Angmering Village Life
News Archive
July 2010
Angmering Park trainer William Knight's success at Goodwood with Illustrious Blue continued when the horse, ridden by Jim Crowley, won the Artemis Goodwood Cup yesterday. Illustrious Blue obviously has some affinity with the course as this was his seventh victory from fourteen starts on the course, and the third at "Glorious Goodwood". The victory was William Knight's 24th in his career that started only five year's ago.
Grant Allocations
Following the
receipt of further information from the applicants, grants were awarded as
follows: (a) Home Start Arun - £300; (b) Littlehampton & District CAB
- £300; (c) ASRA - £1,000; (d) Angmering Allotments Association -
£400. The allocations using Section 137 now total £2,840 for the
financial year compared with the overall limit under Section 137 for the Parish
Council of around £36,000.
The Committee discussed a letter received from the Secretary of Angmering Village Hall expressing surprise that a grant was not made at the previous meeting. A number of statements were made in the letter regarding historic agreements between the then Parish Council and the Village Hall of which the committee was unaware. It was agreed that the Clerk would respond to the letter requesting copy correspondence detailing the agreement made and report back.
Honey Lane
The Clerk had detailed
the current position, in particular: (a) The part of Honey Lane leased to the
Parish Council (b) The fact that Honey Lane is a Public Right of Way, for which
landowners have the maintenance responsibility. (c) Honey Lane is on the County
Council’s ‘Safer Route to Schools’ network. (d) The need to not
make Honey Lane a precedent for other ‘Private’ roads.
The Clerk circulated copies of the letter sent to the Parish Council by Graham Rivers on behalf of Honey Lane residents requesting contributions to repairs works on the road. The Chairman adjourned the meeting to allow Mr. Rivers to speak. He said that residents were looking for some commitment from the Parish Council towards the currently proposed scheme and agreed that there was room for negotiation on what that commitment could be. The Chairman reconvened the meeting. It was agreed that councillors needed more time to absorb the contents of the letter in detail and would discuss this at a future meeting.
Travellers
The Clerk said that he
intended to draw up a protocol detailing how such an incursion should be dealt
with in future. The Chairman explained that he asked the Clerk to use delegated
powers under Financial Regulation 2(e) to organise the clear-up of all rubbish
and to undertake bunding and install appropriate measures to secure the site
straight away. The construction of bunds would be the first task at a cost of
£500 for materials and £1,000 for the provision of machinery and an
operator. The plan showing the position of the bunds was circulated. soil for
the bunds, Rabbit Skips, there would be a contribution made towards a Community
Scheme of £10 for every lorry load of soil used for the bunds.
Community Centre Bund
The Clerk
reported on the current position with the bund, explaining that that, if it was
to be kept, planning permission would have to be applied for. Hamsons had also
provided quotations for re-seeding or re-turfing the bund. It was agreed that,
in the light of the experience with the travellers at Mayflower Park, removal
of the bund was not an option and that consideration should be given to how it
would be treated. The Chairman adjourned the meeting to allow the one remaining
member of the public, Mr. Harris to speak. Mr. Harris expressed his concerns
about various aspects of the building of the Community Centre. Cllr. Mountain
responded by explaining that there were a number of inaccuracies in Mr.
Harris’ version of events. Mr. Harris left the meeting. The Chairman
re-convened the meeting. It was AGREED that the bund be left in place, Hamsons
be requested to apply for planning permission and that a stone-pick be
organised to remedy the problem of rubble emerging. The final landscaping
arrangements would be decided once planning permission had been obtained.
Village Green
The Clerk had
received a formal request for permission to put up a gazebo on the village
green as a focal point for the ‘Hello Day’. The initial response
given by the Chairman and Vice-Chairman had been that this should not be
allowed because it would set a precedent. He had consulted SALC and had been
informed that this was acceptable, but that this should be embodied in a formal
minute. On a proposal by Cllr. Bos, seconded by Cllr. Stephenson it was
RESOLVED that, due to its position in the centre of three stretches of road,
other than seats and the war memorial, no other permanent or temporary
structures be permitted to be erected on the Village Green.
To read the full minutes of this meeting, click here (PDF file)
As mentioned in previous news items on this page, Angmering's Celebration Day will take place this Sunday. Photos taken last Thursday in the village and the schools will be put on display in the Angmering Community Centre at Foxwood Avenue, Bramley Green from 1pm onwards.
But that's not all - as featured in this week's West Sussex Gazette - there will be a display of Photos of Old Angmering, some dating back to the 19th century, which will provide a real contrast with the ones taken last week on Hello Day.
Also, support Marie Curie Cancer Care by joining the Blooming Great Tea Party - a nationwide event - which hopes to raise over £1m for the charity this year.
