MINUTES OF JOINT ANNUAL PARISH MEETING 3RD MAY 2017
(including reports as received*)
There were 25 parishioners in attendance.
- The Chairmen of Great and Little Thurlow Parish Councils welcomed those present.
- The Minutes of the APMs held in 2016 were approved.
- Reports were read out by representatives of:
- Lt Thurlow Parish Council
- Gt Thurlow Parish Council
- Suffolk County Council
- St Edmundsbury Borough Council
- Police
- Women’s Institute
- Thurlow Fayre Committee
- Village Hall Committee
- Thurlow Sports Club
- St Peter’s Church, Lt Thurlow
Written reports had been received from:
- Thurlow School
- Tiddley Tots
- Houghton Charity
- All Saints’ Church, Gt Thurlow
- Other matters raised:
- Possible footway near Church Farm in Lt Thurlow
- Advertising of the Pre-School
- Possible purchase of a defibrillator
*Full reports will appear on the village website - in due course.
Reports received at Joint Annual Parish Meeting 3rd May 2017
Little Thurlow Parish Council–Chairman Chris Field’s report
It was a great privilege to be appointed Chairman in May 2016, a role that I am taking extremely seriously. It has certainly been a big learning curve and it is a position that I am keen to learn more about. My tenure began with presiding over projects started under my predecessor, Keith Bunting. We continued in discussions with the Primary School and Suffolk County Council in exploring ways in which we could keep the Pre-School building open as a Pre-School. We met with the Head of SCC Early Years, Liz Pitts and County Councillor Mary Evans; unfortunately we were not successful in securing Pre-School provisions in Thurlow.
We have however finally seen the installation of the now familiar Vehicle Activated Sign (VAS) in the village. There are 2 such machines shared between the villages of Little Thurlow, Great Thurlow, Great Wratting, Great Bradley and Cowlinge. These machines were purchased by Councillor Evans and are moved around the villages on a rota. Each machine records data such as volume of traffic and speeds. Before the machine is handed to the next village on the rota, Will Griffiths downloads the information onto a spread sheet. The results are eye opening. I must thank both Andrew Dickson and Will for all their work on the VAS. We will continue to try to make Broad Road safer for pedestrians and are expecting a sign to be installed before Church Farm warning drivers of pedestrians in the road. We will continue to liaise with SCC exploring ways in which we can slow the traffic down. We will be approaching SCC for traffic flow and speed data recording equipment along Broad Road to assist us in our decision in deciding whether to install a VAS pole/machine along the road. We have also requested more police involvement in trying to catch repeat speeding offenders.
The Parish Council has led the project to install WiFi in the village hall. Along with GTPC we have pledged financial support. The whole project has only been made possible by a Grant of £1163.96 by Councillor Evans, and as you will have noticed outside, we are very close to finally having WiFi in this building.
We were delighted to welcome Alex and Rebecca Bourne to The Cock and we supported Alex when he proposed the opening of the village shop at the pub.
The Parish Council have asked SCC Highways to maintain more of our footpaths on a more regular basis to which they have agreed. We look forward to this work being carried out during the summer. Thurlow Estate kindly offered to maintain footpaths not covered by SCC.
At the end of 2016 the PC were able to ‘gift’ the new play equipment over to the Sports Club. Along with GTPC we will continue to offer financial support towards insuring the play equipment, maintenance as well as sharing the cost of grass cutting of the sportsfield.
During the past year we have considered several planning applications, mostly involving trees, however we did have 2 major applications, one at The Cock to build overnight accommodation as well as a separate dwelling. The application was withdrawn by the applicant. The other application was to build a detached dwelling on the green next to Holme Cottages. The PC made comments about parking in particular and the application was turned down by St Edmundsbury.
We have pledged the following financial backing in 2017 to:-
- The Sports Club of £500 towards new fencing along the river;
- £470 to the Village Link;
- £500 towards the new heating system in the Village Hall.
- We will also cover the cost of hiring the Tea Tent at the Fayre.
- Battlefield Tour June 2018
The Parish Council are organising a tour of the WW1 battlefields of Belgium and France. The Tour will take place between 15th June and 18th June 2018 There are still places available for anyone interested.
We have also been pro-active in attending many meeting across the county representing the village. A few councillors also had a guided tour of the Great Blakenham Incinerator which was very impressive.
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Great Thurlow Parish Council – Chairman Peter Thomas’ report
This year we have finally got our VAS machine up and running, hopefully this will deter some of the speeding offenders. Also bin roundels have been received and are in use.
