CANWICK PARISH COUNCIL
ANNUAL REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDING APRIL 2008
Key points from the
report given by Parish Council Chairman Lance Pennell to the Annual
Parish Meeting on 21st April 2008
WELCOME
A warm welcome to all parishioners. I am Lance Pennell
and I have been Chairman of the Parish Council since mid-2003. We
presently have a full council and the composition has been unchanged
since last year’s meeting.
Tonight is the Annual Parish Meeting at which the public
may speak without invitation, unlike our regular Parish Council
meetings. However, I ask that you do so through myself and avoid
interrupting speakers unless they invite it.
Hopefully you have seen the Agenda which has been on
display on our notice board. There will be reports from myself,
Councillor Ron Oxby our new County Councillor, Mrs Brighton for our NKDC
Councillor(s), and then an update on the Parish Plan. Finally, there
will be an opportunity for Parishioners to ask questions.
I mentioned that Councillor Oxby is our new County
Councillor because tragically Gp Capt Edward Bliss, who had filled the
position since the early 1990s was taken ill last summer and
unfortunately died in early September. He was not just our County
Councillor but had also served as one of our District Councillors and
had been chairman of the Four Parishes Group since its inception. In
the nearly 15 years that I had known him through my membership of
Canwick Parish Council I had found him unfailingly ready to work for
those he represented and although I have already done so within our
Parish Council meetings, I would like to pay a further formal tribute to
him in this public forum.
MEMBERS OF THE PARISH COUNCIL
The Parish Councillors serving in 2007/2008 have been (in
alphabetical order)
- Gordon Canner
- Ian Carrington
- Mrs Christine Griffin
- Malcolm Hales
- Robin Narborough
- Lorcan O’Melia
Our Clerk is Mrs Sandra Rudolph, who is experienced in
the role, having been the Clerk to Heighington Parish Council for around
25 years, a post she still fills. She carries out her work for us from
the Heighington parish office, for which we pay them an agreed fee and
provide our own consumables. Whilst it may be inconvenient to some, on
occasion, to have to travel to her office to view plans etc, she is
closer to hand than our previous Clerk, she is there for most of the
week, and we would be unable to provide such a well-found, permanent
office in Canwick. Her contact details are clearly shown on our notice
board outside. Overall, we feel that our Parishioners are properly
served by the arrangement.
MEETINGS
Your Council has met each month, except for August,
during the past year, as has been the case for many years. At these
meetings we discuss matters raised locally, planning matters referred to
us by the District Council, local environmental issues, correspondence
received, and our finances. In addition, we have attended a variety of
additional meetings, both within the District and more locally, for
training, information, or as part of the Planning process.
The most regular of these is the Four Parishes Group
where representatives from the Parishes of Branston, Heighington,
Washingborough and ourselves have met since the mid-1990s under the
chairmanship of Gp Capt Bliss to discuss matters of mutual interest; one
of these is the employment of the Dog Warden where we have each bought
into a larger contract at lower individual cost. However, as I briefed
you last year, the District Council are endeavouring to follow the
Government’s wish that some of their responsibilities be devolved down
to Parish level. As a major part of that, NKDC have launched their
Parish Partnerships initiative where clusters of Parishes, in our case
the existing Four Parishes Group, may be able to act together to take
over some aspects. As ever, the availability of resources - staff as
well as finance - are obviously major considerations for a Parish of our
size and we do not wish to increase the Precept as a result. However,
the Dog Warden already illustrates that we can work together usefully
and we have sought to play our part where practicable.
The initial transition to a Cluster Group was obviously
affected by Gp Capt Bliss’ illness but following his death I was elected
chairman last autumn and now we have moved onwards. We have gained a
most enthusiastic Parish Partnerships Officer, Val Molendo, and through
her and the fact that senior District Council staff attend our quarterly
cluster meetings in person, we have better access to information and
other contacts. In the past year, Val has run a pilot scheme to promote
healthy lifestyles within the Cluster area and in an associated strand
of work, NKDC are attempting to have some of the facilities at Branston
College made available for residents in our area to use out of school
hours. As a “carrot” to get the Parish Partnership scheme under way
NKDC allocated up to £4000 per Cluster to be put towards something to
bring benefit within the Cluster area. After considerable discussion,
ours has been allocated to Canwick Village to help with putting play
equipment back onto our Playing Field, a major boost to the project.
In all of this change we have not lost sight of the
origins of the Four Parishes Group, and our meetings have not simply
become regional District Council-sponsored gatherings. Once the
Cluster-related business is complete and the NKDC staff depart, we
conduct our local business.
