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Alan Ashdown

 

Report to the Annual Parish Meeting - April 2009

This is my second report to the Annual Parish Meeting since taking over as Chairman of the Parish Council in 2007. Unusually, in my experience, the Parish Council operated for the full year with the same 15 councillors.  I would like to take this opportunity to thank them for all of their efforts during the past twelve months. Councillors’ work extends well beyond attendance at the monthly meetings. Working parties deal with many issues affecting the parish, and Councillors are also represented on the committees of many local organisations. It’s worth emphasising that this work is unpaid and is purely voluntary.
For a variety of personal reasons councillors do resign from time to time, and although currently there are a few people on the waiting list, we are always interested to hear from those who would like to serve as councillors in the future.  If you have the interests of the community at heart and would like to be considered for co-option as a Councillor in the event of a future vacancy, please contact Sharon Blake, the Parish Clerk, who will explain the procedure to you.  

The Parish Council were sorry to hear of the death recently of Ken Parkin  who served as Parish Tree Warden for a number of years. Ken was a great enthusiast for the planting of trees and was particularly keen on involving young people in his projects. We are very grateful to Rob Cotterill for taking on the role.
The precept (that part of the budget collected via council tax) for the Parish has been set at £64116 for the current year. This represents an average increase per property of £7.88 per property over the sum agreed last year. Although the parish precept represents only a small proportion of the total council tax bill, with the current economic climate in mind, this increase was the subject of considerable debate by councillors. Without the two items described below the figure for this year would in fact have gone down.  Last year we received one year grants from the County Council for a Citizens Advice Bureau service in the village and for an outside organisation to run projects with young people. Councillors took the view that we should fund the continuation of both these projects in the coming year. On the subject of youth we have received a further grant this year to help unemployed local young people to find opportunities for training or work. In the current economic climate this is far from easy but that makes it even more important. For a parish of this size, and bearing in mind the demands on our resources, in my opinion the precept good value for money.
One of the issues the Parish council gets involved with is street lighting. I am pleased to report that the long running saga of the George Lane light was eventually resolved. My thanks to all those who tried to help with this seemingly intractable problem over many years.

Perhaps the most high profile activity of the Council relates to planning issues and many applications have been dealt with in the past year. We have recently considered the formal application for our long awaited new hospital. . Most people will be aware that planning rules have now changed and many proposals, such as conservatories, no longer need planning permission, but there are still many that do.
It is perhaps not always understood that the Parish Council can only make recommendations to the planners at the District Council, who have the powers to make the final decision. However there is no doubt that the Parish Council, aided if necessary by our District Councillors, can heavily influence the outcome, so if you feel strongly about any planning application do come to the relevant Parish Council meeting and make your views known

In this report I have previously referred to our annual budget.  This includes an amount to be given by the Parish Council to support local clubs and organisations. In the last year, as in previous years, a number of small grants were given to village sports clubs, Scouts, Petherton Arts Trust, sixties club and several others. I would like to remind the various clubs and societies in the parish that the Council now allocates grants twice a year, in June and October.  If you are involved with a club or society and would like to apply, please write to the Parish Clerk as soon as possible, including your request and a brief justification. In particular if you have received a grant regularly in the past, this is no longer guaranteed so please apply.

During the Annual Parish Meeting there will be presentations on how the village may develop in the future. The District Council is in the early stages of formulating the next Local Development Plan, which amongst other things, will determine how many houses can be built in the parish over the over the next twenty years. It is important that we formulate our own views on how the community should develop so that we can enter into an informed debate.

At this point I would like to mention the excellent level of support and advice that we continue to receive from our District Councillors (Paull Robathan and Keith Ronaldson).  Despite the many other calls on their time they still manage to attend virtually all of our monthly meetings.
There are elections for the County Council on June 4th and John Sharpe, our current County Councillor is not standing again, so whatever happens we will have a new representative. I would like to take this opportunity to thank John for all the help and advice he has given to the Parish Council during his years of office. We wish him a long and happy retirement.

At this stage I would also like to extend our thanks for all their work in the parish to Beat Manager Jon Watson and PCSO Michelle Haimes, who have now moved on to pastures new. We look forward to working with the new team of Ian Selley and Charlotte Rogers.

