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© 2011 East Boldre

Parish Council Section - News and Information

Report from the Meeting of the New Forest Association of Local Councils attended by Kim Penna (Parish Clerk) on 11th April 2013 at the Town Hall, Lymington.

1. Barry Rickman (Leader) and Dave Yates (Chief Executive) gave a presentation on the District Council’s position taking account of the Government’s policies and their effect on the Districts programmes. Dave Yates talked of how the government policies around austerity and growth had affected the district. The NFDC are managing better than most and mainstream services are virtually continuing as before. With the localisation of business rates and the closing of the power station together with the New Homes Bonus and the restrictions on building in the area it has been a challenge. Although the council has coped well so far, instigating 40 of the 50 money saving ideas, things will undoubtedly become more difficult.
   
   Barry Rickman said that frontline services are keeping up well and this is not just about money, but also about good will. Successes include the Buyback programme which now has 36 houses, the Gateway project at Ringwood and the sharing of the Town Hall with the NPA. Currently there is
   
   the apprenticeship scheme and curb side glass collection should be in place by the end of the summer.
2. Reports of Focus Groups: It was decided that the signage group could now be deleted.
   
   In the absence of the Cycling Club group an informal debate of cycling events in the New Forest was held. A passionate exchange of views took place both for and against. The NPA are monitoring the situation in the hope of developing a charter.
3. In respect of updates arising from the Government’s new scheme for 2014/15 it was noted that it would be very unrealistic to say what will happen.
4. A report received on matters discussed at a meeting of Hampshire Association of Local Councils announced a current fraud case involving a Clerk/RFO. It is hoped that HALC will soon be issuing some good practice advice and that eventually larger councils will be expected to have separate Clerk and RFO staff.
5. Terry Simpson will be standing down as clerk responsible for agenda and administration tasks for NFALC at the next AGM and it is vital a new volunteer is found for the continuation of the group.
6. Standards Regime –The letter which was written to Julian Lewis and Desmond Swayne in support of Minstead Parish Council’s concerns about declaration of interests of spouses received a reply which failed to address the matter. A further letter will be drafted.
7. The GIS partnership has received lots of interest in the renewal and there are new improvements to the system due this year.
8. There was lots of positive feedback from parishes who have been taking part in the Community Speed Watch initiative. Particularly from smaller parishes who have joined forces with other smaller parishes.
9. The AGM meeting will be held on the 11th July at Lymington Town Hall. There will be no speaker at this meeting.

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Report from the Community-Led Planning Seminar on 7 May 2013 by CPRE at Winchester attended by Cllr Gaylard and Parish Clerk.

A useful guide on various methods of community-led planning(CLP) - The principles of CLP are that they are led by volunteers, are evidence-based, are living documents, provide guidance and make recommendations. There are four basic types.

1. Parish/Community Plan
   
   This is akin to a business plan with actions built in. The largest part is a self-help group taking responsibility for making things happen. It is an on-going process and can cover anything in a parish. It is simple to produce, low cost, non-statutory but can be used for lobbying and acquiring grants.
2. Neighbourhood Plan (Localism Act 2011)
   
   This is community led and used for guiding future development, regeneration and conservation. It sets out visions, aims, policies, proposals and criteria for planning. It is costly, primarily about land, buildings and planning, may not involve a whole parish and a referendum is required. It does have a legal status and, if successful, a higher percentage community infrastructure levy is given to the parish council (audience participants stated that spending this is within strict guidelines). Some plans have involved clusters of parishes.
3. Village Design Statement
   
   This gives description of land and buildings and concentrates on design and development to preserve the character of an area. It only covers design and setting but not location or size of developments. It is low cost, can have an effect on the outcome of developments but has to be adopted by the local planning body in order to be used.
4. Local Landscape Character Assessment
   
   This covers special qualities of local environment/landscape and prioritises local issues. Following this presentation, a group exercise was held on the benefits and risks of each method. For East Boldre the only option is the Parish/Community plan as it can cover anything, is low cost and will give provision for grant applications. Any other plan would seem to conflict with NFNPA conditions and could be a waste of time and money.
   
   Presentation by Stroud PC has produced a parish plan and the Chairman will send EBCP copies of the questionnaire that they used. The parish has 142 houses and they started by producing an aerial plan of the parish to illustrate the locality and its needs. The PC had also carried out a village design statement previously which was incorporated.
   
   It was led by the community involving 20 people and started by identifying the core skills available in the community e.g. nurses, accountants, gardeners, IT skills etc etc so that these skills could be tapped as required - this identification was by word of mouth but could be included in a questionnaire. Grants to carry out the initial work were obtained from Community Action Hampshire and District Council. Questionnaires were hand delivered and collected to the whole parish. The results were collated and a sub-committee of the PC met to examine this which looked at absentee landlords (may want to develop their land which could be used for affordable housing), workplaces, schools, care homes, farms, industrial outlets and pub - all of these can be used as assets to help the outcome. The press were used to engage the community as much as possible. The plan included a housing needs survey.

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Local Speed Limits

The flashing Speed Limit Reminder (SLR) has been appearing at various places throughout the parish, reminding motorists that the speed limit through our village is 30 mph. Not only does it remind you to slow down but it logs the speed of all the cars that pass by. The result obtained during January 2011 showed that too many drivers are speeding through the village. Of 1000 cars measured, 129 exceeded 40 mph, 11 exceeded 50 mph and the rest stayed below 40 mph. This was not the tourist season so most of the speeders must have been local traffic. The police will be undertaking some enforcement.

If you want to do something about it, join the Community SpeedWatch Team. Read more.

The B3054 Beaulieu to Lymington road that runs through the centre of our parish, is one of the worst for animal accidents in the forest. For 2012 the road signs tell us that 65 livestock animals were killed - just one fewer than in 2011. There were an additional 18 animals injured which is half the previous year’s number. This does not sound like much of an improvement but there were nearly 1200 more animals turned out in 2012 than in 2011 so things are, in fact, getting better. Once again the vast majority of the accidents were caused by cars at night and 23 accidents were hit-and-run. Over half of the accidents involved local motorists. The Verderers website no longer report the number of deer killed so the total number of incidents involving large animals is much higher.

Figures for 2009 and 2010:

During 2009, throughout the forest, there were 161 traffic accidents involving large animals (livestock and deer). Private motor cars were involved in 157 of these accidents. 75 livestock animals were killed and 37 were injured. 108 accidents happened at night and 35 were hit-and-run. 100 of the drivers were locals.

Figures for 2010 are better than for 2009. The number of livestock animals turned out had not changed but the total number of accidents, including deer and livestock, was reduced to 117. The vast majority of these (84) still involved local private cars and most incidents were at night. 65 livestock animals were killed and 26 injured. These were: 51 ponies killed and 15 injured, 10 cows killed and 8 injured, 3 donkeys killed and 2 injured and 1 pig killed and 1 injured.

Full details of all road accidents involving animals can be found on the Verderers website.

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