So, for something a bit different this weekend, come to the Community Centre on Sunday afternoon. If you have not had the chance of visiting the Community Centre since it was opened, here is your chance to view this excellent new village facility.
The West Sussex Fire & Rescue Service was called to a fire at a garage in Ashurst Way in south Angmering at 5.00am this morning (Thursday) which the WSFRS believe was caused by arson. The single storey garage, containing a car, was 60% damaged by fire, 40% damaged by heat, smoke and collapse. Crews from East Preston, Shoreham, Worthing and Bognor attended the scene.
An iPod has been found in Fletcher's Field. If anyone has lost this iPod or knows to whom it belongs, please contact Angmering Parish Council's office in The Square (Tel: 01903-850756).
A/85/10 - Single storey one bed unit. Resubmission following A/38/10. St Wilfreds Presbytery, Arundel Road. For: MCW Developments Ltd
A/91/10/TC - Notification of works to trees within the Angmering Conservation Area: Fell three no. Conifer trees at Dolphin Cottage, The Square. For: M G Pearn
Observations on this/these Application(s) must be received by The Head of Planning Services, Arun District Council, The Arun Civic Centre, Maltravers Road, Littlehampton, West Sussex BN17 5LF by 12 August 2010.
To see applications, plans, design statements, etc, type the Application Reference Number (such as those above) into Arun District Council's "Application Search Facility " , click on the Search button, and click on the hyperlink reference when selected application is returned - then select "Documents".
The 7th Charity Hog Roast will take place at The Spotted Cow, High, Street, Angmering on Sunday 25th July. The menu is Hog Roast, Jacket Potato and Side Salad followed by Strawberries and Cream. The food which will be served from 4.15pm is by ticket only, in advance, from The Spotted Cow. Live music, from 3.00pm, will be provided by DEAD GRATEFUL and GIGGING.
All are welcome. Profits from the event will be divided between the Chanctonbury Community Playscheme and Canine Partners. For further information please contact Anthony Booty on (01903) 770142.
Angmering Sports Club are holding their annual fun day at the Palmer Road Recreation Ground (off Arundel Road) on Saturday the 24th of July. The event is aimed to help kick off fundraising for a new sports and social pavillion as the current building at Palmer Road is in need of upgrading and modernisation.
The fun day will include childrens rides, a raffle, BBQ, pony rides, tombola, a live DJ, sumo suits for children and a range of other stalls. The Sports Club bar will also be open to people to use. The event starts and 11am and runs until 4pm.
Angmering Parish Council issued the following statement on 14 July:
"For the second time this summer, travellers have broken into and occupied Parish Council land at Mayflower Park, causing damage and nuisance. This has resulted in a great deal of effort and time in obtaining possession and the resultant clearance will cost a significant amount. Once travellers gain access to a site there is very little that can be done immediately and the only action that can be taken is to go through the process of obtaining a possession order from the County Court, which can take up to three weeks. The Parish Council office has been spending much of the last two weeks liaising with West Sussex County Council, Arun District Council, Sussex Police and others, as well as talking directly to the travellers, to ensure that the proper processes are followed. The result was that the travellers left after just over a week, before court action was started, which in turn saved money on court fees.
The latest group of 21 traveller caravans left on Saturday 10th/Sunday 11th July the Parish Council quickly decided that enough was enough and that certain measures should be taken to attempt to deny future entry to the site by these vehicles. On Tuesday 13th July the construction of a series of bunds was started to try to stop access by caravans and vehicles. This is being done in conjunction with a number of other measures such as the replacement of locks on the gates, bollards being erected within the footpaths, hippo bags of concrete and replacement fencing. This work will be carried out over the next week or two and will be costly, but I am sure everyone will agree that it is necessary to avoid the nuisance and it will pay for itself within two years of invasion-free summers.
The Parish Council cannot promise that this will avoid the problems of the last previous years, but it is hoped that there will be too many obstacles in the way to make it worthwhile for the travellers to use this land. The Parish Council would like to apologise for the disturbance caused by the works, but hope that residents understand that this is necessary in the circumstances."
Bramley Green Play Area
The Clerk
had been in touch with Wendy Ashenden-Bax at Arun District Council, who had
indicated that she would look at the details and come back with a resolution to
the problem. It was agreed that although there was substantial subsidence, this
did not represent a danger to users and the Parish Council would wait for an
answer before doing any remedial work.
Grant Allocations
The full list
of applications and decisions are attached as an appendix to these minutes. The
grants that were awarded were as follows: Using Section 137 of the Local
Government Act 1972 (a) Victim Support - £100; (b) Arun Co-ordinated
Community Transport - £300; (c) 1st Angmering Scout Group - £400;
(d) Angmering Cricket Club - £150; (e) Angmering Youth Forum -
£1,190 (to purchase the generators directly, saving VAT). These
allocations total £2,540 against the budget allocation of £7,500
which compares with the overall limit under Section 137 for the Parish Council
of around £36,000.
