16 August 2016 – Minutes
THAME TOWN COUNCIL
Minutes of the Meeting of Thame Town Council held on 16 August 2016 at 6.30pm in the Upper Chamber, Thame Town Hall
Present: Cllrs B Austin, D Bretherton, D Butler, N Champken-Woods, P Cowell, M Deacock, M Dyer, L Emery (Town Mayor), H Fickling, C Jones,
P Lambert, A Midwinter and T Wyse.
Officers:
G Hunt, Town Clerk
A Oughton, Committee Services Officer
1. Apologies for Absence
Apologies for absence were received from Cllrs Dixon (Holiday), Dodds (Personal) and Stiles (Personal). District Councillor Matelot Green and County Councillor Carter.
2. Declarations of Interest and Dispensations
There were no declarations of interest.
3. Civic Announcements
The Town Mayor had attended a number of engagements over the last couple of months. Cllr Emery drew particular attention to the Gambia Night Concert at Lord Williams’s School which had been a splendid evening with some amazing entertainment by Year 10 students at the school.
4. Public Participation and Public Questions
There were no applications to address the Council.
There were no questions put to the Council.
5. Report from County Councillor N Carter
Cllr Carter had sent his apologies and would provide a written report in due course.
6. Reports from South Oxfordshire District Councillors
The report from SODC Councillors was noted.
7. Notices of Motion
There were no Notices of Motion.
8. Members Questions (under Standing Order 11)
Cllr Wyse asked whether, following recent developments, it would be sensible to erect a noticeboard at Rycote Meadow to inform residents that the space was open to the public?
The Town Clerk reported that funding had been identified in the s106 agreement, that related to Site F, for the provision of footpaths, benches, signage, litter bins, gates, etc for Rycote Meadow. It would be sensible to advertise the Meadow as Public Open Space once the trigger point had been reached to release the funding. The Town Clerk would check when this was likely to happen. [Cllr Bretherton has since confirmed that funding will be released on the occupation of the 75th dwelling, likely to be in mid 2018].
9. Minutes
The minutes of the Council meeting held on 21 June 2016 were approved as a correct record and signed by the Mayor.
10. Policy & Resources Committee
The minutes of the meeting on 2 August 2016 were noted.
11. Community, Leisure & Recreation Committee
The minutes of the meeting on 26 July 2016 were noted.
Item 9 – Priest End Allotments to Burial Space
RESOLVED that:
i) The land known as Priest End Allotments be transferred to the church to extend the existing graveyard at St Mary’s church subject to relevant conditions and costs to be negotiated by the Town Clerk.
Cllr Champken-Woods added that as agreed at the meeting on 26 July, a group of Councillors, together with Mr Ashton, had visited the ‘Shed’ in Aylesbury and were very impressed. The date for the open meeting had been set for Saturday 1 October 2016 in the Upper Chamber at the Town Hall.
12. Planning & Environment Committee
The minutes of the meetings on 28 June 2016, 19 July 2016 and 9 August 2016 were noted.
13. Neighbourhood Plan Continuity Committee
The minutes of the meetings on 28 June 2016 and 9 August 2016 were noted.
Cllr Austin reported that a great deal of time, over the last four to six weeks, had been spent in planning and holding a Public Meeting and preparing a response to the SODC Local Plan – Preferred Options Consultation. The Town Clerk reported that West Waddy had provided examples as requested regarding building on green belt land with links to approximately 10 different Local Plans. The second part of the work on windfalls was expected tomorrow and both sets of information would be used to substantiate the Town Council’s response to the consultation.
Formal thanks was extended to the members of the Local Consultation Plan Team and Officers for their hard work in organising the successful Public Meeting and preparing the response to the consultation.
14. /DIS Planning Applications re Neighbourhood Plan Allocated Sites
Members noted that the Town Council had received various notifications of /DIS planning applications, to discharge various planning conditions at sites C, C2, D and F. These were mainly very technical matters, but where relevant, comments were requested from our Planning Consultant and passed to SODC for their consideration. In particular, comments had recently been provided on bricks to be used on site C2 and the Cuttle Brook footpath provision on site C2.
15. Names for the War Memorial Panel
The process for recommending the addition of names to either War Memorial was agreed at the Annual Meeting on 10 May 2016. This included that ‘A panel of five Councillors would be constituted, as the need arises, to consider the request and evaluate the evidence’.
Thame Remembers were likely to be submitting around 30 names in batches of five or six, possibly within the next nine months. It was agreed that rather than convene a panel on each occasion and to provide consistency, that a panel be convened for the lifetime of this Council.
When required the Town Clerk would call upon the core Panel members, Cllrs Champken-Woods, Deacock, Dixon, Jones and Wyse to meet. Should a member of the core team not be available Cllrs Butler and Midwinter would act as substitutes.
16. SODC Economic Development Projects
Members noted that under Financial Regulation 4.5 that the Town Clerk had agreed matched funding of the following projects from the joint SODC / Thame Town Council Economic Development Funding budget of £15,000 / £14,000 as follows:
a) £2,500 towards costs of promoting / running the Small Business Saturday event
b) £1,000 towards renewal of Midsomer Murders leaflets following Plaque installation
c) £1,000 to assist with this year’s Great British High Street awards application.
17. For Information
The items for information were noted.
The meeting concluded at 7.05pm
Signed …………………………
Chairman, 20 September 2016