Reports from Parish Council and District Councillors from the February Issue

Launton Parish Council Meeting held on Thursday 5 January 2023 at 7:30 pm in Launton Parish Hall

Councillors present: Mr Andrew Briant, Mrs Abigail Dowman, Mr Ed Sanders (Vice Chairman), Mrs Lesley Thompson, Mr Simon Turner (Chairman), Mrs Jaqueline Webber

In attendance: The Clerk, Mrs Jane Olds; Cllr Angus Patrick (CDC); 3 members of the public including 1 representative from the Friends of Island Pond Wood

Councillor Co-option

There is still time to help the community by joining the Parish Council. If you are interested in putting yourself forward for co-option, please see the Becoming a Councillor page of the Parish Council website www.launtonpc.gov.uk/becoming-a-councillor/ or have a chat with one of the current Councillors, or come along to the next Council meeting.

East West Rail

Mr Singh was unable to attend and sent a written report.

The track laying programme has recommenced following the Christmas break.

The public rights of way, which were closed by the Transport Works Act Order, are scheduled to be re-opened in the spring; there are some remedial works required to the paths near Grange Farm and the kissing gates in the Tythe Barn area need to be moved as they haven’t been installed in the correct locations. The yard at Grange Farm should not be used as a pedestrian cut through.

If anyone has any queries, please contact East West Rail directly at publicinformation@ewralliance.co.uk or on the 24 hour helpline at 03457 114141.

Reports from District and County Councillors

Councillor Patrick (CDC) reported that the draft Local Plan was due to be considered at a meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 11 January and was likely to be published following consideration at the CDC Executive meeting on 19 January.

The CDC budget for 2023/24 was looking acceptable, but balancing the budget in 2024/25 is likely to be more challenging.

Councillor Corkin (OCC) sent a written report. The A41 Ambrosden works were ongoing with, apparently, limited communication between the contractors and the County Council Officers. The provision of the temporary pedestrian lights outside Launton school has been reviewed and the yellow access ramps have been removed.

The request for temporary lights to be installed at the junction of Blackthorn Road and the A41 was considered, but for safety reasons OCC has not been able to agree to this.

Meeting Dates from April 2023

The dates of meetings have been agreed to be the usual first Thursday of the month apart from May which will change to the 11th following the elections on the 4th of May. All the meeting dates are available on the Parish Council website.

Finance

The Finance Report is available on the Parish Council website.

The Council considered the detailed budget and agreed the level of £38,583 for the year 2023/24. This took into account the range of Parish responsibilities including village grass cutting and weed spraying, the dog bin emptying, meeting costs, saving for replacement street furniture (such as bins and benches), the Parish Hall commitment, the Speedwatch project and other road safety, together with reserves.

The Parish had been given the Tax Base figure (broadly, the number of B and D equivalent dwellings in the village) by CDC which was estimated at 615.7; this was an increase from 566.4 the previous year - mainly because of the increase in houses from the Launton Mews development. Following the calculations, it was agreed to increase the Precept to £39,743 which was an increase of £9,847. The annual cost to a Band D household would be approximately £64.55 - an increase of £11.77 over the whole year.

More information about how the Tax Base figure is calculated is available on the Parish Council website at https://www.launton-pc.gov.uk/financialinformation/financing-the-parish-council/

For anyone interested, the draft budget and precept calculation s can be found on the Parish Council website under the January Items for Information at https://www.launton-pc.gov.uk/agenda-andminutes/2022-2023-agenda-and-minutes/

Planning All planning applications, which include the links to Cherwell’s Planning Portal, are put on the Parish Council website when they are received (www.launton-pc.gov.uk in the Agenda and Minutes section).

If any villager has concerns or comments about a planning application, they are welcome to come along to Parish Council meetings to bring them to the attention of the meeting. Villagers are also welcome to contact Councillors or the Clerk to make comments.

Guidance on how the Parish Council is able to respond is available on the Parish Council website: https://www.launton-pc.gov.uk/planningapplications

ParishHall

The Clerk has submitted an expression of interest to Cherwell District Council for the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and Rural England Prosperity Fund and has had discussions with the CDC Officers about the S106 funding which is currently available from the building projects already completed in the village. The Officers confirmed that it would not be possible to access any of the S106 funds from the ‘Grange Farm’ development application until the development has commenced.

