Parish Council Meeting - 1 February

Last night I attended the February meeting of Shilton Parish Council, our first of 2011.

The meeting began with updates from County Councillor Phillip Morris-Jones and Borough Councillor Tony Gillias. Perhaps unsurprisingly, both of them focused on the potential job losses at Warwickshire County Council, Warwickshire Police and Rugby Borough Council. There were assurances that 'front line services' would not be affected, although I do wonder, even taking service delivery efficiencies into account, if councils really believe that the public will be unaffected by the levels of job cuts that are being suggested.

Amongst the other issues discussed by the parish council during the meeting, there was a report of the public car park in Church Road, Shilton being used late at night as a discrete location to smoke drugs. This has previously been reported as a problem in the Shilton Village Hall car park, and I hope the police action taken then didn't end up just moving it from one location in the village to another. The parish council agreed to raise the issue immediately with the local Safer Neighbourhoods Team, and then again at the Fosse Community Forum meeting in March, where Warwickshire Police will be asked to treat it as a neighbourhood priority for the next three months.

One issue I agreed to follow up on was the matter of the proposed Rugby Rural CCTV Network project. This was a project first highlight in December 2009, and which I blogged about in March last year. Since then, nothing much seems to have been heard regarding progress with the initiative, and so I agreed to look into the matter further and see what progress had been made. I shall report back on here what I'm able to find out.

In other business, a number of bills were paid, including £465 to E.ON for the supply of electricity to the parish's street lights for the last quarter of 2010, and a further £279 to E.ON for street light maintenance works over the same period. There were reports on the latest planning applications submitted to, and determined by, Rugby Borough Council, and a report from Councillor Stephen White on a meeting he attended last week regarding the formulation of planning policies on wind farm development in the borough (something that is currently exercising the residents of Copston Magna and Churchover). Finally, the parish council declined a request received from the Southam Action Area Group to contribute towards its campaign against the route of the proposed High Speed 2 railway line through the town.

The next meeting of Shilton Parish Council will be held on Tuesday 1 March at 7.30pm in the Parish Council Meeting Room, Church Road, Shilton.

Planning Applications Consultation and Decision

This week, a planning application has been submitted by:

• High Tor, Shilton Lane, Shilton - use of land as a private gypsy caravan site, comprising five pitches, hardstanding and amenity block.

Full details of the application (including site plans) can be viewed here. All comments on the application must be received by Rugby Borough Council by Thursday 3 February.

Rugby Borough Council has also reached the following decision on a planning application submitted in April last year:

• Ashurst Farm, Wood Lane, Shilton - waiver of condition of previous planning permission to allow the dwelling house to be occupied by persons not connected to the farrier business - refused.

The full decision on this application can be viewed here.

Happy New Year

Just a quick post to wish everybody who takes time out to come and read my blog a very happy New Year!

I'm continually amazed that people remain interested enough in what I'm writing about to come back month after month. For an ultra-local blog, principally about the goings-on in two small villages, the amount of people who log on to read my posts is always surprising.

The original purpose of the blog was to explain what I am doing as a local parish councillor, what Shilton Parish Council is up to, and to highlight wider political issues that might be of local interest. For the year ahead, I promise to try and get back to my target of at least one post a week (even if it does mean me spreading my choice of topics a little wider than just Shilton and Barnacle) in the continued pursuit of those original aims.

And a final word concerning everyone who's taken time to post a comment on the blog. I wish I had lots more comments from you all so that we could have some really interesting discussions, but special thanks to the handful of people who have taken the time to tell me, and everyone else, what they're thinking. In the spirit of open debate, I'm happy to confirm that every single comment submitted to me has been published unedited, and long will it remain so.

Here's to 2011!

Planning Application Consultation

This week, a planning application has been submitted by:

• Top Park, Top Road, Barnacle - retention of the use of land and ancillary operational development as a residential caravan site, including the erection of six temporary amenity blocks.

Full details of the application (including site plans) can be found by clicking here. All comments on the application must be received by Rugby Borough Council by Thursday 13 January.

Need to Report Potholes?

Cold Weather Advice from Rugby Borough Council

With the cold weather seeming to have started earlier, and being more sustained, than in previous years, Rugby Borough Council has issued some cold weather advice and set up a dedicated page on their website for further information. The web page provides links to all the key information you'll need to know in the case of heavy snow or prolonged cold weather and is worth visiting as a first point of call.

The council's most recent press release says:

Waste collection crews are trying hard to collect the bins in the current icy conditions.

However, with the cold weather conditions we are experiencing at the moment it is sometimes difficult to get the garden and food waste out of the frozen bins.

Residents are urged to loosen their bin lids and also try to loosen the garden waste where possible to help the crews with getting the waste out of the bins.

And for those residents on income-related benefits, the Department for Work and Pensions has confirmed that recorded temperatures in the CV21, CV22 and CV23 postcode areas have dipped below the trigger point for Cold Weather Payments.

Those eligible residents will receive an extra £25 within the next 12 days.

