NONINGTON PARISH COUNCIL

Report of a meeting held in the Village Hall on Wednesday 3^rd September 2008

• Rural Housing Trust. Still no further news. The Parish Council will formally write to the Rural Housing Trust to ask for an update.
• Village Day. Everything is now in place for the event, notices have been put up on the notice board and the members of the village have been sent e-mails.
• Snowdown regeneration. The SEEDA project is now dead. Any further progress forward is being severely hampered by the existing site lease arrangements
• Roads – no further progress, Statistics on the speed of traffic through the village awaited.
• Grass cutting in the cemetery. No further information on funding has been received. The Parish Council will write to the church warden asking if help from the PC is still required.
• The reopening of the Royal Oak Public House was announced and the new landlord and his family were wished good luck.
• Village Hall refurbishment. This is progressing well, refurbishment of the toilets and internal decoration is almost complete, quotes for the curtains, lighting and heating are awaited and a grant is being sought to replace some of the tables and chairs.
• Footpaths – a meeting with the DDC Rights of Ways Officer, is planned for Friday 5^th September. A number of issues identified by the local footpath walker will be addressed.
• Roads, highways and signage. Several issues of concern were raised :

• The potholes in Snowdown Road/Holt Street have now become dangerous.
• The verge along Vicarage Lane needs tidying and levelling.
• The sign at the bottom of Pinners Hill needs replacing (possibly with the addition of directions to the Promis Centre).
• Signage for ducks crossing the road near the Village Pond is still awaited.
• Additional signage around the children’s playground has been identified as desirable in the recent annual safety inspection.
• The village sign near the church has fallen down and needs replacing.

• Flytipping. DDC have been contacted to arrange for the removal of asbestos waste from Shareways Gate. They stated that the owner of the land will be advised to remove the dumped material. It was agreed that the Parish Clerk should contact the KAPC adviser to look at DDC’s legal obligations towards the removal of asbestos waste.
• Frogham public telephone box. BT have recently announced that they are planning to scrap all underused red telephone boxes. There is an option for Parish Councils to "adopt" a phone box, but at an estimated annual cost of £500. It was agreed that the residents of Frogham should be contacted to get their views on the matter.
• Snowdown Footpath. With the demise of the Snowdown regeneration project the prospect of a footpath between Nonington and Snowdown station looks bleak. A question was raised as to whether a cheaper alternative to the current estimated £30K costs could be found, possibly with help from the local community. It was agreed that the first step would be for the Parish Council to write to the landowner to check that it he would agree to the installation of a path by the parish to the same specification as that suggested in the original project.
• Cesspit emptying. It has recently been communicated that DDC may be withdrawing the service for emptying cesspits for the village, potentially affecting approximately 100 households.It was agreed that this would be discussed with the Local District Councillors.