Chairman’s Report 2010

Firstly, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Councillor Mac Collins for his long and faithful service both as a Parish Councillor and for all the years that he spent as Chairman of the Parish Council and his commitment to the residents of the village.

He continues to offer his help whenever he is able, and for this I am extremely grateful.

We have increased the precept at a rate higher than inflation, but in line with other councils. With increasing costs in servicing those items for which we have responsibility, and the need to be aware that there may be costs associated with the implementation of the village plan, it is important that the resources are in place to meet these needs.

There have been a number of improvements made to the village hall and I would like to thank all of those involved in both putting on fund raising events and the improvements made.

I feel it is important that we have events in the village to maintain the community life of the village.

The ACG had a successful bonfire night again but were unable to put on the music fest. It is hoped that these and other events can continue at the playing field. Following a meeting with a number of young people at Aprils Parish council Meeting, it was agreed that Beryl Grix and Darren Greally approach the ACG and ask for an area of the playing field to be provided for use by the young people as a cycle track. I am pleased to report that this was successful and that Steve Wheeler has helped in this provision. New bark  has now been placed on the play area and a coat of paint on the play equipment and weed removal will improve it further.

Austrey hosted the Calor Village of the year award in September, and received recognition at Regional Level for Communication and a prize of £500, and were also overall winner of the Warwickshire Best Village award, winning on best Communications and Business in the community which came with a prize of £400. The Bear and Ragged Staff statue have been displayed on Main Road.

Some of the prize money has been donated to the Village Hall, whilst some has been used to offset grant money awarded to put shingles back on the bus shelter roof, re-bark the play area, and mirrors are in the pipe-line for the Main Road/Norton Hill junction and to replace the broken mirror. Money has also been used towards funding the cost of the website.

Two of our footpaths have been tarmaced courtesy of Marina Kircham at WCC Footpaths and new street lights (similar to those in Bishops Cleeve) are also scheduled to replace the old wooden columns along Main Road, also courtesy of WCC.

We have also been given a grant for litter picking, and my thanks go to Richard Machin for his work in helping to keep the village tidy.

The Village Plan has now been produced and a copy will soon be given to all residents of the village.  

The Chairman’s Report to the Annual Parochial Church Meeting 2010

This past year has been a mixed year, but there have clearly been encouragements for All Souls Parish and our 5 churches, not least in the further development of our partnership, and the growing strength of both JC Way (young peoples’ group) and our Open Door Lunch Club (mainly older people).

However, there are significant challenges in seeking to maintain five historic church buildings and more importantly in seeking to bring new people into the life and worship of the church here in our villages. 

I was pleased by the number of people, who attended the Parish Meeting in January, and the very clear consensus that emerged about what our priorities should be in All Souls Parish. Not surprisingly those priorities were identified as bringing more people (of all ages) into church, developing communications within our parish and making sure that the church is visible, welcome and accessible to all. The final priority was to enable every church member to be a more confident and prayerful disciple of Jesus, which will mean establishing more Home Groups and finding ways of building the fellowship that we share together.

Soul Café continues to bring new people in, but there remains an every increasing need to further develop our work with children and young families in a changing environment where Sundays now offer all sorts of attractive activities that ‘compete’ with attending Christian worship. We are very grateful for our strong partnership with our 3 Church Schools and from September we are hoping to make that partnership stronger by having an ‘Assembly Team’, which will go into each school on a regular basis. As always we are looking for some volunteers to help with this exciting new project.

We are also looking to build on the response from the Parish Audit and the new initiative from Bishop David of ‘Transforming Church’. As a result of this, the PCC has established a working party, which has recommended the setting-up of Leadership Teams to initiate and carry out the ministry and mission of the church in our villages working alongside myself, the churchwardens and PCC. More detail will emerge on this in the next few months.

