4
MINUTES OF ANNUAL PARISH MEETING
OF EWHURST PARISH COUNCIL
Wednesday 25th APRIL 2012 at Ewhurst Village Hall
Attending : Councillors Richard Cleaves (Chair), Timothy Bloomfield, Victoria Helstrip,
Valerie Dixon Henry, Mike Turner, Chris Lyth, Julie Francis, Ruth Reed and
the Parish Clerk Victoria Roker
Attendance : over 70 members of the public
Apologies received : None
The Minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting of 2011 had been approved at the May 2011 Parish Council meeting
ANNUAL PARISH MEETING 2012 General report prepared by the Chairman and reproduced copies of all the Minutes of the meetings held in the previous year, and six individuals from various village groups invited to make presentations
Chairman’s Report
Elections were held in May 2011 which were uncontested for the six councillors who stood for re-election. The Parish Council therefore fully appreciated the applications to fill the vacant positions, resulting in three new Councillors – Julie Francis, Robert Matthews and Mike Turner - being co-opted. We now have a full complement of members on the council, which is 8 for the Ewhurst ward and 1 for the Ellen’s Green ward.
The Council members during the year, with their individual portfolio have been :
Tim Bloomfield Ellen’s Green, Highways, Airways
Richard Cleaves (Chair) Maintenance, EYSC, Recreation Ground, Finance
Julie Francis Security/Law & Order, Legal Matters, SCAPTC
Victoria Helstrip Village Hall, Community
Valerie Dixon Henry (Vice Chair) Planning, Affordable Housing
Chris Lyth Rights of Way
Robert Matthews Youth Matters, Environment, Tree Warden
Ruth Reed Allotments
Mike Turner Website, Communications, Recycling
We are very grateful for the help and support of our Surrey Council Councillor Alan Young, who right from the start has been very supportive. Not only in chasing up direct with the County Council over various issues within the parish, but also giving financial support and assistance from his councillor’s ‘purse’, including he has help us get a long awaited new road surface through the village, and at present he is working with us to help the Village School resolve various serious dangerous diving issues. The Parish Council wishes to express grateful thanks to him.
Councillor Victoria Helstrip has been working on the proposals for new equipment for the playground on the Recreation Ground and it is anticipated that the first stage will start soon. The Parish Council appreciate the various offers of support and financial assistance on this plan, and look forward to all the team’s hard work coming to fruition.
Victoria Helstrip has also been working with Councillor Mike Turner towards the plans for celebrations for the Queen’s Golden Jubilee this year, which include a beacon on Pitch Hill to be lit on the Monday evening, whilst the village celebrations take place on the Recreation Ground. Full details of what is planned will be publicised nearer the event.
Mike Turner has also been working with the web master to upgrade of our own Ewhurst website “www.ewhurst.org” which was launched in January 2012. Residents will find a lot of local information here, and links to other related websites too, and with the new layout it is a very easy site to follow through – and note too that there is a Notice Board on the ‘home’ page with up to date local information too.
At the last Annual Parish meeting we announced the Ewhurst Bulletin, which is an e-Bulletin circulated direct to people who had signed into the mailing list. This has been circulated monthly ever since, and a copy is on the website too, and many residents have commented how helpful it is to have a central source of information for the village, incorporating a Ewhurst Diary of local events. Any residents who wish to be included on the mailing list should contact the Clerk with their email address. We very much appreciate local groups keeping us informed of news and events to be included in the Bulletin.
With the sterling efforts of all the councillors we have been able to keep the village in as good order as possible – maintaining and upgrading footpaths, maintenance of the public areas such as the Common, Recreation Ground, and Burial Ground, following up on security and Police issues. A considerable amount of time is spent following up matters with Surrey County Council Highways, and Councillor Tim Bloomfield has a good working relationship with the representatives at Highways. At last The Street received its long promised resurfacing, and the village entrance gates replaced, and upgrading of signs is in hand.
The Planning Committee meets twice monthly, and in 2011/12 considered over 72 applications.Thanks to Valerie Dixon Henry who Chairs this Committee, and to all members for their regular attendance. These additional meetings take up considerable time for the individuals, as it is appreciated how important it is that full and due consideration is given on all applications in order for the Council to pass on balanced and informed observations to Waverley Borough Council.
At the end of September Alyson O’Connor retired as Clerk and her role has been taken over by Victoria Roker. There is much to being Clerk to a parish council, and Victoria is working hard with the Councillors to achieve an efficient and pro-active council to go forward into the future.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all my colleagues on the Council for their hard work over the year. The support and assistance from the local community is also much appreciated, and we would welcome residents to come along to our meetings and become involved with all aspects of the village community and its future development.
Richard Cleaves
Chairman
Richard Cleaves, Chairman of the Parish Council, opened the meeting
Welcome to the Annual Parish Meeting
As a Parish Council we accomplish a lot and try to make the Parish a pleasant place to live. If you contact us although we do have our limitations, If we can help, we will, or try to direct you to some one who can.
I think, as Chairman you need the ability to delegate, it certainly makes it easier when you have a good Council to work with. My thanks to them all. If you want to know more about the Council and what we do, please read the Annual Report, that are over there, or check the website.
I would like to thank our Surrey County Councillor Alan Young. For all his efforts around the Parish, especially for the new road surface. At present he is working with us to help resolve dangerous diving issues outside the Village School. Thanks again.
Our Waverley Councillors Mary Foryszewski & Diane James do there best to represent our case to Waverley for which we thank them both.
