Minutes of STOKE CLIMSLAND ANNUAL PARISH MEETING
HELD ON MONDAY 24thAPRIL 2017COMMENCING AT 7.00 PM IN PARISH HALL
PRESENT: M HOWLETT (CHAIRMAN), P BARRIBALL , S BRUNA, S CAZALY, J COUMBE, D CRAWLEY, J FORBES, S ROSS, C VULLIAMY
IN ATTENDANCE: L POWER – CLERK TO THE COUNCIL:
9 MEMBERS OF PUBLIC
N BURDEN (COUNTY COUNCILLOR)
Apologies: N COOPER, Police, Duchy College.
SCAPM17/04/1Chairman’s Welcome:
The Chairman welcomed the members of the public to the meeting stating that it was good to know what is going on in the Parish.
Minutes: The minutes of the last Annual Parish Meeting held on 16 April 2016 were presented. It was proposed by P Barriball and seconded by D Crawley that these are accepted. All agreed.
SCAPM17/04/2Chairman's Report:
This is the fourth and final year of the current Parish Council. There is a vacant position as 9 out of 10 post have been elected uncontested. The Parish Council will co-opt another member to the Parish Council. The letter should be in to the Clerk by 10th May and a decision will be taken after the Annual Parish Council Meeting in May. The Chair welcomed Cllr Burden to the meeting. For the past two and a half years a sub-committee has been developing the Neighbourhood Plan. Sadly this was not complete so the Parish Council was unable to bring it to the election. More information is needed before it can be written. There will be a further opportunity for comment on the plan at the Luckett Duck day, on 17th June, and at the Stoke Climsland Fair, 5th August. The Parish Council has met on a monthly basisand usually discussed planning applications. The minutes can be seen on the web site. I would like to thank K Cazaly for the updating of the website. I would also like to thank S Bruna for reports in the Old School News. The Parish Council are looking at the development of a bus shelter at Venterdon but there is a need to finalise plans in conjunction with highways. There has been concern about parking outside the Primary School. One issue is that the zigzag lines are incorrectly marked and another parking notice is needed. The Parish Council continues to work with Highways on this matter. The Parish Council is pursuing the transfer of Luckett Swing and Playground to the Parish Council. A surplus of funds has been built up over the years so the Parish Council instituted a tendering process resulting in the transfer of £23000 to seven organisations in the Parish. I would like to thank the members of the Parish Council for their support of the Chairman over the past year and thank members of the parish for attending the Parish council meeting and taking an interest.
CAPM17/04/3 County Councillor's Report:
There are a few things which are current at present. There has been a freeze on carparking charges. Over the years Cornwall Council has looked on these charges as an income raiser. However, as the charges have risen the income generated has fallen. It is hoped that freezing the charges will maintain the income. The NHS is to merge with Social Services. This has caused some difficulties and has been put back. Fortunately Callington Health Centre has been coping with the increasing numbers. The proposed devolution of services to Cornwall Council has been a bit of a problem. It has been a difficult process and some officers have now been transferred to the Brexit process. There will be a single ticket for travelling in Cornwall. E U funding has been delayed by 18 months. Devolution of services to the Parish Councils is on-going and has not been affected by the lack of funds. There are 23 schools where the zigzag has been wrongly laid out in Cornwall. £800000has been allocated to rectify this in the following year. I have been elected to the Chair of the Select Committee to investigate all the workings of Cornwall Council. It has been very interesting. The Safer Cornwall Partnership has been looking at work in Social Services and are now working with School to help people with improving mental health care. Cornwall Council has arranged to have a bus service to get into and out of Plymouth.. Fortunately is run by a single bus company. At present Cornwall council has 123 Councillors. This is due to be reduced. If it is reduced by too many it will have an effect on the various committees which take up so much time. A decision will be reached by the Boundary Committee after the election.
The Parish Council Chairman thanked Councillor Burden for all giving up his time to work for Stoke Climsland Parish.
