Barming Parish Council

Report for the year to 31st March 2010

This was thesecondyear of the four-year term of the Council. At the Annual Meeting in May 2009 the Council re-elected Mrs Fay Gooch as Chairman. Barming Parish Councillors have all undertaken to act in accordance with a Code of Conduct based on a national model and there have been no complaints to the Standards Committee about their individual or collective activities.

Raffaela Strange joined the Council in May and Colin Ballard joined the Council in October following the resignation of Pat Aronson. In March this year Peter Hurrell resigned from the Council and the vacancy is required to be filled by co-option as soon as possible.

Extracts of Minutes of meetings are reported in the Barming News and can be viewed in full on the website at The Council also has a Publication Scheme required under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, whereby copies of particular Council documentation are available upon request.

The following are brief comments on some Council activities:-

The Council was mainly financed in two ways. Firstly, a precept of £11,500 was raised on local householders, collected with the Council Tax. This amounted to £15.23 for a Band “D” property. Then, the Borough Council provided a general allowance of £10,590 to assist with such matters as maintenance of Open Spaces, the War Memorial, the Parish Hall and Pavilion and Allotments and Street Cleansing.

In addition, the Council received a KCC Member’s Grant of £1,500 for the purchase of tables and chairs for the Parish Hall. The Council also received income from the hire of the Parish Hall and Pavilion for the year of £6,516 and a small rental income of £420 from the Allotments.The Pavilion Fundraisers have also raised £1,011 towards the Pavilion project this year. The first draft of the figures for 2009/10 is given overleaf. Copies of audited Annual Returns are available under the Publication Scheme.

The majority of the Council’s expenditure was for administration costs and maintenance of the Playing Field and Parish Hall. In addition, the Council made two further substantial maintenance payments this year - £2,210 for the redecoration of the Parish Hall and £918.75 for the refurbishment of the War Memorial. The Council also assisted various organisations with a donation including St MargaretsChurch and Barming Guides.

The Council purchased the Speedwatch equipment using the KCC Member Grant that had been provided last year and the purchase of the strip of land at Cedar Drive was completed in October using the grant provided by Maidstone Borough Council.

During the year the Council was consulted on around twenty-oneplanning applications. The Council meets regularly to consider new planning applications and details of these meetings can be found on the noticeboards and website or by contacting the clerk. In considering its views on planning applications, the Council continues to put forward recommendations that it feels best represent the interests of local parishioners, but the Borough Council does not always agree with us!

The Council usually meets at the Parish Hallon the second Wednesday of the month excluding January when it meets on the fourth Wednesday and February and August when there is no meeting and parishioners are welcome to attend. Parishioners are given an opportunity to raise matters at the start of every meeting. Councillors or the Clerk can be contacted direct when more urgent issues arise. Their contact details appear on the village noticeboards, in the Barming News and on the website at

BARMING PARISH COUNCIL
Draft Receipts & Payments Summary for Year to 31st March 2010
2008/09 / RECEIPTS / 2009/10
£ / £
8,440 / Parish Precept / 11,500
10,620 / MBC - Concurrent Functions / 10,590
8,000 / MBC - Additional Grants / ---
1,945 / KCC - Grants / 1,500
311 / Allotment Rent / 420
210 / Advertising - Barming News / 500
600 / BYFC / 650
--- / BYFC Utilities / 24
--- / Inland Revenue - Online Reporting Grant / 75
5,783 / Parish Hall Rent / 6,120
399 / Pavilion Rent / 396
Insurance Claims / 920
85 / Other Income / 1,011
1,165 / Bank Interest / 13
1,781 / VAT - Reimbursement Received from HMRC / 825
39,339 / TOTAL RECEIPTS / 34,544
2008/09 / PAYMENTS / 2009/10
£ / £
General Adminstration
692 / Gate Duties / 700
813 / Caretaker Salary / ---
6,530 / Clerk Salary / 9,001
2,018 / Running Expenses / 2,505
200 / Audit Fees / 345
3,281 / Insurance / 2,788
--- / Concurrent Functions / ---
110 / Allotments / 1,154
--- / CCTV / ---
--- / Open Spaces / 750
Cleaning Services / 1,872
462 / Pavilion Maintenance / 348
919 / Playing Field Grounds Maintenance / 947
195 / Pavilion Utilities / 553
72 / Play Area / 311
28 / Parish Hall Fire Extinguisher / 30
836 / Parish Hall Maintenance / 3,865
554 / Parish Hall Rates / 582
429 / Parish Hall Utilities / 945
380 / War Memorial / 919
530 / Other Concurrent Expenditure / 6,433
570 / Newsletter / 980
985 / Donations / 475
--- / Contingencies / ---
268 / Litterpicking / 620
50 / Speedwatch / 2,019
162 / s137 / 32
807 / Other Expenditure / 49
1,990 / VAT - on payments (to be reimbursed) / 1,737
22,882 / TOTAL PAYMENTS / 39,960

28th April 2010