homepage... councillors... appointments... meetings... Present: Mr. C. Slaughter, Chairman, Mr. C. Thompson, Vice-Chairman, Mr. C. Jones, Mrs. J. Gale, Mr. S. Georgii, Mr S. Herrett, Mrs. A. Myers, Mr. R. Fudge, Mr. I. Robinson, Councillor P. Bradford, Chairman of EHDC, Hampshire County Councillor S. James, District Councillor F. Cowper, guest speakers Mr. M. Brittain and PCSO J. Leggatt, the Clerk Mrs L. Pennick, Assistant Clerk Mrs. L. Coney and approximately 95 members of the public. 1. Chairman’s Welcome Mr C Slaughter opened the meeting by welcoming those present, and then introducing the Councillors and guests. 2. Apologies were received from Mrs. G. Rawcliffe, Mr. H. Murphy and Mr. J. Henson. 3. Minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting held on the 30th March 2007, having been approved by full Council in May 2007 as a true record of the proceedings, were made available to those present and on the proposal of Mrs. J. Gale, seconded by Mr. I. Robinson and agreed, were approved and signed. 4. Chairman’s Annual Report Before commencing the reading of the Chairman’s Annual Report Mr Slaughter said that rather than taken questions from the floor immediately after, these should be saved for item 9. Open Forum. Copies had been made available around the hall prior to the start of the meeting; a copy is also attached as Appendix I. 5. Guest Speaker – Mark Brittain, a Fire Fighter at Grayshott Fire Station Mr. C. Slaughter introduced Mark Brittain to the meeting. Since his amusing talk last year, Mark had been invited to 6. Vote of Thanks Mr. Slaughter thanked Mr. Brittain on behalf of the Meeting for an interesting and informative speech. Hampshire fire brigade have been in the village for 101 years and we are all very grateful for their services. 7. 7.1 Councillor Ferris Cowper informed the audience that due to a conflict in meetings he would be leaving directly after his speech. He spoke about a number of issues affecting the village (Appendix 2) and finished by saying how delighted he was to be able to serve the Parish for three more years. He couldn’t imagine living anywhere else. Councillor Cowper invited questions from the floor before he departed. Mary Seabourne asked whether a “shared streets scheme” would be considered in the traffic calming proposals. Councillor Cowper said they had been discussed. He was aware of rumours that conventional funding may have disappeared in connection with traffic calming plans associated with the new A3 tunnel scheme. He would be looking to have this replaced. He had recently had talks with Colin Taylor, head of Highways department, and would be lobbying for traffic calming with no markings. Geoffrey Lee spoke of the impact of the tunnel. Despite the fact that funding for our roads is supposed to be ring-fenced, we are still talking about traffic problems that have deteriorated considerably. He asked Councillor Cowper why the old A3 had been handed over to the National Trust. Councillor Cowper said that there was no secret about where he stood on this matter, however ownership was not a retrievable situation. The Highways Agency have not officially said that funding is not available. The pot of monies was given to Hampshire County Council to control and he would ensure that they deliver on their promise. Councillor Sam James would be speaking on this issue later. Mr. Slaughter thanked Cllr. Ferris Cowper and introduced Cllr. P. Bradford. Councillor Ferris Cowper retired from the meeting. 7.2 Cllr. Bradford told the audience that, until 3 years ago, she had only known Grayshott as a name on a map. She then visited the Fox and Pelican and drove around the village, which was becoming more like a small town. She apologised if that offended some residents but Grayshott had a large number of shops. Some of the Parish Assemblies that she had been to had only had 6-12 members of the public in attendance. The numbers here tonight showed how interested and concerned residents were. It had been a privilege to be elected as Chairman of EHDC, which covers a large area and she had met a lot of people during her year in office. Last year, she was delighted to attend an opera in the Grayshott Primary School Field - The Barber of Seville. She thanked Cllr. Slaughter for inviting her. Mr. Slaughter thanked Cllr. Bradford and introduced Sam James. 7.3 County Councillor Sam James thanked the Chairman for allowing him to speak and addressed the audience (Appendix 3). Cllr. James then presented a cheque for £1000 to Vivien Harrison of Grayshott concerts. Mrs. Harrison thanked Cllr. James for his sponsorship of their concert planned for November with local violinist Chloe Hansett and said that his moral support was much appreciated. 8. Local Issues 8.1 The Square – Cllr. C. Thompson spoke and gave an update on the progress with The Square informing the audience that the Square Group was holding their AGM at this point in the proceedings within the Parish Assembly and all elected members would be entitled to vote. He then presented the Chairman’s report (Appendix 4). 8.2 Grayshott Archives – Dr David Barrett gave a brief talk and demonstration of the new computer system available for public use in Grayshott Library. He emphasised that it was very simple to operate and allowed users to view hundreds of images available in the Archives. He urged members of the audience to become Friends of the Archives. 