HARTSHORNE PARISH COUNCIL

South Derbyshire District in the County of Derby

MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL PARISH MEETING

Thursday 21 April 2021

HELD via Zoom video conferencing

PRESENT - Mr A Jones (Chairman) and 14members of the public

Also Present R Smith Clerk to the Parish Council

01/21//P	Apologies Councillors Mrs K Coe.
02/21/P	MINUTES Minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting held on 18 April 2019 the minutes were approved and signed by the Chairman.( no meeting held on 2020 due to Covid 19.
	MATTERS ARISING There was no Matters Arising.
	CHAIRMAN’S REPORT The Parish Council continued to meet by zoom during the Covid-19 pandemic holding a total of eleven monthly meetings. During the course of the year Cllr J Seaton resigned from the Council, and Cllr D Stretton was co-opted to the Council. Gordon Watts, our Lengthsman of many years resigned in September. I would like to thank him for his work for the Parish, and I wish him well in his retirement. We interview three applicants for the post of Lengthsman, and appointed Mr R Watts who started his duties in mid-February. During the year, your Council has responded to consultations on planning applications and objected to those which we considered were detrimental to the community. We met with representatives of the developer of the Broomy Farm development and were able to raise concerns with them. We objected to amendments to the planning application for the Broomy Farm development which removed proposals to provide a second access to Granville Academy. This resulted in the District Council planning committee twice resolving unanimously to defer a decision on the planning application to allow further discussions with the Academy, and although agreement could not be reached to provide a second entrance, plans were amended to protect the possibility of doing so in future. We have provided additional adult exercise equipment at the Main Street recreation ground, where we have also replaced some of the children’s play equipment. We have continued to make representations to the County and District Councils about local roads and other services. I would like to thank my fellow Parish Councillors, Parish Clerk and representatives on the District and County Councils for their work over the year. I would particularly like to thank Parishioners for their work to support local residents during the year of Covid-19.
05/12/P	PARISH COUNCIL FINANCIAL REPORT BY THE PARISH CLERK. It gives me great pleasure in presenting unaudited accounts for 2020/21, this will be my last presentation as I will be retiring at the end of June. Currently all documentation such as bank Statements are with the Auditor in preparation for them to be submitted to the External Auditor in May. We were unable to hold a Parish Meeting last year due to the start of Lockdown. Last year as you can imagine was a difficult year, with the Parish Council meetings via Zoom for the whole of the Financial year. However, the Parish Council made certain progress with improvements at Main Street thanks for to the receipt of s106 monies. We also had additional ‘one off’ income from HSBS by way of a refund of Bank Charges, £771.00 plus a refund from STW of £1100.00. Payments were reduced due to the retirement of our Lengthsman Gordon Watts who did some excellent work within the Parish for 15 years. Again because of the Lockdown it was a slow process in finding a replacement, however Bob Watts has recently been recruited and is already making an impact in the area. Thanks should also go to the retiring County Councillor Mrs Linda Chilton for her recent donation of £650.00 towards village noticeboards. The Parish Council remains in a strong financial position and can hopefully resume some of the plans that have been on ‘Hold’ for the past 12 months. The Parish Council can now say that we have the lowest precept that Council Taxpayers pay in South Derbyshire. I can not finish by not commenting on the excellent work carried out by volunteers through the pandemic, this resulted in these efforts be recognised by DALC in awarding ‘Highly Commended’ i.e., second only to Ripley Town Council
06/21/P	TO RECEIVE REPORTS FROM ORGANISTIONS 1. Verbal reports were received from, Goseley Community Centre, Goseley Neighbourhood Watch, Hartshorne Charities, Written reports were received from Dethick Hall Committee, Hartshorne Cricket Club, Hartshorne Coffee Club, Scout Group and Hartshorne Ladies Club (see attached) . 2. The Parish Council were pleased that all the organisations were still looking forward to the forthcoming despite a very difficult 2020.
07/21/P	ANY OTHER BUSINESS 1. There were no questions .
08/21/P	The Chairman thanked all the residents who attended the meeting. The Meeting closed at 8.15 p.m. Signed………………………………………………….. Dated……………………………………………….