Cringleford Parish Council

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The parish council meetings are the fundamental mechanism by which the council operates.

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Chairman's Annual Report 2008-09

May I welcome to you all to the 2009 Cringleford Annual Parish Meeting. I extend a warm welcome to parishioners, our County and District Councillors and to all our parish councillors and employees of the Parish Council.

This is my 2nd year as chairman and it has been another busy and eventful year.

When people ask me “what do you do on the Council?” I always say I don't know - but we do lots of it.

Writing this annual report gives me the opportunity to reflect on exactly what we do and why we do it. I remind myself that although we councillors are all volunteers the job we do is important to the village, although on occasions we might please or offend the villagers we work for. I hope you will all agree the village is still a better place for the work we do.

Reflecting on the past year and looking forward to next year proves the need for consistency and commitment within the Parish Council both from its councillors and employees. This I am glad to say we have plenty of.

We have had a few changes within the council through the year as Sarah Grainger, Richard Burbage, Lavinia Gordon – Gray and Andrea Nunney have all resigned from the Council at varying times throughout the year, each for their own personal reasons, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank them all for the sterling work each of them did during their time on the Council.

We have been lucky enough to co-opt replacements for two of the places available and we welcomed Iain Ames and Ann Williamson to the Council and we have people willing to take on the other 2 places. Iain is our first councillor who lives in Round House Park.

A lot of the issues I reported on at the last annual parish meeting are still ongoing such as Unitary Status, re-negotiating the Section 106 because of extra proposed housing by the developers of Round House Park, building and management of the proposed new community centre on Round House Park, Intwood Road/Keswick Road junction, School provision for the extended village and much more.

Carrying issues over from the previous year doesn't mean we haven't done anything in the current year – far from it.

In April we started the year making grant applications for the refurbishment of the children's playground to bring it up to a standard that we feel is in keeping with a quality village. It is an ambitious target as for phase 1 we need Ł26387 and for Phase 2 Ł6250. To date, largely due to Anne's ingenuity and tenacity, we have received over Ł14,000 in grants towards phase 1.

In May the residents of Oakfields Rd/Intwood Rd formed a committee to argue against parking in their roads. The Parish Council joined them in discussion with the County Council at various times throughout the year and whilst this is not a closed item the County Council will take no action for the time being as it was felt the situation had improved following requests to the Cringleford Business Centre for more considerate parking. Also in May a little sunshine was brought to the village when the Rainbows planted sunflowers on the village green.

In June the Neighbourhood Forums, in which the Parish Council take an active part were merged with the SNAPS (Safer Neighbourhood Action Panels). Through this 4 people from Cringleford volunteered for community speedwatch training and Brettingham Avenue was designated a “No cold calling zone”. We had the first of many unlawful traveller sites set up in the village, this time in Round House Way. The Council started the process of re-applying for our Quality Parish Council status.

July and August were as usual fairly quiet months as the Council does not meet in August, unless we feel the powers that be are trying to slip something past us. We were on standby for unitary status discussions.

In September, as expected Round House Park developers put in an actual planning application for 1065 houses, 315 more than originally planned. The Parish Council is asking for more money under the Section 106 agreement for the community centre to reflect the increase in population.

Also I am delighted to say that in September the Council was re-accredited as a Quality Parish Council.

In October we heard that Norfolk County Council is proceeding with suggestions for one school for the whole village which was in line with the request from Cringleford School that the Council supported. Also in October the Gypsy & Traveller Sites draft proposals come out but after lots of objections are being reconsidered.

The Council were saddened by the death of our tree Warden John Hovey in October.

In November we formalised something we have been doing informally for years in that we appointed councillors to champion various community activities.
Champions appointed:
Tony Chater/Roy Christian – Scouts
Sue Mackinnon/Richard Burbage – School
Ian Bartlett – Football & Cricket
Colin Freeman – Church and traffic issues
Andrea Nunney/Maswood Jalil/Lavinia Gordon-Gray – Health issues
Geoff Champion – Yare Valley
Iain Ames – New Development
Clerk, Anne Barnes – Women’s Groups and Children’s Groups

In December the Council agree to appoint a part-time groundsperson to cut the grass verges, work on Round House Park and assist Chris Meeson our groundsperson. This appointment will commence shortly.

The budget was agreed in December, without too much bloodshed and the new precept for 2009/10 is Ł75,694.

The village received a seat donated to the Council by CADS in memory of Ray Wilcox, who was a member of CADS for many years and also an ex- parish councillor. This bench now sited up near the children's playground.

The Councils concerns about traffic issues on A11 with particular regard to speeding were discussed with Norfolk County Council.

In January there was more travellers illegally camped, this time in Cantley Lane. The Council were integral to discussions over the traveller issues and here I would like to thank councillor Freeman and the clerk for their work with this.

The Council decided at the January meeting that when the time, and money, comes that the Parish Council will be responsible for the building of the new community centre. This is going to be a challenge but we felt it was right for the village that we had control over this exciting new project.

In February was when we expected the Boundary Committee decision on unitary status but this has been delayed until July 09.

As I said earlier the council take an active part in the SNAP meeting and at the SNAP Meeting in February they agree to support a request to reduce the speed limit on the A11 from 50mph to 40mph through the village.

The council were also pleased at this time to appoint Mr Josh Barber and Mrs Blanaid Skipper as joint Tree Wardens to replace John Hovey. We thank them for taking on this valuable task as despite all our discussions over various trees within the village, whether to chop them, lop them or let them be, our village wouldn't be the green and pleasant place it is without them.

In March the Gypsy & Traveller Consultation was re-issued and it proposes a transit site for Thickthorn Roundabout and permanent sites at Ketteringham. I am sure the chairman's report for 2010 will update on this. On this note I have to say that regrettably the travellers have caused Ł1000 damage to Parish street lights in Cantley Lane.

I would like to finish by thanking our district and county councillors for their continued support and all of the parish councillors for their hard work and commitment through the year. Finally I want to thank our staff of Anne, Chris and Mandy for all the work they do over and above the call of duty. They may think we don't notice but we do. Thank you all.

I would just like to add that we on the Council have worked hard on behalf of the village of Cringleford during the year and on some occasions we may not have got it right in some people eyes, but as we all know hindsight is a perfect science. However, I firmly believe that it is better to get some things wrong than not to try at all. We will continue to try.

We are now looking forward to a new Parish Council year and I am sure it will be another productive year with the councillors we have and with the excellent staff that we have.

Susan Mackinnon
Chairman of Cringleford Parish Council
9th April 2009