Nuneham Courtenay Parish Council News Oct 20
Nuneham Courtenay Parish Council News
Gravel extraction
Our local County Councillor Lorraine Lindsay-Gale attended the Parish Council’s September meeting. She said there would be a meeting of the Cabinet Advisory Group on 7th September. Lorraine said everything is back in the melting pot about the County Council’s plans for sourcing Oxfordshire’s future needs for gravel.
Apparently, the County Council now accepts the Nuneham Courtenay site won’t yield as much gravel as Oxfordshire needs but that does not mean the County Council won’t decide to recommend the use of the site to provide some of the gravel that is needed. The Council hoped to get better communication from the County Council about what is happening and an end to prolonged uncertainty about the site but Lorraine said it would probably be many months before the County Council published a new plan.
Proposed Sandford Park and Ride
The Council’s September meeting was also attended by our local District Councillor Sam Casey-Rerhaye. She and Lorraine both spoke about the possible impact on the village of the proposal for a new Park and Ride at Sandford. The Council hopes to co-operate with Sandford Parish Council and get a meeting with the county councillor responsible for transport, Yvonne Constance (County Councillor for Shrivenham).
Fallow & Fields
At the Council’s meeting on 1st September it discussed two applications before South Oxfordshire District Council in connection with the new deli at Threadneedle House (no 9): one application was for a licence to sell alcohol for consumption off the premises between 9am and 8pm Monday to Friday; the other was to allow the deli longer opening hours – the existing permission is only for a shop open between 9am and 8pm Monday to Friday. The Council decided it would support both applications as it believes the new shop is a good thing for the parish.
Neighbourhood Plan
An officer from South Oxfordshire District Council has met with a couple of parishioners and Madhvi Saini, who chairs the Parish Council, to explain more about developing a Neighbourhood Plan. The decision whether to start a Neighbourhood Plan is one for the Parish Council even if the work mainly gets done by a group of interested parishioners.
Last meeting
At the September meeting, the Council also discussed the playing field, the Planning Inspector’s decision on the South Oxfordshire Local Plan, the new 45 bus, breaches of the Nuneham Courtenay Legal Agreement, nesting peacocks and the Council’s website. It was a long meeting – about two and a half hours!
Audit 2019-20
We’re now in the period when anyone can ask questions about last year’s accounts, inspect the Council’s books for 2019-20 and even ask for copies of individual items. It’s called the Period for the Exercise of Public Rights. You can actually see a huge amount of information on the Council’s website here: http://nunehamcourtenay.org.uk/2019-2020-financials/.
Next meeting
The next meeting of the Council is on Tuesday 3rd November. It probably won’t be a physical meeting in the Village Hall but another remote one using Zoom, like the ones the Council held in July and September.