Coronavirus ~ March 2020
We have been advised by the Government that Parish Council meetings can take place virtually during the time that the Coronavirus so-called 'lockdown' is in force. See here for more detail.
Parish Council elections
It has been many years since we have had an election. Half your Councillors have been co-opted (asked by current members to join). Although they do a splendid job, it’s not very democratic. The other half have served for too many years to mention. New blood would be very welcome.
Serving on the Parish Council gives you the opportunity to shape the future of your community and to have an active role in matters of particular interest to you. We are only a tiny community but we increasingly have large issues put before us. To mention but a few... how the new Shores Green junction is implemented and how to mitigate the effects of extra traffic that it will bring to the village; the need to protect our countryside and increase bio-diversity including the pollution in the
Limb Brook; how we keep our community a living thriving place to live without losing its very special "feel". Then of course there are the equally important matters of flooding, potholes and speeding traffic.
If you feel you would like to take part and join our merry team, do please get in touch with me or any of the other councillors whose names and contact details can be found here.
Nicky Brooks, February 2021, 01993 701137 or nickybrooks@southleigh.info
Local elections
WODC have written to provide details of the key dates for residents to be aware of for the upcoming local elections on 6th May. The key pieces of information are:
Registering to vote
Anyone who wishes to vote must be registered on the electoral register. The deadline for those who are not registered to make an application is Monday 19th April. For more information and to register see here.
Postal voting
For anyone interested in voting by post this year you just need to make sure you apply before 20th April 2021. You can request a postal vote application form by visiting this page on our website. We would encourage people to sign up to do this sooner rather than later.
Proxy voting
If you are unable to make it to the polling station, then you can nominate someone to be your proxy and cast your vote for you. The proxy needs to be a registered voter and able to attend your own polling station. Applications for proxy voting need to be sent to the District Council by no later than 5:00pm on Tuesday, 27th April.
More information around the local elections for 2021 can be found here on the WODC website.
It looks as if these are definitely going to go ahead in May this year. This Parish will be voting for County, District and Parish Councillors as well as for the Police Commissioner. It’s not confirmed as yet, but it’s likely that we will be asked to vote by post this year. Given the Covid-19 situation it would seem to be a sensible solution. Now is the time to register to vote, if you are eligible and not already registered. It’s a simple thing to do... just contact the WODC here. Once registered, you will in due course receive your voting papers.
Parish Council news...
Since last November your Parish Council has continued meeting remotely every six weeks via Zoom with the meetings publicised on the website, via Facebook and the village email list. If you would like to be included on these lists please do let us know. As always the public are invited to observe our meetings and if there is anything in the Parish that is concerning you, please let us know and we will do our best to help. There is also a slot at meetings for members of the public to speak. Full minutes of our meetings and agendas for future meetings are available on the South Leigh website.
We have only had two meetings since the end of last year, both in January, which is unusual. One was specifically to agree the level of the precept for the coming year. This is the amount that the Parish Council feels it has to charge parishioners to look after the Parish. It's collected through the Council Tax system and then distributed to us. The main items of expenditure are the various insurances / leases for the public places within the village, grass maintenance, the village hall loan, paying our Clerk and a small amount of sundry payments. Again, details can be found on this website. At the meeting on 5th January, it was deemed necessary to raise the precept by £3 per household per annum.
The other meeting, on 19th January, handled our normal agenda. Matters included a 'change of use' planning application at Church End Farm, progress on Shores Green junction and the A40 updates, the possibility of an anaerobic digester being sited within the Parish, the flooding and the pollution that possibly occurred in Lymbrook Close, how to increase biodiversity with the Forest Restoration Group undertaking the planting of young trees on allocated sites, the improvement of mobile phone reception and finally the possibility of creating a Conservation Area to protect our Parish.
We were unable to hold an AGM last year because of Covid but we are hoping to be able to hold one in May this year. We will have to keep you posted on this! (See below).
I hope you are all bearing up in these really tricky times. I always find January and February a bit depressing in a normal year and this one has been a nightmare – but with the vaccination programme going so well we will hopefully all be able to meet up again soon. If you do need some support or help in any way please get in touch - there are loads of people out there who would be more than willing to help. Good wishes to you all.
