Chairman’s Report August 2025

When it comes to Parish Council work there is always a certain amount of tedious but necessary administration. It is generally unseen and time consuming. A good case was at our last Full Council Meeting when we looked at and agreed the new updated version of our Standing Orders and adopted a new set of Financial Regulations. Hopefully further major changes will not be needed for several years.

Once again Chris Jeffes is to be congratulated and thanked for his work brush cutting nineteen kilometres of footpaths in the last month. Gardeners and farmers may not be happy with the prolonged dry weather but walkers on footpath 48 (across the Valley from the bottom of Chilland Lane) should appreciate the dry surface. This may only be while it remains dry and both short term and long term measures for when wet weather returns have not been forgotten.

The first Teams meeting with National Highways and their contractors has been held. The requests are still being made for better signage and speed limits on the narrow lanes south of Easton. The request for a one way system on some of the roads has been rejected on the grounds that it can only apply to vehicles and therefore increase the danger for cyclists and pedestrians. Not applying to pedestrians is understood, but for cyclists? A good piece of news from the meeting is that the Highways Authority, their contractors and the Boomtown organisers are talking to each other. Hopefully this will prevent any major traffic problems when the event takes place in August.

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) met at the end of June. It is pleasing that a second resident from outside the Parish Council has joined us. There is space for more. The main part of the meeting was to watch and participate in a Webinar on the proposed next five year plan for the South Downs National Park. The process was made rather lengthy by a large number of detailed and not necessarily relevant questions being asked by representatives of parishes a long way off from this end of the Park. One good question that did come up was control of planning on but outside of the boarders of the Park. This should be taken into account when the new plan is finalised. In answer to questions, we were able to give our support to all seven aims of the new plan and have subsequently submitted answers to their survey. Hopefully other residents have also submitted individual answers as well. Details have been posted on our website and elsewhere. The closing date is 1^st Aug. The second issue that was discussed at the EWG meeting was how to encourage more residents into taking action on climate change. We will be inviting a representative of Winchester Action on Climate Change to meet with us to see what can be done. At a recent meeting of Hampshire Association of Local Councils (HALC) that focused on Climate Change (as well as Local Government Reorganisation, see below) Itchen Valley appeared to be ahead of many parishes on encouraging action but are by no means in the lead. Recently we have been asked to join workshops on a new project which is under consideration. This is a Community Led Energy Plan and is part of Winchester City Council’s wider Local Area Energy Plan. When more is known we will let you know.

The other topic that came up at the recent HALC meeting was Local Government Reform. An interesting suggestion made by one participant was that single house planning applications should be decided at parish council level; a nice idea, but probably wishful thinking. In answer to a question, one piece of information is that election of a mayor for the Strategic Authority will be on a “first past the post basis”. As for what might happen to parishes there was no further information at the meeting but since then it has been said that there will be no change. A case of wait and see. As with the SDNP plan the Parish Council has given its views to the consultation and hopefully individuals have as well.

On Open Spaces, following safety inspections, repair work is being carried out at our playgrounds. The grass at Couch Green has been cut and as part of the planning process for the playing fields project, an ecological survey is scheduled for the end of July.

Have a good August.

Patrick Appleby (IVPC Chairman).