Annual Parish Meetings

APM Minutes 2022

  WILLINGHAM BY STOW PARISH COUNCIL

 

MINUTES of the ANNUAL PARISH MEETING held in the Village Hall on Thursday 21st April 2022 at 8pm

 

 

Present: Cllr D Bingham (Chairman), L Brooks-Sleight (Clerk) and 11 residents

 

  1. Apologies

          Received from 2 residents.

 

  1. Minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting 2019

            The Minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting held on 26th April 2019 were approved & signed as a true and correct record Resolved

 

  1. Chairman’s Report – presented by Cllr D Bingham (Chairman)

Firstly I would like to welcome you all back after a couple of difficult years that we have had to contend with and living in the world of zoom meetingsI would also like to thank my fellow councillors that have served with me in that time and welcome our new councillors and thank those that have retired  for their contribution to the parish council , I’m sorry that I don’t mention people’s names in my report and thankyous but data protection doesn’t allow me too.

In the last couple of years, we have built a new memorial garden in the cemetery where you can purchase space to put memorial plaques to remember loved ones, with a new bench aside of it for you to sit and reflect.

We have also opened up the parish field and have been able to obtain grants to put pathways for you to walk around. Stage one has been completed & another pathway will be put in shortly along with a bench.

The village horticultural society have just planted 75 trees around the ponded area to celebrate 75 years of the show.

 

You will also see new traffic calming measures on stow road and top of high street, these were purchased with part of our covid grant and they seem to be doing a good job at reminding drivers to slow down. On the planning side we have had 2 new houses built on Marton lane outline planning passed for 5 new builds and a bungalow on Cotgarth lane and an extension to the caravan park .

 

We have helped the playing field, village hall and church lights with annual grants. This summer we will be judging the best kept garden; best decorated house/garden for the jubilee and giving all children under 16 a jubilee mug. In September -scarecrow competition with a royal theme.

Around the village I would like to thank the homeowners for cutting their grass verges and keeping the village tidy; our two new litter pickers and our village gardener for looking after the planter on the bottom green. The events committee for organising village events and those that run the village Facebook pages and village website keeping us all up to date.

 

Before I finish my usual moans and groans, we provide dog loo bins for a reason but we still have the odd dog walker that likes to decorate hedges.

The other is please try and park sensibly on the high street emergency vehicles need access at all times, it might be you one day that needs a ambulance or fire engine.

Lastly a big thank you to our clerk for all her hard work keeping us all in order/up to date with all the laws and practices we have to abide by.

 

  1. Parish Council Accounts 2021/22 – presented by the clerk

            Balance brought forward from 31st March 2022 was £18,933.57

  • Expenditure consisted of the salary, LALC annual subscription, the grass cutting contract, handyman costs, insurance, office equipment, audits etc. Grants of financial support were given to both the village hall (£1,000), the playing field (£2,200) to enable them to carry out the vital work they do in the village and a donation to the Church for Christmas Lights (£75.00)

            Defibrillor pads, Speed Reactive Signs & pole, Newsletters, Cemetery Memorial Bench, flags, Best Kept Garden/Scarecrow & Winter Festival prizes, Jubilee Mugs,  1st stage of Parish Field

            Development

            Total expenditure was £19,303.18 

 

  • The main part of the Parish Councils Income comes from the precept at £11,000.  Income from cemetery fees has been £3460.00, Other income of £1427.73 from rental of the parish field, grant funding & VAT refund    

Total income was £15887.73

We ended the year with £15,518.12  31st March 2022                                                Resolved

                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

 5.        Reports for Village Organisations

Reports were received from the following groups, updating the meeting of their groups last year’s news and future intentions - Table Tennis groups, WI, Willingham Friendship Club, Willingham & District Relief in Sickness Charity, The Bell Ringers, Willingham Horticultural Society, Willingham Band, St Helen’s Church, Village Hall Committee, Twinning Association, Foxy Ladies, Willingham Website/Facebook, & Playing Fields.

 

  1.       Open Forum for public participation

      A couple of enquiries from residents – VAT purchases for the PF committee & CIL Payments from WLDC new builds.

      

           

 

Meeting Ended 9pm