Launton Parish Council Chairman’s Report

April 2011

The Parish Council has had 13 meetings in the past year, in which we have commented on 37 planning applications and several consultation documents; in passing, I will note that the level of consultation documents being presented to the Council has dropped significantly in the past couple of years, which is a welcome change.

The Council usually meets on the first Thursday of the month in the Parish Hall, with a public participation session from 7:00 p.m., at which councillors are available to talk to parishioners and any planning applications for the meeting may be viewed, prior to the Council meeting starting at 7:30 p.m.

The agenda for the forthcoming meeting, and minutes of the previous meeting, are displayed on the two Parish Council noticeboards outside the Post Office and near the War Memorial.

A new aspect of Council meetings has appeared this year: with a revision of our Standing Orders, and in line with revised guidance, members of the public may now address the Council during meetings rather than only having the option to speak informally to councillors before the meeting begins.

This has not yet led to a rush of applications to speak at each meeting, but some villagers have taken the opportunity recently to address the Council on planning applications.

Our clerk, Keith Dixon, is continuing to lead us into ever-better avenues of good practice; in the past year, we have drafted, discussed and adopted several new policies, including Standing Orders, Financial Regulations, Asset Maintenance Plan, Audit Plan, Complaints Policy and more.

The Council is fortunate indeed to have such a proactive and forward-looking clerk, and I would like to thank Keith for his tireless work and support over the past year.

We are still continuing to pursue the provision of Affordable Rural Housing in the village in conjunction with Oxfordshire Rural Community Council and Cherwell District Council, spurred on by the results of the second Housing Needs Survey conducted by ORCC, although all our efforts so far to find a suitable site for such housing have floundered, and we are beginning to run out of viable options. However, we will continue to work on this while there is still any hope of being able to provide this clearly necessary housing.

The usual spring and autumn village clean-ups took place in October and April; attendance remains somewhat disappointing, but the enthusiasm of those who do take part means that we are still able to achieve a significant amount.

There have been some changes to the Council during the year: as reported last year, Roger Tompkins resigned, and in June last year we were pleased to welcome Chris Fox on the Council to take up Roger’s vacated place. After over 25 years of service to the community as a councillor and former Chairman, Audrey Tutt had stated her wish to retire from the Council due to increasing difficulty attending meetings, but she stayed on until we were back to full strength, so as not to leave us with two vacancies at the same time: Chris’s co-option meant that Audrey was able to retire, and we greatly miss her contributions and wealth of experience. The new vacancy was rapidly filled by Rachel Burn; both Chris and Rachel have thrown themselves into their roles as councillors and are contributing greatly to the work of the Council.

Sadly, Molly O’Connor has recently also retired from the Council after many years of service, as she too has been finding it increasingly difficult to attend meetings; Molly will be greatly missed, not least because of her enormous knowledge about the goings-on in the village.

This means we once again find ourselves under strength: we are currently seeking a replacement councillor, and any of us would be delighted to talk to anybody who feels they might be in a position to give something back to our community. The role is not especially onerous, and can be very rewarding.

We have undertaken various items of work around the village during the past year: following on from the installation of replacement panels in the bus shelter near The Bull, we repainted the shelter last year, and it looks much the better for it. We have also refurbished the notice board near the Post Office, replaced a damaged bench, had repairs made to walls, removed an unsightly (and still growing!) stump from The Poplars (a legacy of somewhat below par tree work done by Cherwell District Council a few years ago), tackled the overgrown shrubbery area in The Glades, and have continued to have the pedestrian refuge on Station Road cleared, as Oxfordshire County Council are no longer in a position to help with this essential work. I would like to express my thanks to the clerk and councillors who have given up their free time to tackle some of these tasks.

We continue to work with other Parish Councils, via the Bicester Neighbourhood Action Group, with the intention of jointly purchasing a speed recording device, which would allow us to gather quantifiable evidence of speeding problems in the village.

Councillors, in particular Wendy Foster, have continued to meet with representatives of the Launton Playing Field Association, especially with their current bid to replace the rather derelict tennis court area with a modern Multi-Use Games Area, an aim that the Council wholeheartedly supports and has provided some financial backing for.

We are also supporting the Friends of Island Pond Wood in their current moves to take a lease on the woodland themselves, which would enable them to maintain the woodland with considerably greater freedom, and less obstructive red tape, than the current situation allows.

We have recently met with representatives of Oxfordshire County Council, who have a sum of money from the Sherwood Close redevelopment that is ring-fenced for provision of road safety improvements in Bicester Road, in the vicinity of Sherwood Close; plans are still in the early stages, but a current proposal is to install a zebra crossing near the school.

We are also currently attempting to get OCC to take responsibility for, and make good, the damage that occurred to the Parish Hall car park and footway during their ongoing works on the school.

As last year, we have continued to work with, and support, representatives of other local Parish Councils in attempting to mount reasoned objections to the plan for a waste incinerator at Ardley, which – if it goes ahead – could have a significant impact on Launton from several points of view.

The Council has continued to provide financial support to Launton Lines, St Mary’s Church and Launton Congregational Church, as well as making other charitable donations.

Simon Turner

Chairman, Launton Parish Council

April 2011