At Austrey Church, the restoration of the chancel roof, along with masonry repairs to the chancel and the porch has just been completed. We are delighted with the results and also pleased that the much needed restoration of the East Window was able to be included in the scheme of works. The project has been generously financed by an English Heritage grant, supplemented by existing church funds, but about £7,000 still needs to be raised.

Finally as always, I would like to convey my special thanks to all the Churchwardens for all their work and support this year, along with the PCC treasurers & PCC members; the Music Group; the 2 organists; the Choir; the Sunday School & the JC Way Leaders; Bellringers; Dove Editorial Team, the Open Door helpers; Home Group Leaders; the Soul Café team; those who care for our church buildings & churchyards. At Austrey, Richard Machin has worked very hard in maintaining the large churchyard, but extra volunteers to assist Richard in the grass cutting are much needed.

Thanks also to each of our Church Schools, Austrey, Newton Regis & Warton for their continued co-operation & support of Soul Café each month in term-time.

We pray for God to guide & equip his church at a time of change and opportunity.

Our next major event is our Summer Fair which will be held on Saturday 19th June, we invite the local groups in the village to have a stall, your support would be most welcome.　 So if anyone is interested please call me on 830556 and I will give you the necessary details.

The fair is open to everyone, entry is 50 per person,　so come along with your children and grandchildren and have a great time and support the school.

If anyone would like to donate to our raffle please contact me.　 All your help is greatly appreciated.

All the monies raised by our events go directly to the school to pay for days out and equipment to enhance the learning experience.

Thank you again to everyone for their support.

Chair - Lesa Nield

PS - the school collects all supermarket vouchers and used ink cartridges - please take to the school

Parent & Toddler group 'Cheeky Monkeys' is now back in Austrey & ready to go. Therefore, a little mention in the next newsletter would be great.
　
It is held every Tuesday during term time between 9.00-11.30am & is in the new pre-school building on the school grounds. Children from birth - 4 yrs are welcome and it's costs £1 per child. There are various toys & activities, as a well a chance just to meet other local mums.
　
Further info can be obtained from Alison at the pre-school, or by emailing cheekymonkeysplaygroup@hotmail.com

Gardening Society

Despite the very harsh winter the Gardening Society is flourishing. Januarys meeting had to be postponed because of the weather, but subsequent meetings have been well attended. Annual outings this year are to the RHS at Harlow Carr and to Blenheim Palace, some seats are still available for those interested. Local evening visits have been arranged to a private cottage garden at Repton and a follow up visit to the Warwickshire Wildlife Sanctuary in Nuneaton. Full details of all the outings and the Gardening Society 2010 programme can be found on the Austrey website, www.austrey.co.uk.

Two new members of the committee were appointed at the AGM last year, Steve Duggan is our new Treasurer, and Joy Bennett is the Membership Secretary. Many thanks to our retiring treasurer, Mac Collins for the sterling work he did over the previous fifteen years.

Open Gardens has been brought forward this year by about three weeks to 26^th & 27^th June. Lets hope our gardens "catch up" in time to give the visitors as good a show as previous years. The Open Gardens competition will be judged on Wednesday 23^rd June. All those interested please contact Barry Truman as soon as possible.

NORTH WARWICKSHIRE BOROUGH COUNCIL

Like Warwickshire County Council, North Warwickshire Borough Council is also struggling to cope with severe budget reductions but so far we have been able to maintain current services and also to keep our promise to keep our Council tax increase below the level of inflation at 2.4%.

Despite the recession we have had several notable successes in the past year:

1.        We have secured over £1m of European Union funding into the Borough through the LEADER Project to improve access to public and voluntary services in rural areas.

2.        The North Arden Heritage Trail is now complete (bringing additional funding into North Warwickshire).

3.        We have secured government funding for projects such as the BOB (Branching Out Bus) to bring local services to various parts of the Borough offering (with partners Citizens Advice Bureau and the local Credit Union) advice on a wide range of issues from money management to housing matters.

4.        We have successfully won government funding to help us build new Council Housing (one of only two Councils in the West Midlands to do so) - we have not been able to do this for very many years.

