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The next meeting of Godshill Parish Council is held in the Village Hall, Godshill on Tuesday 11th November 2008 at 7.30 pm.

AGENDA 1. Apologies 2. Minutes - To confirm the minutes of 14th October 2008 3. Matters arising from the minutes 4. Declarations of interests 5. Public Forum 6. Planning Applications & Consultation documents - NPA Management Plan & Local Development Framework Core Strategy - NPA Draft Recreational Management Plan - SE England Regional Assembly Review of Gypsy and Traveller accommodation - The making and enforcement of bylaws (www.communities.gov.uk) - DEFRA Consultation on Direct Elections to English National Park and Broads Authority - NFDC GIS System 7. Finance & Policy - Payment of Accounts 8. Report from County Councillor K Heron and District Councillor W Dow 9. Training 10. Outside Bodies – reports from Councillors 11. Environmental Issues 12. Correspondence 13. Other Matters

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Minutes of the meeting held in the Village Hall, Godshill, on Tuesday 14th October 2008.

Present: Cllr Stammers – Chairman Cllr Powell – Vice Chairman Cllr Mrs Brown Cllr Mrs Cakebread Cllr Draper Cllr Hillier Cllr O'Brien

NFDC Cllr Dow HCC Cllr Heron Ms K Mason - Clerk 10 members of the public.

1. Apologies There were no apologies.

2. To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 9th September 2008 On the motion of Cllr Hillier and seconded by Cllr O'Brien it was resolved that the minutes of the meeting held on 9th September 2008, having been circulated, be signed as a true record subject to the following changes:

• Page 3 Item 8 – Salisbury DC – Our Place in the Future …have an Industrial centre at Wilton Harnham Road…….

All in favour, motion carried.

3. Matters arising from the minutes There were no matters arising

4. Declarations of interest There were no declarations of interest.

5. Public Forum Permissive Development - Ian Lemon advised members that the legislation relating to permissive development had changed from 6th October 2008. Information can be found on http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/planningandbuilding/pdf/323459.pdf.

The NPA Draft Management Strategy could take president over the legislation.

Large Pothole – The Clerk to report a large pothole on the Blissford Road.

Pinch Points – The Chairman advised that following the implementation of the 30 mph limit there is currently no plans to remove the pinch points.

NPA Draft Management Plan – it was acknowledged that the main concern regarding the proposed plan was recreational horse keeping. The proposals are already in the NFDC Local Plan.

6. County Councillor and District Councillor reports Cllr Heron – Following the recent fatal accident on the A338 near Ibsley road safety will be looked at by HCC after the police enquiry has ended.

NPA Draft Management Plan – Cllr Heron confirmed she is not giving a view in order that she may speak at the meeting when it is discussed.

Cllr Dow - The current leader of NFDC is standing down and a new Leader will be chosen at the meeting on 31st October.

A 3 month parking 'clock' is to be introduced to join the 6 month and annual parking 'clocks'.

7. Planning NPA Management Plan & Local Development Framework Core Strategy and NPA Draft Recreational Management Plan – Cllr Draper voiced grave concerns about the contents of the draft, particularly Policy DC12, DC13, DC14, all of which will affect horse owners. Reducing horse keeping land will reduce horse keeping opportunities, field shelters and stables will not be allowed. Small scale agriculture is not viable so horse keeping is a vital part of the economy. Natural England have identified only 3 areas in the Forest which have suffered erosion because of riding school use which aren't covered by the plan. Surveys have shown that since 1996 the number of recreational horses are the same and there is a 70% drop in riding school horses.

Cllr Draper left the meeting.

Cllr O'Brien was pleased the draft supported the local economy and coastal defences were to be kept natural. There needs to be controls in place of the different uses of the Forest. The draft is full of legislation so there is a question of how enforcement will be carried out?

Cllr Powell was against the NPA as a non-elected body. The Draft was about control but there are enough controls in place already. He considered it was not based on scientific evidence, fact or research. The cost of running the NPA was prohibitive and unnecessary. The 2 week extension to make comments was not sufficient. Cllr Powell wished to dismiss and object to all of the Draft and supported getting rid of the NPA by Act of Parliament.

Cllr Cakebread considered compromise was needed. Strict controls were necessary to keep the Forest as it is now. Although there were parts of the plan which were questionable the NPA was here by statue so getting rid of it is not a current option. The proposals were suggested because problems are occurring and these need to be looked at objectively.

Cllr Brown suggested a questionnaire sent to parishioners would give members information about how parishioners wanted them to respond.

Cllr Stammers concurred with Cllr Cakebread. While there had been a lot of focus on horse and dogs the NPA had tried to take a broad view. The wider issues should be considered. Godshill had fields which had been sold and turned from agriculture into recreational horse keeping, thus changing the use and appearance of the landscape.

Cllr Hillier pointed out that an Act of Parliament would be needed to remove the NPA and any change of government would have other priorities so it was unlikely to occur.

It was agreed to discuss GPC's response at the November meeting.

