The Annual Parish Meeting was held on
Apologies: Janet Wheeler, County Councillor
Oliver – will be late (other meetings)
Present: Mrs Hurst, Mr Sole, Mr Wheeler, Mr Hancock, Mr Wittey, Mrs Straw, Chairman - Mr Martin, District Councillors Kindersley and Elsby, the Clerk and seventeen members of public.
Minutes: of the last Annual Meeting, previously circulated, were agreed and signed.
Reports:
The Chairman reported that
PC Dave Martin is no longer the Police Officer responsible for Croydon, so there would not be a report from the Police at
this meeting
South Cambs District Council Report – Sebastian
Kindersley
Cemetery: District Councillor Kindersley was pleased to report to the meeting that the planning permission for the churchyard extension in Croydon has been written, so should be with Council shortly.
Accident: DCllr complained to the Ambulance Trust, who, over two years ago had said that their new computer would be able to deal with our location. From the publicity at the time of the accident, it is obvious that it couldn’t.
Recycling: Cambridgeshire
has reached its 51% target for recycling and is a national leader.
Local Development Framework: This will map the development of Cambridgeshire up to the year 2016. Croydon will remain an infill village only.
Council Tax:
SCDC may be capped. If so,
budgets will have to be reduced by up to 25%.
There are statutory obligations that may not be met because of financial
shortfall. SCDC is currently seeking
legal advice on the matter. In spite of
this SCDC still gives good value for money.
Government grant per head of population to
Travellers’ Issues: In spite of
spending half a million pounds on the Cottenham
issue, SCDC has not managed to move a single traveler. There are 498 pitches in
The Chairman thanked District Councillor Kindersley for his report and invited questions from the floor.
As most of you are now aware, this will be my last Governor’s report to the Parish Council, since I will be resigning from the Governing Body at the end of this academic year. Rev Neil Brice replaced me as Chair in January, although I am still Chair of one of the committees.
Anyway, enough about me ….. This has been yet another eventful year for Petersfield. We were
delighted to welcome our new head teacher, Mr Ken Millar, to the school in
January. He was previously acting head
at a church school in
There have been other changes in the staff during the course of the year, with Mrs Charlesworth joining in January following the resignation of Mr Murphy. Mr D’Alessandro has resigned and has been replaced temporarily by Mrs Keller. A permanent replacement is being sought for a September 05 start.
Another change this year has been the introduction of mixed classed for years 3 to 5. Although new to Petersfield, mixed classes are very standard in rural Cambridgeshire schools. The teachers and very valuable support staff have worked hard to ensure that this transition has been as smooth as possible.
This year I am pleased to report that the children in KS2 and KS1 have performed very well in the national standardised tests. The pupils are performing extremely well when compared to national averages but also very well in comparison to similar schools. We are particularly pleased with our value added scoring, which reflects the progress that the children make in their learning from key stage to key stage. This measure, which is now reported in the published league tables, is important since the school’s aim is to value the individual child whatever their ability.
Of course the school still has challenges to meet and this year is retaining a focus on numeracy, literacy and ICT, but is also planning to develop the PE, geography and history curriculum, thus ensuring that the children receive a broad and balanced curriculum.
As well as the work in the classroom, the pupils all have outings throughout the year. An increasingly valuable local link has been our partnership with Wimpole Hall, where all year groups have been involved in planting and growing activities, as well as visiting during lambing season and hatching chicks.
The school still offers music tuition on an individual basis, as well as having a Band. On the sports side there are a number of extra-curricular clubs with netball and football teams playing local and not so local teams. It has to be said that at the moment, the netball is more successful than the football – but it is taking part that counts”
Petersfield is also working towards an International School Award this year, where the children are learning about different places throughout the world, hopefully giving them a better understanding of the things we all have in common as well as realising that there are many children that are not as fortunate as they are.
Petersfield is exceptionally fortunate to have a very active PTA who give of their time very freely to organise a comprehensive program of events, which reach out to and include our local community. Seasonal fetes, quiz nights, children’s’ discos and car boot sales, to name but a few that are all impressively organised, well attended and raise much needed funding for the school.
We also need to thank the local community for the invaluable contributions they have made: amongst these are the Wednesday readers and piano players. I would encourage any of you here tonight to get involved.
So finally I would like to thank you for inviting me to every annual meeting since I have been a governor. Thank you for your continued interest in our local school. All that is left is for me to encourage you to get involved, whether or not you have children at the school, and perhaps one of you will be willing to take over the extremely rewarding role of Foundation
Governor for Croydon.
The Chairman thanked Mrs Lamont both for her report and her work as a governor over the years.
Reading
Room Report – Janet Wheeler
I have recently taken up
the position of Chairman vacated by Alison Pritchard and am
still getting to grips with the various issues concerning the Reading
Room. I would like to thank Alison on
behalf of the Trustees for the amount of effort and work she has put in during
her time as Chairman, particularly as she continued with the role after leaving
the village. Thanks must also go to
Chris Sole, who is the caretaker, and to David Chamberlain
who, I understand, cuts the grass
The side door has been
replaced as the old one had a hole in it.
