Bishop's Waltham Parish Council - Annual Report 2010-11

April 2010- March 2011 - Chairman’s Report

This is my first report as Chairman of Bishops Waltham Parish Council and it has certainly been a very busy time for all the Councillors.
I am very grateful to my predecessor, Steve Miller, for all the hard work over his two years as Chairman and allowing me to build on the excellent plans put into place during his term.
I feel that this has been a most satisfactory year. The Council has achieved a great deal as you will see in the reports from the Chairpersons of the Committees.

Sainsbury’s
I could not possibly write this report without mentioning the application by Sainsbury’s for the Abbey Mill Site. This issue has certainly divided Bishop’s Waltham and many thousands of items of correspondence were received by Winchester City Council following the submission of the plans.

The Parish Council held a public meeting in August to listen to the views of the public before considering its response to the application. The Parish Council could only respond to the application on planning grounds and after much deliberation voted to object overall although it was accepted that the proposal would being much needed employment to the town.

We now await the decision of Winchester City Council. I do hope that once this matter is decided, whatever way it goes, those people that have been so vocal and passionate in their support of our town continue to show their support - perhaps by standing for election to the Parish Council in May?

The Precept
At the Parish Council meeting in January the Parish Council ratified the recommendations of the Policy, Resources and Planning Committee concerning the Council’s income and expenditure and precept request for 2011/12. The Committees of the Council began this process, as always, in September. Initial discussions took place on the current and estimated spend for the year and draft budgets drawn up. The initial budgets were then passed to the Policy, Resources and Planning Committee for consideration. Some of these budgets were returned to the Committees for some fine tuning. In December the Policy, Resources and Planning Committee agreed the final figures and recommended the budget plus precept required to the full Council.

The figures are as follows:

Parish Council estimated income 2011/12 - £85,473
Parish Council proposed expenditure 2011/12 - £420,777
Precept required 2011/12 - £335,304

Precept 2010/11 - £322,393
Increase 2011/12 - £12,911 (4%)

The actual increase per household will be less than the 4% because of the extra homes built during the last 12 months.
I would like to personally thank all my fellow Councillors and the Council staff for producing a budget that will guarantee the continuation of the excellent services provided by the Council.

Blueprint
In October the Parish Council ran an event to work with Winchester City Council to plan for the future of the parish following the removal of outside targets. The process will contribute to the next stage of the Local Development Framework and was called Blueprint.

Participants were asked to consider the future needs of a variety of characters in regard to housing, transport, jobs, leisure etc. The results of this process were passed on to WCC and formed the basis of the Parish Council’s response.
I would like to thank all of you who took the time to attend this event or to send in your comments and Councillors Quiney, Marsh and Shields who ran the sessions with support from officers at WCC. The Parish Council now awaits the next stage of the consultation.

Car parking
One of the issues raised in the above process was the need for additional parking in the town. The Council has set up a small working party of Councillors to investigate the feasibility of areas around the town as car parking sites. The comments of this group have been forwarded to Winchester City Council for comment.

Welcome
Hello and welcome to Robert Shields our newest Councillor who was co-opted to the Council in November. We all look forward to working with Robert for many years to come.
We also said hello to two new members of staff – Kevin Wyatt who took on the role of Parish Caretaker/Groundsman in July and James Rushton who become our new groundsman, following the promotion of Trevor Veck to senior groundsman, in January.

Retirement
In December, Roger Bryant took partial retirement. As senior groundsman, Roger oversaw the improvements to the pitches at Priory Park and managed a strong maintenance programme that saw all the Council’s recreational areas improve.
Roger is still part of the grounds team allowing us an extra pair of hands at the busiest times. I would like to thank Roger on behalf of the Council for all his efforts on your behalf and wish him all the best in his well deserved (partial) retirement.

Thank yous
I would like to thank all the Parish Council staff for another excellent year. So, thank you to Lindsay Edge, the Parish Clerk; Kathryn Grover, Deputy Clerk; John Storry, Responsible Financial Officer; Steph Andrews, Assistant Clerk; Roger Bryant, Groundsman; Trevor Veck, Head Groundsman; Kevin Wyatt, Parish caretaker/groundsman; James Rushton, groundsman; Gloria and Richard Stratton, Jubilee Hall caretakers and Daniel Shepherd, Priory Park caretaker without you all we could not function!

I would like to give my heartfelt thanks to Judy Marsh for serving as my Vice Chair this year. I have been very grateful for her support at meetings and for standing in for me when I have been otherwise engaged!

Finally, I would like to thank all the Councillors, who it must be remembered are unpaid volunteers, staff and parishioners for their support over my year as Chairman of the Council.

Bill Gilling, Chairman, Bishop’s Waltham Parish Council