Dibley moments

Delise Ball, chair of Cranfield PC has kindly passed on the draft of her annual report delivered last Wednesday. It is only slightly edited  for conversational remarks that look odd written down. And I will add on what Delise didn't say - that the buck stops on her mobile phone, email or letter box and she is always there for the village. It is an extraordinary responsibility - well done and thank you.

Welcome to the annual Parishmeeting.

I wrote this report out and then wondered if I had includedeverything in it that my councillors would expect … should I take a differentapproach but... “ This lady is not for turning".

General Purposes Committee 

This committee is chaired by Jill Brocklebank andhas a vice chair in Alan Morris and a very lovely and dedicated assistant inFran (Gill's guide dog).

In the past year this committee has overseen the co-opting ofthree new council members . Laura Moore, Mark Phillips and Vaughan Crosby Ross. This has added to our diverse skill base and to our lively discussions. Itis always good to have new people and we may well be adding another to ournumber very soon , bringing us up to a situation we haven’t had for quite someyears … A full council of 15.

The road calming (traffic calming) measures are completed at last. It hasbeen a long and lengthy process with a few hitches, but on the whole the consensus isthat the junctions are safer and speed has been reduced on the roads leading inand out of the village.

In the light of the forewarning of an application by FFC to site agroup of 8 wind turbines, it was decided to set up a working party to researchand educate us on the possible implications of such a development. This wasswiftly achieved and the council took a decision in principal to object toturbines within a defined distance from the village. I should at this pointthank the members of the working party for all their hard work …Sue Clarke …Roger Baker both councillors and the non-council members - David Diamond,Peter Gardner and Mark Osman.

On the whole the objectives set by this committee have been metalthough one still outstanding … The updating of the Village directory is nowbeing undertaken by Laurence Pollock and will I am sure be hitting the pressbefore long.(it will)

Burial Ground

Chaired by Laurence Pollock and assisted by George Young

This committee has an eclectic mixture of responsibility for thevillage cemetery, the churchyard and church wall, the Mount Zion Burial Ground, ongoing maintenance of the war memorial and the church clock.

This committee and this council has an able and dedicated parishioner, who hasbeen overseeing good timekeeping in the tower and it is only right that I saythank you to Gerry O'Mara for this.

The war memorial endured the indignity of extensive trafficcalming works taking place in front of it and there were fears from some thatthe new road layout would affect the Remembrance Day events. These wereunfounded and, as is usual, the service at the War Memorial was well attended andseemed to have no adverse effects from the work that had been done.

Discussions have continued with the church regarding repairs to the churchwall. The Parish Council has agreed a £5,000 contribution towards the resurfacingof the north path of the church yard and a new delivery of pea shingle for theother paths.

It continues to cutthe churchyard (grass) and employs professional maintenance contractors when there is overhangingvegetation that is beyond the ability of us mere mortals.

 
Small pieces of maintenance work have been carried out in the cemetery. Thegates have been rehung and the camomile lawn in the garden of remembrancereplaced with shale chippings to render it more easily maintained. Trees havebeen planted around the extension which is likely to be used in the next 18months to two years.

The ongoing request/rejection continues with the Diocese of St Albans topurchase land adjacent to the cemetery to safeguard the future expansion and inthe short term to allow the establishment of allotments.

Finance and Grants

Chair John Savill Vice Chair Laurence Pollock

The precept was maintained at thesame level for another year. This has resulted in approximately a 5% increaseon the council tax contribution to the Parish Council for a band D household.

Various events took place for the Queen's Jubilee and were supported withgrants. This included £1000 toward the Party in the Park, £150, Bourne End; £200, Townsend Close; £126, Harter Avenue.

Other organisations awarded grants included the Friendship Club, £500; Citizens Advice Bureau Outreach Service, £200; Thriftdale Scouts, £500.

Section 106 monies resulting from housing development was spent in two areas. Cranfield Colts were awarded £11,028 toward new changing facilities, and £4,824 was spent on new young person's play equipment in Broad Green.



Environment

Chair John Savill Vice Chair George Young

For me this year has been “ The saga of the trees year".

