Minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting for the Parish of Barham held on Monday 16th May 2022,
6.30pm, held in Barham Church Hall.
- Present
- Chairman Darren Milward, Vice Chairman Frances Milward, Cllr Jeremy Lea, Cllr Brenda Mitchell, Cllr Oliver Wastell & Cllr Casey Wooltorton. BMSDC John Whitehead, the Clerk and 4 members of the public.
- To approve the minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting held on 29th April 2019. These were approved correct, proposed Cllr Lea seconded The Chairman, signed by the Chairman.
- To receive the Annual Report of the Parish Council Chairman Speed watch, we now have 5 Different locations where we can monitor the speed in the village We also now have 3 speed devices in the village with 2 more hopefully coming soon, 1 in Sandy Lane and 1 in Church Lane. I would like to say a Big thank you to a resident for helping me install the speed device on Norwich Road and being a very keen member on speed watch. A big thank you to the wombles who keep parts of the village free from litter, they do a lovely job and do it for the love of the village and not payment. I would like to say Thank you to our odd job man who does many different jobs round the village. Also thank you to street cleaners for keeping the inner village free from litter. We now have our own play area in Kirby Rise, a big thank you to all the people involved in providing Funds towards this project and thank you to Highway Assurance for suppling and erecting the fencing and 2 benches. At last after many years of having our picnic site there doing nothing with 2 previous projects failing, we have managed to agree on 99 year lease with The Barham Picnic Site Community Project which hopefully will be signed in the near Future.
Finally a Big Thank you to all the Parish Councillors for their support and the time over the last 12 months, without them we wouldn’t have a Council, also a big thank you to Cllr Lea for all his help and support especially with financial matters. Also thank you to our District and County Councillors for their reports and attending our meetings. A big thank you to our Vice Chair Lady Frances Milward and our Clerk Melanie Thurston for the support and advice you both have given me over the last 12 months, without this it would not have been possible. Thank you Both.
- To receive the Annual Finance report from the Parish Clerk for year ending 31st March 2022 The Parish Council was able to lower the precept to £27,300 (from £28,100). Highways Assurance made a contribution of £2,100 towards DK9 carrying out the security patrols in Barham. K2 Recovery also made a contribution of £5,400 for the use of the Picnic site parking area. The Parish Council has purchased a 2nd VAS sign (£5178.00) and also a 2nd SID sign (£3888.00 inc VAT). We received £3640.64 from the BMSDC CILs money and £3240.00 was used to pay for the 2nd SID sign. Kirby Rise 5 pieces of play equipment were purchased, comprising of Swing with cradle seat and flat seat, Seesaw, Shark Springer, Swing with basket seat and a Climbing Tower with slide. This has all been possible thanks to the generous grant donations from BMSDC Cllrs John Whitehead & Tim Passmore, £2000.00 from their Locality Budget. £11,305.84 Capital Grant funding & Section 106 Grant both from BMSDC. £7966.00 from the SUEZ Communities Trust. Barham Parish Council would like to express its grateful thanks them all. Grants were made to Claydon & Barham Recreation Ground. Donations were made to; Claydon & Barham Neighbourhood Watch, Claydon & Barham Village Hall, Royal British Legion poppy appeal, River Gipping Trust, Claydon & Barham Church, Suffolk Accident Rescue Service, Good Neighbour Scheme, The Wombles for their litter picking services.
The end of year accounts has 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 2022, Barclays current account £16,386.00 and the Business Account £34,654.00
Thank you, it has been a pleasure working with you all and special thanks to the Chairman for all his help & support.
- To receive the report of the Suffolk County Councillor – Chris Chambers Report has been received and forward to all ahead of the meeting (copy attached)
- To receive the reports of the District Councillors – John Whitehead and Tim Passmore. Report has been received and forward to all ahead of the meeting (copy attached). Includes update on the Taylor Whimpey reserved matters planning application Norwich Road, Barham. Gateway 14 will produce lots of new jobs for the area. Council tax has been raised. Hopeful of net zero carbon emission in the future.
- To receive the following reports;
- Claydon and Barham Recreation Ground Committee. The Chairman of the Committee gave his report and thanked the PC for its support (copy attached)
- Claydon and Barham Village Hall Committee The Chairman of the Committee gave his report and thanked the PC for its support (copy attached)
- Reports received from Claydon High School & Claydon Primary School (copies attached) The Chairman of Barham Picnic Site Community Project has nothing to report. Awaits the meeting on 31st May 2022.
- Any Other Business Member of the public is disappointed not to see a member of the police present. He is concerned that recently he has seen 6 dogs on village footpaths which are not on leads. Locations are Thornhill, Coop and Lincoln Gardens/York Crescent. Cllr Lea recommends that a note is put in next In Touch. Resident has raised the issue of overgrown trees in the village to SCC Highways and logged it on their reporting website. Nothing has been done and the report is now closed! The overhanging tree is on private land on the corner of Kirby Rise & Church Lane and needs to be cut back. Cllr Wastell who is a tree surgeon offered to go and take a look to see if he can help the land owner to trim back the tree. Failing this the PC to report to Highways. Another matter the resident has raised in the past is vehicles parking on paths and verges, it is getting worse in the village and is illegal. Also, that the footpath by the Barham care home is often blocked by refuse bins. Cllr Lea encouraged him to inform district councillor Tim Passmore and the local police, send photographs as evidence. This can also be highlighted in the In Touch magazine.
The meeting closed at 7.10pm.