Hibaldstow Parish Council

Minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting

Minutes of the meeting of Hibaldstow Annual Parish Meeting held at 7.15pm on Thursday 10th April 2014 at the Village Hall, Hibaldstow.

Present: Cllr Broomhall, Cllr Brooks (Chair), Cllr Charlton, Cllr Pennington,

Cllr Sodha, Cllr Sheppard, Cllr Stothard, Cllr Swallow, Cllr Wragg

& Cllr Talliss.

Also Present: Cllr Foster, Cllr Poole & 3 residents.

1.  Apologies

Apologies received from Cllr White.

2.  Minutes

The minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting held on 11th April 2013 were approved as a true and correct record.

3.  Chairman’s report

Cllr Brooks read out his report.

What is the purpose of the Annual Parish Meeting?

All Parish and Town Councils throughout England are required by law to hold an Annual Parish Meeting at this time each year. It is a meeting of all the local government electors for the Parish; it is NOT a Meeting of the Parish Council

The purpose of calling this meeting is so that the Council can explain what it has been doing over the last year and it enables the electors to have their say on anything which they consider is important to the people of the parish. It also gives representatives of village organisations the opportunity to report on their activities over the previous year.

The Annual Precept for 2013/14 was capped at £15.000 to carry out the duties and services within the village including the community planting, maintenance of the Closed Churchyard and Cemetery, supporting the Village Voice and other community projects.

Although the village was not successful in the 2013 Best Kept Village competition, coming 4th in the Large Village Group, the judges commented - “A good effort generally but attention to detail would have improved your marks.”

Meetings continue with the PCC regarding the Closed Churchyard wall which the Diocese want the wall to be taken down and rebuilt, and stated that there were grants for this type of work, we are awaiting a further meeting to arrange test holes to be excavated in order to inspect the condition of the inside of the wall.

The last meeting of the veterans fly past and memorial service took place in May and included the unveiling of the memorial commissioned by the Parish Map Group who this year were presented with the Nellie Harpham award for services to the community along with a Queens Jubilee Coin for each member.

A public meeting for Gainsthorpe residents was held at the Shires to discuss the Kirton off Road Centre planning application. A further planning application of interest to residents was the development of Willow Farm which resulted in a good turnout at the February meeting, which coincided with a pre-planning presentation by planning consultants for a proposed Co-op Convenience Store in the village for which we await the formal planning application.

The Council have held successful meetings with prospective landowners to acquire land and access for an allotment in the village however due to a lack of interest this project is now on hold.

The council meetings have been well attended by councillors throughout the year with the addition of two co-opted members, Lisa Pennington replacing Anne Easters and James Swallow replacing Sheila Hyslop, adding youth to the Council for the final year of this term of office.

Finally thanks to Deb the Parish Clerk RFO and Burial Clerk for her continuing support to the council and residents throughout the year.

4.  Parish Council Accounts 2013/14

The Clerk summarised the unaudited accounts for 2013/14. These once audited by the Internal Auditor will be signed off by the Council and published.

5.  Village Hall Committee report

Cllr Broomhall provided a report.

The Committee has full membership and has also co-opted a further two members to help with social events and fundraising. The Committee has been divided into 4 Sub-Committees to help with the management of the Village Hall and to hopefully make it more efficient.

The Hall continues to be well used by groups from the village covering all ages from infants to senior citizens but remains a little under used at weekends.

The Committee have held a number of fundraising events and to date have raised £2,800 towards the future development of the hall. They have obtained grants for the BMX ramp and are looking into obtaining grants towards the development of the hall itself along with a MUGA for the playing field.

After a few problems with the BMX ramp, this should be completed and in use within the next few months. Use of the ramp will be monitored by the Committee and any problems that arise will be dealt with. Cllr Wragg had informed the Committee that he had obtained some costing for the work to be carried out and requested a detailed list of the costs charged by the builder be brought to the next meeting along with details of all quotes received. These will be discussed at the next VHC meeting.

The Committee continues to pursue its idea to redevelop the Village Hall and have been in discussions with NLC Planning Department and an architect with a view to drawing up plans for a new hall.

A survey was sent out to residents via the Village Voice for views and ideas on the development but only 40 responses were received.

The hall has again been the victim of vandalism, minor theft and anti-social behaviour over the past twelve months. A Crime Reduction Office was brought in to give advice. The Committee were advised to improve the lighting around the hall, to fit CCTV and to move some of the storage containers from around the hall. All of these suggestions are being looked in to.

Cllr Stothard added that at the AGM on 29/01 Alan Smith was nominated as Chair, Elaine Broomhall as Secretary, Stuart Raven-Smith as Treasurer and Margaret Barton the Bookings Clerk.

6.  Cemetery / closed Churchyard report

Cllr Brooks provided the following report:-

NLC carried out a tree survey within the Closed Churchyard which identified the need to remove a decaying Ash tree which required work as a high priority due to its close proximity and leaning towards a domestic dwelling and following the granting of a faculty this has now been completed.

NLC have relayed the path at the western gate which now enables the gate to be opened and closed without obstruction.

As previously reported the Diocese want the Closed Churchyard wall to be taken down and rebuilt, and have stated that there were grants for this type of work, a `de minimus` has been granted, to excavate trial holes in order to inspect the condition of the inside of the wall, to enable a spec is to be drawn up and costed.

The architect pointed out that a photographic and detailed recording of the evidence contained within the trial hole would be required and the archaeological department of the church would also want to be involved, bearing in mind the age of the churchyard and proximity of the graves to the wall.

The vicar would like to see the reinstatement of the wall as a joint project involving the Church, Parish Council, NLC and he thought that it would also be a good idea to involve the local community as a whole in any fund raising activity.

We are awaiting further meetings to proceed with this project.

NLC carried out the grass cutting in 2013 and have been awarded the contract for 2014.

The spoil recently deposited on the grassed area by a grave digger in the Cemetery has now been removed.

The PC has instigated arrangements for periodic `litter picking` within the Cemetery and Closed Churchyard to include general litter, dead flowers, wreaths and artificial arrangements which have been wind-blown,all in accordance with the Cemetery Rules 16 & 17.

7.  Open Forum for Public Participation

It was suggested that the Best Kept Village is promoted in each Village Voice to engage the public to enhance their areas.

The meeting closed at 7.30pm.

3 Signed: Date: 9th April 2015