Quarley Parish Council Minutes - 18th April 2017

Minutes of the Quarley Parish Council Meeting held on Tuesday 18th April 2017 at Quarley Village Hall at 7.30 pm.

WELCOME.
The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting.   

DECLARATION OF INTEREST
Cllr Mrs J Ferguson declared an interest in Quarley Church. 

ELECTION OF CHAIRMAN AND VICE CHAIRMAN
It was proposed that Cllr Mrs J Ferguson remain as chairman and Cllr Mr W Marshall remain as Vice Chairman. All agreed. Cllr Mrs J Ferguson was elected Chairman and Cllr Mr W Marshall was elected Vice Chairman. 

CHAIRMANS REPORT
This year has proceeded as usual with the normal events coming onto the Agenda.

However, there have been two events that have occurred in 2015 and required action from the Parish Council:
1.  Solar Farm Application
2.  Nelson HGVs coming through the village to deliver ‘waste’ to Fox Farm Estates. 

SOLAR FARM APPLICATION, Bush Lane
The Parish council was originally informed of this Application in November 2014 and at the Autumn Parish Council Meeting, 18^th November 2014 Mr. David Dean of INRG Solar gave a Presentation.

This Solar Farm was given planning permission and has been duly built.
At the presentation, Mr. David Dean told us that we would be given £10000.00, as a contribution to the village to be administered by the Parish Council.
We have now been contacted by the Solar Farm Company who have sent a Legal Agreement that is being currently checked by the Parish Council’s Solicitors.

NELSONS HGVs TRAVELLING THROUGH QUARLEY TO FOX FARM ESTATE
This activity has been happening since the Christmas Season of 2013. The lorries that were travelling through Monxton started to come through Quarley, and occasionally Grateley.

Since this time TVBC has confirmed that they consider this work to be ‘Permitted Development’. The Chairman, Councilor J. Ferguson has contacted Mrs. N. Benjamin to see if there has been any development regarding the Environment Agency or the Forestry Commission. 

We had these HGVs coming through the village at a great rate in October and November last year. Then the activity ceased.  We have not been told why this has occurred. However, I was contacted by Mrs. Zilliah Brooks to enquire if there had been accidents in the village due to the Nelson HGVs.  She had been contacted as County Councilor, by a member of the public who had a considerable amount of damage to her vehicle, by one of the Nelson HGVs.  She was going to pursue the matter.
In the past month I have seen the very occasional Nelson HGV coming through the village.

HIGHWAY MATTERS
Some work has been done to the problems on our roads. The build up of soil/gravel etc. on the right-hand side of the road on the bend to Grateley was removed from the road surface.  Unfortunately, the spoil has just been left on the edge of the road and is gradually returning to the road surface. 

The general state of our roads do not improve and we report any potholes to the Hampshire Highways.

END OF YEAR ACCOUNTS
QUARLEY PARISH COUNCIL RECEIPTS AND PAYMENTS ACCOUNT FOR THE YEAR ENDING 31^ST MARCH 2017

The Clerk reported that the accounts are to be audited by Paul Reynolds the internal Auditor. The Parish Council agreed to adopt the accounts and agreed with Section 1 - Annual governance statement and Section 2 – Accounting Statement. Proposed by Cllr Mrs J Ferguson and seconded by Cllr Mr W Marshall. The Chairman signed off the Audit Form.

MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING.
The Chairman signed the minutes of the previous meeting as a true record. Matters arising from those minutes: - 

HIGHWAYS –The Chairman stated that she has reported the various potholes in the parish on the HCC Portal. The over grown hedges. Offending hedges have been highlighted and reported to Highways. 

SOLAR FARM – The Chairman had received communication from the Solar Farm Company, they are giving Quarley £10,000 for a village project. A contract was included for the Parish Council to sign, the Chairman had forwarded this to the Parish Councillors prior to the meeting for their comment. 

The contract stated that the solar farm is in the Quarley Parish, it is in Amport Parish, so this needs to be changed to the Village of Quarley. Cllr Mr R Whiting is concerned about the wording in paragraph 4.2 of the contract and asked for clarification.
As a precaution, the Parish Council’s solicitor has been asked to review the contract. 

It was suggested that the £10,000 should be used to provide a facility for the children of the village, possibly some equipment on the Village green if everyone agreed.

PLANNING
There were no new planning applications to discuss at the meeting. 

NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH
Nothing to report. 

BOROUGH COUNCILLOR MR B FEW-BROWN
Cllr Mr B Few-Brown reported that the Boundary Review of TVBC has recommended that the current Amport ward (1 Borough Councillor) is amalgamated into the Anna Ward (2 Borough Councillors) and that the new larger ward will only have two Borough Councillors. These changes are to be implemented after 2019. Cllr Mr B Few-Brown thought it unlikely that he would stand again as a Borough Councillor.

PARISH COUNCILLORS REPORTS
CLLR MR N CONSTABLE – Reported that he has been investigating Facebook with the view to setting up a page for Quarley. The issue of getting out information to the village was briefly discussed. 

It was noted that since the HCC Re-cycling Centre in Andover has started charging for building rubble there has been an increase in fly tipping. 

CLLR MRS A THORNE – Reported that the Etwall Sign is broken. The Clerk will report this to TVBC. 

CLLR MR R WHITING – Spoke about Fox Farm, the large amount of tipping that has been allowed under the planning permission granted by TVBC and the response from Paul Jackson the head of Planning at TVBC. Cllr Mr R Whiting felt that this issue has been a complete travesty and badly handled by TVBC. 

CLOSE OF THE MEETING
The Chairman thanked everyone for coming and closed the meeting. 

DATES OF THE NEXT MEETING
18^th July 2017