NORTHINGTON PARISH COUNCIL

MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE COUNCIL

Tuesday, 21st January 2020 Woolpack Inn, Totford

Present:  John Mitchell – Chairman
Dennis Nye
Bill Wykeham
Yvonne White
Melissa Jennings
Cllr Russell Gordon-Smith

Alexandra Risebury

Wendy Simson – Clerk

Apologies:  Cllr Margot Power

Time: 7:30pm

The Chairman welcomed all present including Alexandra Risebury who had resigned as Clerk after 4 years’ service. The Councillors presented Alex with a beautiful bouquet of flowers and a card.
Cllr Russell Gordon-Smith attended the meeting as Cllr Margot Power was unavailable.

1. Minutes of the last meeting

The minutes for the meeting in September and November were both signed as a true representation of the meeting. The September minutes had been held over due to not enough of those who attended the meeting being present in November.

2. Matters arising

The planning application for Merryvale, which was discussed at the last meeting, was passed by Winchester City Council.
The road issues at Grange Corner are due to be dealt with in February, with white dash road markings. The bollards which were suggested could not be used as they would reduce the width of the road.

3. Planning Applications

There have been two planning applications since the last meeting they were:

• 1 Calf Shed, Newhouse Farm (19/02608/HOU) – the Councillors agreed that they had noobjections to this application
• Rose Cottage, Swarraton (19/02339/HOU) – the closing date on this application was 9thJanuary but the Councillors agreed that due to the size and proximity to the boundary that a

  comment should be forwarded to Winchester City Council.

  Action: Chairman to write a comment on behalf of the Council.

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4. Food Festival

The Chairman and a number of the Councillors attended the hearing at the Guildhall in Winchester on Monday 20th and the licence for this event has been granted. The Chairman had the opportunity to speak and was able to convey the concerns of the community, in particular with the traffic management of the event. It appears that a traffic management plan was not required, as part of the licensing hearing but one would need to be presented. Brand Events said that they run a number of similar events across the country so have experience in this field, but in discussion showed a distinct lack of local knowledge.

The noise was discussed under the heading Public Nuisance and some time was spent on this point. Brand Events agreed to a lower level of dbs.

It was agreed that the Council should send a letter to the Licensing Committee placing on record the Parish Council’s disappointment with the outcome. The
Action: Chairman to circulate a letter for Councillors to appraise and agree.

Council agreed to send out to the parish a note, outlining the outcome of the Licensing Hearing.

Action: Chairman to circulate a draft note for Councillors to view.

5. Clerk’s statement

The Clerk gave a short overview of the handover given by the previous Clerk and that there were a number of items, which required action, they are:

• Change the contact details on the Nat West current account
• Meeting with the nationwide about the contact details on the savings account
• Inform key contacts of the change in Clerk for example the insurance company.The Clerk suggested that either the Chairman or Councillor White meet with the Nationwide as this has been a long running issue to get the bank mandate completed.
  Action: Clerk to book meeting with Nationwide
  Action: Clerk to obtain forms for Nat West account and get completed

  The Clerk also confirmed that the precept form to increase the precept to £4,500 for 2020/21 had been completed and returned.

6. Any other business
Defibrillator at Village Hall – The VH committee had reported that the batteries have died. And asked if NPC would pay for their renewal. Estimated at £200. The council acceded to this request.
Action: Clerk to send out instructions about how to test the equipment and where to report issues to and how to order new batteries and pads (both have expiry dates).

Next Door (social media site) – It appears a number of residents have been contacted and signed up for a social media site called Next Door. Councillor Nye didn’t believe it was malicious but would generate spam email depending on search criteria.

Burglaries – There have been a spate of burglaries including 4 homes round Swarraton Lodge. PC Reid had been very supportive despite this being out of his area. It was suggested that how to protect your property be put on the agenda for the AGM, with hints and tools such as “smartwater pens” available. Action: Clerk to speak to Winchester police about attending

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Fly-tipping – There have been an increase in the number of incidents particularly over the Christmas period. The Councillors discussed CCTV for the village to identify the culprits of both these acts and the burglaries. The Councillors did not have a full understanding of the rights of the Parish Council to set up CCTV but quoted that towns and cities had systems.

Action: Clerk to investigate and report at next meeting
The recycling centre in Alresford now requires users to register their vehicles to access the facility. It

was agreed that this is likely to increase the amount of fly tipping.

Litter picking – the community gets together once a year to pick litter from the roadside. It was agreed that it would take place on the weekend of the 14th/15th March and Councillor Wykeman would head up the event. The Clerk agreed to speak to Hampshire County Council about access to the equipment required and about disposal of the bags of waste.

