ࡱ > 3 5 2 U bjbjnn .$ aa 6 6 0 2 $ b " ;z^ 0 0 0 6 B x : CHAIRMANS REPORT TO THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE PARISH ON 10 MAY 2022 Welcome to the 2022 Annual Report for Barnham Parish Council. We saw a slow return to normality after the demanding year of Covid. Normal bi-monthly meetings resumed, with caution, in the Village Hall, and it was encouraging to see more participation from the general public at some of our meetings. The initial restriction of mask wearing was slowly relaxed as government guidelines permitted. We, sadly, saw the retirement of a couple of council stalwarts. Councillor Charles Merrifield and our Clerk, Mrs Caroline Dowson. Charles has been a very proactive member of the Council and a cornerstone of the Planning Committee, and his expert advice on matters of planning policy and procedures has been invaluable. Caroline has served us with exceptional skill and dedication during the last 6 years and has been the driver of the Parish Council. We will miss her but wish her and Michael well in their retirement. Departures usually result in arrivals and this year we welcomed Dr Martin Belsham, who had previously served on the council and will be a welcome addition along with our new Parish Clerk, Mrs Natasha Deverell. Natasha (Tash), hit the ground running when she joined in December as it approached the busiest time of the year, budget time, closely followed by preparation for the annual meeting. She settled in amazingly quickly and is proving to be a worthy occupant of the post. Precept 2022/23 The usual round of financial juggling began in January with the preparation of the annual budget. With Covid still in the back of our minds and the need to keep financial stresses on residents to a minimum it was decided to keep the current precept level and to limit expenditure accordingly. However, a decision was taken not use reserves this year and so it was necessary to ask for full funding from the local council. This meant a very small increase in the parish levy of about 1%. Church Clock Maintenance of the Church clock has been an issue for some time due to the need to identity the official owner of the clock. Legislation prevents the Parish Council from maintaining any part of the fabric of the Church which may have included the clock. After establishing that the Church did not have ownership the next step was to take the clock under the wing of the Parish Council by officially adopting it as part of the village asset register. This was done in November and future maintenance and repair of the clock will now be the responsibility of the Parish Council. A contingency fund has been established to cover the costs of this. Planning There are still several unresolved planning issues associated with the Station Road Industrial sites, the old Trimay Site at Little Heath and the Quarry at North Farm. The PC has expressed concern at the failure of owners of NRG, who operate from Station Road, to abide by the conditions applied to their planning approval and this failure has caused some distress to the residents adjacent to the site as a result of light pollution and noise. Action from the District Council has been requested and further updates are awaited. Countryside Recycling Ltd (CRL) who operate from Little Heath have applied for additional permission to store wastepaper and plastic and the PC has responded with an objection due to the possible environmental and health risk to the village. The quarry application with its proposed routing of vehicles onto Elveden and Station Road and the A134 is still awaiting determination by the County Council. Biodigester Traffic At the November meeting the issue of increased HGV traffic through the village was discussed with the source considered to be from the Euston Biodigester plant. To resolve the issue, it was decided to bring together the management of Euston Estate and the Biodigester plant to the next meeting in January where it was agreed to take action to control the movement of unauthorised traffic. Part of this action included extending the Lorry Watch scheme on Station Road to include the main part of the village(C634). As I write this report the extension of the Lorry Watch scheme onto the C634 has yet to be completed. Finally, we always encourage local participation at our bi-monthly meetings as it is a way for the Council to get feedback from the village. If you cant attend the meetings but you wish to have an input, then speak to one of the councillors or send a message to the Clerk. E J Wyer Chair Barnham Parish Council 9 ; B C D E F q > ? e m n t ) b мظؠؠ hkO hu hE hN hx hm h hE hI2 hk:K h| hy hq% hH h+. h@Zr hS hrA h