Launton Parish Council reports

Launton Parish Council Meeting held on Thursday 7 September 2023 at 7:30pmin Launton Parish Hall

Councillors present Mr Andrew Briant, Mrs Abigail Dowman, Mr Ed Sanders (Vice Chairman)

Apologies Mrs Lesley Thompson, Mr Simon Turner (Chairman), Mrs Jaqueline Webber

In attendance The Clerk, Mrs Jane Olds; District Councillor Gemma Coton; 4 members of the public; Mr Richard Walker (participated as a Councillor after his co-option)

East West Rail

No report had been received. If anyone has any queries, please contact East West Rail directly at the 24 hour helpline at 03457 11 41 41 or at publicinformation@ewralliance.co.uk

Reports from District and County Councillors

Councillor Coton reported that the Local Plan consultation was due to go out for six weeks’ public consultation in mid-September. The CDC Executive has approved consultants for the design of the Bicester Market Square. CDC was currently exploring alternatives for their office space as much of the current building was under-used. No report had been received from Councillor Corkin(OCC).

Governance

The Council was pleased to co-opt and welcome Richard Walker as a Councillor following the vacancy left after the May election.

Finance

The Finance Report is available on the Parish Council website. The External Auditor Report and Certificate has been received and is available on the Parish Council website at https://www.launtonpc.gov.uk/financial-information/accounts-2022-23/

Planning

All planning applications, which include the links to Cherwell’s Planning Portal, are put on the Parish Council website when 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 can respond is on the Parish Council website: www.launton-pc.gov.uk/planning-applications

Parish Hall

The Council is currently awaiting the Lease document for signing. Once the legal work is completed, the Parish Council will take over the running of the Hall, but we are pleased to say that the current Management Committee has agreed to continue for the time being to help with the transition.

Highway and Traffic Issues

The OCCHighways Officer has agreed to look into the specifications for new speed indicator devices together with new white gates at the entrances into the village using S106funds already available. The pavement on the Bicester Road outside the Church is now complete. The kissing gate to the right of the Church will be painted in due course. This may mean that there will be restrictions to the public right of way towards the field for a couple of days to let the paint dry, but we hope there won’t be much disruption. Thanks also go to our footpath wardens for tidying up the foliage along the path to the field.

20mph Consultation

There were 154 responses to the consultation. 138 supported the proposal, 15 objected and one who objected, but (according to the OCC report) nominally expressed support.

The implementation was rather more swift than we had anticipated! We hope to have speed indicator devices in place in due course.

Speedwatch

The team made seven, one-hour, outings in August and recorded 25 vehicles exceeding the speed limit. However, one of the main purposes of Speedwatchis to deter drivers from speeding through the village, and the monitoring, with the team in their hi-vis jackets, is definitely having an effect. The team will be out highlighting the new speed limit in the next few weeks.

Our Speedwatch Co-ordinator would love to hear from you if you are able to help - don’t complain about the speed - come and join the team!

Contact speedwatch@launton-pc.gov.uk for more information. And see page 38 for a report on the programme, and Pages 28-29 for the data from August sessions.

Greencore Homes

We hope that some of you managed to get to the exhibition about the proposed development held on 2 September at the Sports and Social Hall. If you didn’t manage to get to the exhibition, a website has been developed with all the information which was available at the exhibition - see https://www.greencorehomeslaunton.co.uk/

It is understood that the full application (the previous application was just the ‘outline’) which will include the detail of the development layout and actual plots will be submitted in the autumn. At that point, the Parish Council will consider the application and will also invite the developers to the meeting.

Agenda items and dates of the next meetings

The next meeting will be on Thursday 5 October 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 November meeting need to be with the Clerk by 19 October and items for the 7 December meeting by 23 November.

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/