December 2005 PC Meeting Report

Report on the Meeting held
Tuesday 6th December 2005, Compton Room, Shawford Parish Hall

Shawford Down

The first part of this month’s Parish Council meeting consisted of a presentation by representatives of The Countryside Service, Hampshire County Council, on their Management Plan for Shawford Down. A draft Management Plan was circulated to Parish Councillors and the presentation consisted of explanation of the different elements. Ultimately, it is anticipated that the Down will be kept under control by the grazing of cattle. Preparatory to this, there will be extensive scrub clearance together with some further grass cutting. The constraint of limited funds to undertake this work has been alleviated to a limited extent by certain monies being made available from the Malms development. In addition, funding from DEFRA is being sought by application under the High Level Stewardship scheme.

In order to support such an application, the views of local residents together with the Parish Council are being sought. To this end, an article will be appearing in the Parish Magazine outlining the Management Plans for the Down. Any feedback should be to Councillor Patricia Caffyn who will be co-ordinating the feedback to Hampshire County Council. The result of this feedback will be the redrafting of the Management Plan so that ultimately the plan will be acceptable to as many interested parties as is possible.

Park & Ride

Under Planning, there was extensive discussion concerning the proposed Park and Ride facility which Hampshire County Council intend to create at Bushfield Farm, next to Badger Farm road adjacent to the roundabout junction with Main Road and Badger Farm road. Whilst the consultation process has not yet started, it is understood that significant detailed plans have already been drawn up by Hampshire County Council. Alternative sites have apparently been discounted and it is feared that a “fait accompli” solution will be presented without adequate involvement of local residents or the Parish Council. Whilst the Parish Council accept the desire to construct a Park and Ride facility to the South of Winchester, it is the apparently chosen location and lack of consultation that cause concern. The chosen site is within the “Local Gap” and will prove to be visually intrusive to residents. Questions concerning resultant traffic congestion could not be answered at this time. Alternative less visually intrusive locations would be preferred by the Parish Council and to this end some work on this is to be undertaken. Cllr. George Beckett will be publishing an article in the Parish Magazine raising awareness of this potential destruction of the Local Gap together with the impact such a facility would have on the environment if located as planned by Hampshire County Council.

Parish Plan

Cllr. Jeremy Dolphin will be hosting a meeting of the Parish Plan Working Group to which the Chairmen of the various Residents Associations are being invited. The purpose of this meeting, to be held on the 9th January 2006, will be to examine the benefits of and the effort involved in developing a Parish Plan and /or Village Design Statement. A representative of Otterbourne who was involved in producing their Parish Plan will be in attendance. It is hoped that by the end of this meeting a decision, supported by the community, can be made whether or not to progress a Parish Plan and/or Village Design Statement.

Tennis Court Landscaping

Cllr. John Richardson reported that there had been delays in the completion of the Landscaping project adjacent to the third Tennis Court at Memorial Playing Field. The delay has been caused by the water logged ground which is presently unsuitable for seeding. It has been necessary to suspend further work until the end of February 2006 at which time it is hoped that the ground will have dried out and settled.

Grafitti

Cllr. Patricia Caffyn has been disappointed by recent occurrences of Graffiti appearing yet again in the underpass under the M3 motorway. The cleaning of such Graffiti costs the Parish Council significant amounts of money. Cllr. Caffyn is writing an article for the Parish Magazine to detail the course of action that the Parish Council will pursue in future.

M LANGFORD, CLERK