As the Chairman of Bolney
Parish Council for the year ending on the 3rd May
2007 I will give a brief report on the business transacted
during this period.
I feel I must first express my
sadness to the untimely death of David Gardner in February
this year. David proved to be a valuable and conscientious
member of the Council and of many other organisations in the
village. His contribution to the work of the Parish Council
is missed and the gap that he left will be hard to fill.
Meetings
12 Council Meetings have been
held on the third Tuesday of every month preceded by a
Planning Meeting with the occasional interim Planning
Meeting.
District
Cllr Mrs Seward has continued
to serve us on Mid Sussex DC but with her Cabinet Post has
been unable to attend all meetings. She still is a member of
South Area Planning Committee and can offer very useful
guidance to the Council
County
Peter Griffiths has been able
to attend a number of meetings keeping us informed at events
at County Level and taking up grievances in particular for
Highways, drainage and street lighting.
He is also a member of the
South Mid Sussex County Local Committee which is setup by
WSCC and has its own budget to assist with funding for local
projects of which two organisations in Bolney have made
successful bids.
Volunteers
It is very important for us to
recognise the contributions of the volunteers in the village
who assist the PC.
Alan Hunt for tending the War
Memorial, Mrs Duplock and Cyril Lucas for the bus shelters,
Martin Burgess Tree Warden and Neighbourhood Watch
Coordinator, Peter Bourne cutting grass around village sign,
Peter Freer Ash honorary auditor.
In particular this year for
Jane Thompson and Elaine Newington and others for their
assistance to enable the PC to keep the public toilets clean
and open to the public.
Public
Toilets
As a result of lengthy
negotiations with MSDC the PC managed to get the Public
Toilets on Batchelors Field re-opened with only a relatively
small impact on the precept.
However this could not have
been achieved without the assistance and enthusiasm of the
community volunteers.
That is not the most pleasant
of jobs so for their help the PC is extremely grateful.
Rawson
Institute
Once again issues surrounding
the prospective rebuilding and funding of the Rawson
Institute on Batchelors Field have placed unprecedented
pressure on Councillors, and much of the criticism has been
totally unjustified.
As the previous Chairman tried
to explain in his report last year, the PC has tried to be
positive, and is broadly supportive of the project, but it
has to be sure that before approving requests for funding
from the RIMC it has confidence in the information provided.
The responsibility for raising
funding by way of the precept falls to the Parish Council.
The PC are answerable to the residents, the RIMC are not.
After the Open Meeting of the
RIMC at the end of March 2007 the PC felt that it had to
clarify its position by sending a letter to all residents.
In April the RIMC applied for
full planning permission and the application was deferred by
the MSDC Planning Committee.
MSDC then called a meeting
with representatives from the PC, RIMC, MSDC Leisure and
Planning and WSCC Childrens Services at the end of April to
try and find a way forward with both planning and funding
issues.
Design, operational layout,
timescales, finance, business plan and procurement were all
discussed.
It was agreed that the PC
would consider a village Poll at its May meeting. It was
also agreed that if a Poll for Public Works Loan went ahead
it would be for a maximum of £150,000.
Officers from MSDC would
assist in preparing a balanced presentation for residents to
consider during the Poll.
Highways
and Footpaths
We appreciate the help from
our residents in reporting obstructions to the footpath
network, blocked drains and failed street lights.
The parish council has had
input to the survey relating to the speed management scheme
on the A272 and recently signs have been erected drawing
drivers attention to the potential dangers on this stretch
of road.
I believe more safety measures
have yet to be carried out.
We are still pursuing
improvements to the junction of Old London Road and the A272
which we now know is the responsibility of the Highways
Agency.
Finance
On the recommendation of the
finance committee the precept was raised to £17000
Website
We are continuing to try to
improve the community website Bolney.com and still require
updated contributions from village organisations.
The PC continues to fund the
computer with access to the internet available to all in the
Post Office during opening hours.
Sewage
Infrastructure
Last year the Chairman
reported the PC concerns to the adequacy of the sewage
system in the village and the serious problems that affected
certain properties. I am pleased to report that Southern
Water are at present in the process of conducting a
feasibility study, and the system will be hopefully upgraded
soon.
At the present time it is
hoped that the refuse freighter will continue visit twice a
year at the weekend
I am sure people will have
noticed that we have recently erected 2 very smart litter
bins by the Bus Shelters opposite the Post Office and on the
Old London Road.
If residents are aware of any
incidents of fly-tipping please report them directly to MSDC.
The faster these incidents are removed will ensure that our
village remains a pleasant place to live.
The New PC
The PC has had many changes of
members over the past four years and it is noticeable there
are only two remaining members of four years ago that are
members of the present parish council. They are myself and
Patrick George. I am pleased to report the Patrick has
agreed to be VC for the coming year. At the present time
there are four vacancies.
Ian Denyer, Jane Allardice,
Dorothy Drake and Alan Morris have decided not to stand for
re-election.
I thank them all for giving
their time and valuable contributions.
I would like to pay particular
tribute to Ian Denyer and thank him both personally and from
the PC for his 16 years of service to the Parish. Ian served
as a Vice Chairman and Chairman, and under whose guidance I
was privileged to serve.
The support of Jane Allardice
who acted as Vice Chairman for the past year also deserves
recognition, as well her excellent service in co-ordinating
planning.
My deep thanks to you both.
It is with great sadness that
these two councillors decided not to offer themselves for
election this time. They have valuable qualities that are
important to small parishes but the continual and
unnecessary pressure that they have been subjected to has
meant that the Parish Council has lost intelligent
thoughtful people who served this council with the best
interests of the community and a complete lack of self
interest.
I would like to record my
thanks to my fellow serving councillors for their
contributions over the past year, as well as the many
residents who attended meetings and contributed to the work
of the PC.
Finally I must thank Janet
Wright our Clerk for the excellent work she does for the PC.
Throughout the time she has been in office the PC has been
going through a challenging period, and she has handled
everything that has come to her with great tact and
professionalism.