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| Faringdon Town Council |
| Topics discussed at a meeting of FTC held on
11th September 2002 |
Go to: T.C. Meeting 08/11/2000 TC Meeting 13/03/2002 TC Meeting 10/07/2002 TC Meeting 29/01/2003Town Meetings |
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| This report is not up to
our usual standard, as Gene Webb is away. Normal service to be resumed as soon as possible. Ed. |
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AGENDA |
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| 1. Apologies for
absence 2. Urgent Business 3. Minutes of Last meeting 4. Matters arising 5. Co-option of members to fill remaining three vacancies 6. Declarations of Acceptance of Office 7. Public question time |
8. Public Speaking
Time 9. Prevously Notified Member's Questions 10. County Councillor's report 11. District Councillor's Report 12. Chairman's Activity Report 13. Reports from Committees 14. Coxwell Pit SSSI |
15. Reports from Members on
Outside Bodies 16. Clerks Report and Schedule of Payments 17. Report from SRB^ Co-ordinator 18. VWHDC Standards Committee 19. Oxfordshire Ragwort Strategy 20. Faringdon Community Centre 21. Correspondence |
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| Pump House.
Notice has now been served on the tenant and the legal process must now be observed, - bailiff will remove the tenant if he does not leave within the statuary period. Cllr Moorhouse stated that the council's solicitor would be attending court on Friday (13th Sept) in respect of the section 146 notice [to be?]served on the council by the Faringdon Collection Trust. He said "We will know more after that" Cllr Leniec added that the asbestos problem could be dealt with after that There is no possibility of getting a loans and grants in order to hand the building back. Cllr Leniec felt there would be a problem publicising the town meeting - he felt that the meeting may be "packed with hostile people", and Cllr Moorhouse added that those who would object would be groups of people who themselves had not sought election, but who nevertheless felt that they had some say in council decisions. "They don't", he added. Cllr England said that the council was doing what it considered to be in the best interests of the town, and Cllr Moorhouse added that the town council was elected to take decisions and was doing what it was elected to do. He felt that should people have better ideas about the way to proceed, then they should say so and present their own strategies, or put themselves forward for election, rather than pointlessly criticise. The business plan was adopted and will be presented for consultation purposes at the town meeting. Copies are available at the Council offices. The SSSI site There was a lively discussion about the SSSI site in Fernham Road and Cllr Hickmore began the discussion by pointing out that there were two views regarding the management of the site. There could be (1) a management sub committee of the council, comprising interested parties, whose remit would be to deal solely with the SSSI site and would not be involved with other aspects of council business; or (2) a trust, set up for the purpose and comprising similarly interested parties. Cllr Leniec pointed out that a sub committee would be easier to manage for admin purposes, and that the council's experience of trusts had been "torrid" (sic) However, an independent charitable trust would find it easier to access funding, and that the site would still be under council control. Clr Ilott, mindful of the council's standing in the community expressed considerable concern that if the management body were to be a sub committee of the council, then there would be problems from townspeople. "The Town Council has enemies - who will try to do it down" (mentioning the Folly paper and the website) should a sub committee be the chosen instrument of supervision. Cllr Moorhouse sensibly explained that the advantage of a trust over the sub committee option would be that a trust can operate less formally than a council committee and that access to funds, and co-option to a trust, would be easier. After protracted reiteration of the arguments the council voted 6-3 for a trust. Car Parking Despite an earlier finance committee decision to approve the increased car parking charges proposed by the VWHDC, the full council vetoed the idea in favour of abolishment of charges altogether. Cllrs Hickmore described the earlier decision as "strange and perverse" and councillors felt that the charges would be detrimental to use of the Town's amenities and would only serve to increase the already severe illegal onstreet parking problem. There was a suggestion that the police did not do enough to discourage illegal parking. Skate Park The demonstration of a mobile skate park was very successful, it was reported, with a good time had by all, and an impressive number of youngsters attending. Czec Republic twinning Charlotte Rawson displayed a beautiful glass chalice and piece of stained glass, gifts from Libcany, twinned with faringdon. After expressing her gratitude to the council for their generous grant , she gave an enthusiastic account of the twinning association's visit to Libcany in August. She thanked the Faringdon Folly for it's coverage of this major event. Co-option to the council Mr Peter Tak was co-opted to the council |
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