LAUNTON PARISH COUNCIL REPORTING

LAUNTON PARISH COUNCIL

Combined notes from the Meeting of the Parish Council held on Thursday 6 February 2025 at 7.30pm in the Parish Hall and the Extraordinary Meeting of the Parish Council held on Thursday 20 February 2025 at 7.30pm in the Parish Hall.

Councillors present: Mr Glyn Austin, Mr Andrew Briant (Vice Chairman), Mrs Jackie Hackett, Mr Simon Turner (Chairman) and Mrs Jaqueline Webber.

Apologies: None.

In attendance: 6 February: 4 members of the public. 20 February: no members of the public.

Reports from District and County Councillors

No reports were received.

Governance and Consultations

There are still two Councillor vacancies and there have still been no applications for the vacant role of Parish Clerk, so the Chairman is continuing as Acting Clerk for now. Details of the vacancy may be found on the Parish Council website. Anyone interested in the position, or in becoming a Councillor, should contact the Chairman, Simon Turner: simon.turner@launton-pc.gov.uk or call the Parish Council’s mobile number.

At its 20 February extraordinary meeting, the Council responded to the latest round of consultation on the Cherwell Local Plan Review 2042. This was the final round of consultation before the plan is submitted to the Government for examination.

Finance

The Finance Report is available on the Parish Council website.

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

Parish Hall

Thanks to the invaluable assistance and hard work of the Parish Hall Development Advisory Group, the Parish Council expects to be engaging contractors in the near future to replace the roof on the Parish Hall with a properly-insulated steel roof. [Update: contractors have now been engaged.] Funding for this project has been obtained from the Rural England Prosperity Fund, Friends of Launton Parish Hall and “Section 106” developer contributions from the Mulberry Homes development on Blackthorn Road.

Exact timings have not yet been finalised, but work on the roof is expected to start in mid-March and last 2–4 weeks: the Hall will be unavailable for use during the day on weekdays while the contractors are working on it, but should remain available in the evenings and at weekends. [Update: as may be seen, preparatory work by SSE Networks to unclip and shroud the electricity supply cables has already been undertaken.]

The Council is working towards finalising the formal Terms of Reference for the Hall Management Committee and finally getting the Committee up and running, but only a few people have volunteered so more members will be needed: if you could spare some time to help, please get in touch.

The Council has produced a consultation survey on the Parish Hall delivered to all households, which closes on 2 March.

Highway and Traffic Issues Speedwatch

The Speedwatch team will always welcome volunteers – if you’d like to help out, please contact speedwatch@launton-pc.gov.uk.

The Parish Council will be contacting our MP and OCC Highways to discuss the ongoing problems of some vehicles speeding through the village.

Village Spring Clean

Our annual Spring Clean and litter pick will be taking place on Saturday 15 March between 10am and 12 noon from the Parish Hall, with refreshment provided by the WI. Do come and join us!

Agenda items and dates of the next meetings

The next meeting will be on Thursday 6 March 2025 in Launton 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 6 March meeting need to be with the Clerk by 20 February and items for the 3 April meeting by 20 March.

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/