Members of the public seem to have cried and rejoiced in varyingnumbers over some of our trees. I can assure every one of them that removingtrees isn’t a pastime we enjoy but we have to be guided by the tree specialistswe employ and do what is necessary.

The removal of the avenue of trees into the park was greeted withmany laments and tears and we took the harsh comments safe in the knowledgethat we were doing the correct thing and that it was our intention to replacethen in the spring. The replacement trees, flowering cherries and rowans may take a while to reach maturity but whenthey do I am sure the avenue into the park will once again look wonderful. Imust at this point thank Maurice Rust who assisted the committee in theirdecision of suitable replacement trees.

The entranceway to the High Street Recreation ground was renovatedin time for the Party in the Park, at a cost of £2,850.

Other items that this committee has instigated in the past year include

3 new, large 112-litre dog waste bins were installed. The cost was£1,050. 4 new waste bins were provided by Central Beds Council, and 4 further bins were purchased for £1,624.

A request for a skateboard park was made from a group of localyoung
people. They were invited to attend a council meeting to put their request andto establish a dialogue with council members. Additionally, they organised a petition to the council, which collected over 200 signatures. Initial steps have been made, and the council has agreed to put aside some money from the 2013-4 precept as well as some section 106 monies in order to progress further. Currently Jonathan Talbot ofGroundwork Luton, Bedfordshire is looking in to what is possible with the funds available. These total around £27,000.

I personally was delighted to welcome these young people to ourmeetings and I must say that they conducted themselves in a manner that was atotal credit to themselves. These are youth we can be proud of and haveconfidence in them as maybe future councillors.

A parcel of land of around 1.5 acres came up for auction this year  and it was debated whether the council should try to purchase it for use as allotments. Finally, the land sold for £120,000 which was four times the budget available to the council. Someone somewhere must see a great potential for profit in thisland.

Planning

Chair Roger Baker Vice Chair Peter Meadows

Planning is a committee that is soaked in planning law andprotocol, Its members can often be seen around the inner conclaves of CentralBeds delivering the responses and deputations directly to the decision makers.Its not the most enjoyable thing to do in your spare time but one that is doneconscientiously and ably by our councillors, Roger Baker , Peter Meadows,Laurence Pollock, Sue Clarke, Alan Bastable. If I have missed anyone overthis past year, I apologise. I myself avoid it if I can, sometimes it's notpossible and I, too, have to enter the lions' den.

The Home Farm development reaches its 19th year and asRoger says it has more twists and turns than a fairground ride. We have keptout of any disputes that may be between the land owners and hold fast to theknowledge that there is a plan in place and one which the village has come toterms with and one which we would like to see completed…. Only time will tell …I just hope that in this report next year the situation will be different.

Cranfield has always been a target for developers … I think maybethey know it’s a great place to live and is overseen by a very caring and pro-activeParish Council.

The monitoring of all large and small scale development is done bythis committee and done with thorough and detailed investigations. I know thatmost of the site visits are done by the Vice Chair who deserves a personalthanks for his enthusiastic dotting of “ Is" and crossing of “ Ts".

It would be prudent to remind parishioners that we are not theplanning authority, we can only advise, inform and agitate those who make thedecisions, sometimes, not always successfully but always vigorously and withtotal commitment.

Flitt Leys has become a problem to be addressed and this committeehas been engaged in finding a solution to the parking problem that exists thereat present as well as the obvious problem of access that will occur if thedeveloper of the Central Motors site is allowed to take the road through atotally inadequate access road.

One piece of good news is that the government has allocated £125, 000 and Central Beds £65,000 to construct a cycleway to the university ...thisis an amenity that this council has lobbied for, for many years.

Now, a general thank you to all members of the council.

To Rosie who has managed yet another year of our meetings and whohas done a lot of the general day-to-day work and without whom we would struggle.

To Doug Parish for his continued role as Cemetery Superintendent, to Dave Rawle for his role as amenity cleaner and play area inspector, one that is far from a walk in thepark.

To Malcolm Sargent who has yet again given his time free to attachthe brass memorial plaques as and when needed in the cemetery.

Then there is In Trim who have managed to keep the grass areas ofthis village in order against the constant fight of growth-inducing rain andsun.

