Annual Parish Meeting May 2022
GLENTHAM PARISH
MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL PARISH MEETING HELD ON IN THE VILLAGE HALL ON THURSDAY, 6THMAY 2022 AT 7PM.
Present: A Shaw (Chair), V. Smith, P. Smith, B. Morgan, C. Mortimer and G. Crosby.
1 Minutes of Annual Parish Meeting held 13th May 2021
The minutes of the meeting were approved as an accurate record of proceedings.
2 Chairman’s report
As Parish Council chairman I have the opportunity to feed back on the previous year and forward plan for Glentham Parish Council.
This year has been a year of stability but we continue to look for additional members to assist. Ruth Francis has recently joined as a councillor and I would like to formally welcome her to the team.
In addition to the support from parish council members, as in previous years we have been supported greatly by Cllr Bunney whom we thank for his ongoing support and always fitting us into his busy schedule. ClJeff Summers continues to provide information from a WLDC perspective and also further contributes to the village as treasurer of the village hall committee.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the full parish councillors and clerk for their hard work, professionalism, dedication and commitment in supporting the village of Glentham over the last 12 months. We are so fortunate as a village to have individuals that are prepared to volunteer their time to such a good and valuable cause, with a positive benefit to all.
I would like to thank the regular attendees of the parish council meetings for their ongoing support, healthy debate and interest in the upkeep of our fantastic village.
Many thanks to Maureen who has continued to check our defibrillator on a weekly basis to ensure that it is in working order if required.
With ongoing cuts to funding to councils, a key to both our previous successes and future achievements is reliant upon the active help and support from residents. I should add at this point that we always need more help and support to make our village look even better. If anybody would like to offer their assistance for a couple of hours per month, then please get in touch.
In recent years we had found deterioration of the play equipment and I am pleased to say these issues were recently rectifies.
It’s nice to see a number of trees starting to blossom across the village that were kindly planted by Cllrs Peter and Vanessa Smith following a successful submission for funding.
Over the last few years we have continued to keep the church clock running. More recently we have found that, following the mechanism restoration nine years ago, we now require significant works on the faces and dial drives to allow the mechanism to operate freely. This is a significant cost that will need to be match funded.
We would also like to review our emergency planning arrangements and are currently looking for a volunteer flood warden. If you would like to offer your support then please get in touch. Through volunteering we can help reduce demands on local emergency services.
Speeding remains a great concern between Gainsborough and Market Rasen and the local police have set up a new initiative, focussing a number of their resources on dealing with vehicle offences on the main road including speeding. Current feedback is that motorbike speeding offences are contributing to the highest speeds on our roads. If you would like to join a local community speedwatch, then please contact our clerk.
If anyone has any suggestions that would benefit the village further then they are always welcome. As a reminder every parish council meeting starts with a 15 minute public forum. It is a meeting for your benefit and you are always welcome.
The last few years have been extremely difficult with the pandemic and it’s impact on many parts of our daily lives. It is great to see a route back to normality.
Our village hall committee has a number of exciting events in the diary for the year already. Please keep your eye on Facebook and notice boards for information.
2022/23 will see the continuation, improvement and development of new ideas for the benefit of residents.
On behalf of my fellow parish councillors we look forward to representing and supporting the village of Glentham over the coming year.
Adam Shaw - Chairman
3 Finance Report
P. Smith gave a breakdown of the accounts: income £10520.49; expenditure £7697.44. Balance carried forward at 31/3/22 £14405.69. However, these figures are skewed by a VAT refund of £1154.98. Had it been repaid in the same year that we paid it, then last year’s balance would have been £12737.62 and income this year would have been £9365.51 with expenditure unchanged at £7697.44. This would result in an actual annual increase this year of £1668.07.
In either case our balance at year end 31/3/22 would have been the same at £14405.69. It is important however to understand that the true actual increase in funds in the last year of £2823.05 but the lower figure of £1668.07.
This is broadly in line with the aims of the budget which we set ourselves last year. That aim was to spend prudently and try to increase our cash surplus by around £1000 per year. The aim of this policy is to raise funds over the coming years to the extent that we are eventually able to afford to repair the road by the village hall.
We have always taken the view that a cash reserve of one full year’s normal income (ie the precept plus LCC grass cutting payment) was a prudent way to ensure we can cope with a large unexpected expense and I recommend that remains the case. This means that we should ensure our reserve does not drop below £9000. In this sense our £14400 reserve looks healthy. However, of this we earlier ring fenced £1500 in case of need for expenditure due to the covid pandemic. Taking account of this then we are left with a spendable surplus of £3900.
We already know that we face a previously unbudgeted expense of £2000+ for the proposed church clock repair. In my view this is an essential repair. The clock is not just a church clock but more importantly, is Glentham’s war memorial.
My suggestion is that we now release the ring fenced covid fund back to the normal cash surplus. This would result in council starting this financial year with a prudent £9000 emergency fund plus cash to use for the clock repair and still have an additional surplus of £3000. This is not enough to start the road repair project yet but can be built upon in the coming years until we are in a position to complete that project. If we can continue to add £1500 per year together with the possibility of receiving windfalls from the Community Infrastructure Levy this may not take too long.
4 Open meeting
Mr Crosby complained about the disgusting smell from Eastfield Farm. He has had two environmental officers out but they are not in support of his complaint. He is awaiting another visit and asked for members of the parish council to attend to offer support to the complaint. Many other parishes are suffering from the smells and have also complained.
The chairman stated that the parish council has complained on numerous occasions to WLDC Environmental Health and to Planning Enforcement but to no end.
Cllr Bunney offered his support and he and the clerk will work together to garner support from other parishes and work collectively.
Mr Morgan asked about the village hall road and was updated by the chairman.
He asked why it was not adopted. The subject of the road was to be discussed as an agenda item in the parish council meeting.
The meeting closed at 7.43pm.