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home 
parish council annual parish meeting 2006
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Minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting Held in Kilmington Village Hall
at 7.30 p.m. on Thursday. 27th April 2006
1. PRESENT : Cllr. R.W. Kerslake, (Chairman) 7 Councillors, the Clerk, Cty Cllr. Hull, and over 40 members of the public.
2. WELCOME BY CHAIRMAN : the Chairman welcomed the public and referred to the fact that there had been an even larger attendance the previous week at the initial public meeting about the Parish Plan.
He introduced the Guest Speaker, Mr. Philip Evans, former Editor of Pulman’s Weekly News and now proprietor of his own local paper group, Philip Evans Media.
3. TALK BY GUEST SPEAKER: Mr. Evans gave a most entertaining account of his career in journalism, from his apprenticeship as a cub-reporter, first with the Express and Echo and then, under the guidance of the late Wally Fellender, with Pulman’s Weekly News, via experience in other countries (and an abortive attempt to buy the Pulman’s Weekly News title), in London and, most recently his return as Editorial Consultant to Pulman’s Weekly News and his decision to realise his long-held ambition to own his own newspaper by setting up on his own. His first title was View from the Blackdown Hills and now he has branched out subsequently with other local titles, including The View from Axminster which was launched in October 2005. Mr. Evans then responded to questions from the audience.
The Chairman thanked Mr. Evans for sharing his reminiscences and said that they had brought back many memories for his audience.
4. POLICE REPORT : P.C. Carmichael said that overall the level of crime within the parish had fallen over the past twelve months, although there had been two separate outbreaks of burglaries in which sheds on several properties had been targeted in one night.
Refreshments were served at this point.
5. APOLOGIES : apologies had been received from Cllr. Penzer and P.C. Carmichael.
6. MINUTES OF MEETING HELD ON 28th APRIL 2006 : the minutes of the previous year’s Annual Parish Meeting had been distributed prior to the meeting. Mr. Foster, seconded by Mrs. Dendle, proposed that they be adopted. Carried.
7. MATTERS ARISING : an enquiry was made as to whether horse-riders were permitted to gallop on The Common. The Clerk said that she was not aware of any regulations governing this but would try to find out.
8. CHAIRMAN’S REPORT: Cllr. Kerslake said that the past year had seen both successes, in the form of the resurfacing of the Car Park, the virtual completion of work on the new pavilion and local participation in the Trafalgar celebrations, and failures, in the form of the delays in securing planning permission for the new church porch and the support of officialdom for a speed limit on the A35. He said that it was hoped that work on the church porch would start in July and promised that there would be financial support from the Parish Council. Regarding a speed limit for the A35, the Chairman suggested that an action group be set up to progress this matter, especially in the light of the recent near-fatal accident involving a young resident from the village.
On the financial front, the Chairman reported that following the successful sale of the plot of land in Roman Road, it had been possible to contribute £70,000 to the pavilion fund. Interest from the money had enabled the precept to be retained at the same level as the previous year and to assure a useful boost to parish funds in the future while still enabling support to be given to the new church porch.
The Play Area had been completed and handed over formally to the Parish Council by the steering committee. As the Parish Council is now the owner of the asset, the outstanding loan had been written off against that. The facility was being well used.
Positive praise had been made by the Best Kept Village judges of the new village sign and the attractive flower-bed below, which the planting and maintenance of which is a gift to the community from Millers Farm Shop. On a negative note, the Chairman regretted that the District Council had declined to enter into partnership with the Parish Council over the cutting of the grass in The Crescent, a matter which had often occasioned adverse comment from the judges.
Although those paths which most needed work remained the subject of legal measures by the County Council, Mrs. Penzer, the Footpath Warden, had reported that the other paths were well used and appreciated.
The Chairman said that the allotments continued to be popular and that there was a short waiting list. He commended local residents, Mr. & Mrs. McKerrel, from The Crescent, for winning the prize in the Best Kept Garden run by the District Council for their tenants.
The Ring and Ride is going from strength to strength and use continues to increase year on year. Cllr. Kerslake thanked Sandra Ward for representing the Parish Council on the Committee.
