Draft Minutes of Gillingham Annual Parish Meeting - May 2015

The Gillingham Annual Parish meeting was held in the village hall on Wednesday, 6th May, 2015 at 7.30pm.

THOSE PRESENT: Parish Councillors Mr Massingham, Mrs Thrower, Mrs Black, Mrs Ward, Mr Buggs-Davison, Mr Hoare and Mrs Foreman. Ono member of the public attended. Gillingham Parish Council Chairman Mr Massingham chaired the meeting.

MINUTES: The minutes of last year's annual parish meeting held on 7th May, 2014, have been distributed and Mr Massingham asked if there were any matters arising from them. None voiced. The minutes were approved by the council and signed by the Chairman.

PARISH COUNCIL CHAIRPERSON’S REPORT: 2015

Parish Councillors:

This year saw the departure of another councillor due to ill health, Tony Money who served as chairman for several years, sadly passed away. The council welcomed Chris Hoare who stepped up to fill the vacancy.
Councillors again attended the Remembrance Day service in November and laid a wreath from the village.
Playground:

A large section of the new playground fence which had been broken down exposing the danger of the ditch was replaced and new deep-water signs put in place. Moles had become a nuisance and were dealt with accordingly. Overgrown brambles at the entrance to the playground and allotments were sprayed in an attempt to restrict them.

Village Upkeep:
Unfortunately there was not enough support from residents to set up a SAM speed-monitoring unit and speeding both in the village and over Gillingham Dam remains an issue.
Again this year the rent from the allotments was used as a Christmas gift for the Octogenarians of the village, which incidentally was increased to each one as the number has drastically decreased over the past couple of years.
Minor thefts on Kings Dam and on the allotments have occurred during the year and residents need to remain vigilant and keep their property secure.

Planning:
In January the parish council saw a large contingent attend the council meeting to give their views on a proposed wind turbine application at Hill Farm on the outskirts of the village, this remains undecided at this time.
The council is pleased to see representatives from Waterloo attending the parish council meetings and taking an active role in keeping up with council matters.

In conclusion I wish to extend my thanks to all the councillors and our Parish Clerk, Julia Punt, for all their hard work throughout the year.

Rae Massingham

Chairman

  1. Reports from local organisations

Gillingham Early Years Report 2014/15

It has been another good year for Gillingham Early Years. With the funding we received from Norfolk County Council last year to start us off, our outside area has become an intrinsic part of our pedagogy and all children continue to enjoy and learn in the space. Our continued thanks goes to Mr Bramley for allowing us to use this piece of land, it really is invaluable to the children.

With 19 children leaving us in July ’14 to start school, we were a little concerned about numbers as we only had 15 children on the books for September, however through, it seems, word of mouth we had several enquiries in the first week of the new term and were soon at full capacity of 37 children. We already have a waiting list of 5 children for September, with only 9 going on to school.

We have also had a few staffing changes in this year, with two members of staff moving on to new ventures. We were sad to lose them but we know they are very happy in their new roles. We now have a new member of staff who has settled in well and we have provided continuity to the children and are working as a very strong team.

Our long term aim still remains to run in a permanent building, to enable us to cater for more and also younger children.

Tonia Luckham

Gillingham Early Years

Gillingham Ladies Group
We are a small group of about 14 members mainly from the village (we would love to see more members) – gentlemen are welcome also if the talk is of interest to them.

We have speakers on various subjects eg. Waveney Enterprise Workshop, Mayflower Crafts, the Titanic. Also, we have meals out and are planning a visit to the Exotic Gardens at Henstead. We would like to hear from speakers on any subject who would speak for a short time for a small fee.

4. Any other business.
Councillor Massingham expressed his disappointment that so few reports had been received. Mrs Thrower apologiesed for the lack of village hall reports but said they were very short on committee members and desperately needed more help for running the village hall.
There being no other business Cllr Massingham closed the meeting.