Minutes of Annual Parish Meeting Held in Village Hall On Monday 23rd March 2015

Present: Councillors Bell (County & Borough), Timms (Borough), Curtis, Priest, Dring, Forrester, Hallam, Hobbs, Plowman, Rait, PSCO Mike Bowes, Janice Forrester Isham Ladies Club, Jacqueline Hope, Trevor Jones, Les Julyan, Anne Marshall, Richard Marshall, Graham Patenell, Hazel Rait, History Society, and Alison McLaven Clerk,

Apologies

Apologies were received from The Mayor, Stan Turner, Isham Charities and Isham Parochial Church Council, John Lambert, Beavers & Scouts, Bell Ringers, Bowls, FOIS, Pre-school, Isham Wesleyan Chapel.

There were no reports or apologies from the Cricket club or Oversixties.

Councillor Curtis welcomed everyone to the meeting, noting that the attendance had dropped since the previous meeting.

Report on the County by Councillor Bell

The Womens Cycle Tour came through last year, it started in Oundle and ended in Northampton, and was watched by 300,000 people, it is back this year and starts in and it is hoped that in 2016 it start in .

The County Council are promoting rise to the top in schools. The County have identified schools it judges to be failing and are inviting all to apply for a share of a million pounds. There are 16 new schools needed over the next 12 years, a lot will be free schools or academies as the government is not providing the money to start these schools.

Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire are working together over things like transport, network rail etc. the three counties have a gross administrative value of 45 billion pounds for 2 million people which equals that of greater Manchester.

The bypass needs more funding, but there is now funding for the top and the bottom of the route, Councillor Bell is working hard to get the funding for the middle bit, and is anticipation construction could start in 4 or 5 years. Superfast broadband should be rolled out through the County soon. The A43 will be duelled.

The County Council are spending 16 million pounds on a new headquarters building, this will then save 50 million in rental costs. It should be ready next year, and there is a possibility that the Police will also use the building.

Councillor Bell noted that whatever the result of the election on 7th May, spending will still be cut. Councillor Bell has spent his grants on various projects throughout the villages, including buy cups saucers etc. for the New Village Hall.

In answer to a question about the number of vehicles from the increased number of housing in Wellingborough Councillor Bell advised that there is a limited number to be built until conditions are met for the next stage of development.

Councillor Bell advised to write to him requesting a Number Plate Recognition Camera to be placed in Station Road, to help stop the number of HGV’s using the road when they should use a different route. He also advised to contact him regarding the number of potholes along the Road, so that he can contact Helen Howard who may be able to come out again and view the repairs needed on the road.

There were also concerns raised about the amount of litter along the A509 from the A14 to Wellingborough and Station Road. Councillor Bell advised that Highways are trying to deal with the problem and clean up but they have to wait for specialist Lorries to help on major roads.

Report on the Police by PCSO Mike Bowes

There were 3 reported crimes in February, 2 burglaries of dwellings, the cricket club and 10 Wellingborough Road. The other crime was vehicle damage in Church Street, the offender has been dealt with. PCSO Bowes noted that we have not received crime figures recently and would advise Sharan Wildeman of this. JAG priorities are HGV limits in villages, Anti- Social Behaviour, and speeding. Councillor Timms noted that motorbikes often speed through the village.

Report on the Borough from Councillor Timms

Councillor Timms advised the meeting that this would be his last appearance as a Borough Councillor, he has been a Borough Councillor for 33 years, and he was sorry to leave.

Councillor Timms reminded everyone that Norse can be contacted regarding refuse collection, and that the number is on the leaflet in the Noticeboard.

Councillor Timms revealed that Bovis are starting work on Stanton Cross and that they will be building a new bridge over brook and the railway lines

Councillor Bell thanked Councillor Timms for all his hard work over the years, and noted that Stanton Cross has small grants available which can be applied for on their website.

Report on the Parish Council and PFA from Councillor Curtis

Councillor Curtis started by thanking Richard Marshall for being the Footpath Warden for many years, and putting up 90 odd way mark posts, building styles etc. We are now looking for a new volunteer Footpath Warden for Isham.

Councillor Curtis thanked Councillor Timms again for all his efforts. Councillor Dring is retiring in May, so there will be a vacancy. Councillor Curtis thanked all volunteers especially Richard, Geoff and Gordon for all their hard work which is very much appreciated.

