PITSTONE ANNUAL ASSEMBLY
Minutes of the Annual Assembly held on 13 May 2014 
in the main hall at the Memorial Hall, starting at 7.30pm and concluding at 10.25pm

PRESENT:	Cllr Saintey (Chairman), Cllr Blunt (Vice Chairman), Cllr Mrs Arney, Cllr Mrs Stack, 
Cllr Nicholls, Cllr Mrs Hawkins and Cllr Ginda.  Clerk: Laurie Eagling.   County & District Cllr Mrs A Davies.   Kate Smethers (Treasurer of Williamson Trust and Towns Land Charity).  Mark Roberts (Chairman to Memorial Hall Committee).  PCSO Jacqueline Dodson.  
Lawrence Trowbridge (Lead Ranger, National Trust).  Keith Steers (Community 1st Responder and 1st Pitstone & Ivinghoe Scouts).    Plus 48 members of the public.

APOLOGIES: 	Cllr Richardson, Cllr Mattey and a resident, Mrs Morris who wanted to tend her apologies but thank the councillors for their hard work throughout the year.

1/14AA	ATTENDANCE AND APOLOGIES - See above.    
The Chairman opened the meeting, thanked everyone for attending and introduced the assembled members of council.

2/14AA	BATS – LAWRENCE TROWBRIDGE, NATIONAL TRUST
	The guest speaker, Mr Lawrence Trowbridge the Lead Ranger for National Trust, gave a fascinating and informative presentation about bats, how they help our environment and what everyone can do to help encourage bats and protect the biodiversity they require.   If you would like to experience these amazing flying mammals, do join one of the ‘Creatures of the Night’ walks lead by the rangers at the Ashridge estate – the next walk is on 11 June 2014 and you can find the details in the events section of the village web site, or from the National Trust web site.   You could consider helping your local bats by erecting bat boxes on your house or in your garden, these are widely available from about £10 each.  Alternatively, you may like to listen in to the wonderful world of ultrasound noises made by bats by purchasing a ‘bat detector’ available from about £20.   
Mr Trowbridge answered a number of questions from those assembled.   A variety of leaflets about Ashridge and the National Trust were available for people to take home.   The Chairman thanked 
Mr Trowbridge for such an enlightening presentation.

3/14AA	PRESENTATION OF PITSTONE VOLUNTEER OF THE YEAR AWARD 2014 
Vice Chairman, Cllr Blunt, presented Mrs Mary Saintey with a certificate and cheque for £50.00 in recognition of the 25 years she dedicated to voluntary work for the Pitstone Town Lands Charity and the Williamson Trust, the last 7 years of which as chairman.  Mrs Saintey accepted the award on behalf of the work that all the trustees put into the charities and reminded those assembled how lucky our parish was to have such charitable funds at our disposal as many communities are not as fortunate.  A full write up about Mrs Saintey will appear in the next edition of PPP.  On behalf of the community, Mary has also been put forward for the Aylesbury Vale Volunteer of the Year award.   

4/14AA	MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL ASSEMBLY held on 21 May 2013.
	The draft minutes were available on the web site all year.  Copies were also available from the clerk and had been advertised as such on the agenda.  Further copies were provided to those present at the annual assembly.  It was RESOLVED that the minutes were a true and accurate record and the Chairman was authorised to sign them as such.

5/14AA	CRIME REPORT FROM THAMES VALLEY POLICE – PCSO J DODSON
	The Chairman introduced PCSO J Dodson of the Thames Valley Police Wing Neighbourhood Policing Team who was pleased to report that crime has declined over the previous 12 months with just 49 recorded incidents throughout the year.  An update on special operations undertaken by TVP was given including those aimed at reducing domestic burglaries and thefts from beauty spots.   Residents were encouraged to help look after their own homes and properties by fitting security lights and anti-tamper screws, keeping valuables out of sight and not leaving doors/windows open and unattended.  PC Phil Duffey is the new Neighbourhood Officer for Pitstone but sent apologies as he was unable to attend the Assembly.  Further crime prevention advice and updates from Thames Valley Police can be found on their website.   No questions were raised by those assembled, so the Chairman thanked PCSO Dodson for her presentation.

