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COLWALL
PARISH COUNCIL
Minutes of the Annual Assembly of the Parish Meeting duly convened and
held at the Colwall Village Hall, Mill Lane, Colwall on Monday 28th
April 2008.
1. Welcome and apologies for absence.
The Chairman, Mrs Nicky Carless welcomed approximately 60 members of the Public and 14 members of the Parish Council. Also present were The Clerk, Councillors Rees Mills and Roy Stockton, Community Liaison Officer Paul Smith and Ian Rowat.
Apologies
were received from Sheila Edmonds.
The Chairman introduced Community Liaison Officer Paul Smith, who made a short presentation about the Partners and Communities Together “PACT” initiative and asked Parishioners to complete the PACT postcards available at the meeting, so that the Police can actively address any concerns the Parishioners have regarding law and order in the Parish.
2. Minutes
The Minutes of the meeting held on 30th April 2007 were agreed and signed by the Chairman as a correct record of the proceedings.
Councillor John Mills advised the meeting that 2007/08 had been another financially satisfactory year with financial performance comfortably ahead of Budget. The Income and Expenditure statement showed a surplus of £18,114. However capital payments of £13,073 on the Village Hall loan must be financed from this giving an operating surplus of £5,041. This was against a deficit last year of £782; the main reason for this positive movement was that £7,119 was spent in the previous financial year on repairs to the clock tower roof.
Allocated Reserves are comfortably how we would wish them to be and a General Reserve of £23,019 is still slightly higher than the target range. Attention was brought to the Election Reserve, which currently has £6,000; with the pending bye-election in May, which is estimated to cost between £3,000 and £4,000, this allocated reserve will need to be replenished before the next Council Elections in 2011.Councillor Mills thanked his fellow Councillors for their financial awareness and prudence, to Alison Grimshaw the Council’s Internal Auditor and to the Clerk for her stewardship of the accounts.
Chairman of the
Planning & Development Committee
Councillor Ashton advised the meeting that every effort is now being made to obtain the views of directly affected neighbours when a planning application is made and thanked members of the Committee who gave their time to make such enquiries.
Major planning issues which have affected the Village are affordable housing, and how to accommodate and retain. The proposed one way system of Brockhill Road, Old Church Road and Walwyn Road which was approved by Herefordshire Council despite the local views and comments made by the Parish Council. And finally, the proposed single track highway railway bridge which has been announced in the Press but which the Parish Council are awaiting the formal plans of, before the Parish Council can pass comment.
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Councillor Ashton advised that planning applications are forwarded to Colwall Parish Council for commenting upon, and members of the public are encouraged to attend Parish Meetings and to give their views prior to comments and recommendations being made. The decision rests with the Planning Officers (when a delegated decision) or elected Herefordshire Councillors so members of the public were reminded to lobby your Herefordshire Councillors and to write direct to the planning office when they have comments on planning applications in addition to making their views known to the Parish Council.
Chairman of the
Village Amenities Committee
Councillor Beard provided a summary of
the activities undertaken by the Amenities Committee during the last year,
together with an update on the repairs required to the Village clock Aunt
Alice.
It was reported that the committee is
fully committed to having the work done on the Village Clock, as soon as
possible. However at the same time is investigating options to obtain grant
funding so that the cost of the repairs are minimised for the Parish Council
and ultimately the Parishioners.
Chairman of the
Countryside Committee
Councillor Stace reported that the last year had
been a successful year and thanked those who had played a part in this success.
Conditions of the footpath had been extremely good and many positive comments
had been received from parishioners and visitors alike. She paid tribute to the
work of the landowners in the parish in maintaining footpaths across their
land, and thanks were also extended to Mr David Togni for his dedication in
carrying out his role as Footpath Officer and to Steven Maund who maintains the
footpaths on behalf of the Council.
It was reported that the Charlie Ballard Nature Reserve has benefited from further maintenance work to the bridges and a new information board installed, which gives visitors important information about the reserve and its wildlife. Stephen West, the volunteer Nature Reserve warden, was thanked for continuing to do an excellent job of managing the reserve and for his input in the recent article in the Easter Supplement of the Ledbury Reporter which featured the Nature Reserve. Councillor Stace also thanked Sue Scott-Wilson for her continued voluntary work in Reserve.
Turning to the Orchard Project Councillor Stace
summarised the highlights of this new project which the Parish Council agreed
to co-sponsor, with the Colwall Greener’s.,
Thanks were extended to all the volunteers for their efforts and the orchard owners, for making the team very welcome.
Finally thanks were extended to the new Clerk, who has been extremely efficient in helping all this to happen, and for being a great source of help and support
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Chairman of the Council
Councillor Carless gave a summary of the activities and events in the Village during the last year.
The annual elections in May resulted in 3 vacancies where 3 new members were co-opted onto the Parish Council.
The closure of the Post Office, at very short notice, and all the efforts of the Parish Council to bring a Post Office back into the Village, after the Parishioners requested that the Parish Council do what they could to re-establish this facility.
The closure of the Railway Bridge, which divided the Village in half; and the endless lobbying of Network Rail and Herefordshire Council to expedite its replacement.
3 further vacancies in the Parish Council which arose late in 2007 and which has resulted in a bye-election for one of these seats. The election is being held on the 8th May 2008.
And finally, the replacement of the Parish Clerk, after the former long standing clerk moved on in autumn 2007.
Councillor Carless, finished the meeting by thanking the Parishioners for all their support of the Parish Council during the last year and wishing that 2008 be a positive year for the special village of Colwall.
5. Ian Rowat–Malvern
Hills Conservators
Mr Rowat gave a very informative and interesting presentation on the activities currently being undertaken by the Conservators in and around the Parish of Colwall.
Mrs. Carless extended the thanks of the meeting to Mr Rowat for his very enjoyable talk.
6. Parishioners
Question Time.
Many questions and comments were made about the proposed bridge design as per the Progress Report no7, issued by Network Rail and Herefordshire Council Colwall Parish Council are awaiting detailed plans before comments can be made on the design.
A Parishioner asked if the height of the tree in front of Aunt Alice can be reduced so that the clock face can be seen from the bus stop in the Village.
It was advised Amenities Committee will be reviewing this at their next Committee Meeting in June 2008.
The meeting closed at 9.00 p.m.
Chairman…………………………. Date………………