Minutes Of Annual Parish Meeting

REMPSTONE PARISH COUNCIL

MINUTES of the ANNUAL PARISH MEETING held in the VILLAGE HALL at 7.30 pm on Tuesday 14th March 2017

Present: Mr D Walker (Chair), Mr R Beeby (Vice Chair), Mrs A Lovett, Mrs N Dalton, Mr J Santoro, Mr W Pearson

In attendance: Mrs R Hague (Clerk), Mrs J Schober (Village Hall Committee) and 4 members of the Public

1. Apologies Apologies for absence were received from County Councillor Mr A Brown, County Councillor Mr J Cottee and Parish Councillor Mr D Bunker.

Remembrance The Chair asked for a moment of silence for Alan Wilson a parishioner who passed away this year.

2. Minutes The Minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting held on 15th March 2016 were approved and signed by Cllr David Walker as a true and correct record. Proposed by Cllr N Dalton, seconded by Cllr W Pearson.

3. Matters Arising from the Minutes None.

4. Chairman’s Report – Mr David Walker This business year has been an outstanding year for the Parish of Rempstone and our community. The highlights include: Church – The church has undergone major internal improvements – more details under item 9. White Lion Public House – The pub reopened following a top quality refurbishment. The results are there for all to enjoy. Village Hall – The village hall continues to go from strength to strength with new community activities – more details under item 8. Village Security – The CCTV project has now been completed. The Village Watch organisation has been set up and guides have been distributed to all properties. Contact with Wymeswold Neighbourhood Watch and local PCSOs have been established to help share cross boundary information. Better relationships have been developed with the police. Thanks to J Santoro for starting the CCTV project and R Hague for completing it. Administration – a total of 6 full council meetings and an additional 2 site meetings for planning applications were held in 2016/17. The Parish Council received 12 planning applications for consideration. Communications – No change in the number of electronic copies of the meeting agendas which still stands at 38. Chris Jackson who had been looking after the village website and Facebook page alongside Nicki Dalton has now passed over the responsibility to R Hague. Thanks to Chris Jackson for all his hard work. Stanford Hall/DNRC – The relationship remains strong. The recent fundraising event at the village hall including a presentation by General Tim, hosted by R Beeby and team raised £1700. Allotments – There are currently 2 vacant plots. Advertisements both in and outside of the village will continue. The parish council have again supported the roadside hedge cutting. Children’s Play Area – The parish council investigated the feasibility and costings of creating a play area on Wysall Lane. It was decided the site was not ideal due to lack of visibility which could pose a security and safety risk. The quote provided amounted to £34,000 but with possible funding options available up to £12,000 the project was still out of reach. February Storms – Rempstone experienced some storm damage. Tree branches came down on the A60 Northbound which were removed by NCC Highways. One door of the noticeboard on the bus shelter was badly damaged. Thanks to Brian Crump for rebuilding it. Thanks - Finally, thanks given to Nottinghamshire County Cllr. Mr Andrew Brown and Borough Cllr. Mr Reg Adair for their support over the year. Also thanks to Parish Clerk Rebecca Hague and to all the Councillors Joe Santoro, Annalise Lovett, Nikki Dalton, Wilf Pearson, David Bunker and Richard Beeby. This is Richard Beeby’s last meeting and we would like to express our thanks and gratitude to Richard.

5. Report from County Councillor Mr A Brown R Hague reads out the report received by Cllr A Brown. First of all my apologies for not being with you tonight. Last week at County Hall we held full Council where the coming years Council Tax was set. Unfortunately the controlling Labour administration increased it by just under 5%. We submitted an amendment which would have only increased it by 3% to cover adult social care. Included in our amendment was an extra £1m for pot hole repair. Our financial spokesman Reg Adair explained to the chamber how the savings could be made. Unfortunately we lost the vote. Hopefully a change of administration on May 4th will prevent any further increases. I have for the last four years represented Rempstone at County Hall and after May 4th you will have a new County Councillor due to the boundary changes. The last four years have passed very quickly and I have enjoyed serving you. I will not be disappearing completely though as there is the unfinished business with the A6006, which will still pass through my patch. I will if re-elected be working with your new Councillor and our colleagues across the border in Leicestershire to keep on fighting for a reduction in HGV movements. May I take this opportunity to say thank you to all the members of the Parish Council and Villagers for making me welcome. I can honestly say it has been a pleasure working with all of you. I will hopefully still support the events at the Village Hall and of course your community pub.

Cllr D Walker expressed his thanks to Cllr A Brown for his support over the past four years.