Nicky Brooks, February 2021, 01993 701137 or nickybrooks@southleigh.info
Update on Mobile Signal
I wish I had something spectacular to tell you but nothing is like that and any time frames are extended, but…
I have asked that the issue of rural mobile connectivity be highlighted to the All Party Committee of MPs dealing with rural affairs.
Nicky Brooks and I are still due to have a meeting with Robert Courts in the village on 19th March and we will have a list of inquiries which we will send him in advance.
I had a helpful telephone conference with Tom Corcoran, Lead Political and Parliamentary Affairs Manager of ‘Three’ - much the most helpful of all the mobile providers. I urged him to try and get greater cooperation between the four suppliers as I readily accept that it is not economic for four companies to make separate provision for a community as small as South Leigh - I personally can’t see why South Leigh could not be a ‘Three’ village say whilst Cassington is, say, a ‘Vodafone’ village and, indeed, in a recent industry newsletter the penny seems to have dropped.
“Until recently it was widely accepted that network competition was key to getting the operators to build out with urgency. Clearly collaboration and competition are two very different things, but the consensus now appears to be that a blend of the two approaches represents a sort of ‘third way’ depending on the circumstances.”
I also asked him to send me a confirmatory email of the telephone call which he has done. The most helpful parts for South Leigh are, "We expect the improvements in South Leigh will be delivered via the PNS programme, which we expect to make an announcement about soon.” And, "The full SRN (PNS & TNS) is supposed to be completed by 2025, however it is our ambition that the PNS programme is completed within two years of it starting.”
I have various concerns as a result of my conversation with Tom Corcoran about Ofcom monitoring but that is a matter for Ofcom and the minister and again I have raised the issue with Robert Courts. As for ‘Three’, I am far from clear that their four proposed masts, even with overlaid frequencies, will do the job for South Leigh I asked Tom to seek information from his technical team and he has undertaken to do that.
- Chris Williams of BT is still trying to resolve ‘the landlord issue’ which is preventing alteration / improvement to the Oxford Hill site and the raising of the mast. Then there will be a planning issue along the lines faced in 6 below.
- We still have the problem that, as far as I can see, Vodafone and O2’s position in that they have confirmed they are doing nothing which I believe is a clear breach of the Shared Rural Network Agreement with the Government.
- As a footnote you may have seen the headline in the Witney Gazette (10/2/2021) which Nicky Brooks alerted me to. Planning permission was granted for a new 20 metre mast on Witney Road, Eynsham (Lowlands Planning Committee 8/2/2021). I will contact the case officer to find out more.
Dick Pears, 12th February 2021
South Leigh Parish Council is a statutory body operating as the lowest level of local government. Its powers are very limited but it is entitled to be consulted on many matters that are actually the responsibility of a higher local authority (witness planning and the District Council or Highways and the County Council).
The Parish Council is elected by all qualifying voters in the Parish and its elected members in turn appoint a Clerk to the Parish Council.
The Parish Council has the power to tax by, adding a regulated charge, called a 'Precept', to your Council Tax bill.
The Parish Council has regular meetings (approximately every six weeks) which are advised to the Parish by a notice on the notice board by the pub and on the village website. These meetings are open to the public to attend.
No Parish Councillor is paid. The Parish Council operates through volunteers and with the good will of the public. However, certain activities are delegated by the Parish Council which operates through various sub-committees and appointed officers, viz:-
Village Hall Committee - Richard Law
Village Green Committee - Dick Pears
Playground Association - Karen Wilson
Football Pitch Committee - Martin Wilson
Neighbourhood Plan Committee - Ken Brooks
Forest Restoration Group - Martin Spurrier
Each sub-committee operates independently but under the aegis of the Parish Council and with a Parish Councillor or Officer as an ex-officio member with all relevant accounts of the sub-committee being consolidated within the accounts of the Parish Council itself at the year end.
The Summer Fayre Committee is not a sub-committee of the Parish Council. It operates as an independent fundraising venture and thus it is not the responsibility of the Parish Council.
