Chairman’s
Report for period April 2006 - March 2007
Parish Council attendance record out of 11 meetings
Andy Bowditch Chairman 11
Tim Mousley Vice Chairman 7
Lyn Bowditch 7
Stuart Dowding 9
David Rimmington 6
John Guy 8
Jarred Bundy co-opted January 4 (out of 4)
The council meet on the second Monday of every month except August in the village hall and we are grateful to the hall committee for this.
The meeting starts as usual with the Open Forum where members of the public can air their views.
Our thanks go to councillors Michael Woodhall HCC and Neville Whitley TVBC for attending meetings and lending their support when necessary.
Finance
The precept for 2006—07 was set at £9500.00
This was set at a higher rate to match a grant application for the re-surfacing of the play area and for the provision of a basketball half court.
We were, I’m pleased to say successful in obtaining two grants, thanks to the efforts of our then parish clerk David Lyon. One from the ‘Awards for All Lottery’ for £6000.00 and one for £4755.00 from Test Valley Borough Council, for which we are extremely gratefull.
We were able to install the basketball court, have the play area re-surfaced with a wet pour rubber surface, erect a new panel fence to the rear of Thorngate and still have monies left to help with internal renovations in the football shed.
We would like to give our thanks to Robert Horsford for completing the internal audit so efficiently and for donating his services for free.
Planning
Under planning this year there included an application for a replacement dwelling for Park cottage West Dean , (refuse) (now on appeal)
Owner/managers
house
Several applications for West Dean Park (nee Dean Hill), (no objections from PC)
Also this year we were asked for comments regarding the Brown Line infill policy by Test Valley Borough Council. I asked for comments from residents in the October and December newsletters and received four letters in response.
I would
personally like to thank John Guy and Tim Mousley for all their efforts in
producing the planning response document which should shortly be available on
the
Just to mention Dean Hill Park; I would like to thank the working group who have been liasing with the owner Richard Parry to keep us online with developments as they happened and I must thank Jane Gimpel chairman Dean PC for organising and chairing those meetings.
Police
Due to the area covered, the police attendance at meetings is limited but we are grateful to them when they can attend. In February the meeting was attended by Derek Grist and Ken Paviour who reported a revised service and they are now known as neighbourhood team officers and beat officers. This should lead to an increase in police presence in the area.
Recreation Ground
I’m sure you will all agree that we are extremely fortunate to have such a facility and once again I have to thank Mike Eastwood for his ability to keep the recreation ground and surrounding areas in such good order. Also the same goes for his work on the village war memorial.
Highways & Footpaths
Apart from the old chestnuts ie. potholes etc. the roads – footpaths are in fairly good order and I’m sure our new footpath warden will keep us informed as and when problems occur and our thanks go to David Lyon for taking on this role.
On that note could I also on behalf of the Parish Council thank him for his four years dedicated and meticulous service as clerk to our council.
And I’m sure you’ll all join me in giving your best wishes and support to our new clerk Lisa Koetser.
Finally we have to say our goodbyes to Stuart Dowding and David Rimmington who have stood down as parish councillors we thank them for their years they dedicated to the village.
Andy Bowditch
Chairman WTFPC