I am pleased to present the Annual Report for Thorganby Parish Council for the year ending May 2011. This has completed my third year as Chairman and again, I have found that I have enjoyed the position and have had many enjoyable meetings.
I should first of all like to thank District Councillor Bill Innes yet again for his regular attendance at Parish Council meetings and for his continuing help and support. I am sure that without him and his good advice, we all would have had a less easy role as councillors. Also, County Councillor Liz Casling has also helped with her advice on a number of occasions.
I wish to thank a number of individuals for the work they have done for the village over the last 12 months.
Vice Chairman, David Woolgar who has supported me as Chairman throughout the year; our Parish Council representatives on the various committees, and all members of the Council for their dedication and contribution during the year.
Thanks go to Dan Vickers and Charles McNeil who have continued to cut the grass around the village and who have given much of their free time to the village.
Major thanks are especially due to our Clerk, Jackie Parry who has worked hard in the role and gives invaluable support to the work of all the councillors.
The Parish Council has carried out numerous activities during the year including:-
We have reviewed numerous planning applications over the year and have had additional public interest in some of the more controversial applications.
Thankfully, the Jefferson Arms has at last re opened and is now providing the village with a much needed amenity. Not only do they ‘allow’ locals to drop in and enjoy a pint, but they have built a good reputation for good food. Possibly the most useful addition is that there is now a small shop area where basics such as bread and milk may be bought.
Yet again, we are trying to persuade the Police to manage speeding in the village on a more regular basis as this is constantly a major concern. They did do some speed monitoring and found that they needed to try to have speed enforcement cars in the village, but to date this has only been carried out once. We have also campaigned as hard as we can to try to obtain gritting vehicles working through the village in bad weather with limited success.
We were forced to decide to cut down the most of the villages Horse Chestnut trees at each end of the church due to an inherent disease. A lot of the villagers were very unhappy with this but extensive research and informed advice led us to the conclusion that we had no choice. We have since replaced all the felled trees with English Oak trees. This will we hope give as much pleasure to the village in the future as the Horse Chestnut trees did in the past. Thanks to all the people who helped in this process.
We also seemed to be ahead of the game when we bought our village Telephone Boxes from BT and converted one into a very successful book exchange and the second will be set up as a plant exchange. Many thanks to Simon Willis and Charles McNeil.
We have already bought two new benches to replace the older ones in the village and have two more on order for later in the year.
The bank balance is in a reasonably healthy condition thanks to the help and support from the Council members and our internal auditor.
I fully believe that the Parish Council, has quietly worked for the good of the village of Thorganby and achieved a significant amount to the benefit of the inhabitants
Thank you all for your attention and I wish you all good health and prosperity for the year ahead.