Volunteers are needed to help with Speedwatch, which will start on 4th July and go on until 8th August. It is hoped to do an evening shift to catch Lorries speeding.

Volunteers are also required to help with the grass edges as the paths are being eroded especially along the main road and in Fairfield Road, these had be asked for previously but we have not had anyone come forward, if there are still none, we may have to ask a contractor to do the work and this will affect the precept. The Precept has been increased for the first time in a number of years, this is to fund the setting up of a website which we need so that we can keep the village up to date with things that are happening, recently there have been two incidences when the Clerk and Councillor Dring have leaflet dropped to advise re planning in the Sorrels and the Wind Turbine which could have been put on the website to inform people. It is hoped we can get some funding towards this.

The work at the cemetery has been done, and grass set. There are a lot of mole holes along the main road, the contractor had flattened all of them, but they are now back.

We are grateful to the 11 volunteers who helped Councillor and Mrs Forrester with the litter pick.

The Parish Council has become trustees of the Playing Fields Association which included the Glebe field and the grounds of the Cricket Club, all Councillors are the Trustees whilst in position. We are hoping to look at access etc. in future

Report on the Charities

The Council wished Mr Turner a speedy recovery

The Apprentices charity has had a disposable income of £1600.04, grants of £300.00 and £179.94, and the honorarium of £101.03. The trustees are always pleased to receive enquiries.

The Constable charity had an income of £118.79 and the honorarium for bus shelter cleaning of £40 had been paid out.

The William and Anne Green Charity had an income of £26.95, the annual distribution of bread and meat, which is now chicken and Christmas pudding had cost £26.94 for the 6 chickens and £6.00 for the Christmas puddings and they had been distributed to suitable residents.

Funds are always limited due to the lack of investment interest. Overall the year had seen a slight rise in the level of interest and we may well see income rise over the next year. The trustees always endeavour to do their best with the limited funds available.

Reports from the Voluntary Organisations

1st Isham and Orlingbury Beavers, Cubs and Scouts – Apologies sent, report provided.

The group has for some time been without a Beaver Colony (6-8 yrs olds) but within the past year we have found 2 new leaders to restart the Beavers, and are now at maximum capacity for the ratio of leaders. They are being assisted by 2 young leaders also. The Beavers meet on Wednesday 6.15- 7.15 at Isham Village Hall.

The Cubs have been busy and until Christmas has 2 leaders. They also linked up with the scouts on a few evenings last year, including a bar b q, and scarecrow building! The Cubs are 8-101/2 yr old and meet at Isham School on a Wednesday 7.00.- 8.30.

The Scouts, like the Beavers have moved back into the very nice new village hall. They also have been busy backwoods cooking on open fire, hiking over the fields with a full rucksack, and a challenge night in County Park.

We are always looking for new leaders, or helper, and especially a Group Scout Leader. We also have spaces for Scouts and Cubs.

Isham Bell ringers - Apologies sent, report provided.

The bell ringers at St Peter’s were pleased to welcome Stuart Bendall back to the belfry in May when he and his family returned to the village. Stuart began to ring in 2010 before work commitments took him away from Isham. It was impressive how quickly he slotted back in and was able to pick up his skills again. There are now ten ringers who practise regularly on a Monday evening, and we have three learners who are making excellent progress: Joseph and Matthew Loak and Barbara Gatenby. I was especially pleased when all six bells were rung for Sunday service in July and hope this will be a more regular occurrence. We were very honoured to be asked to ring on August 4th, when Isham remembered those who died in WW1. The Tenor bell was tolled and we rang the bells half muffled before the service. All the ringers put in a lot of effort to make our Christmas tree special for the church festival! We were all busy, for weeks before the event, making bells out of felt, buttons, dough, fir cones, cross stitch and decorated-porcelain. It was great fun working together on the tree and decorating the belfry too! We rang to celebrate the New Year 2015 and were joined by a relative of John Tilley when we rang for his service of thanksgiving in February. Sadly, we weren’t asked to ring for any weddings this year.

