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MINUTES OF CHILCOMPTON ANNUAL PARISH MEETING HELD ON

23 MARCH 2016 AT THE VILLAGE HALL, CHILCOMPTON

1.  Present: The Chairman welcomed 7 Parish Councillors, the two District Councillors and a member of the public to the meeting.

Apologies: Cllrs Duggan and Travis.

2.  Minutes of the previous Annual Parish Meeting: The minutes were taken as read and signed. There were no matters arising.

3.  Annual Accounts: The Clerk presented the anticipated Balance of Accounts for the year 2015/16. The anticipated balance at 31.3.2016 was shown as £44,684.84, but this includes monies held for the T J Coles Trust Fund; leaving a spending balance of £35,819.42. The Accounts were duly approved. The Clerk observed that the reserves were too large but would be reduced by the new play/exercise equipment. Clerk to put earmarked reserves on the April agenda.

4.  Chairman’s Report: Cllr Pike said: The year completed is the first since the Parish Council elections of May 2015, of the Parish Council members at that time two, Shaun Maundril and David Gregory chose not to stand again, it would be remiss not to thank them for their service and efforts to the Council during their tenure. With the remaining councillors electing to stand again and four new nominations received, there were 13 candidates for 12 positions and thus an election was required for the first time in several elections.

At the resultant election, Councillor David Richardson-Aitken was not returned; again this is a suitable opportunity to place on record thanks for his service. Along with eight existing councillors, four new Councillors were returned in the election, Tom Duggan, Kulwarn Gill, Duncan Rideout & Linda Travis; they have already added greatly to the Council and I wish them a long and fruitful tenure. In December, Councillor Martin Stanford decided to resign from Council, his efforts for the Council were considerable and our thanks are recorded. This not only caused a vacancy on Council but as Vice Chairman, necessitated an election to that position and at the March meeting Councillor Rideout was unanimously elected to that role. At the time of writing we are still one member light of our full complement and have a casual vacancy, hopefully this will be filled on the near future. In my report of last year I spoke of an ongoing discussion with the management Committee of the Sports field regarding the club house extension; this had caused much debate, not least at the (very well attended) APM. Indeed following on from the debate at the APM, which I think was a catalyst, a group of three councillors met with the Sports Committee and soon an agreement was reached, I believe to the satisfaction of all parties. The completed extension is operational and a great asset to the facility.

In the last report I spoke of the reformed Youth Club, that had started and was attracting a large number of attendees, this had been aided through financial support from the Parish Council. Pleasingly the Council was once again able to support the Club and numbers remained high. However due to other commitments, the club leaders were unable to continue to give their time, and in the absence of any volunteers stepping forward to fill this gap, the club has ceased. It is disappointing that the club has failed not through a lack of “customers”, footfall demonstrated that there was a demand for such a club and made the club financially viable, but instead through a lack of volunteer help; this would appear to be reflective of voluntary organisations as a whole. I would like to record thanks for the YC committee for the work that they did.

Following the trend of recent years the past 12 months has seen the usual number of planning applications. While we could not be classed as “NIMBYs” in our attitude to larger developments, we have remained constant in our belief that much of the village infrastructure is very nearly, or is actually, at capacity and consequently cannot accommodate some the large numbers that some of these developments would bring. I believe that this attitude reflects very much the view of the large majority of parishioners, demonstrated not least through the large and often vociferous numbers who attend both our planning meetings and those of MDC when applications such as these are debated. Pleasingly I believe that this demonstration of village will has had a largely positive effect on MDC to these applications. However with some of those that have been rejected there is a sense of “Groundhog Day” with plans re-appearing with only seemingly little modification to a previous rejected application; this however does not seem to dissuade the parishioners in their objections. I should like to record thanks to MDC Councillors John and Rachel Carter who have often supported Parish Council and Parishioners objections at MDC to numerous applications.

Going forward we do have our own Village Design Statement, in the last report this was about to be formally adopted by the Parish Council, which now defines our wishes for village development. Furthermore we have taken part in the consultation exercise that Mendip DC carried out for part two of the local plan. We have submitted out thoughts and I believe a number of parishioners have also done so individually. We do however recognise that there will be some development, at time of writing Belvedere Place is nearing completion and is already part occupied. We therefore are pressing to make sure that were there are 106 agreements associated with new developments we should endeavour to make sure that we as a village get maximum benefit. We are currently trying to make sure that this is the case for the agreement associated for the Belvedere development.

Twelve months ago I wrote about the ongoing concerns regarding traffic in the village. The proposed modifications to the west of the B3139 at Lynch Hill have not yet come to fruition. We see this an important development and several colleagues from the Parish Council have again had meetings at Taunton on this matter and you can rest assured that we will pursue this matter to fruition. The changes at the East end of the B3139 leaving the village towards the White Post have pleasingly been completed. There are other areas of concern within the village that we intend to follow up moving forward, and the efforts of the Speed Watch are great help to this piece. Once again we have not asked for the Village precept to be increased, and on our existing income our financial position remains healthy. We have begun to look at how we can use financial reserves to the benefit of the village and we have identified the lower recreation field as an area we feel we can use our money wisely and to benefit a large number of villagers. The subcommittee dealing with the lower recreation field have developed a really exciting plan and with some outside sourcing we hope to use to resources to bring this to fruition in the near future.

