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Category Archives: PC meetings

March Full Council

Full Council was held on Monday 21st March, when PCSO Tony Martin attended to update the Council on Policing issues and take questions.  Unfortunately no residents attended, but Tony was able to outline current challenges faced, and to promote the Big Bad Wolf House Security Survey which all residents are urged to take part in to identify home security risks and take up the offer of help and advice from the Police on improving security.  Go to http://tinyurl.com/bad-wolf-test or on the Policing South Cambridgeshire Facebook page

Other items of note include:

  • Parish Elections for Histon & Impington. Receipt of Nominations need to be with South Cambridgeshire District Council by 4.00pm on Thursday 7th April 2016. Any resulting elections will be held on Thursday 5th May 2016. All prospective candidates will need to fill in the Nomination forms which are available via the Parish Office or from South Cambs District Council
  • Approval was given to funding of a programme of activity to deliver a Neighbourhood Plan for Histon and Impington – look out for ways of engaging with this Plan. Details will be displayed at the Annual Parish Meetings to be held 16 May. We also hope to be joined for a Question and Answer session by Rob Campbell of IVC at the APM
  • Projects planned by the Sustainability Working Party for 2016 have been unveiled including:
  • Food Waste Project
  • Food Event with HICOP
  • Hedgehog Bridge
  • Repair Café
  • Car sharing

The next meeting is Monday 18th April 2016 when a short formal agenda will be followed by an informal workshop session to look at the impact of the Parish Council in the community

In May the Annual Parish Meetings for the 2 parishes will be followed immediately by the Annual General Meeting of the Parish Council. All will be welcome

 

Environment Committee News

A meeting of the Environment Committee took place on 8 March, see minutes here

Items of special note include:

  • The members started a review of recent usage of Homefield Park, including the half term Funfair held. Items raised included seasonal issues, notification of events and fee structures. This item will be picked up again at the next meeting due 5 April when the Council’s preferred use of open space throughout the villages will be considered
  • The new “Adopt A Road” scheme being introduced in Histon and Impington was noted, with more and more residents getting involved as litter pickers and reporting lines for any highways issues such as overhanging hedges, potholes etc. If you are interested in joining in, contact Cllr Cedric Foster at cedric.foster@hisimp.net
  • The Sustainability Working Party reported on some initiatives being brought forward including Food Waste; Repair Café ; Car Sharing; Energy Reduction and Hedgehog Tunnels. The four new wildlife verge areas should become apparent in the Spring – let us know what you think!
  • Our Tree Warden is busy ordering tree packs from the Woodland Trust to meet our published ambition to increase biodiversity locally. Volunteers will be sought to help with this planting work in due course

 

Highways Committee

A meeting of the Highways Committee took place on Thursday 4th February

Items of special note include:

Local Highways Improvement Scheme – successful bid 2015-2016. The scheme is broken up into 4 elements:

Tactile crossing point at Home Close

Relocation of bus stop on High Street, swapping position with the parking bay to enable buses to pull into the stop safely

Bus stop marking on Winders Lane

Improvements to footway at The Green/High Street outside Cambridge Building Society

All these projects will be underway very soon, look out for project updates on our website

Narrow Lane ‘Problem Parking’ – residents attended the meeting to give Councillors an insight of the everyday issues faced on Narrow Lane with regards to parking and dangerous manoeuvres. Cllrs Stonham and Foster will be leading this project working closely with residents to come up with solutions to be costed and presented at the next meeting in April

A Working Party was formed with a focus on drafting a Parking Strategy for Histon & Impington. Cllr Jenkins is leading the working party. If you would like to give information about problem parking down your street please email admin@hisimp.net

 

January Full Council

The first Full Council meeting of 2016 was held on Monday 18th January.

A minute silence was held to reflect on the passing of John Dunn, who served on the Histon ward for just over 3 years.

This meeting has particular note as one of the main items was setting the Precept for 2016-17. Click here to read the paper presented to Council. The recommendation put forward and approved was:

  1. That the Council Tax rate should be increased by 2%, giving a precept of £304,134. Noting that this gives a Band D rate of £93.02, an increase of £1.84 (3½p per week for a Band D household, and similarly being £1.22 a year/ 2½p per week for Band A; and £3.68 a year/7p per week for Band H)

For more information or if you have any questions email Denis Payne the Chair of Finance, Legal and Administration Committee denis.payne@hisimp.net

Other items of note include:

  • The agreement to fund the request for up to £26,260 from Recreation Committee to install cricket safety netting on the Recreation Ground.
  • Parish Elections for Histon & Impington. Receipt of Nominations need to be with South Cambridgeshire District Council by 4.00pm on Thursday 7th April 2016. Any resulting elections will be held on Thursday 5th May 2016

The next meeting is Monday 15th February 2016. All meeting are open to public

 

Full Council meeting Monday 18 January 7.30 p.m.