We have a lot of social events this year, plus aproject that should please the young ones. I will let Councillor Helstrip explain more. I hope you agree the Parish is well kept, and thanks goes to all those who help to keep that way.
So that’s enough from me, please give a warm welcome to our long standing Community Councillor, a lady of many hats, ever helpful friend to the Parish “Victoria Helstrip”
Victoria Helstrip, parish councillor welcome those attending and to introduce the speakers :
• Presentations from :
The Carnival
The History Society
Ewhurst History Society is a popular and active society, with 116 members. We meet on the 3rd Tuesday of the month in the Baptist Church, from September - May. Our December meeting is our’Members Evening' when we get one of our own members to give the talk. We also have outings to places of interest, this year we will be having a guided tour of the Royal Grammar School, Guildford and a coach trip to Strawberry Hill. We have a quiz in February and a Garden lunch in July. We put on local history displays at village events such as the Village Carnival and Jubilee celebrations.
Some of our members have been involved in a project to record the graves in the churchyard. We have published three books - 'Ewhurst and Ellen's Green', 'A short history of Ewhurst School' and 'Ewhurst houses and People'. Our new book, a guide to the parish Church will be published in September and will include results from the churchyard survey.
St. Peter and St. Paul's Church
David – apologies; with assortment of Bps / Archbps (mainly Nigerian) at House of Lords as part of his Nigeria Link role.
I am Lay Minister at parish church; also priests Tricia (Hislop) & Tim (Sellar) but neither is available - So you got me.
Parish Church not just Sunday – 7 days a week; you’ll hear from both Simon and I what we do within the community and for the community every day of the week. Strange as though it may seem, we are not a club solely for “the oldies” like me. We are a group of Christians of all ages – from a few months to well into 90s.
Church Annual Meeting last night. David reported the difference that the new Wilson Room has made for us. It’s not only used on Sundays after the 10.30 service, it’s used almost every day. Our daily (well almost daily) café we’ll mention later, but one of the real success stories for us with the guidance of a group of Mums (and Dads) is the new Treasure Seekers Club during the “adult” services on two or three Sundays a month. We have children friendly services on the other two Sundays so that means there’s something for the young ones and their parents every Sunday. Treasure Seekers now has between 17 & 24 children at every session.
We have produced a booklet (it’s still in draft form) showing what we do – the are 35 different activities with which we are involved – and apart from David, everyone who runs or helps the activities is a volunteer – and no they are not all people of my generation!
Both our churches have web sites – Google “Ewhurst Parish Church” or “Ewhurst Baptist Church” or go through the Ewhurst Parish Council web-site – they’re all linked. You see, we have actually entered the 21st century.
Tonight is not about finance – but I do need to say (on behalf of both churches) we are entirely self-funded. The Parish Church costs around £250 every day of the year, to run and it all comes from the generosity of YOU – the parishioners and church members. Without that generosity, neither of our churches can provide the community support which we strive to do – everything from baptisms, marriages, funerals, pastoral support – the list goes on. But my primary message is – we are here for you. Please come and see us. We’re really quite friendly.
Ewhurst Baptist Church
My name is Simon Bodington, I am the Minister of the Baptist Church. I have been re-training as a church minister, a process still underway - making me 'work in progress'.
The church its relevance to the community, a church needs to have strong bridges built into its local community and working at the Baptist Church we have been thinking about the bridges we have and the new ones that need to be established. New Monday afternoon social club, a village Christmas Day lunch as well as trying to be more proactive of our support for other groups within the village such as Rainbow's End. Like all churches we have our regular services and events seeking to share and promote our Christian faith, but we do recognise that it is easy for a church to become like and club, introspective and seldom looking outside of our own walls. One way of seeking to be more community focused has been the Rector of St Peter & St Paul, and I meet on a bi-monthly basis to both offer mutual support and share our respective Christian service and activity in this community.
We share a common faith and therefore we are all part of the one Christian church whose head is Jesus Christ. Once a year we have the “Week of Prayer for Christian Unity” where churches have traditionally prayed for their fellow believers in other traditions we now get both churches together for an evening of shared activity where we explore the different perspectives we have on our common faith.
If you think of new ways that the church should or could be serving this community please always feel free to contact David or myself. Web site http://www.ewhurstbaptistchurch.org.uk
Councillor Rob Matthews "The youth club"
We are run by a committee we have eight volunteers and myself. We are self-funding and have had great support/funding from local people and organisations e.g. The Ewhurst Society, Parish Council, The Ewhurst Calendar, The Albury Produce Show to name a few.
We are open on a Thursday night between 7-9pm it costs £1.00 entry and for this pound the children are able to use all of our equipment.
This includes a pool table, table football, an Xbox, a flat screen tv that the children like to watch music channels on, table tennis, we also have a laptop that we had donated to us that we use with our printer and laminator for various craft projects, taking photographs on our own digital camera and printing the pictures off onto T-shirts, Christmas cards etc. We also like to do a lot of cooking projects these are just simple recipes flapjacks brownies apple crumble pizzas any recipe considered that can be prepared cooked and eaten within two hours!
Also we have a selection of craft equipment modelling clay paper and paint.
In the warmer lighter evenings we like to get outside with our cricket and rounders and badminton stuff and have a good run around and also a BBQ as and when we can.
At the moment we have around twenty seven children that use us not all on the same night, numbers do depend on what other clubs are open and the time of year it is.