Sunday 25 March 2012

Shilton Parish Council Chairman's Report to the Annual Parish Meeting 2012

For those who missed it, here is the annual report of the Chairman of Shilton Parish Council, Councillor Bill King, that he gave to the Annual Parish Meeting held last Thursday night:
  • Emma Raymont was appointed Clerk on 1 April 2011. During the year, she has done various courses working towards her qualifications necessary to help the parish council become a Quality Council.

  • Land in Ash Tree Grove is now owned by the parish council after many years of negotiation. We have drawn up plans for the maintenance of the area, in consultation with the residents. The hedge along the roadway has been cut back.

  • Ken Gupwell is now looking after the cemetery for the parish council and we are all very pleased with the care he is giving to it. Jackie Essex is now advising the parish council and looking after the records for the cemetery.

  • The netting along the road side of the playing field should be erected soon and work on the hedge will begin as soon as possible after that. Ron Lissaman and Mike Randall have been in charge of looking after this work.

  • Planning permission for travellers at Top Road was turned down by Rugby Borough Council, but they have appealed. There was a hearing in December, which was adjourned until February, and then this one was adjourned and will now be heard in June. 

  • CCTV is now up and running in the car parks at the village hall and the pavilion. This can only be accessed by the police at the request of the parish council.

  • Dan Essex, Stephen White and Emma Raymont have formed a committee which is working towards Shilton Parish Council becoming a Quality Council.

  • The Shilton & Ansty Trust, of which I am a trustee, has awarded a number of grants this year to people in the villages of Shilton, Ansty and Barnacle.

  • We have spent over £1,000 repairing the wall around the cemetery during the year.

  • The parish council is investigating what effect the Localism Act will have for the parish council.

  • Participatory Budgeting, where local people can suggest ways of spending some of the council's money, is one of the things we are looking at.

  • The parish council arranged a meeting with all the local organisations to arrange festivities for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. This committee is now called the Jubilee Committee, and is chaired by Pat Hemmings. Festivities will take place on Sunday 3 June at Shilton village hall and on the playing fields, which will include field games and a pram race, hog roast and tea for the children. There will be music and entertainment throughout the afternoon and early evening, and then on the evening of Monday 4 June in Barnacle village hall. Mugs, which have been paid for by the parish council, will also be distributed to all children aged 16 years and under who live in Shilton and Barnacle.

  • There will be an election in May to elect Shilton parish councillors and Rugby councillors. The boundaries have been changed for Rugby Borough Council and we will in future be Wolvey & Shilton, which will only have one councillor instead of the two we have now. A number of the present parish councillors are not standing for re-election, and we will therefore be looking for new people to stand for election to become parish councillors. The council will only stand for two years, and there will then have to be another election, after which we will be in line with other councils in Rugby and the council will then be elected every four years.

  • Dan Essex has been looking into various schemes that are available to improve broadband in the villages.

  • Thank you to all the parish councillors for all their hard work over the last year. Thank you especially to Ron Lissaman and Mike Randall, who have done a lot of work for the council over a number of years and are not standing for re-election, and to Jean Russell-Pattinson who retired from the parish council last year. 

Tuesday 20 March 2012

Annual Parish Meeting - Thursday 22 March - Final Reminder


Click on the image above to view full size.

Planning Application Decisions

Rugby Borough Council has recently reached the following decisions on planning applications in the parish:
  • Carbury Investments, Units 4 - 12 and 3 - 13, Shilton Industrial Estate, Kiln Way, Shilton -  refurbishment and external alterations to the building, including the demolition of existing flat roofed extensions, replacement of roof and wall cladding, windows, rooflights and vehicle doors - approved.

  • 38 Bulkington Road, Shilton - extensions and alterations to dwelling to include alteration to the roof, two storey extension to the rear (to replace existing outbuildings) and elevational alterations - approved.
The full decisions on these applications can be seen here and here.

Wednesday 14 March 2012

Shilton Parish Council Election Leaflet 2012 - BLOG EXCLUSIVE!