SE Regional Spatial Strategy proposed changes – Members noted the proposed changes.

Planning Results

Appl 93185 BooNoo, Blissford Road – Log store with garage and storage above – REFUSED.

Appl 92573 – Smithfield, Godshill – Temporary siting of a mobile home for 3 years – this will be heard at the NPA Planning Committee meeting on 21st October 2008.

Tree Works applications – from 1st October all applications received must be submitted on the prescribed form

HCC Minerals & Waste applications – future applications will be notified via electronic notification.

8. Finance

At the 1st October 2008: Current account: £ 7004.66 Reserve account: £ 16,618.97

The half year precept payment of £4385.00 has been paid into the current account.

It was proposed by Cllr O'Brien and seconded by Cllr Powell to pay the following accounts: • Viking Direct – stationery 49.31 • HALC CiLCA Training (Clerk) 01.10.08 30.00 • Cllr Cakebread Travel expenses 48.70

Grants It was proposed by Cllr Powell and seconded by Cllr Hillier that the following grants be paid:

Vitalise £150 Victim Support £100 WRVS £150 Fordingbridge Town Council £400 Total £800 All in favour, motion carried

It was agreed to look at further grants at the March 2009 meeting. The Fordingbridge Town Council grant of £400 was with a request to make the footpath between Godshill and Fordingbridge more usable and accessible to encourage walking.

Budget meeting – the Budget meeting will be held on Tuesday 25th November at 7.30 pm in the Village Hall Godshill.

9. Training Planning training – the Clerk to enquire if planning training were available for members from the NPA.

10. Website It was agreed to discuss this at the November meeting.

11. Outside Bodies NFALC meeting was attended by Cllr O'Brien. A report is attached to the end of the minutes.

NF Consultative Panel – Cllr Hillier attended on 4th September. The main part of the meeting was spent discussing the NPA Draft Management Plan. All Forest organisations and Parishes are represented.

12. Environmental Issues Path by Cattle grid - Cllr Cakebread asked if the brambles could be removed as these were making it difficult to use the path.

13. Correspondence CPRE visit to Materials Recovery Facility, Alton – 30th October. Cllr Cakebread who could not attend urged members to go as it is extremely interesting.

Partial Review of South East Plan – Gypsy & Traveller accommodation needs – members noted the changes.

Police Community Reassurance Van & Speed Casualty Reduction – this is on display at Lyndhurst on 18th November. Cllr Powell to attend.

The meeting closed at 9.30pm.

Date of next meeting: Tuesday 11th November 2008 in the Village Hall, Godshill at 7.30 pm.

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Report of outside body meeting.

NFALC held on 18th September 2008, Appletree Court, Lyndhurst. The salient points.

Highways. The meeting opened with a brief presentation from Amey, the company granted the contract from HCC to manage the highways construction and repair regime until 2015 with an option to extend the contract up to 2018. I believe this fact has ready been reported to us by Cllr Hillier sometime ago.

HCC highways are aiming to be carbon neutral by about 2012, actually how this is to be measured and further achieved was not discussed in any detail.

Monthly works bulletins are made available to all parish councils.

Amey are apparently dedicated to customer service and will be embarking upon customer focus groups to discuss methods and priorities of road maintenance.

All queries etc still have to be registered in the first instance with HCC highways at their Totton depot - as to date.

Parish Plans were touched upon, a number of the attending Councillors expressed their frustration with NFDC and NPA over the time scales these plans have taken and the level of interference from LA officers into the process. The availability of funding the compilation of the village plans was reaffirmed, however if funding is used there seems to be a down side in that the monies are accompanied by involvement from the NPA which in some other parishes has too prescriptive and over bearing. No specific detail about this was given but it is a matter I suggest Godshill needs to be wary of.

It was suggested that a separate and focused meeting of NFALC ought to be convened to discuss parish plans. No dates were suggested so I suppose the official minutes of the meeting may contain some detail on this. I have not received any minutes to date.

Although there was most obvious reluctance to enter into too much debate about the Draft NPA Recreational Management Plan it was spoken about. In terms of arriving at an opinion, it is left to each PC to comment direct to the NPA as a collective and as individuals if necessary. There was a strong feeling against the proposals and a number of the Councillors were willing to speak against it and be counted as individuals that have / will object to it’s content.

The general principle that a management arrangement needs to be in place was not disputed, indeed the over riding thrust behind the proposals seem to be accepted. However, there is strong opposition from many if not all of the Councillors that the restrictions on recreational horse ownership and use, were too onerous and indeed untenable in terms of Horse welfare for feeding, shelter and so on. A number of Councillors commented that the Horse / hectare ratio was completely wrong, one Councillor did mention that the Plan seemed to negatively target recreational horse keeping whilst not mentioning other agricultural land uses - cattle / sheep etc and the impact those uses have on the forest environs.

NFALC finances were mentioned - frankly I did not take any notes about this and will await the official minutes.

Cllr Michael O’Brien 10th October 2008

Please note the above minutes are in draft form only. They will be ratified, together with any changes, at the next meeting.