2009/10 Budget Monitor
The Clerk
pointed out that finance had not been identified for either the Environmental
Wardens or for the Parish Council commitment to the ongoing maintenance of the
fabric of the Community Centre. He suggested that around £5,000 per annum
full-year costs would need to be budgeted for each of these two commitments. It
was AGREED that budget virements be made to allow for £2,000 towards the
Wardens, to cover the cost of the trial 3-month period, and £5,000 to
cover the maintenance and lease legal costs for the Community Centre, both to
be found from the General Reserve in the first instance. The provision for the
Environmental Wardens would be reviewed if the arrangement became
permanent.
Committee Meetings
The Clerk had
identified a problem that the office was spending a large proportion of time
servicing meetings (53 scheduled committee/council meetings in 2010) resulting
in too little time to move the Parish Council forward. He had a very ambitious
set of plans to push the profile and kudos of the Council forward and was being
frustrated because the large number of day-to-day activities meant a shortage
of time to do this. He had carried out an initial survey of some of the
meetings in the past year and confirmed his intuitive feeling that very little
is being achieved at most meetings – being merely continuations of matters
already decided or plans that are still being worked on. The result was that
these meetings did not made effective use of the time available.
Subject to further discussion, his solution would be to revise the meetings schedule as follows: • Parish Council – continue to hold once every six weeks • Policy & Finance Committee – to reduce to once every two months or so to reflect the incidence of work in this area. • Planning Committee – to hold these every three weeks to comply with the planning cycle, but to coincide every other one with the Parish Council meetings and hold the two on one night. This would mean the Clerk would service these, reducing the Assistant Clerk’s workload. • Highways/Leisure/Environment – to hold these once every three months, but with a new discipline introduced into the office mechanisms where there is an update on progress for councillors every month. • To properly work up ideas into full proposals, to set up ad hoc Working Parties which need not be open and not necessarily be serviced by the office. These could include outsiders to provide expertise and experience not held by councillors and would be able to produce more detailed plans to the relevant committee. • All committee agendas be circulated to all councillors • All committee and council minutes to be circulated to all members at the same time they go on the Website.
The Clerk believed that these proposals would improve the effectiveness of the office and consequently of the Council and allow some of the development work to take place. He was looking for agreement in principle to these proposed outline changes, in order to work up the modus operandi in detail. These proposals were AGREED.
To read the full minutes of this meeting, click here (PDF file)
The annual Angmering Flower & Produce Show last Saturday proved to be a great success. The warm and sunny afternoon drew over 400 people through the gate. As a result, the cream teas sold out but the raffle was a great fund-raiser.
There were 86 individual entries and over 700 class entries with more entries in the roses and sweetpea sections than last year, which was surprising considering the hot weather leading up to the show.
Show secretary Anna Burtenshaw commented "We have had so many positive comments on how lovely it all was and how important it was to the village. This year we have the added bonus that whatever we make for the Chestnut Tree House hospice, Barclays Bank will match - another great incentive to the visitors, who kindly donated over £40 in a bucket as they left". Some £650 was taken on the afternoon.
Mr Peter Blake and family were again the most genial hosts and still are very happy to open their garden to so many people - the show couldn't go on without that cooperation.
This year there were two new cups - one for the best fuchsia in show called the "Duchess Cup" and another given by The Angmering Society for "Historical Angmering".
The West Sussex Fire & Rescue Service was called to a fire at a house in Mulberry Hollow, Ham Manor, at 1.53pm yesterday (Wednesday). A pan of pasta on a cooker had caught fire! A crew from the East Preston Fire Station immersed the pan in water and ventilated the kitchen.
A/87/10 - Proposed porch at 12 Thakeham Close (East Preston). For: Mr and Mrs Mitchell
Observations on this/these Application(s) must be received by The Head of Planning Services, Arun District Council, The Arun Civic Centre, Maltravers Road, Littlehampton, West Sussex BN17 5LF by 29 July 2010.
To see applications, plans, design statements, etc, type the Application Reference Number (such as those above) into Arun District Council's "Application Search Facility " , click on the Search button, and click on the hyperlink reference when selected application is returned - then select "Documents".
Further to our news item of 15 June, this is a reminder that "Hello Day" will take place in Angmering on Thursday 15th July when villagers will be invited to take a photograph of where they are and what they are doing during that day. This will provide a community snapshot of a day in the life of Angmering in 2010.