Apart from a final coat of paint, the finger sign post is complete and looks very smart, thanks to Mick for his work on this.
We helped to fund the following village items:
Village Hall heating - £750
Bark for play area
Village Link - £470
Valuation of the pub
We also pledged £500 towards recreation round fencing
Ourselves and Lt Thurlow Parish Council performed Litter Picks and laid wreaths at the War Memorial.
I look forward to the proposed Battlefield Tour for next year and the Beacon Lighting to commemorate the Centenary of the end of WW1 in 2018.
Next year I think both Councils should look to purchase a defibrillator for the villages which could be sighted at the Village Hall.
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County Councillor’s report (Mary Evans)
Locally, speeding traffic is still a problem. Although we have the Vehicle Activated Sign which has had an impact on speeding, it has been difficult to get the police out to enforce the speed limit.
I have a meeting planned with the new managers of the speed enforcement team to discuss how best we can share data with them so that they can send speed camera patrols out where they are most needed
In my past reports to you I have spoken about my concerns regarding two key county council services – education and highways and the need for us to perform better. I am pleased to report there has been progress over the last 12 months.
Education
Suffolk is now ranked in the top half of all authorities for progress at GCSE level, at 55th out of 151. This is a real improvement since 2014 when Suffolk was ranked 119th for English progress and 108th for maths.
The newly assessment called “Progress 8” measures the progress made by all students across a wider range of subjects than previously and is a more comprehensive and accurate measure of progress made by pupils. We are delighted to see that Suffolk pupils have made more progress than the national average last year.
Nearly 90% of the county’s schools are rated by OFSTED as good or outstanding and our aim is for all our schools to be at this high level.
At higher level education, the University of Suffolk has now been granted full university status
However, I do have concerns about funding. The fairer funding formula announced by the Government just before Christmas seemed to be the answer to our long running campaigning in Suffolk for a better deal for rural schools. But is not – or not yet: We are lobbying government and our MPs.
In a bid to soften the blow on authorities that would lose funding, the increases to those of us set to gain have been limited so Suffolk will benefit by a mere2.7% and this at a time when costs are going up.
To put it another way, before funding reform Suffolk schools were funded at 94% of the average rate, after funding reform they will be funded at 96%, good progress but by no means enough. By contrast Hackney will be funded at 138% of the average - after funding reform.
We are calling for a radical re think of how schools are funded.
I also have serious concerns regarding the funding for early years – which I and others have taken up with our MPs. The Government is extending free nursery entitlement for 3 and 4 years olds from 15 to 30hours a week in September but I don’t think the nurseries and pre-schools are being offered a viable hourly rate. I hope we can put enough pressure on our MPs to get this changed.
Highways
It may not always seem like it – but progress has been made. But I concede it is way too little progress. In my role as chairman of the SCC scrutiny committee I have asked the procurement team to ensure they do learn the necessary lessons from the highways contract
The head of highways is reforming the service – which is taking too long but is now near completion. The aim is to have a true county wide universal highways service. At the moment there are odd inconsistencies and disparities between the approach say in West Suffolk and on the coast and between Ipswich and Mid-Suffolk.
We are setting up specialist teams to look after key areas of work – drainage, road surfacing and lining etc.
The drainage team is operating and I have been impressed by what they have achieved already in this area. For starters, they have assessed and prioritised the catalogue of outstanding work and, where practical, are linking in drainage and re-surfacing work.
Devolution
As you may recall much time was spent last year on the Government’s idea to devolve powers and money to a joint Suffolk/Norfolk and possibly Cambridgeshire authority – with an elected Mayor.
In the end the scheme failed as too many of the Norfolk councils objected.
I fully expect some sort of new proposal to be made post the elections. I suspect we will be encouraged to have some sort of unitary authority – whether a whole Suffolk council or a return to the East and West Suffolk councils with which I grew up, I don’t know.
I think it is worth discussing as it could be more effective and more efficient. I think we could do as good if not a better job with fewer councillors and also with fewer officials.
There are odd divisions in what SCC does and the district councils such as St Eds undertake.
For example: SCC is responsible for place name signs and St Eds for road and street name plates. SCC keeps roads cleared while St Eds sweeps pavements. While St Eds collects rubbish from your wheelie bins; it is the county that disposes of it.
I believe it would make more sense in these examples if the tasks were done by one set of staff and not two.
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Borough Councillor’s report (Jane Midwood)
I have been looking back at my Annual Reports from last year and I see that few things have changed.
