Canwick Parish Council Annual Parish Meeting - Chairman S Report 2005

CANWICK PARISH COUNCIL ANNUAL PARISH MEETING - CHAIRMAN’S REPORT 2017

Welcome

-A warm welcome to all parishioners. I am Lance Pennell and I have been Chairman of the Parish Council since mid-2003. During the past year we have had a full council and the composition has been unchanged since last year’s meeting.

-Tonight’s meeting is the annual meeting of the Parish Council at which the public may speak without invitation, unlike our “normal” monthly meetings. However, I ask that you do so through myself and avoid interrupting speakers unless they invite it.

-Hopefully you have seen the Agenda which has been on display outside. There will be reports from myself, Councillor Ron Oxby our County Councillor, and from Councillor Ian Carringtonfor our NKDC Councillors. There will then be an opportunity for Parishioners to ask questions.

-For the past year we have had a full council but Mrs Christine Griffin has retired as a Cllr with effect from today after many years with us as both a cllr and also formerly as our Clerk. For those who have not yet met them, I will introduce those councillors. That said, Cllr Robin Narboroughis unable to attend tonight. So the remaining Parish Councillors are:

Introduce The Other Parish Council members and the Clerk

In alphabetical order:

-Ian Carrington

-Heather Dowson

-Malcolm Hales

-Robin Narborough(absent tonight)

-Lorcan O’Melia

I thank them all for their work and support over the past year.

-The final member of our team is our Clerk, Mrs Phil Shaw, who joined us at the end of 2010. As with her predecessor, she carries out her work for us from Heighington - close by but not always convenient for some. However, she often passes through Canwick, and the telephone, e-mail and the Internet all provide parishioners with ready means of communication. As ever, the Clerk’s contact details are clearly shown on our agendas and notices,on our noticeboard outside, and normally alsoon our website. Overall, we feel that our Parishioners continue to be properly served by the arrangement.

Meetings

-Your Council has met each month, except for August, during the past year, as has been the case for many years. At these meetings we discuss matters raised locally, planning matters referred to us by the District Council, local environmental issues, correspondence received, and our finances. In addition, we have attended a variety of additional meetings, both within the District and more locally, for training, information, or as part of the Planning process.

-In the past, the one closest to homehas been where Councillor Malcolm Hales and the Environment Committee members met with the Highways and other NKDC staffs over local issues. These meetings also encompassed the village walks where all available councillors attend, and we have done our best to keep the state of our village footpaths and roadways high on the County Council's agenda. However, following a restructuring of County Highways it seems as if we have lost our local officer and that matters will be more at arms length in future.

-As in the past under this topic, no Parish Councillor has claimed expenses for attending meetings.

Finance

-Those of you who have scrutinised your Council Tax bills in detail will know that the Band D Council Tax charged by us has gone up slightly. Last year it was £36.94 and for this year it is £37.21 - an increase of 27 pence or 0.73%. This results in aprecept for the coming FY of £5650 as compared to £5500last year. However, we have not received an extra £150 at all. On each of the past 4 reports I have explained how changes to benefits have had a significant effect. The introduction of a new Council Tax Support Scheme which replaced the previous Council Tax Benefit Scheme meant that in future residents who are eligible for financial support in paying their Council Tax receive a discount which is applied to the Council Taxbase. The unintended consequence has been volatility for Parish and Town Councils in their Council Taxbase. In 2013/14 the taxbase was 139.08, for 2014/15 it was 149.32, for 2015/16 it was 150.09, and last year it wasdown to 148.90. For the coming year it is up to 151.86, so an unchanged Council Tax would have raised slightlymore money for us. But there is a final aspect which provides a sting in the tale for us

The final aspect is the Government's top-up grant. Having made a problem over the taxbase in late 2012the government did provide some help in the form of a top-up grant to make up the shortfall. In 2013/14 we received just under £400 but in 2014/15this reduced to just £125, in 2015/16 £81.06,and last year it was down to £50.02. This year it is down by a further£23.01 to just £27.01 and there is no assurance that it will be available at all downstream. The old saying is that with one hand they give and the other they ...... In short we are receiving £126.99 more this year than we did before.

Overall, with the Government's chosen measure of judging Councils being the Band D rate levied, and the threat of a referendum being required in future to achieve any increase beyond 1.5 - 2%, we feel we should protect ourselves by maintaining our only income whilst holding the Band D rate to as small an increase as possible. Of course, there is no assurance that next year's taxbase will not go down substantially, to our financial disadvantage. However, we intend to keep our Council Tax bills as low as we can commensurate with us maintaining our support for village activities at appropriate levels.

