Minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting for the Parish of Barham held on Monday 21st May 2024,
6.30pm, held in Barham Church Hall.
- Present
- Vice Chairman Casey Wooltorton, Cllr Julie Gregory, Cllr Marilyn Lesley, Cllr Brenda Mitchell, Cllr Paul Fenn, Cllr Ian Woods, Cllr Graham Head & Cllr Bonnie Head Cllr Brenda Mitchell, the Clerk and 7 members of the public.
1. To Approve the Minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting Held on 16th May 2022
These were approved correct, proposed Vice Chairman seconded, Cllr Mitchell, signed by the Vice Chairman.
2. To Receive the Annual Report of the Parish Council Vice Chairman
Firstly, I’d like to thank everyone for all their hard work during our first year as a new parish council, as we all know this is a first foray into politics for a large number of us and has been an extreme learning curve but the hard work and dedication that you have shown has been amazing.
To re-cap on what we have accomplished in the last year; Firstly, we have managed to bring both the street cleaning contracts and village grounds maintenance contracts up to a more modern standard, that will now allow us to monitor those situations more closely than was previously possible.
We also took on the major works of clearing the pathways and hedges along the Norwich Road, Kirby Rise and pesthouse lane which seemed to have been extremely popular with our residents with the contractors receiving numerous amounts of praise.
We were also able to have all the electrical requirements of the two buildings on the Barham picnic site being replaced and brought up to code.
More recently a few of us have had meetings with a resident’s group from sandy lane to discuss the problems with lorries working from the quarry and early indications of a resolution are looking positive.
The national litter pick earlier this year was a great success with a number of local residents getting involved, but with a massive amount of support being provided by our very own wombles who, on a completely voluntary basis, keep the parish looking amazing, so I would like to thank them sincerely on behalf of the entire parish.
Lastly, I would like to address the picnic site, and whilst this has been a contentious issue for many years, I am pleased to say that we are now only weeks away from fulfilling the political mandate for which we were elected of transferring the picnic site to the charity.
Again, I would like to thank you all the Councillors for their hard work and look forward to working with you all for another year.
3. To Receive the Annual Finance Report from the Parish Clerk for Year Ending 31st March 2024
The Parish Council needed to increase the precept to £31,249.00 (from £27,300). £114,586.85 was received from the district council from the CIL and this money is to be spent within the village for the benefit of the community. Some of which has already been spent on the hedge cutting along the Norwich Road. Also a new dog waste bin was purchased to replace the damaged one at Thornhill Road.
£1500 was received from our District Councillors Locality Funding which was also used towards the hedge cutting along Norwich Road.
£400 was received from the Grant Application which the previous Chair, Gail Cornish applied for from the district council Pride in Your Place award and this was used towards the recent village litter pick and cleaning of road signs.
Tenders were invited for Street Cleaning and Village Grass Cutting and new contracts were given to Shades Home Maintenance for the street cleaning and to NSK Landscapes for the village grass cutting.
Grants were made to, Claydon & Barham Recreation Ground. Donations were made to; Claydon & Barham Young Families, Claydon & Barham Church PCC, Barham Good Neighbour Scheme and to Claydon & Barham Recreation Ground towards the Kings Coronation event.
The end of year accounts have been audited by the internal auditors Heelis & Lodge and were all found to be in order. The Parish Council will approve the end of year accounts later on this evening at the AGM, before being sent off to the external auditors PKF Littlejohn. The accounts will be posted on the village notice boards and website.
The accounts at the 31st March 2024, Barclays current account £4782.39 and the Business Account £128,208.39 (£106,046.30 CIL money and £2393.71 Locality money from the district councillors towards new play equipment at the Barham Picnic Site).
I would like to thank the Councillors for their support in my work over this challenging year. The Vice Chairman thanked the Clerk on behalf of the PC for her work.
4. To Receive the Report of the Suffolk County Councillor – Chris Chambers
Report has been received and forward to all ahead of the meeting (available on the PC website).
5. To Receive the Reports of the District Councillors – David Penny and John Whitehead
Report has been received and forward to all ahead of the meeting (available on the PC website).
6. To Receive the Following Reports
Claydon and Barham Recreation Ground Committee, Claydon and Barham Recreation Ground Committee, Claydon and Barham Village Hall Committee, Claydon High School, Claydon Primary School, Barham Picnic Site Community Project, The Wombles and The Good Neighbours Scheme. All of the village reports will be available to see on the PC website.
7. Any Other Business
None
The meeting closed at 6.40pm.
Chairman…………………………………………………………….. Date:………………………