2022 minutes

Draft Minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting held on Tues 31st May 2022 at 6.30pm

Present  Cllr C Ashton (Chair), Cllr J Oldfield (Vice Chair), Cllr F Parish, Cllr P Golding, Cllr C van Straubenzee, Mrs H Sandon (parish clerk), 1 resident in attendance

Apologies for Absence Cllr S Lansdowne, Cllr M Kinning, Cllr A White

Chairman’s Report of the past year, Cllr Ashton

Cllr Ashton read out his report, to send to the clerk for her files.

Year end Accounts 2021/22 summary position, clerk

Clerk gave a brief summary of the 2021/22 accounts to councillors, (info also sent to them prior by email). The accounting records to be signed off by the PC at the June meeting.

Questions from the floor

The resident present raised the state of the Wild Witham Play Area, rear of Great Close. This play park is owned/ maintained by SKDC. The PC has lodged a complaint regarding the play park (glass) with SKDC during the last month and encourages residents to contact SKDC every time issues arise.  

Meeting closed at 7pm

Chairman’s report to the Annual Parish Meeting held 31st May 2022

May I take this opportunity of welcoming you all to this our Annual Parish meeting where the Chairman presents to you, members of our Village Community, a report of the work undertaken by your Parish Council in the previous twelve months.  This is rather unique this year as, because of Covid and all the restrictions placed upon the community, we have not been able to hold this meeting for two years in person. This does not mean that nothing has been happening in that time on the contrary we have had, by law, to hold Zoom meetings and deal with as much Parish work as we could within the confines of Government restrictions which I can assure you did not take place accompanied by parties or drinking sessions. It is much better now to be meeting again face to face.

Here then is my report for the past year in no particular order. The year started with a Zoom meeting in May but then we were instructed to return to normal meetings with the use of appropriate spacings and face masks when not speaking. Throughout Covid all Zoom meetings commenced at 18.30 and the Parish Council decided to hold all future meetings at this time and try to stick to the same format.

Work on the Village Hall carpark was finished at the start of the year with the completion of the new barrier. This was done to prevent vehicular access to the recreation field where several people had started to use it as an area to let off steam. Our thanks go to Cllr White and his team with the able assistance of Cllr Golding for the work they put in to achieve this. If it wasn’t for people like these on your Parish Council who give their time freely and for no reward our overheads would increase phenomenally.

We applied for two new Grit Bins in the Village one to be placed on Thistleton Lane and another on the corner of Templars Way and Great Close. Both these were granted and we managed to obtain from LCC an additional supply of grit over and above the usual supply of grit to keep them filled.  Cllr van Straubenzee has kindly agreed to hold this for us on her property.

The Annual litter did take place and was well supported as usual. The he latest one took place on 22nd May.  Unfortunately SKDC will not in future provide the equipment to carry out such a task and therefore we will have to look at purchasing our own in order to carry on with this worthwhile venture. Throughout the year Janine Costello has continued with her weekly litter picks.

Throughout the Pandemic the Village Hall was unable to be used for functions and therefore the Village Hall Management Committee have had no income for over twelve months. In order to help them the Parish Council has fixed a nominal rental of £10.00 for the year in order to help them get back on their feet.

During May our annual audit of accounts for the previous year takes place. By law accounts have to be internally audited before submitting them to the external auditor, currently PKF Littlejohn, for final signing off.  Once more our thanks go to Gordon Andrew who carries this out for us at no charge to himself but rather to donate £30.00 nominal donation to the memorial fund. We have managed to keep our precept at £25,000 for the coming year once more showing any increase to your council tax.        

Work on the Village Hall fabric has been on going.  We have had to replace insulation on piping in the loft due to damage by Rats gnawing at the old insulation. This is work carried out by Cllrs at no cost other than insulation. There has been a water leakage over a period to the flat roof and I am pleased to report that we have now had the work carried out and it is now waterproof again. There has been new guttering fitted and repairs to the main roof.  New seals have been fitted to the patio doors and work on the fire doors is ongoing. A protective box has been fitted to prevent the heating settings being tampered with as this as caused us a lot of expensive problems over the years. The normal services and checks have been carried out over the year and here I must thank Cllrs Parish and van Straubenzee for the sterling work they have put in organising for this work to be carried out at times in difficult circumstances.

We have as you are all aware had more than our fair share of highway problems this past year.  You can rest assured that we are doing all we can to improve things.  As well as the Parish Council I would urge you all to report any highways issues direct to LCC via ‘Fix my street’. This covers potholes, fly tipping etc. It adds fuel to what the Parish Council have may have already reported or it may be something we have missed. The barriers on Church Lane are ongoing and we have been promised that it is on LCC’s list of priorities to be replaced or repaired but it is now over a year and nothing has happened to date.

Flooding under the bridge on Thistleton Lane continues to be an issue and we have now requested that LCC and SKDC help us to obtain a resolution.  There is still flooding happening on Great Close when we experience heavy downpours and we are pursuing this with several bodies who we feel are responsible.  I am afraid this is again an ongoing issue but you can rest assured that we will continue to chase the parties concerned until we obtain a satisfactory outcome.

This year sees the Platinum Jubilee of the Queen’s accession to the Throne, and we have been working on how we would celebrate it as a Village.  The Parish Council will be removing the crab apple tree from the triangle opposite the Village School and replacing it with a more suitable one for road conditions.  As a Parish Council it was decided that we would present every child of school age who lives in the Village with a Commemorative coin.  All Primary Schools and Secondary Schools within the area have been contacted to ascertain how many Village pupils attend their establishments and Coins have now arrived and will be given out at the appropriate schools by the Chairman as agreed by the Parish council.

Cllr Kinning and her husband have kindly volunteered to reinstate/organise the Bonfire on the recreation field and they are working hard with the appropriate authorities in order for this to go ahead in November.

As you are probably all aware we have two defibrillators in the Village which are situated outside each of the shops on Water Lane and Great Close.  There is a small committee of Cllrs namely, Parish, Lansdowne, Kinning, van Straubenzee and Kinning who deal with the maintenance and upkeep of the equipment.  Please contact one of them if you have used the equipment so it can be checked and made ready for future use.  May I take this opportunity of thanking these Cllrs for their tireless work in keeping such valuable equipment well serviced and ready for our use if needed.

We try to keep on top of repairs and maintenance for the Skateboard Park and Children’s play area on the recreational field and this is done by Cllr Oldfield who carries out routine checks and minor repairs. All equipment is checked every July/August by ROSPA when major findings if any are repaired following their report.

The allotments/cemetery site continues to be under the auspices of Cllrs van Straubenzee and Oldfield.  There has been a change in owner ship of some allotments this last year. There have been several instances of break ins and thefts from the plots and the Parish Council are working on security measures to deal with this.

Now we are moving forward from Covid there are several areas which will have to be reintroduced as they went a little by the wayside during lockdown and we will be looking at these in our future meetings.

This concludes my report for this year. May I thank you all for attending this meeting and remind you if you are concerned about anything please feel free to come along to the Monthly Parish meeting held on the first Tuesday of each month in the Village Hall when we have a slot earmarked where we can to deal with anything brought to our attention by you the public.

Cliff Ashton (Chair of Parish Council)