Annual Parish Meeting

1.

Apologies – None

2.

Minutes of Previous Meeting held on 29 September 2020

The Minutes, having been previously circulated and agreed, were signed as a true and correct record by the Chairman.

3.

Chairman’s Report

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting before giving his annual report.

He firstly thanked the Clerk and his fellow Councillors on how well they have carried on their duties; be it in person at council meetings, or on the few occasions face-to-face meetings were not possible whilst the village hall was closed due to Covid, via zoom which enabled the council members to go about their duties.

In previous times, when writing this report, many different deeds and examples of good work have come to mind to include.  Over the last year, however, due to Covid, residents could be excused for thinking that the Council’s output was limited.  True, it has not been as busy as in some previous reports, but after spending ten minutes reviewing the Parish Council’s correspondence, it is obvious that although Covid played its part, the Parish Council took a full and active role in the community.

In August the Parish Council welcomed Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner Andy Pratt MBE and two PCSOs to our meeting who expressed a wish to work more closely with the Parish Council.  Mr Pratt advised that he will assist the Parish Council in their endeavours to retain the 20mph speed limit through the village.

Cllr Bailey has kept a watching brief on the work by Kier on the bypass and has kept the Parish Council up-to-date in his correspondence with the relative parties involved.

The Parish Council purchased and installed a new defibrillator housing in conjunction with Mr Bond from the North West Ambulance Service.  We ran two training sessions on the use of the defibrillator for local parishioners.  Thanks to Cllr Bailey for arranging this and thanks to Cllr Ibbotson for her facilitating.

Myself and Cllr Lee, in conjunction with the Richard Dumbreck Trust, have been looking at the possibility of a village green and dialogue is continuing.

In June we welcomed newly elected LCC Cllr John Singleton JP, who I am pleased to say has got behind this Parish Council of a number of issues and we thank him for his support.  It has been a pleasure to see him in attendance at so many of our meetings.

All councillors, as always, review and comment where appropriate on all planning matters before the Parish Council.  I thank them for giving us their time ahead of the meetings to review in advance the documentation which assists the Parish Council in forming an opinion on all plans submitted.

And finally, to say that I do hope that our two newest members of the Parish Council still find the role interesting as they grow and learn about not only the Parish Council but also local council matters.

Cllr Bob Gallagher

4.

Financial Report from the Clerk

The Clerk distributed copies of the end of year accounts for the financial year 2020/2021 which showed a comparison with the financial year 2019/2020.  Receipts for 2020/21 were up from the previous year and were as follows: –

Parish Precept ……………………………………………. 21765

Community Fund Payment ………………………………  1207 (from new developments)

Reclaimed VAT …………………………………………..   2107

Donation from Singleton Trust re SpID machines …….   2450 (half of cost)

LCC payment for grass-cutting …………………………     468

Donation from Singleton Trust re litter-picking ………..      691 (half of cost)

Interest on bank account ………………………………..       69

Donation …………………………………………………..      75

Total                                                                               £28832

Due to the lockdowns and restrictions surrounding the Covid Pandemic, planned expenditure did not take place. However, all day-to-day expenditure did carry on as normal and the total amount spent was £17,977.  The main parts of this expenditure went on Playground Maintenance paid annually to Fylde BC of £3550, Grasscutting contract £5779, Clerk’s wages £2180, Admin expenses £620, Insurance £785, repayment of loan taken out with Fylde BC £1,775, Plants, compost etc for the many tubs in the parish £704, Litter-picking, £908, Defib maintenance expenses £188, Rent for hall £143, new car park floodlights £462, Official Audit fees £240, removal of old SpID and mounting of new ones £375 plus smaller maintenance sums. 

The total carried forward to the 2021/2022 financial year was £35,498.

Verena Henderson

5.

Election of Chair and Vice Chair for the period 2021/2022

Due to an on-going matter which the Chairman was dealing with, together with officers of Fylde BC, he asked that the election be deferred until this matter is resolved. Cllr Bailey proposed that the election be deferred for a month, this was seconded by Cllr Ibbotson and Agreed.

6.

Any questions from the public – None.

The meeting closed at 7.15pm.