5.        Through one of the worst winters in recent years the refuse staff have managed to keep our bins emptied.  Our recycling rates are going in the right direction albeit rather slowly and anything the Parish Council can do to encourage residents to recycle everything they can would be much appreciated.  (North Warwickshire is lagging behind the rest of Warwickshire in terms of recycling rates and we are much castigated for this).

6.        We are investing in the provision of a new public toilet in Polesworth, the concessionary fare taxi voucher scheme has been increased to £60 a year for individuals and £90 for couples.

7.        Some funding has been allocated to address the North Warwickshire Community Partnership's 3 objectives of raising educational attainment, reducing health inequalites and tackling problems of rural access and we look forward to projects coming forward.

Also please remember that there is money available for many different projects through NWBC's Area Forum Fund, and WCC's Area Community Fund and Small Grants Fund.

If anyone has any queries regarding local government matters, please do not hesitate to contact me on 01827 712150 or by email on matildamay@northwarks.gov.uk or cllrmay @warwickshire.gov.uk.

With best wishes
Tilly May

Austrey Village Hall Old School Hall Trust – 2009-2010 Report

Warwickshire Police
Overview of Annual Performance 2009 - 2010.
From the North Warwickshire North East South & West Safer Neighbourhoods Teams

Below is a short overview of the end of year performance for 2009 to 2010, which covers up to 31st March 2010.

North Warwickshire
In North Warwickshire this year:
� There were 42 fewer victims of serious violence, a reduction of 13.9%.
� There were an equal number of aggravated burglaries and robberies.
� The number of homes burgled and vehicles stolen fell by 20.6% (104 fewer incidents).
� Theft from vehicles fell by 3.4% (17 fewer incidents).
� Criminal Damage has fallen by 12.8% (96 fewer incidents).

Also:
Police Halt Water Orton Cannabis Production, North Warwickshire.
Also in March 2010, police officers and police community support officers from Coleshill's Safer Neighbourhoods Team successfully disturbed the production of a large quantity of cannabis in a property in Water Orton.  Officers carried out a search and seized the cannabis after information was received from members of the public. A strong smell of cannabis was also noticed in the area by the local Community Beat Officer and PCSO.  PC 616 Nina Bowden said: "This has been a positive step to reduce crime and antisocial behaviour in Water Orton and its surrounding areas. We rely on help from the public to help us protect the communities we serve from harm.  I would encourage anybody with any information on the cultivation or production of cannabis to pick up the phone and report it."

Victims of crime in North Warwickshire fall by over 900.
In October 2009 police in North Warwickshire reported that there had been over 900 fewer victims of crime in 2009 compared to 2006 (April to October 2009 compared to April to October 2006 – 910 fewer crimes). Inspector Belcher at Atherstone Police Station said: "Our continued improvement is achieved not only by the hard work of officers but the assistance we receive from our partner agencies and the public. We are all working together towards the goal of reducing crime and anti-social behaviour and the rewards of this continuing collaboration are now more evident than ever."

WARWICKSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL

On June 4th 2009 the Conservatives won a WCC election victory with 39 seats.  Following 2 by-elections we now have 38 seats.  

As a council we are facing unprecedented financial restraint imposed on us by central government and we are being forced to make savings in the region of £20 million each year over the next 4 years.  With this in mind we are building on our partnership working with Boroughs and Districts, Police, NHS and voluntary sector to reduce duplication and improve efficiency.  We have a freeze on recruiting and are only filling posts where it is essential.  In the long term, as controlling group, we are looking to downsize the organisation by around 20%.

Notwithstanding the above we have:

1.        Worked to achieve the lowest Council Tax rise ofr over 10 years (2.4%).

2.        Again put an extra £2million into highway projects to be selected by Area Committees (£1/2 million is earmarked specifically for recent winter damage to roads).

3.        Despite one of the coldest winters in recent years we were able to keep all major routes in Warwickshrie open.  We will be reviewing our gritting policy this year.

