Hale Annual Parish Assembly

Hale Parish Council would like to invite you to Hale Parish Assembly on Tuesday 29th April at 7pm in Hale Village Hall. This is an opportunity to hear from the Parish Council, local groups and District and County Councillors and have your questions answered.

THE ANNUAL PARISH ASSEMBLY FOR HALE will be held on

TUESDAY 29th APRIL 2025 at 7.00pm in Hale Village Hall.

All public are welcome to attend

1.              To receive apologies for absence

2.              To approve the Minutes of the Annual Parish Assembly held on 30th April 2024

3.              To receive reports from local village groups: Hale School, Hale Village Hall, Woodgreen Community Shop and PCSO Steve May                       

4.              To receive a reports from NFDC District Councillor Janet Richards and HCC Councillor Edward Heron.

5.              To receive the Chairman’s Report for 2024/25

6.              Public comments and questions.

7.              Summing up by Chair

Followed by a chance for chat and a glass of wine

Minutes of Hale Annual Parish Assembly held at 7pm on Tuesday 30th  April 2024

Present:

Councillors Gemmell (Chair),Gillmon, Lavis, Kyle and Vickery

In attendance

Councillor  Edward Heron (HCC)

Councillor Janet Richards ( NFDC)

Amanda Johnson– Clerk/Responsible Finance Officer

Approx  members of the public

Representatives from local organisaitons

The meeting began with representatives from local organisations being available for questions by parishioners. Representatives included – Hale School, Hale Brownies, Hale and Woodgreen Horticultural Society, Redlynch and Hale Transition Group, Woodgreen Community Shop, Steve May PCSO, Cllr Edward Heron ( HCC)  and Cllr Janet Richards (NFDC).

1    To receive apologies for absence  - Jacqui and Brian Hartas, Bill and Brenda Templeton, Jenny and Graham Hammond and John Mangan.

2   To consider and approve the Minutes of the Annual Parish Assembly held on 18th April 2023 - The minutes of the meeting were signed by the Chair at the end of the meeting.

3    To receive the Chairman’s Annual Report for 2023/24

Cllr Gemmell welcomed all present and explained the format of the evening.

Stalls are present so parishioners can come and speak with the various

representatives of organisations providing a role for the community.

At various points in the evening specific individuals will speak to the

whole hall.

The Parish Council have represented the Parish on the North

West Quadrant Group, The New Forest Association, Hampshire Association of

Local Councils, New Forest Association of local Councils, neighbourhood

Policing initiative (Downton). We have set up speed reminder signs on Forest

road and have two more posts planned but having changed the plans at the

behest of the Verderer’s Court, we await final approval from the landowner.

We are aware of some fallen trees on Folly Drove and the footpath behind

Strickland’s Plantation and these have been reported back to HCC.

The Council have been active in relation to the proposed campsite at Harry’s

Meadow and have liaised appropriately with the Planning Authority. Many of

you will know the plans have been amended accordingly but this remains an

ongoing application so we are not free to discuss it tonight.

Report from Councillor Edward Heron  – Hampshire County Council.

HCC’s annual budget of £2.9 billion is spent predominantly on schools (1.4 billion), adult social care (800 million), children’s social care (400 million), refuse collection (80 million) and highways (70 million).  This leaves highways, of which there 6,000 miles, severely underfunded as social care funding is always prioritised over highways.

Report from Janet Richards, NFDC Councillor.

It is almost a year since I was elected to New Forest District Council! It has been a steep

learning curve getting to grips with everything that goes on, especially as there have never been any Green councillors in the New Forest before. Now I am the leader of the Greengroup of 3 councillors out of a total of 48, with the rest made up of Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, Labour, and Independents.

A lot of the issues raised with me by residents are about planning, and I am also a member of the Planning Committee. This committee only deals with planning applications outside the National Park, but it means that I have a good understanding of planning issues, and so I am in a good position to represent our parishes at the Park Authority’s meetings. I am also a member of the Housing and Communities Panel, which deals with all kinds of issues, from affordable housing to air quality, to Community Safety, and more.

