Minutes from meeting held on: Thursday 09 November, 2017

Present: Terry Pollard (TP), Bryn Walker (BW), Dawn Channon (DC), Jack Pearson (JP), Samantha Hatwell – clerk (SH).

Members of the village: Emma Wykes, Isobel Wykes, Donna Han, Christopher Harris

Apologies: Bruce Tremayne (BT), Christine Herbert (CH), Lynn Roberts (LR).

Declaration of Interests: None given.

Public Comments/Notices: Emma reported that she had attended a meeting with the OPFA with regard to funding and planning of the proposed new play equipment. She will circulate the report to us. She had also met with Richard Venables from Islip, he gave suggestions of who to contact for grants, Ardley Tip were one, of which they don’t have to match funding.

A consultation is going to be organised in January to assess what the public/children want to see on the playing field. A notice will be issued in the Otmoor Review to advertise a fund-raising event that is going to be held in January for a Village quiz.

Emma has been in contact with Jim Crook regarding keeping the Football club informed.

Approval of the minutes from the meeting 5th October 2017.
The minutes were approved and signed by the chairman.

Matters arising from the meeting 5th October 2017.

a) Play equipment – see above.
b) Halton Trust – Clayton Baskerville is compiling a plan for the future of the field.
c) Website – CH had informed us that the website is now live.

Finance:

Payments for approval – Clerk – pay for November, LexisNexis – Arnold-Baker book £64.60, BDO – external audit £120.00, C S Boswell £250.00 – refund, Kallkwik – £864.00 this invoice had been received after the agenda had been issued.

Burial Grounds:

OLD: TP reported that all was in order.
NEW: BW reported that all was in order and noted that there had been a fine display this year of the bee orchids but a member of the village had been disappointed that the school children weren’t encouraged to go and see them when they were in bloom.

Playing field/grounds:

BW has yet to fix the new swing seat in place.

Allotments:

JP and DC had looked at the contract and were in agreement that it does state that the tenant should ‘maintain in decent order all fences and ditches bordering the allotment garden and shall keep trim and in decent order all hedges forming any boundary of the allotment garden’ and ‘shall be kept in a clean, decent and good condition and properly cultivated’. It was agreed not to change the wording on the allotment tenancy.

Planning:

a) Mansmoor Lane – Network Rail has no desire, and is not intending, to acquire the freehold of Mansmoor Lane but only a right of way over it to provide the replacement accommodation accesses to comply with the Chiltern Railways (Bicester to Oxford Improvements) Order 2012, following the closure of the level crossings.

b) Land adj. 2 The Broadway – The plans were discussed and no objections were made by the member’s present.

Items for further discussion:

BW had met with the prospective new owners of The Crown and found them to be very keen to keep up the traditions already in place and were also keen on making new ones. TP noted that future funding is available for keeping the website up to date. TP had read Tim Hallchurch’s report regarding the proposed Express Way from Cambridge and the letter from Wendlebury PC regarding the restarting of the Bicester Villages Group. These matters will be put on the agenda and discussed further at the next meeting.

Being no further business, the meeting closed at 8.15pm. The next meeting will be held on 7th December 2017, in the Percy Collet room of the Community Hall at 7.30pm.