So where has your money been spent. Wehadhistorically 4 major outgoings which together have takenthe lion’s share of our precept and some others I will outline:

-The first significant expense is the Parish Clerk. She is contracted to work 12 hrs per month for us. In this she must deal with preparing for and recording our monthly meetings, dealing with our finances as our Responsible Financial Officer, together with the mountain of correspondence emanating from Central Government, the County and District Council and other bodies - much of it in the guise of consultation. She also acts in rotation as the secretary for the Four Parishes Group. Overall, I believe she is fully employed on our behalf. Her pay rate is mandated by a National Agreement covering all council employees and reflects her experience in the role.

-The second significant expense is the Playing Field. To help maintain this facility for the village, the Parish Council has, for some time, paid to have the grass cut regularly throughout the Summer, and to have the hedge cut each Autumn. The Playing Fields Committee remain responsible for the remainder of the expenses.

-The third expense to highlight is a Public Works Loan. Until recently, we had existed on our savings and annual income. However, as I briefed you in 2009, we decided to take out a Public Works Loan to help the Village Hall Trustees provide the disabled facilities which were long overdue, as well as being mandated by the law! The Trustees had sought external funding with some success but one essential element was a local contribution. We took the view that the Village Hall is an asset for the whole community and that we should make a contribution. We borrowed £6000 as a fixed rate loan, at 3.82% interest, repaid over 20 years, which we immediately gave to the Trustees as a grant. The Social Club matched this and the disabled lift and new boiler were the immediate result. The local contribution proved to be the key to unlocking other grants and the creation of a disabled toilet was a visible result. The Trustees subsequently made changes to the entrance to allow access through the front door for all but they arranged that funding. We have only borrowed what is needed, and we believe it has been to the significant benefit of the village as a whole.

-Finally, there is the Dog Warden which was a shared service with other parishes within the Four Parishes group. There is no longer a grant from NKDC to defray a proportion of the cost but in any event this hadnot kept pace with inflation and latterly only covered a small proportion of the cost. At the moment we do not have a Dog Warden as some of the other Parishes wished to go it alone with either their own employee or a separate contractor and the previous Dog Warden was not prepared to continue with a reduced clientele. We are keeping an eye on how this change affects the village and we will seek to engage another contractor downstream if it is affordable.

Other, smaller expenses include:

-We have 2 Dog Bins. The newer one was installed on the Playing Field, providing a larger one than was previously in place. The old one was relocated to the land opposite the Hall. However, this one has rusted badly and a plastic one was purchased and was brought into use once the team from NKDC had installed it and taken the old one away for disposal. My thanks to them for doing this for us - it was a job for which there were no volunteers! The good news is that we will no longer need to pay for emptying these bins as dog waste has now been classed as litter for which bins NKDC makes no charge for collection. This means that dog waste can go in litter bins as well.

-We have 4 litter bins. These are situated: outside this building; on Hall Drive near to the seat opposite the Hall; by the bus shelter on Canwick Hill; and at the top of Canwick Hill alongside the Playing Fields across the road from Mill Lodge.

-Whenwe ask County Highways for enhancements to the signs and road markings around the Village, they are not always done free of charge as they often go beyond the minimum requirements for the road and we are required to pay for a proportion of the cost - but we believe it to be money well-spent. In the case of the speed reactive signs on Canwick Hill ahead of the Hall Drive and Heighington Road junctions these were actually provided from the wider budget for the works without a need for us to contribute. You will understand that I have not asked further questions!

-We make a few grants. The most significant is to the Parochial Church Council and for this all villagers are entitled to be buried in the Churchyard regardless of faith. As you will be aware, The PCChave been reviewing the long term financial viability of the Church and we will seek to assist where we can

-As part of the Jubilee celebrations, and again for a subsequent Village Fete we ran a gardens competition. All properties within the Parish were considered, unless a resident chose to opt out, and entry was free. In each case the prizes were a total of £50 of garden vouchers and we believe our contribution to the celebrations was appropriate.

-We have also supported the War Memorial Restoration Group and I was delighted that they were able to arrange such events both to unveil the restored memorial, and to launch the commemorative book. I hope our successors will be equally successful when the memorial eventually needs more work.