As something of a present from me to everyone who visits this blog to keep in touch with what the parish council is doing, I've attached below the first public sighting of a new leaflet that every household in the parish will receive during the next week.

The leaflet is aimed at encouraging people to consider standing as a parish councillor in the local elections that are to be held on Thursday 3 May, as well as highlighting some of the things that Shilton Parish Council has done over recent years (and thereby encouraging more people to get involved). The hope is that this will raise some interest in people putting themselves forward for election, and help raise the awareness of some of the good things Shilton Parish Council has done.

The leaflet won't hit the streets until the weekend, so if you're reading this on Wednesday then you have a three day head start on everyone else! As always, feedback (both good and bad) will be most gratefully received.

Click on both of the images to see the leaflet in larger form (and remember that when the leaflet is delivered, it'll be folded into three, which will make more sense of the layout!)


Monday 12 March 2012

Fosse Division Community Forum - 1 March

Earlier this month I attended the quarterly Fosse Division Community Forum in Ansty. This public meeting discusses matters of relevance and interest to the Fosse area, which includes Shilton and Barnacle.

The meeting started with PC Giustine Cree from the Rugby Rural North Safer Neighbourhood Team providing a report on local policing matters during the last three months. It is at this meeting that members of the public can suggest priorities for the local police during the next quarter. One of the priorities that was agreed was for the police to focus on the problem of speeding in Leicester Road, Shilton as vehicles entered the village from the Wolvey direction. It was agreed that a minimum of five separate speed detection operations will be carried out over the coming weeks, and you can read further about how these are progressing here. A report back from the police on this matter will be given at the next Fosse Division Community Forum in June.

The main focus of the meeting were presentations from Nick Gower-Johnson from Warwickshire County Council on the provisions of the Localism Act, and from Ian Davis from Rugby Borough Council on planning and development matters within the area.

Nick Gower-Johnson went through a number of the key aspects of the Localism Act that had the potential to impact on parish councils and local communities. The act is large and complex, but sought to have four key themes running through its aims:

  • freedoms and flexibility for local government
  • rights and powers for local communities
  • reform to the planning system
  • more decisions about housing to be taken locally
As Nick explained these themes in more detail, it was clear that the Localism Act would provide the opportunity for local communities to become more involved in the running of their own areas, but that this was invariably conditional on a range of different matters. It'll be interesting to see over the coming years whether parish councils are able to grasp these opportunities and become real community leaders and champions. What is certain though is that there needs to be a significant number of people prepared to get actively involved for the good of their area in order to realise these new rights and powers. A parish council that sits back and waits for things to happen to them is, more than likely, going to be bypassed.

Ian Davis took the opportunity to talk about local planning matters. Of particular interest in the Fosse area was the status with planning applications for a series of wind turbines in the Offchurch and Copston Magna areas, and the on-going matter of gypsy and traveller sites around Shilton and Barnacle. The parish council has long argued that the best protection against this type of development within Green Belt land was for the proper provision of sites across the borough, so it was pleasing to hear Ian say that Rugby Borough Council was finally beginning to start the process that would do this.

The first stage was to re-assess the total need for gypsy and traveller pitches that would be required in the coming years. Work was currently being undertaken to determine genuine housing need, and it was expected that the results of this work would be published in May. I shall blog more about this issue when the data is released.

The next Fosse Division Community Forum is scheduled for 21 June 2012 at a venue to be agreed.

Monday 5 March 2012

Police Crime Report - February

Warwickshire Police has released its latest crime report setting out incidents it wishes to draw to the attention of local residents that have occurred in Shilton and Barnacle during the last month. Two incidents have been highlighted:
  • Thursday 16 February - Rowdy behaviour - Top Road, Barnacle
  • Reports that a group of males were gathered at the entrance to a travellers' site and there was concern that this was an organised event. The police helicopter was called and further police units. The group was dispersed.
  • Wednesday 29 February - Church Road, Shilton
  • Between 27 - 29 February, unknown offenders had taken a metal garden chair and table set. No CCTV was available and no house-to-house enquiries were undertaken.

    Warwickshire Police has asked that anyone with any information about these crimes should call them on (01788) 541111.