Parish Council Chair Report - 2025-2026

This last year has been far less stressful for the Parish Council, and Debbie has now fully settled into her role as Parish Clerk and Responsible Finance Officer, which has made life so much easier for us as Councillors. Thank you Debbie. As you know I stepped down as Chair last May, but remained as Vice-Chair. Our new Chairman, Jules Moreton-Ford has taken the role in her stride, and we thank her for taking this on. We said goodbye to Councillors Marianne Prynne and Andy Clegg (who we thank for all their work with the council), and we welcomed new Councillor, Russell Ison.

So, what did we achieve over the last 12 months on behalf of Farringdon residents? ...Our biggest project (at a cost of £30,000, plus £6,0000 VAT) was the upgrade of the playground to include more for toddlers and older children. So, what do you get for that amount of money? The zip-wire was replaced with 4 new installations including a trampoline, basket swing, rotating see-saw and balance poles. So now up to 8 children can utilise that space instead of 1. We also replaced the single Springer with a new Turtle springer (for 4 children to use), and installed a dedicated toddler play unit including a slide. We also created a new side pedestrian gate at the entrance to the MUGA to make it easier to access the Outdoor Gym.

We gave a grant to Alton Ramblers Footpath Maintenance Team who will hopefully help us maintain the footpaths on Stanks Lane and between Shirnall Hill / Parsonage Close. We also gave a grant to the South-Central Ambulance Charity (you heard Mark Blythe speak about this earlier). We also gave a donation to the Poppy Appeal, laying a wreath on behalf of the village following the Act of Remembrance and Remembrance Sunday Service – I would like to thank Nigel Plowright for leading 3 services that day.

We gave the Rose and Crown a new Defibrillator (on a 5-year loan) to be kept within the pub for easy access. We will continue to maintain this.

We continued working on looking for solutions for the Hall Lane / Brightstone Lane HGV issues, and the chasm following the disintegration of the road in Hall Lane. We will continue to badger HCC on your behalf.

We did not celebrate the 2nd birthday of the closure of Gaston Lane, but continued chasing every month. We now finally have a fixed date for the works to start. So hopefully next year we will have something positive to report.

We monitored the groundwater borehole level and communicated flood alert information to residents, cordoning off the playing field when flooded. Levels have dropped and within the next week the Flood Alert will be lifted.

We continue to employ our contractor PJ Grace to carry out grass cutting in several areas of the village, including the play areas and looking after the War Memorial Rose Gardens.

We paid for the bins to be emptied and in the last month organised and equipped a village litter pick. Thank you to Cllr Tony Causton and all those who took part, we really appreciate it and the village and A32 look so much tidier.

We held a planning meeting about the proposed Caker Stream Solar Farm (which we objected to on behalf of residents – although we could only comment as we were not a consultee due to it being on Worldham Parish’s land, not Farringdon). We are continuing to try and have a voice on the Transport Management Plan to ensure the safest road plan for residents.

As a Council we became .gov.uk as is considered best practice. We closed the FVHCT, with the Charity Commission, after a confusing 12 months of correspondence. We thank John Hustler for all his time and energies as our outgoing Treasurer, and we wish the FVH CIO all the best for the future.

Cllr Maughan started a project called ‘Farringdon an identity’: which 87% of residents who responded to the consultation supported. As a result, she submitted the Community Funded Initiative (CFI) application to HCC in August 2025, we are still awaiting an outline in terms of cost and what is possible. Once we have this, we will present to the village for comment etc.

Finance wise - We changed banks from HSBC to Unity Bank which has a much better set up for Parish Councils, and we finally moved into the 21st Century and are now able to utilise Internet banking. As of the 31st March 2026 we have £86,018.34 in the bank. As reported at last year’s meeting we reduced the precept to £15,000, but for one year only. It is now back to the original £25,000 (hence the hike in your Council Tax which is now the same as it was 2 years ago).

The Precept is paid at the end of April and September each year. This allows us to continue to run the Parish Council, Ground Maintenance, Playground maintenance, insurance, website, signage, waste collection, grass cutting, maintaining the bus shelter and rose garden. Plus, the Clerk’s salary (including pension, NI, tax and payroll), we are required, by law to employ a clerk. Councillors are not paid, only expenses.

WHAT’S NEXT

We are introducing a Councillor Area of Responsibility: The named person would be a point of contact and would report back at Parish Council meetings.

Cllr Maughan: Business Park, MUGA/Playground, The Street, Shirnall Meadow and south of the crossroads to and including the Industrial Centre.

Cllr Ison: Woodside, and New Road (BOAT) to the Church Green and the A32 from the Forge to Park Cottage / Norse Copse.

Cllr Williams: Brightstone Lane to Sunnyside, Lord’s Wood front and any other areas not covered.