Returning to more parochial matters, the final set of
regular meetings I would like to highlight is where Councillor Malcolm
Hales and the Environment Committee members meet with the Highways and
other NKDC staffs over local issues.
Finally under this topic, no Parish Councillor has
claimed expenses for attending meetings.
FINANCE
The precept for the coming FY is £4400, an increase of
£200 over the amount charged for the previous year. So where has your
money been spent? We have two major outgoings which each take around
1/3 of our precept and some others I will outline:
The first significant expense is the Parish Clerk. She
is contracted to work 12 hrs per month for us. In this she must deal
with preparing for and recording our monthly meetings, dealing with our
finances as our Responsible Financial Officer, together with the
mountain of correspondence emanating from Central Government, and that
mandated by them to come from the County and District Council and now
the East Midlands regional bodies - much of it in the guise of
consultation. She also acts in rotation as the secretary for the Four
Parishes Group. Overall, I believe she is fully employed on our
behalf. Her pay rate is mandated by a National Agreement covering all
council employees and reflects her experience in the role.
The second significant expense is the Playing Field. To
help maintain this facility for the village, the Parish Council has, for
some time, paid to have the grass cut regularly throughout the Summer,
and to have the hedge cut each Autumn. The Playing Fields Committee
remain responsible for the remainder of the expenses.
NKDC have an ongoing programme of improving street
lighting. We have bid each year for new lights to bring us up to the
latest standards in terms of numbers of lights. These new ones are to
the latest standard and are funded by the District but we have to pay
our part in upgrading existing lights. At £125 per light, we could not
afford to replace all of the lights in a single year but we have agreed
to replace up to 3 annually as they fail.
We have 2 Dog Bins. The newer one was installed on the
Playing Field a couple of years ago, providing a larger one than was
previously in place. The old one was relocated to the land opposite the
Hall. NKDC charges for emptying each one regularly but we have no
volunteers to take that job on at lower cost!
We have 5 litter bins. These are situated: outside this
building; on Hall Drive near to the seat opposite the Hall; on Canwick
Hill at the junction with Hall Drive; by the bus shelter on Canwick
Hill; and at the top of Canwick Hill alongside the Playing Fields across
the road from Mill Lodge. Again there is a charge for emptying.
As I briefed last year, we took the lead in providing a
new notice board for the Church. This was partly in memory of our
previous Chairman and long standing Parish Councillor, Ted Hammond who
had passed away in 2005. The notice board was dedicated on Sunday 29
April and is now the property of the Church.
For the past 3 years we have sought from the County
Highways department enhancements to the signs and road markings around
the Village, particularly on Heighington Road. The work is now largely
complete. Enhancements of this type are not always done free of charge
as they often go beyond the minimum requirements for the road and we are
required to pay for a proportion of the cost - but we believe it will be
money well-spent.
In similar vein, as you heard over the past couple of
years, we secured a substantial grant towards the cost of the Parish
Plan. However, it only covers a proportion of the expenditure and we
must pay our share.
I mentioned the Dog Warden previously. We get a grant
from NKDC to defray a proportion of the cost but we do need to pay our
share.
Finally, we make a few grants. The most significant is
to the Parochial Church Council and for this, all villagers are entitled
to be buried in the Churchyard regardless of faith.
Overall, we have endeavoured to keep the Precept to a
practical level and to spend it prudently for the benefit of the Parish.
THE FUTURE
Work on the Parish Plan goes on and Councillor Ian
Carrington will update you shortly on progress.
The County Highways staff are scheduled to carry out work
on Canwick Hill shortly to restore the width of the footpath between
Hall Drive and School Lane, and later in the year they will adjust the
road markings on the hill to aid those trying to turn into Heighington
Road. We also anticipate some work to improve the footpath on Sibthorpe
Gardens.
COMMUNICATION
It is now some time since the last Village Newsletter was
produced. As I have outlined at previous meetings, we could arrange for
a village newsletter to be published but what we cannot do is provide
all of the roving reporters and editorial staff. If anyone can help,
please contact the Clerk or any Parish Councillor.
However, although we are unable to provide a newsletter
at present, what we are able to do is let you know of our activities via
the Internet. Our website www.canwick.org has details of our
meetings and links to a variety of local, district and county
organisations. Councillor Carrington has created it and updates it
regularly, and there is a “News” page to keep Parishioners abreast of
current topics which goes some way to compensating for the lack of a
Village Newsletter. There is also a link to the Clerk’s e-mail
address.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, I would like to thank all those on the
Parish Council, including our Clerk, for their contributions during the
past year. Further, I would like to thank our District and County
Councillors for their continued interest, advice and assistance.
Cllr Lance Pennell
Chairman, Canwick Parish Council
21st April 2008