In the last year the Parish Council have taken on the production of the Parish magazine. With a few volunteers under the auspices of our Parish clerk as Editor-in-Chief, a role he appears to have taken with some relish, the first issue was produced last summer. Through sponsorship we were able to produce a colour copy magazine at almost breakeven, pleasingly this has been well received and the second issue is imminent, I believe to some expectation. I should like to thank the team for producing this which I believe will be a valuable addition to communication with the village. We are also augmenting and improving our virtual communications, both through continual enhancement of the village website and exploring other social media platforms and also exploring how we can help the village hall become a virtual hub through broadband provision.

One of our largest projects in the last 12 months was the rededication of the War Memorial. David Richardson-Aitken brought to our attention that a villager, William Hollway who gave his life while serving in Burma in WW II was not recorded on the memorial. We were able to add his name and unveil this at a rededication on the 70th anniversary pf VJ day in the summer, where members of Captain Hollway’s family were in attendance as a son of the village was properly recorded on the memorial. It turned out to be an excellent day and I should like to record my thanks to everyone who helped, not least David Richardson-Aitkens whose efforts were considerable to say the least.

On a smaller scale but no less importantly, we completed the memorial to Desmond Mattick that I mentioned last year, when we purchased a bench and situated it in a place chosen by his family. I believe that this is a suitable and fitting memorial to a great servant of Chilcompton.

Finally my thanks to my colleagues on the Parish Council, both past and present; their service to the village should be applauded and Parishioners can rest assured that no matter is not debated fully! I will finish by thanking our clerk Malcolm Rigby, he has performed excellently, (a difficult task considering he faces the task of keeping councillors on the straight and narrow!), and has more than vindicated our appointment of him several years ago. Cllr Foster observed that Chilcompton Celebrates also gave to the Youth Club. Cllr Pickford observed that Desmond Mattick was also remembered in the street naming. Cllr Morgan observed that the Lynch Hill pavement was not mentioned in SCCllr Siggs’ latest report.

5.  Report of the Village Hall: Cllr Pickford said: The village hall committee has had another successful year with a good level of bookings and provision of many activities, involving up to 20 groups. Finances are sound and while accounts to 31st March are not yet finalised, excess income over expenditure this year will be about £5,000 as in past years. Balance : £15,634 car park, £10,000 contingency, and £22,300 in the general fund. Some of the reserves are to be spent on refurbishing the toilets; this is in hand. The patio slabs are to be re-laid and after that the kitchen is in need of upgrading. 69 parent parking permits have been issued and seems to work well. The school is able to use the hall car park by prior arrangement and occasionally the hall can use the school for parking. Thanks are due to the trustees, all volunteers, who were recently awarded Hallmark I and Hallmark II for best practice. They were commended as having the most hall user representatives on the committee. The best hall in Mendip shield was also presented to the chairman at the Village halls conference in the Autumn. Cllr Foster said that the old Christmas tree was providing a harbour for rats and that was upsetting elderly neighbours. Clerk to write to VHMC and congratulate them on the awards.

6.  Report of the Sports Committee: Cllr Morgan said: Chilcompton Sports Committee has made great strides since the opening of the Social Club in February 2015. Profits from bar sales are helping to pay off the loan taken out to build the extension and the Committee has had success in obtaining grants to purchase major items such as a new tractor and mowing equipment. The latest acquisition is a grant to fund the expansion of the tractor shed. Plans for the coming year include hosting the Wessex Beer Festival in September, from which the Committee hope to raise funds through food sales.

7.  Report on the Old Recreation Ground: Cllr Rideout said: Taking on board comments at last year’s APM and from the Village Plan the committee have looked at providing play and exercise equipment for older children and adults. We have identified a number of items to the value of:-

£21,780. The Parish Council have also purchased the shelter from the skate park for £500 and plan to also move this to the Old Rec. We have applied for grants to the value of £12,500 and so far £1,500 has been approved with the others due for decisions in April 2016. The balance will be taken from Parish Council reserves. Also £1574.50 will be spent on the play area for the younger children providing a hopscotch grid and an OXO spinner. Further monies are due from the 106 for Belvedere Place and this will also be allocated to play and leisure facilities. Cllr Pike thanked the subcommittee for their work.

8.  Report of St Vigor & St Johns School Governors and the Children’s Centre: Cllr Aldridge said in a written report: Despite the changes in school personnel during 2015 the school of St. Vigor and St. John has maintained excellent progress. The current number of pupils on the roll is 211, which will be increasing to 213 shortly. However due to school funding arrangements, this is not so significant as in previous years . In line with all other spending our budget has been slightly cut, and significantly will not be eased by in-year top-ups as in the past. Despite the departure of Lucy Dowdle, as deputy head, the school has progressed under the excellent leadership of David Allinson the head, and also Cathy Bushill, his assistant.The school is still considering Academy status, although impetus has been further blunted blunted from the previous year, as this is not such a cornerstone of current school policy, as previously. There have been many changes to the Children’s Centre. The actual Family Services Centre has been closed following the implementation of a new policy by Somerset County Council, which has obviously impacted on the staffing levels. The Nursery remains open, but belongs to, and is funded by the school. The Board of Governors is also currently being re-organised, due to recent resignations, and revised policy, which puts a greater emphasis on parent governors. There is currently a vacancy for a new Governor.

Finally we should like to pay tribute to the excellent staff, who have maintained the high standards of the school and to the staff of the Nursery, through the last year, and will surely see us through the changing times ahead.