Cllr Moreton-Ford: A32 from (and including) Cherry Tree Farm to (and including) Kitcombe Lane and the back of Lords Wood.

Cllr Causton: Crows Lane, Gaston Lane, Hall Lane, Church Road and Parsonage Close.

We are looking at the possibility of upgrading the old main climbing frame in the playground (utilising the £6,000 VAT return from playground as part of the funding).

Finally, I would like to say thank you….

To Sarah and Charlie Farquhar for continuing to manage the batteries and speed Smileys on the A32.

To the Ladies who look after the A32 /Shirnall Hill Corner with lovely floral displays.

To Bahnstormers for continuing to water the War Memorial Rose Gardens.

To all the volunteers who keep the village garden looking wonderful.

To those who help at the village coffee mornings, churchyard clear ups, over 65’s party and progressive supper to name some.

And to Patrick Fuller and team at the Village Magazine, Zorro at Farringdon Net, Bob at Farringdon Biz, the FVWAG and Nessie News on Facebook who contribute to keep us all informed.

And finally, I would like to thank the Councillors for their time and efforts which are given free of charge.

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Notes from Farringdon Parish Council Annual Meeting 25th September 2024

With no members of the Public present the Council proceeded onto reports from Vice-Chair Denise Maugham, including news that Gaston Lane Culvert Work was due to begin on Nov 1st and Hall Lane Water Main repairs were on hold until Gaston Lane reopens (No Date available regarding reopening!!!)

That the vast majority of those that responded to "Farringdon an Identity" referring to enhancing road approaches to the Village were in favour of adding some form of identity on village approaches but some of the initial suggestions would require permission before they were erected and that there was also a plan to draw white lines down the side of Shirnall Hill to create a narrow area where pedestrian have right of way to reduce the risk of any problems due to the poor visibility.

Playground Repairs are now complete and safety inspected and only relatively minor repars are needed although, later in the meeting an agreement was reached to agree to the cost of an extra £1100 to replace the damaged green line markings with black lines around the site.

There were also concerns at the state of some cabling in various areas of the village which needed retensioning or pruning in some areas, to prevent damage form overhanging branches.

There were no comments from the Parish Council on current Planning Applications submitted from homeowners in the village.

Thre was a proposal that individual councillors should be responsible for various areas of the village.

The plan was accepted followed by a consultation on who should be responsible for where. Unfortunately I am not entirely (in common with some Councillors) who was responsible for where, but I am assured more information will be available shortly!

There was a discussion on the Road Report from David Williams including the lack of work on drains and trees interfering with cables on Brightstone Lane and Lorries attempting to use a normally closed emergency exit to access the industrila estate. Also mentioned were various activities in the woodland in Brightstone lane including access ramps to the road and various constructions installed without planning permission.

Also Drainage problems in Hall Lane,Gaston Lane and Crows lane and the Ditches alongside the A32 are still unresolved.

 

Notes from Farringdon Parish Council Annual Meeting 9th April 2024

The meeting opened with the selection of a new Council Chair, following the resignation of Current Chair Denise Maughan although she intends to continue as a Parish Councillor.
There were no volunteers, but it was pointed out that without a Chair the meeting could not continue and a decision was made to appoint a temporary Chair for 2 or 3 meetings followed by another candidate until a Full-Time Chair is elected.
Following some discussion, Debbie Batley agreed to take on the Temporary role for two meetings, when another Council Member would take on the role.

 

 

Notes from Farringdon Parish Council Annual Meeting 9th July 2024

Once again the meeting was held without a Parish Clerk and short of the full number of Councillors but, there has been progress in the search for a New Parish Clerk and hopefully a replacement will be found soon.

The proposed verge work on part of Crows Lane is currently on hold after comments and letters from residents expressed concern about the possible increase in parking problems that might follow the current plan. It is planned to hold a Public Meeting for residents in the near future.

Plans to purchase new Rose Plants for the Memorial Garden were approved and thanks were expressed to Bahnstormer Motorcycles for agreeing to water the garden and keep an eye on the plants although there was some concern about the amount of litter in around the area.

It was agreed that the painting of the phonebox etc on the Crossroads would be chased up and completed shortly and the inspection of the Games area was also discussed, including the cost of annual inspections of equipment etc and it was agreed to review the arrangements for inspection of some equipment.

FPC accounts were also reviewed and the problem of setting up new signatures and general management of accounts was also discussed and will be in order very shortly and a Councillor took on the task of the review of Parish Documents to make sure all information was up to date.

Both Planning applications were discussed, some concern was expressed about the request to Fell a tree in SDNP/24/0243/TCA was expressed with a suggestion that pruning might be a more acceptable option and SDNP/24/02465 was passed without comment.

