Old Warden Annual Village Meeting 2019
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Page 1 of 10 Old Warden Annual Village Meeting 2019 Old Warden Parish Council Another eventful and productive year for your Parish Council. We have welcomed two new councillors; Adrian Groves and Joshua Rumball and allowed one to retire – we thank Tim Garner for his short but sterling service. At last your council is back to full strength. Communication between the council and our parishioners continues to be effective using the Parish Council email list, the telephone, the Council website and the village noticeboard. All residents are welcome and encouraged to apply for membership of the Parish Council website - https://www.bedsparishes.gov.uk/old-warden-parish-council/ Significant progress continues to be made with Central Bedfordshire Council (CBC) and Highways towards the continuing road safety issues in the village. A detailed strategy has now been produced in conjunction with Highways that includes additional speed restrictions and a weight limit for vehicles within the village limits with the full support of the Shuttleworth Trust. Meetings with the Shuttleworth Trust continue to maintain communication between our parishioners and the Trust via the Parish Council. The Parish Council continues to represent the parish of Old Warden on local forums and liaison groups in North Bedfordshire. This year the Parish Council has again made grants to St Leonards Church and the Cricket Club together with The British Legion, Citizens Advice and Link-a-ride local transport service to help with their maintenance. The Parish Council continue to support the village defibrillator and would like to thank those who continue to volunteer as first responders. The Parish Council is up for re-election this year. The current 7 councillors have again agreed to stand for election and their nominations have been accepted. There were no other applications from within our community and nominations closed at 4pm on 3rd April. Therefore, we do not expect an election for this coming term. Finally, thank you to all those who give up their time to help keep Old Warden the truly lovely place it is to live. Page 2 of 10 Parish Council Accounts for 2018-2019 In April 2018 the year started with the following in the bank: 1. Deposit £2,858.46 2. Current £9,982.71 Deposit account (A) – Interest of £1.44 earned in the year – Closing of 5th April 2019 £2,859.90 Current Account Total Receipts for the year of £9,811.60 consisting of: 1. Precept £9,777.00 2. VAT Reclaim £34.60 Total current account balance for the year £19,794.31 Total Payments for the year £6,864.39 Current Account closing balance (B) £12,929.92 TOTAL MONIES IN THE BANK AT 5TH APRIL 2019 (A + B) £15,789.82 START OF YEAR APRIL 6TH 2019 Receipts to Date £9,777 consisting of: 1. Precept £9,925.00 TOTAL MONIES IN THE BANK AT 12TH APRIL 2019 £25,714.82 The 2019-2020 Budget The budget was set with some things firmly in the mind of the council, together with the need to continue to improve to the benefit of the residents. 1. Firstly, the main focus continues to be traffic management through the village, consequently significant funds have been budgeted to cover costs. Currently, the Traffic Management project has reached the end of the consultation stage and we are waiting to pay for the plans. The deployment stage is expected to start in the middle of 2019 2. Again, the council must review the vehicle activated signs in the village, the one at Church is not functioning. They are owned by highways and we are currently pressing for repair or replacement. 3. The verges, hedges and grass areas need regular maintenance and the levels at which CBC attend to these is low, so it was again agreed to fund some of this out of council funds; 4. The council must have insurance, this is again extended to cover the defibrillator that is housed in the telephone box and a re-assessment of asset values; 5. The council must continue to prepare for future elections of the councillors which can cost around £1,500 for unscheduled events; 6. There are continued increasing requests to the council to support local projects and initiatives. Page 3 of 10 The above together with the expenses of running the meetings and office services associated with administering a local council resulted in a budget of £10,665 being developed. After a VAT reclaim projected to be around £300, this will leave a shortfall to be covered by our reserves. I will report on how this is resolved at next year’s meeting. The precept was set to ensure that no Parish Level council tax increase was inflicted on the residents of Old Warden. St Leonards Church 2018/2019 Worship at St Leonard's has been disrupted by the absence of our Vicar, the Rev Frank Coleman who has been on long-term sick leave since January 2019. Despite this, Services have continued with a weekly 10.00am Sunday Service. Necessary urgent repairs to the church building have been completed so that is now watertight. The area at the base of the tower has been fenced off due to the unstable tower parapets above. The next phase of work to the tower and south east corner of the Nave of the church will be done as funds become available. A Just Giving page has been setup to help with fund raising. The link is: https://www.justgiving.comcampaign/stleonards-anne-of-cleves A four camera, 24/7 surveillance system has been installed to cover Church Lane, the church entrance path and main car park area. This has enhanced security for parked vehicles of local residents and visitors to the area. The Old Warden News was produced quarterly and delivered to all households in the parish. The Parochial Church Council thanks the OW Parish Council for its continuing financial contribution towards the cost of churchyard maintenance and other projects. Broom Quarry Update Awaiting Update Broom South Quarry Update Awaiting Update. Old Warden Cricket Club Looking back over the 2018 season: OWCC played 29 games, winning 16 of them and losing 13. A frustrating season in the BSICL League saw us finish 4th having played 13 games, winning 7 and losing 6 games. The main frustration was the number of games that were cancelled due to the opposition not being able to get a team up. The Sunday side thankfully faired much better, playing a total of 16 games, winning 9 of them and losing 7. The Sunday side under Ross Goodship’s excellent guidance managed to get a team out for every single Sunday, the first time this has happened for a number of years. Picking out some notable performances from the season: with the bat, Mark Brownridge averaged 53.57 from his knocks that included 2 century’s and 1 half century – the only batsman to score a tonne this season. Page 4 of 10 With the bat and the ball, Tom Seymour set himself up to become OWCC’s answer to Jacques Kallis with a very impressive combination of averaging 11.82 with the ball and 37 with the bat. With a bowling best of 4- 22 and scoring 3 50’s, Seymour rolled back the years to put in performances reminiscent of his youth. Regular spectators at the Old Warden Arena dared to whisper amongst themselves that the boy is back. Coming in a close second to Seymour with a bowling average of 12 was Liam Holland. Liam took a total of 15 wickets in the season with a best of 4-34. Other notable performances with the ball were Joe Sharp’s 20 wickets at an average of 20 and Owen Hubbard’s very impressive junior performance of 18 wickets at an average of 23 with a best performance of 3-16. In the trophy matches Warden performed well by retaining the Allan Theed Memorial Cup and winning the RH Marshall shield. In the Marshall match Pete Sharp and Steve Howells salvaged a grim situation after Marshall’s bowlers had ripped through the top order. Howells and Sharp Senior took no prisoners though and battered Marshall’s 13 year old bowlers to all corners of the park to secure victory. Off the pitch the club had a number of successful fundraisers. The April quiz was very well supported by both the club and villagers and raised £230. Despite the sweltering temperature Ian and Lynn Willis’s cake stand at Ickwell once again proved a valuable fund raiser making £200. The village golf day on the second May bank holiday proved a popular event again. Now in its second year the format seems to be well established and concluded at the Hare & Hounds to combine with their beer festival. Jonny Dove won the prize for best overall score as well as completing a very impressive hole in one at the trickey second hole. Finally the Big Bash was a superb day. Helped by glorious weather, numbers throughout the day and evening were high and an enjoyable and profitable day ensued. The six aside trophy was won by... and the entertainment was supplied Outake with backing vocals from T Griffin. The cricket club held their AGM on the 29th Jan 2019 in the Hare and Hounds. A few changes on the management committee occurred with the most notable being Ed Holland standing down as Chairman and Luke Quenby taking the role on. Tom Seymour has taken on the role of Vice Chair from Luke. This starts a new exciting era for the cricket club with two villagers now leading the club.