Minutes of the ANNUAL PARISH MEETING held on Thursday 26th May 2005
in the Village Hall at 7.30pm
Present: Mr Jeremy Clarke (Chairman)
Mrs Linda Hainge
Mr Ken Harwood
Mrs Bridget Huntington
Mr Alec King
Mrs Elisabeth Scott (in attendance)
The Chairman welcomed 19 people to the meeting including Parish Councillors and Mr Ken Rimington, County Councillor.
1. APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE
Apologies for absence were received from Mr Brian Apps, Mrs Rona Bingham, Mrs Val Capon, Mrs Donna Green, Mrs Iris Combley, Mrs Kay Probert, Mrs Val Wickenden, Mrs Pat Webb and Mrs Marian Winn.
2. MINUTES OF LAST MEETING
The minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting held on Thursday 27th May 2004 were noted, having been signed previously.
3. MATTERS ARISING
There were no matters arising.
4. MR KEN RIMINGTON, COUNTY COUNCILLOR
The Chairman welcomed Mr Ken Rimington, newly elected County Councillor, and invited him to speak.
Mr Rimington said he was looking forward to working with the Parish Council on behalf of Surrey County Council. He had already attended several briefing meetings and had learnt some interesting facts and figures: SCC spends £l billion per year and employs 26,000 people (including teachers). 42% of the money is spent on schools and education, 38% on child care, community services and adult care, leaving only 20% to be spent on everything else.
He was aware that most local communities were concerned about road safety, traffic and highway matters but the main problem was finance. There was a budget of
£51 million for the whole of Surrey.
Mr Rimington said he would be serving on the Community Safety Committee, Trading Standards, Waste Disposal and Planning & Environment (not individual
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planning applications but the wider development of the county).
In closing, Mr Rimington invited people to write to him about any problem they wished to raise and he would do his best to give a helpful reply. His address is:
8 Ash Close, Lingfield, Surrey, RH7 6HQ.
The Chairman thanked Mr Rimington and then invited Mrs Christina Hunter to speak on behalf of the village website team.
5. VILLAGE WEBSITE
Mrs Hunter said that she had started up the website with friends after receiving the questionnaire sent round in connection with the proposed Parish Appraisal. They realised there was lots of information that could be published about Felbridge and a website seemed an appropriate outlet. They were aware that because of its layout, the village was fragmented and they had felt they would like to bring the community together.
Now that the village website had been running for a while they were beginning to get a response from it. The events they had organised (Quizzes at The Star and a Photographic Competition) had been well supported. Further events to bring the community together were planned. Two new volunteers had recently joined the team: Bert Webber is redesigning it and John Dover will be going round the local clubs and organisations for information that will be published. Recent requests for support from younger residents had been re-buffed, so there won’t be any youth pages! However, Christina said she would be asking Imberhorne School if some of the students would be willing to teach others in the community about computing. It was hoped to start a ’For Sale’ section in the near future.The Chairman thanked Christina, and the website team, for all their efforts on behalf of Felbridge.
6. REPORT FROM CHAIRMAN OF PARISH COUNCIL
The Chairman gave the following report: “This year started with the co-option of a new councillor, Mrs Bridget Huntington, to fill the position vacated by Mr David Whitehead. Mr Ken Harwood was also elected as District Councillor and is now serving a dual role as both Parish and District Councillor.
Planning matters have continued to occupy considerable Parish Council time. Firstly, there are those areas within Mid Sussex that directly affect Felbridge residents. This includes the continued attempts to develop the Oak Farm site and the proposed 2,500 houses at East Grinstead. Parish Councillors are members of the Mid Sussex District Council key stakeholders group and continue to object to any housing development on Imberhorne Farm due to the huge impact that this would have on our village. We are also seeing ever increasing numbers of applications for in-fill development within the village. Whilst we support the need for affordable housing, the majority of these applications have high housing densities behind the current building lines and are out of character with our rural village. The development behind Thornhurst, Rowplatt Lane, has been approved at Appeal but we continue to oppose inappropriate housing. With applications going to Appeal, the whole planning process is often taking over a year to conclude and thus protracted Parish Council persistence is required.
