At the Annual Parish Meeting of Stratton Parish Council, the Chairman, Cllr Andy Aylott, presented the following annual report outlining the Council’s work and activities for the previous year.
Chairman’s Report for Year 2022/2023
‘The last year was more of a normal year, following the two previous years of Covid restrictions and changes to how we live and operate.
The Parish Council also returned to what we could consider more normal circumstances, although that does not necessarily mean it was an easy year. We continue to be three Councillors light of our entitlement of seven councillors, and although several requests were put out for people to come forward, nobody did. It is a shame that we as a Parish Council must struggle on with only four councillors and that more people do not come forward.
We did succeed and appoint a new Parish Clerk who was appointed from the 1 May 2022 and work began to train them and introduce them to the systems and processes we as a Parish Council must follow. This started to work well, until later in the year we were hit with the Clerk going on sick leave following the recurrence of a long-term illness. This meant they were unable to work for the final three months of the year, and eventually handed in their resignation in April 2023. We are therefore without a parish clerk once again, meaning that work dealt with by the clerk is having to be done by councillors.
It did not help that during those closing months of the year, that the parish council laptop crashed, and it took considerable time and effort, to ensure repairs were carried out, and that parish records and files were secured and fully restored.
Having highlighted those problems, we did as a council manage to continue to adapt and update some of our processes and policies and introduced several major improvements within the parish.
Following work started in the previous year, we finally managed to replace two pieces of equipment in the Younger Children’s play area with new equipment – new swings and ‘nodding horse’, as well as doing maintenance repairs to extend the life of the largest piece of equipment – the children’s climbing frame and slide.
People in the parish undertook various celebrations to acknowledge the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, with the parish council providing finances to purchase ‘Jubilee Mugs’ for all children in the parish. Funding also became available partly from the parish council, a voluntary group of villagers, and the Summer Fayre group to purchase and site a garden table on the playing field in recognition of the Queen’s long service to the Country.
Work was also finalised, with the parish council taking part in the Queen’s Green Canopy event, another part of the overall Platinum Jubilee celebrations. This resulted in 106 new trees being planted on the playing field in late autumn by volunteers from in the village. May I thank the fifteen or so people who spared an hour or two to come along and help plant the saplings – at least it stayed dry that morning.
As in previous years, Councillors have continued working with officers from Dorset Council Highways to review the safety of the A37 main road. This involved discussions with officers when the road broke up and essential repairs were required, and local information when looking at water sources.
The troughs at both entrances to the village were planted with summer and winter flowers and provided much welcome and welcoming colour.
A three-year tree report was commissioned to look at the safety condition of trees owned by the parish council, that report has been received and has now been put on the Parish web site. A few actions were expected, and work on these has been started, with further work being carried out in the new year. A few actions require the parish council to obtain Tree Decision Notices, as the trees are covered by TPO (Tree Preservation Orders).
The Parish Council continues to support local groups and others who help residents in the parish through distribution of Section 137 Grants, with eight grants being made.
Work was done in conjunction with The Heart of Our Community group with regards to a new lease agreement for the village defibrillator. The Parish Council becoming the signatory to the lease with the South Western Ambulance Service, while The Heart of Our Community continues to do the day to day safety checks.
Other more basic maintenance work has continued with contractors dealing with grass cutting, hedge cutting, and maintenance of ditches.
The Parish Council’s finances remain in a healthy position with good review and budget control processes in place. This ensures that decision making can be effectively and efficiently carried out and expenditure directed to areas where it is most required. The decision last year to move some of the Council’s funds to a different bank has proved successful, as funds have received higher interest rates, and re-investment means even higher income will be received in 2023/24. In view of the likely increased work to ensure safety of trees and a broader need to do extra maintenance work the precept was increased by £1,200 at last year’s Budget meeting.
Finally, my thanks go to all councillors – Cheryl Hobbs, Matthew Garner and Simon Joslin for their hard work and dedication over the past year. It should be noted that the coming year is the last year before new elections which are due to be held in May 2024, and a new Council is formed. There is therefore a strong need for new people to come forward and become councillors or else the parish council will struggle even to exist in future years.
Let us hope the year 2023/24 will be a much more settled year for the Parish Council.
A.J.Aylott
Chairman – Stratton Parish Council
14 May 2023