1 Apologies for absence – none.

2 Minutes of Last Meeting

The minutes of the Parish Council Meeting of 22^nd January, 2009 were read and approved and duly signed as a true record of that meeting by the Chairman.

3 Matters Arising

Landscaping of the Old Barnyard - 2 issues are still outstanding, notably the pruning of trees alongside #7 and 3 trees still to be planted at #4. Colburn Homes have been instructed to complete this work.

Traffic issues – Speed strips were laid in the village but were ineffectual as they were located in the wrong place. 2 speed monitors were temporarily installed (opposite the school and beside Rushall Bridge) and seem to have a positive effect. Results of the speed checks carried out have still not been published. Tony Molland offered his help in getting them. Future sites for the speed monitors were agreed to be outside Manor Cottage (south facing) and outside The Old Tractor Yard (north facing). 30mph stick-on stickers have been proposed by our local community police officer to stick on wheelie bins. Clerk to determine how we can obtain 20 stickers as a pilot scheme.

Verges – members of the council met with Martin Cook of Wiltshire Highways to show him the deterioration of the verges and asked about where the County’s responsibility ended for Church Lane. So far no feedback has been received.

4 Annual Audit

The annual audit return was presented by the clerk and was approved by the chairman.

5 Any Other Business

Dog fouling - the dog waste bin installed along the Rushall-Charlton path appear to have had significant improvement. Another bin will be bought for Church Lane, to be installed on or close to the gate half way down the lane.

Finance – it was agreed to give half the budgeted donation of £500 to the Village Hall (for grounds maintenance) now and the other half later in the year. A donation of £50 was approved for the URC Link and another donation of £50 was agreed for the Bobby Van Trust (per this year’s forecasted budget). A cheque was also raised for £4.50 for plants of the bus shelter.

Neighbourhood Watch – clerk will distribute the current members list to each councillor for updating.

Pavements – raise at next meeting.

6 Next Meeting

The meeting closed at 21:25. The next meeting will be Thursday, 13^th August, 2009.

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Minutes of the Rushall Parish Council Meeting

22^nd January, 2009

Rushall & Charlton Village Hall

Present: Dr Richard Tilbury Chairman

Mr Geoff Perry

Mr Colin Gale

Mr John Rogers

Mr Julian Ridge

Mr Dave Harvey Clerk

Also present: Mrs Marion Harvey, Dionne Middleton, Judy d'Arcy-Irvine & PC Derrick Foord

1 Apologies for absence - none. The council welcomed Julian Ridge to his first council meeting

2 Minutes of Last Meeting

The minutes of the Parish Council Meeting of 27^th November, 2008 were read, approved and duly signed as a true record of that meeting by the Chairman.

3 Matters Arising

Landscaping of the Old Barnyard - KDC incorrectly advised the chairman that the latest landscape plans were available to view on the KDC website. As this is not the case the latest plans were e-mailed to Colin Gale who has determined that the landscaping is not compliant and in many cases what has been planted is of poor quality. Colin Gale will report this to KDC expecting further action to be taken against Colburn Homes. Judy d'Arcy-Irvine also offered assistance if necessary.

Telephone Kiosk - Colin Gale has been in further discussion with KDC who have advised him that should BT wish to remove the kiosk they will have to apply for planning permission first.

Traffic issues - Richard Tilbury reported on the various discussions and correspondence he has had with KDC and neighbouring villages. The bottom line is that little will change regarding reduction of speed limits and/or traffic calming measures through the village due to priorities and funding limitations although there is a good chance the southern-most speed limit may move further out. Results of the speed checks carried out recently may influence this decision but they are not yet available and are unlikely to be meaningful as the strips were inappropriately positioned. Chairman will pursue the temporary installation of a speed indicator as used in Manningford.

Dog fouling - a dog waste bin has been installed along the Rushall-Charlton path although the provided fixing straps prohibited its siting where required. John Rogers volunteered to acquire more appropriate fixings. Chairman volunteered to empty the bin initially and to then prepare a rota throughout the year.

Signs to Old Dairy -Colburn Homes have agreed to renew pressure on the AA to have the remaining signs removed.. They also agreed to replace the plastic bollards alongside the lay-by.

4 Community Police report

PC Derrick Foord announced his intention to attend as many Parish Council meetings as he could. He acknowledged the importance of speeding traffic through the village and apologised for the mis-siting of the speed measuring strips although he pointed out that there are restrictions imposed by Government as to where they can be placed. He hopes we can have them back again soon and the Council will propose a suitable site to Derek. He also advised the council of an on-going situation involving a white van that has been seen recently acting suspiciously in the village and asked that any sightings be reported together with registration, time and location to the police via e-mail.

5 Any Other Business

Allotments - Dionne Middleton presented the case for allotment availability in the village. She cited the advantages as being economic, therapeutic, educational and self-sufficiency in vegetables and some fruit. The chairman had already discussed this proposal with Nigel Wookey who is in favour of the idea and suggested the use of land opposite the village hall. This would be made available to individual allotment users on a potential 5 year pilot scheme via a private allotment society. Interest in having allotments is strong from residents of the Old Barnyard. No direct involvement is requested of the Parish Council although it was suggested that Dionne present a development plan at the next meeting for the Council to support. At this stage it is not clear whether Nigel Wookey would deal directly with the Allotment Society or through the Parish Council. This area requires further investigation and the role of the PC has to be determined although the PC would clearly have involvement with respect to planning and the overall representation of the villagers' views.

Conservation borders - As a result of DEFRA changing its policy on conservation borders Nigel Wookey is proposing to be more strict in prohibiting the public from walking on these borders. To offset this he is proposing to create new public footpaths across his land and the plans were reviewed by the council. His intent is to ultimately post copies of the map showing the new paths to each household. Many concerns were raised by the council and it was agreed that further investigation was necessary to better understand what existing rights of way there are and that more details on these new plans be provided to assess the impact that they might have. The chairman will report back to Nigel Wookey on the council's concerns.

Area boards - Judy d'Arcy-Irvine reported that there have been pilot meetings of the area boards and that they are still finding their feet. Richard Tilbury attended the first meeting of the Pewsey community area board and intends to attend the next meeting in February. Colin Gale raised serious concerns that the proposed allocation of unitary councillors to areas did not give sufficient representation to the 22 villages in the Pewsey area (only 2.5 councillors have been assigned). It was agreed that Colin draft a letter outlining this concern and that the chairman then send this to Steve Milton. It was also agreed that all councillors read the draft Area Board handbook and get concerns to Richard by the end of January so he may present these concerns to the next area board meeting. It was discussed as to whether the parish council could take more responsibility for planning (especially landscaping), the chairman will also discuss this with Upavon PC with regard to sharing such responsibilities and will then raise this request with Richard Munroe.

The Neighbourhood Policing questionnaire - all 7 questions were answered by the council and the completed questionnaire has been e-mailed to the police by the clerk.

Roadside verges and surface edge conditions - Mrs Harvey confirmed that any damage to the verges and driveway entrances resulting from the building of the school extension will be repaired by the building contractor. The condition of the edge of the road surfaces was raised by the clerk as being generally unsafe for pedestrian access in light of the absence of pavements. The clerk will write to the highways department to have this rectified. In the future however, discussion is required as to whether we should be pushing for pavements or some form of curbed walkway from the village hall to the beginning of the southern-most speed limit.