Parish Information - (last edited 5th. November 2011)
Annual Parish Meeting April 2011.
Chairman's Report to meeting.
Welcome.
Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen, and welcome to the Annual Parish Meeting,
it is nice to see so many present.
Just by way of clarification, this is not a Council meeting.
The Annual Parish Meeting is a statutory requirement as defined in the Local Government Act of 1972, to be held, as its title suggests, once a year at around this time. Strangely enough, there is no legal requirement for either myself or indeed any councillor to be here, but one of the requirements of the Act is that the chairman of the Council, if in attendance, presides over the meeting.
Hence I am sitting here tonight; my name is Mike Knowles and I shall do my best to steer us through the proceedings.
You should all have an agenda and you will see that there are certain formalities that we have to deal with.
We are joined by Brian Hannah, our County Councillor, and Anthea Sweeney, who represents the parish at District Council, and also PCSO Gary Baxter from the Safer Neighbourhood Team. We are grateful for their attendance and we will have the opportunity to hear from each of them later in the evening.
(Apologies taken at this point)………………
Chairmans Report. April 2011.
I must firstly express my thanks to my fellow councillors for their efforts and support throughout the last year, my first as Chairman. In particular to my vice chairman, Roy Beckley, whose experience in his previous role as Chair has been most helpful, and I must not forget to mention Peter Bullimore, our Clerk, who does a superb job on behalf of the Council and the Parish.
On the subject of Councillors, you will undoubtedly have noticed that we are shortly to have a number of local elections. You will also be aware that there is no election necessary for Beeston Regis Parish Council, but I am pleased to confirm that all ten of the existing members have put themselves forward for another term. We will unfortunately still be in the position of being one short of our full quota of eleven, and I would like to just mention at this point that if any parishioner would like to consider putting themselves forward to fill that vacancy, we will be more than happy to consider a co-option; please contact either myself or the Clerk at any time.
Beeston Regis Parish Council operates on an annual precept, collected as part of your council tax, and for the coming year 2011/12, it was decided to adopt a “standstill” budget, keeping the precept at a figure of £13000.
To put that figure into context, it equates to approximately £31.00 per property, based on a band D council tax rating, or around 30p per week per resident.
We will of course provide full accounts for the year just ended, which will be published in the next issue of Beeston Regis News, but draft accounts indicate that the Council succeeded in operating well within budget for 2010/11.
Apart from the Clerks salary, by far the most significant item of expenditure continues to be on street lighting, and to reiterate the point made in previous years, I would remind residents that Beeston Regis Parish Council is the proud, or possibly not so proud, owner of some 58 street lights in the parish, and the reality is that a significant proportion of that lighting stock is quite old. As lights fail, or deteriorate to a point where safety is compromised, we will continue to be faced with the cost of replacement of lantern tops or indeed, as was the case this last winter, complete lamp standards. The replacement of the lamp standard near the entrance to Priory Close incurred a total cost of £1450 + VAT, an amount which I am afraid comes directly and totally from the precept collected from within the Parish.
We do have one other small source of income, the bottle bank at the bottom of Britons Lane, which continues to be well used and has again provided around £300 towards the Council’s finances.
A number of items have been mooted for discussion later in the meeting, but I will take the opportunity to update you on some of the matters that have been before the Council in the past year.
Beeston Common.
Those of you who live nearby or use the Common regularly will have noted that Sheringham Town Council have over the winter carried out some clearance work on the western side of the drainage ditch that separates Abbey and Caxton Parks from the common. Hopefully this has gone some way to alleviate the encroachment of undergrowth across the ditch and I have been told that they intend to maintain their side of the ditch on a regular basis. I am aware that there are still some issues appertaining to this ditch and all I can add at this point is that the Council is still desirous of seeking clarity on responsibility for certain sections of that ditch.
Affordable Housing.
We have again tried to progress this issue with the relevant authorities, and will continue to do so. Sadly, it seems to have been a case of one step forward, followed by the inevitable step back, and despite our efforts we have no tangible progress to report.
Car Boot Sales.
I am pleased to report that there is light at the end of the tunnel on this issue. You may be aware that planning permission was granted for an additional entrance to Mr Cook’s field. This was following consultation with County Highways, and we understand the planned works are in their schedule, and it is hoped that when completed, access and egress to the field will become much easier and will alleviate the traffic and parking problems. This leads nicely on to the next item, which concerns the use of the field for Sheringham Carnival events. The council was pleased that the events of last year largely went by without any untoward hitches and I can confirm that the Carnival Committee intends to make use of the field for some of this year’s events. We have established good communications with the Carnival Committee and I am pleased to report that we have the opportunity for input where necessary. I am told that the Carnival was once saddled with the rather longwinded title of “Sheringham and Beeston Regis Carnival”, although I must confess I cannot confirm that, let alone remember it!
Parish Survey.
The survey, consisting of some 66 questions, was hand delivered to every household in the Parish in mid-November. Completed forms were collected on 28th and 29th November.