This work had to be undertaken as a matter of urgency to ensure that the
building remained weatherproof and secure.
Further works are needed to ensure that we can provide a fire exit and
disabled access to the building. To this
end we were obliged by
At the AGM for the Reading
Room in November, the accounts income of £889-85 exceeded expenditure of
£580-84, and it was acknowledged that 2005 would be more difficult. The Reading Room had also benefited from a
donation of £350-00 from the Queen Adelaide Beer Festival – thanks to
Michelle. However, we have lost one of
our main sources of income for the hall from the weekly circuit training
session, and other use of the hall is now limited until we can complete the
works mentioned earlier. The PCC and the
Parish Council are currently the most regular users of the hall. The need to raise funds is now extremely
pressing and I will be looking into the possibilities of obtaining any grants,
but it is likely that unless we can demonstrate use of the hall, this may prove
difficult. At the current time we are in
rather a Catch 22 situation and the main priority remains the Fire Exit/Disabled
Access provision. Hopefully we can then
look forward to what may be done in order to encourage use and plan some
fundraising events. Any suggestions
would be very welcome.
Chairman of the Parish Council – Paul
Martin
Good evening every one, welcome to the Croydon Annual Parish meeting. There isn’t a great deal to report on this year as the main topic remains the cemetery, which you will hear about later in the meeting. Helen Straw has joined the Council replacing Chris Elsley, who stood down after a number of years’ service.
Speeding has been raised on
several occasions, through the High Street,
Finally, I would like to thank the members of the council and the Clerk for their efforts over the year, giving up their spare time and patience to help the village.
Parish Council
Finance:
The Clerk gave a brief interpretation of the accounts and offered the unadopted books to the meeting for inspection. There were no questions.
Income Expenditure
Precept 3250 - 00 Insurance 361 - 86
Interest Bank 60 Reading Room hire 130 - 00
Stocks 6 - 32 Churchyard Maintenance 150 - 00
NSB TBA Oakley Soils 595 - 00
Recycling credits 168 - 94 Audit 50 - 00
Internal Auditor 30 - 00
Subs to Associations 141 - 98
British Legion wreath 16 - 50
VAT 112 - 88
Clerk (Salary, Sundry exp) 1182 - 99
________ ________
3425 - 86 2821 - 21
________ ________
At the time of preparing the accounts, the interest from the National Savings Bank had not been received and will be added to the final draft of the accounts when available.
Village Matters
Church Restoration - Malcolm Ralph
At the risk of sounding like a football manager, the past year has been one of two halves, but with a final twist in the tail. Following on from the brilliant news, which I reported last year, that English Heritage were to support the very exciting package of works that would transform the interior of the building, we set off during the first half of the year to complete Phase 1, the Project Development Phase. As the planning progressed, the PCC was made aware of various options for replacing the main Nave ceiling. The Phase 1 Final Report included two different options, the first replacing the ceiling broadly in the shape it is today and the second having a completely different shaped high ceiling right up at roof level. I can confirm that the first option (broadly as it is today) has come in at a lower price and unless EH change their minds this will be the solution pursued.
Phase 1 was successfully completed just before Christmas at a cost of just over £11,000 with the PCC being reimbursed by EH to the tune of £8,000. Tenders were invited around November time with the following five companies being approached:-
E Bowman and Sons, R J Pinnock, Mills and Douglas, F A Valiant and Son and R G Carter.
Just to remind you, the works include complete stripping and replacement of the Nave Roof and ceiling, the North and South Transept Roofs and the Porch Roof, and the Transept and South Aisle windows, and finally some wiring and lighting – as I said, a transformation of the building, and particularly the interior.
A special meeting of the PCC was
called for
With the inclusion of fees and VAT (though this is recoverable) on most items) even R G Carter’s tender at a total of in excess of £177,000 is some £47,000 higher that EH’s original estimate and therein lies our problems for the second half of the year. Since December we have been held in limbo as extensive internal deliberations within EH have continued and during this time the Parish has needed to exercise a great deal of patience. Three months went by and then at last over the Easter holidays we received good news of a revised (increased) offer from EH of £120,000 – up from £104,000- apparently good news BUT we have been unable to understand how their figures have been arrived at and worryingly, the remaining funding gap would be a severe challenge. Our calculation of the size of the likely funding gap was not the same as theirs!
And this was as far as my report was going to run until yesterday, and so we come to the final twist in the tail. Yesterday we heard that EH had discovered an error in their figures in our favour of probably £12,000. So, after all the ups and downs, we may at last be entering the final stages and I am more hopeful of being able to proceed, but it would be foolish to rule out yet more surprises.
On the restoration fund raising
front, it has been yet another very good year.