The organisers will be placing disposable cameras in shops and other venues around the village so that everyone will have the opportunity to participate, even if they do not have a camera to hand. However, anyone can use their own camera to take photographs and bring the prints along to "Celebration Day" later in the month. Kelly and Cass from Articurl and members of Angmering Arts will be in the village on 15th July, encouraging everyone to take part.
The "Celebration Day" will take place on Sunday 25th July when people can bring their photographs along to the Angmering Community Centre from 1.00pm onwards, and place them on the notice boards. As part of this project, Neil Rogers-Davis from Angmering Village Life will be displaying some of his archive photos of village life in the past on the notice boards, so that a comparison can be made of how life used to be in Angmering and how it is now. The "Blooming Great Tea Party" will take place at the same time with tea and cakes at the Community Centre as well as a raffle - in aid of the Marie Curie Cancer Care charity. poster
Honey Lane
Timers had now been
installed in the new street lights and confirm that this project was now
complete.
Pathways
West Sussex County
Council will be installing a ‘baco rail’ at the bottom of the Twitten
by the ‘Old Presbytery’ in Arundel Road. The Parish Council will make
a contribution of £400 to its installation.
High Street Post Box
The
renovated period post box had now been received from Royal Mail. A local
builder has been asked to quote for the housing. The Committee requested that a
further two quotes be sought.
Community Centre Signage
The
signage should be arriving shortly and West Sussex County Council would arrange
an installation date.
Litter Bins
Councillor Leverick
reported a meeting had taken place with the Environmental Warden, SW, West
Sussex Police, Angmering School and himself at the Skate Bowl to discuss the
litter issues. It was agreed to continue to monitor the situation and remind
the students of the responsibility of disposing of litter correctly.
Yellow Lines
Last year a request
had gone to WSCC for a double yellow line outside Angmering Villas in the High
Street and the single yellow line outside BMW to change to make three parking
bays. The committee requested that SW pursue this again as they considered it
high priority.
To read the full minutes of this meeting, click here (PDF file)
Bramley Green
Development
Alcohol Restriction Area (ARA) - Following the
letter to the police (discussed at last meeting), a meeting took place between
Sgt. Carolyn Kendal, PCSO’s Billingham & Oakley, our Environmental
Warden and Sue Wicks, Senior Assistant Parish Clerk on 9.06.10 to highlight the
issues occurring on Mayflower Open Space. Members were advised that it was
stated by the police that Angmering now has the benefit of 1.5 officers (this
includes an officer based part time at Angmering School) but it was stated they
will take on board the issues raised, but it was imperative all incidents are
reported to the police by residents.
Willows - Previous plants were
damaged vandalised. Following a discussion with the local Tree Warden, Ken
Penny, he confirmed he is prepared to organise and plant replacements at a nil
charge. 12 trees were originally planted by local families and these would be
involved again. The Trees could be protected by cages. Members unanimously
agreed a quotation should be obtained. ACTION: The Assistant Parish Clerk to
request a quotation from the Tree Warden for 6 reasonably sized trees and cages
as agreed.
South East in Bloom
Councillor
Jenny Bos distributed notes of a meeting with an In Bloom committee member at
the Parish Office and her progress notes to Members. It was reported that local
Primary Schools had been visited and were keen to get involved, and various
local organisations were replying to register their interest. Councillor Bos
was to further advertise the event at the local flower show on 3 July next,
following which it was hoped to set up the In Bloom Committee, for which a
constitution was being drafted by the office.
Management of Fletcher's
Field
Reply from Churchwarden received and shown to Members and
agreeing to advise of any bookings made for the field and stating has public
liability cover for events. Subsequent telephone conversation with office
confirmed: Main Church Public Liability Insurance covers events up to 5m plus
£1 for personal effects damaged due to a personal injury claim. Members
agreed that this was a satisfactory outcome.
Sewers by Village Hall
It has
been brought to the attention of the Chair that sewers were overflowing
affecting this area and the village centre shopping area during excessive
rainfall. Councillor Turner understood an inspection was being carried out by
Southern Water shortly in the vicinity of the village hall and the Management
Committee would be updating the Parish Council on the outcome. Councillor
Turner expressed concerns that this is a matter which should be monitored by
this Council to ensure a satisfactory solution is found.
To read the full minutes of this meeting, click here (PDF file)
A/81/10 - Construction of entrance gates, brick piers and curved brick walls at Shardeloes, The Thatchway. For: Miss J Fellowes
Observations on this/these Application(s) must be received by The Head of Planning Services, Arun District Council, The Arun Civic Centre, Maltravers Road, Littlehampton, West Sussex BN17 5LF by 22 July 2010.
To see applications, plans, design statements, etc, type the Application Reference Number (such as those above) into Arun District Council's "Application Search Facility " , click on the Search button, and click on the hyperlink reference when selected application is returned - then select "Documents".