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This last year has also seen two significant enforcements within Felbridge: the first was Homelands, Copthorne Road which was being used as a car park for Gatwick, this has now ceased following successful prosecution. The second was the collecting and burning of industrial refuse at the site of 50 Crawley Down Road. Again a prosecution has been achieved and the site is now much tidier. Both of these cases were brought to the attention of the authorities by the Parish Council after the public raised these issues with us.
We are also continuing to object to the use of Green-Belt land behind the Felbridge Hotel for car parking.
This year has seen the expansion of the skate board ramp and a basketball area to improve this much used facility. The funding for this project was assisted by the ‘Felbridge Skate Crew’ who raised £112 themselves at last year’s fair. The fair was also a great success for the Parish Council who had a stand and this will be repeated this year, giving an opportunity to chat with Councillors and find out more about what the Parish Council is doing for Felbridge. This year we have started to develop a 5 year plan to improve the main playground area and equipment so that it will be more suitable for a wide range of ages and abilities. It is hoped that work can be started on this major project next year.Earlier this year we were informed that the roundabout at the end of Crawley Down Road was not being progressed on safety grounds. The Parish Council was concerned about this as we had been told it was necessary in order to slow the traffic so that the much needed pedestrian crossing on the Copthorne Road could be installed (near the phone box). We met with Surrey Highways and the conclusion was that they will progress the design of the pedestrian crossing and installation within the next 12 months, subject to passing the necessary safety studies. This will be followed by the realignment of the Crawley Down Road junction and the reduction in speed limits along Crawley Down Road and Copthorne Road.
Crawley Down Road was resurfaced this year following numerous requests from the Parish Council and clearance work has taken place for the roundabout at Judges Corner, which will start construction this year. We also believe that the widening of the footpath at the school, to provide more hard-standing, will be progressed in the coming months.
The stile on the footpath from the Copthorne Road to the A22 behind Whittington College has been removed to enable pushchairs to use this route. Clearance of footpaths is no longer the Parish Council’s responsibility but we want to hear about any problems and are working to get this footpath widened to provide a better pedestrian route particularly for pushchairs.Unfortunately, this year has seen an increase in anti-social behaviour with several incidents reported at Parish Council meetings. We are progressing the installation of a CCTV camera point at the Village Hall in association with the local Police. We all need to work together as a community, reporting petty crime and abuse, to eliminate this unacceptable behaviour.
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Sadly, Mrs Elizabeth Sampson, our County Councillor, passed away in January. Elizabeth had attended our meetings for many years and took a keen interest in Felbridge, pressing for projects such as the resurfacing of Crawley Down Road and the Judges Corner roundabout as well as assisting with funding for the skateboard ramp within this last year.
Finally, I would like to thank all the Councillors and the Clerk for their support during the year. In particular I should mention Mr Brian Apps who continues as our Responsible Finance Officer maintaining our accounts and obtaining internal and external auditor approval. I also want to mention Mr Ken Harwood who has to juggle the dual responsibilities of both District and Parish which generates additional complications. Other Councillors have their areas of interest and work hard for Felbridge. We also have to thank the non-council members who work on our behalf, Miss Barbara Cottier representing us as a School Governor and our Tree Warden, Mrs Gillian Taylor“.
6. ANY OTHER BUSINESS
The Chairman invited comments from the floor. Mr Simon O’Grady, former owner of The Village Shop, said he had been concerned about pressure put on him to sell the shop to a developer. The Fabric Patch and half the shop had already been taken over and he asked for support for the new owner, Mr Rashid Mustafa, who was trying to expand the business for the benefit of the village. He, too, was being put under pressure by a developer to sell up so that the shop site could be built on. He warned that an attempt was being made to have the tented fruit and vegetable area removed but this had proved popular with shoppers. Mr Ken Harwood, District Councillor, said he would speak to Tandridge District Council about the retention of the marquee.The Chairman thanked both Mr Simon O’Grady and Mr Rashid Mustafa for all their efforts with the shop which had improved under both ownerships. It was indeed a valuable asset to the community and every effort should be made to ensure it remains in business.
Mr Spencer Atwell, as Secretary of the Village Hall Management Committee, thanked the Parish Council for its support during the year. He said the committee was also grateful to Mr Martin Moss, SCC and Mr Vince Sharp, TDC who were supportive when dealing with matters relating to the village hall.