Litton Parish Council

Minutes of Annual Parish Meeting

Wednesday 7th May 2014 at 7pm, at Litton Village Hall

Present

Please see attached list.

The meeting was opened by the Chair, Dave Broadway

Apologies

None

Minutes from last Annual Parish Meeting

DB read out the minutes from last year and asked for any comments. None, so minutes signed by DB

Matters Arising

Open to the floor. No comments.

  1. Grit Bins. LPC have purchased 4 grit bins and these have been installed in various key locations around the parish.
  2. Raves. Police presence at the raves has been improved.

Chair’s Report

First I would like to say thank you to my fellow Councillors who have given up an evening a month to keep the Council functioning. Chris Pointon, David Fry, Jenny Speed, David Raynes, Chris Ake & Nikki Ashley. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Jenny Speed who resigned from the Council earlier this year for her valued contribution throughout her time as Councillor. Thanks also to Debbie Jackson, our Clerk, who continues to do all the hard work. We are now looking for an addiotnal Councillor to replace Jenny.

I would also like once again to thank Paul Jelley whose auditing of the accounts is appreciated as a valued service to the Parish Council and the village.

·  We have kept the precept at £4000 this year

·  We have rebuilt a good cash reserve.

·  Major expenses – Clerks wages – essential to the functioning of the Council.

·  Keeping the village tidy – grass cutting etc.

·  Supporting the village hall.

·  Supporting the local church with churchyard maintenance via the burial grant.

·  This year we have organized, and financially supported, the installation of a defibrillator at the village hall.

Accounts. Income: £4920.25

Expenditure: £5760.01

Including staff costs £1271

Village Hall: £0 – no village hall projects required support this year.

Insurance: £265

Hall Hire: £192

Election Expenses: £0

Defibrillator: £2664

Bank balance at year end: £2412.42

Precept

Agreed to maintain at £4000; building a reserve against any unexpected costs in the coming year.

Defibrillator

Our major expenditure project in the year was the defibrillator. The Parish Council has funded a proportion of this, but it is also important that I thank the kind people and organisations that contributed to its purchase including:

SE & M Franks

DR & HJ Hall

Mrs N Claisse

Mike Goulding

Litton PCC

CFH Docmail

Mr P Elworthy

Greendown Consulting

L Holland Electrical Contractors

Litton & Hinton Blewett WI

Without these kind contributions, we would not have been able to proceed.

Village Hall Funds

The Council agreed some years ago to help support the Village Hall Committee in its role by match funding monies raised by the committee for major projects. This year there was no request for funding. We will therefore continue to ring fence the annual sum of £500 against future needs. This ensures that each year we have an additional £500 in the Village hall fund that can be called on when needed.

This fund now stands at over £1000

This concluded the Chair’s report, and he opened the floor to questions.

No questions.

DB handed over to guest speaker Tom Killen

Guest Speaker – Tom Killen

TK thanked the Chair for his report.

TK started his presentation.

  1. MDC Finance. Local authorities facing difficult financial cuts from Central Government. Making Local Councils more self-funding. MDC have balanced their budget and there will be no increase to Council Tax. To help cut costs MDC have sought out new Contractors.
  2. The Hub, Shepton Mallet. Creation of The Hub has brought in staff from SCC into the MDC offices to help provide Services in one place. This has filled empty desk space and MDC rents out office space to SCC, therefore generating income. As well as renting out space to SCC, MDC also rents out to other organisations, amongst those being the Police and voluntary organisations. Hopefully providing better services to people of Mendip, being more centralised and more customer focused.
  3. Local Plan & Planning. Driven by Central Government, who are keen to see more local house developments. MDC has addressed their local plan. Litton has very limited scope for development.
  4. Developers Inquiry. TK attended the inquiry. Developers are trying to get more planning permission for their clients. Priorities of MDC are to provide more housing for young families.
  5. Enterprise Mendip. To help support investment in Mendip – to attract investors into the area e.g. The Bath & West Showground. Providing rate support, supporting commercial development, so that there are few delays on the construction of offices and schools.
  6. Ruralisation. Jacky Smith, Village Agent, acts as key role in ruralisation.
  7. Broadband. MDC working to get Mendip connected to faster broadband over the next year.
  8. Leisure Facilities. MDC subsidises 5 leisure facilities.
  9. Fracking. This year fracking licences rolled out over the UK. Mendip half way down list. MDC has drawn guidelines on fracking, but ultimately down to SCC.
  10. Flooding. MDC’s area not affected but seen as a Somerset problem. TK has attended many meeting. Central Government keen to see Somerset resolve it’s own flooding problems.
  11. Planning Department. This department has seen criticism. Changes put in place as to the operation of the department. One improvement is on pre-application advice. Continued need for change of culture.
  12. Fly Tipping. Constant problem. Priddy & Litton targeted. Problem is to get offenders to court.
  13. Budget. How to implement austerity measures.
  14. Elections. Next year (2015).

This concluded Tom Killen’s presentation. He opened the floor for questions.

No Questions.

The Chair thanked guest speaker Tom Killen for his presentation.

Matters for Discussion.

The Chair asked the floor if there were any matters.

Broadband. DB asked TK about faster broadband. TK replied that it is hoped to be implemented by 2016/17. Central Government has provided extra funding.

After no further questions The Chair closed the meeting at 7.30pm and invited visitors to attended the following Parish Council meeting.

LITTON ANNUAL PARISH MEETING

LIST OF ATTENDEES

Chair – Dave Broadway

Vice Chair – David Fry

Clerk – Debbie Jackson

Councillors – David Raynes, Chris Ake, Chris Pointon, Nicola Ashley

Guest Speaker – Tom Killen

Visitors – Jacky Smith – Village agent. Harvey Siggs.