Pakenham Parish Council : Draft Minutes Annual Meeting 25.05.2016

PAKENHAM PARISH COUNCIL
DRAFT MINUTES OF PAKENHAM PARISH ANNUAL MEETING
WEDNESDAY, 25th MAY 2016 – VILLAGE HALL, PAKENHAM

Present: Cllr H Painter (Chairman), Cllrs: M Bagnell, I Brookman, N. Davey, D Dorling, C Palfrey and B. Sidebotham. Seven members of the public also attended
Mrs S Brown parish clerk took the minutes

Councillor H Painter Chairman of the Parish Council welcomed everyone to the meeting.

1. Apologies: All in attendance

2. To sign the minutes of the meeting held on Wednesday, 13th May, 2015:-
All present agreed that the minutes should be signed as a true record.

3. County Councillor's Report:-
Councillor R Hopfensperger attended and gave her report a copy of which is attached. Cllr Hopfensperger updated Council on highway issues that had arisen at the highways site visit. It was advised Pakenham have been put on the Vehicle Activated Sign (VAS) rota. The VAS to be used throughout the village it has also been asked for S.I.D. to be used in the village. The children crossing sign in Upper Town, Cllr Painter to check where this should be sited. It was also suggested a sign was needed near the Water Mill indicating pedestrians crossing was needed, Cllr Hopfensperger to advise Highways. A resident asked if repairs could be carried out on the A143 along the stretch near the turnings into Pakenham. It was also asked if bollards/posts could be re-instated on Mill Road. The Council asked if the completed highway works would be checked. Cllr Hopfensperger advised they would be inspected. It was asked how many houses are in the pipeline to be built by Barley Homes. Cllr Hopfensperger to find out and report back. It was advised hogweed is to be found growing on the road opposite Manor Garth Cllr Hopfensperger to report.

4. Borough Councillor Report:-
Cllr S Brown attended and gave a report a copy of which is attached.

5. Police Report:-
No Officer from Suffolk Constabulary attended and no report had been received.

6. Annual reports:-

. Allotments - No report had been received.

. Monday Club - No report had been received.

. Pakenham Charities - Pakenham Charities sent their report which was read to the meeting a copy of which is attached.

. Pakenham Social Club – No report had been received.

. Pakenham Village Hall and Playing Field Association - The Chairman of the village hall Roger Harnor attended and gave a report a copy of which is attached. The Chairman of the meeting thanked Roger for all his hard work and the whole meeting echoed their thanks. The new chairman of the village hall and playing field association was introduced and welcomed. It was asked if the rental of the hall would increase the Chairman advised there were no plans at the moment to increase the rent.

. Parent and Toddler Group - The past twelve months has seen the Group attract new members and secure a healthy bank balance to ensure the Group's future. There were changes to the Committee in September 2015 when Kirstie Brown took over as Chairman and Michelle Roberts continued in the role as Treasurer. They are assisted by several other local committee members who help with the setting up and tidying away of the weekly sessions. We currently have an active Facebook page, information on the popular Mumsnet and have posted leaflets in key local facilities to promote the Group, although many of the new members have come through word of mouth. There was a slight issue with attendance numbers after September 2015 when some of the older children left to start school but currently we are attracting on average 10-14 parents and can therefore regularly have over 18 children at our weekly Group. We are also pleased to see that there are a number of parents with younger children/babies attending the group now which will ensure after September this year we can hope to see good attendance levels continue. In addition to the regular Group sessions we also held a Summer Party at the Village recreation ground in July 2015 to celebrate the end of term and a Christmas party where the children were delighted with our usual Father Christmas visit by tractor. During the Pantomime season, we took the Group on a funded trip to Planet Laser for a morning of ten pin bowling. We did have slight concerns over the low level of funds until the end of 2015 when a very successful Christmas fundraising drive raised £188.10 through a raffle, cake sale and face painting. Treat Street Café kindly ran a fund raising activity for us recently which raised a further £26, following a previous donation of £15. We also received a kind donation of £150 from Pakenham Charities. Increased attendance numbers mean that we are breaking even at each session and are feeling positive about the Group's financial future, although we will need to carry out further fund raising activities this year.

