FULBROOK PARISH COUNCIL
MINUTES OF MEETING
Date: 23
rd November 2023
7.00pm
Venue The Parish Church of St James
Present: Councillors Mr Malcolm Taylor (Chair) MT
Dr Filipa Hinton FH
Dr Peter Burns PB
Mr Toby Staveley
Mr Robert Warner RW
Parish Clerk Mrs Sarah Ebeling
Parishioners attending: 23 Parishioners.
Apologies:
OCC Councillor Mr N Field-Johnson NFJ
WODC Councillor Hugo Ashton HA
For convenience the following abbreviations may be used in some instances in these Minutes.
FPC Fulbrook Parish Council
OCC Oxfordshire County Council
POF Parishioners Open Forum
WODC West Oxfordshire District Council
OALC Oxfordshire Association of Local Councils
NALC National Association of Local Councils
CHA Cottsway Housing Association
TVP Thames Valley Police
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1 Public Participation
No public participation
2 Declaration of Interests
Nothing new to declare.
3 Minutes of the meeting held on the 21st September 2023
Minutes of the last meeting were signed by the Chairman.
4 Matters arising
4.1) Summary of objections and questions from parishioners regarding proposal to add 4 additional
houses to an existing application for 4 houses.
• Ecological assessment – no mention of the pond/natural spring which was relocated and
the pipe for this runs underground across the field.
• Disturbance to wildlife
• Health and safety measures with regards to the play park being next door to the potential
development will need to be developed and monitored.
• Site management plans to keep the area safe during development will be needed and
traffic/parking management strategies will be needed to cope with the extra traffic driving
past the play park
• The plans should mention the lane is accessed by large commercial vehicles going to the
farm buildings and The Thames Water Treatment Works. Has a traffic survey has been
done; what were the results?
• Who owns the lane?
• 75 approx vehicles were counted down Meadow End in one day. These house would
potentially mean around 16 more cars.
• Where will their visitors park? On the side of the road down the narrow lane? Both these
options are unsuitable.
• Pictures 5 & 6 in the application were taken 6 years ago and not in 2022.
• The road is already dangerous for the children who play outside with the existing number
of cars; many near accidents have happened. These extra houses will be right next to the
play park making this part of the road much more dangerous for them.
• 20 years ago an application for houses was rejected due to concerns about vehicles
joining the A361 from Meadow End/Walnut Row. This danger remains.
• A village hall was also denied due to unsafe access.
• The first 4 houses should not have been approved – not enough need for new houses in
Fulbrook and the wrong location.
• Eight houses in this site is overdevelopment
• Opens up possibilities of more developments on adjoining land.
• AONB should be protected.
Summary of response from the applicants
• With regards to the junction and access – this was taken to appeal in 2014 and was
approved on appeal. Therefore, previous concerns have been addressed.
• Construction – Temp hard standing on adjacent land. This is part of the reserved matters
we have to put in place when completing a construction plan with a professional.
• Ecology/Newts – Survey carried out details all wildlife. It was deemed a highly suitable
environment for Newts so the application was paused and a survey was carried out. You
cannot test for newt DNA until after the 15th of April and these tests were carried out in
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the lake and pond but no traces were found. Tests were also carried out in the pond at the
top of Westhall Hill and showed no signs either.
• Housing needs – the applicants believe as smaller housing in Fulbrook has been taken up
by holiday homes/lets it takes away from ordinary people being able to buy smaller
homes.
• Affordable housing – these houses will be priced affordably at a proposed price of
£330,000 for a two-bedroom home which is around £200,000 cheaper than the current
average prices in Burford and Fulbrook.
The Councillors discussed that even though the majority of Councillors supported the original
plans for the 4 houses this development had now doubled in size. FH expressed that this was her
concern with the original plans as you could see that there were already plans in place for these
next 4. The access was discussed with the fact that Meadow End cannot address current concerns
with the access onto the A361 and this would make matters worse. Could having the 20mph limit
through the village help this?
MT suggested that Fulbrook Parish Council ask for this application to be taken to committee to be
reviewed and discussed properly. All Councillors agreed that a comment should be added to the
application with a neutral response.
4.2) Church donation
The clerk has been contacted by Angela Weller on behalf on the Church to ask if the Parish
Council is able to make a donation towards new tables for the Church.
All Councillors agreed on the donation amount of £300 towards the tables.
5 Reports from County and District Councillors
See reports from Hugo Ashton at the end of the minutes.
