Minutes of BASTON ANNUAL PARISH MEETING held in The Barn, Thursday 13th April 2017 @ 8pm

Present- Lloyd Stewart (Cricket Club), Nick Rickett (Baston Fireworks/Car & Bike Show, B-Active & BAGS), Katie Nicol and Patricia Burnett (Governors Baston CofE Primary School)

Parish Councillors – James Affleck, Alan Hutchins, Brian Easey, Jim Kelly, David Wheatley, D.Cllrs Rosemary Woolley and K Cooke, C.Cllr Martin Trollope-Bellew.

Clerk – Mrs Wendy Gray, Residents

James Affleck (Chairman of Parish Council) welcomed everyone to the meeting.

167/16 Apologies – Parish Councillor L Gilliatt, Sandra Kirk (Tap at the Barn), PCSO Michelle Laughton, Diane Savage (St John the Baptist Church), Peter Raynor (BEG and Baston Against Over Development) Alan and Maggie Wood (Traditional Music & Song), Debbie Pryde (Baston Baby & Toddlers Group and Baston 1st Rainbows).

168/16 Minutes of the last Annual Parish Meeting

It was proposed by A Hutchins, seconded by D Wheatley that the minutes of the last meeting held on 14th April 2016 be received. It was resolved that Mr Affleck sign the minutes as a correct record. All agreed.

169/16 Matters arising from the minutes – None

170/16 Reports from Chairman of the Parish Council, Village Organisations & Outside Bodies – See below

171/16 To consider comments, concerns and resolutions raised by electors of the Parish - None

172/16 Date of next Annual Parish Meeting – 12th April 2018. Meeting closed 8.25 pm

Signed: ...... Dated: ......

Chairman

REPORTS:

BASTON C of E PRIMARY SCHOOL GOVERNORS - Our pupil numbers continue to rise; we will have 201 pupils when we come back after the Easter break. Because of rising numbers and having pupils from further afield, parking continues to be a problem. In November, we held a ‘Parking Solutions Forum’ to which we invited the local community, parents and parish councillors. Many solutions were put forward. Mr Simon Gledhill, our vice chair of the governing body and named safeguarding governor, has been looking into the options suggested as possible solutions. The outcomes of his findings are that the options put forward are neither financially nor logistically viable at this time. We shall be holding another ‘parking’ meeting in the new term. With the input of the local community, parish council and the parents we hope to find a solution that keeps the community happy and, most importantly, our children safe. We repeated the ‘Golden Boot Challenge’ this September as part of our initiative to create a healthier environment through sustainable travel. For one week only, the children were asked to walk/cycle or scoot to school rather than travel by car. Because some children do not live in the village there was a ‘walking bus’ which set off from The Barn in Baston. Parents were able to drop their child off and were encouraged to walk to school with their child if at all possible. Yet again, this was most successful; the children (and parents) enjoyed the challenge and our neighbours were happy with the lack of cars in and around the school. Unfortunately, due to staffing constraints, we cannot run Golden Boot on a regular basis. Activ8 (our wrap around care) has had another successful year, with numbers increasing, especially in the morning. Provision is wide and often includes external activities. The children continue to enjoy school run clubs after school on a Wednesday with all interests catered. More and Most Able (MMA) sessions for Mathematics, English and Science. The sessions have been attended by targeted MMA children. Three of these sessions run annually across Years 3, 4, 5 and 6. Forest School continues to be a firm favourite as the children learn different skills relevant to the curriculum. Through Inspire+ we welcomed the women’s hockey Olympic Gold Medallist, Shona McCallin and Paralympic shot-putter, Sam Ruddock to school in February. Both talks with the children were very inspiring and encouraged the children to be resilient and embrace a growth mind-set approach to learning new things. Both our boys’ and girls’ football teams qualified for County Finals in Skegness. Our boys’ team then went on to share a win at the Regional Finals in Nottingham, putting them through to the National Finals, which are due to be played at a professional football ground in the summer term. We are extremely proud of their achievements so far. Miss Lucy Newbold, our year four teacher, was selected to represent Team GB in her sport, Tang Soo Do. In July, the team competed in the World Championships in North Carolina, USA. Lucy Newbold won gold at championships! We continue developing strong community links, to name but a few: inter-schools competitions; joint school cluster meetings; year 6 children involvement with Lent Lunches in the church; entertaining residents of the Cameo Club; choir singing at the Christmas Market in Market Deeping; visit to Kirkstone House by year 6 pupils to see ‘Treasure Island’; Rising Stars at the Deepings School; Young Voices at Sheffield Arena; year 2 visit to a mosque in Peterborough. Mr Scott Rendle, a co-opted governor, helped the school link up with Guide Dogs for the Blind and we were visited by a guide dog and his owner. Last month, Mrs Mills (headteacher) and Mrs Cross (chair of governors) attended the Diocesan ‘Headteacher and Chairs Conference’ in Lincoln. They heard from Bishop Nicolas and Sir John Jones. Both were inspirational speakers and gave them many points to consider when planning for the future in our school. Baston Church is very much an integral part of our school. The children visit for festivals and celebrations including; Harvest, Christingle, Christmas Tree Festival, Easter and Leavers’ Service and, more recently, Lent lunches. Again on the 11th November at eleven o’clock, Baston pupils joined with Kirkstone House School for the Remembrance Service. We are grateful to Rev. Neil Knox for conducting all the services, and for regularly taking collective worship at school. Mrs Sturgess, church school leader has also introduced ‘Philosophy for Children’ (P4C) across the school enabling the children to develop the four ‘C’s; creative, critical, caring and collaborative skills. We are all extremely proud of last year’s year 6 pupils SATs results – they were outstanding. Mrs Mills received a letter from Nick Gibb, Minister of State for School Standards, congratulating her, the staff and the children. A quote from his letter, “Your school’s results, as published on 15 December, show that 100 per cent of your pupils attained the expected standard in reading and mathematics at the end of key stage 2. This means that your school is in the top 1% of primary schools in England for attainment in reading and mathematics.” All the governors are involved with different aspects of the school. It is avery skills based governing body so each and every member has a specific role in monitoring, supporting and reporting. In conclusion, many, many thanks to Mrs Mills, all the staff and the children for making Baston CE School so special and joyous.

