Chairman’s Report May 2010  

This has been my third and final year as Chairman of Ewyas Harold Group Parish Council, and once again I would like to say thank you to all Councillors for their combined hard work and efforts, which in my opinion has been a very challenging and demanding year, especially in the first half of 2010.

Before I begin on a brief outline of the past year I would like to comment on the two Councillors who have stood down during the last 12 months.  The two individuals are Councillor Bill Lloyd and Councillor Derek Harries both of whom have provided many years service to the Group Parish Council.  Their combined knowledge will be sorely missed and it is once again another example of us losing two of our long standing Councillors whose roles will be hard to replace, and I would like to say a big thank you to both Bill and Derek for their contributions during their years service, I am however, concerned with the future publicity for “Flicks in the Sticks”!! which Councillor Harries so admirably provided.

Over the last year there have been many issues and I would like to summarise them as follows:

1              Newsletter

This again is proving to be an excellent communications tool, and has proved invaluable recently with regard to the “Shaping Our Place” fiasco. 

2              Website

Again, like the Newsletter, this is a good communication tool, I believe we should continue to keep the information up to date, and a recent useful addition will be the information on our footpaths.

3              Shaping Our Place   

This has proved, and continues to be challenging, I think the GPC needs to be commended in its efforts to make the best out of an extremely bad communicational exercise carried out by Herefordshire Council. However, I feel that whatever the Council does we will always receive comments from some quarters on the lines of “could do better” and “why did they not do this”, perhaps the people making these comments should think about becoming Councillors themselves! 

  4            Parish Freighter

This has been a worthwhile and valuable service to many of our Parishioner’s, however, recent changes to the cost of providing this service, an increase this year of 900%, hence the increase in our precept, has meant that alternatives will possibly need to be sort.  It is therefore important during the next 6 months that the GPC communicates the alternatives that are available, in a positive way, prior to the setting of the 2011/12 precept.

5              Youth Shelter and Car Park Barrier 

It seems that these two subjects have been on the discussion table in all my time as Chairman, money has been available but we have yet to address these two issues and get them completed and I hope that these items can move forward during 2010/11.

6              Notice Board 

We finally approved and fitted a new notice board in Ewyas Harold, therefore ensuring Council business could be communicated efficiently and not be in danger of being covered up with other ad-hoc information/adverts.  In addition the new look notice board provides a nice attractive addition in the village as opposed to the old tired looking one.

The next 12 months are going to provide the GPC with various challenges, Shaping Our Place, Parish Freighter and the constant problem of dog fouling to name but a few.  However, I firmly believe that the group of people that the Council has can meet these head on, as long as we provide equal time and energy into all of them and not just concentrate on one item.  In addition, I would prefer that open and frank discussions on various contentious topics/issues are held at our monthly meetings, rather than via electronic communication, therefore allowing a healthy debate involving all members of the GPC, rather than being discussed by a few.

I would like to end my report to say thank you once again to you all, for enabling my role as Chairman to be a smooth ride,(ignoring the last 3 months!), and am sure whoever takes over will enjoy the role just as much as I have.  In addition I cannot end my review without saying once again that we are indebted to our Clerk, Andy Shipp, who always has his finger on the pulse.

Paul Sheen

Chairman

May 2010