Points of interest from the meetings held in August 2019

Memory Café

The next memory café is Friday 30th August at the Church Hall from 10.30am. Everyone who has Dementia, and those caring for someone with Dementia is welcome to attend. There is a relaxed atmosphere with singing, and music from local musicians. There is complimentary tea, coffee, cake and biscuits. You can contact 07920 798824 for more details.

Community Speed Watch

The group are looking for more volunteers to be trained to do speed watch activities on roads in the parish. Full training is provided and results are given to the police, letters and a police visit can then be triggered when a threshold is met. This is not a Parish Council led initiative but one of our Cllrs heads-up the local group. Please contact the Clerk if you wish to discuss this further and I can put you in touch.

Defibrillator proposal at Badbury.

Cllr Denise Rogers would be interested to hear the views of Badbury residents with regards to getting together a plan to raise funds to purchase a AED (Defibrillator) to be located in Badbury. There may be the opportunity to request a grant or apply for match funding. Please talk to Denise with any ideas or offers of help.

Playing out this summer – road closure at Strouds Hill

Residents are hoping to request a 2 hour road closure of Strouds Hill over the summer holidays so that children can enjoy a playing out session. SBC approve the closure and then a note will be delivered to the relevant homes to advise. All children are invited to come along and play.

Update- We have requested Thursday 29th August from 2-4pm which has been approved by SBC.

Neighbourhood Watch meeting

The next meeting is Monday 30th September at 6.45pm in the Recreation Hall off Norris Close. All residents are welcome to go along. The next meeting is 25th November.

VE Day 2020

The Parish Council have indicated that they’d like to be part of a group organising VE Day celebrations in 2020. It hasn’t been discussed at council yet but if anyone already has any plans for this, we’d love to hear from you to see if we can work together to create something memorable for the Parish.

Co-opting of New Parish Councillors

Want to help make the parish a better place?
Want to work with like-minded people?
Want to be involved more in local matters and give your time and expertise?
Perhaps being a Parish Councillor is the perfect match for you….?

As the election in May was uncontested this leaves the Parish Council with a number of vacant seats that need to be co-opted. This date for this will be Monday 12th August and Monday 9th September at the next full council meeting at the Old Chapel on Butts Road at 7.30pm. The Co-option notice is at the end of this article. Our website will also have a copy and also further information on the attributes and duties of a Parish Councillor. Please do contact us if you are interested as we will need to have a covering letter and some information from you on why you believe you could be a Parish Councillor.

Local grants and funds available

The Parish Council have set up a short term sub-committee to look into grants and funds that are available to benefit the parish. The committee will look to set up a “wish list” of what the parish needs and can then look at what funds are out there. There is the scope to add residents to this committee so please contact the Clerk in the first instance if you think you can spend some time to help investigate this.

Defibrillators – a reminder

A reminder that the Parish has 2 defibrillators – one outside Cameo Hairdressers on High Street, and one outside the Calley Memorial Hall on Draycott Road. Both units are accessed by calling 999 to gain the code for the box. You cannot use these defibrillators on someone who doesn’t need it as the machine will not work. It also provides audible instructions on how to use them

Recreation Hall on Norris Close

The Hall is available to hire on an hourly/morning/afternoon/evening basis. Please contact the Clerk on the details above to make an enquiry about prices, or availability. We can also arrange pitch hire for Football or Softball games– please ask us for details.

The hall has undergone a tidy up and now has new carpet and cleaned/painted walls. It makes an excellent space for a gathering/party/occasion.

Chapel meeting space hire

After its refurbishment summer 2017 the Chapel on Butts Road is now a fully functioning meeting space, as well as being the Clerk’s office.
There is table space for 10 people with extra seating available. There is access to a projector and screen and free wi-fi. Tea and coffee making facilities are provided; you just need to bring your own milk.

This useful local space is available for hire for only £35 per morning/afternoon or evening session subject to availability. Discounts are available for registered charities.

Please contact the Clerk for more information.

Grants and Donations fund

The Parish Council have an annual fund that we can donate to worthy causes within the Parish. If you are a group, charity or society that believe you could benefit from this fund then please contact the Parish Clerk for further details.

Calley Memorial Hall fund

The trustees of this fund are also able to approve grants and donations to worthy causes within the Parish. (This doesn’t have to be connected to users of the Memorial Hall). Please contact the Parish Clerk in the first instance who can provide you with an application form.

