Chairman's Report 2018
Irnham parish council 2017/18 – Chairman’s Report
A little information about your Parish Councillors:
Members of the council are unpaid volunteers and during our tenure none of us have accepted any payments for travelling or costs.
Jenny Crow – our Parish Council Clerk and Councillor. Her services and dedication are very appreciated by PC members and if this was not carried out on a voluntary (unpaid) basis our precept would be greatly increased and disproportionate to the requirements of a small parish.
Amanda Ayre - also sits on the Parochial Church Council and keeps this council up to date on Church matters that may affect us and is our allocated highways councillor who keeps pressure on LCC and SKDC of our requirements.
Lyn Hall - takes an interest in security and recently helped prosecute a fly tipper - tipping rubbish in the parish.
Myself – Trevor Vanson. I have carried out the role of Chairman for the last three years.
We all adopt the SKDC code of conduct when appointed.
Our funds are direct from the council tax and being a small parish we endeavour to keep to a reasonable level. The precept last year for our parish was £1,400.00.
We have about 9 or 10 Parish Council meetings per year, however, if a specific matter, say, about Planning is required which we cannot attend to by the required date by email between us, a specific meeting is called. Due to the parish’s limited facilities Chris Overend, the landlord of the Griffin Inn, provides us with a room in the Griffin for which he does not charge. For this generosity we thank him.
What have we done in 2017/18?
We arranged two sessions of training for using the defibrillators which was carried out at the Church Street Rooms in Corby Glen in February last year.
We arranged the 3rd Annual Christmas singalong – which was well attended.
For Irnham and Bulby we took advantage of the big clean by SKDC which was carried out last year – Jenny Crow in the staring TV role on local TV news!
For two years we have been in the background of pressing for deer management due to the rise in the Deer population – Grimsthorpe Estate has this in hand now.
We have been pushing for better broadband for the parish – Irnham is now getting fibre to the village but Bulby and Hawthorpe are not currently in the plans. Due to this we arranged a trial with a private service, which proved successful but costly at £70 per month – so far we have not taken this further. However, we understand, unofficially, that eventually these two areas may get fibre directly to the premises – to be seen!
The telephone kiosk in Bulby is progressing slowly as a local information / history centre, maintenance has been carried out on the glass, etc.
The telephone kiosk in Irnham is maintained by Ian and Mandy Dawson and we thank them for this.
The old water pump which was restored last year is maintained by David Hall and we thank him for this.
David also installs the yellow 30mph speed signs that are seen on the lamp posts. They may only be in place for a specific time and then taken down. We hope that this gives more impact to speedy “rat run” motorists.
As the Parish Council is the burial authority for the Parish we support the maintenance of the Churchyard, i.e. contributing towards cutting grass and tree maintenance. Charles Leggatt cuts the grass and donates his time to this project for which we thank him. The Church Wardens manage the Churchyard and if this facility was not available the Parish could be responsible to find a suitable area to use and manage which could be very costly. Any parishioner is entitled to be buried in the Churchyard if they so wish and this is why we contribute to its maintenance, we do not contribute to the Church structure or maintenance of the gravestones.
To help keep us on the straight and narrow we have joined the Lincolnshire Association of Local Councils and although this costs a small annual fee of £88.13 we have been given a grant of £600 with which we are purchasing a computer and printer specifically for Council use. Initially this was thought necessary to keep Parish Council work separate and secure. This will also make it easier for the Parish Council to comply with the new General Data Protection Regulations.
We have purchased a bench seat which will be installed on the bank near the footbridge and ford at Bulby.
Councillors also attend occasional meetings relevant to the Parish for example by SKDC about road maintenance management.
There is a national Neighbourhood planning scheme which we feel too small to participate in due to the requirements of the scheme and its costs as well as the time required in its preparation which we feel unable to carry out.