Additionally, all matches due to be played on borough council-run sports pitches will be cancelled this weekend.

For more information, visit www.rugby.gov.uk/severeweather

I must admit that I find it hard to believe that it was cold enough in the CV21, CV22 and CV23 postcode areas to trigger Cold Weather Payments, but the CV7 area was too 'warm'. Hopefully it's not the case of Rugby council forgetting that residents with a CV7 postcode live within the borough. I shall perhaps investigate that one further and report back. Until then, keep warm!

WALC AGM - 27 October

On Wednesday night, I attended the 2010/11 AGM of the Warwickshire and West Midlands Association of Local Councils (WALC) in Warwick.

Representatives from 40 of the town and parish councils in Warwickshire met at Shire Hall to elect the officers and the county committee of WALC for the forthcoming year, and to hear a keynote speech from Jonathan Horsfield, Renewable Energy Advisor for Warwickshire County Council.

The topic of Jonathan's speech was 'UK Energy Security and Peak Oil', which may not be at the top of every parish council's agenda, but was an interesting subject nonetheless. The concept of 'Peak Oil' is that it is the point at which the maximum amount of oil is being extracted from the earth. After this point has been reached and then passed, oil production will rapidly decrease, prices will dramatically increase, and the knock-on implications for travel, heating and food production etc will need to be tackled by governments, energy companies and individuals.

It was perhaps all a bit 'Doomsday scenario' for a gathering of mostly geriatric parish councillors, but the general theme was that all of us will be required to re-evaluate our dependency on oil and be prepared for changes in lifestyle and disposable income as a finite natural resource becomes ever more scarce. Jonathan outlined in practical terms what the impact of increasing oil prices could have on the services the county council provided, including highways maintenance, transportation, catering and children's services.

If you want to learn more about this issue, have a look at the Oil Depletion Analysis Centre website, or watch video from Warwickshire County Council's seminar held in June on energy security and the implications of oil supply for local authorities here.

Parish Council Meeting - 5 October

Last Tuesday I attended the October meeting of Shilton Parish Council. It was my first parish council meeting for two months and it was good to get back up to speed with a number of the on-going issues that had been a feature of recent meetings.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, one of the main topics of discussion was the events of 24/25 September in Barnacle that ended up with the submission of a planning application for the creation of a gypsy caravan site for three families in Top Road. Borough Councillors Tony Gillias and Rachel Watts attended the meeting to update the parish council on events as they were developing, including the High Court hearing that was taking place in London the following day (more here.)

The parish council were being consulted on the planning application for this development, and after a full discussion, councillors agreed to inform Rugby Borough Council that they objected to the granting of planning permission, principally on the grounds that the area was in the Green Belt and it was therefore inappropriate for development of this type to be permitted there.

In other business, a local resident in Shilton had complained in the past about the speed of traffic in Wood Lane. As a result, Warwickshire County Council had undertaken a covert speed survey on 9 September. It was now reported that the outcome of this survey showed an average speed of 34.6mph along the road, qualifying it for a more in depth speed survey to establish the full extent of the speeding problem in the area. In the meantime, look out for Smiley Sid to be making an appearance sometime soon to encourage us all not to exceed the speed limit!

Finally, the parish council appointed Emma Raymont as its new Clerk to take over from Andrea Mogano, who had stood in following the retirement of Chris Warburton. Emma's contact details will be publicised in the next edition of the BASIS newsletter, but can be contacted at clerk-shiltonparish@hotmail.co.uk if you need to get hold of her before then. A huge thanks needs to go to Andrea for everything she's done over the last few months - the parish council would've been in a much worse state of affairs were it not for her efforts!

Planning Applications Consultations and Decisions

This week, planning applications have been submitted by:

• Land south side of Top Road, Barnacle - change of use of land for use as a residential caravan site for gypsy families, comprising three pitches for the siting of three mobile homes and three touring caravans, including ancillary works.
• Tree Tops, Shilton Lane, Shilton - alterations and extensions to dwelling to include extension to side and provision of living accommodation in roof space, erection of detached triple garage to front and alterations to access.

Full details of the applications (including site plans) can be viewed here (Top Road) and here (Shilton Lane). All comments on the applications must be received by Rugby Borough Council by Thursday 28 October (Top Road) and Wednesday 20 October (Shilton Road).

Rugby Borough Council has also reached the following decisions on planning applications submitted in June/July:

• Land west of Bulkington Road, Shilton - erection of a stable and tack room, and provision of a menage - approved.
• The Spinney, Shilton Lane, Shilton - erection of a day room/amenity block to existing authorised gypsy site - approved.

The full decisions on these applications can be viewed here (Bulkington Road) and here (Shilton Lane).

Planning Application Consultation

This week, a planning application has been submitted by:

• The Spinney, Shilton Lane, Coventry - erection of a dayroom/amenity building to existing authorised gypsy site.

Full details of the application (including site plans) can be found by clicking here. All comments on the application must be received by Rugby Borough Council by Monday 13 September.