I have referred already to the good work done by Parish Councillors and also to the work of the tree warden. I would also like to thank Peter Kidner our footpaths liaison officer.

Finally I come to three people who carry out work for the council. Firstly, the lengthsman, David Muir. The lengthsman’s scheme continues to be  a great success and is now firmly established.   David  undertakes maintenance tasks throughout the parish that are far too numerous to mention.

South Petherton can be justly proud of the high standard of its recreation ground although we would dearly love it to be larger. This all needs to be kept tidy and we are grateful for the work that Kevin Harris does for us in his role as caretaker

Sharon Blake, our Parish Clerk, continues to be the fount of all knowledge for the Council. The Council certainly could not operate effectively without her input and expertise. She is well known in the Parish and provides an invaluable link between the Council and the public.

In conclusion, I would point out that this report is not intended to be a detailed account of the work carried out by the Parish Council. If you would like to know more, or to see how the budget is spent, do come to Parish Council Meetings which are generally held on the first Monday of each month in the Blake Hall. The agenda can be found on the parish notice board outside the Blake Hall or on the Parish website www.southpetherton.com. Every meeting starts with a public session where any parishioner can address the Council for three minutes on an issue that concerns them. There is no need to notify the Council in advance that you wish to speak.
It’s your Parish Council.  We welcome your participation.

Rodger Neve

Chairman South Petherton Parish Council

Minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting held in the Blake Hall on
Monday 21 April 2008

Present: 94 Parishioners plus Parish, District and County Councillors for the Ward.

1.         APOLOGIES
Apologies were received from three parishioners

2.         MINUTES
The minutes of the Parish Meeting held on the 30 April 2007 were read, confirmed and signed.

3.         MATTERS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES
There were no matters arising.

4.         PARISH COUNCIL CHAIRMAN’S REPORT
Rodger Neve, the Chairman of the Parish Council, highlighted the main events from the past year and these were very varied.  A full copy of his report will be placed in the library and on the SP website

This was led by PC Jon Watson, the beat manager for South Petherton. He started by introducing the new PCSO, Peter Brember.   He explained PACT and the work of the Local Action Group and then parishioners were invited to raise the issues that they would most like to see addressed.  Subjects raised were varied and many did not relate to the police’s direct area of responsibility, eg dog fouling, litter, broken pavements, emptying of dog and litter bins, need for a path opposite Crombleholmes and in Lightgate Road.  Litter, fly tipping and dog fouling are the responsibility of SSDC and Charlotte Jones, the Area North Community Development Manger offered to deal with these. She also asked for someone to walk around the village with Chris Cooper, the SSDC Street Scene Manager. 
The items later posted to the ‘board’ were slightly different to those discussed; the results being
-Anti Social Behaviour (9)
-Speeding Vehicles (8)
-Parking Issues (8)
-Dog Fouling (8)
-One way system for St James street (7)
-Littering, village centre (4)
-Fly Tipping, Careys Lane and Over Stratton (3)
-Lack of youth facilities (1)
-HGV's limit in Over Stratton (1)
Others mentioned with no votes were: -
-No village policeman (?)
-Police response times
-Lighting in St James car park
-Green issues (environmental)
-Planning Issues in St Michaels Gardens

6.         YEOVIL FOYER
Yeovil Foyer introduced themselves and the work that they do with young people who were perceived to have been a nuisance and explained what they had been doing in South Petherton for the past six weeks, looking at alternative activities for young people to help them build their self esteem and confidence; activities have included soccer skills and DJing.  The project started at the David Hall and then moved to the recreation ground. From this three young people are going on a soccer skills courses and one DJing to be a peer mentor.  As well as funding which came form the Strategic Partnership, volunteers with time to work with young people are needed.
7.         DISTRICT COUNCILLORS

 8.         COUNTY COUNCILLOR
John Sharpe explained about working within the Local Area Agreement.  He was aware of the concerns about heavy lorries in the village and that these problems might be caused by ‘satnav’ and SCC are working with Ordnance Survey to produce new maps for heavy truck drivers.   He had great praise for the Lengthsman Scheme and SCC are committed to supporting this for at least two more years.  He continues to support local schools and noted that SCC was committed to retaining the library service.  A project of converting plastic waste into fuel is being investigated.

9.         QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS

The meeting closed at 9.05pm                         Chairman……………………..               

Date…………………………..