6 Finance
6.1 The Financial Statement for August, September and October has been agreed.
6.2 Budget 2024/25
Play park – It was agreed that £1,000 should be set aside for the play park each year for when
improvements/upgrades need to be made in the future.
Donations – It was agreed that our main donation should again be for the Church with a
donation of £500 again this year. The idea to look into donating to local charities rather than
the charities that we usually send donations out to. Could this also be a donation towards
subsidizing tickets to parish events for those who might need it and could this then link to
Amenities?
The budget was distributed and agreed at the meeting.
Clerk to complete the precept and send over to WODC.
6.3 TSB – PB has received a letter of authorization to set up online banking
NS&I – PB and Clerk to arrange a meeting in order to complete the relevant forms in order to
transfer the money from the NS&I account into our TSB account.
7 Amenities
Village Clean-up – this has been another success however we need to explore how we can get
more people involved and coming along to help.
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WhatsApp Groups to cover specific areas – Westhall Hill currently have a very successful
WhatsApp group, could the rest of the village benefit from a group WhatsApp too?
TS to talk to parishioners to find out if this is something they would be interested in.
Carol Singing – Last years carol singing became over complicated when trying to tie it in with the
Carpenters Arms festivities. It was decided that the Carol Singing should go back to how it has
been in previous years and kept separate. A provisional date of the 23rd of December was
suggested.
TS to speak to Jack to check date and arrange
8 Planning and Estates
The question was asked as to whether a Landscape Gardner should be hired to trim the hedges
along the pathways, an amount of £500 should be added to the budget to cover this cost.
9 Road Safety
The batteries for the speed sign have now been replaced and it is back working again. It has been
agreed that after a few months of the sign collecting speed data PB will look at gathering the data
and working through it with FH.
PB and FH to analyse speed data and create reports
Burford Bridge – More discussions have been going on with regards to making this safer for
pedestrians to cross and ongoing discussions will be had to find something that will work best.
Unfortunately, there is still no date for when the work to fix the bridge will take place and
highways need to give at least 3 months’ notice before the work can start.
10 Play Park
The £10,000 grant has been received into our account and we have 12 months to use the grant.
They have also asked for updates to be sent to them so they can keep up with our progress.
Final plans have been sent to us from Sovereign Play and all Councillors have agreed to go
forward with these.
BW has also displayed a disabled parking sign just outside the gate.
Clerk to speak with Richard from Sovereign Play and confirm we are happy to start
construction of the play park upgrades.
11 Climate Change
Nothing new to report
12 Future Meeting Dates
The next meeting will take place on Thursday the 25th of January at 7pm.
Provisional dates for future meetings are:
14th of March & 9
th of May
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Report for Fulbrook from District Councillor –
November 2023
HGV restrictions
Worked with Ken Gray on a presentation for OCC Executive Member Judy Roberts, at a
meeting organised by Nicholas. The presentation explained the background to HGV
restrictions and the lessons learned from the Burford ETRO. Malcolm Taylor attended also. I
will leave Nicholas to report on next steps.
Car parking
Following data collection earlier in the year, the District has agreed that Guildenford car park
is under pressure but that further usage data is needed to develop a strategy for expansion.
Together with Peter Higgs and Derek Cotterill, we met District Executive Member Tim
Sumner and the responsible official on Thursday 2nd November on site at the car park. We
outlined our proposals for making the car park more flood resistant, areas where EV charging
points should be possible, improved lighting and expanding the car park towards the east.
Pedestrian protection on the Bridge
Attended a meeting with OCC’s Mike Wasley and design contractors. (Malcolm Taylor and
Peter Burns also attended.) I followed up by asking the design contractors to consider
recommending a supplementary length restriction.
Local Plan
I am a member of the Local Plan Working Group which will review emerging inputs for the
Local Plan, including housing needs, economic needs, infrastructure delivery, health impact
assessment, gypsy and traveller accommodation needs and a sustainability appraisal.
Consultation on objectives and broad spatial scenarios has now closed and a summary of
feedback is being prepared. In addition, there has been a call for suggestions for sites,
resulting in two in Fulbrook and I have advised on responding.
Other WODC matters
Despite Labour withdrawing from the Lib Dem-led alliance at OCC, our alliance at WODC
seems to be in good fettle, with parties having many more shared common objectives than
differences.
The role of Publica which serves WODC and three other authorities has been reviewed in the
light of changing priorities since Publica was set up. The councils are recommended to return
the majority of services (and staff) to be managed directly by the councils, with selected
services to be retained within the Publica model on a case-by-case basis. This process will
take 18 months to complete.