14 Sep 2006 - PARISH COUNCIL
SHENINGTON WITH ALKERTON PARISH COUNCIL
The meeting of the Parish Council on Wednesday, September 13 in the Village Hall was attended by all seven councillors, the Clerk and 15 members of the parish.
In the initial Open Forum thanks were conveyed to Gillian Crabb for her stalwart work as principal holder of the Planning Portfolio.
Councillor George Reynolds then gave a brief talk on the role of Parish Councils and stressed the key part played by the Clerk who should be the focal point for legal advice and for all of the Council's outgoing correspondence. He made the point that being a Parish Councillor is a time consuming and a worrying task and stressed that majority decisions by the Council should be observed by all members irrespective of their own points of view. Portfolios should not be the sole responsibility of one person and decisions should be made by the Council as a whole and not by Portfolio holders.
So far no application has been made for a Tree Preservation Order on the roadside trees in front of the property Long Acre.
The clerk has yet to write to the Ombudsman over the tardy action by the County Council over the disputed right of way through the Jitty.
Oxfordshire Highways Department have been invited to the November meeting of the Council.
The Chairman outlined a list of tasks which the member of the Parish Council should undertake and suggested that these should form portfolios. Six portfolios were agreed, namely:
Finance Tim Dowdeswell
Highways, Transport and Traffic Keith Adams and Stuart Mitchell
Karts and Gliders Margaret Coles and Stuart Mitchell
Planning, Conservation, Affordable Housing Gillian Crabb and Janet Walters
Recreation, Village Hall and Sports Facilities Margaret Coles and Stuart Mitchell.
Tip and Minerals Tim Dowdeswell and Keith Hainsworth
Major issues arising from the Cherwell and North Oxfordshire Development Plan will be reserved for discussion by the Council in full session.
Stuart Mitchell will prepare a Recreation Strategy document on the benefits and problems associated with the provision of recreation and sports facilities including those potentially available in the school.
Keith Adams will prepare a paper on communication and liaison with the parish.
In the Open Forum the Council was on the one hand pressed to ensure the greater use of the school's facilities for village functions and on the other to avoid such use due to the resulting extra traffic down Stocking Lane.
The Council were asked what they were going to focus on / deliver as a result of allocating responsibility of the different portfolios to councillors. In the first instance a fact finding exercise would be carried out to establish what had been done in the past and then the Council will decide where to go from there. It was suggested that the production of a village plan would help to provide focus on which activities mattered most to villagers and could inform the prioritisation of effort.
Emma Philcox who has had experience of preparing such a plan in another village offered her assistance.
The meeting of the Parish Council on Wednesday, September 13 in the Village Hall was attended by all seven councillors, the Clerk and 15 members of the parish.
In the initial Open Forum thanks were conveyed to Gillian Crabb for her stalwart work as principal holder of the Planning Portfolio.
Councillor George Reynolds then gave a brief talk on the role of Parish Councils and stressed the key part played by the Clerk who should be the focal point for legal advice and for all of the Council's outgoing correspondence. He made the point that being a Parish Councillor is a time consuming and a worrying task and stressed that majority decisions by the Council should be observed by all members irrespective of their own points of view. Portfolios should not be the sole responsibility of one person and decisions should be made by the Council as a whole and not by Portfolio holders.
So far no application has been made for a Tree Preservation Order on the roadside trees in front of the property Long Acre.
The clerk has yet to write to the Ombudsman over the tardy action by the County Council over the disputed right of way through the Jitty.
Oxfordshire Highways Department have been invited to the November meeting of the Council.
The Chairman outlined a list of tasks which the member of the Parish Council should undertake and suggested that these should form portfolios. Six portfolios were agreed, namely:
Finance Tim Dowdeswell
Highways, Transport and Traffic Keith Adams and Stuart Mitchell
Karts and Gliders Margaret Coles and Stuart Mitchell
Planning, Conservation, Affordable Housing Gillian Crabb and Janet Walters
Recreation, Village Hall and Sports Facilities Margaret Coles and Stuart Mitchell.
Tip and Minerals Tim Dowdeswell and Keith Hainsworth
Major issues arising from the Cherwell and North Oxfordshire Development Plan will be reserved for discussion by the Council in full session.
Stuart Mitchell will prepare a Recreation Strategy document on the benefits and problems associated with the provision of recreation and sports facilities including those potentially available in the school.
Keith Adams will prepare a paper on communication and liaison with the parish.
In the Open Forum the Council was on the one hand pressed to ensure the greater use of the school's facilities for village functions and on the other to avoid such use due to the resulting extra traffic down Stocking Lane.
The Council were asked what they were going to focus on / deliver as a result of allocating responsibility of the different portfolios to councillors. In the first instance a fact finding exercise would be carried out to establish what had been done in the past and then the Council will decide where to go from there. It was suggested that the production of a village plan would help to provide focus on which activities mattered most to villagers and could inform the prioritisation of effort.
Emma Philcox who has had experience of preparing such a plan in another village offered her assistance.