Chalfont St. Peter Parish Council

1. The Clerk's office is in the old Red Cross building in Mill Meadow, next to the Scout Hut.  Committee and Council meetings are normally held there, usually the last working Monday each month except August when there is no Council meeting. At Council meetings members address each other as Mr or Mrs or other title, not as Councillor. All Councillors must be on at least one Committee - these will be chosen at the first Council meeting. Chairman and Vice-Chairman of Council and of each Committee will also be chosen at that meeting.

2. The three standing Committees are Amenities and Planning, Open Spaces and Policy and Finance, sometimes other committees are set up for special items such as the Centenary Year in 1994 and the Millennium. Apart from planning applications, where the Committee has authority from Council to comment directly to the District Council, all Committees make their recommendations to the Council except where the Chairman of Council rules that the item is urgent and cannot wait for the Council meeting or the Council has specially delegated authority for that Committee to make a decision on a specific item.

3. Democratic Quarter of an hour - at the beginning of each Council meeting to allow the public to put their concerns to the Council. Councillors may respond and ask questions but no decisions may be taken in this period. The public may not speak once the meeting proper has started. If the item they are concerned about appears on the agenda, their points will be taken into consideration while that item is discussed - otherwise it must be referred to the appropriate committee. There is no democratic quarter of an hour at Committee meetings.

4. Information Items - this item at the end of each agenda is designed for matters which are to be reported as of general interest. No decision should be taken under this item. Please report minor items such as potholes or lights out to the clerk direct as these need not be minuted.

5. Staff - the Parish Council employs one Clerk, Sue Moffat, an assistant clerk, one Haywarden and two assistant haywardens.

Parish Council owns the following land:-

• Allotments. One area at the end of Church Lane (Love's Delight allotments) & another off the A413, almost opposite the Esso garage (Hill House allotments).  To apply for an allotment, please download the Adobe Acrobat Document or contact the Parish Clerk.

• St. Peter's Garden. A closed churchyard on Church Lane. This is still a consecrated ground but allowed by permission of the Diocese to be used as a public open space.

• Garden of Rest Cemetery, Denham Lane

• Grazing fields - one by the Hill House allotments of about 5-6 acres let to a horse grazier on an annual lease.

The Council leases the following land:-

• Cheena Meadow, Denham Lane - on a 999 year lease at a peppercorn rent. Used as recreation ground.

• Lady Gibb Millennium Wood – on a 999 year lease at £50 per year.

• The Council room – peppercorn lease to 2004 as Council gave a very large grant for the total extension including the room.

10. The Parish Council manages:-

• Mill Meadow - under delegated powers from the District Council who own it. This land was bought by the District Council as public recreation ground. The Parish Council has a separate precept or budget from the District Council for managing this land, with the exception of the areas fenced off for the football club and tennis club and the play area which the Council were made to take over responsibility or have it removed. The large area between the football and tennis clubs is used by the Middle School and a small area by junior teams from the football club.

• Gold Hill and Austenwood Commons - about 33 acres total under a 1913 management scheme. Management was delegated to the Parish from the Amersham Rural District Council but without a precept - probably at the time it cost virtually nothing to manage as it was grazed by cattle. Both Commons were registered under the 1899 Commons Act and were therefore exempt from further registration under the 1965 Act. Both Commons (and the GX Commons) are owned by the Lord of the Manor, Mr. David Baldwin who lives in Bourne End. He takes a keen interest in the Commons. The football pitch is used by the Gold Hill Baptist Church team and the C St P AFC teenage teams.

• Maltmans Green - registered in 1965 as Common land with no owner. The County, District and Parish Councils therefore stand in as the owner by law and are responsible for the land. In practice the Parish Council maintain the area. Layters Green was also registered as Common land, despite a long battle at the time, and is protected by restrictive covenants in the deeds of the frontagers who own the land up to the road. One of the covenants is that the land must be kept open to the public.

11. Footpaths - the County Council have the statutory duty to keep these open but in practice a lot of this is done by the Parish Council, particularly in the winter. During the summer when the men are mowing most of the week, footpath cutting back is done whenever there is time. The Parish has entered into the Parish Paths Partnership with the County and the Countryside Commission whereby some of the work done on the footpaths will be paid for by the Partnership. Some of this will be done as overtime by our own staff - if this proves too arduous, a contractor can be used. In the past, Councillors did walk certain paths at intervals and filing reports with the me for action by the Parish Council's staff or the County. Any volunteers are still very welcome.

12. Bus shelters and seats - are all owned by the Parish Council.

13. Street lights - the Parish Council owns about 412 street lights (all the short ones) and the coronation clock at the top of Market Place. A maintenance contract is placed every three years, currently the Contractor is Southern Electric, Reading.

14. Planters - the Parish Council owns the planters outside the George and on the Broadway. We plant the one outside Budgens and the two outside HSBC which belong to CDC.

15. Watersplash Garden - the garden in the river by the Greyhound, the old watersplash, was built by the Parish Council.