its occurrence should be accepted but prepared for.  It is expected that average temperatures in the south of England will rise by 6 degrees centigrade over the next 80 years.  “Hooray!” I hear you shout, “Costa del Solent!”  Indeed, summers will be warmer but winters will become much wetter, with inevitable flooding.  What can be done in preparation at the local level?

Clearly, we need to attend to our land drainage system in order to cater for the expected increase in surface run-off.  This means clearing and maintaining existing ditches, deepening and widening others and, in some cases, digging new ones.  It also means that rivers must be kept clear of debris and serious attention given to areas of flow constriction such as weirs and bridges where overflow sluices may be required.

Drought and flood cycles have serious negative effects on land erosion.  The planting of trees and hedges will do much to combat this and should therefore be actively encouraged.  In areas away from the flood plains, the planting of broadleaf trees will help to control flooding, (one mature oak can drink as much as 600 gallons of water a day), as well as stabilise the land. Equally important is the fact that broadleaf trees scavenge CO2 from the atmosphere, helping to ameliorate the so-called “greenhouse effect”.

Wickham village has lost about 100 trees over the past 50 years, very few of which have been replaced. 

I propose that we start a broadleaf tree-planting programme with immediate effect, beginning with the replacement of those lost in the Circle, by the school and in the Recreation Ground.  

I further propose that this Council develop a map showing suitable locations for possible future broadleaf tree planting with a view to adopting a longer term planting campaign

6.17.3 WCC Local Development Framework Officer Steering Group (Clerk)

I have been asked to sit on the above Steering Group to help represent the view of Parish Councils during the production of the Local Development Framework.

The Government has introduced a new planning system, which requires the Council to prepare a series of planning policy documents.  These new planning policy documents will collectively be known as the Local Development Framework (LDF) and will manage growth and development in the Winchester District.

One of the documents WCC is tasked with producing is a Core Strategy, which sets out the vision, objectives and policies for managing sustainable future growth, change and development within the Winchester district to provide certainty over 10 years.

In what seems very similar to the South East Plan consultation process WCC must engage with the community to discover its visions.  This will involve  public meetings and consultation.  Other evidence gathering exercises will be fed into the process including, I hope, parish plans and village design statements.

The plans for the consultation and evidence gathering process run from January to May 2007 with submission of the document to the government in December 2007. Following an examination in public April – June 2008 the document is expected to be adopted in June 2009.

 

6.17.4 WPC/WCC Rural Towns Development Officer (Chairman)

The Chairman and Clerk met with the Rural Towns Development Officer, her brief is to encourage market towns to progress towards the Market Towns Health Check process.  She is prepared to offer assistance.  It is similar to the Parish Plan process but on a much larger scale. A meeting with Wickham, Alresford, Bishops Waltham and Denmead is planned for January.

6.17.5 WCC Peer review of planning (Cllr Michael Sadler-Forster)

This was one of a series of review sessions at which representatives of Parish Councils had the opportunity to flag up both the good and the not so good experiences of the Winchester Planning Department. The session lasted about two hours and was chaired by an executive from Somerset CC.

Six parish representatives were present, four being long standing chairmen of their respective planning committees.

The meeting was almost entirely focused on the shortcomings of the Department.  The only ‘good’ observation was in praise of the Landscape Architect and the Tree Specialist – but even this was qualified by the view that they were never brought in at an early enough stage, and even then ignored.

‘Bad’ observations came thick and fast, from the criticism that the ‘services’ had deteriorated following the general ‘downgrading’ of the Department, this had affected staff morale and the ability to retain key individuals.  All this suggested the need to revisit the ‘structure’ and ‘positioning’ of the Department.  Much criticism of the CEO’s inability to reflect the interdisciplinary nature of  the planning and development activities in the Department with and almost absence of architectural and conservation expertise in recent years.

Representatives were keen to record specific instances of consistently ‘bad’ experiences:

• Enforcement was hopeless
• Repeated examples where officers had simply not looked professionally at the application details,  giving inaccurate details in the notes.
• Very little evidence of the Department taking notice of VDSs, hence the widespread apathy in the Parishes to re-engage in the process.
• Serious suggestions of ‘collusion’ between case officer and developers.
• Communication with the Parishes very bad and much evidence of lack of ‘cross-section’ communication.

No one present seemed to know that they were invited to the ‘Feedback’ session on the following afternoon, intended to summarise all the review sessions.

Was anyone really listening?