SOUTH LEIGH AND HIGH COGGES PARISH COUNCIL MEETING
Minutes of the Meeting on 23rd February 2023 7.30 pm in the Village Hall
Present
Councillors Present
Nicky Brooks (Chair) (NB) Lysette Nicholls (Deputy)(LN) Rita Sawrey-Woodwards (R S-W) Peter Grant (PG)
David Auger (DA)
Dick Pears (DP)
Cllr Levy attended
- Apologies. Cllrs Goodwin and Rylett sent their apologies.
- Declarations of interest – no declarations of interest.
- To approve the minutes of the previous meeting as being a true
record of the proceedings – approved.
- Opportunity for any parishioner to raise a matter of concern – Martin
Spurrier updated the meeting about the conservation area – contact had been established with WODC and the application and supporting documents had been submitted but he warned against any expectation of rapid progress. He updated the meeting about the emergency centre in the village hall – the generator had been bought and had arrived. It would provide 7.5kw and it was less expensive than the grant had expected. The excess money c£3000 had in part been expended on buying and constructing a wooden shed with a secure fastening sunk in concrete at the rear of and separate to the village hall to address the fire risk. There had been a lot of work carried out by Martin and John Ashwell. An electrician had fixed a time to make the necessary connections and there would then be a test which would ascertain whether even the dishwasher could be run along with the heating and other appliances.
- Opportunity for any County Councillor and / or District Councillor to update the Parish Council on any matter of relevance or concern. Cllr Levy who was present produced a report which dealt with budget, highway maintenance and the position in relation to Shore’s Green and the dual carriageway and other issues such as the Botley Road closure at Oxford Station, bus services run by First and Last Mile in the local area plus voter ID and said “South Leigh’s 20 mph scheme was approved at Cabinet Member’s Decisions this morning.
That is great news for residents, and good work by the PC. I will now try to ensure that the implementation of the scheme happens as quickly as possible – there is a bit of a queue, because 20 zones have been phenomenally popular.” His report in full was subsequently circulated to the village. He also indicated that pot holes were being attended to but there was a long backlog and it might take longer than usual to attend to but people should continue to use “Fix my street.”
- Report on the liaison between the Parish and the Parishes of Stanton/Harcourt, Sutton, Standlake and Eynsham PC–Stanton Harcourt had suggested that the parishioners of each parish should interact with each other on their respective websites as there was frequently mutuality of interest and the vice chair of Ducklington Pc had approached NB suggesting there should be greater contact.
- Payments to approve – there were none
- Update on Anaerobic Digester – The PC had raised 11 questions
with Acorn in January and Acorn had recently responded – the responses had been circulated around the PC and there was an undertaking that it would be distributed to the village – that was subsequently done by email. The PC will consider the implications of the responses.
- Update Shores Green planning application and report on OCC planning meeting – It had been expected that the Shores Green application would be considered at OCC next week but the meeting had been cancelled and it was unclear when the decision would come up for reconsideration. One of the problems was funding. Cllr Levy said he would keep the PC informed particularly about any date for its consideration. There was some discussion about the frustrations that the PC had had with OCC and Cllr Levy was aware of those and the PC indicated that similar issues had been raised with Robert Courts
10. Update on 12 Acre Solar Farm and Tar Farm Solar Farm – both were delayed – the first because of connections problems. NB indicated that there seemed to be none of the agreed planting around the site at 12 Acre Farm and she thought she should seek enforcement to ensure the planting was started
11. Issues over road gullies/gutters – this had been put over from the last meeting as it was the particular domain of LN who had been absent. LN thought that there were three areas of concern (1) High Cogges (2) around Shuttles Cottage and (3) more generally in the village such as near the pub. There had not been especial problems recently in areas (2) and (3) and she thought that to be effective she should concentrate on one area initially and as she had already
been working with OCC in High Cogges she would start there – there were three issues a) the area in and around John Alexander’s manhole (b) the off flow from the fields and (b) drainage from the road into the ditches. In relation to (b) the landowner had emailed her to tell her the work that he had carried out, in relation to (c) drainage slits had been cut to allow water to flow but in relation to a) John Alexander said there was no problem and no need to investigate despite what OCC said. LN would continue to work with OCC to try and solve the problem.
12. Village Hall – on 19th January 2023 the PC having considered this came to no final decision save that costings would have to be obtained so it was now proposed, seconded and carried that costings would be obtained for the two alternative plans.
13. Mobile Signal – DP indicated that he had an exchange of emails after various attempts to get in touch with Gateley Hamer who were engaged on a preconsultation to upgrade the radio base station on Oxford Hill and he had as a consequence a telephone call with BT/EE and a further call was scheduled for 30th March 2023.
14. Thames Water – Whilst storm discharge had stopped after the intervention of the PC it was now clear that Thames Water were both investigating rather more speedily the possibility of phosphate stripping and the capacity overall of the tank at the treatment plant. A drone had been sent up and the issue had been raised with Robert Courts who was writing to Thames Water. The PC remained convinced that one of the major problems was leakage of surface water into the foul water system.
15. The Coronation – Martin Spurrier explained the rather frustrating time he had trying to access money from government or the Lottery to fund village events – currently the money available is very limited and therefore the plans for the coronation celebration will have to be more limited than those for the Jubilee. They will be based on the Sunday at the village hall and around and bus stop. He and the village hall committee were working together to finalise plans.
16. Report on Meeting with MP – NB and DP had met Robert Courts on 17th Feb in the village hall – we had raised the issues of Thames Water, Shores Green and the AD and briefed him on all three – he agreed to assist and material was sent to him in relation to all the issues.
17. OCC climate change meeting – R.S-W agreed that dependent on the date she would like to be the PCs representative
18. Responses to any planning matters –
23/00229/HHD | Erection of a single storey rear extension and
construction of a front porch | 6 Lymbrook Cottages, Station Road South Leigh, Witney, Oxfordshire OX29 6XN – No objection by the PC to the application.
- Date of next meeting – 23rd March 2023 – 7.30.
- AOB – There had been a theft of valuable items from the
garden of Glebe House – what was particularly perturbing was that it would appear that the thieves had sufficient confidence to move them on one day and come back with transport the next to remove
them totally. All parishioners are warned to take extra care.