Funds for the Lych Gate works were reapproved due to increased costs (now £14,253.40) with delays were approved and a proposal for future FPC meetings to be held on Thursdays was also approved. Meetin closed at £8:30

 

 

Notes from Farringdon Parish Council Annual Meeting 14th May 2024

Due to combination of retirements and temporary absence a somewhat reduced Council set about the Annual Meeting.
Public Questions took a while due to the late arrival of David Horton who was concerned about the Lych Gate area upgrade now approved by the planning authority.
With the meeting underway Chair,Denise Maughan and Vice-Chair Andy Clegg were re-elected for another year and the minutes of previous meeting were approved.
A discussion on the refurbishment of the Lytch Gate area established that no extreme plans would be considered and surface.water run off needs to meet requirements
Village signs were discussed, argreement had been reached to remove the redundant Schools signs although the Village boundary signs were still under discussion.
Shirnal Meadows Playground refurbishments had been made and it was agreed to renovate the goal area and playground paintwork now the water levels had dropped
There was a agreed that a new Defibrillator course should be set up in combinition with other local councils to boost numbers and the West View Verge refurbishment was discussed.
Funacial Accounts were approved although another signature is now required for account cheques etc.
Rose Garden will be replanted later this year and future Counci Meetings will be held in the Royal Oak function room where wi-fi was available.
Road repair activity was curently at a standstill due to financial restraints.

 

Planning meeting April 2024

The April Planning meeting began with public comments on the current Application for the Folly, with Immediate neighbours David Horton and Mark Prynne making points about failure to adhere to planning permission and resulting drainage problems. In reply the Parish Clerk noted that all these problems had been included in comments in reference to a previous application.
Although the problem with drainage into the Prynne residence would require future remedial action. the current application was an attempt to allow a new contractor to proceed with the conversion in some way following the poor workmanship and failure to follow planning directives in the disastrous construction process of the previous developer Sutton.

The new pipework proposed as part of the drainage project also raised comment and it was generally agreed that pipework needed to feed into the culvert under New Road.

Other applications were approved in principal.

Biz Report - Notes from Farringdon Parish Council Meeting: 15th November 2023

All Parish Councillors were in attendance and Councillor Philip Davies who, with David Ashcroft are the two elected EHDC members for the Binsted, Bentley and Selborne district, which includes Farringdon.

There was a discussion on site ownership of Areas serviced by the FPC but it was agreed no action was needed as the areas were well established and recognised.

 After the usual initial proceedings, the lack of road clearance and sweeping on the A32 was raised and it was decided to contact HCC representative Mark Kemp-Gee to see if he could encourage some activity and Cllr Davies will meet and attempt to clear any confusion between the FPC and HCC.

 Currently no action planned to limit flooding around Cruck Cottage and also no action to clear the blocked manhole causing intermittent flooding at the bottom of Shirnall Hill.

 In addition to the two speed indicator cameras it was agreed to purchase a third camera, to make sure everybody was aware of the current limit.

 A complaint alleging Fly Tipping adjacent to Shirnall Hill was dismissed after it was established that the material distributed were hedge trimmings scattered by the machine cutting  the nearby hedge.

 The Council also approved changes as Tim Charrington has, after many years service, resigned as Chair of the Playground Charity which is now managed by Jeremy Cowans.

Allocation of funds, to finance maintenance, replacement and repairs of worn items and Inspection of equipment in the Shirnall Playground was also approved for the future

 Plans are in hand to reinforce the Crows Lane verge adjacent to Westview to prevent damage caused by vehicles with the installation of concrete mesh adjacent to the roadside.

 Plans were also accepted for repair/replacement of the fence on the Village Garden adjacent to the top of Parsonage Close.

 The proposed replacement of the A32, signage was also approved although the necessity for crossroads sign where the A32 meets Woodside lane and New Road meet the A32 and the clutter of signage at the village boundary  were discussed but it was agreed to proceed with the plan.

 There was also discussion concerning the large SDNP sign on Selborne Road obstructing vision to traffic emerging from Hall Lane. The general decision was that as the sign is outside the Parish   Boundary little can be done but forward concerns to the SDNP.

 Problems with installing Wi-Fi in the Church, to enable Council meetings to be viewed on line, were discussed and it seems that the system will be set up in the "fairly near" future.

 Concern was expressed about painting the old Telephone Box and notice board by the A32 crossroads but it was accepted that the painter was only able to work when weather and road conditions were favourable.

 An application to hold future Parish Council meetings on a Tuesday Night was also approved to enable all councillors make it to the Church on time.

 There followed a long and somewhat heated discussion on the clarity of Council Accounts etc. It took some time and some heated argument concerning the mislabelling of some accounts and charges etc, but was eventually brought to a conclusion after it was accepted there had been an error  in labelling some accounts and, those accounts, although genuine, were being posted up with a misleading description. It was decided that the accounts in question would be relabelled, presented again and officially approved at the next meeting.

 The meeting eventually closed after discussions were completed.

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