News: Parish Council approves pre-app and Terms of Reference

After some shaky moments in previous meetings, Chilbolton Parish Councillors last night had set aside their differences and found themselves in a new and carefully choreographed agreement.

From the first moments, it was clear that the tricky talking points had all been squared away. Minutes of previous meetings were agreed, with no discussion of exactly what the Chair of the Council had been apologizing for back in February.

As councillors toiled through reports on their areas of responsibility, Cllr Tony Ewer heaped praise on each one for their efforts.

When the meeting reached the “Strategic Working Group” topics - the source of anguish over the last two months - it was clear that everything that had needed to be done, had been done prior to the meeting.

Pre-application

Opening on the issue of the pre-application Design and Access statement Cllr Ewer commended the efforts of the SWG, saying that they had completely “purified it”. It now contained only 25 houses and “practically nothing else” Furthermore Cllr Debbie Collis, he said, had added “a lot more information” to it.

Cllr David Griffiths remarked that “it has made it the Parish Council’s document”.

With no further discussion needed, the document was unanimously approved. Cllr Ewer asked the Clerk to the Council, Gill Bulpitt, to send it to Test Valley Borough Council the following day. Following that, he said that it should be posted on the Parish Council’s website, “as it is a public document”, with a copy being sent to the land owner, Mr James Painter.

Cllr Griffiths asked if he could pass a design drawing around the twenty members of the public present. It showed 25 houses located at the southern end of the field with a space marked out for a “Potential site for Shop and/or Medical Centre”.

Parish Council relationship with CCLT

What could have been an interesting discussion on how CPC will work with Chilbolton Community Land Trust, was passed over by Cllr Ewer in one sentence.

He described how CCLT would be responsible for the affordable homes, with CPC being responsible for the others. He made no reference to the “pre-circulated documents” advertised in the agenda. Other councillors remained silent.

“New Housing Project” Sub-committee

The Terms of Reference for the new Committee were not discussed in any detail. Cllr Ewer pointed out that it would be a full Committee of the Parish Council, and when it was constituted the members would probably want to make changes to its terms.

He asked for councillors to make nominations for it. In short order, Cllr Collis nominated Cllrs David Hall and Julian Hudson. Cllr Hudson nominated Cllr Sue Larcombe.

The nominations were accepted, and it was agreed that although the new committee would appoint its Chair, that person should be a full councillor given the amount of work involved and its importance.

Cllr Ewer requested that the Terms of Reference should be posted on the Council’s website the following day. He also invited villagers to apply to become members of the new Committee.

Questions from the public

A member of the public had, at the beginning of the meeting, asked the Clerk to the Parish Council if he could raise points of order during the meeting. She refused, saying that only councillors could raise them.

At the end of the meeting, he made two observations. He said that the Council’s Code of Conduct demanded openness and that they should release the pre-application immediately. Cllr Ewer responded that it would be on the CPC website the following day.

The member of the public also observed that the Code of Conduct also states that “if a Councillor has a pecuniary interest in a matter they should leave the room when a matter comes up for discussion, without making any comment on the matter”

Cllr Ewer said that he didn’t feel there was a pecuniary interest. Interestingly, he then added that the Council had requested advice from Test Valley Borough Council on this issue. Asked when that request had been made he replied “about three weeks ago”.

chilbolton.news recalls that at the “Vision” meeting which discussed infrastructure on 27 Mar 2025, another member of the public said “I’ve made a formal complaint to the Parish Council and Test Valley about interests, but I haven’t had an answer”.

This issue has been raised many times at Parish meetings this year, and it doesn’t seem to be going away.