There are I am sure many more who assist this council who neverget a mention but who deserve to have thanks … like the people who reportlights out and gullies blocked. These residents do help us maintain what Ibelieve is a pleasant village to live in.

Now...in the words of Max Bygraves, I want to tell you a story ….

A while ago I was approached by a friend who had heard that therewas a vacancy on his local parish council and he asked me if he could talk tome about "sitting on a council" and what he could expect. I said I was happyto do that but that first I wanted him to tell me what he believed was involvedin being on a parish council and why he wanted to do that.

Oh yes, he had thought long and hard about it andthese were his thoughts .

It only involved a couple of hours two evenings a month.

You don’t have to know about anything in particular, if you needto know anything there are people employed to tell you everything you need toknow.

There was no meetings outside this timescale because the councilemployed someone to do all the work involved.

Once a councillor, the people of the village would respect you andlook up to you.

You could identify a thing that needed doing … Like extra busshelters … and they would be installed within a reasonable time scale say 2months because you had decided they were needed .

Basically everyone would agree with you 100% of the time .

Oh… and the pay has to be ok or there wouldn’t be so many peoplewanting to do the job .

After all he said …. Really how hard can it be !

Well those of you who really know me will realise that by now Iwas finding it hard not to either roll about on the floor in fits of laughteror to slap him and call him a "silly boy". I just shook my head, raised myeyebrows and said "If Only".

The first BIG mistake he made in my opinion was to refer to it as "sitting". Sure we SIT for a minimum of two evenings a month …. But the twohours can and often does extend to two and a half … even three hours. That twohours is then added to by additional things we do outside the meeting time ...Reading of documents , attending presentations and meetings with other bodies,doing village walkabouts to establish things like the state of our pavements,possible siting for needed street furniture or just to visiting parishionerswho "have a problem" with something they believe we can assist with. Justhow many hours extra an active councillor can add to those "just 2 hours" is abit like "how long is a piece of string". 

That killed his theory of "Just 2 hours" as well as that of the council having someone employed to do allthe work. Yes we do have Rosie, without whom we might as well put up the "Cranfield Closed" sign but she doesn’t and no way should she do all the work.

He was right in the assumption that you don’t necessarily need toknow anything in particular but believe me by the end of a few months you willbe adding valuable knowledge and skills … some of our longer servingcouncillors have knowledge that we could never do without and actually must bepassed on to newer members. Knowledge about the village and its history aswell as technical knowledge about planning law, church walls, bylaws orprocedures needed to be followed at Central Beds .

A councillor is  "loved" and respected. So true … As long asyou are on the side of the person concerned, so long as you don’t do anythingthey disagree with and never tell them anything they don’t want to hear. And tosay people basically agree with you most of the time is "rubbish !" Sitthrough a couple of council meetings and you will see that even councillorscannot always agree. That is the beauty of a pro-active council where peoplewill disagree and debate things but where when a vote is taken, they willstand by the decision and move on to the next thing. It is very rare thatanyone gets so hot under the collar that they throw their toys out of the cot… to be honest if they do then they can take a walk and calm down because I'm notpicking them up.

His idea of "deciding on whats needed and it being done withintwo months" really did make me smile and I think this is one of the majorhurdles any new councillor has to get over. In an ideal world this would bethe case but sadly in the real world of research, decisions, ratification andthe big rolls of red tape, things move slowly. Frustrating it is, but it is afact of council life .

When I informed him that there was no pay , that the councillorsdid it all for the love of the village . That they wanted to give somethingback to the community he paled somewhat …no pay ? No, no pay … in fact it tendsto cost a councillor in phone calls , IT resources , petrol and shoe leather …sure transport costs can be claimed if going to distant meetings but on thewhole this is never claimed.

So to his final comment … How hard can it be?

I threw this back at him and said "you tell me!" his answer was ... Errrrrrr I think I might just start the Japanese for beginners night schoolclass. I nodded.

All this is true … but its also rewarding, challenging, oftenfrustrating but there is never a dull moment and often especially when we have a "Vicar of Dibley" moment ... Very, very funny.

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