Cowlinge Annual Village Meeting 23Rd April 2018

Cowlinge Annual Village Meeting 23rd April 2018

John Barnett welcomed 22 people to the annual village meeting. He said that in the absence of the Parish Council Chairman, who would automatically chair an annual meeting, the public present must nominate their own Chairman. He suggested Paul Davis as the Vice-Chairman of the Parish Council and Paul was duly nominated. Borough Councillor Jane Midwood said she would like to present an illuminated scroll to John Barnett on behalf of the Borough ‘in grateful recognition of his outstanding contribution to the community’.

Minutes of last year's meeting: Copies of last year's minutes were available at the meeting and approved.

Suffolk County Council: County Councillor Mary Evans said that she would like to also thank John Barnett for his efforts on behalf of the community. Mary reported on potholes and said it had been an appalling Winter with frosts and rain. They have received an extra £2.5 million from the Government but there is a huge backlog from the underinvestment going back decades. An indication of the severe frosts was that last year they spent £1.5m on gritting and this year it is £3m. They are looking to reduce the grit piles and go for more grit bins. Education has been a priority for some time since Suffolk had slipped way down the league tables. There has been a good turnaround and now 87% of schools are good or outstanding. The new transport to schools reduction will only now affect children when they change schools.

St Edmundsbury Borough Council: Borough Councillor Jane Midwood said good evening to everyone in Cowlinge and thank you for inviting me to your Annual Parish Meeting. I watched with interest a programme on BBC East outlining all the services provided by local councils. We all know that St Eds collects the bins but how many of us realize that caring for homeless people is also a Borough duty? In these days of economic uncertainty there are increasing numbers of people and families being made homeless for many different reasons. During the very cold weather last winter temporary accommodation had to be found for dozens of people in our area. 40 temporary beds Bury and 70 over the West Suffolk Area. Planning for winter 2018/19 is already underway. The public gave very generously to support provision of temporary accommodation. Standards of Public Health and Hygiene in our restaurants and shops are a responsibility of the local authority and it is reassuring to know that inspectors regularly rate local premises to keep the public safe. £1.Smillion of investment has been made in leisure facilities in Haverhill. Planning issues in the Withersfield ward have mostly been concerned with residential accommodation but closer to Haverhill there are projects ahead which will change our local area. My particular concern is the increase in traffic, which is bound to have a knock on affect on the surrounding villages. I was pleased to be able to provide funding for your Parish Council from my Locality Budget last year to purchase 4 new combined litter and dog waste bins. I am sure these will be a useful addition to village facilities. In January I met up with the new Families and Communities officer responsible for the Withersfield ward and gave her a tour of the area. She was very interested to see where Locality Funding had helped village projects in the past and impressed by the community spirit evident all around.

The most important piece of Borough news is that St Edmundsbury and Forest Heath Councils have got the go ahead and will form a single West Suffolk Council. First elections to the new council will be in May 2019. The West Suffolk Council Electoral Review is to be debated by St Eds councillors tomorrow and, if approved, the options will be submitted to the Local Government Boundary Commission for England. Best wishes to everyone and keep putting your litter in the bin!

Suffolk Police: No report.

Neighbourhood Watch: Andrew Crocker had sent his apologies.

Parish Council: Councillor Paul Davis said that the Parish Council year had had a busy year with: The Village Hall shed was in poor repair last year. This has been repaired and is in good condition again. The seats at the village sign were in need of replacement last year. They were replaced by a new Queen’s birthday celebration seat with assistance from another grant from Councillor Jane Midwood’s Locality Budget. The seat was turned to face across the fields towards the church. The digitising of the village archives by volunteers was begun. New Village Hall window blinds installed at the request of a community group. Maintenance of the footpaths, Village Greens, Village entrance signs, street nameplates, triangles, Green Man Bridge clearance, War Memorial strim/weedkill, Village Hall frontage and garden by the contractor continues throughout the growing season dependent upon rainfall/need. Thanks go to the relatives of 3 of the families commemorated on the circular seat on Three Tuns Green for their efforts in cleaning it. A large planning application at Cowlinge Hall was discussed at a Parish Council meeting. The possibility has been raised of a new dedicated Community Speedwatch group in Cowlinge. The existing group are all volunteers with the majority from Great Bradley. They only visit Cowlinge once per month from April – September at 4pm. The new group it is hoped would be able to operate more frequently and at more suitable times. The Village Hall overhead heaters failed and were replaced with new ones. In January the Precept to St Edmundsbury Borough Council for the coming year was discussed. The Precept was increased to pay for a new Vehicular Activated Sign dedicated to Cowlinge only. The annual litter pick was organised and well supported – thanks to all the volunteers who came and all those who pick throughout the year in their areas. The kitchen ceiling in the Village Hall needs repair and quotes are being sought. The Parish Council has organised the cutting of all of the verges throughout the village which are now cut three times in the season. The Village Hall accounts continue in a healthy state and they are able to take more costs back from the Parish Council. New litter bins which combine both normal litter and dog waste have been purchased and have replaced both the small bins at Pound Green, Three Tuns Green and the Village Sign. A fourth has gone to a new location at the Village Hall next to the seat at the front. Thanks go to Borough Councillor Jane Midwood for a very large grant towards this cost. 3

