Chedworth Parish Council

Chairman’s Report to the Annual Parish Meeting

March 23^rd, 2009

Over the past 12 months the Parish Council has considered 57 Planning Applications and Treework notifications with one Appeal in progress. This tally is down from 67 in the previous year as a result of the continuing moratorium on new market housing under the current Cotswold District Council Local Plan and a general exhaustion of potential for improving and extending existing village properties.

A further reduction in this area of our work-load is expected in the coming year as Cotswold District Council implements its decision to not involve Parish Councils in the processing of “minor” treework notifications. This decision is widely unpopular with Parish Councils who feel that they may have local knowledge of relevance to applications which the Council Tree Officer has not. The reasoning is that eliminating the Parish from the notification procedure will speed up the process and leave Council staff with more time for responding to tree emergencies. I should emphasise that this is not a relaxation of the requirement to notify CDC – which you can now do online –if you intend to undertake any work on a tree in a Conservation Area which has a diameter of more than 7.5 cm (measured at chest height).

The Parish Council reports regularly to the Public via the Hill and Valley News and the PC webpage both on its own account and as caretakers of the Parish Plan in the absence of its own Steering Group. As anticipated, the publication of the Parish Plan just over a year ago has made for a busy and productive year in the Parish. The progress of the Project Groups will be reported later in the proceedings which leaves me time to comment on a couple of underlying themes in village life.

Firstly I would like to celebrate our Social Capital. This concept emerged during the 1920s and is now usually defined as the social networks within communities and the trust and shared values that arise from them. We might call this “Community Spirit”. “Social Capital” however implies a measurable value and a resource which can be used to build communities further.

There are so many people who contribute selflessly to village life, who industriously knit the social fabric of our community by investing time and energy in Chedworth’s “Social Capital Fund”, that I could not begin to mention them by name. Their efforts are greatly appreciated.

My justification for talking about Social Capital is that there has been a huge rise in this currency over the past year due primarily to the Parish Plan. Not only did the Plan show what needed to be done in the Village, it motivated people to get involved in getting things done.

Unfortunately there is a whole section of the Parish Plan devoted to Social, Leisure and Services issues which has made little progress because, unlike the other Project Groups, no-one has come forward to take up its challenges. It contains many worthwhile projects and a volunteer is badly needed to co-ordinate them.

The other concept I wish to talk about is “sustainability”, a word which has quite specific meanings in different contexts. “Sustainable transport” means “taking the bus”. “Sustainable building” means “insulating the loft”. A “sustainable project” is one that continues after the funding has dried up. A “sustainable community” is defined by the Government as “a place where people want to live and will continue to want to live”.

In Physics a “sustainable system” is defined as a theoretical but practically impossible thermodynamic system which is self-contained, self-perpetuating and produces no waste. Using that definition, Chedworth would seem to be “sustainable”; with over a hundred small businesses, a school, shop, church and pubs we do not need to travel miles for many goods and services. And as you will hear from the Environment Group we are well on the way to markedly reducing our carbon footprint.

A gentleman from Gloucestershire County Council recently suggested to me that Chedworth is probably NOT a sustainable community. This is evidently untrue according to the definition of a sustainable community as “somewhere where people want to live” and I see no reason why it should not remain so.

It is our collective responsibility to ensure we remain sustainable by all its definitions. Should we slip into the “unsustainable” category - and CDC is currently devising a “settlement hierarchy scheme” based on sustainability criteria - we could be written off by local authorities when it comes to reviewing the provision of services.

Thermodynamic theory tells us that true sustainability is an impossible dream; in practice all systems need some input to keep them going. Fortunately Chedworth has an invaluable resource of Social Capital which can be used for topping up our system and enhancing our sustainability.

This meeting is my yearly opportunity to publicly thank the Parish Council team particularly outgoing members Alex Priest and Lindy Gallagher for their valuable service and Paul Sibbald and Adrian Bell who volunteered to replace them. My thanks go also to our extremely conscientious and efficient Parish Clerk and Responsible Financial Officer, Elizabeth Broad.