THE POUND DEVELOPMENT: UPDATE FROM YOUR PARISH COUNCIL
With work now well underway at The Pound, and significant progress made so far, we have taken the opportunity to provide a brief update for residents, including details of some modifications that we have made on-site during the works.
Progress Report
We are on track for completion by the end of July, as planned. As often with these types of project, there have been some issues to overcome, but to date they have all been managed successfully, and we are all looking forward to having our new community resource completed and in use.
One important part of the scheme was to make it an enclosed safe area. To achieve this we are building/rebuilding a traditional dry-stone wall around the Pound, which will mirror other walls in the village, using a mixture of old and new matching stone. The building of the wall has been progressing well with nothing but praise for the quality of the work of our stone mason. If you haven’t seen the work so far, it’s worth a detour to take a look.
Following initial concerns expressed over its height when viewed from the road and potentially how it might interfere with sight lines from Pound House, it has been agreed that the front wall will be slightly lower than originally planned. Once the front wall is completed, a 1 metre wide path will be created on the roadside where none previously existed, making it safer for pedestrians along this stretch of the road. We also considered moving the wall further inwards to improve visibility further but a pre-existing electrical supply pipe was uncovered during the preliminary digging which made this more complicated. Scottish and Southern Electricity identified it as one of theirs (although they did not have it on their plans) and have confirmed it was entirely safe for work to continue as planned. So, after taping it to help identify it as an electricity feed for any future works, it has not caused any significant delay to the works.
Scope and Design
It has been great to see the community get involved with shaping the plans – after the initial proposals (and funding application) was in place, the Parish Council circulated details to all households, held a special meeting in March to display the plans and then again at the Annual Parish Meeting in April, the plans were put forward. With some 60 residents attending, the plans were well received and no issues raised, with residents being invited to comment on some of the inclusions for the area.
Planning
The work is being done as Permitted Development as a Parish owned piece of land under our control following consultation with Cherwell District Council. They have been involved throughout in helping us obtain funding and are financially supporting the project too. They are keen to see this new amenity for the village and continue to be actively involved monitoring our progress.
Funding Update
With grants available for improvement to local amenities, the PC have successfully obtained full funding for the project which is excellent news. The scope of the work has included an additional 2m strip from the neighbouring field to make the area slightly larger, generously sold to the village for the princely sum of £1 by John O’Neill. We should also thank the volunteers who, in October last year, spent time clearing the site which was such a big help.
Feedback and Questions
If anyone has queries or comments as we progress with the project, please speak to any Parish Councillor. We believe that this development enables a disused piece of historic public land that has been overlooked for far too long to be brought back to life and serve as a safe green usable community space – something our village does not currently have, and we look forward to our having many years of enjoyment from its use, for this and future generations of village residents.
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Update as of 17th May
A couple weeks into the build stage and the back wall is up and work has commenced on the side wall. Our dry stone wall craftsman receives daily compliments as to his workmanship, skilfully blending in new stone with that of the stone from the previous existing wall.
Update as of 3rd May
Ground works commenced on Saturday 27th April with clearance of the scrub land and excavation channels for the walls being dug.Work progressed quickly thanks to the village volunteers who gave up time to help prepare the site and make it ready for the stone wall works to begin in the coming week. Special thanks to Paul Roberts and his family, Ian Brent-Smith, Henry Pappenfus, Alex Smith, Simon Goss, Stewart Hopkins and Jon Hill plus the author of the event!
Watch this space for more pictures as the works progress
PUBLIC COMMENT
A public meeting was held on 12 March which was attended by 11 people who provided their views on the initiative and the items of furniture proposed. This was followed up at the Annual Parish meeting attended by 59 residents who were all asked to fill in an anonymous survey indicating their preferences for items proposed for the area. No one raised any objections to the overall scheme and all appeared to be supportive of the initiative.
Overall 37 seven responses were gathered although in a few cases not all the boxes were completed. The results below are clear, although a significant number of people were against or just did not know if it was a good idea to plant fruit trees.
| Yes | NO | Don’t Know | |
| Stocks made from old wood | 24 | 6 | 7 |
| Circular seat around oak tree | 33 | 2 | 2 |
| Wild flower area to the right hand side | 24 | 4 | 7 |
| A few fruit trees planted on the right | 17 | 8 | 12 |
| Bench on raised ground to overlook the field | 34 | 1 | 1 |
| An additional notice board | 24 | 6 | 5 |
| Other (see below) |
Other things mentioned were: a public toilet, boules lane, no dogs allowed, a better footpath, more historical information, easy gates.
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Previous Report
Green light to develop the Pound area at the start of the Cross Bucks Way into a usable green community space.
In October 2018 the Parish Council undertook clearance work on the piece of ground at the entrance to the Cross Bucks Way on the Launton Road opposite the church with a view to making the area more usable. In December we became aware of grant funding from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to develop green spaces in villages and towns known as Pocket Parks. The Parish Council took the decision at the January PC meeting to prepare a submission and had less than three weeks in which to do it.
As such, it wasn’t possible to have the degree of consultation that we would normally seek with the village. However, all households have since been sent details of the plans and an event was held on 12th March to provide more information to those attending. There will be a further opportunity for public comment on the proposals at the Annual Open Meeting in the church at 7pm on 9th April. Comments received to date have been unanimously in favour of the project with observations and questions restricted to items to be included in the available space and some additional new thoughts.
The funding agreement requires work to start quickly, so this is now scheduled for the second half of April with a completion date of 31st July.
The plan illustrated below, will enable a disused piece of historic public land that has been overlooked for far too long, to come back to life and serve as a safe green usable community space. Restoring the existing dry stone walls and adding a new traditional stone wall to the front was fundamental to the success of our application. The area will be easily accessible through a large gate suitable for mobility vehicles and will mean that children are able to play safely, protected from the vehicles on the road.
Apologises about the size of the drawing which for some reason can’t be enlarged.
Comments received to date have been unanimously in favour of the project with observations, questions and suggestions restricted to items to be included in the available space and some additional thoughts. Verbatim responses received thus far:
- Enclosing the area is a good idea
- Setting walls back from the road is important
- Replica Stocks – good idea. We favour foot stocks
- Kissing gates – we welcome the inclusion of these
- I just think the idea of the replica stocks is a mistake. Maybe it is seen as a nostalgic nod to some quaint custom from the past, but to me it is a quite unnecessary reminder of a humiliating form of punishment which has quite rightly passed into history
- Glad to have all the parish news well done. My late husband would be so pleased about the stocks as he was always on about them, so on his behalf thank you, the pound area looks great
- Stocks area good idea given historical precedent but would be concerned if they looked too modern
- Could the Cross Bucks Way public right of way group fund part of the information board?
- Not convinced by the stocks. A bit cheesy perhaps. The plan works wonderfully without it
- Kissing gates are a great improvement
- Stocks – Good
- Stocks – good idea but not new looking reproduction
- Latrines? for children and elderly
- Stocks – good idea. Park very much needed for this lovely village
- Gate on road in general a good idea but make sure a person in a wheel chair can operate it easily
- raised platform for bench – not too high please
- stocks – perhaps move a little to the right away from the wall
- relocate dog waste bin to nearer the wall
- Nice to see enough seating
Comments may also be submitted by email to the Clerk of the Parish Council strattonaudley.parishclerk@gmail.com or to the Chairman jhonsinger@btconnect.com