6/14AA	CHAIRMAN’S REPORT – COUNCILLOR SAINTEY
An update was provided on the activity throughout the last 12 months including:

•	The recent removal of the mounds at the allotment site to enable the creation of a further 4 plots.
•	The use throughout the year of the mVAS (flashing speeding sign) including the secondary location being created further along Marsworth Road and the fact that Westfield Road would also come on-line once the land transferred to BCC (as Taylor Wimpey had refused permission).  A resident asked the parish council to consider purchasing a second unit and the Chairman said that this may be considered as part of the next budgetary process.
•	Pitstone Hill car park has been resurfaced due to the extent of the pot holes.
•	Transport for Bucks has given a surface dressing to Glebe Close to combat the high level of surface wear.
•	Transport for Bucks has resurfaced the Cheddington Road footpath, which has been outstanding for a number of years.
•	Transport for Bucks has installed new signage for the Pitstone Green Business Park, which should help ensure HGVs etc use the Upper Icknield Way rather than travel along Marsworth Road.  This has been outstanding since 2009.
•	The computer club has been running throughout the year, meeting weekly at the Memorial Hall.  This was created with grant funding from the parish council to help those members of our community that were less familiar with computers so that they could take advantage of the benefits this can bring eg electronic shopping or banking, keeping in touch with relatives etc.   Residents can drop in to any session or attend regularly.
•	The cinema club started this year, supported with a grant from the parish council last year and the donation of a fabulous projector from Epson.  4 films have now been shown with growing audiences on each occasion.  If you have not yet tried the cinema, do come along.
•	The youth café continues to perform a valuable function in the community, providing the only place for senior school children to meet up on a regular basis, apart from Scouts.  The introduction of a £1 entrance fee and a charge for the tuck shop has helped contribute towards running costs.
•	The Secretary of State has recently decided that the planning permission granted to expand Luton airport back in December stands as valid as does not need calling-in.   Whilst this does not include provision for an additional runway, it does include works to the terminals, taxi-ways and runways to improve efficiency and throughput which will allow the airport to increase their passenger volume from 12m to 18m per year.  The parish council and Beacon Villages Society will continue to work with PAIN/PAVAN/LLACC to ensure that the planning conditions attached are adhered to.
•	Anglian Water has given notice of their intension to install first time mains sewerage to the properties at the end of Cheddington Road and by Cooks Wharf.  The works will be included within their next budgeted program which spans several years.  The exact date has not yet been advised.
•	Following a licence hearing by NHS Litigation, a company has been granted permission for a licence to open a pharmacy in the High Street, Ivinghoe.   This does not mean that a lease and planning permission has been obtained as yet.  NHS has not yet determined the impact that this will have on the dispensing ability of the two existing surgeries.
•	The Chairman then introduced Mr Keith Steers who has become a volunteer Community First Responder for Pitstone.  The parish council has supported his endeavours by funding the purchase of his kit from South Beds Ambulance Service, at a cost of just over £2.5k.

7/14AA	COMMUNITY FIRST RESPONDERS AND 1ST IVINGHOE AND PITSTONE SCOUTS – KEITH STEERS
When you dial 999, it takes 15-20 minutes for an ambulance to reach Pitstone from Stoke Mandeville which is our nearest depot.   If you go into sudden cardiac arrest, for every 1 minute that passes without defibrillation your chance of survival decreases by 10%.   The Community First Responders provide a vital service to villages like ours.  They carry trackers when they are on call and are contacted by the 999 operator at the same time as the ambulance.  Both are dispatched at the same time.  The Community First Responder is likely to be with you within 5-8 minutes.  Their job is to give emergency treatment, oxygen, defibrillation, CPR etc and keep you alive until the ambulance crew arrive 10-15 minutes later.   If a Community Responder is on call in the village when your loved one suffers an emergency, their chance of survival will be much greater.   A plea was put out amongst those present to consider volunteering to the scheme and speak to Mr Steers during the refreshment break.

Mr Steers is also the Group Scout Leader for the 1st Ivinghoe & Pitstone Scouts.  A number of scout and cub leaders are resigning in the summer after long period of service.   The scouts have been desperately trying to recruit replacement leaders or assistant leaders since January, without much luck.   It will be a terrible shame if the cubs and scouts have to close, as this will displace over 100 young people in the village who currently enjoy these facilities.  There will be insufficient capacity within the remaining Cub group for the existing Beavers to feed in to, and no-where at all for the Cubs to progress to.   Age is no barrier.   A plea was put out for volunteers to step forward to help save this vital service for our community.   Again, anyone interested could speak to Mr Steers during the refreshment break.

8/14AA	UPDATE FROM COUNTY AND DISTRICT COUNCILLOR AVRIL DAVIES   
Avril advised that she had been coming to the Assembly every year since 1991 when first elected to represent the parish and that she had never found it more difficult to get anything done within the County and District councils.   She provided some background information about the budget cuts that they have faced over the last few years and the restructuring inside the tiers of government to make each department more like a stand-alone business.  Cllr Davies explained the background behind the council tax increases chosen by both BCC and AVDC and her opposition to these rises instead of them taking advantage of the central government grant scheme.    She warned that further tough times were coming to parents of children at senior school, with recent decisions to increase school transport costs by 5% and to remove all free transport for those over 16 years.  An update was provided about highways, including Westfield Road which has not yet transferred to BCC from TW.   BCC verge grass cutting has been cut back still further from that agreed at the start of the year and will now happen only 6 times within the 30mph signs and twice for areas outside the 30mph signs.