. PCC : Churchwardens Report - St Marys Church is alive and well with a service every Sunday and special services for special occasions. Easter was particularly busy with a procession of the Cross through the village on Good Friday. The construction of an Easter Garden on Saturday by the children and then a service on Easter Sunday in a church ablaze with the beauty of the flower arrangements. We also revived the custom of beating the bounds of the parish on rogation Sunday to bless crops, animals, machinery and all the workers. Use of the Martin Room is increasing hosting among things a discussion group over lent which watched a film and addressed the question of who is my neighbour? Fund raising continues with among other things an outdoor theatre production of Robin Hood on the church meadow, a jumble sale and countdown to Christmas all of which will be repeated in 2016/17. The only sad note was the loss of Sal Burrows who died on New Year's Day. Sal had given years of service in many, many capacities and her loss is deeply felt. A memorial peel of the church bells in her memory. Thanks were given to everyone for their donations in Christian Aid week.

. Tree Wardens Report - This last year has been preoccupied with complaints about overgrown roadside hedges causing annoyance to motorists. This is an annual problem which does not seem to have an obvious solution, with some landowners totally unwilling to accept that their hedges are causing a serious problem on our narrow roads. We have carried out some overdue maintenance work at the Parish Burial Ground. Encroaching trees and hedges have been removed, and concrete fence posts with a mixed hedge in the autumn. The last few wet summers have resulted in strong tree growth, which is particularly noticeable on the Diamond Jubilee Oak Tree which was planted near the Watermill. During the coming year we will have to be vigilant for Ash die back and other potential attacks on our beautiful trees and hedgerows. We will also watch with interest the reinstated hedge planted at Mr Reynolds site at Mill Road.

. Village Newsletter - No report received.

. Women's Institute - We feel our WI achieves a friendly atmosphere at our meetings and we welcome new and older member's ideas and suggestions. We hope we have a balance between raising money for our WI, educate, have member's evenings and donate money to local charities. Many rural WI's are struggling both financially and membership wise, but due to our members support and hard work fund-raising for our institute, we are able to afford to pay good speakers, and take part in a wide variety of events and trips. It all helps when we receive a donation from Pakenham Charities and we are planning a visit to see the Chelsea Pensioners and to learn Tai Chi in the village hall! We served afternoon teas at the Flower and Produce Show and we gave £85 to Margaret Harbury's sons to donate to a charity of her choice. Our jumble sale last October made money for our funds and items not sold we transported in 4 cars to Age UK in Bury – they are still selling the items. We have learnt how to repair jewellery, all about the Murder Squad in London and about the life of a diplomat's wife, to name but a few. We have seen the seals at Blakeney and visited Bletchley Park. A Brewery Visit to learn how beer is made and time to sample, is in June! Barbara Ciaravella made our Pakenham WI banner and all the WI's in our Group marched through Bury Gardens to St Mary's Church last September for a service to celebrate Suffolk West WI's 95th birthday. The banner is now in St Mary's Church in Pakenham. We celebrated Pakenham WI's 95th birthday in January and we have our Annual Garden Party in July, combined with Barbara Beevor's 80th birthday. Mary Kirby has led our WI once again and has the support of the committee and members. Our membership has gone down and now is 37, sadly as various members have died. But we have new younger members joining and in time they will integrate and join the committee. Come and join us and find out!

7. Parish Council Report - The Chairman's report included: Thanked the public who attended meetings and in particular St Edmundsbury Borough Councillor Simon Brown and Suffolk County Councillor Rebecca Hopfensperger and everyone on the Parish Council who work hard throughout the year. It had been a steady year on the parish council and it had been brilliant news The Fox Public House is to re-open which is a huge asset to the village. The most important item for the next year will be to decide whether to take forward the building of affordable housing in the village. Cllr Painter thanked the retiring Chairman of the village hall and playing field Roger Harnor for all his brilliant work and his time given to the village it had been very much appreciated. The whole meeting echoed the thanks. Roger thanked everyone and highlighted two upcoming events in the village hall: Brooks Williams will be playing in the village hall with proceeds to charity and a wine tasting will take place on 12 November.

8. Open Forum: No member of the public wished to speak.

9. Date of the next meeting: The date of the next meeting to be confirmed.

There being no further matters the meeting closed at 7.45pm.



Signed:

Date:

 

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