Annual Parish Meeting

The Annual Parish Meeting took place at the Barbour Institute last night.

Celebrations and discussions were varied.

The Village Cup was awarded to Joyce and Jack Raine, for their valuable contributions to the community. With a combined age of 180 years(!), Joyce and Jack have been involved in the leadership of a number of activities within the village – TOFs, Probus, St Alban's Church and the WI to name but a few. Most recently, of course, they were featured on Amanda Lamb's 'Selling Homes' in which they were busily upgrading two rooms in their home on Tattenhall Road and in which a sale was swiftly achieved! Jack belongs to the Suez Veterans, still judges the 'Bus Driver of the Year' competition and together they will be attending a Garden Party at Buckingham Palace next week. An active retirement indeed! Our warm CONGRATULATIONS to them both. They are photographed with Cllr Blackhurst who presented the Cup.

The outgoing Chair of the Parish Council gave a report on last year's events and activities in which he commended many individuals and organisations within the village and their specific contributions to the vibrancy of the village. He specifically paid tribute to the prolonged and sustained work of some of his Parish Councillors, notably Cllrs Weaver and Spencer, and of our Ward Councillor Mike Jones, in relation to recent planning issues with which the village has been confronted. He stated, that without doubt, the dismissal of the three outstanding Appeals most recently, was due (in part) to their combined efforts. Tony Leigh-Smith also applauded the work of our Parish Council in this respect and singled out his observations of the work of our Ward Councillor when faced by a raft of QCs during the Public Enquiries. It was agreed that our Neighbourhood Plan is testimony to the hardwork of many. Cllr Matthews also paid tribute to the support that he had received from his Parish Council throughout the last year and to the work of Jean Dutton, Clerk to the Parish Council.

Andy Scarratt presented the Annual Report of the financial year 2016/17. He outlined areas of expenditure which covered events, maintenance and the play area development/replacement. He then outlined the precept and the many donations that had been received for the Play Area. Jean Dutton confirmed that a copy of the accounts would appear on the Parish Council website in due course.

The Open Forum was dominated by the statement which has just been issued by the Governing Body of The Park Primary School in relation to the erection of a fence around the school. Much discussion took place and it was proposed 'that the Parish Council engage with the Headteacher and Governing Body of the Park Primary School to have a discussion regarding the proposed erection of the fence'.

It was also recommended that this information be forwarded to Sarah Dobbins, Rural Localities Officer at CWaC.

The statement/plan can be viewed CLICK HERE