Cllr Davies also provided an update on the Vale of Aylesbury Local Plan, warning that until the new plan can be adopted (which will take a number of years) that large planning applications will now be judged on just 4 simple questions:

o	Is the level of development in that location sustainable?
o	Will the impact cause harm against existing policies (of which we do have some saved policies)?
o	Do the adverse impacts outweigh the benefits or vice versa?
o	Does AVDC have an adequate 5 year housing supply?

No questions were put to Cllr Davies.  Cllr Saintey thanked Avril for her presentation and invited everyone to get some refreshments and return in 20 minutes.

9/14AA	PITSTONE DEVELOPMENT AREA PLANS – DAVE NICHOLLS
Dave Nicholls explained about the complications that had arisen regarding the Pitstone Development Area, the frustrations and the ongoing work of the Parish Charity and the Parish Council to try and resolve them.   It was compared to a Rubik’s Cube, where just as you think you have almost solved it, you have to undo some of the work already done to get the next piece of the puzzle into place.   Land agents and solicitors are also involved as are some staff at AVDC.  All efforts are being made to resolve these complex issues as quickly as possible.  No questions were put to Mr Nicholls.

10/14AA	PRESENTATION OF ACCOUNTS   
Copies of the various accounts had been available to all attendees at the meeting.  Further copies of the accounts are attached for reference.  

1)	Pitstone Town Lands & Williamson Trust Charities 
Mrs Kate Smethers, Treasurer of both charities, explained the history and purpose of both these trusts and the land/properties they own.   She explained both sets of accounts.  There were no questions raised by those present.   

2)	Memorial Hall
	Mr Mark Roberts, Chairman to the Hall Committee, talked to those assembled about the accounts and about all the improvements to the memorial hall over the last two years.  
The previous treasurer, Peter Coker, had stepped down after many years’ service.   
Mr Roberts introduced Mr Andrew Hetherington, who was acting as the interim treasurer.  Applications for the post have been widely advertised and are invited by 18 May.  There were no questions raised by those present.

3)	Pitstone Parish Council
	Mrs L Eagling, Clerk, presented the accounts to 31 March 2014 and explained the audit process.   Both revenue and income were severely down against budget mainly due to the delays with the leisure project.  Key items of expenditure and the grants awarded were discussed.   No questions were tabled.

4)	Pitstone Recreation Ground Charity and Pitstone Parish Charity
Mrs L Eagling, Clerk, explained about the different parcels of land owned by each charity (including the land often presumed as being part of the recreation ground but is actually owned by Pitstone Parish Charity and managed under licence) and the costs for which each was responsible.  Neither of these charities has an income or funds, so must apply to Pitstone Parish Council for grants to cover all their liabilities.   No questions were tabled.

11/14AA	PUBLIC QUESTION TIME
•	Residents expressed concern about the lack of cuts to the vision splays (responsibility of BCC) following two accidents on the Upper Icknield Way near the junction with Vicarage Road.
•	The parish council agreed to speak to PCSO Dodson and our BCC Local Area Technician to see if there was any action that could be taken to reduce parking along Cheddington Road by the Chequers Close/Lane turnings on the blind bend.
•	The parish council responded to a question about parking along Westfield Road, advising that it has been caused by a temporary situation at Safran.  They had been refused permission to park the extra vehicles in the vacant car park next door.  The parish council has hired the pavilion car park to them and a number of vehicles do utilise this each day, but this can’t be enforced.  PCSO Dodson is aware and does monitor any cars illegally parked (eg too close to the junctions).
•	A resident asked about further known housing development in the village, especially regarding the field used for dog walking along Westfield Road.  It was confirmed that this field is owned by Taylor Wimpey and they have a resident agricultural tenant.  The parish council has tried and continues to try and investigate options to protect this piece for land from development.
•	It was clarified that the parish council can only control advertising banners on its own properties eg at the pavilion site or around the recreation ground.   Banners erected in other locations eg by Westfield Road roundabout can be reported to BCC TfB for removal.
•	A resident enquired if a 20mph speed limit could be installed by Brookmead School.   It was confirmed that this had previously been investigated and declined by BCC & the other bodies involved.
•	Mrs Karen Groom, Chairman of Ivinghoe Parish Council, responded to a question about parking complications outside the Beacon Villages Community Library.  This had been fully investigated with BCC TfB but no sensible solution has been identified due to the location so close to the junction.

12/14AA	CLOSURE OF MEETING
	There being no further questions, the chairman thanked everyone for attending the meeting and for their contributions.  There being no further business to be transacted, the chairman closed the meeting at 10.25pm.

Signed:	__________________________________________________	Date: _______________

                  Chairman