8.3 Greening Grayshott – Cllr. R. Fudge gave a presentation on initiatives that everyone could take to make Grayshott a greener place to live and thereby contribute to protecting the environment (Appendix 5). 9. Open Forum Cllr. Slaughter announced that, before he opened the floor to the public, he would like to welcome PCSO Jim Leggatt, who then advised the audience of the latest crime statistics, which would not be available in the public domain until Monday. Hampshire police had had a very successful year. Reported crime had been reduced by 6%, and violent crime by 9% in North East Hants and crime had been reduced by 13% in Headley and Grayshott although there was a marginal increase in burglaries at Headley Down recently due to a professional burglar in the area. The total number of crimes in Headley and Grayshott during the last year amounted to 277, making Grayshott a very safe place to live. The Chairman thanked PCSO Leggatt for taking the time to attend the meeting and for being available to the public in his office on the designated open days. Dr. D. Barrett congratulated Councillor Fudge on a splendid talk and suggested that the prinicpals of “greening Grayshott” should be taken to the National Trust who are intending to close the old A3, thus increasing the mileage of local traffic. He went on to say that The National Trust is not a green organisation and should be ashamed. Mr. P. Harrison, of Grayshott Concerts, wished to acknowledge the huge support shown by the village, including local businesses and the financial support of the District Council and the County Council. He announced the news of a £10,000 grant from the national Lottery awards for all towards staging for the concerts. This would be available for members of the local community to borrow. Tickets were available for the next concert. Mr. Stuart Rusby stated that EHDC had done a wonderful job in holding the precept for the forthcoming year. However, he was concerned that the Police authority precept was increasing by 8%. He asked whether HCC had any authority over the police budget and whether Hampshire Police authority representatives were non-elected. Cllr. James replied that HCC had no influence on the Police, which was independent. Mr. Rusby re-iterated his concern over the lack of control over the Police precept. Mr. G. Lee was disappointed at the lack of environmental protection. The local springs had disappeared during the droughts due to weather conditions and town and country planning. This area has been developed greatly over the last 20 years and lacks control at district and county level, resulting in deterioration in local flora and fauna over 30 years. The Chairman replied that he would discuss the issue of infrastructure with Cllr. James at a later date. Margaret Pennington introduced herself as a resident in Mr. G. Sanderson was a relative newcomer to the village. He noted that Cllr. Fudge had referred to a 20-mph limit through the village. Judging from the response of the audience, he deemed this to be a popular suggestion. If traffic calming was not going to be an option he asked how we could promote a 20-mph limit before completion of the new A3. This raised applause from the floor. Cllr. James replied that he had taken this on board but was conscious of the fact that this had to be enforceable. The Square in Liphook had been designated a 20-mph speed limit area but he did not know how this had been achieved. There are speeding issues on every road in East Hampshire, which speed limits and shared surfaces may reduce. Mrs. C. Vardy was concerned to hear from Cllr. James that shared streets were not a hot topic at HCC. A recent talk on the subject, which she had attended, had given the impression that that HCC were taking a lead on this issue. Cllr. James replied that whilst schemes had been explored they had not been scheduled for work and there was a variety of views on this matter. He was aware that crossings could work. Cllr. Fudge, in reply to Mr. Sanderson’s question, stated that a 20-mph would need policing. He asked whether villagers could be trained to take this task on. Cllr. James replied that he had no information on this matter but would investigate. 10. The Chairman drew the Open Forum to a close and thanked Cllr. Bradford and Cllr. James for attending. 11. Future Dates Village Clean-up – Saturday 5th April at GPC A.G.M. – Monday 12th May 2008 12. Closure of Meeting The Chairman thanked the W.I. who had kindly provided refreshments that evening. Members of the public were encouraged to view the sculpture on display at the back of the hall and give their views. They may have noticed on their seats a new map of Grayshott, which had been initiated by the ‘Buy In Grayshott’ organisation. Dick Smith would welcome offers to help with the posting of these maps. He wished to thank his colleagues on the Parish council Liz Pennick, Parish Clerk and Leah Coney, Assistant Clerk and would be very pleased to see members of the public at Parish Council meetings in the future. He wished everyone a safe journey home. Chairman……………………………. Date …………………………… 
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