Henlow Parish Council

Minutes of the ANNUAL PARISH MEETING held on Thursday 29^th April 2010 at 7.30pm in Henlow Parish Hall

Present: Councillors Wiles (Chairman), Buckley, Cooper (Mark), Cooper (Richard), Mrs Howe, Miss Joy (Vice-Chair), Phillips, Shelvey, Wenham, and the Clerk. Also present were Central Bedfordshire Cllr Drinkwater, PCSO Laura Wilson, Heather Hill (Raynsford VC Lower School) and Hazel Hitch (Henlow VC Middle School), and eleven parishioners.

1. Apologies for Absence: had been received from Cllrs Mrs Flint, Sale and Mrs Steele, CBCllrs Graham and Rogers, Dave Grummitt, Siggy Hillman – RAF, PC Holbrook – Police, and Margaret and Martin Knight.

2. Minutes of the meeting held on 7^th May 2009: had been circulated, and made available at the meeting. It was proposed by Cllr Buckley, seconded by Cllr Phillips, that these minutes be approved, and the proposal was agreed unanimously. Cllr Wiles then signed these minutes as a true record of that meeting. The minutes were then formally adopted.

3. Chairman’s welcome and report: Councillor Tim Wiles welcomed everyone and thanked them for attending the meeting. He confirmed HPC continued to operate with two main committees (see items 6 and 11). Cllr Wiles felt the past year had been quite a disappointing one, dominated by planning issues and lack of support received from Central Bedfordshire Council. The de-classification of the A6001 had gone ahead, in spite of HPC opposition. The enhancement proposals to the Henlow Camp Retail area are progressing very slowly.

Whilst HPC supported some level of development on the Town Farm development, the Parish Council’s comments were ignored by CBC and the application has recently been approved. Having initially considered it unsuitable CBC has now added the site adjacent to Derwent Lower School to their shortlist of potential Gypsy & Traveller sites. Whilst HPC have commented on their proposal (see item 8), the Chairman encouraged everyone in the Parish to object as individuals.

Various issues regarding HPC’s grounds maintenance came to a head last summer and Cllr Wiles was pleased to report the contract was put back in the capable hands of Adrian Crawley. Amongst other highlights was the completion of the footpath diversion and the installation of the footbridge in the North West corner of the Millennium Meadow, resulting in a Right of Way from Gardeners Lane to Langford Garden Centre.

Once again the Parish Fireworks display was very successful, and the Christmas tree was much appreciated. The Chairman thanked Steve Dixon for all his efforts with the Bonfire and for again providing and erecting the Christmas tree. Steve Dixon has also agreed to provide a permanent ‘fixing’ for future trees.

After careful consideration HPC were able to hold the annual precept at last year’s level.

Key activities for next year will be:

° Continuing to oppose the proposed Gypsy & Traveller site.

° Continuing to work on possible solutions to our Parish Properties problem.

° Attempting to negotiate “suitable” S106 agreements for the Town Farm development.

° Carrying out the much needed refurbishment of our War Memorial.

° Look forward to seeing what comes out of the Parish Plan exercise.

10. Report on Police Matters within Henlow: In order that PCSO Wilson could leave to attend to police matters a.s.a.p. it was agreed to bring item 10 forward. PCSO Wilson presented the following report prepared by PC Holbrook:

Anti Social Behaviour: figures for the year for the whole area are as follows:

April 2009 to March 2010 saw a total of 432 reports of ASB, being recorded across the SNT area. This equates to an average of 36 reports per month. For Henlow there have been a total of 72 reports of ASB for the year, which equates to an average of 6 reports per month.

Crime Figures: The SNT area has seen a total of 442 crimes recorded for the year, which equates to an average of 36.8 crimes being recorded per month. Burglary offences have been the largest recorded area where there have been a total of 118 crimes being recorded. Henlow itself has seen 106 crimes recorded for the year, which is an average of 8.9 crimes per month.

Members of the SNT and the Road Safety Department have visited the three main key locations (namely Hitchin Road, Clifton Road and Newtown) a total of 54 times over the period. At this time there are no plans for these visits to stop, and in fact it is hoped the number of visits will increase in the coming 12 months.

Anyone requiring further details relating to this information please feel free to contact PC Holbrook who will be happy to answer your questions.

4. Report on Henlow Parish Action Plan: Hilary Adams confirmed that the Action Plan for Henlow is to look forward to the next 5-10 years rather than just responding to tasks that require immediate attention and to involve the whole community in being proactive strengthening community spirit and involvement. The plan provides a collective view of what the people of our Parish want providing a stronger voice for the community and evidence of need and commitment which may be used to influence local authorities, service providers, and funding bodies.