In addition to these sub-committees, the Parish Council has appointed the following officers:
Footpaths Officers - Ann and Russell Cherry
Traffic Monitoring Officer - Lysette Nicholls
Litter Collection Co-ordinator - John Ashwell
Newsletter Editor - John Ashwell
Data Protection Officer - Tammy Heavens
Parish Council notices
NEXT COUNCIL MEETINGS
The next meetings, which take place at 7:30pm usually in the Village Hall, but are by ZOOM until further notice, are on the Tuesdays listed below. If you wish to discuss something, we always have a slot at the beginning of the meeting for this purpose, but it is important that you advise the Clerk beforehand about what you'd like to speak about.
Please also note:
These are provisional and dependent on ‘lockdown’ arrangements. The Parish Council doesn’t normally meet in August due to the holiday and the date in October is half term and so may well need to be moved.
• 5th January 2021
• 19th January 2021
• 2nd March 2021
• 13th April 2021
• 25th May 2021
• 6th July 2021
Parish Council Meetings & AGM postponement
We have been waiting for notification from Government about how we should run our meetings during the Covid-19 pandemic. It hasn’t been quick in coming but I guess they’ve had more important things to do!
Anyway, we now have definite guidance - please see the guidance points in bold below.
Regular Parish Council meetings should not take place in person but can take place by video call where possible and members of the parish should be invited (again - where possible).
We tried a video call meeting via ZOOM for our March meeting and although not as good as face-to-face, it worked very well, so we are inviting members of the parish to join the May meeting if they would like to. We will email all those that we have contact details for before the meeting with joining instructions. You will have to download the ZOOM app beforehand. We’ll put a notice on the village Facebook page too but we are aware that doesn’t necessarily cover the whole parish - perhaps you could alert any other parishioners who you feel may be interested.
For anyone feeling uneasy about any of this but would like to join we are happy to set up a practice session.
I'm afraid that during the meeting we will have to be strict about public intervention because it really doesn’t work if people speak at the same time - we are therefore requesting that you don’t intervene during the meeting but please do contact us afterwards with thoughts and ideas - it would be most welcome. (Strictly speaking, this is how Parish Council meetings should be run but we normally like to be more inclusive.)
If you do have any issue(s) that you would like to raise at the meeting please do let us know well beforehand and of course we will offer you a spot to air your views.
AGMs are postponed until such time as public can attend. The current chair will remain in place until an AGM can be held once the current situation is rectified.
Our AGM is the one meeting in the year where parishioners are allowed to raise any questions they like about the last year's actions of the Parish Councillors; it is the parishioners' meeting. It is of course where reports from the various sub-committees are presented along with the Parish Council annual report and the year-end accounts. Finally - it is the time that the councillors vote for the chair and deputy chair positions. We will still publish the reports and accounts and any questions from parishioners will be answered.
Notice of meetings should be via web site not posted in a public place.
We should make the written record and background papers available on the website.
Minutes of the meeting held on March 31st are now available here together with all the attendant papers - please get in touch if you have any queries and we will publish all papers going forward on this website until normality is resumed.
Thank you for your patience in this matter - we are trying to be as transparent as possible in these trying times.
Nicky Brooks, Chair of South Leigh Parish Council, March 2020 nickybrooks@southleigh.info
Code of Conduct for Members and Co-opted Members
Below is the Code of Conduct to which all Parish Councillors have signed up.
Produced by WODC, it is also followed by all District Councillors.
GUIDANCE ON THE DECLARATION OF INTERESTS AT MEETINGS
- When do I need to declare my interests?
You need to declare your interests at all meetings where matters being discussed or to be discussed affect your interests. - What is a personal interest?
You need to declare your interests at all meetings where matters being discussed or to be discussed affect your interests. - What do I need to do if I have a personal interest in a matter?
You have a personal interest in a matter if that matter affects the well-being or financial position of you, your relatives or your friends more than it would affect other people in the Parish. You must look at how any decision reached in any meeting would affect:
- You and / or their jobs and businesses;
- You and / or them where you and / or they are a partner in a partnership, and / or where you and / or they are a director of a company;
- Corporate bodies in which you or they have a beneficial interest in a type of share with a face value (as shown on the share certificate) worth more than 5,000 and
- You and / or they have an interest in a trust or other organisation whether beneficial or not.