Other successful events during the year had been the coffee morning for new comers and the visit from the B.B.C. In Touch Road Show.
Maintenance continues to be a costly item in the budget but one which the Parish Council feels is money well spent.
Looking to the coming year, Cllr. Kerslake mentioned the need to fight for the retention and funding of rural post offices, the undertaking of a Parish Plan and the intention to hold a coffee morning for new-comers in the autumn.
In conclusion, the Chairman thanked the many individuals who contribute so much, individually and together to village life, and thanked also his deputy, fellow Councillors, the Clerk and his wife for their help and support during the year.
9. PLAYING FIELD REPORT Cllr. Bolton spoke of the tremendous achievement represented by the fact that the new pavilion had been made possible solely through fund-raising within the local community itself. He said that it would be ready for its inaugural use in two days time and there would be further information and a formal opening ceremony in June. Work still to be done included the installation of new gates incorporating the name of the original donor, Arthur Hitchcock. The netting along the Whitford Road would be renewed. He paid tribute to the immense amount of assistance he had had from Cllr. Collier throughout the project and concluded by saying that the facility provided would be complementary to the accommodation in the village hall.
10. SCHOOL REPORT : Mrs. Huscroft reported that of the new intake of 11 pupils, 9 were from Kilmington itself, a higher proportion than for the school population as a whole. 18 pupils had moved on to secondary school, mainly within the local area. She said that the school was in the top 7% nationally as far as the SATS results were concerned. A travel plan had been submitted to encourage environmentally friendly ways to travel to school and the problems posed by the A35 were highlighted in this report. Regular activities included residential visits and after school clubs. Special events during the coming term would be interviews with local residents to find out about life in the local area during the past 50 to 60 years and an afternoon tea session to raise funds for the pavilion.
11. THE COMMON: the Clerk reported that the cost of maintaining the Common, a Parish Charity funded by grant from the Parish Council, during the past year had been £154. In addition to routine topping of the grass a new drain cover had been made. The trees and benches are inspected on a regular basis to make sure that they do not cause a danger to the public.
A member of the public expressed concern about the damage being done to the verges on The Commons by the parking of cars. The Clerk will try to find out what regulations govern the parking of cars on common land.
12. PARISH PLAN : Cllr. Collier thanked the 125 local residents who had attended the public meeting held the previous week to explain what a parish plan involved. He said that despite the guest speakers having been somewhat uninspiring it was pleasing that the majority of people were supportive and enthusiastic. A meeting would be held shortly for the 30 volunteers who had offered to help in drafting the questionnaire. The main topics which seemed to concern residents were the A35, affordable housing and parking congestion.
Cllr. Collier proposed a vote of thanks to the Chairman for his tireless work on behalf of the community.
The Chairman urged local residents to write to the authorities setting out their personal concerns about the A35.
13. PUBLIC FORUM matters raised from the floor included:
Mr. Brown spoke of concerns of residents on Whitford Road about any future expansion by South West Water, Quick’s Engineering or at the quarry. He felt this should be included in the Parish Plan. Cllr. Kerslake said that the Parish Council was not aware of any development plans for this area.
Mr. Newbery referred to the recent dismissal of Mr. Hansford’s appeal relating to his application to build a house on the Pit Orchard site on Bimbom Lane. He said that the site was being used at present for industrial purposes and this was making life intolerable for local residents. He feared matters could get worse. He mentioned the house which had been built on The Plantation on Shute Road following a promise that development would not be permitted there.
The Chairman responded by agreeing that residents would have preferred a house but as the site lay outside the village inset line the District Council had been following Government planning guidelines in their refusal of planning permission as had the Inspector in dismissing the appeal. He said that the site in Shute Road was slightly different as there was an existing building already on the site and it was this that was converted to form the dwelling.
There was a request for a litter bin for the playing field. Cllr. Bolton will arrange this.
The decision to administer the Parish Plan questionnaire on a household basis rather than an individual basis was questioned. Cllr. Collier responded by saying that this was partly to keep down the cost of printing the questionnaires but that the questionnaire would be designed to allow each individual in a household to make a contribution.
