ELTON PARISH COUNCIL

 

Draft Notes – Annual Parish Meeting of Elton Parish Council took place in the Highgate Hall on Tuesday 16^th May 2017 at 7.30 p.m.

 

NOTES

 

PRESENT:  Cllrs Cummins, Donoyou, Gentry, Holman, Langlands, Porter, Smith and Strowbridge.

 

BY INVITATION: HDC District Cllr R Mathews, Cambs County Cllr S Bywater, Mr Peston (highways)

 

IN ATTENDANCE:  Mrs W Gray Parish Clerk, 34 members of the public

 

 

1. APOLOGIES: Cllr Rankmore

 

 

2. NOTES OF MEETING 2016: Cllr Cummins proposed that the notes of the meeting

were signed, seconded Cllr Donoyou all in favour.

 

3. CHAIRMAN’S REPORT: The Chairman read out his report to the Councillors and again reiterated his thanks to the support he had received from council members.

 

4. AUDITED ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDING 31^ST MARCH 2017:
5. a) To approve the Annual Governance Statement by resolution
6. b) Consider Accounting Statements by members as a whole
7. c) Approve Accounting Statements by resolution
8. d) On approval Accounting Statement to be signed and dated

Cllr Gentry resolved (a),(b),(c) accepted, seconded Cllr Cummins, all in favour.  Document duly signed by Chairman and Parish Clerk and RFO.

 

5. ANY OTHER BUSINESS:

 

 

The meeting closed at approx 7.45 p.m.

 

 

 

Signed: ……………………………….Chairman

 

 

 

Date:    ……………………………….

 

 

Chairman’s Report – Year ending 31^st March 2017

In compiling this year’s Annual Report, may I give thanks to all who served on the Parish Council during the year?

 

I am especially pleased to welcome our new councillor Fiona Langlands who I am sure will be a great asset to our council.

 

May I also thank and acknowledge the contributions made by my other fellow councillors.

 

Again, I must reiterate how fortunate I am to have a very hard-working Vice Chairman in Richard Donoyou who throughout the year has worked tirelessly on behalf of the Parish Council to the benefit of all residents’ work as our Tree Warden is also very much appreciated

 

I believe our greatest challenge last year was the threatened development of Sibson Airfield and the very adverse impact this would have had on the village.  I believe it was the combined efforts of The Parish Council, Elton Society and Elton Estates together with our MP, County and District Councillor that led to the Government abandoning their support for this foolish proposal.  However, we will remain vigilant in resisting any attempt to revive the scheme. I would especially like to thank Tim Cummins for his excellent work in producing literature to counter the developer’s leaflets.

 

May I also thank Mark Gentry for his sterling work with the Community Speed Watch, Richard Smith for his efforts to improve the A605 Junction?  Ray Rankmore for his excellent work on the PC Budget and very professional reports on the village shop.

 

Many thanks as always to Mrs Wendy Gray our excellent Parish Clerk for her very professional assistance and hard work assisting with Parish matters. I will say again that we are most fortunate in having Wendy as our Parish Clerk.

 

 

 

During the year, the Parish Council has again dealt with a full agenda of topics, those of main interest being: –

 

• The many planning applications that came before the Council.

 

• Finance – The precept for the year ending 31^st March 2017 was £13,000. However, there will be an increase to £18,000 for the current financial year to cover essential works on renewing and renovating our street lighting.

 

• Unfortunately, there is a threat to our village shop and the Parish Council are doing their best to assist in any way possible to keep this community asset open

 

• Street Lighting under the control of the PC will require major refurbishment and replacing in part. This is being done through a mix of using the reserves and increasing the precept.

 

• We continue to liaise with Elton Estates and Elton Society over matters affecting the village

 

I would like to close by thanking Mr David Strowbridge for his efforts on neighbourhood watch and PCSO Emily Bryant our village police officer.

 

Thank you for your attendance.  I will be pleased to answer any questions from the floor.

 

Mark Holman

Chairman Elton Parish Council

9^th May 2017