4.        Seen increases in recycling thanks to our partners in the Boroughs and Districts.  (However unfortunately North Warwickshire lags behind the rest of Warwickshire in terms of recycling so anything that the Parish Council can do to encourage residents to increase their recycling would be much appreciated).

5.        Seen an improvement in GCSE results again across the county.

6.        Developed early years learning and built on the success of sure start.

7.        Started projects on both Stratford Parkway and Kenilworth Parkway as well as continuing with the first phase of NUCKLE (Nuneaton, Coventry, kenilworth and Leamington) rail link.

8.        Progressed with joint projects with NHS Warwickshire including introducing a number of joint posts/appointments thus saving money for both partners.

9.        Completed the new school at North Leamington and progressed a new academy for Nuneaton.

10.        Put narrowing the gaps at the top of our agenda ensuring that this includes all districts in the county where pockets of deprivation exist.

11.        Increase the number of one stop shops and introduced the concept of "one front door" for all our services and those of our partners where applicable.

12.        Progressed with our Personalisation of Home Care agenda to encourage more choice and independent living and, wehere possible, we are building more dementia homes.

From April 1st 2010 Learning and Skills Council funding and responsibility for 16-18 year olds has transferred to WCC.

If anyone has any queries regarding local government matters, please do not hesitate to contact me on 01827 712150 or by email on matildamay@northwarks.gov.uk or cllrmay @warwickshire.gov.uk.

With best wishes
Tilly May

Website

We are pleased to report that since the redesign of the website during Winter 2008, and its launch in January 2009, some 3510 people visited the site during that year.  Sandra and Barry continue to update the site on a regular basis and would like to thank all the regular contributors.  Since the site’s launch we have added the gallery and are always looking for new photographs of Austrey through the seasons. 

If you have never looked at our village website, please find some time to do so as you may be surprised with the amount of information available and learn a lot about the history of Austrey and the many activities which go on in our village. 

AUSTREY PARISH COUNCIL

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

WEDNESDAY 12^TH MAY 2010

1.  PRESENT/APOLOGIES

Present: Councillors Key, Grix, Daley and Greally.  Parish Clerk Mrs. A Allsopp and one member of the public.

Apologies: Cllrs Yates, Humphreys and Crooke and County and Borough Cllr Tilly May.

2.  ELECTION OF CHAIRMAN

Councillor Key was proposed by Councillor Daley, seconded by Councillor Grix and unanimously agreed.

3.  ELECTION OF VICE-CHAIRMAN

Councillor Daley was proposed by Councillor Key, seconded by Councillor Grix and unanimously agreed.

4. MINUTES OF PREVIOUS AGM HELD ON WEDNESDAY 13^TH MAY 2009

The Minutes from the AGM held on 13^th May 2009 were proposed by Cllr Daley, agreed to be a true record, and signed by the Chairman.

5.  TO AGREE DATES AND VENUE FOR PARISH COUNCIL MEETINGS

Cllr Key proposed that Parish Council Meetings continue to be held on the second Wednesday of each month, at 7-30pm. in the Village Hall, Main Road, Austrey, excluding both August and December, but reinstating either or both if necessary dependant upon the necessity to meet and discuss any urgent matters.  This will be decided in July and November.

6. TO APPOINT VARIOUS COMMITTEE MEMBERS & REPRESENTATIVES FOR ORGANISATIONS

The following were unanimously agreed:

Planning – Cllrs Daley and Greally.
Finance - Cllr Daley.
Village Hall - Cllrs Key and Humphreys.  
Website – Cllr Daley who will liaise with Barry Truman and Sandra Duggan.
Austrey Newsletter – Cllrs Grix & Yates. 
Neighbourhood Watch  -  Cllr Grix. 
APFA/ACG – Cllr Greally and Yates. 
School – Cllr Crooke.