Following the first major event, just before last year’s AGM, on 23^rd of April, a smaller scale event was held in June at Henlow South, in the RAF theatre. Both were based on the Planning for Real^® exercise with large scale maps of the parish enabling people to add ideas and over 500 comments had been collected. HPAP also had a display at the RAF Henlow summer event.

All the thoughts and ideas were collated and smaller sub committees on each topic were then formed with a champion from the steering committee on the following categories: Community Facilities / Crime and Safety / Environment / Health / Housing / Leisure / Traffic and Transport / Work and Education,

From this information the questionnaire of 16 pages was developed. It has just been printed and will be distributed and collected in the next four weeks. HPAP group still have capacity if anyone is able to help with this, and they are hoping to get a strong response to show that the plan is what people in Henlow want.

The Action Plan Group will be collating and analysing the information from the questionnaire. It is then intended to hold an open meeting in the autumn to present this. When the Parish Plan is finalised every household will receive a summary of the plan, a number of full plans will be printed, and the full plan will be available on www.henlow.net. HPAP group recently had a successful application to Central Beds for further funds to cover the cost of producing the plan and were awarded a further £1407 towards this.

Mrs Adams confirmed that if you wished to volunteer to help then please contact the Steering Group Chairman Hilary Adams on hadams@lowhen.com 01462 813789 or Secretary Mel Lawrence on 07919 561988. If you wished to be kept up to date via email an email to Henlowactionplan@googlemail.com should be sent.

5. RAF Henlow Report: The Chairman confirmed the disappointment at there being no representative present from the RAF, and that no information had been submitted to report to the meeting.

6. Report from Highways & Open Spaces Committee: Cllr Miss Joy: The busiest element of the Committee’s work concerns Highways and HPC continue to work closely with the CBC Highways Department. However, this year there has been an unprecedented reduction in funding for this function which manifested itself in such areas as limitation of salting and gritting services during the winter months and reduced clear-up rate of potholes reported. The pothole issue has become especially noticeable after the icy weather opened up previously vulnerable patches. On the matter of reduced salting/gritting, it is regrettable to report that, as predicted at the time of downgrading of the A6001, two significant traffic accidents occurred along Hitchin Road on occasions affected by bad weather for which the road had not been treated.

The four new street lamp columns have been installed along Langford Road to in-fill the lighting deficit out towards “White City” and offer significantly more downward illumination and less “light pollution.

The resurfacing works in Coach Road have been completed during the year; however we are still waiting for the improved signage at the Park Lane/Coach Road junction. The sign in the High Street pointing the way to the Millennium Meadow is much too small and is to be replaced. “Welcome to Henlow” signs are to be erected at entry points into the Parish along Bedford Road and the A507 bypass.

However, the Highways matter that continues to take up much more extracurricular committee time than anything else is the proposed Henlow Camp Enhancement Scheme, which, despite entering the appeal mechanism to the Central Beds Portfolio Holder, the Parish Council’s requirements are being ignored. We fear that when this scheme is delivered it will give much reduced car parking facilities. It is the desire of the Parish Council that echelon parking, much in the style of the recent facelift of Baldock, be supplied, but this has been deemed to be unacceptable on safety grounds by the Central Beds Highways officers.

The Millennium Meadow continues to be enjoyed by an increasing number of people who can now enjoy an extended walking route along footpath 3 due to the installation of a new bridge. We would like to remind those who exercise their dogs on the Millennium Meadow to clean up after their pet. The degree of dog mess is being monitored and should there be a further increase, then we will have to consider a Dog Ban such as exists in the Pit and Pyghtles.

During the year, the Clerk has compiled an updated comprehensive map of the Allotments, which continue to be very well subscribed with 100% lettings and a waiting list. The Tenancy Agreements have also been reviewed. The long awaited second water supply has now been installed and this forthcoming growing season will be the gauge by which any increase in water consumption due to the second supply may require the rents to be reviewed.

The street lighting maintenance contract is shortly to be tendered - to carry out routine works to the street lighting columns owned by Henlow Parish. As public funds are being administered, it is the duty of the Parish Council to obtain a number of quotations and ensure that the best value for money is obtained.

A number of parishioners made the following comments:

Q: Mr Hirst asked what action is being taken by HPC regarding parking in Church Lane/Groveside when pupils are being dropped off / collected. A: bollards are to be installed at the junction of Church Road and Groveside. Highways are carrying out a review on safer routes to school, and a pedestrian crossing is to be installed in the High Street near the entrance to the allotments. Mr Hirst also suggested installation of speed bumps in Groveside. Mr Bland reported parking on the verges in Coach Road causing problems. Mrs Adams stated the footpaths in the High Street were getting worse - HPC are to identify worse areas. Mr Jordon stated that speeding is getting worse, with teachers being the worst offenders, and traffic calming is also required in Church Road, which was confirmed by Mrs Wenham. Mrs Kissane expressed concern about dogs fouling the Millennium Meadow. Q: Mr Dixon asked if HPC had learned lessons from the issues that had arisen from awarding the ground maintenance contract to a new contractor last year, and questioned whether HPC always gets ‘best value’. Mr P Crawley suggested that the dog warden patrols before 7.00am. HPC would report all comments relating to highway concerns to CBC.

