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Present: ^{Cllr Jane Digby, Cllr Brian Roscoe, Cllr Joanne Williams, Cllr Michael Kenny.}

Members of the public: 1

Apologies for absence:

Apologies for absence were received from Cllr Andrew Crick, Cllr Bob Howse, Cllr Tony Croft, District Councillor Warwick Robinson, District Councillor Simon Hoare and County Councillor Rodney Rose.

To approve minutes of the meeting held on the 25th August 2004:

The minutes were approved and signed by the Vice-Chairman.

Declarations of interest in items on the agenda

Cllr Brian Roscoe declared an interest in item 5 on the agenda.

Approval of annual return for financial year 2003/04

The clerk presented the reconciled monthly expenditure for the financial year 2003/2004. These figures were approved by the Parish Council, as was the statement of accounts (Section 1 of the annual return). The Parish Council asked that, for the next Parish Council meeting, the clerk break down the expenditure on the village hall into two categories; running costs and cost of repairs to vandalism.

Clerk

Village Hall repairs

Mr. Joe Coulson, the chairman of the new village hall committee, attended the meeting. He explained that although the old cleaner had resigned, a new one (Susie Keen) had been appointed. Mr. Coulson explained that the committee were in the process of documenting how the village hall functions, what expenditure it ^{incurs and what income can be generated. The treasurer was in the process of balancing the accounts for the last few years. It was agreed that the village hall committee would pay half the costs of the repairs to the village hall doors.}

Mr. Coulson also stated that a management committee had been formed, involving the clubs who regularly use the hall. As yet, not all the village clubs had representatives on the committee. The committee also wanted people responsible for regularly inspecting the inside and outside of the hall. It was agreed that the Parish Council and the village hall committee shared responsibility for the village hall car park.

Mr. Coulson also stated that a gas engineer was coming out the Tuesday after this meeting to finish the work on the heating and fix the guards for the flues. He’d also been given a quote for servicing of the two boilers and the two water heaters within the hall.

Cllr Brian Roscoe agreed to speak to British Gas regarding a servicing contract for the village hall heating system

Cllr Roscoe

Village Burial Ground

Cllr Brian Roscoe reported that the Parish Council’s solicitor suggested that Mr. Roscoe use a separate solicitor to the Parish Council. The aim was to get the paperwork done by the end of October. The work on constructing the fencing for the burial ground was also due to begin at the end of October. The material for this was being stored on Cllr Roscoe’s farm. The Wychwood Woodlands project was going to plant the hedging for the burial ground. This will be a community project with volunteers from the village welcome. Access to the new burial ground from the existing churchyard had yet to be finalised, one option was through the woodland adjacent to the vicarage. Another option involves a gate in the church wall. Cllr Croft is currently in discussions with the vicar regarding this issue. It was also reported that the cost for the land was ca. £14259 – slightly lower than originally estimated.

War memorial/lych gate funding

Cllr Kenny reported that the panel meeting for one of the grants was in November. He reported that this committee had asked for more detailed plans of the lychgate and more information about the types of material to be used.

Cllr Roscoe reported that he had obtained a quote from a carpenter to repair the lychgate. Cllr Roscoe is to forward this quote on to Cllr Kenny. It was agreed that Cllr Kenny is to give Mr. Gary Billows until the end of October to carry out the repairs.

Cllr Kenny

Local transport

The clerk is to circulate the local transport plan that had arrived in the post. It was reported that, contrary to reports in the local media, the results of the Chipping Norton Area Bus Services Review had not yet been published. The results were due on 14th October. Invitations to tender have gone out to local companies and Oxfordshire County Council are waiting for replies. As of date of the meeting, it is not yet know whether the Charlbury taxibus will continue.

Clerk

District Council report

District Councillor Simon Hoare was absent from the meeting and so no report was given.

Youth Club

It was reported that this was going well with 15 children attending in the first week and 20 in the 2nd week. The youth club would be run initially till Christmas to see how many children attended on a regular basis. Among the planned activities were a conker competition (safety goggles not required in Leafield) and a ^{Halloween disco. The children who had attended had been excellently behaved and there had been no trouble at all so far.}

It was also reported that some new equipment had been purchased for the club and that the snooker table had been mended.

Village skatepark

Cllr Kenny reported that WREN had agreed to give a grant of £30,000, which brought the grand total to over £50,000. The WREN grant was conditional though on 11% of the grant being paid back by third party funding. Cllr Kenny requested that the Parish Council contribute towards the facility. He also asked that the Parish Council pay the bills for the construction of the park so that the VAT can be claimed back. The Parish Council agreed in principle to contribute this 11% (£3300) and also for the grant money to go through the Parish Council so the council can claim back the VAT on the cost of building the skate park.

Correspondence for viewing

Oxfordshire Local transport plan 2001-2006. The clerk is to circulate this.

A letter from the Cooperative bank explaining that the Parish Council now has access to telephone banking.

A letter from the Parish Council’s insurers asking for confirmation that the remedial work identified in the ROSPA inspection has been carried out. Cllr Digby is to follow this work up.

Cheques for signing