Action: Clerk to liaise with Councillor Wykeman

Water pipeline – The Parish Councillors have been informed of a plan to support Southampton in periods of extreme drought by pumping water from bore holes to the east of Basingstoke overland to the River Itchen. The water would be pumped along 500 mm black or blue pipes, which would be laid above ground along the edges of fields and verges. The system would be tested with the pipeline constructed in early 2020 and then dismantled and the pipes stored in Northington. Where a road crossing is required the pipe would be put under the road and these sections would be permanent. A hard standing 30mx30m would be created a future pumping station.

Action: Chairman to consult locally about opposing the implementation of this plan.

7. Date of the next meeting

The next meeting will be on Tuesday 24th March at 7pm

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Extraordinary Meeting of Northington Parish Council at
West Lodge, Northington on Tuesday, 17 March 2020.

This extraordinary meeting, which started at 7.00 pm, was called to discuss the nature of NPC’s future response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Present were:

John Mitchell (JM) Yvonne White (YW) Melissa Jennings (MJ) Bill Wykeham (BW) Dennis Nye (DN)

By special invitation also present were Elaine Capp (EC) representing Neighbourhood Watch and Lou Walker (LW), a village volunteer experienced in teamwork.

1. JM began by saying that he thought that it was perhaps the most important meeting of his life and thanked everyone for coming. He was looking forward to hearing their thoughts on the way ahead.
   We needed to be measured in what we decided to do and to be, as sure as may be, that our fellow parishioners would accept our decisions. It was important to keep our actions co-ordinated and make sure that we all knew, as far as possible, what the others were doing.
2. How would we do that? LW had flagged up a site http://coronavirus- support-group.co.uk/ ,which usefully listed ideas for establishing a local help group. The meeting noted that Northington already has many of the basic communications suggestions.
3. JM noted that NPC has a Resilience Officer, MJ, a post created after the no electricity debacle of Christmas of 2013. MJ said she was happy to continue in an overarching role but would need help. JM thanked her.
4. There followed a discussion about
   • Groups of volunteers who could watch out for needy neighbours.
   • The resources to hand – maps, addresses and mailing lists
   • Communications: this led to discussion of the village-wide email list

     and the most appropriate social media medium. WhatsApp.

• It was accepted that data lists would need to be under NPC’s umbrella to meet GDPR requirements.
• After discussion it was agreed that an email letter should be sent to the entire village.

  It was further agreed that this same letter would be hand delivered to every household in the Parish, to cover those residents whose name might not be on the email list.

5. The key tools at Northington’s disposal will be:
   • NPC’s email list
   • EC’s list of addresses
   • WCC electoral roll or similar listing of households/addresses for the

     village

6. It was agreed that:

• DN and MJ will be the first point of contact for villagers asking for help. DN and MJ will pass requests on to a team of volunteers coordinated by LW
• DN and MJ will list requests for support and notifications of homes in isolation.

• LW will establish a WhatsApp group or groups to manage local planning and volunteer activities
• LW’s WhatsApp group will respond to individual local requests.
• Wherever possible NPC will establish primary and secondary owners for tasks to provide back-up.
  Dennis (DN) / Melissa (MJ)
  Lou (LW) / Yvonne (YW)
• BW is available to help with contacting residents.
• The village email will be used for key messages.
• WhatsApp will be used to keep in touch with volunteers. •
• The Parish website will provide an alternative communication

  site.

• JM to email periodic updates to residents with local updates

This forum will meet shortly to review progress.

The meeting ended at 8.00 pm.

EJM
28 March 2020

Annual Meeting (Virtual) of Northington Parish Council held at 7.00 pm on 26 May 2020

Chairman’s Report.

1. INTRODUCTION

The second part of the Parish’s year was marred by the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic. There will be references to the event throughout this report.

At the start of 2020 NPC changed Clerks. This is an important moment for any parish council. Alex Risebury left us having guided us for four years through calm and choppy waters. Remarkably, Alex ran NPC’s affairs despite English not being her native tongue. We are all sorry to see her leave the council but Alex is still living here.

The baton has been picked up byWendy Simson, who already looks after three other councils’ business. NPC is in experienced hands. You are very welcome Wendy.

Adam Dyne moved to Romsey and we were very sorry to see him go. He brought business expertise and heaps of common sense to our doings. Lengthsman and the village pick-up day were his briefs and he carried out both tasks with enthusiasm and in the case of the Lengthsman, was not shy about rejecting sub-standard work.

Filling his shoes with great aplomb is Bill Wykeham, who has already organised a great village clean-up. He is very welcome.