SCAPM 17/04/4Open Session and reports from Club/Societies
Verbal reports were given by representatives of the following:
•Scouts: There are approximately 90 young people who attend the Scouts at different levels. We would like to thank the Parish council for the donation of money towards the purchase of 4 Canadian Canoes. EW have brought a canoe down to show people what it is like. It is a substantial craft which enables us to take younger people and nervous people onto the water. I would like to thank P Barriball for access to his ponds. We also use the canoes on Roadford Lake. We have fully trained Health and Safety Officers and trainers. There are 16 leaders of the group but sadly one leader became ill and died recently. We intend to name on if the canoes after him. The Group have trailers to transport both the canoes and kayaks so they can be fully used. The Scouts have raised a lot of money to improve the Scout hut and replace equipment. I would like to thank Cllr Burden for the money provided for the provision of a disabled toilet.
•WI: The President, Sharon Sellick, introduced herself. There are 34 regular members in the WI but we have about 30 others visiting us during the year. The WI has been in Stoke Climsland for 97 years. The WI was founded to help women learn new skill and make new friends. We meet monthly to listen to speakers, have ‘pamper’ meetings as well as tea and cakes. There is a monthly cookery club and creative group. Over the past year we have had talks ranging from Gig racing, Rodda’s dariy and Huskies working in the Artic. Some of the ladies have raised money for The Marie Curie Trust and we have hosted Christmas parties of the Senior Citizens and the Children in the Parish. I would like to thank the Parish council for both their financial support and transporting Senior Citizens to the Christmas Tea.
•Duchy College: Duchy College apologised for not attending the meeting. There has been a change and Rob Dunn is now taking over the management of the site. He is keen to maintain and develop the relationship between the College and the Parish Council. He will meet with the Parish Council as soon as he can.
•Church: K Carnegie apologised for being unable to attend the meeting. The Church sits in the centre of the Village and has been there for some 700 years. Apart from the services the Church supports the Communitiy with Bible readings and stories for the student at the Primary School, WOW the mother and toddler group, Pop-up Café which raises money for local charities and supports the elderly with events and pastoral visits. There is also mentoring group which supports student at the Duchy College. We have held the Community Breakfast to raise money for the homeless. Last year £750 and three trailers of clothes and shoes were donated to the homeless charities in the area. We are grateful for the work done by volunteers in the Church yard and for the financial support of the Parish Council towards this. Emergency work has been done on the fabric of the Church to prevent water damage. With the demise of the Whiteford Concert , the Friends of the Church has been disbanded. The Church still raises money from events over the year.
•Old School Community Project: This year has seen a few steps forward. A new programme ’ Food for thought’ has been started which includes a discussion and a meal. The first year of the library in the Old School has been good. Children have been coming into the library and there is a reading programme based on the books in the library. We are grateful for the financial support for improving the lighting and audio system There is a strong IT support club which helps people use their tablets and smart phones. There is a welcome return for the Jazz Club. The Old School is working with the Church to improve and extend the lunch groups. There has been good support from volunteers and the web site and facebook pages have been improved. Sadly, the Classical Club has moved to Calstock as the Old School venue is too small. However, we are hoping to run classical club in a different format. The Old School has to attract more people to be trustees and help with the Old School News. The Old School has just lost a tenant and the room will have to be repaired and a new tenant found. The parish Council Chairman thanked D parsons for all his work running the Old School News and hoped the transition to the new editor goes smoothly. J Wilmut was also thanked for his work on the layout of the magazine. The magazine is excellent and much appreciated by everyone who gets it.
•Stoke Climlsand Sports and Social club: The Club has had an excellent year and raised funds to enable the refurbishment of the club building and installing new toilets in the club. There are about 200 members but the club relies on outside bars and events for capital funds. There are usually 5 – 6 bars run in the year. While the club is not very well attended during the week, events at the weekends are well attended. As well as the football team, snooker and euchre teams the club hosts a monthly quiz and an internal darts competition. There are also several meal nights over the year.
