Baldons Parish Council News October 20
Baldons Parish Council News
Dog Bins
SODC have recently increased the cost of emptying dog bins which for the Parish Council has meant an annual increase from £100 per annum for our 3 bins collection to potentially £106 per quarter, this year. A further increase from £3 per bin to £6 per bin plus a £15% service charge will be applied from April 2021 leading to a potential cost of £800 pa, representing a 10% additional cost to our precept for next year.
The Parish Council has therefore engaged a private contactor, who will have taken over from September 1st at a cost of £3 per bin fixed for 3 years at a cost of £468. Whilst still a significant increase, it is a saving on that which would have been charged.
This increased cost, along with other financial pressures, will have to be reflected in our consideration of the precept for 2021 which we will be discussing at the November council meeting.
The Tree Trail
Parish Councilors have supported the most recent proposals for planting orchard trees on 2 sites around the village green. And the plans have been submitted to the Queen’s College land agents for their approval. There has also been discussion with the land agents on tree planting on other sites which they are considering, and there has been in-principle support for the planting of fewer larger interesting varieties rather than a large number of small trees. As the village green is owned by the College consultation and agreement from them is necessary.
District Councilor’s report on the SODC Local Plan 2034
As we reported the Inspector (Jonathan Bore) gave his initial responses at the end of the Examination and indicated he accepted ALL the major large sites in the draft Local Plan as sound and legal. Councillors spoke at all the relevant session for the Baldons, pointing out the many flaws and suggesting modifications. The inspector’s report, requiring some relatively minor modifications, has now been sent to SODC and is available to read on the Local Plan Inspection section on SODC website. SODC will hold a 6-week period of consultation on the modifications, none of which are likely to alter the plans for the Grenoble road site. Following this the final version of the SODC Local plan will be agreed and adopted in 2021 by SODC.
Solar Farm
We had expected the Solar farm planning application to be submitted to SODC in the next few weeks but now understand that the Environmental Impact study is still underway.
As this will be a substantial application for the council to respond to, councillors have agreed that should it require discussion and response between our normal schedule of meetings we will hold an extraordinary council meeting. In addition, we will issue as much information as we can via the village email to allow villagers to see the plans and give us feedback. We have also contacted the company to ask for discussion on community benefits should the application be supported by SODC.
