Annual Parish Minutes 15th May 24
SWABY GROUP PARISH COUNCIL
MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL PARISH MEETING HELD
15TH MAY 2024
Present: Cllr M. Bailey (Chairman). Cllrs Gilpin, Milburn, Powis, Start, Wright, Cooper, Dransfield & Gibson (as Members of the public).
Mrs J. Cooper (Parish Clerk)
2 members of the public
(1 member of the public sent apologies)
- WELCOME
The Chairman welcomed all to the Annual Parish Meeting.
- MINUTES OF THE MEETING HELD 17TH MAY 2023
It was resolved that these be signed by the Chairman as a correct record.
- UPDATE ON COUNCIL BUSINESS OVER THE PAST TWELVE MONTHS
Cllr Bailey had produced a written report, which outline the work of the Council over the past twelve months, as below:
The New Year 2024 saw three people express an interest in filling the then two vacancies for Parish Councillor for Swaby Parish, one of the three candidates withdrew their application and we therefore co-opted the remaining two candidates, Donna Wright and Morag Taylor. So we end the Council year with a full complement of Councillors.
At our first Meeting for the Council year in May 2023 we agreed the final details for the acquisition of a defibrillator for Swaby and the defibrillator was delivered and installed at the Village Hall in Swaby in the summer. Cllr Gilpin kindly arranged a training session which took place in the Swaby Village Hall on 16th August and was attended by 13 people.
This year there have been a number of planning applications for the Parishes in the group. We held an additional Meeting in December to consider some of the applications which required a response from the Parish Council between our scheduled Meetings.
Whilst not involving any intended work within the Parishes the consultation undertaken by National Grid concerning their proposal to erect a line of pylons from the Grimsby area through the flat landscape of the County between the Wolds and the sea to Walpole has engendered much interest and a lot of opposition. The Parish Council has added its voice to that opposition by means of its response to the consultation. It remains to be seen how National Grid will proceed but its initial comments after the consultation period had closed appear to indicate that they intend to plough on with overhead cabling on pylons irrespective of any opposition, whether from a Council (County, District, Town and Parish) or from individuals and organizations.
As ever potholes, road surfaces and blocked roadside drains continue to be a problem throughout the Parishes. In particular there was prolonged flooding of the road between South Thoresby and Aby at the beginning of 2024 after heavy rain over some months. It seems increasingly difficult to persuade the County Council to do any work on the highway beyond filling potholes.
Our annual litter picks in April this year proved successful in both South Thoresby and Swaby, with sixteen attending in South Thoresby and five in Swaby. Unfortunately soon afterwards litter started being deposited again!
The Parish Council has continued to support the Village Hall in Swaby and the Churches of St Nicholas in Swaby and St Andrews in South Thoresby.
It was good to see that both Cllr Andrew Gilpin and Cllr Alan Powis have attended training courses this year.
As I look back over the eleven years that I have been a Councillor, ten of them as Chairman, I see that as time has passed it has become more and more difficult to engage with both County Council and District Council, not helped by the fact that neither our present County Councillor nor our present District Councillor have attended any of our Meetings in the last year, nor for that matter in the previous year. Gone are the days when Bill Aron was our County Councillor and attended most of our Meetings One is left with the impression that despite Council Tax continuing to relentlessly rise we receive less and less in response from both County and District. Despite the fact that Parish Councillors are the Councillors nearest to the community they are the least meaningfully consulted when it comes to decisions about what happens in their local area.
And last but by no means least a big thank you to our Clerk, Jen Cooper, for all her hard work during the last year.
- QUESTIONS
There were no questions from the floor.
There being no further matters the Annual Parish Meeting closed at 7:05pm