Broomfield Parish

BROOMFIELD PARISH COUNCIL

Draft Minutes of the AGM Meeting

Thursday 12 May 2011

7.30 pm Broomfield Village Hall

Present: Peter Hall, Alicia Aras, James Odgers, Carol Pearson, Ann Manders (Clerk).  Two members of the public.

1.  Apologies for absence: Jamie Bachelor, Anne Fraser.

 

2.  Acceptance of Office by Parish Councillors: The Acceptance of Office forms were signed by the Parish Councillors present and countersigned by the Clerk.  The Clerk confirmed that the Acceptance of Office form for Jamie Bachelor had been signed in advance of the meeting.

3.  Receipt of Declaration of Interest Forms from Parish Councillors:  completed forms were received from Peter Hall, James Odgers and Carol Pearson.

4.  To Elect the Chair:  Peter Hall was nominated as Chairman by Carol Pearson and James Odgers seconded this.  There were no objections and Peter Hall was therefore elected.  The Acceptance of Chairman form was signed by Peter Hall and countersigned by the Clerk.

 

5.  To Elect the Vice Chair:  Peter Hall nominated James Odgers for this position and Alicia Aras seconded this proposal.

6.  To approve the Minutes of the Annual Meeting of the Parish Council 2010:  The Clerk reported that she had omitted to bring a printed copy of the Minutes to the meeting.  These had, however, been circulated to Parish Council Members prior to the meeting and also displayed on the Parish website.  It was agreed to accept the Minutes as a true record, to be signed at the next meeting.

 

7.  To make the following appointments:

• Parish Path Liaison Officer: Alicia Aras;
• AONB representative: Peter Hall
• Village Hall representative: Carol Pearson
• Quantock Cluster representive: Alicia Aras

8.  Finance:

• To approve the draft annual accounts: approved unanimously;
• To agree the annual governance statement: agreed unanimously;
• To appoint the internal auditor: Ms Jo Purvis

9.  Chair’s Report:  This was read out to the meeting by Peter Hall.  Copy attached.

10.  Public Forum: nothing to report.

BROOMFIELD PARISH COUNCIL

 

Annual General Meeting 12th May 2011

 

Chairman’s report for 2010/11

 

 

• The Council has again run relatively smoothly through the year with few major issues to deal with. Mary Rousseau resigned as Clerk in October 2010 due to illness, but we were fortunate in being able to appoint Ann Manders to replace her. Ann lives just outside the Parish boundary and is also Clerk to Goathurst Parish Council.

• Broomfield is now part of the North Petherton ward following the Boundary Commission review of Sedgemoor DC and Cllr Ann Fraser has already attended several PC meetings.

• Fourteen planning applications were received from Sedgemoor DC for comment. Eight of these were subsequently granted, two refused, three withdrawn after registration and one is still under consideration. This latter one is a major application for an Egg Production Unit on Goathurst Hill which has received a number of comments from Broomfield and Goathurst Parish Councils as well as the AONB service and local residents.

• Finance – see attached financial statements– income was £2488 comprising £2250 precept, £237 VAT refund and £1 interest. Expenditure was £2369, leaving cash on deposit of £1739. The precept for 2010/11 has been raised to £2700 to allow for election costs and the loss of the County Councillor’s community allowance.

• The Parish Council has been represented on the Broomfield Village Hall Committee by Carol Pearson, Jamie Bachelor took over as Parish Path Liaison Officer, Alicia Aras attended meetings of the Quantock Cluster of Parish Councils and Peter Hall continued to liaise with the Quantock Hills AONB Service.

• Only a small number of the 37 rights of way in the Parish were surveyed during the year. There are 9 open faults with the RoW unit at Somerset County Council, mostly to do with blocked paths or signposting. The Parish Council contributed £300 towards substantial wooden ‘no vehicles’ signs which have been erected on the restricted by-ways in the Parish. The PC has also paid for the modification and installation of a new gate on Broomfield Hill Common donated by the AONB service; thanks are due to Edwin White for his help.

• The National Trust gave their interpretation of the restrictive covenants on the Village Car Park They have agreed that the car park field may be used for car parking of any kind and for any other events without individual permission providing that the proceeds benefited the parish.

• The PC chairman has continued to maintain the Parish website and email list and has also produced a complementary Facebook page for Broomfield which has amassed ten ‘likes’. However the communications survey showed that the vast majority of people receive their information from the Link-up magazine.

• Various other issues concerning roads, the moto-cross track, maintenance of the village car park, the local postman and the use of Broomfield Hill Common for orienteering events were dealt with during the year.

• Outlook for 2011/12 – All of the current Parish Councillors were nominated for the election on 5^th May and were elected unopposed. A fourth Annual Parish Meeting is to be held on 24^th May 2011.

Peter Hall

Chairman

12 May 2011