MINUTES OF HARKSTEAD ANNUAL PARISH MEETING, HELD IN THE VILLAGE HALL ON MONDAY MAY 21 2007 AT 8PM.

PRESENT: Parish Council Chairman – William Wrinch, BDC Waste Strategy Officer, Peter Garnet and 20 parishioners.

1. APOLOGIES - received from District Cllr. David Rose, County Cllr. Dave Wood and Nigel Boon.

- Before the meeting Chairman welcomed everyone present and said that there was no Parish Council at present as the deadline for submitting nominations hadn'’t been met. The next election was June 21, so the next PC meeting would be in July.

2. MINUTES –of APM May 22 2006 were read and signed as correct.

3. MATTERS ARISING – i) FP33 along cliff top of shoreline – clerk to urge Rights Of Way Dept. to chase landowners on re-instating it.

4. CHAIRMAN’S REPORT – William started by saying that his first year as Chairman was quiet and uncontroversial. The HMS Ganges application is still an issue with which Haylink are consulting local parishes. Closer to home the few local planning applications have had the ‘recommend approval’ stamp of the Parish Council. On another positive note, the PC approved a quote to have the War Memorial cleaned and names re-cut by Graham Jay of Shotley. Crime in Harkstead was minimal over the past year, The Baker’s Arms has a new landlady who seems to have a very positive approach towards building up business and the first beach party of the season was the messiest yet. It might be better to target the parents of the teenagers to influence them to prevent the more anti social issues. Also regarding the shore, hopefully the problems of driving cars over the fields, have been resolved, by local farmers ploughing field edges. William ended his report by asking if more parishioners would come to monthly meetings or even become Parish Councillors. He thanked Rodney for his help in preparing parish accounts and Pam the clerk for her work over the year.

5. REPORT FROM PETER GARNET- BABERGH WASTE STRATEGY - Peter gave a very informative verbal and visual presentation of Babergh’s re-cycling policy, following parishioners concerns over what and what not to put in the re-cycle bins. Babergh is among the top few Districts in the country with regard to re-cycling and so far targets seem to be increasing. The local waste sorting depot is at Great Blakenham and it’s possible for people to have guided tours around there to see how things are sorted. Several queries were raised about re-cycling issues and it does appear that Britain is behind other European countries in this department, but District Councils are on the ball even if the government isn’t.

6. REPORTS FROM LOCAL CHARITIES AND GROUPS – i) Boothby Charity – Rodney Freeman reminded all of who the local trustees are and said that to November 2006, the poor fund had £200 in, but no one had requested help and the education fund had spent £100 of the £240 income. ii) Jack Cartwright Trust – Margaret Harward said that last December 19 payment of £30 were made to 65+ year olds and 27 payments of £50 to 75+ year olds. Thanks to better interest rate rises, more had been available to pay out. iii) Neighbourhood watch – is still going , though not a lot of feedback from the police and luckily crime was minimal. iv) HMGT – Rodney gave a brief report about the Millennium Green and said although Geoff Lusher had resigned as a trustee he was still involved in maintenance. The accounts stood at about £2600. Rodney thanked everyone who’d been involved in looking after the Green.

7. PARISH ACCOUNTS – Chairman said that as only ‘draft’ accounts were available, they would have to be approved by the PC during the July meeting. He thanked Rodney for his help with the accounts over the past year.

8. ANY OTHER BUSINESS – County Cllr. Dave Wood – although not present had sent a copy report, to the clerk as follows: The County set it’s Council Tax at 4.5% for the following year, though it still has a £21million shortfall in it’s budget. Again Adult Care and Community Services face an enormous challenge to cope with finding £12.1 million. Health – this year saw the creation of a Suffolk wide PCT (Primary Care Trust) and the move of Strategic Health Authority to cover the region rather than the county. With Government approval a new way of working and delivering services between Local Authorities will be phased in over the next 3 years. However though the county has striven to be more efficient and improve services, it’s still under pressure financially due to increase in costs and demand for services. It’s proposing to work more closely with district and borough councils, to cut out waste and intends to lobby for a reduction in the amount of bureaucracy, as outlined in the Govt. White Paper. Schools Organisational Review – after a 5hour debate SCC voted by 42 to 28 to move to a stage two review. Future info. will be posted on the County website as well as DW keeping in touch with PC’s.The locality budget has been able to help several local organisations, including Harkstead’s Village Hall kitchen.District Cllr. David Rose – also not present had sent the following report to the clerk: David began by saying that he felt progress had been made in several areas, particularly in keeping tax increases to within the rate of inflation. Council tax had the 2^nd lowest rate of 1.5% below the overall district average. Since 2002 BDC has achieved nearly £2m in cahable and non cashable savings and invested £23m in capital projects, icluding £14m on council housing. Between 2003/4 and 2006/7 BDC built nearly 220 Registered Landlord Affordable Homes, nearly £15m worth of investment. BDC residents have produced about 309kgs per head of recyclable waste during 2006, just over 35% of target. Several businesses have benefitted from rate relief and 11000 residents have concessioary travel passes. In the past 4 years £400k has been issued in community facility grants, including £22k to Holbrook Village Hall. On a personal note David has once again been elected to represent Holbrook and Harkstead in an un contested election, and hopes to continue serving their best interests and Babergh as a whole.

Rodney Freeman praised the local High School Headmaster Robert Sherrington, for the vast improvements he’d made to the school. Jenny Freeman expressed a common concern about camping on the shore and litter left behind. The clerk had been in contact with several local schools about these problems and hopefully things might calm down a bit. Eve Rayson thanked the PC and local charities and NHW for their efforts in keeping Harkstead a nice safe village.

Being no other business the meeting ended at 2126.