Draft Minutes Annual Parish Meeting 9th April 2025
DRAFT Minutes of Irnham Annual Parish Meeting
Held in St Andrew’s Church, Irnham, on Wednesday 9th April 2025 at 7pm
Present:- Cllrs Amanda Ayre, Jon Crook, Jenny Crow, Lynda Hall, Trevor Vanson.
Also in attendance: Cllr Martin Hill and 7 members of the parish
Parish Council Clerk: Jenny Crow
1. Apologies for absence
1/1 None received
2. Approval of minutes for Annual Parish Meeting 24 April 2024
2/1 In previous years the Minutes of the APM had been approved at the next PC Meeting. The Minutes were agreed on 8 May 2024. The Minutes were accepted as a correct record.
3. Matters arising
3/1 A visit to a recycling Centre was followed up but LCC do not offer this facility.
4. Chairman’s report on the work of the Parish Council during the last year
4/1 A full copy of the Chairman’s Report is available on the Irnham Parish website.
The Chairman began with a personal message saying what a privilege it is to live in such a lovely area. Residents work hard to keep their own property very tidy and also contribute to ensuring the wider Parish environment is well maintained. The Parish Council will continue to strive to maintain our environment and way of life.
As a small Parish funds are limited and the Chairman reminded residents that all the Councillors including the Clerk work on a voluntary basis.
As has been the tradition the Parish Council will mark VE Day 80 with the rest of the nation by hoisting the special flag at 9am and lighting the brazier at 9.30pm. A fish and chip meal at the Griffin is also planned.
The Chairman thanked all the Cllrs and residents for their support and their help to make this a fabulous community to live within.
5. Finance report including the presentation of the accounts for 2024/25 and statement regarding the defibrillator account
The Clerk/Responsible Finance officer explained the following points and shared the draft annual return.
The accounts for 2024/2025 are more straight forward as there were no special events and no major projects.
The official accounting statements for 2024/2025 include both the general Parish Council account and the Defibrillator Account and show a precept, income, of £2000 and expenditure of £1915. There are no wages or expenses. We inherited a very low precept and we are restricted to a maximum annual increase of 5%. Currently we do get an extra grant towards keeping the Parish tidy of £462 per year from SKDC but this has not increased in recent years and is not guaranteed. The Defibrillator Account is able to fund replacement pads but would not fund three replacement machines. Included in the £1915 is £443 for replacement child defibrillator pads.
Expenditure in 2024/2025 can be summarised as:
Insurance £ 355
LALC subscription including website support £ 148
Churchyard maintenance £ 300
Irnham.org domain name £ 50
Heating costs for meetings £ 100
Bulby ‘phone box lighting £ 112
Plaques for flag pole and sign £ 160
D Day Lamp post sign and flag £ 39
VE Day flag and new Union Flag £ 145
Lamp post signs (Christmas and VE Day) £ 58
Child Defibrillator pads £ 443
Bank Service charge £ 5
Total £1915
The Balance in the Parish Council account is £4792.28, an increase of £990 over 2023/2024 due to the payment from SKDC of £462, the payment from the defibrillator account of £443 for the child pads and the underspend of £85.
The Balance in the Defibrillator account is £4195.21 a decrease of £394 over 2023/2024 for the child pads but including interest of £49.
Defibrillator Account
The three machines are now 10 years old and replacement pads are only available from the original supplier. Three sets of adult pads are approximately £600, three sets of child pads are approximately £450 and replacement is every 2 years. Cabinets in Bulby and Hawthorpe are beginning to have more faults.
The Clerk explained that decisions will need to be about the future of these machine. Since the purchase in 2015 Defibrillator technology has improved with pads now lasting 4/5 years, warranty up to 10 years and switchable from adult to child so only one set of pads. Fully automatic machines start at around £1000 ex VAT. A replacement Physio-Control machine is £1600. Cabinets are approximately £500 ex VAT.
The accounts have been prepared for internal audit.
6. VE-Day 80 Events
6/1 All residents have received a flyer advertising the event which includes a special Fish Supper at the Griffin on Thursday 8th May followed by beacon Lighting at 9.30pm.
7. Public forum on matters of local interest and suggestions for future priorities for the Parish Council
8/1 Cllr Vanson offered the residents present the opportunity to raise any issues with the PC, in particular the PC were interested to know if there are any suggestions as to further projects to enhance the community.
A summary of the issues raised:
(a)Several matters requiring attention were mentioned about the state of the highway through Bulby:
(i) A protective grid cover at the entry to the culvert is almost totally blocked and needs regular clearing.
(ii) The white marker wood at the front of the culvert needs replacing.
(iii) The metal fence around the entrance to the footpath across to Callan’s Lane wood is in a poor state of disrepair and needs attention from the landowner.
(iv) The ditch below Hall Farm, Bulby, as well as the drain under the entrance to the field are blocked and need digging out. (LCC are aware.)
(v) Some areas in the village are becoming overgrown with nettles and debris which need attention.
(vi) The pumping station area is not well maintained by Anglian Water.
(b) Following the above points residents noted bank erosion in Irnham, Bulby and Hawthorpe, not helped by the extremely wet weather this winter and the vast numbers of deer. In Irnham the new culvert is already filling up with silt and needs maintenance. The culvert at the sewage works in Irnham needs clearing.
(c) Residents informed the meeting that the option to bring full fibre broadband to Irnham is still being considered. A survey is likely to be carried out between April and June.
(d) Further written points were unfortunately received too late for the meeting but will be discussed at the Annual Parish Council Meeting.
(e) Councillors, the Clerk and Cllr Hill were all thanked for their work.
8. Date of next meeting:- The Annual Parish Council Meeting is Wednesday 7th May 2025, 7pm in the Church. The Annual Parish Meeting in 2026 will be on Wednesday 15th April.
Meeting ended at 7.45pm.