Grant offers have been received of £3,000 from the CHCT and of £1,000
from the HCPT. As probably everyone here
will remember, the Summer
Plans are now well in hand for a
really good
Finally, I would like to thank Brenda Wittey for taking on the role of Restoration Fund Raising Secretary, and on behalf of everyone to thank Stephanie Ralph for her six years in that job. Grateful thanks must also go to the extensive number of people within the Parish who have given so much of their time and energies.
The Chairman thanked Mr Ralph for his report.
Churchyard Maintenance: It was proposed by the Chairman that the Parish Council continue with a payment of £200 to the PCC towards the maintenance of the churchyard. All in favour.
Cemetery: As reported earlier by DC Kindersley, the planning permission is apparently written, so should be received shortly.
Croydon Website: It has been suggested that Croydon sets up its own website. Local businesses may sponsor such a site. Michelle at the Queen Adelaide has a web design package, which might be used if required. Hatley received a grant of £1400 to set up their website – DC Kindersley can put Council in touch with the correct department. A web master would be needed to run the site and volunteers were requested. Mr Wheeler and Mrs Straw would do logos and banners, and the PC minutes could be put on as well. Further discussion will be required.
Parish
Name: Croydon
is often confused with the
Dog Bins: This idea will go on the village survey.
Verges: Large vehicles are destroying the verges and kerbing was suggested for the bend by Farrer’s Garden. Council to investigate.
It was reported that £141 had been raised for the Kidney Research Fund.
Highways: Council to look seriously at the state of
Watch out for
strange vehicles in the village and pass any information to NHW Co-ordinator
Keith Fowler on
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Cambridgshire County Council Report - Linda Oliver Council Tax: A consultation at 3,4 and 5% - settling at 4% due to capping at 5% by central government. This still required £8m cuts across all the services provided. Note that more funding was withheld by central Government this year – now £32m in three years. This is based on the Government’s resource equalisation principle and the funds are transferred to areas north of the country, which are considered to be less well off. Inflation: Why is the Council Tax higher than the published rate of inflation? The published rate of inflation is based on a typical family’s shopping basket, whereas the County Council has to deal with · Public transport inflation costs – reflects on the subsidies we can provide · Highways Maintenance – increased cost of tarmac · Foster Carers · Increasing number of older people in the population and the roll on needs of more people requiring help from Social Services · Increasing numbers of Special Needs children Comprehensive Performance Assessment: Full inspection by the Audit Commission across the whole of County Council. It has been classed as an excellent authority for its services and its management. My role as Portfolio holder for Environment: Climate change – countryside issues, biodiversity, protecting our villages. Environment can be a “dead duck.” However, just a few weeks ago I had the satisfaction of taking our Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan through full County Council, knowing I had the solid support and commitment of the absolute majority of our 59 councillors. Local Government Association is using the Cambridgeshire Climate Change Strategy and its monitoring system as a model to roll out to other authorities up and down the country – another first for Cambridgeshire. Alongside that we have – 83 green champions positioned throughout the Council’s departments encouraging colleagues on energy efficiencies and paper usage reduction. I would very much like to duplicate this principle across the schools in the county. Housing: We are required to allocate land for housing – this is having to be considered on a regional basis – around 490,000 up to 2021. We were asked to accept a further 18,000, which was rejected, and just recently have been asked to take another 29,000. The Regional Assembly has put on hold its acceptance of the Government’s housing figures due to the lack of commitment to funding for the essential infrastructure – roads, hospitals, health centres and schools. Funding of Infrastructure: Government is now consulting on the regionalisation of funding for major highways schemes. Should this go ahead CCC will be having to bid for funding alongside five other counties at a regional level. More bureaucracy – longer waiting time for major schemes – reduced budgets. Fire Service:
This is being regionalised. We
are being joined together with our five neighbouring counties – Essex,
Hertfordshire, Police Funding: Local policing has been reorganised. Inspector Paul Ormerod
heads up Histon and Sawston
sectors and Sgt Poppitt heads up police operations
centred from Sawston police station. Please note that the police now have a new
number for non-emergency calls. It is
0845 456 4564. The emergency number
remains the same at 999. Local Issues Main issue in the village from the county point of view has been speeding – police have frequently been asked to carry out speed checks. The extension to the churchyard edges onwards – so I can certainly put a large tick against that box. The Post Office reopened in Arrington at the Hardwicke Arms –
please use it when you can.Tuesdays and Saturdays between Finally – boundaries are changing and Croydon moves into Gamlingay Division. Therefore I would thank your parish council for their support during the last eight years – they work so hard on your behalf. CALC Bulletin Distributed. Seminar: Invitations
to a Seminar on Housing on 23 May, from Police: A
copy of Andrew Lansley’s response to the incidents
surrounding the disappearance of Fred Moss was received.
Barclays Bank: A letter regarding transfer of funds was received and signed. Clerk to return it. |
Date of next meeting - Wednesday
18 May at
Date of next Annual Meeting -
As there was no further business the meeting
closed at