Annual Parish Meeting minutes @ 20 Jun 2015

Minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting held in Southwick Village Hall, Southwick, at 7.30pm on Tuesday 28 April 2015

Present:

Stephen Carey                     Chairman, Southwick Parish Council.

Roger Coleman                    Clerk.

Parish Councillors J Jones, G Masters, F Morland, K Noble, E Pomeroy and D West attended the meeting.

Wiltshire Councillor, Cllr. Horace Prickett attended the meeting.

There were two members of the public present.

1.         Introduction and Apologies.      

The Chairman, Stephen Carey, welcomed everyone to the meeting and the Clerk explained the nature of an Annual Parish Meeting.

Apologies for non-attendance were received from Parish Councillor A Doel.

2.         Minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting held on 22 April 2014.

The Minutes were signed as a true and accurate record.

3.         Annual Report of the Parish Council.

The Chairman presented his Annual Report of the Parish Council in which he described the activities of the Parish Council during the year. 

A summary of his report and the topics are shown below:

Annual Report from the Parish Council - Year 2014 – 2015

10 councillors for part-year - Now a full Council (11 members) – Zoe Grant appointed. 

The following is a summary of some of the activities of the Parish Council on behalf of the parishioners of Southwick:

11 Ordinary PC Meetings,  1 Annual PC Meeting,  3 Extraordinary Meetings,  1 Annual Parish Meeting

Consideration of Planning Applications – Around 33.

Neighbourhood Policing Team Activities (Tasking Meeting etc)

Village Environment/Expenditure:

Southwick Village News (Newsletter).

Website – Development/Maintenance.

Parish Steward - Footpath Clearance/Brambles/Grass Cutting/Overgrown Hedges.

Highways issues:

Other Matters:    

End of Report.

4.         Statement on the Parish Council accounts for Year ending 31 March 2015.

The Clerk to Southwick Parish Council, Roger Coleman, gave the following report:

He stated that he had balanced the accounts and had completed the Annual Return and all associated paperwork. He stated that the balance brought forward from FY2013/14 had been £13607 and, allowing for the payments and receipts during the year, the balance carried forward at the end of FY2014/15, was £16551.  He added that the total receipts for the year were £25614, payments for the year totalled £22670.

Main Receipts in the year were:

Precept:                                 £14791

HMRC VAT Refund:           £2194

HMRC PAYE            :                       £1483

S106 Monies (for Play Equipment):                     £5260

Southwick Village News Advertisements:           £734.

Bank Interest:                       £8

Main Payments in the year were:

Staff Costs:                           £3708

HMRC PAYE            :                       £1483

Office Expenses:                 £535

Playing Field Maintenance:                       £1956

New Play Equipment:         7878

Insurance:                             £2953.

Donations/Subs:                  £354  

Caretaking/Maintenance:   £609

Audit Fees:                            £215

Southwick Village News:   £1432

Southwick Village News Editors Honorarium:   £300

Hall Hire:       £111

Old Blind House Site:         £1080 (2 years)

The Clerk reported that the Annual Return had been completed and that the Internal Auditor has undertaken the Internal Audit. Everything was in order. The Annual Return will be submitted to the Parish Council at the next meeting for approval and thereafter it will be sent to Grant Thornton, the External Auditor.

End of Report.

5.         Observations from the Wiltshire Councillor, Cllr. Horace Prickett.

Councillor Prickett gave a brief report on topics that directly affected the parishioners of Southwick. In particular he reported on the Hopper Bus Service, the Wiltshire Gypsy and Traveller Accommodation Assessment 2014, Vehicle Parking including representations made to the Community Area Transport Group, the proposed Village Gateway scheme at Firs Hill and the imminent changes to the Green Bin collection.

6.         Neighbourhood Policing Team (NPT).

In the absence of PC Hough of the NPT no report was given.

7.         Southwick Playing Field Management Committee.

The following report was given by Mr Ted Pomeroy, Chairman, Southwick Playing Field Management Committee:

During the past year the Committee has met four times and it is pleasing to report that there is usually a good attendance of members. Once again the provision and maintenance of play equipment has been discussed at some length. The construction of the Basket Ball court has been a great success and it is in constant use. Unfortunately the Cradle Swing became unstable and had to have extra concrete around the base but now seems satisfactory. The Octagon Tower continues to suffer from vandalism and enquiries are now being made with regards to stronger materials being used. The members of the Cricket Club should be congratulated on the provision of their enclosed practice batting strip which seems very popular with the players and also some villagers. Sadly the ongoing saga of the piece of land which now forms part of the Southwick Car Centre area has still not been settled. Likewise the continued lack of responsibility by some dog owners appears to be getting worse and continues to cause concern to Committee members and some villagers. The use of the field during the past year has been somewhat less than usual due particularly to the demise of both football teams who were using the pitch. However, Southwick Beehive has continued to be successful both on and off the field for which they should be congratulated. Southwick and North Bradley Scout Group and Southwick Show have both held their annual Summer events on the field. Normal maintenance has been carried out by Richard Dent, Jackson and Sons and J L Pethers. Thanks also to Tony Doel and Derek Corbin for their invaluable help when needed and also to Southwick Parish Council for their continued financial support.

Finally, as Chairman I must thank all the Committee members for their help and support and also the small band of villagers who help from time to time when needed so that between us all we will endeavour to ensure that the field remains an asset for everyone.

End of Report.

8.         Report from Southwick Village Hall Committee.

Roy Butt gave a report on the Village Hall and he handed the Clerk a copy of his report and a copy of the Independent Examiner’s Report on the Financial Statements.

9.         To consider resolutions of which written notice has been given.

There were no resolutions.

10.       To consider other matters raised by those present.

Cllr. West commented that there are now three websites associated with Southwick, namely the Parish Council website, the Social Club website and one managed by the Church. The Chairman stated that the three websites are largely complementary and the Parish Council website provides access to these other sites and added that the Social Club and the Church are each responsible for providing content for their respective websites.

A parishioner lamented the lack of vehicle parking space near to her property and invited the Parish Council to provide funding, perhaps by means of grant applications, to provide the means of safely parking on the grass verges. The Chairman stated that this was a matter for the Parish Council that had examined this proposal but he was aware that the Wiltshire Council CATG would not support this project financially and that the initiative for this project must come from the residents affected.

There were no other matters raised.

11.       Close.

The meeting closed at 8.25 pm.

Chairman,


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