The Council has been doing a lot of work to improve recycling, with the new garden waste collection now in place, and food waste recycling being rolled out from May next year. The Council has also started releasing money collected from developers via the Community Infrastructure Levy. This is very good news for our parishes as it means that we can bid for funding to support all kinds of different facilities. This year, our local parishes have been very successful and have received money to pay for traffic calming, a community garden, refurbishment of a bus shelter, and improvements to footpaths.

We feel that having Green councillors in the New Forest is bringing a new perspective to the Council and it is perhaps an opportunity to shake things up a bit! We recently called in a decision about Hampshire County Council’s plans for gravel extraction at Midgham Farm near Fordingbridge and asked for a more robust response to oppose the plans. At the last Council meeting, we proposed an amendment to the new Corporate Plan, to require the Council to properly measure and report its carbon emissions – essential if the Council is to reduce its carbon footprint. Unfortunately, neither of these were successful, but at least we  have raised the profile of these important issues at the Council.

More locally, I try to get to as many Parish Council meetings as possible, and I always enjoy listening to what is being discussed. Many of the issues affecting the different parishes are the same, and so I feel that there is a lot to be gained from parishes working together onthese. I am always interested to hear from you, so please do contact me with any issues you may have with the Council, and I will do my best to help you.

Report from Steve May , PCSO, New Forest West Neighbourhood Policing Team.

Steve is part of the part of the Ringwood and Fordingbridge neighbourhood police team.

Residential burglaries are now being prioirtised. with more visits and forensics. More forensics are also being carried out on non-residential burglaries e.g. sheds, outhouses.

PCSO May reiterated the importance of reporting. 101 is often not portrayed as a brilliant system by the public and is probably best used online. The user may receive a response stating that no further action will be taken however Steve will see all that is reported and all information may lead to a positive outcome.

Copies of a report of crimes in comparison to the previous year were available.

Question – Are there more officers than last year.

Answer – There are the same number, 2 more officers are planned.

Julia Harding and David Mussel – Woodgreen Community Shop

A challenging year with similar turnover to last year; no official figures yet as awaiting final stock take and accountants scrutiny but likely to be a small loss – keeping our head just above the water!

· We do know that the shop income subsidised running of the Post Office by £8.7k.

· Overheads have increased significantly this year and the main drivers of the increase are energy – by 100% and wages by 10% - equivalent to £20k. These are fixed costs which we must pay irrespective of how many customers come through the door.

· We do need extra sales in order to maintain our cash reserves and to ensure that we are able to continue supporting the operation of the Post Office for our community.

·A current project we are researching is to add further solar panels to our south facing roof (over-looking the car park). The initial ball park costing we have is around £17k, which would reduce our cash reserves to £50k – just about the recommended working capital level for our business. The payback for this investment in terms of reduced energy costs is estimated to be 4 years. We are awaiting further quotes and looking carefully at our future energy contract with the current provider. We are also intending to apply for a grant from the New Forest National Park, under their sustainable projects banner.

· We continue to rely heavily on the volunteer team to ensure we remain viable and always welcome new volunteers to support our paid staff team. Additionally we still offer paid work experience to young people in the community, usually after school until closing time each week day.

· We try to keep our prices as keen as possible, given our overheads and relatively small buying power; we also follow our policy of supporting local producers.

· Thank you for using us – we are very grateful for all your custom!

6    To take public comments and questions

 Full fibre broadband  - Contracts have been awarded to Wessex Internet to deliver Full Fibre Broadband to the New forest however it is not confirmed if Hale is within this contract. A successor scheme is expected for villages which may have been missed out but it is not known what this will be or when it will be available.

Cllr Heron does have funding for some superfast broadband for community hubs.

Rubbish bags – Residents have not been supplied with rubbish bags from NFDC. The bags are available at the NFDC office in Fordingbridge. Cllr Richards will investigate the matter further.

The Chairman thanked the speakers and everyone for attending .