•Luckett Social Club: The past year has been good. The main fundraising events Duckday and Skittles evenings were well attended. This year we also held a treasure hunt and a music night. The club runs a range of activities including meal nights, Bingo, quizzes and talks. The club plans to improve the toilets and access to the toilets and would like to thank the Parish council for the donation of funds towards that project.
•Parish Hall: The Parish hall is in a similar position to the Old School in that they have enough funds to keep going with a small surplus. This is not enough to do major repairs and they struggle from year to year. The Parish Council has kindly donated a grant towards weather proofing around the chimney. This project has been put on hold while consultation continues with the Duchy of Cornwall. The Duchy owns the building and it is leased to the Parish. However, no rental is paid and there is an anomaly concerning the lease. When this is resolved the plans can go ahead. The needs to find more volunteers and develop new ideas for using the venue.
•Luckett Heritage CIC: The Luckett CIC would like to thank the Parish Council for the doiantion of the funds to complete the safety fencing. The work has been completed. The land was purchased in June 2016 and we are hoping to provide access to as many groups as we can.
•Parish Archive: The Archive would like to thank the Parish council for the donation of a grant to purchase a laptop and scanner. The scanner will scan 80 documents at one go and members of the archive will be getting training. They have met with other archive members in Cornwall. It is intended to have an open day in the summer. They were asked oif there were any plans to make the equipment available to members of the parish. It was stated that this was the intention. Cllr Burden asked if Agnes Wadland’s memoires could be donated to the archive. It was agreed that this would be good as it was important to keep such documents reflecting people’s lives as a historical record.
•Stoke Climsland P O and Shop: Need to recognise that we are two businesses which rely heavily on each other…Footfall for the Post Office brings potential business to the shop and vice versa. One cannot survive without the other. Shop Turnover for the past two years has stayed static- In real terms this means it is going down if inflation is taken into account. The footfall to the Post Office has increased dramatically due to the incorporation of more direct banking- This increased footfall has offset in the declining use of the shop by the village as a whole due to natural wastage and change in shopping habits. The shop and Post Office is more dependent on the convenience shoppers from College, School and Parish Hall users- we see a 40-50 % drop in turnover during the school holidays. In 2015 (two years ago) both ourselves and the Post Office began a 100K investment in the property- taking my total investment to over 600k. The property is a beautiful example of a smart, well run business and the envy of many small villages all over the UK that have lost their Post Offices and Village Stores. We face a number of challenges in the coming months. Flat lining turnover whilst considered good by most standards is being eroded by spiralling employment costs. Food price inflation is already taking hold and competition within the retail market is fierce- it is currently unclear how this will affect the viability of not just the village store but the whole supply chain network who support us. Government support for the Post Office Network stops at the end of this financial year and there is a wide belief that a number of branches will have to close. College are installing a free to use cash machine which may or may not reduce the footfall to the Post Office which could have an impact on our viability. If the village as a whole fail to see the benefit of this unique facility and use it more than for the occasional paper both businesses will no longer be commercially viable. We would then be placed in the unfortunate position of being unable to invest anymore of our money in maintaining this unique piece of History and will be left with no alternative other than closing
•Luckett Memorial Garden: The Chapel was built in 1877 and the first burial was in 1880. In 1990 the three chapels were amalgamated and then the Chapel was taken down and the Memorial Garden was made. There are still unmarked graves which need to be marked. There was a legacy left for the upkeep of the Garden but the interest is poor and is not enough to keep the Garden in good repair. Work was being done voluntarily but now someone is paid for the work. Costs are going up and although money is being donated by Venterdon Chapel the Memorial garden is grateful for the donation from the Parish Council. The Chair noted that the donation from the Parish Council has been increased but this will be under review.
•Downhouse Burial Ground: Kenneth Coumbe oversees the maintenance of the graveyard. The donation from the Parish Council is welcome as investment returns are poor.
The Chairman thanked everyone for coming and wished the organisations well in the coming year.
The meeting was closed at 8pm
Clerk: Mrs Louise Power, Top Flat, Half Moon Court, Stoke Climsland PL17 8NY
Tel: 01579 370819
e-mail:
1