Bishop's Hull Parish Council: Chairman's Annual Report 2009

The last twelve months have seen a number of welcome activities in the village, and it is right to record these to give credit to the people involved. Even though the activities may only be loosely if at all connected with the Parish Council, they do show the active nature of our community, which the Parish Council supports as it can.
Particularly great credit is due to the organisers of the 2008 'Bells' celebration. They worked extremely hard. We all benefited and hope that they felt their efforts were well rewarded.

The Local Action Team, which works very harmoniously with the Parish Council, has continued excellent work. Nick Mott, Tom Catherall, Pete Yandle and Rod Porter together with the rest of the team have kept working throughout the year. The Speedwatch team does seem to have been effective at slowing some of the traffic through the village. They now have their own high specification speed gun and you may find them around the village from time to time. If you think any particular areas present a speeding problem and are not being covered then let either the LAT or the Parish Council know. The youth paintballing project has been beset by organisational and personnel snags, but it is hoped to progress that shortly.

The Youth Group, as with many other organisations, depends upon a very few volunteers. As a result the frequency of meetings has had to be reduced, and members of the LAT and Parish Council have helped to bring the equipment from the store and return it afterwards. Jane Kilty and her helper(s) could certainly do with more assistance; one might hope that more parents would be involved.

The Village Events Group has had some regeneration and we look forward to their efforts. As with the Youth Group, it is often left to the same few people.

Another outcome of the Parish Plan is the village website. Larry Fogg, having been instrumental in setting it up, has had to relinquish this role. The Parish Council is grateful to Dave Jorgensen for volunteering to take it on. Jill Coldicott continues with the vital 'backroom' work, without which the web-site would be useless.

We continue to benefit from one of the best-maintained footpath networks of any parish in the area. It therefore behoves people to keep to the public footpaths when they are so plentiful and well marked. Thanks are due to Ken Burgess for all his work.

The renovated children's play area is much appreciated by most people. Unfortunately there are a few who seem to prefer to try to spoil it. Despite this the VHPFT continues to make an invaluable contribution to the parish, with its management of the playing field and support for the play area and other matters.

The Village Flower show is a popular event in the village, and the organisers deserve our thanks. Last summer they found that they have to provide public liability insurance cover for the event. This is a substantial cost which the Parish Council agreed to meet for 2008. We hope that their budget can cover the cost for 2009.

The Persimmon application for planning consent for the land west of Bishop's Hull Road has preoccupied the Parish Council for a considerable part of the year. There has been no apparent development since the change in the SCC Highways Department's recommendations for the junction at Bishop's Hull cross roads. The present situation needs resolution, preferably by Taunton Deane Persimmon's application being rejected, since they have not made any apparent effort to revise their plans. We still hope that we may achieve one of our targets: a footway all the way from the Bishops Hull Cross Roads to the village.

You may have heard about PACT ("Partners and Community Together") which aims to help the police and local communities decide their priorities for policing. After total initial failure, it was recognised that it might work better through parish councils, than Borough councils. This been proved, although it initially demonstrated that communication within the police and with the public needed improvement. It is essential for formal record to be made of all crimes, otherwise occurrences such as the vandalism at the refurbished play area do not appear as a problem. Fortunately we have a relatively crime-free community, but if or when problems occur it is essential to report it. Members of the PC and LAT can advise yo on the route. It is accepted that the Portishead telephone system is not ideal. Members of the PC and LAT have the ability to contact our PCSOs and Police Neighbourhood Beat Manager so that they can at least see such reports when next on duty.

Last year we had hoped to renovate the cobbled path at Netherclay, and we are awaiting the outcome of further investigations into the practicability.

Both parts of the Community Woodland are developing well. Again thanks are due to those few volunteers who have helped with maintenance tasks. Somerset Wildlife Trust and Taunton Deane BC carry out some maintenance tasks, but particularly the new area is heavily dependent upon volunteers. As Ken Burgess how you can get involved.

Although parking has been a problem in Heron Drive and area, near SCAT, and the Parish Council sought help from Taunton Deane, we have not been kept informed about any developments. As long as building work was continuing on Heron Drive it was not possible to determine if SCAT was the source of the problem.

I thank the Parish Councillors for their help and support over the year, and especially the clerk, Sue Watts for her guidance and service to the Parish Council. The Government, at all levels enjoys, issuing lengthy consultation papers with relatively short time for comment. One such was in respect of a document called the Regional Spatial Strategy. This included the housing targets up to 2026. Many thanks to members of the Parish Council who studied these and other such documents to enable the Parish Council to reply. Despite these various activities it is good to report that we have kept the Parish Precept (part of your council tax) at the same level as last year.

I also wish to pay tribute to the fact that Taunton Deane has a Parish Liaison Officer, David Greig, who has been a great help to us on many occasions.

Malcolm Summers, Chairman, April 2009.