The Parish Council’s work covers both day-to-day business and exceptional one-off items. As usual the day-to-day work has included activities such as lobbying about the state of the roads, the management of the playing field, the maintenance of the public toilets, grass cutting and transport.
In last year’s report I identified two particularly important exceptional items, the campaign to ensure we kept our Post Office and the Community Centre development. Although not as high profile this year, the Post Office campaign remains on the agenda as a further review is due in 2011 and a threat to the Post Office still remains. The Community Centre/Playing Field development has moved forward significantly since the last Parish Open Meeting.
With the decline in the property market and value of the Parish Hall site, a community centre was decided not to be feasible. The Parish Hall Committee has worked tirelessly to raise funds to improve the Parish Hall and should be congratulated on their work over the last twelve months.
The Community Centre Steering Group has been discontinued and the role of the Playing Field Sub-Committee formalised and extended to manage all aspects of the Playing Field as a sub-committee of the Parish Council. After overcoming many obstacles, planning permission has been achieved for the proposed changes on the Playing Field. A grant application has now been submitted by the Football Club to provide core funding for the removal of the hedge, creation of a walkway and attendant improvements to the field. Full details of proposals will be available at the Open Meeting but I would like to thank all the members of the previous Community Centre Steering Group and current Playing Field Sub-committee for all their hard work. In particular, we must thank Stephen Smith without whose persistence this project was unlikely to have got as far as it has.
Whilst thanking Stephen, I would also like to acknowledge his work as Parish Footpath Co-ordinator. Stephen has decided to stand down from this role in July 2010. During his time the footpaths have been kept in good order, work undertaken on the adoption of the paths around the greens and all the administration completed in order to ensure the parish Council is refunded by Cornwall Council for maintenance costs. I am delighted to report that Ian Marquette has volunteered to take over this role upon Stephen standing down.
I would also like to thank the Parish Council team who have put in a lot of work, often unseen by the wider community. Of Nicky May, our parish Clerk, I stated in last year’s report that “we have a truly excellent Parish Clerk who not only is a super-efficient administrator but who works tirelessly for the benefit of the community.” She has been both super-efficient and worked tirelessly for the benefit of the community throughout 2009-2010 also, so I repeat the Parish Council’s thanks to her. From my perspective, Nicky’s work and knowledge makes the Chairperson’s role as easy as it would be possible for it to be.
We are also very fortunate as a Parish Council to have had the regular attendance at meetings of Phil Tucker, our Cornwall Councillor. He has been invaluable as a source of information and lobbying on behalf of the community.
I would also like to thank the people outside the Parish Council who have served on a voluntary basis on various Council sub-groups, particularly the former Community Centre Steering Group and the Footpaths Coordinator.
As we can see from the various reports presented to this meeting from organisations in the parish, we are fortunate to have such a breadth of people who make a contribution to parish life across a wide spectrum of activities. On behalf of the community I would like to record thanks to all the people who contribute to the running of groups and activities within the Parish. Volunteering is a creative and positive human trait and we are fortunate in our community to have people who spend hours and hours ensuring their activity is well managed and progresses.
During the year the strength and depth of community involvement in Week St Mary was marked by winning the Calor Cornwall Village of the Year 2009 competition. This was against stiff competition and in no small part due to the efforts of Linda Cobbledick, David Martin and Trisha Kabler who spent hours putting together presentations which showcased the community to the judges. To mark this success, Cornwall Councillor Phil Tucker has agreed that part of his community budget will be used to enable the Council to place acknowledgement signs on the existing village signs.
Despite the extent of volunteering in the Parish, widening participation remains a long-term issue. Communication needs to be broadened. We are delighted with the contribution made by the village web-site run and managed by Linda Cobbledick and David Martin but probably we also need to look to new methods of communication such as Facebook.
We are a Parish that provides community facilities such as the public toilets, the greens, footpaths, the Parish Hall and the playing field. These facilities and responsibilities do unfortunately come at a price. We believe we have managed our budget for 2009-10 prudently and this year have set a budget of £14,190 which represents an increase of £9.10/year per household. Whilst we would have preferred not to recommend an increase, the budget was scrutinised in detail and the resulting precept was considered the minimum that was prudent without jeopardising long term projects. The Council consider that a high level of facilities and services are being delivered relative to many other communities, a view supported by Week St Mary winning the Calor Cornwall Village of the Year award.
Nicky May provides the Parish Council with superb financial management information so we can manage our financial affairs effectively. Gordon Davison, former Week St Mary resident, has kindly acted as our internal auditor but has now decided to stand down. We are very grateful for his service over the years. I am delighted to report that solicitor Linda Mason has agreed to fulfil this function for us. Linda is a solicitor and also Internal Auditor for Marhamchurch Parish Council.
I believe we are effective as a Parish Council and deliver valuable services to the community. Our objective continues to be to maintain our services to a high standard, to develop new facilities and invest in the future.
Once again, thank you to all the people who work to make Week St Mary a better place to live and work.
Jeremy Ward, Chair.