Question raised re parking – school committed at last meeting to share analysis i.e. what does it mean, understand report is due out shortly.

ST JOHN THE BAPTIST CHURCH - The Quinquennial work on the church is due to start soon, I said this last year, but we then had delays due to having to get various reports on Bats, Asbestos, all of which took time and then we had to get clearance from the Diocesan Advisory Committee, we are still waiting for the final YES. Our Lunches in Lent 2016 proved very popular again, and we started in October 2016 having a monthly lunch through to Lent, then weekly. These have been extremely well attended, we are now having a short break until we start again in October. Our Harvest Auction is still proving very popular and one of our main fund raising events. It has been another difficult year with the long term absence, through illness, of our Incumbent, and final retirement, but with the help of our Curate and retired clergy all services have managed to be held. They continue in a regular pattern and all services are always put on the Church Noticeboard and in the Baston News. The good news is that we have a new Incumbent who will be Instituted on 4th July Carolyn Bailey. Attendance has remained steady with the usual seasonal variations due to holidays etc. Both Kirkstone House School and Baston C of E Primary continue to hold services in the Church and we are very grateful to the Curate from Market Deeping Rev. Neil Knox for taking these and having regular visits to Baston C of E School. Diane Savage, Hon. Secretary.

BASTON FIREWORKS COMMITTEE & BIKE SHOW -

BASTON TENNIS CLUB – may be coming back (does not exist at the moment) thanks to Jonathan at the shop and the White Horse for facilitating.