Isham CEVA School Governors – report by Councillor Forrester, a foundation governor-

Kirstin Howarth, our Head Teacher, continues to be well supported by her staff as can be seen from the results achieved. There has been no major change in the structure of the School. We are at capacity with 105 places and we continue to be over-subscribed. Only some 25% of the children live in the village. We continue our close links with St Peter’s Church with The Rev Mary Ireland visiting the School regularly and conducting some assemblies. Friends of Isham School continue to play an active part in fund raising to supplement the budget received from the County Council as well as arranging a number of activities. This support is greatly appreciated. In October 2014, Nick Gibb the Minister of State for School Reform rated Year 1 reading results in the top 2% in the UK. Also in October 2014 the School were winners of Kettering Sport School of the Year 2014 and were nominated for Northamptonshire Sport School of Year 2014. November 2014 saw the School being winners nationally of Golden Mile of the Month, whilst we were second nationally in December 2014. Also in December we were joint 1st in School League Tables for Level 4 Achievement and 3rd in League Tables for Level 5 Achievement – that was out of 361 Schools! In January we were delighted to receive a letter from Rt Hon David Lewis MP Minister of State for Schools placing us in top 149 schools nationally for Key Stage 2 2014. We previously had a “Good” OFSTED rating with last year’s self- assessment confirmed by the Local Educational Authority, that we are “Outstanding”. An OFSTED inspection has recently been completed and we have now been rated as OUTSTANDING. A FANTASTIC ACHIEVEMENT. Every child is encouraged to participate fully in the School’s activities which include sport, creative arts, with various organisations visiting the School and outside visits. This helps with the full development of the children. Events include: farm visits, Grendon Hall and Isle of Wight “sleepover” activities, 1st Aid Training, Fire Extinguisher Training and Museum visit, celebration of Chinese New Year. On the creative arts and sports front, the School took part in dance festivals, swimming galas, cross country, indoor athletics, karate competition and hockey tournament. Church activities included Harvest Festival, Nativity production, Christmas Carols and Easter Celebration. The School is a hive of activity and apart from the teaching and activities we have had numerous other visitors bringing expertise in music, various sports all with the intention of giving the children a broader life experience and stimulating their learning. The School’s web site www.ishamprimary.org.uk is the primary source of information and news of the School and we encourage all people interested to visit the site.

Isham Cricket Club – No one attended and no report provided.

Friends of Isham School – Apologies sent, report provided.

Friends of Isham School (FOIS) have been busy raising money to replenish our school library. We will shortly be giving the school a cheque for £4,000 as a contribution to the recently purchased books and library equipment. As in recent years we raised the most money from our May Gala Day event which was held at the school – despite poor weather we raised £2000. Our May Day event this year will be held on 9th May and we are hoping for fine weather for the children’s performances and crowning of the May Queen. We have held many smaller fund raising events during the period to include: 2 school discos, a book sale, and various raffles, refreshments at the school choir afternoon and the Chocolate Tombola at the village Christmas Fayre. In addition to our upcoming May Day we plan to hold a Beetle Drive in school on the 20th June to include a chip shop supper. This will be a great family afternoon and we are hoping that many of the school families will support us at this event. We are currently fundraising to make various playground improvements at the school, including a new shelter with a living roof. Our accounts for the year ending 31 August 2014 show that FOIS raised £4,000. Thanks to everyone involved for their continued support.

Isham History Society – report by Hazel Rait

I am able to report another successful year for the History Society with an increase in our membership and also more male members. We have 55 paid up members and an average of 38-40 people at each meeting.

In April 2014 25 members visited London and enjoyed a tour of the House of Lords and the House of Commons organised by our MP Peter Bone. In June we visited Stamford and had a guided tour which pointed out many features of the town that we had not noticed before. We would like to thank the members of the Wesleyan Chapel for allowing us to use the chapel while the new village hall was being built. We returned to our usual venue in November. We also took part in the Christmas tree festival in November. Our tree was entitled Blood and Bandages in memory of World War I, our poppies were named with Soldiers and events from 1914-18.

Our monthly meetings have proved very popular covering various topics such as ‘The story of a Norfolk Tommy’, ‘Scottish Painters’ and the ‘Sport of Kings’ by Adam McGlynn a director of Wetherbys. At our Cheese and Wine in December we were entertained by Douglas Maddy an amazing local magician. This year we have had Philip Johnson speak on ’76 Years at Rectory Farm and Malcom Deacon on the ‘Jurassic Way’ in Northamptonshire.

We are always pleased to welcome new members or to see casual visitors who are interested in any of the various speakers.

Isham Ladies Club – Report by Janice Forrester

The year ending December 2014 has been an excellent year for the Ladies Club. We were able to welcome new members as well as old and now have 35 regular ladies attending our meetings, which are held on the first Thursday in the month, in the new village hall. Our thanks go to Mandy for helping us in the transition from the Chapel to the Village Hall.

