Cringleford Parish Council

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.....Latest News...........The next Meeting of the Parish Council is Thursday 11th SEPTEMBER 2008.......See the new website at www.cringleford.com for information on village organisations...........Police Mobile Unit coming to Cringleford Recreation Ground, Oakfields Road, on Tuesday 9 September 2008 between 13.40p.m.and 15.10p.m.............This week is GREY BIN week..... Don't forget to put your GREY WHEELIE BIN out on Wednesday/Thursday.........Click here to see Cringleford Councillors photographs.......Read about our Freedom of information policy......Click here to see our latest Newsletter!...............

CHAIRMANS ANNUAL REPORT 2008

Cringleford Parish Council Annual Report for 2007/08

I would first like to welcome everyone to the 2008 Cringleford Village Annual Parish Meeting. I extend a warm welcome to parishioners, our County and District Councillors and to all our parish councillors and employees.

I can’t believe it has been a year since I took over the chairmanship of the council. I thought that we had an interesting year ahead and I was right it has certainly been an interesting year. I also thought that Ian Bartlett would be a hard act to follow as chairman and I was right there as well.

We started the year with parish council elections. There were not enough candidates to force an election. Three long standing councillors Elaine Tucker, Chris Mackinnon and Mark Farrar retired and we were joined by Chris Branson, Geoff Champion and Frances Holmes. Chris Kemp and Gary Wheatley were re-elected as our district councillors.

Sadly in September our dear Elaine died and she is greatly missed.

For personal reason Frances Holmes and Chris Branson resigned during the year and we welcomed of Roy Christian and Richard Burbage to the council in their place.

Early in the year we had the first suggestions of Cringleford being enveloped into an extended Norwich Unitary Authority and this has been an ongoing issue throughout the year and continues to be discussed and myself and other councillors have attended various meetings at SNDC and will continue to so and be involved. The Boundary Committee are due to announce their draft proposals in April. I think that is where the fun really will start.

At about the same time as the talk of extending Norwich the Parish Council were invited to attend the official opening of Round House Park and we have watched it grow apace with interest ever since. Around Christmas the first Round House Park residents moved in.
In January this year the developers put in a proposal for 1000 houses plus 40 sheltered housing properties and 25 bungalows. This has been an opportunity to re-negotiate the section 106 agreement and give the council extra funding for the new community centre.

Road safety issues in the village have been high on the agenda with the County Council starting compulsory purchase on land in Keswick Road to make improvements to the footpath at the Keswick Road/Intwood Road Junction. We are also in the early stages of discussions with the County Council on the parking difficulties in Intwood Road close to the Oakfields Road Junction and I am pleased that the residents affected have formed an action group and collected signatures on a petition which was forwarded to the County Council. The parish council are pleased to work with them.

A new initiative of Neighbourhood Forums was set up to incorporate members of the District Council, the County Council and parish representatives and I was pleased to be elected as a parish representative from the Cringleford area. Cringleford hosted one of the forum meetings.

Our wider village interests have flourished as well with the Scouts using their new building to full advantage and they have now agreed all their required planning conditions. There is still the outstanding issue of the pathway repairs but that is in hand.
The junior football club have been an outstanding success due to the vision and hard work of various parents and volunteers.
The Tennis club are in the process of replacing the grass courts for all weather courts and re-aligning their floodlights.

During the year the parish council were approached by Miss Blake, Head Teacher of Cringleford School, to see if we could assist her and the governors in getting the issue of a single school for the village re-opened. The argument was that things had changed considerably both politically and educationally since the first consultation on 2004. We were pleased to support their request and with the help of Judith Virgo, our County Councillor, we succeeded in re-opening the consultation process.

I want to finish my report with a mention of the parish council staff. As councillors we are all volunteers and some of us have the “day job” to manage as well as our council duties. We would find it very difficult to manage the village without our superb staff.

I want to thank Mandy for her management of the bookings and the pavilion. I am also delighted that Chris Meeson has now joined the permanent staff and the grounds and village areas are certainly showing the improvement that we anticipated when he decided to work for the parish council again.

And last but not least I must mention Anne, who despite a constantly breaking parish council computer nevertheless does an excellent job. She is the focal point for the council. Whatever information the councillors want, it is to hand. When anyone from the, County or District Councils or one of the village residents wants something they know who to ask – and the answer is usually available.

As I said at the beginning of my report I anticipated an interesting year - and we certainly had one. I am sure that next year will not be any less interesting but I am equally certain that as a Council, with the backing of the staff we have, we are ready for whatever is to come.

Susan Mackinnon
Chairman of Cringleford Parish Council
10th April 2008