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Penn Parish Council Annual Report 2013/2014
Penn Parish Council
Annual Report 2013/2014
Annual Report 2013/14(covering the year up to 31 March 2014)
The ParishPenn Parish covers about 4,000 acres and has an electorate of 3,239, an estimated population of some 3,887 in 1,620 households. It includes the communities of Penn, Knotty Green, Forty Green, Winchmore Hill, Penn Street, and the properties on either side of Hazlemere Road up to Rushmoor Corner.
The parish is divided into two wards: Penn Street & Winchmore Hill Ward with three Councillors; and Penn Ward with eight. Councillors are asked to take a particular interest in their own area, but are conscious that they also represent the whole parish.
CouncillorsMaureen Seymour was re-elected as Chairman and Mike Morley re-elected as Vice-Chairman for 2013/14, and both have been re-elected for the current year. We said farewell and thank you to two Councillors, David Baker after seven years, and Dan Dixon after two. We welcomed Gerard Westmacott and Stewart Wapshare in their place.
Alan Hardie and Graham Harris have completed their third year as our Chiltern District Councillors. David Schofield remains our County Councillor covering a revised and oddly-named ward of Penn Wood & Old Amersham, which covers Penn, Holmer Green and Old Amersham.
Council MeetingsThe Parish Council meets at 8 pm on the third Thursday of alternate months in different parts of the parish. Forthcoming dates are:
17 Jul 14 - Penn Church Hall 15 Jan 15 - Forty Green Hall
18 Sep 14 - W/Hill Memorial Hall 19 Mar 15 - Penn Church Hall
20 Nov 14 - Penn Street Hall 14 May 15 - Knotty Green Cricket Club
All these meetings are open to the public, as are the many Committee meetings with dates posted on the notice boards and website. During the year, we have welcomed several members of the public to the democratic quarter of an hour held at the beginning of each full Council meeting, as well as our County and District Councillors.
Parish Councillors choose to receive no allowances of any kind. The Chairman can receive £220 pa, an amount set by the District Council to cover the costs of her role, but chooses not to do so.
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The Parish ClerkThe Clerk is the only Parish Council employee and is part-time. He is responsible for day to day administration and for implementing the Council’s decisions. He occupies the Parish Council Office which was built four years ago as an attractive extension behind the Penn Church Hall.
FinanceThere was a total expenditure in the year of £88,000 of which £6,000 was outstanding bills from the previous year. Income was provided by grants of £17,000, rents of £12,000, and a precept of £50,000. The precept represents an average charge to a household of 60p/week. Financial Regulations, following a national model, have been adopted and a risk assessment policy is reviewed annually. Independent auditors check the accounts. Burial grants are given to maintain local churchyards
PlanningChiltern District Council is the planning authority and notifies the Parish Council of every application. There were 162 during the year and comments were made on 48 of them by our Planning Committee, which meets every three weeks. A list of each batch of applications is published on our notice boards and our comments can be seen on our website. On particularly
important matters, the local District Councillor is asked to speak at the District’s planning meeting and a representative of the Parish Council is also allowed to speak. Planning applications can be viewed by the public on-line on Chiltern District Council’s website. An open morning was held in Winchmore Hill to discuss proposed changes to Green Belt boundaries.
The District Council’s Enforcement Officer is informed if any apparent breach of planning permission is noted or brought to the Parish Council’s attention. The procedures are necessarily careful and slow, but can ultimately be effective.
Commons and Village GreensGrass-cutting - Our very reliable local contractor, Tom Barron, cuts the grass on our commons at least five times during the year. The Recreation Ground at Knotty Green and the area around the War Memorial near Penn Church are cut at least seven times. Various other areas, including around ponds, are strimmed three times a year. Winchmore Hill Football Club no longer use the common having been unable to find volunteers to organise the Club. Invasive Japanese Knotweed has been successfully eradicated in Penn Street. Trees – We make an annual survey on all our land for dangerous trees. As a result, work was done on trees all over the parish, including on the commons at Penn, Penn Street, Winchmore Hill and Knotty Green.
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Children’s Play AreasWe have well-used and varied play areas at Knotty Green and Winchmore Hill with smaller ones at Forty Green and Penn Street. They all have a quarterly safety inspection and repairs are undertaken as necessary. A new horizontal ladder and a very popular zip-wire have been added at Knotty Green, helped by a grant from the County’s Local Area Fund.
Ponds At Widmer Pond, Penn there was a working party to remove reeds, rubbish, fishing hooks and lines, aided by the excellent Chiltern Society conservation volunteers. Sheep Washing Pond, Knotty Green - A working party did good work in September. The bank has been raised to prevent flooding into neighbouring gardens. Penn Street Pond is slowly being cleared of New Zealand Pygmy weed.There are leaflets available on request to the Clerk about Penn Street Pond,
4Widmer Pond clearing, March 2014
An avenue of trees: oaks (1960) & limes (1979) on Penn Common
Knotty Green play area zipwire and ladder
Gatestakes (outside the gates of Penn House), and Gawde Water, which outline the history of the ponds and their surrounding areas.
Allotments and garden plotsThere are 36 plots or part plots available for tenants at Knotty Green.An active group of allotment holders does excellent work in maintaining the allotments. There are no immediate vacancies, but anyone wanting to go on the waiting list should contact the Parish Clerk. There are six garden plots at Beacon Hill of varying size, with a water supply. None are vacant at present, but requests to be put on the waiting list are welcomed.