(It should be noted that this fund is not connected to the Parish Council)

Home Library Service

There is a Home Library service for Chiseldon Parish. It is run by volunteers and covers all areas of the parish and can deliver books based on your preferences. Call 01793 465 495 for more details.

Next meetings

The monthly Borough Councillors Surgery which will have a Parish and Borough Councillor in attendance will take place on Saturday 7th September 11.30 to 12.30 in the Calley Memorial Hall on Draycott Road.

This is an opportunity for residents to discuss any concerns with both Parish and Borough Councillors so do come along and say hello. These sessions can be attended by residents of Chiseldon and Badbury Ward.

The next Full Council meeting of the Parish Council will be on Monday 9th September 2019. This will start at 7.30pm and will be held in the Old Chapel, Butts Road. Residents are welcome to attend and there is a public recess at the start of proceedings, after which residents can choose to leave.

Chairman’s thoughts.

The Parish Council elections in May, for Chiseldon, went uncontested. While this is not in itself an unusual occurrence in this parish, the council did find itself in the precarious position of only having five councillors sitting out of a possible fifteen (our quorum is five councillors). While two further members of the community have since kindly put themselves forward as councillors, the council is still eight councillors short of its full complement.

Having ten councillors stand down at an election is unprecedented; some have shared with me their reasons for leaving, some have not. Either way, the council respects their decisions for leaving public office with the message that their service is appreciated and that they would be warmly welcomed back onto the council should they decide to rejoin. In the meantime, with so many vacancies, the effectiveness of the council is severely affected. As a result, financial, planning and transport matters have been moved back in to full council meetings to both manage the workload for councillors and to ensure quorum for voting items, rather than trying to continue with the smaller subcommittees.

The council would like to extend an invitation to the community for anyone who would like to be co-opted as a councillor and have the chance to make a difference in the parish to contact our Clerk for more information on how to apply and to find out what is involved in performing the role. While on occasions, these unpaid roles can be challenging, they are, in general, incredibly rewarding.

In other news, following on from the draft Strategic Housing and Economic Land Availability Assessment (SHELAA) consultation, the final document was recently published on the Swindon Borough Council (SBC) website. The SHELAA now goes into forming part of the Borough’s Local Plan Review which, at the time of writing is to be discussed at the SBC Cabinet meeting on the 10th July. Once approved by the cabinet, the document opens out to a public consultation, which I am informed will take place between 29th July and 23rd September.

The Parish Council response to that consultation will be discussed at the August Full Council meeting, however I would ask residents in the Parish who are interested in planning matters to download a copy of the document from the SBC website during the consultation period and make any comments directly to Swindon Borough Council. It is incredibly important that residents comment directly to SBC as the planning authority to ensure that they receive as broad a representation of views from the community as possible. If residents do choose to comment to SBC, it would be helpful if they could copy their responses to our Clerk so that we can take in to consideration the comments being made when forming our response.

I would like to close this article by extending my thanks to our previous chairman, Caroline Brady, for her service to the community and to this council. I hope that the community will join me in wishing her the best of luck in whatever future endeavours she chooses to partake.

Cllr Matt Harris
CPC Chairman

PARISH COUNCIL OF CHISELDON (Chiseldon and Lawn WARD)
VACANCY FOR COUNCILLORS

Notice is hereby given that by reason of an uncontested election on 2nd May 2019, a number of vacancies has occurred among the members of the Parish Council.

Any person willing to fill this vacancy should apply to the Clerk in writing (email is acceptable) on or before Friday 9th August 2019.

Applicants should be free the evening of Monday 12th August or Monday 9th September 2019 to attend the Parish Council meeting at 7.30pm for the co-option voting procedure.

Being a Parish Councillor is an opportunity to provide time and knowledge to the area where you live in order to help make it a better place.

You will be working with like-minded people who come together as volunteers for the good of the parish.

The applicants name must appear on the current register of the Voters List or the applicant should during the whole of the 12 months preceding the relevant date have resided in or within 3 miles of the parish or the applicants only place of work during the whole of the 12 months preceding the relevant date is in the parish.

The applicant must not be disbarred from standing as a councillor. Applicants living in Badbury Ward meeting the above criteria are also welcome.

Candidates (if successful) should be able to attend Parish Council meetings which can be seen here: https://www.chiseldon-pc.gov.uk/committees/parish-council/

Dated 5th August 2019

Signed: Clair Wilkinson, Parish Clerk
The Old Chapel
Butts Road
Chiseldon Wilts SN4 0NW