- Any organisations (whether for profit or not) in which you or they hold a position of general control or management or influence and whether or not, you or they represent your Parish Council.
Under the Code of Conduct: - A relative is a partner (someone you are married to or live with as if you were married), a parent, a parent-in-law, a son or daughter, a step-son or step-daughter, the child of a partner, a brother or sister, a grandparent, a grandchild, an uncle or aunt, a nephew or niece or the partner of any of these people;
- a member of the public is a person who lives in the Parish and / or who pays Council Tax or business rates to the local district authority.
- Do I need to declare a personal interest at a meeting if it is on the Register of Interests?
Yes - even if your interest is shown in any Register of Interests, you must also declare it in meetings where matters affecting that interest are discussed. - What is a prejudicial interest?
A prejudicial interest is one which a member of the public who knows the relevant facts could reasonably think is so significant that it is likely to affect your judgement of the public interest.
You must ask yourself whether a member of the public, if he or she knew all the facts, would think that your personal interest was so significant that it would probably affect your decision on the matter. If he or she could think your judgement would be affected, then you have a prejudicial interest. - What is not a prejudicial interest?
The Code of Conduct sets out some general exceptions from prejudicial interests. It says that you may not have a prejudicial interest if the matter relates to:
- Another relevant authority of which you are a member.
- Another public authority in which you hold a position of general control or management
- An organisation where you represent your Parish Council.
- What will happen if I declare a prejudicial or personal interest?
We have agreed to follow best practice at South Leigh Parish Council so that regardless as to whether a declaration is of a prejudicial or personal interest, the relevant councillor would be asked and expected to leave the meeting and not to vote on any declared interest.
There has recently been an increase in the number of members of the public attending our Parish Council meetings, which is fantastic. We are really pleased that people are interested in the actions of the Parish Council which is, after all, your representative in matters pertaining to our Parish.
However, given the increased numbers, I thought it would be a sensible idea to restate the relevant rules...
Strictly speaking, the public is there only to observe and participate by invitation. Just as with OCC and WODC, these are meetings of the Council held in public and not public meetings.
As is recommended, we have adopted 'model rules' as set out by WODC for the conduct of meetings of the Parish Council - a summary is set out below. They are fairly strict rules but some latitude is allowed at the discretion of the Chair with the consent of the Parish Council.
I, as Chair, have always felt that public participation should be encouraged wherever reasonably possible and so have run our meetings in a much more open way. I am not suggesting that this changes. I continue to support the idea of public participation but I would ask that we remember that meetings of the Parish Council are not meetings of the public.
When issues have arisen, such as Gladman or the Neighbourhood Plan, I have ensured that a full public meeting has been convened so that parishioners can express their views. While I remain Chair, I will continue with this policy. In the meantime, members of the public are encouraged to notify myself, the Clerk or any Parish Councillor of any matter of concern as we purposefully maintain a running Agenda item for such matters. However, whilst we will normally allow matters to be raised at relatively short notice, it would be appreciated if reasonable notice is given of a wish to speak or raise a particular matter as that enables the Parish Councillors to have researched the relevant subject beforehand to ensure an informed debate.
Finally, we, as your Parish Council, are appointed to make decisions on the behalf of the whole Parish. Whilst we will endeavour to hear all views and to take them into consideration, the final decision on any matter is down to the Parish Councillors themselves. In that regard, no councillor entitled to vote has to give a reason for their decision on how to vote.
Council Meetings: Public Participation Procedure
- The meetings of the Parish Council are not public meeting meetings; they are meetings which are open to the public to attend. Members of the public do not have a right to speak unless invited to do so by the Chairman.
- In response to a specific request the Parish Council will make available 15 minutes at the commencement of the relevant agenda item for public participation.
- Any person wishing to address the Parish Council must inform the Clerk not later than the Thursday before the Parish Council meeting giving notice of the subject the wish to speak on. (The reason for the need to give notice is so that the Clerk may undertake any research that may be needed and brief the Chairman.)
