Bishopstone and District Group Parish Council

Annual Meeting

Chairman’s Report

Tuesday 4^th May 2010

PARISH COUNCILLORS:

Gained: Mrs Sharon Knights (Byford) Mrs Denise Shaw (Bishopstone)

We currently have no vacancies on the Parish Council

ACTIVITIES / ACHIEVEMENTS include:

The results of a housing survey conducted by Community First showed a need for some low cost housing in parts of our Parish.

We saw earlier this year our last visits of the Parish freighter van which, due to the huge price increase, will not be viable for the future.

The parish has completed its first 6 months of doorstep recycling, which has been a great success.

Due to current and future maintenance costs we decided not to accept responsibility for the piece of land at Kenchester known as a village green.

Our first Annual Parish Meeting held last May was successful but we hope more residents of our parish will attend the forthcoming one next Tuesday.

OTHER MATTERS

This is my final report and I have found my four years as chairman interesting and worthwhile. I think we have an excellent group parish and should be proud as a Parish Council of all that we have achieved in recent years. Although, in general we are all pushing in the same direction to improve our parish where possible, I don’t believe that it is the duty of the Parish Council to agree on every issue and decision and it is excellent to see healthy debate about emotive issues, as this shows that we do, as a Council, reflect a wide range of views and are therefore better placed to represent members of our community.

I would like to recommend that we re-join HALC. This organisation exists to inform and advise Parish Councils and without membership there is literally no one else to ask. The chairman needs access to reliable, impartial advice, and sometimes this can only be obtained from HALC.

I would also like to recommend that we actively strive for Quality Status, something we agreed to do some years ago. We currently fulfil almost all of the criteria necessary for this, and achieving Quality Status would gain us further respect from the Herefordshire Council.

It remains only for me to thank the Parish Councillors for their support, and in particular the Planning Committee, the Parish Clerk, and other councillors who perform specific tasks for the Parish Council and the Parish.

My successor has my full support and my best wishes for a long and successful term of office.

Penny Redshaw

(chairman May 2006 – 2010)

This report will be published on our web site and in our next newsletter