The Parish Council is to purchase a new dedicated Vehicular Activated Sign which will be available all the time for the village. There will be further poles for the sign to be moved around onto. There is a need to decide where these new poles should be. The suggestion is that one should go at Erratts Hill and another at Tillbrooks Hill. There were no further suggestions so these positions will be the ones planned. The possible land transfer to the Parish Council at Tillbrooks Hill continues. If successful it is planned to have a celebration party there. Thanks go to both Borough Councillor Jane Midwood and County Councillor Mary Evans for giving grants towards the costs of this. The Parish Council is affected by the new legislation on Data Protection due to come into force next month. The exact requirements and associated costs are still unclear, however, a sum of money has been budgeted for this. It is planned this year to purchase a network Attached Storage Device to take all the village archives/pictures and make them available on the internet all over the world. It is planned that the Village Hall will have new double-glazed windows throughout and a new, safer, emergency rear door. Grant requests have been put in to West Suffolk and Havebury for this. A new noticeboard for the Village Hall has been ordered. This will be in keeping in Oak. It is hoped that the old noticeboard may be able to be refurbished sufficiently (if we can find someone local to do it for us) to give a reasonable extended life and could be put on the air-raid shelter at Pound Green so both ends of the village have proper noticeboards. The War memorial is in need of a clean and it is hoped this will be completed by the time of the commemoration of the end of WW1 in November. The Parish Council continues to receive funds from West Suffolk Council for the recycling collections of glass and paper at Three Tuns Green. This is worth around £230 to the village each year. The contractor continues with the grasscutting and many other areas for us throughout the growing season. There are some other untidy areas in the village that need maintenance and they are to be included from this year. A question was raised about the area around the recycling bins being muddy and whether another place might be better. John Barnett said that the site was the given area but that he had bark chips which he put down from time to time to improve the area. He will put some more down immediately.

Community Speedwatch and the Vehicular Activated Sign: This had been covered earlier.

Superfast broadband: BT has now put fibre cabinets at both Pound Green and Tillbrooks Hill. There is a complete lack of information from BT about timing of availability from these cabinets. Councillor Mary Evans said that they will be getting more information from BT in future on these matters.

War Memorial: Councillor Paul Davis said that the War Memorial had now been granted heritage Listed building status.

Village Hall: There is to be a live music event at the hall on Friday May 4th. The Blackheart Orchestra duo will be appearing and tickets cost £10, pay on the door, and doors open at 7.30pm for 8pm music start. There will be nibbles available but everyone is asked to bring their own drinks. As space is limited people are advised to get there early.

Noticeboard: This had been covered earlier.

New windows and door: This had been covered earlier.

Cowlinge Facebook page: Councillor Paul Davis said that since the start 2 years ago there had been a slow but steady increase in the numbers of people using the Facebook page to 64 so far. There is a lot of local information on the page and the more that use it the more relevant it becomes to the village.

Cowlinge website: John Barnett said that he had had trouble getting onto the server recently (which was kindly provided free of charge by Suffolk County Council) to change the site but this had now been traced to a change in browser. He will add the Open Gardens Day event to this. He said that he looks after the website but it still needs a lot more work to bring it up to more modern standards. He pointed out the Great Bradley website was superb and managed by a member of the public on behalf of the village. He asked for anyone who might have the time and expertise to do this for the village to contact him.

Consider some form of commemoration of 100 years since the end of WW1: David Wedgwood said that the British Legion was organising a ceremony at every churchyard with war graves. Jo Wreathall said that there were 2 war graves in the churchyard and a new official sign to that effect was being organised currently.

Threeways public house: No report

Village archives: The digitising of the archives is about half completed thanks to the volunteers. Once completed they will be put in a locked cabinet in the village hall and uploaded to the internet.

Reports from Village organisations:

Church: Jo Wreathall said that there had been vandalism once again on the church roof with an attempt to steal lead which was thwarted as it was now stainless steel However damage was caused. The alarm went off but no Police turned up till 11pm. There is now scaffolding on the back of the church. The Rev Brin left in September. The church will be open for Open Gardens Day and further events planned are Harvest Festival/Supper 16/17 September, farm walk 22nd September at Bansteads Farm.

Clay Pigeon Club: Information was given that the traps need updating which is costly so that the club now no longer operates on a regular basis but more ad-hoc.

Bell ringers: David Wedgwood said that they have 7 churches in the Benefice but Cowlinge, Stansfield and Stradishall are the only ones with ringable bells. With the Rector no longer there church times have changed. They now only have 4 ringers on a regular basis so the future does not look bright! But this is a tradition that must be kept going.

Fund-raising for East Anglian Air Ambulance: Irmela Jamieson said that this year's date is 29th September at Lambfair House. There is a representative who could come to the village to give a talk about the EAAA.

W.I.: Valerie Woodman said that Cowlinge W.I. had now closed. Wickhambrook is still going well. The W.I. collage is to be taken to the church for display there. John Barnett said he would organise this.

Any other ideas, thoughts concerns: Neville Jamieson spoke about the flooding on the road at Lambfair Green. Councillor Mary Evans asked that the information be sent to her.

Councillor Paul Davis thanked everyone for coming to the meeting and declared it closed at 8.45 pm

Signed Chairman date