- If a person has not given the required notice they may not be able to address the meeting.
- The Chairman will invite the person to speak on the subject of which they have given notice.
- The person addressing the Parish Council will speak for no more than three minutes.
- Having once addressed the Parish Council they will not be allowed to speak again on the same subject unless the Chairman of the meeting invites them to clarify their remarks.
- A group of people wishing to speak on a subject will appoint a representative to address the Parish Council on their behalf.
- If two or three members of the public wish to speak on the same subject as individuals (and not as part of a group), the Chairman may use his discretion to stop any speaker who is simply repeating what has already been said.
- Members of the public may not speak on items that are confidential or exempt from publication under legislation.
- Members of the public may not participate in the Councillors’ debate.
- The Chairman of the meeting may rule that any public remarks are not appropriate and will not be accepted, for example if they are defamatory, frivolous or offensive. In such an instance the Chairman may disallow a person from speaking or continuing to speak.
- To comply with the Code of Conduct, councillors with prejudicial interests who wish to speak during public participation sessions must do so before others with views / representations on the same matter and then immediately leave the room, i.e. they cannot hear the representations of others.
- If the Chairman wishes to depart from these procedures once incorporated, there will have to be a motion suspending standing orders and the subsequent discussions will not be minuted. Minuting of the meeting will be resumed once standing orders are reinstated.
Nicky Brooks, Chairman of South Leigh Parish Council
nickybrooks@southleigh.info
December 2019
South Leigh Community Speed Watch
Speeders: Slow down or lose your car!
26th March 2020: South Leigh Speed Watch managed to do five weeks of monitoring before we stood down and during that time clearly established that speeding was an issue. This was also covered by the Witney Gazette.
We captured over 150 speeders during this period and the average speed was 39mph. Letters were being sent out by the Police as even if we haven’t captured speeding motorists three times in the village, data is consolidated and taken from the whole of the Thames Valley Police region.
We have been asked to stand down currently as the Police are focusing their resources to deal with current issues.
I would like to thank all those that are helping and those that have asked to be trained in the future.
Issued by South Leigh Speed Watch Team. For further information please contact:
Lysette Nicholls ~ lysette.nicholls@southleigh.info 07766 251125
Thames Valley Police's Robb Webb instructs South Leigh's Speedwatch team in the use of the speed camera.
Stanton Harcourt Farms
The Parish Council has received a letter from Mr. William Gascoigne, owner of Stanton Harcourt Farms, regarding access to his land. Every parishioner should please read this to comply with the law and for their own safety.Parish Councillors and their contact details can be found here.
Recently it has been out of action due to a fault with the locking mechanism. This was corrected only for us to discover the battery needed replacing along with the pads. These have now been replaced so everything should be in working order.
The cost of these items comes out of Parish Council funds and therefore ultimately everyone’s council tax. By the way... we are not talking £4.99 for a battery, it was £155.00 with the total cost £235.08.
If the situation arises that you need to urgently gain access to it, use your phone to ring 999 (you will always get a response even where there is no mobile signal for ordinary calls) and someone will give you the code to open the box and lead you through the procedure and assist with details of how to treat the person in need before an ambulance reaches you.
DOGS AND THE LAW
Dog owners are reminded that it is now compulsory to have their four legged friend microchipped. Any dog that is found not to have been microchipped could see the owner facing a fine of £500.
West Oxfordshire District Council picks up about 100 stray dogs every year, many of which are not microchipped, making it difficult for them to be reunited with their owners.
The animals are taken to council-appointed kennels with owners charged for accommodation and other costs until they are returned. If unclaimed, the stray is usually re-homed through an animal rescue centre.
STRAY DOGS
The responsibility for collecting stray dogs has changed from the Police to West Oxfordshire District Council. The Police will still deal with dangerous dogs.
Anyone who has lost or found a dog should telephone the council on 01993 861020 during normal working hours or 01993 705056 after 5:00pm and at weekends, or online by clicking here.