6. Report from Borough Councillor Mr R Adair No representation.

7. Open Discussion Time - Mrs J Schober reported that the village noticeboards were looking grubby and worn. The Parish council will look at getting someone to address this. - Phone box removal – no further updates on if this will happen. - Mr Porter requested the Parish Council contact Ofcom to see if anything can be done about the poor mobile phone coverage. - Reports of dog fouling on the verges on Wysall Lane and by the allotments. - Reports of pot holes up Wysall Lane to be reported to NCC Highways. - Brian Crump has offered to paint the bus shelter – to be discussed at the next business meeting.

8. Report from the Village Hall Management Committee 2016/17 - Mrs Jane Schober, Chair This report details the work undertaken by the Village Hall Committee during the sixth year of operation since the hall opened in March 2011.

A. Village Hall Management 1. Committee Membership & General Objectives There has been one change to the Village Hall Committee membership this year. Earlier in March 2017, Mr Richard Beeby resigned from the committee. He has been one of the longest serving members. Richard was also a member of the Planning Group that steered the project for the new village hall which met every week during 2010.He has made a significant contribution to both these groups. The key focus of our work has been to manage events that appeal to village residents and to meet the outcomes as agreed with the Big Lottery. These relate to safety management and targets relating to attendance, events management, networking, hire, energy use and recycling. The request for the 5 year report from the Big Lottery has not been received to date.

2. Usage Over the last 12 months I am pleased to report another increase in usage and footfall. We have seen an increase in usage for the sixth year running. Including the use of the Parish office, the hall was used on 333 occasions last year, compared with 319 the year before. The footfall was 5964 this year, a 3% increase on last year and a 28% increase since 2014/15. These figures reflect an increase in regular classes and Village Hall events. The established Line Dancing and Pilates classes continue .In addition to the monthly film event and coffee morning; we have introduced two new monthly events, Tea and Games and Table Tennis. The number of attendees at the monthly coffee morning continues to rise and now averages over 40. The Commemorative WWI event in July and the Village Show in September were particularly well attended.

3.Role Agreements The role agreements for caretaking and cleaning are in place and reviewed annually.

4. Maintenance Contracts Safety management is a key priority and annual maintenance contracts are in place to cover all the main systems including electrical checks for fire alarms and fire safety appliances, PAT testing, heating and air conditioning systems.

5. Marketing We continue to advertise our activities through local networks eg Link in Wymeswold, the Village website, Facebook, email and door drops. The Village Hall Brochure is available to promote the hall and its facilities. Re-usable cotton bags are available for sale (£2) which has the VH website address printed on them.

6. Village Hall Hire The hire and booking systems are well established and are subject to annual review. There have been no significant increases in hire charges for the fifth year in succession but we have introduced a £25 charge if the bar is used as part of a hire. We have continued with the lower hire rates for village residents.

7. Grants We applied for one grant this year from the East Midlands Airport Community Fund. We were awarded £550 which has paid for a replacement DVD player, blackout blinds and a gazebo.

8. Accountability We report to the Board of Holding Trustees. We continue to be monitored by Big Lottery and the Charity Commission.

B. Village Hall Activities Village Hall activities fall into a range of categories, those initiated and managed by the Committee, those that are combined fund raisers with the Church Social Committee, external hirers and events either regular or single sessions, for the benefit of local residents. In March 2016, we celebrated the 5th Anniversary of the opening of the Village Hall with an afternoon tea for residents. This was funded by VH funds. We also celebrated the 90th birthday of Queen Elizabeth 11 with afternoon tea in June. The VH Committee co-ordinated the Film Nights, the annual Quiz, two Bingo/Fish & Chip suppers, a Sunday Brunch, a film event for children that corresponded with Halloween and the two new monthly activities. The combined events with the Church Social Committee included the Village Show and the Christmas songs that raised over £200 for the NSPCC .We also support the Harvest Supper and the WWI Commemorations in July. The monthly coffee mornings continue to be successful with numbers increasing month on month. Over 40 attend each month. Gloria Kenney continues to organise the Jigsaw club on those mornings. The hire of DVDs will be available from the March coffee morning. The four Pilates classes continue and numbers have steadily grown during the year. The weekly Line Dancing class has now been running for over a year and the numbers are buoyant. The Yoga classes ended in the summer of 2016 after numbers had dropped and the teacher moved the class to her home village. It had run in Rempstone for 3 years. The Children’s Christmas Party did not run this year due to too few children under 11 but they did receive a small gift from us. We plan to run this event in 2017.

C. Costs and maintenance The running costs for the hall total more than £5000 per annum. This includes insurance, essential maintenance and safety contracts, licences, cleaning, decoration, caretaking, consumables, and phone, stationary and advertising. Maintenance costs this year have risen as key repair work was needed to the Range master cooker, £300 for decoration a replacement fire extinguisher and CCTV cameras. The standing order for electricity has been fixed for 3 years with Eon. The accounts are buoyant, we have covered our costs. The accounts for the year to end of March are being completed.