BABY & TODDLERS GROUP - By the time we had finished our year in July 2016 our numbers of attendees had grown, however we said goodbye to 9 families at the Teddy bears picnic in July so we were a little apprehensive when we opened the doors in September as we knew our numbers had decreased considerably. However we were delighted to see a few new faces, along with some regulars. We had a lovely Christmas party and Santa came to deliver some presents to the children and we managed to raise £38 from raffle tickets. We received a donation from The White Horse following their children's Christmas party. Unfortunately after the Christmas break our numbers have been erratic and some weeks we only have 4-5 families attend. We have used social media to remind people of the group and are pressing ahead to hopefully increase our numbers again. After the Easter holidays we are having a Spring Fun Day, 20th April 10 to 11.30 am, we will have games, bring and buy cake stall, bouncy castle and raffle prizes to raise funds for the group and hopefully raise our profile to increase our numbers.

BASTON 1ST RAINBOWS - The group is going from strength to strength and we have 20 girls who attend regularly. In January we visited Stamford Arts Centre to watch the Panto, along with a lovely evening at one of the Chinese Restaurants in Bourne to celebrate Chinese New Year - the girls had a wonderful time at both events. In February Guiding celebrated Thinking Day and our girls thought about the guiding movement around the world whilst eating pancakes. This year sees Rainbows celebrate their 30th birthday party and we shall be going to a tea party to play games, craft and sing songs. Funds allowing sometime in the next couple of months we shall be going to Tallington for a tobogganing adventure and we also look forward to our end of year BBQ with the girl’s families and siblings joining us for a burger or two. We continue to grow but can only grow with the help of parents and the continued help and support I receive from the girls who do their Duke of Edinburgh volunteering with me, namely Sophie Rickett, Georgia Robinson, Alice Callcut, Bethan Jeynes and Katie Rickett - all of whom I cannot thank enough for all their help and friendship. This year Sophie heads off to University so if anybody knows of a 14-17 year old who is doing their D of E at school and needs somewhere to do the volunteering section of their Award then please contact me, Debbie Chadwick .

BASTON ENVIRONMENTAL GROUP - We completed the nineteenth year since our inauguration in May 1997. Our objectives were consistent: - maintaining and improving the environment in and around Baston Parish. We worked with LCC, SKDC and BPC, residents, landowners and industrial groups to ensure that the village retained its environmental heritage for future generations. Membership of the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust brought aspects of environmental change, especially being a founding partner of South Lincolnshire Fenlands Partnership. Access around the Freeman Lakes with pathways and bird hides will come as site restoration goes ahead. The section 106 Bird Hide at Front & Rear Fen is at least 2 years overdue as a result from restoration hiccups. It will happen. Our Parish Paths Partnership (3Ps) role with LCC ceased March 2016 as they withdrew County wide frontline investment. Hitherto this funding enabled BEG to carry out annual clearance work and repairs to 6 designated public footpaths, their hedgerows, access and open spaces within the parish, plus incidental tasks helping SKDC and LCC at a local level. As a result a number of small but effective tasks will not be carried out that helped the village scene. This work has ceased. Pity. The final funds from BEG (£400) were used to ensure that Baston CofE School had transport for access to Willow Tree Fen during the school year 2016/7. A series of wildlife sessions took place, much to the enjoyment of the pupils. Other funds were placed with Cameo. Baston Environmental Group has now ceased operations. Peter Rayner Chairman.

BASTON AGAINST OVER DEVELOPMENT GROUP - Last year saw the nineteenth report to the PC of the Baston Against-Over Development Group. An informal group, running now for 20 years, it offered a continuing objective to stabilise the development of housing, factories and infrastructure in the Parish. Working on behalf of residents and landowners – all of us villagers – encouraged by the objective that the village should retain its heritage for future generations. This has been achieved. Many new plans from LCC and SKDC, plus developers, solar and windmills are sure to offer challenges to BPC. Our objective in 2016 was and now in 2017 is, for BAOD to be inactive. Peter Rayner.

ALLOTMENT GROUP BAGS – Baston Allotment & Garden Society membership is open to all village residents & is not restricted to just allotment holders. As a non-profit society, we primarily coordinate seed orders for members & are able to offer significant discounts (up to 50% for veg or flower seeds) from our allocated supplier. I’m delighted to say that the society’s membership has increased from 18 to currently 24 members on its circulation list; in 2016 eight members ordered seeds through BAGS, benefitting from a total discount of just over £230. At that sort of level, why wouldn’t you join, whether you’re a keen gardener or not?