Highways Concerns about the condition of pavements, footpaths, potholes, flooding, fly-tipping, overgrown hedges and verges, and damaged or missing signs are regularly reported. County Highways would like to devolve some of these responsibilities to parishes and we would like to take them on and are involved in negotiations about responsibilities and funding.Our new Mobile Vehicle Activated Sign (MVAS), funded by a grant from the County’s Local Area Fund, has been in use all over the parish and is both warning drivers and collecting data on the speed and number of vehicles.
Forty Green Walkway After much time and effort an ambitious plan for a walkway on the high bank of the steep, narrow ‘funnel’ between Knotty Green and Forty Green proved to be impossibly expensive and a much more workaday buff-coloured footway has been
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Allotments
Right: Sheep Washing Pond,
Knotty Green, with heightened bank
Left: Penn Street Pond
painted along the side of the funnel. It is the best we could do. A new path and a salt bin have been put in at the top end.
FootpathsPenn has 28 miles of footpaths, which is much more than the 11 mile average for Bucks parishes. Every Parish Councillor walks his group of local footpaths every year and reports any action needed.
Parish Council WebsiteThere is a website at www.pennparish.org.uk. It includes a map of the parish, useful contact details, and programmes, minutes of meetings and items of news. We hope it will become increasingly useful. We have signed up to a very effective mapping service which provides us with whatever we need.
Church Road, Penn. The pavement has been resurfaced
Winchmore Hill bus shelter - showing cracks and after repairs
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Mobile Vehicle Activated Sign
Forty Green walkway
LightingThe council’s overall objective is the same as that of the government and the County Council - to reduce our consumption of lighting energy, and with it our costs, to the minimum level consistent with producing a reliable and acceptable level of lighting. We have 150 footway lights of which 40 are very energy inefficient and have been made obsolescent by EU regulations. They are to be replaced by modern LEDs which demand much less energy and maintenance and have less light spillage. We are also changing all 150 photocells in order to turn all the lights
off between midnight and 5.30am - some lights are already on this regime. The present fortnightly scouting contract to identify lights in need of repair has not been working well and is to be cancelled. We will in future rely on residents reporting faults to our Parish Clerk. The effect of all these proposals, together with a 3-year energy supply contract, will result in a saving of some £4,000 pa. We are applying for an interest-free loan to meet the capital costs and have increased the precept by £3,000 in order to provide capital needed for this project and to replace the remaining lights in future years.
Freedom of Information All records held by the parish are available for public scrutiny. Minutes of the main meetings are available for download from the website.
We welcome any suggestions for improving our service to parishioners Please contact the Parish Clerk if you need any further information
Thanks to photographers Michael Bayley, Kate Dicker, Alan Hardie, Greg Hopkins, Brian Lock, Mike Morley and Eddie Morton
POLICEThe whole parish comes under the Chalfont St Peter Police Office
Tel: 101 (non-emergency number). PC Gavin McVeigh and PCSO Fran Allen.
FLYTIPPING, ABANDONED VEHICLES, ROADSIDE LITTER, LITTER BIN COLLECTION
Report to the Waste Management team at Amersham Tel No 586550 ore-mail to [email protected]
HIGHWAY QUERIES AND REPORTS OF POT HOLES etc.The Service Information Centre on 0845 230 2882; e-mail [email protected] or on line at www.buckscc.gov.uk/transport, which is the online one stop shop for all
Transport for Buckinghamshire information.
PENN PARISH COUNCIL
PARISH COUNCILLORSMEMBER ADDRESS TEL.No.Michael Bayley Fagnall Cottage, Fagnall Lane, W/Hill, Amersham, HP7 0PQ 01494 725686
Kate Dicker Brindles, Brindle Lane, Forty Green, HP9 1XT 01494 674697
Alan Hardie Apple Tree House, 1B Hogback Wood Road, Knotty Green, HP9 1JR 01494 681359
Brian Lock Tylers, 1 Amersham Road, Penn Street, HP7 0QW 01494 716541
Mike Morley 11 Burrows Close, Penn, HP10 8AR 01494 816638(Vice-Chairman)
Mike Newth-West Fagnall Farmhouse, Fagnall Lane, W/Hill Amersham, HP7 0PQ (mob. 07957 432861) 01494 713358
Charles Pointon-Taylor Penn Cottage, Church Road, Penn, HP10 8NU 01494 812329
Marian Raszpla Well End, Elm Road, Penn, HP10 8LF 01494 812636
Maureen Seymour 1 Underwood Cottages, Coleshill Lane,(Chairman) Winchmore Hill, HP7 0NW 01494 433070
Stewart Wapshare 58 Seeleys Road, Knotty Green HP9 1TB 07747 762658
Gerard Westmacott 68 Seeleys Road, Knotty Green HP9 1TB 01494 676476
Councillors can be contacted by e-mail via the Clerk
CLERK TO THE COUNCILMiles Green Parish Council Office, Penn Church Hall, Church Road, Penn, HP10 8NY 01494 815458 e-mail: [email protected]
CHILTERN DISTRICT COUNCILLORSAlan Hardie Apple Tree House, 1B Hogback Wood Road, K. Green, HP9 1JR [email protected] 01494 681359
Graham Harris Heathfield, 14 Bois Lane, Amersham, HP6 6BP [email protected] 01494 433025
COUNTY COUNCILLOR (Penn Wood and Old Amersham)David Schofield Deanwood Cottage, Dean Wood Road, Jordans, HP9 2UU 01494 676440 e-mail: [email protected]