The Council will meet on Monday after the Christmas and New Year Break. High up on the agenda we will be setting the Precept request to South Cambs District Council for 2016 – 17. This will be the amount our residents will be charged on their Council Tax bill to be spent specifically in the parishes of Histon and Impington. For full Agenda see here

As always, all residents are welcome at our monthly meetings in the community room at the Recreation Ground, refreshments available from 7 p.m.

The Parish Council would like to thank those people who took time to answer the consultation on our spending. The results will be published on the website

 

Environment Committee Meeting

A meeting of the Environment Committee took place on 8 December, see minutes here

Items of special note include:

  • The Council has purchased the red BT Box in Milton Road for £1 under a BT scheme and will be looking for restoration ideas, as well as people willing to be custodians for any resulting usage. Let us know if this is of interest to you.
  • Following the tremendous success of the Big Tidy Up Scheme run quarterly by Cedric Foster, the Parish Council has agreed to invest some more funds in litter picking equipment for the village.
  • The Yesteryear Road Run team has confirmed they will be returning to Histon on 24th April 2016. This time they intend to arrive a little earlier, around lunch time. This year £9,300 was raised by the Road Run for MAGPAS.
  • The Committee were delighted to read so many positive comments about the Christmas lights on the Green this year, and congratulated the staff, Trevor and Adam for working so well with Matthew Menzies at Tates Treeworks in getting them all up and looking so fantastic!
  • Matthew at Tates has confirmed he will be providing a Christmas Tree chipping service after the festivities, look out for details on the service soon.

 

Recreation Committee Meeting

The Committee met in the last week in November and discussed a number of key issues affecting the Recreation Ground which included:

Safety cricket netting – the committee are going to ask the Parish Council at its January meeting to consider proceeding with the safety netting to increase protection for the play area and Bowls Green

New cricket nets– a meeting has been held with the appointed contractor and it was hoped that work would start in February

MUGA ( multi use games area ) – the committee agreed to discuss the replacement of the present surface and perimeter fencing in the first quarter of 2016.

Recreation Ground Play area- decision taken to proceed with remedial action for the mound and install new posts and bridge beams.

Tennis court project – the Committee received a detailed report on the potential project to replace the four grass courts with new floodlit artificial grass courts to provide all year round play. The Project had stalled because of an historic drainage anomaly which would require addressing if any project within the area proceeded. Minimum drainage work cost £77k if car park surface only undertaken and £123k if tennis project proceeded. A review of sporting facilities was likely to take place in 2016.

 

Parish Council Budget Consultation

In its current round of budget consultations the County Council has asked a number of questions, one of which is whether Parish Councils should do more to offset the reductions in County budgets.

Particularly in the light of this, the Parish Council would like to get the views from Council Tax payers in Histon and Impington on its spending.

The work of the Parish Council is largely funded by Council Tax – that’s money paid by each household and collected by South Cambridgeshire District Council. Some money comes in from fees for use of the Recreation Ground and Pavilion, from the civic Cemetery, and from interest on deposits – but by far the largest amount comes in from Council Tax.

For this year (2015/2016) the Parish component of Council Tax is £91.18 a year for a Band D property. The top band (Band H) properties would have to pay twice that (£182.36) and the bottom band (Band A) two thirds of that (£60.79). In all cases some households are eligible for discounts on the tax payable.

The Parish Council is particularly interested in your views on its work and spend in the following areas:

  • Youth
  • Older people
  • Highways
  • Environment
  • Recreation

If you are interested in the fine detail of the spend, and the spend in other areas, it’s available on the Council’s website. The report to Council on the Precept for 2015-2016 is also available.

What do we do now? And what does it cost?

What does the Parish Council do now? What does it cost? Band D annual cost per household
Youth

Employ a part time, term time only, Youth Worker and support staff for Youth Club sessions or organising appropriate activities for Junior and Senior ages (age 12 to 19)

Encourage liaison between IVC and the Youth Worker

Carry out outreach work in the community

  £8.70
Older people Part fund a part time Older People’s Co-Ordinator to:

  • signpost residents to appropriate advice centres or Council departments
  • Organise and deliver appropriate activities for older residents – e.g. After Stroke Club; Singing Group; Chair Based Activities
  • Co-ordinate trips to shops etc

Part fund a part time Mobile Warden to:

  • Visit elderly people on their list daily to check well-being and carry out simple tasks (there is a small charge to the resident for this service)
  £1.54
Highways Part fund (usually 10%) agreed and needed Minor Highways Improvements e.g. crossings, dropped kerbs, layout changes £3.12
Environment A wide range of issues are overseen including:

  • Grass cutting
  • Maintenance of the Burial Ground, set against income from fees
  • Allotment provision
  • Maintenance and improvements to open spaces e.g. The Green, Homefield Park, Manor Field
  • Maintenance of War Memorial and surrounds