7. PowerPoint presentation on the ‘Joint Travel Plan’:

Hazel Hitch – Henlow V.C. Middle School & Heather Hill – Raynsford V.C. Lower School:

Speeding in Church Road and Park Lane was a concern to everyone at both schools. The comments made previously would be taken back to the teachers. A PowerPoint presentation was given, confirming both schools have the same issues, and listing the problems they are trying to resolve.

Representations are still being made to endeavour to have 20mph speed limits introduced to all roads leading to the schools. ‘Safer Routes to Schools’ investigations are on going, and it is hoped that these will be clearly identified and improved by CBC. Car sharing schemes are also being encouraged to lessen the number of vehicles travelling to each school.

The Chairman thanked Hazel Hitch and Heather Hill for the presentation, and for giving up their time to attend the meeting.

8. Gypsy & Traveller Site: Henlow Parish Council has made substantial representations to CBC, setting out nine clear and practical reasons why HPC think the site in Hitchin Road, adjacent to Derwent Lower School, is unsuitable for use as a G&T site. HPC also maintain that as the whole site was purchased for educational purposes the whole site should transfer to Bedfordshire Educational Schools Trust. HPC will continue to monitor CBC proposals carefully and make any further representations that may be required – any information available will be published in future editions of the Parish Pump.

9. Financial report: Clerk and Responsible Finance Officer: Bert Schrier: Healthy finances are being taken into the new financial year. ‘Summary of Income & Expenditure’ shows sums for the year ending 31^st March 2010, as well as for the year ending 31^st March 2009. The ‘Cash at Bank’ consisted of £7,623 in the Co-operative Bank Current Account. The Co-operative Deposit and Investment Accounts have been closed and a Scottish Widows 7 day account opened as this provides a higher rate of interest - this has a balance of £155,000. With the VAT claim still due to be paid of £1931 the total balance shown in the Parish Council ‘cash book’ at the end of the financial year is £164,554. However within this sum is £2,061 of the Parish Action Plan funds, and there are debtors totalling £725. The actual total funds are therefore £163,218. It was noted that these draft accounts have still to be audited.

Income: is obtained from the Precept, rental of the Parish Hall, HSSC Pavilion, Allotments, and small adverts in the ‘Parish Pump’ magazine. The precept is the part of the Council Tax, collected by CBC, on behalf of the Parish Council. HPC budgets for all its needs towards the end of each calendar year, and advises CBC of the figure required to meet HPC obligations. In 2008/09 it was £100686, and for 2009/10 it was set at £103050. The members decided to keep the precept for 2010/11 at £103050.

The Council also receives a grant (agency services), for cutting the highway verges in the parish, on behalf of CBC.

Allotments - The council is only allowed to raise sufficient funds to meet the costs of maintaining the plots. We had 100% lettings for the year. A second water supply has been installed and is about to be connected to the mains. In order to recoup the capital costs involved over a number of years the allotment rents have been increased to £24 per plot.

Section 106 grants from building developments in Henlow have been previously received to pay for play equipment in ‘The Pit’ and ‘The Pyghtles’ and provision of the MUGA II. Further sums are due which will cover the sum outstanding on MUGA II, and allow for further improvement of existing play equipment.

Expenditure: Administration costs for insurance continue to increase (just under 3% from the previous year), the current premium being £5894. Section 137 payments, are the grants made by the council to local organizations, to enhance their work, where local parishioners would benefit. £1200 was awarded this last financial year, and the Council will continue to consider future claims. The Council also contributed £1000 towards the upkeep of the Churchyard

Routine maintenance and repairs are carried out when necessary to HSSC Pavilion and to the Parish Hall. Business tax is charged by Central Bedfordshire Council for the buildings in the Parish Council’s ownership

Conclusion

The Council’s is continuing its policy to build up funds for future projects, as stated in the reports from the Committees and to carry out essential maintenance and repairs. The Parish Council’s accounts are fully computerised which is very beneficial to the management of its finances. The financial position is presented to the Members on a regular basis and to the Finance & General Purpose Committee quarterly. Details of receipts and payments are listed and presented to the Full Council monthly. With the Committees now also meeting monthly, payments can and are made fortnightly. A summary of ‘Income & Expenditure – Year Ending 31^st March 2010’ was distributed.