People interested in re-homing a stray dog can apply by logging completing the 'Application to re-home a dog' form found by following the link on the same web page.
West Oxfordshire District Council is urging residents to take care about what they put in their household rubbish bin after one of their contractor’s vehicles caught fire.
The incident happened in Little Tew when the crew heard an explosion in the back of the vehicle and saw flames coming out. Fortunately their speedy action prevented the fire from spreading beyond the back of the truck.
Using thermal imaging the Fire Brigade could tell that the fire had been caused during the compacting process when a laptop containing four large lithium batteries was crushed.
This is a stark reminder of the importance of disposing of electrical goods safely. Smaller unusable electrical items can be recycled at most of our recycling sites and larger electrical items taken to one of the county’s Waste & Recycling centres such as Dix Pit in Stanton Harcourt. The ‘crossed out wheelie bin’ symbol found on many electrical items means that they should not be put into normal household rubbish bins.
The containers for small electrical items, which are known as WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) banks, are a bright pink colour. The nearest ones are at Sainsbury's car park in Witney and the car park at the Eynsham Medical Practice. Anything with electrical or electronic parts from straighteners to shavers, and toys to toasters, can be placed in the pink WEEE banks.
Producing electrical items uses a lot of energy and valuable materials, including precious metals like gold and silver. Electrical equipment can also contain chemicals such as lead and mercury. These chemicals can get into the environment and harm people or animals if items are not disposed of carefully.
As part of the recycling process valuable or harmful materials are removed safely and re-used or disposed of. Recycling materials such as aluminium from computers saves raw materials and energy.
COUNCIL TAX SCAM WARNING
West Oxfordshire residents are being warned to guard against bogus callers telling them their council tax bands maybe too high.
Several residents have been in touch with the District Council saying callers from the ‘Claims Review Bureau’ have contacted them offering to work on their behalf to obtain a reduction in exchange for a fee of about £80.
But staff have emphasised that anyone wanting to appeal against their band can do so for free by contacting the District Valuation Office.
Cllr. Toby Morris, Cabinet Member for Resources, said: “This is a scam and residents must ensure they do not pass on any financial or personal details to these callers. Appealing against a council tax band does not require a third party and is free. Anyone receiving one of these calls should end the conversation as quickly as possible.”
Residents wishing to appeal against their council tax banding can do so by contacting the District Valuation Office on 03000 501 501.
To report a suspected scam, contact Oxfordshire County Council Trading Standards on 0845 051 0845.
The District Council has also reminded residents that staff would never ask for a customer's bank details via email.
PARKING
The Parish Council asks that cars should not be parked half on pavements and half on the road. We understand why this practice has developed but unfortunately it has the effect of breaking down the pavements and verges.
GRASS CUTTING
Approximately 21% of our Precept pays for cutting the Village Green, the rear garden of the Hall and assisting the church with the cost of cutting the churchyard.
The email notifications service is part of improvements to the planning section of the council’s website to make it easier to find out about applications online.
What’s more, you can also get weekly reminders about your waste collections so you know which bins to put out, as well as opt to receive alerts in the event of changes to your collections due to bank holidays.
To register to ‘Be in the Know’:
visit www.westoxon.gov.uk/beintheknow and follow the simple registration steps.
To find out more about planning in West Oxfordshire, see www.westoxon.gov.uk/planning or call 01993 861000.
PLANNING PERMISSION
Please be aware that if you extend your property by incorporating part of a field you will need planning permission for change of use from agricultural to domestic from the local district council.
ROADSIDE VERGES
The Parish Council is concerned that grass cuttings and other garden waste is being deposited on roadside verges in a couple of localities within the village. We hope this practice will stop immediately as it is regarded as Fly Tipping and the District Council will prosecute when and where necessary. It is suggested anyone wishing to dispose of garden waste should ask the District Council for a green wheelie bin which they will supply free of charge.
CODE OF CONDUCT
To conform with the law we must state that the Code of Conduct adopted by West Oxfordshire District Council has been adopted as the code for members and co-opted members of South Leigh Parish Council with effect from 1st July 2012 or such other date as may be specified in regulations, to replace the current code of conduct.