D. Future planning It continues to be our strategy to ensure that the use of this hall has wide appeal, is accessible and offers a quality environment. We continue to promote our activities to village residents and to encourage regular users. We have 3 combined events with the Church Committee this year, The Plant sale, Village Fete and Village Show. We will be seeking a replacement on the Committee for Richard Beeby. This has been our busiest year to date so I would like to express my thanks to all the members of the Village Hall Committee who have supported me and all our work this year. Once again, they have given generously of their time and efforts particularly in relation to the events where there is a lot of preparation. Annalise Lovett presents the accounts every quarter and continues to manage all the invoicing. Barbara Mee continues to manage the caretaking, the bookings and many day to day issues in her tireless way. Jane Read has taken a lead with the Table Tennis evenings. David Walker co-ordinates the service and maintenance contracts. I would also like to thank the Holding Trustees for their support, and Nicki Dalton and Chris Jackson for managing the website. Thanks also go to Lesley Jebson and Gloria Kenney and their team for continuing to support the coffee mornings and Paul Schober, our Quiz master. I would like to thank all those who have supported our events, donated prizes, cooked and continue to help in any way with or at events. We hope this year will be as productive and enjoyable as the last. Finally, a special thanks to Richard who has left his mark on the hall. Without Richard we would not have the splendid clock or the skirting boards! He has been particularly helpful at events that have included special displays and exhibitions. We have a range of photographs to remind us of many occasions where his seemingly endless supply of decorations, candles and very special historical records of the village have contributed to the success of many events. We will miss his good eye for detail and we wish him well.

9. Report from the Parochial Church Council – Mr Richard Beeby The accounts for 2016 show a deficit of £21,000. The 5 yearly inspection condemned the electrical wiring and so we have re-wired the church, put in a new lighting system and completely replaced the heating system. All this work has cost something in the region of £25,000. There are still teething troubles with the new heating but eventually this will be fixed and it will be operated both from within the church and remotely from an app on a mobile telephone.

We have also had the framed Coat of Arms from the time of George II cleaned and restored and it should be back in place within a few days. At the same time the Benefactions Board, which previously hung on the vestry wall, has been restored and it is hoped this will hang in the body of the church when defective plasterwork has been replaced. We were fortunate to get a grant towards this from the Nottinghamshire Historic Churches Trust.

Our structural engineer has looked at the crack in the wall over the apse arch but this is not thought to be serious. Work will need to be done to repair this crack and other areas where old wiring and wall mounted heaters have been removed and until all this type of work is completed we shall not be able to redecorate. It is thought redecoration will cost anything up to £2000.

Another project, partly completed, is to install new lighting for the car park and illuminate the path to the church. Recently we cut down a number of trees that hampered hedge cutting and mowing operations. A crown lift was done on a large tree in the as yet unused area of the churchyard. Work has also been undertaken to gutters and downpipes and stonework on the north side of the church. A new information sign near the main gates is planned together with alterations to the noticeboard on the outside of the church wall.

The church has 3 regular services per month, varied between traditional and modern and we have recently experimented with a new style for the 4th Sunday service in the month, called Village Worship, which we hope will attract younger and less regular attenders. Congregations have steadily increased throughout the year.

We are fortunate to have a team of bell ringers in the Benefice who ring at most services and for special occasions. They are always looking for new people to join them to learn the ropes so to speak. Practice is on Wednesday evenings.

The Church is grateful for the support it receives from the village generally and the Parish Council in particular. We are also grateful for all the support we get from Jane Schober and the village hall committee in organising joint fundraising events.

10. Report from the Village Watch – Mr David Bunker This was covered during the Chairman’s Report due to Mr Bunker’s absence.

11. Accounts for 2016/17 and Precept for 2017/18 Total spending to 28/02/17 is £11,589. It is anticipated a further £220 of expenses will be incurred during March, bringing the total spending for 2016/17 to approximately £11,810. Of this £1,231.66 accounts for VAT which will be reclaimed. A claim for £751.54 for the period February 2016 – January 2017 has been submitted. £4,721.77 ex VAT was spent on the CCTV project of which we received funding of £1157.65 from County and Borough Council. Excluding the CCTV project by 31st March 2017 it is anticipated that spending will amount to £5850 ex VAT and income will amount to £5901. Also worth noting that due to the change in allotment tenancy agreements 2x payments have been made during the year ending 31st March 2017. An increase of £100 (1% on a band D property) on the precept was agreed at the last meeting meaning a precept of £5000.

12. A.O.B. None

13. Date of Next Meeting: Annual Parish Council Meeting: Tuesday 9th May 2017 at 7.30 pm.

There being no further business the Chairman thanked everyone for attending and for their contribution to the proceedings and the meeting closed at 8.30pm.

Chairman ______Date ______