Welcome everyone.
During the year, we received 51 planning applications – some were easily dealt with and some, like the Kilkhampton Common one, took a lot of time to come to a decision.
We have a good relationship with the Planning Department and on a very high percentage we agree, but not all. Some applications we have to agree to differ on, because they make the final decision.
Our local knowledge is important to them, especially when enforcing planning conditions. Thanks to Councillor Hambley for his work as Planning Liaison Officer.
One of the planning applications was for the Pre-School building and we put a lot of time to it – unfortunately the project was cancelled.
In the past year we have had 3 Royal events, i.e. the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, Her Majesty’s Funeral and the Coronation of King Charles III – each one involving the Parish Council.
We re-installed the telephone box at North Close with a defibrillator and up-graded the defibrillator at the garage. We now have 3 in the village and one at Stibb – all with Jay’s Aim. They have been used in the past year.
We are working on refurbishing a room at the Grenville Rooms as a History room and document storage – thanks to Alan Hockin for his assistance with this.
We have just completed, at the third attempt, the paperwork for a lease with the Diocese of Truro for more land at Lamb Park. This has taken many months to complete. Thank you to Helen Bond for her assistance with this project.
The Sports Pavilion is being redecorated, and some repairs to guttering etc. Work is due to start soon.
The Play Equipment in the Park is being up-graded, this is taking a long time. We first allocated some money to the project in 2021. Negotiating with various suppliers and their workload is the main reason.
Thank you to East Langford Solar Farm for their support in awarding a grant of £16,000 for a roundabout.
Thank you to Gerald Strong for his work on this project.
We have regular meetings with Oliver Jones, from Cornwall Highways regarding traffic problems in the village and with South West Water about water pressure in some parts of the village.
We have had some social behaviour problems reported to us and have worked with the police and others about this.
We are supporting Mr Ian Mason from North Kernow Community Housing.
We are helping the residents of Sanctuary Housing to sort out some repair and maintenance problems, with the help of Mr Shorne Tilbey.
We now have a new Parish Council website, thanks to Tom Westlake from West Creative for his help, and if any business in the Parish wishes to enter their business details on the website in the Business Directory, they will get free advertising.
Simon DeRosa did some interesting work about Holy Wells in the Parish and this will be continued with our History Group.
This report gives an outline of what we do in a year, along with the day to day work of running the Parish i.e. toilets, footpaths, parking and pollution problems and dealing with correspondence from all over the world about our Parish – all handled professionally by our Clerk, Hannah.
It does seem to take us a long time to do anything – we are all volunteers and only meet once a month. Add to that solicitors taking an age to do paperwork, and our preferred contractors being busy, the fact we have to have the money in place before we can start a job all adds to the time factor.
We are independently audited every year and the auditors have no problems with our accounts.
As Chairman I am proud of what we achieve in our wonderful village.
Thank you to all the Parish Councillors and Hannah, and everyone who helps.
Clive Vanstone
Chairman