We held 11 meetings during the year and were entertained by many different speakers from talks about Flanders and Swan, to Sue Watkins showing us beautiful woollen garments made from Alpaca Wool, and how she became a keeper of 200 Alpaca. We were entertained by Isham Residents Julie Beatty and Cathie Howe, lots of talent in Isham.

We look forward to 2015 for more interesting evenings and hopefully encouraging more people from Isham to come to Ladies Club.

Isham Pre-school Playgroup– Apologies sent, report provided

We have now operated from Isham Cricket Club for nearly two years and the children continue to enjoy the outdoor space that it provides.

Over the past year we have focused on topics such as water which included a fantastic beach session on the field, superheroes, summer, fairy tales and Chinese New Year. We have enjoyed visits from Bugtopia and the police and fire service and we have visited a farm, play park, the Glebe Field, Sainsburys, the library and East Carlton Park.

We work extremely hard to ensure that our pre-school continues to provide an ‘outstanding’ service to local children and their families (rated ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted in 2013). We try to keep our fees competitive and affordable and also rely on government funding which hasn’t increased over the last few years; consequently we struggle every year to ‘survive’ and are always extremely grateful for donations in any form. Although we do a small amount of advertising we rely on word of mouth so please tell anyone you know that has a child who may want a pre-school place to get in touch-we take children from 2 years 9 months.

Isham Over 60’s – No apologies or report

Orlingbury and Isham Short Mat Bowls - Apologies sent, report provided

The above club has a membership of 20 players at the above date, some have been with us since the opening of the Orlingbury Village Hall or before. We meet on Monday and Friday evenings 7.30pm – 9.30pm with a short break for tea/coffee and biscuits and also on a Tuesday afternoon from 2pm – 4pm (no break).

Should anyone like to come along and try their hand please just turn up to have a go. We have a selection of bowls in our cupboard (flat soled shoes or slippers should be worn)

Our office bearers are – Chairman – Alistair Jarrett, Treasurer – Sue Marsh, Secretary – Evelyn Jarrett (01536 516108) and a new Match Secretary – Peter Marsh .

The club annual subscription is £5 and £2.00 per evening and afternoon. There is no obligation to come along 3 times a week and there will always be someone available to give you advice. We have 3 mats and spare bowls and members from Isham, Orlingbury, , Wellingborough, Kettering, Ecton and Northampton – so come along and try your hand; we are a mixed bunch of all ages and don’t take our bowling too seriously. This year we supported our local hostelry and had Christmas Dinner at the Queen’s Arms in Orlingbury.

St Peters Parochial Church Council – Unfortunately Mr Turner had been in hospital and was unable to provide a report.

Isham New Village Hall – Clive Hallam

The New Hall was officially opened on Jan 24th 2015 by the outgoing Chairman of the Trustees John Lambert and Marlene Freeman a long standing resident and former Lollipop Lady in the Village.

A press release went out and was put in the E.T on March 19th thanking all involved over the years raising funds to make this possible and to thank the various grant providers There are still a few snagging repairs to do and following a water leak just over a week ago where a joint burst there is still some drying out and insulation to replace but our builder James Duffin seems to be on top of these and hopes to have them finished shortly. Thanks to Mandy/Nigel /Phill and everyone else who rallied around as usual to clear the mess, fortunately not too many bookings had to be cancelled.

In these early days before we get things like heating bills in and really know accurate running costs we expect them to be around £250-300 per month and I’m please to say that already bookings have gone well and achieved that level. Mandy is doing her best to help new people to have a look around the hall and try the facilities and I see we have keep fit classes on a Saturday morning as well as numerous ad/hoc parties and events and the regular hall bookings so everything is going in the right direction. A small Management group have been appointed to make the quick decisions that come up between Trustee meetings and keep on top of minor expenditure items. Once we release the final payments to the builder there will be a small surplus which will enable us to procure additional tables and chairs required, and a few other items and give us a buffer, should we need it while revenues build back up. We will also keep an eye open for any other potential grant aid whether for the Hall directly or that may help individual groups using the facilities Formal accounts will be prepared as we move forward

Isham Independent Wesleyan Chapel – No apologies or report provided.

The meeting closed at 7.15 with thanks to those attending.