COVID-19

The arrival of Covid-19 caused NPC to take stock and consider what it should be doing to help residents through this crisis. A special meeting of NPC invited Elaine Capp (Neighbourhood Watch) and Lou Walker to join them.

At this meeting it was decided to:

• !  Set up a care system for everyone in the parish
• !  Separate residents into small groups to allow councillors and volunteers

  to keep an eye open for distress.

• !  Organise food deliveries to Northington
• !  Identify all residents and improve communications

  Vulnerable residents were assured that people were there to help. The groups were formed and recorded. Using What’s App groups, fresh food came into the village and still does. Residents shared their regular food delivery facilities. The village e-mail network was improved. NPC achieved what it set out to do and the parish’s thanks go to everyone involved in this effective and swift response to Covid-19.

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2. PLANNING

Apart from the usual run of local planning applications, NPC has had to deal with three developments of unusual importance to the village.

SHEELA site NO01: This was a proposal to sell land within the Grange Park for speculative house building. Many residents thought this to be unacceptable and at a meeting in the Village Hall on 24 March 2019, they said as much. The meeting ended with no clear outcome.

A number of residents decided to tackle the matter through representations to Winchester City Council (WCC). In June 2019 a review of SHEELA sites rated as possible sites for development, concluded that Site NO01 should be removed from the list.

CHEFSTOCK: In the late autumn 2019, the Grange Estate (GE)let it be known that it wished to promote a food festival in the park in mid summer 2020. The first year number of visitors would be 10,000 rising to 20,000 in 2021. NPC wrote to the planners objecting to the scale of the concept and the likely traffic problems and local disruption. On 20 January, NPC attended a hearing of WCC’s Licensing Sub-committee and spoke against the scale of the proposed scheme. The license was granted. The advent of Covid-19 has put the plan on hold but the end of July 2021 is already set aside for a festival.

In the meantime the parish has been instrumental in setting up a Stakeholders Group to handle exchanges with the Grange Estate and Brand Events, the promoter. There has already been one virtual meeting with GE, when areas for discussion were identified. Lucy Williams has kindly agreed to chair the Group. Dennis Nye and John Mitchell are Group members, representing the interests of residents and NPC along with Emma Howard.

SOUTHERN WATER (SW) PIPELINE: SW has submitted an application to lay a temporary black plastic pipeline round the parish. This is a major concern for the parish. NPC has consulted the residents on a regular basis and sent a written representation, agreed by the parish, to HCC. This is only the first round of action against the application. This summer will see increased NPC sponsored opposition to the whole concept in an attempt to have HCC’s planners require SW to choose another route.

3. HIGHWAYS AND BY-WAYS

There has been a range of problems on the B3046, especially at the east side of the Grange. Some work has been done, meanwhile there are improvements promised for Northington Hill.

4. LENGTHSMAN

We have a new Lengthsman team and Bill Wykeham had a good session with them on their recent visit. Bill needs residents to tell him where work has to be done.

5. POLICING and NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH

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Elaine Capp continues to look after our interests and asked me to pass on a reminder about the need for vigilance with regard to telephone and computer scams. She also played a major role in our involvement with measures for handling Covid-19 related measures. Thank you, Elaine.

6. GRANGE FESTIVAL

The Grange Festival’s third season in June 2019 was a treat and it was good to see the Festival pursuing its ‘Open Door’ policy with vigour. Its plans for 2020 were shattered by Covid-19 restrictions but the Festival plans to return with the same programme in 2021.

7. THE COUNCIL

On behalf of the parish, my thanks go to my fellow councillors for their willingness to work on its behalf.

• Yvonne keeps an active eye on our roads and by-ways. Until Covi-19 arrived she was very actively pursuing HCC’s Highways Department over potholes and signs. Bill has gripped his role of keeping our environment working well.
  There is a programme planned for the summer. Corvid-19 notwithstanding.
• Melissa is safeguarding our data and its use, she maintains our website and as our resilience officer, played and as guardian with Dennis of the group formations, still plays a major role in the parish’s wellbeing.
• Dennis has risen to the challenges of informing the village about Covid-19 matters and the parish now has a means of communicating with everyone who has joined the email list. His input was invaluable during the first days of the Corvid-19 crisis and has more than proved its worth, when it came to consolidating views of Southern Water’s pipeline proposals.
• Wendy tells us what needs to be done and how to go about it. She exudes a quiet certitude which I find re-assuring and has a great memory for past correspondence. She has adapted to operating under Covid-19 rules with great equanimity.

  John Mitchell
  Chairman
  Northington Parish Council.

  26 May 2020

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