2024 Annual Parish Meeting

MORTON PARISH COUNCIL

Minutes of the 130th Annual Assembly of the Parish Meeting Held on Monday 13th May 2024 at 6.30 pm, Community Room, Morton Trentside School

Present:

Cllr B Allison (Chair), Cllr J Butroid (Vice-Chair), Cllr Parry, Cllr C Allison, Cllr Youngman, Cllr Gott, Cllr Lightfoot, Cllr King, C. Graves (Clerk)

1.   Apologies – Cllr Ward (no apologies received). Cllr Rollings, Cllr Carless, Cllr Clews

2.   Minutes of the Meeting held on 15th May 2023 - Proposed as a true and accurate record at the meeting held on 12th June 2023.

3.   Current Chairman Cllr B Allison welcomed all to the Annual Assembly of the Parish Council and proceeded to give the Chairman’s annual report. In summary - earlier in the year we saw the departure of long-standing councillor Keith Panter, and Leah Mander who was with us a short time. Cllr Lightfoot and Cllr King were co-opted giving us a full complement of councillors and Cllr B Allison thanked all for their contributions throughout the year.  The Morton Community Field Committee (formally Playing Field Committee) was re-established whose aim it is to create a vision for the field, supported by comments by the village and to seek funding opportunities so it can be more accessible and useful to all. The proposal to run a re-wilding project on the grass area of Field Lane and protect it for use by all the village by securing it as a Village Green under the title of common land.  Lines of communication were opened with the new Beat Manager and some of the problems relating to unauthorised bikes on the roads and footpaths have seen a reduction. Morton Parish continues to focus on keeping our streets safe by monitoring speeding and this will be pursued further following the PCC elections, and to seek funding for a safe crossing outside the Co-op.  Residents should continue to be encouraged to report crimes when they see them occurring.  We continue to uphold the values of the Neighbourhood Plan ensuring planning applications adhere to the policies contained in it, so we can protect our environment, heritage and housing from unscrupulous development whilst holding Councils to account.  The retention of someone to assist the running of the website, establishment of a more professional email address for the Clerk and Chairman allows correspondence to be retained on a server for scrutiny and archive purposes, this also allows for an online diary system.  A performance report and schedule for the Clerk was identified and a plan set out with objectives for the forthcoming year.   Cllr B Allison thanked the Clerk for her work throughout the year.

4.   Clerk's Summary – Summary and councillor attendance report circulated prior to meeting.  As of 13th May 2024, there was a balance of £45,388.11 in our combined bank accounts, this included a precept of £15,978.00.  In summary – our most costly outlay is the grass cutting, for both the playing field and burial ground, £2,680.79 and £2,395.00 respectively. Pitch marking totalled £410.00 with the recommendation that we invest in pitch maintenance to ensure we continue to maintain the quality of the playing surface. We continue to receive a 75% relief rate discount for the playing field.   Income received from sporting team utilising the field was £535.00 and burial ground income totalled £6,055.00.  Whilst the accounts are in a healthy position, a substantial proportion of this has been reserved for burial ground carriageway repairs.

5.   Any Other Business including reports from partners and village organisations.

a)   Morton Community Playing Field Committee – Report submitted by Lucille Middleton, secretary.  In summary – 5 meetings held since September 2023. Although 13 people are invited to the meetings, and the school have indicated they will send 1 rep, the football teams reps do not attend, therefore only 8 interested parties.  Core attendance is around 5, which is disappointing and without wider representation and support it will be difficult to make the progress we would like. However, we have a good age range between 16 and 78 years of age and we will continue to canvas for more community involvement. Progress so far includes short term improvements considered, quotes for new signage, dedicated litter bin, grants and funding processes investigated, better access to car park, costings for seating, picnic tables and playground equipment and survey of villages.

b)   Village Hall – Report submitted by Jenny Ogden, Chair.  In summary – Village Hall continues to be used by groups of all ages for many varied activities. Currently 20 regular hirers during the week and are unable to offer further bookings due to lack of available dates/times. Private hire requests for weekends continue to increase through the summer. Maintenance programme included renovation of the wooden floor, new boiler, and the installation of new emergency doors later in the year. 2 committee members have retired but happy to report 4 new members, making a committee of 12. November this year will see the 60th anniversary of when the first village hall was built on that site. Celebrations will include coffee morning, concert, dance, and children’s party. It is hoped that villagers will come along and enjoy the event.

No other reports received.  Meeting closed at 6.44 pm.