Mrs. Scott-Nash stated that the issue of Pit Orchard and the feelings of local residents should be included in the Parish Plan. Cllr. Collier replied that for ease of analysis the questions had to be posed in such a way as to require either a yes or no response. He said there would be a supplementary sheet which would allow individuals to write lengthier comments but these sheets would not go for analysis.
The meeting closed at 9.30 p.m. Back to Top of Page
I was delighted so many residents attended the Annual Parish Meeting on April 27th. Almost 10% of residents came, that is really good by any standard and I thank all those who attended. I hope most people will have read the report in the View from Axminster paper and indeed the follow up article the following week. Such reports can only be good for the village and I hope we can keep the momentum. A detailed report of our meeting has been written by an independent person and appears below.
A number of important issues were raised at the meeting not least of course the safety situation on the A35. Some changes have to be made on this road to safeguard Kilmington residents from the hazards with which we are all too familiar. A good deal of work needs to be done if we are to get success and I think we need to set up a small dedicated working party to concentrate on this over the coming months. I already have one or two volunteers and I will endeavour to get this activated without delay. Once again I ask that as many people as possible write expressing their concern for the safety of pedestrians from the village who need to negotiate this road in order to go about their daily routines be it shopping locally or catching a bus to see the doctor or shop in Axminster. Whatever needs we have the A35 presents a serious safety hazard to everyone on foot whether they are able-bodied, young, old or disabled the danger has reached a level that is unacceptable. Letters may be sent to our Community Police Officer at Axminster Police Station or to me and we will see that your letters are directed to those who have the power to bring about change.
Bill Kerslake
The A.G.M. was held in the Village Hall at 7.30pm on Thursday, 27th April 2006. The Chairman welcomed a good crowd of people. He introduced Mr Philip Evans, editor of The View from Axminster, and other local papers. Mr Evans gave a very interesting talk about his experience in journalism. He started with The Express & Echo at Honiton where he spent 15 years, and also spent 30 years with Pulman’s Weekly News. He has now reached his ambition to own his own newspaper, and hopes to have two more area papers in circulation soon.
When he worked in London in the mid 80’s someone came in to book the whole second page for a funeral advert at £1,600.00: it turned out to be for the mother of the Kray Twins! Mr Evans ended by saying he wanted to cover local events in his papers including Jumble Sales, so don’t forget to give him a call if you need any free publicity.
The next speaker was P.C. Andy Carmichael who said that crime in Kilmington was down by 12%. Several people were in custody connected with previous crimes. Generally he was happy with Kilmington and asked people to lock up and make it difficult for any would-be thief.
Cllr. Kerslake said he had several things that he wanted to complete in his term of office i.e. The Village Pavilion, the Church Porch, re-surfacing of the Car Park, and a speed restriction on the A35. The Pavilion was now almost complete, the Car Park had been re-surfaced. The Children’s Play Area had been completed and therefore passed back to the Parish Council for maintenance.
Unfortunately, due to a delay in obtaining planning permission, the Church Porch had not yet been completed, but now all permissions had been gained and building should start shortly. Speed restrictions on the A35 had still not been achieved, but we were not giving up.
Mrs Miller was thanked for planting flowers under the village signs.
Mrs Penzer was well on the way to completing the village paths.
Cllr. Bolton then gave his report on the Playing Field. He said the pavilion, although not quite completed, would be in use over the Bank Holiday period. It would be an additional option for people to use if the Village Hall was unavailable.
Cllr. Huscroft gave a school report which was very encouraging. Several village children were starting in September as well as some who had chosen to come from outside the village, keeping numbers up. The staff were doing a very good job and were to be congratulated.
Several people had asked questions about the Common which the Clerk would look into and report back.
The Village Plan was touched on but as a meeting had been held a few days earlier, Cllr. Collier answered a few questions outstanding. Firstly, a questionnaire would be circulated to all households shortly, and from that hopefully a lot of ideas could be gained.
BW
Next year's meeting will be held on Thursday 26th April 2007, so put the date in your diary now!
Links in this section >>
Agenda for Annual Parish Meeting 2007