Page 42 - Phonebox Magazine April 2012

Mercury Report – Olney
Council Meeting of Monday 5th March 2012
public participation
would prove to be extremely expensive and risky and would be hard to justify on the basis that MKC had ‘generally followed the correct procedure’. Members were all of the opinion that they could not possibly justify spending a massive sum of public money to pursue this case given the very high risk that it could go against Olney Town Council.
Much of the policy is around the minimum separation distance between wind farms and housing. The policy is available at www.milton-keynes.gov.uk/wind-turbines and the public are invited to comment, although the consultation period officially ends on 28th March 2012. Unfortunately these documents were sent out in early February and were on the OTC agenda in March but this report will not appear until the end of that month.
The only person to speak at this month’s meeting was Terry How, once again speaking about the disposal of the land to the rear of 57–59 Moores Hill. Much of Terry’s statement was a reiteration of what he had said at last month’s meeting and he noted that while the Ombudsman was now looking into the handling of the matter, none of his questions from last month had been answered. He repeated his assertion that the whole matter “stinks” and said there appeared to be no transparency from the councillors who should be representing the residents. Mercury assumed that this was directed at the Milton Keynes (MKC) councillors, rather than Olney Town Council (OTC). He said that this was the “thin edge of the wedge for Olney” and, noting that the matter was on the agenda to be discussed when the public and press had been excluded, said that he thought it should be discussed in an open forum. Deidre Bethune asked why it was being discussed in private session and Town Clerk Liam Costello explained that OTC had sought advice from their solicitors which was confidential, at present. Although no discussion normally takes place in the public participation slot, Mayor Steve Clark said that he would allow some discussion to take place, but not regarding the solicitor’s advice. It might be possible to communicate this advice to the residents once this had been discussed in the closed session, he said. Jeremy Rawlings said he had spent some time working with the residents and MKC officers and, while the third and final stage of MKC’s complaints procedure had found some shortcomings, it was by and large legal. OTC is not permitted to formally support the residents’ complaint to the Ombudsmen, he said. Tony Evans noted rumours that the developer was now looking to buy additional land and build up to six houses. There had been no response to OTC’s concerns about drainage, Highways impact in Dinglederry, loss of trees subject to Tree Preservation Orders and overlooking of houses in Moores Hill, he said. Steve Clark said that there were some questions around the procedures adopted for the land sale. When previous planning applications for the land had been submitted the MKC Planning Officers had agreed with OTC’s recommendation that it should be rejected. However, this time round an officer had recommended approval and under such circumstance the Planning Committee is obliged to have good reason to ignore the advice of its own officer in order to overturn this recommendation. Even if this were to happen an appeal by the developer would usually be successful, he said.
hot food at thursday and sunday markets
Mercury is grateful to Steve Clark for providing the following information regarding the Solicitors’ advice: The gist of the legal advice was that it would be very unwise for the Town Council to contemplate instigation of a judicial review into the matter as it
The council has been sent a copy of the document Draft Wind Turbines Supplementary Planning Document and Emerging Policy: Wind Turbines Planning Applications for comment, and also a request from the Chair of Castlethorpe Parish Council, Philip Ayles, to support the policy. Philip’s letter noted that the existing policy is over 10 years old and was written when turbines were half the height they are today, which is typically 125m (the height of the local turbines at Petsoe End). In fact 200m turbines exist and plans for the first 1000m turbines were recently announced.
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In the past OTC has always rejected requests from market traders to sell hot food on the Sunday and Thursday markets, not only because they didn’t want to see things like burgers and hot dogs on sale but also in order to protect the interests of the businesses around the Market Place. Following a recent market where one of the traders had apparently ignored this rule, there had been some feedback at the Recreations and Services Committee meeting about how popular the product on sale had been because it was something different that was not regularly available in the area. Tony Evans reported that the Recreations and Services Committee was now recommending that this rule should be rescinded, subject to certain conditions. Deidre Bethune questioned the actual proposal from the R&S meeting, saying that she thought the recommendation from that meeting was to ‘consider’ rather than to ‘allow’. (For information, the minutes of that meeting show that no vote was actually taken). Tony said that any trader wishing to sell hot food would have to apply in advance and comply with strict conditions. Mike Hughes was in favour of the proposal and said if anyone flouted the new conditions they would be ordered to leave immediately. A vote was taken and passed by a majority with two members voting against.
milton Keynes transport strategy Review
As an aside, Town Clerk Liam Costello suggested that sub-committees should be more autonomous and not be obliged to take every decision to the full council in order to get it approved. Mercury understands that this is common practice with many other local councils, such as Newport Pagnell, and would certainly overcome the frustration expressed by councillors in the past that, having fully discussed and agreed a course of action at a sub-committee, it is then discussed again at length by the full council.
This fund is granted by MKC to local councils to enable them to apply for funding of up to 50% for improvements or facilities which they wish to provide in their local area, and applications are now being invited. Tony Evans noted that the path into the cemetery needed upgrading, while Deidre Bethune suggested improvements to the roadway to the allotments. Mike Hughes suggested the current hedge laying work that is taking place on Crouch’s Field (previously known as ‘The New Field’). John Boardman noted that some items of play equipment had been removed from the recreation ground for safety reasons, although Steve Clark said that a similar scheme, the Play Area Improvement Scheme existing specifically for such reasons and MKC was also inviting applications for funding under that scheme. It was agreed to get quotes for the suggestions which will presumably be discussed at a future meeting.
milton Keynes wind turbine policy
This has traditionally taken place in April so that in an election year, such as this, the outgoing council are able to present the annual accounts prior to the start of the new council year, although Liam Costello said that this is not actually a formal requirement. The election for the new council will take place on 3rd May so it was decided to hold the Town Meeting on 26th April. Liam questioned whether the closeness of the two events might impinge on the members ability to ‘go knocking on doors’ but the opinion of some councillors was that if the electorate could actually be bothered to turn up at the meeting then it would save them the trouble! Mercury is usually almost as lonely at the Town Meeting as he is at the
MKC has written to the council asking for comments on the Transport Strategy Review. The policy is available at www.milton-keynes.gov.uk/transport/ and the public are invited to comment, although the consultation period is even tighter, officially ending on 23rd March 2012.
milton Keynes housing strategy 2012-2017
MKC has written to the council asking for comments on the Transport Strategy Review. The policy is available at www.milton-keynes.gov.uk/housing-strategy and the public are invited to comment by 27th April 2012.
parish partnership Fund
parish meeting