Maintenance and planting schemes for trees in various locations, including The Copse and Coppice

 £14.33
Recreation
  • Fund/employ groundstaff and admin staff to manage the Recreation Ground, New Road. Subsidise sports provision for a variety of sports clubs, set against income from fees.
  • Provide and support wide range of activities in Community Room at Recreation Ground
  • Provide and maintain play equipment e.g. The Green, South Road

Investigate new opportunities for recreation and leisure provision in a growing population

 £36.76

 

Each year the Parish Council thoroughly scrutinises the plans for each area of the Council’s work, and, as an ambitious council looking to make a real difference for Histon and Impington, there is always more that we might do. And we could decide to do less in some areas so as to focus resources elsewhere.

Here’s some of the impacts that increases or decreases in spending in these areas could have.

Spending Increase or Decrease Probable impact on Parish Council work
Youth Increase Need to find premises for ongoing PC work; support for uniformed groups; fill in gaps in County provision
Decrease Support limited to a small number of regular sessions (eg yoga) and specific projects (eg graffiti, film)
Older people Increase More time for older person’s co-ordinator (and/or assistant); more support for village warden scheme; more events/groups; fill in gaps in County provision
Decrease Fewer groups; less time to aid people find help and resources
Highways Increase 20mph scheme; road layout changes; fill in gaps in County provision
Decrease Very limited schemes, if any
Environment Increase Filling in gaps in County/District provision (verges, litter picking etc)
Decrease Reduced litter picking/collection; reduced grass cutting; Xmas lighting cut; maintenance cut to safety levels; burial ground less tidy/less well maintained; fees increased
Recreation Increase More local resources for H&I sports teams and casual leisure
Decrease Higher charges for pitch and room hire; play equipment not upgraded/replaced when broken; reduction in pitch maintenance

 

Note that, as with all Councils and many employers, we are under financial pressure next year because of pension and National Insurance changes. An increase in budget will be necessary just to stay where we are.

Is that all clear? Then please go to the survey and let us have your views!

Many thanks

 

November Full Council meeting

The Full Council meeting in November had a packed agenda, see draft minutes here

Items of note include:

  • Kirstin Donaldson of South Cambs. District Council came to explain her new role as Development Officer for our locality. Access to her help should make a big difference to the Parish Council in getting quicker responses from the District Council in future when problems arise. The members were impressed with her enthusiasm and keenness to help with issues raised
  • The Council was pleased to be able to grant a donation to The Methodist Church of £500 towards their planned refurbishment. Their fund raising co-ordinator addressed the meeting with exciting details about the proposed works to provide more flexible and suitable facilities for community activities into the future. They have been encouraged to make a further application to the 2016-17 budget year
  • Also to grant £1,000 Public Art funding to the Friends of Histon & Impington Rec towards an exciting Samba dance performance event to celebrate the Brazilian Olympics
  • A consultation on budgetary matters was agreed and will be available on the Council’s website and in the next edition of HISIMP News. It would be great if people could provide feedback to help steer the Council on the difficult decisions ahead
  • The Council has agreed to support funding for an assistant to the village Older Person’s Co-Ordinator, Jean Newman. It is hoped that Jean will attend a Parish Council meeting early in the New Year to talk about her valuable role
  • Members heard about the plans to once again provide Christmas lighting in Histon and Impington over the Festive period.   Histon Chop Shop are very kindly donating proceeds from their Christmas Order Raffle to fund improvements to the lights next year

There will be no Parish Council meeting in December, with the next one due Monday 18th January 2016. It would be great to see some residents attend to see the Council in action. Debate on budget setting for the year 2016-17 will be well underway by that time and is bound to prove an interesting challenge in these changing times at higher authority level

All residents are welcome

 

November Full Council

The monthly Parish Council meeting will be held 16th November at the Community Room at the recreation ground, see agenda here

Our guest speaker is Kirstin Donaldson from South Cambs District Council who will be telling us about her new role in locality working. As the Development Officer supporting the communities in our north locality, Kirstin can be seen as a first point of contact by parishes for community issues

As for the rest of the agenda some interesting issues will be reviewed, including:

  • A half yearly look at grant applications
  • Agreement to the format of a consultation on Parish Council budget issues
  • Up-date on opportunities to purchase PCSO hours in Histon and Impington
  • Older Persons Co-Ordinator role and support needs
  • Purchase of an electric vehicle for groundstaff use around the villages

As always, everyone is welcome to attend our meetings, and refreshments are available from 7 p.m. There is no Council meeting in December.

 

New website

INCREASING BIODIVERSITY IN THE VILLAGES

Tree across footpath behind Manor Park

Storm Eunice

Christmas Tree Chipping event Saturday 8th January 2021