7.  TO APPOINT A RESPONSIBLE FINANCIAL OFFICER AND AGREE CHEQUE SIGNATORIES.

It was proposed by Cllr Key that the Parish Council Clerk, Mrs Anita Allsopp continue to act as the Responsible Financial Officer for the day to day administration, and that the cheque signatories remain the same. This was unanimously agreed.

8.  CLERK’S DECLARATION REGARDING TAX AND NATIONAL INSURANCE

The Clerk agreed that she would continue to make her own arrangements regarding Tax and National Insurance contributions.

9.  APPROVE 2009/10 ACCOUNTS FOR EXTERNAL AUDIT

The Accounts as presented by the Clerk were accepted and approved at the April meeting and have now been internally audited.  The notice advertising viewing of the accounts is already posted on the noticeboard.

10.  TO RECEIVE A REPORT ON CAPITAL ASSETS

The Assets List is much the same as last year with the addition of two noticeboards.

11. TO APPROVE ANNUAL ACCOUNTS FOR PAYMENT

1. Came and Co for Insurance - £533.65
2. WALC Annual subscription - £286.00
3. NWACPC Annual subscription - £15.00
4. C.P.R.E. Annual subscription - £29.00

These annual accounts were proposed for payment by Cllr Key, seconded by Cllr Daley and unanimously agreed.  They will continue to be reviewed annually and Cllr Daley will look at other options than ROSPA for the annual playground inspection.

12. Next AGM – 11^th May 2011

The Chairman then closed the Annual General Meeting of Austrey Parish Council.
Anita M Allsopp                                                                                                                             
13^th May, 2010

AUSTREY PARISH COUNCIL

ANNUAL PARISH MEETING

WEDNESDAY 12^th MAY 2010

1.  PRESENT/APOLOGIES

Present: Cllr Key in the Chair, Cllrs Grix, Daley and Greally. 

Parish Clerk: Mrs. A Allsopp and three members of the public.

Apologies: Cllrs Yates, Humphreys & Crooke and County  & Borough Cllr Tilly May.  Also from Sheila Lashford, Sue Belcher and Stan Orton.

2.  MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING

Minutes of the previous Parish Meeting held on 13^th May, 2009 were accepted as a true record & signed by the Chairman.

3.  CHAIRMAN’S REPORT 

The Chairman expressed his thanks to Cllr Collins for his long and faithful service to the village as Parish Councillor and Chairman.  The Chairman regretted the Precept increase, which is in-line with other councils, but explained that rising costs and the needs that may arise out of the almost complete Parish Plan necessitate this.

The Chairman thanked ACG and all those involved with the Village Hall for their continued support for providing village facilities, entertainment and the improvements that have taken place throughout the year. 

The Calor Communication category win together with the WRCC Best Village award meant that £900 were awarded to the Parish Council, which has been utilized to make a donation to the Village Hall, make a long-term commitment to the website and offset funding for the bus shelter and Play Area improvements.

The Chairman also thanked those responsible for the website and also Richard Machin for the continuing excellent work he is doing litter picking.

 4.   REPORTS FROM VILLAGE ORGANISATION

Reports were read from the Borough and County Council and also from the police.  Reports were also received from Austrey Web Site, the Village Plan and the Bridge Club.  All reports received by 24^th May will be included in the next Austrey News and placed on the Web Site.

5.  ANY ADDITIONAL MATTERS RAISED BY AN ELECTOR OF THE PARISH OF AUSTREY

There were two letters received from residents of St Nicholas Close, together with photographs, complaining about the further deterioration of the parking situation and asking that the Parish Council support them.  Their complaints include inconsiderate parking that prevents residents entering and exiting their drives, that causes children and pushchairs to walk on the road, and verbal abuse.  The Parish Council promised to call a meeting with residents very soon to discuss what measures they would like to see implemented, and in the meantime would make enquiries about what might be legally possible to improve the situation.  It was noted that the offer of use of the Baptist Car Park had not be taken up.

The Chairman then closed the Annual Parish Meeting.
Anita M Allsopp                  
13^th May 2010