The £40 brown bin system is now into its second year and I am told that take up is as expected – that is a small increase on the first year. I hope residents will report any problems they may have to me with any of the waste bins or collections. Unfortunately I can see no change at all in the awful state of our roadside verges with litter strewn everywhere and fly tipping too. Village litter picks, supported by the loan of equipment by St Edmundsbury do a fine job in their annual or twice yearly collections but it is not really the answer to the culture that seems to think it is OK to eat and drink in the car and then throw the remains out of the window.
Last year I spoke to you about the proposed West Suffolk Waste Hub. Planning permission was granted and the project is now going ahead.
The Community Governance Review last year recommended that Great and Little Thurlow became one Parish and that a large area of Withersfield was moved to Haverhill. I am pleased to say that I was able to defend the wishes of the majority of Withersfield residents and the parish boundaries have remained the same – until the next time the Boundary Commission decides to interfere with historic local village areas.
I look forward to hearing about your Locality Budget spending and applications for next year’s budget too.
When I became your Borough Councillor in 2015 I had no idea how contentious Planning (or Development Control) could be. I still have a lot to learn, especially on the consultation process. Please be assured that I will listen to residents’ concerns and take up issues with planning officers.
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Thurlow CEVCP School
The school continues to prosper. We had a high number of applicants for our 2017 Reception class places and overall school numbers remain around 100. The school will be celebrating its 50th birthday this term and we are planning a summer concert on Saturday 1st July at 1pm. There will be a concert and refreshments as well as a display of the old school photographs and Headteacher’s Log Books. It would be lovely if members of the community and former pupils could attend. We will advertise in the Village Link.
The children have enjoyed a variety of outings in the community with visits to the playground, local walks and we will be attending the Thurlow Estate open day in May. We will also be using the village hall to support our Key Stage 2 summer production ‘A Dracula Rock Show’. The children continue to have regular visits from Rev Hollis and use Little Thurlow Church for our Christingle.
This will be my last report for Thurlow School as I move post to be Head teacher at Clements Primary School. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Parish Council and Councillor Mary Evans for the support the school has received and wish the community all the very best for the future.
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Haverhill Safer Neighbourhood Team
This report covers the period from 01/04/2016 through to and inclusive of 02/05/17. During this period there have been 12 reported crimes compared to 23 in the 2015-2016 period.As shared this time last year, all Safer Neighbourhood Teams have now moved over to producing a generic “Area” Newsletter which are provided monthly and are published on our “all new” external website. Suffolk Constabulary has recently carried a review of its local Policing. Following both a reduction in funding and a change in the nature of crime, we have had to reassess what our priorities will be. It was decided that our focus should be on protecting vulnerable people from crimes against them including on-line offences, drugs, offences against children, domestic violence and serious sexual offences. This has meant less time to focus on some of the traditional complaints which is often led by parking matters.
Final figures in these fields for the parishes of Great & Little Thurlow are as follows…..
Burglary dwelling – 3
…over a two month window, July’16 – Sep’16 a dwelling in the villages was forcibly entered and items were stolen from within
…between 30/08/16 and 07/09/16 another property was broken into whilst the family were on holiday and jewellery was taken
….on Xmas day 2016 an attempted burglary occurred at another property, clear tool marks were found around the front door but a loud alarm is suspected of foiling a continued attack on the property
Robbery – 0
Violence with injury – 0
Serious sexual assault – 1
…. In May’16 a serious sexual allegation was made between two individuals who were staying in a dwelling in the Thurlows at the given time, both were known to one another. No publicity was granted on this matter and nothing more will be shared aside from there is and was no danger to the local community.
Drug trafficking - 0
Anti-social behaviour – 0
A summary of the other reported matters are as follows….
On two separate occasions in the past year, dogs owned by the same person have bitten other persons in the village. The first incident was dealt with via words of advice, to the victims satisfaction. The second was dealt with via a Community Resolution and imposed sanctions.
On 12/06/16, a male was spoken to by Police regarding an ongoing incident, during said discussion he volunteered that he was in possession of a rolled cigarette containing cannabis. A cannabis warning was recorded against this individual.
On 13/06/16 a vehicle was witnessed fly-tipping on private land within the parishes, the suspect was identified and the investigation was passed over to Mr Andrew HARVEY of the Environment Agency.
Between 22/11/16 and 23/11/16 a Civil Engineering Compound was entered and a container used for storage was forcibly entered. Tools, Plant and a Generator was stolen from within.