-As I hope you will see, we endeavour to spend your money for the benefit of the village. In previous years this has included purchasing dog and litter bins, the bench outside this hall, and helping the PCC to provide a new notice board at the Church.

-Overall, we have sought to keep the Precept to a practical level and to spend it prudently for the benefit of the Parish.

Pollution/Litter

-A recurring topic which has been raised from time to time is that of pollution. The unpleasant smells that sometimes emanate from the sewage works, and the nuisance caused by bonfires when lit thoughtlessly both have an effect on quality of life. However, NKDC can only act for us if instances are reported to them. Please light bonfires with consideration for others.

-Litter and fly tipping can also disfigure our picturesque surroundings. Please report any fly tipping to Malcolm Hales or to the Clerk - NKDC can only arrange for it to be cleared if they are made aware of the need. As to litter within the village, we could gain a grant towards the cost of a Litter Picker for the village if a suitable candidate was found to work a few hours a month. Please let us know if anyone comes to mind.

Communication

-It is now some time since the last Village Newsletter was produced. As I have outlined at previous meetings, we could arrange for a village newsletter to be published but what we cannot do is provide all of the roving reporters and editorial staff. If anyone can help, please contact the Clerk or any Parish Councillor.

-However, although we are unable to provide a newsletter at present, what we have been able to do is let you know of our activities via the Internet. Our old website had details of our meetings and links to a wide variety of local, district and county organisations and activities, together with a “News” page to keep Parishioners abreast of current topics which went some way to compensating for the lack of a Village Newsletter. Councillor Carrington created it and ran it in his own time but unfortunately the software which was used for it is not being supported downstream within newer Windows products. As a result, we sought to migrate to the Lincolnshire County Council sponsored scheme. We lost control over the format but it presently costs us nothing now we are up and running. It hasproven far more difficult than we had hoped to transfer everything across, but we are live with a limited site which satisfies our statutory requirements. One of these is the display of agendas and minutes of our meetings, which we have always done. But there is now a requirement for us to publish more details of our finances and annual audit. Up to now this has been achieved using my or the Clerk's home machines but we have just been granted a sum via LALC to help us acquire up to date equipment and software to allow us to scan, publish and upload documents more easily.

We also provide a welcome pack for new residents containing details of ourselves, together with local facilities and organisations in the area. If you believe we have missed one in this, or on the website, please let us know.

Major Issues on the Horizon

We have 4 major issues on the horizon. The first is the Bomber Command Memorial. Although the spire is erected and was formally commissioned over a year ago, much other work is still to be done before the site and its visitor centre can open. Only then will we see the eventual impact, particularly on traffic flows and the possible need for further road improvements on Canwick Hill with associated changes to traffic routings..

The second major issue is the Central Lincolnshire Local Plan which will lead to several thousand dwellings and associated infrastructure being built between ourselves and Bracebridge Heathover the next 30 years or so. Cllr Carrington and myself attended many sessions of the plan's examination in public by the Planning Inspectorate last autumn and it seems that the plan meets the statutory requirements and will soon be approved once agreed final amendments are incorporated. Throughout the lengthy gestation of the Plan, we have sought to protect Canwick's character and identity as a small village. No one wants us to be engulfed by the large developments to come nearby! There have also been suggestions that we should work to create a neighbourhood plan to help fend off developers. Having attended briefings on the processI believe it would be beyond our resources at present and would not allow us to stop such schemes in their tracks. Creation of a neighbourhood plan cannot be a Parish Council project but would need to be one for the wider community. If you know of anyone who would like to be involved then please ask them to contact us.

The next issue is the Lincoln Eastern Bypass. At last the scheme has a start date but we will need to stay alive to how we will be affected during construction, as well as how the traffic will change afterwards.

As I mentioned earlier we are keeping the issueof the Dog Warden under review. After nearly 15 years of having a joint scheme with Branston, Heighington and Washingborough this came to an end a year ago. We will try to arrange a replacement but it may be unaffordable on our own. If anyone hears of a good Dog Warden please let us know.

My final issue is that of the Pavilion on the Playing Fields. The committee who run the playing fields are seeking to replace the existing building with something more modern, and they have invited us to attend some scoping meetings. As ever, the major problem will be finance. Whilst we have very limited funds of our own, and legal constraints over how they can be used, we will seek to help the Playing Fields committee where we can in mapping out a workable plan.