11. Report from Buildings & Properties Committees: Cllr Wenham

Parish Hall: The annual boiler and central heating service will be carried out in October. The committee has decided not to proceed with the boiler conversion to gas and heating upgrade at this time but we now have a number of quotations with reasonable lead-times. A new notice board has been installed at the front of the hall, and one at Flightpath in Southern Henlow.

Routine maintenance including painting of the internal & external woodwork, guttering replacement around the committee room roof, minor kitchen works, car-park gulley cleaning and replacing coloured light bulbs prior to Christmas has been completed A full electrical survey was carried and minor remedial work completed.

The 2003 structural survey has been reviewed and updated by the original surveyor. This has been used to cost a number of scenarios for the Parish Hall as part of the New Parish Properties consultation.

Unauthorised parking in the car-park has become an increasing problem this year. Signage has been renewed to clearly state that the car-park is for hall users only. An agreement with Raynsford Lower School allows use of the car-park by parents to pick-up & drop-off their children and for school visitors during the school day. The Raynsford School car-park is likewise available to Hall users at evenings and week-ends, when not being used by the school. The Council is investigating whether further control measures are needed.

Regular bookings have been 22% lower and External booking 40% lower which is a cause of concern. Hourly rental charges will increase from April 2010 by 25p per hour (non-commercial) and 50p per hour (commercial).

Pavilion: Work has been limited to general maintenance including repainting of the changing rooms carried out by the Sunday Football Club and the replacement of a double glazed window following damage during a cricket match. The showers have been fitted with auto-stop controls, kindly fitted by Mr Grumitt.

A full electrical inspection has been carried out and minor remedial work completed. The 2003 structural survey has been updated and used to cost a number of possible future maintenance plans.

The council will continue to meet Henlow Sports & Social Club (HSSC) committee to discuss how we can assist HSSC growing in the future. The council remain committed to HSSC as it is the most effective way of running the current Pavilion and sports facilities on The Pyghtles.

The Clerk’s office has now been open for a full year and is providing much easier access for residents to the Parish’s facilities and services.

War Memorial: HPC approved a contract in April for the refurbishment of the Memorial. The work has been delayed for six months as CBC Planning first insisted that a planning application for Conservation area consent was required and then eventually decided that it was not needed. A contractor is to be appointed to carry out the works shortly.

Village Pump & Sign: The cold weather during the winter has caused damage to a number of tiles on the Pump. These will be replaced in the near future.

The Council would like to thank Mr Steve Dixon for his very generous donation of the tree and for installing it last Christmas, and also for installing a permanent Christmas tree base for use in the future.

Old Pavilion: The Old Pavilion doors have been repainted and minor repairs to the roof completed. Funding has been given to the Cricket Club and Bowls Club to pay for security improvements to their buildings.

Planning for the Future (New Parish Property): A planning application for conversion of the current Parish Hall into 6 residential units was submitted, to allow us to identify a likely sale value of the hall if a decision is made to develop a new community facility. The initial planning application was denied on three points and a revised plan seeking to address the issues was resubmitted. At its last meeting CBC decided to reject the application on a single point. The Council is considering how to proceed. Architects have been retained and discussions commenced on the detail of a new facility largely on the footprint of the current Pavilion. Some sketches were presented at the Annual Parish Meeting. HPC have continued working to identify suitable funding sources, which are likely to come from three main streams:

· Grants, including “green” facilities, sports, and pre-school provision.

· Potential sale of the current Parish Hall.

· A fixed rate long-term central government loan

Residents will continue to be kept fully informed of all progress via The Parish Pump. The Council also reaffirms its commitment to full consultation on any plan for building on the current Pavilion site.

Cllr Wenham thanked all parishioners and councillors who have contributed to the smooth running of the parish properties this year, as well as the hard work of our new hall caretaker, Mr Hooper and our Clerk, Bert Schrier.

12. Questions from Parishioners: Cllr Tim Wiles invited comments from the parishioners:

a) Mr Jordan asked if HPC had employed Architects to provide the New Parish Property plans, and details of the Parish Hall planning application. It was confirmed that the NPP plans had previously been prepared and recently amended by Architects, but that all the Parish Hall plans had been prepared by the Clerk providing a great saving to HPC.

b) Mr Hirst asked that as two planning applications for conversion of the Parish Hall had been refused, would HPC be appealing against the decision. The Parish Council are continuing with obtaining further information, to find out the ultimate value of the Parish Hall.

There being no further business the meeting closed at 9.10pm. Bert Schrier

Clerk & Responsible Finance Officer

Henlow Parish Council

12^th May 2010

Signed – Chairman of Henlow Parish Council.................................................................................28^th April 2011

Copies of last year’s minutes (7^th May 2009) & Agenda for 29^th April 2010 had been made available at the meeting, as well as copies of reports from:

a) Martin Knight - Tree Warden / b) Henlow School Foundation / c) Wilson Larkins Charity.