Chedworth Parish Council

Chairman’s Report to the Annual Parish Meeting

March 22^nd, 2010

I hope that communications between the Parish Council and the Public are now so good that there is nothing I can tell you in my annual report that you have not already learned from our regular report in the Hill and Valley News or the Parish Council webpage. I would like to use this year’s Chairman’s Report to note some of the significant achievements of the past year in the context of the 2008 Parish Plan which will double as a progress report on the implementation of the Plan. I emphasise that credit for these achievements is due not exclusively to the Parish Council but also to the considerable efforts of members of the wider community.

The Social, Leisure and Services Action Plan called for better services and facilities for our Seniors, teenagers and children. Thanks to the tremendous efforts of Howard Westlake and his Play Area Committee our newly-equipped playground is probably the best village facility in the area, of which the whole community - not just the children – is justifiably proud. Exercise classes for the over-50s, subsidised by Cotswold District Council, are now running every week but we have achieved no further improvements in the lot of our Seniors or teenagers largely because no-one has come forward to take the reins of this vital project theme. An attempt by Gloucestershire County Council youth workers to set up a regular youth group has failed, as has the Youth Parish Council, but the 6 – 8 Club continues to provide a very successful programme of exciting and inspiring diversions for this age group.

Implementing the Traffic and Transport Action Plan was always going to be a challenge in view of the numerous intractable road-related problems in Chedworth but Fred and Carole Shaftoe must be congratulated for some notable successes. We now have a bus running through the middle of the village on its way from Withington to Cirencester three times a week and although support for Village road projects by Gloucestershire Highways has been generally disappointing we have been offered new, more emphatic signs at entry points to the village in the hope of reducing traffic speeds. Lost motorists are a feature of Chedworth life but Fred and Carole’s research showed that most people did not favour the provision of additional signs to aid navigation around the village. Instead the Parish Council will very shortly replace the existing roadside maps with new, improved versions enabled by a generous grant from CHOC. Antisocial and dangerous parking remains a serious problem at a number of locations in the village in particular around the School. It is an offence to leave a vehicle where it causes danger or obstruction but because the likelihood of getting booked is so remote we can only appeal to motorists’ better nature and encourage a culture of safe, considerate parking – even if it means walking further.

The Chedworth Environment Group under Martin Spooner’s leadership is tackling a number of projects identified by responses to the Parish Plan consultations. It has lobbied successfully for improved recycling services, planned and achieved full funding for the installation of a Biomass boiler at the Village Hall, produced guidance notes on “Cherishing Chedworth’s Biodiversity” and initiated a significant project for improving flow-rates and biodiversity value of the village stream. Proposals to enhance locally-characteristic features such as the Tuns Hill waterfall and to repair dry stone walls around the village have yet to be tackled.

Responsibility for promoting Enterprise and Employment within the Parish was initially seized with enthusiasm by the Chedworth Business Club - which has since gone strangely silent due to the lack of a leader with time to pursue its many valuable objectives.

The Housing and Development Action Plan proposed the establishment of an Affordable Housing resource for the Community and the development of a Village Design Statement. The former project is proceeding apace, the latter has yet to be adopted.

There have been other positive outcomes for the Parish during the year that have not arisen specifically from the Parish Plan consultations. The Parish Council has been pleased to support the Chedworth Diggers in their quest for more sustainable food production by establishing a community garden in a corner of the Grass Keep Field. It has adopted a redundant BT telephone kiosk from which it plans to provide some as yet undecided community facility and, less excitingly, has in the past year updated its Standing Orders, fulfilled its obligations under the Freedom of Information Act to produce a publication schedule, deliberated upon 32 Planning Applications including 7 tree work notifications and attempted to improve communications with members of the public by posting draft, unconfirmed minutes on the webpage in advance of meetings.

My thanks to the team of Parish Councillors who have put in such a good year’s work, to our Clerk, Elizabeth Broad, for carrying out her duties in a quietly efficient way and to our Responsible Financial Officer (who is also our Clerk), for looking after the Parish finances and getting the books through two audits without problems.