ANNUAL REPORT 2009/2010

Councillors and Officers:

Dulas

Councillor Mrs Liz Overstall

Little Cwm, Dulas HR2 0HL  

01981 240122

Councillor Mr Bill Preece

Little Walk Mill, Dulas. HR2 0HJ

01981 240673

Post vacant since November 2009

Ewyas Harold

Councillor Mrs Judith Webb

Gamekeepers Cottage, Dulas Court HR2 0HL

01981 240250

Councillor Mrs Madeleine Bradley

Home Farm, Dulas. HR2 0HJ

01981 241108

Councillor Mr Derek Harries                     

2 Cedar Mews, Dark Lane, Ewyas Harold. HR2 0EZ

01981 240936

Post vacant since April 2010

Councillor Mr Glyn James

The Weir, Ewyas Harold. HR2 0ES

01981 240816

Councillor Mr Peter Jinman

Spring Bank, Ewyas Harold Common. HR2 0JD

01981 240409

Councillor Mr Ron Weaver

Weir End, Ewyas Harold. HR2 0ES

01981 240553

Councillor Bennie Krige

VICE CHAIRMAN

Church House, Ewyas Harold. HR2 0EX

01981 240411

Vacancy

Rowlstone

Councillor Mrs Mary Williams

Rowlstone Court, Rowlstone. HR2 0DW

01981 240322

Councillor Mr Paul Sheen      CHAIRMAN

Primrose Cottage, Pudding St, Rowlstone. HR2 0DN

01981 240041

Llancillo

Councillor Richard Baker

Park Lodge, Rowlestone. HR2 0HE

01981 241325

Parish Clerk

Mr Andy Shipp 

Berry Bach, Llanvihangel Crucorney. NP7 8EG

01873 890974

Parish Footpaths Officer

Dr Peter Overstall

Little Cwm, Dulas HR2 0HL

01981 240122

 

Annual Finance Report 2009-2010

A more detailed report will be presented as an agenda item at the Annual Meeting of the Group Parish Council

Income

Balances brought forward

£11,785

Annual Precept 2009/2010

£16,843

Vat reclaim

£608

Other Income

£4,662

TOTAL

£33,898

Expenditure

Major areas identified

Staff costs (excluding Lengthsman management)

£6,513

Recreation Ground

£2,629

Insurance

£2,386

Lengthsman

£2,337

Parish Freighter/Litter

£1,418

Fees/subscriptions

£736

Other

£4,126

TOTAL

£20,145

Balances carried forward

£13,753

Annual Precept 2009/2010

£18,189

 

Activity during 2009-2010

Parish Meetings

Period from April 2009 to March 2010

12

Attendance

Councillor G James

11

Councillor D Harries (resigned Apr 10)

8

Councillor P Jinman

10

Councillor B Krige 

9

Councillor Mrs J Webb  

10

Councillor W Preece (resigned Nov 09)

6

Councillor Mrs M Williams

8

Councillor Mrs M Bradley

11

Councillor Mrs E Overstall

12

Councillor P Sheen

8

Councillor  R Weaver

7

Councillor R Baker

9

Planning

Applications reviewed

19

Site visits

2

Parish Footpaths

Signposts installed

2

Gates installed

4

Vegetation cleared

600 metres

Lengthsman

Minor local highway maintenance now in its 8th year

Newsletter

4 issues published and distributed

Website

Maintained and improved  (see www.ewyasharoldgpc.org.uk)

Quality Status

Working to achieve Power of Well Being Status

Twinning

Continuing to Investigate the possibilities of twinning with Segonzac (France)

 

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