A total of 517 surveys were delivered, and in total 314 were returned, a rate of return of almost 61%.
I must make mention here of the councillors and volunteers that put the effort into not only formulating and producing the questionnaire, but also delivering and collecting the forms, in particular Paul Kemp, who gave up a great deal of his own time to do so.
Given that the level of return was very consistent across the different areas of the Parish, we have presumed that the collated responses provide a fairly accurate reading of the overall population’s views, and the issues that were raised by the responses have been made known to the relevant bodies referred to. Where appropriate, the Parish Council has taken several of the points on board for future consideration, and indeed, several of the points emanating from the survey have been mooted for further discussion here this evening.
Crime.
We have with us this evening PCSO Gary Baxter from the Sheringham Safer Neighbourhood Team and Gary will be speaking a little later. The council receives a monthly list of crimes in the parish which tends to indicate that we live in a relatively crime free area. It was encouraging to note that 97.5% of the respondents to the Parish Survey felt safe in their home, but I am sure that Gary will have some thoughts on how even that remarkable figure might be improved.
Apart from the specific items I have already mentioned I and my councillors continue to attend many meetings throughout the year on a wide variety of subjects including Sheringham Preservation Society, Church Matters, Various Charity concerns, Area and Community Partnerships, and we consult as appropriate with relevant authorities such as District and County Councils on many and varied matters.
Update on some issues referred to in the Annual Report
Parking on car boot sale days: Our
Bottle Bank: This continues to be well used. Thank you to all the parishioners who help to raise £300 - £400 each year.
BEESTON REGIS PARISH COUNCIL
INCOME & EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT-Year to 31st March 2011
| 2011 | INCOME |
2010 |
| 13,000.00 | Precept | £13,500.00 |
| 4.96 | Interest | 3.43 |
| 469.46 | Bottle Bank | 548.40 |
| ------ | Grant re Survey | 500.00 |
| £13,474.42 | £14,551.83 | |
| EXPENDITURE | ||
| ADMINISTRATION | ||
| 235.05 | Postages, Printing, Stationary etc | 341.30 |
| 264.00 | Use of Room as Office | 264.00 |
| 90.00 | Telephone | 93.50 |
| 69.30 | Travelling | 64.80 |
| 325.00 | Hire of Rooms & Hall | 350.00 |
| 633.35 | Insurance | 608.04 |
| 200.00 | Audit Fees | 200.00 |
| 3,578.76 | Salaries | 3,578.76 |
| Other Admin expenses: | ||
| 237.09 | -Subscriptions | 312.23 |
| 60.00 | -Training (incl. text books) | --- |
| 50.00 | -Website Expenses | 45.00 |
| ----- | -QPS Registration and Presentation | 125.00 |
|
48.36 133.00 69.63 |
-Sundries (Conference fees, APM exes) Photocopier 1/3rd Share Bank Charges |
29.97 ---- |
| LIGHTING | ||
| 2,051.16 | Supply of Electricity | 1,824.56 |
| 671.04 | Routine Maintenance | 674.28 |
| 2,762.35 | Additional Maintenance (incl replacement lights) | 309.81 |
|
497.40 |
OTHER Questionnaire/survey exes |
----- |
| 561.60 | Emptying Dog Bins | 540.80 |
| 840.00 | Cleaning Shelters/Repairs | 720.00 |
| 535.00 | Donations (Churchyard £450, CAB £50 Sect 137 £35) | 485.00 |
| £13,912.09 | £10,567.05 |
| Organisation | Contact Details……… | |
| Beeston Regis Church | Rev.Peter
|
01263 838773 |
| Beeston Regis Scouts | Leader, Paul Henrikson | 01263 712288 |
| Sheringham Womens Institute | W.I.Adviser, Janet Rose | 01603 624580 |
| Young Peoples Drama Group | Manager, Ms.B.Robinson | 07748 96880 |
| Preservation Society | Chair., Reg Grimes | 01263 824343 |
| Sheringham Cricket Club | Sec., Stuart Smith | 01263 825176 |
| Age Concern, N.Nfk. | Manager, Ms.L.Battrick | 01263 823126 |
| St.John Ambulance | Sec., David Easton | 01263 588082 |
| Yesu Charity | Manager, David Bloggs | 01263 825516 |
| Sheringham Library | Manager, Mrs.S.Parker | 01263 822874 |
| Amateur Dramatic Group | Sec., Gregory Pope | 01263 513287 |
| Sheringham Carnival Group | Chair., Mrs.H.Beresford | 01263 823463 |
| Ottendorf Twinning Assoc., | Sec., Evelyn Meakin | 01263 823818 |
| Sheringham Horticultural Soc., | Sec., Clive Mitchell | 01263 837397 |
| Lobster Potties | Chair., Tony Chadwick | 01263 821514 |
| Folk Club | Sec., Eddie Bailey | 01263 821129 |
| Sheringham Choral Soc. | Sec., Rose Moreton | 01263 825146 |
| Sheringham Shantymen | Chair., Bob Hawkins | 01263 824112 |