Launton Parish Council Meeting on Thursday 4 July

Councillors present Mr Andrew Briant, Mrs Lesley Thompson, Mr Simon Turner (Chairman)

Apologies Mrs Abigai lDowman, Mr Ed Sanders (Vice Chairman), Mr Richard Walker, and Mrs Jaqueline Webber

In attendance The Clerk, Mrs Jane Olds; 5 members of the public.

East / West Rail

No report had been received. If anyone has any queries, please get in contact directly at publicinformation@ewralliance.co.ukor call the 24 hour helpline on 03457 11 41 41.

Report from District and County Councillors

No report had been received from either District or County Councillors.

Finance

The Finance Report is available on the Parish Council website.

Grants

The Parish Council generally considers grants to organisations within the community or which support areas of the community four times a year.

The Council considered three grant requests at the meeting and was pleased to be able to award a grant to the Volunteer Driver Service which helps members of the community who are not able to get to appointments by public transport, Clean Slate which supports victims of domestic abuse, and the Friends of Island Pond Wood to help with the grass cutting contract.

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 a 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 to planning applications is available on the Parish Council website at https://www.launton-pc.gov.uk/planning-applications/

Village Matters

Parish Hall

With grant funding pots diminishing rapidly, the Council has agreed to review the project and look at ways to do the work in phases. The most important part at the moment is to make the Hall watertight and so the Council has asked the architect to focus on the roof works and whether this can be completed in isolation without the need to remove the current kitchen.

The Management Committee is slowly taking shape but still needs more members! If you use the hall, have used the hall in the past or may like to use it in the future, come and join the committee to help run it.

It is hoped that the Gigaclear broadband will be installed in August.

Highway and Traffic Issues: Speedwatch

Four Speedwatch sessions had taken place in June, although one had to be abandoned due to a blocked view.

In total, 671 vehicles were counted, with 53 of those exceeding the speed limit - the maximum recorded speed was 38mph in the 20mph limit.

If you’d like to help out, please contact speedwatch@launtonpc.gov.uk.Speedwatch

Drains

During the very wet winter, OCC had received an unprecedented number of reports relating to flooding and drains; a high number of those enquiries were as a result of short-term heavy downpours which had overwhelmed the drainage system – which, of course, wasn’t designed to cope with that volume or ferocity.

Other causes of the flooding were due to the already high water tables, full water courses and road-side ditches. In the main, the ditches are the maintenance responsibility of the adjacent landowners; OCCand CDCare working with the landowners to resolve these specific issues.

Unfortunately, due to the limited staff resources and budget restrictions, OCC couldn’t address all of these issues last winter. However, any ongoing - or new - issues should be reported via Fix My Street –https://fixmystreet.oxfordshire.gov.uk/

Red Rose Bus

Shortly before the meeting, the Council was informed that Red Rose has surrendered the contract for the number 17 route between Launton and Bicester and between Aylesbury and Bicester from Saturday 26 October.

The bus use from Launton was insufficient to maintain the current level of service in the longer term. However, further negotiations between OCCand Buckinghamshire Council are ongoing to see if an alternative solution can be found. The Parish Transport Representative will be given more information in due course.

Agenda items and dates of the next meetings

The next meeting will be on Thursday 1 August in the Parish Hall starting at 7.30pm. If you’d like to chat with a Councillor, do come along after 7.15pm.Suggestions for agenda items for the 5 September meeting need to be with the Clerk by 22 August and items for the 3 October meeting by 19 September.

If you’re not signed up to our mailing list to receive news from the Parish Council, you can find a signup form at the bottom left hand menu of the Parish Council website at www.launton-pc.gov.uk/