Traffic

The Speedwatch Group will start to get more active as the weather warms up. The group welcomes new volunteers - just contact David Jones via speedwatch@launton-pc.gov.uk if you would like to join.

VillageSpringClean

A date for your diaries. We hope to hold our annual Spring Clean and Litter Pick on Saturday 11 March between 10am and 12noon from the Parish Hall. Do come and join us!

Agenda items and dates of the next meetings

The next meeting will be on Thursday 2 February in the Parish Hall, starting at 7.30pm. If you’d like to chat with a Councillor, do come along after 7.15pm.

We are trying to reduce our printing and paper use, so if you would like hard copies of the agenda or any of the meeting papers, please let the Clerk know well before the meeting. The agenda and papers will be available to view via the data projector during the meeting. Suggestions for agenda items for the 2 March meeting need to be with the Clerk by 16 February and items for the 6 April meeting by 23 March. If you’re not signed up to our mailing list to receive news from the Parish Council, you can find a sign up form at the bottom left hand menu of the Parish Council website at www.launton-pc.gov.uk/

The Regular report from our Cherwell District Councillors for January 2023

It’s a brief report this month. There is further delay to consultation on the Local Plan, the latest on A41 roadworks, and an update on Voter ID.

TheLocalPlan

The Local Plan went to the Oversight and Scrutiny Committee before the CDC Executive later in January. There were recommendations from the Committee that the Executive decided to investigate more thoroughly with further delay to the next stage - further public consultation. Some issues that were highlighted:

The balance of affordable housing in the plan is not ambitious enough, or adequate.

All infrastructure must keep pace with development, as well as ensuring proper integration between new developments and established communities.

The importance of farming in CDC is recognised, but needs more prominence.

Noting the reference to Bicester Strategic Corridors, consideration should be given to creating a formal Green Belt around Bicester.

Rural allocation of housing should be equitable.

Executive to assure itself that the wording of policies included in the plan is strong enough, particularly those in relation to Climate Action and Viability.

Members should be given more opportunities to engage and provide feedback and comments during the consultation.

We’ll keep you posted on development, but from the items above we hope you can see that we are trying to make this local plan fit for purpose for residents. More information on the Local Plan is available on a dedicated page at https://www.cherwell.gov.uk/homepage/27/local-plans

A41PloughleyRoadjunction

The roadworks seem to be keeping to the latest schedule: one-way operation and lights are due until 3 February - the only detail posted-so we hope this means that the greater amount of traffic running through Launton will be ending soon. See this link www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/residents/roads-andtransport/roadworks/future-transport-projects/ploughley-road-a41-junction

VoterIDforelectionsin2023

You will need photo-ID to vote in local elections in May. There is more on Voter ID here: https://www.cherwell.gov.uk/info/11/elections/1041/voterid The permitted types of ID, including expired passports, are at the CDC website listed above. Search “Cherwell voter id” for up to date information. If you don’t have ID from this list, you will need to apply for a Voter Authority Certificate (VAC) via the Government website www.gov.uk/applyfor-photo-id-voter-authority-certificate Applications can be made online or through a paper form. The deadline to apply for a VAC before local elections on 4 May is 5pm on Tuesday 25 April.

That’s it! Thank you for reading to the end. Please do get in touch by phone on 01869 717712 or via email at gemma.coton@cherwell-dc.gov.uk or angus.patrick@cherwell-dc.gov.uk

Parish Council Elections 4 May 2023 - Could You Join Launton Parish Council?

The Parish Council elections will take place on 4 May this year.

Oxfordshire Association of Local Councils (OALC) is putting on a series of free Zoom sessions about becoming a councillor - the first was on 24 January. So, if you are interested in putting yourself forward for election this year, please join the Zoom. For more information about the sessions go to https://www.oalc.org.uk/events and look for the ‘So you want to be a Councillor?’ sessions. The next ones are on 13 February at 10am and 15 March at 2pm.

JaneOlds- Parish Clerk