Annual Parish Meeting
Chairman’s Report…detailed the Parish Council (PC) objectives for 2017/18 and how each of these items had been progressed. The full report can be found here.
Financial Report…main points were that we began the period with £13,759 in the bank and had an income of £10,316 during the year which included the precept of £6,050. The PC received £1,598 Community Infrastructure Levy from Newark & Sherwood District Council, total grants of £1,050 and £1,466 from the Inland Revenue which was a 3 year VAT claim. Payments during the year amounted to £8,335 which included £2,650 for the village entrances and £1,865 Clerk’s salary. A precept figure of £6,900 will be levied in 2018/19.
Visiting speakers:-
Kate Cressey…spoke about how their family are farming their land in Thurgarton to improve the environment by increasing the width of set-aside verges around the fields, mending existing hedges by planting hundreds of new hedge plants, planting new trees in Priory Wood and farming in a way that will increase the natural habitat for both creatures and birds. A new grain store has been built and new trees planted around it, the planting of wild flowers is planned next. Kate and family will move into Far Barn in July having refurbished this iconic local site and extended it by re-using stone from a previous family home. Kate holds a charity Christmas event each year, in conjunction with the vicar, to which all parishioners are invited.
Julian Benton…a publican with 3 local pubs talked about how he is working towards operating the Red Lion, assuming sufficient funds are made available by parishioners and other investors like himself. Anyone who would like to get a flavour of Julian’s pubs should visit either the Staunton Arms in Staunton-by-Dale, which he owns or The Earl of Chesterfield in Shelford which he manages for the village.
Thurgarton Parish Council Meeting
Strategy Meeting…will be held by the PC in the coming weeks to agree objectives for 2018/19 and to agree which focal areas each Councillor will take on. If you have any particular points that you would like to be addressed then please do let me know.
Village Spring clean…took place on Saturday 14th April when 25 parishioners turned out to clear rubbish, clean signs and generally spruce up our village and keep it lovely. Staff from Forterra joined in and litter picked from their factory to the A612.
New data regulations… the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) come into place on May 25th. This means that all data held by the Parish Council will be more highly regulated than before. To assist the PC with this change the appointment of Adrian Fretwell as Data Protection Officer (DPO) was approved at a cost of £150 for the year. Adrian has become DPO for many local PC’s. One of the necessary actions will be that all parishioners will be asked to opt in (again) to the village email service and to holding their personal details as part of the Thurgarton Emergency Plan.
Accounts for 2017/18…were approved. These details will be available on the village web site shortly.
Date of Next Meeting…The next meeting of Thurgarton Parish Council will be on Thursday, 28th June at 7.30 pm at the Village Hall.
Tina Tsoukatos, Chair, Thurgarton Parish Council