HAVERAH PARK WITH BECKWITHSHAW PARISH COUNCIL
MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING HELD ON Tuesday 8 May
2018
Location: The
Village Hall, Beckwithshaw
Present: Councillors – Cllr M
Nicholson, Cllr D Spence, Cllr A Ellis and Cllr Miss V Oldham.
Parish Clerk – Mrs J H Galloway
Commencing at 7.45pm the Annual General Meeting was
held with 4 members of the public present. (Mr A Ross, Ms J Parish, Mr J Gordon
and Mr T Muirhead))
1. Apologies: Cllr S Lumley.
2. Election of Chairman :
Cllr M Nicholson was proposed by Cllr Spence and
seconded by Cllr Ellis.
All in favour.
3. Election of Vice Chairman :
Cllr D Spence was proposed by Cllr Nicholson
and seconded by Cllr Ellis.
All in favour.
4. Chairman’s Report :
Thank you for attending our AGM and a very warm welcome to you all.
Firstly I would like to thank my fellow Parish Councillors for their
continuing support and a special vote of thanks must go to our Parish Clerk Mrs
Jean Galloway.
This last year has been busy for the Parish Council with the formation
of the Local District Plan. The progress
has been watched over for us by Councillor Michael Clark who has been excellent
at putting forward the Parish Councils’ point of view. A big thank you to Michael.
With the help of funding from Knabbs Ridge, we
have now got a defibrillator installed at The Smiths Arms with kind permission
of the brewery and Nick Lloyd, and Andy Ross has very kindly volunteered to be
the ‘guardian’. Thank you to all
involved.
Speeding and traffic in the village has been a huge concern to the
Parish Council for many years and to this end we are very grateful to Jo Parish
and her speedwatch team who have stood on the
roadside to collect data on the speed of traffic to help persuade North
Yorkshire police and Highways that we have a traffic problem. In meetings we have had with these
authorities they are very reluctant to admit that we have a problem.
We have instigated the possibility of installing flashing speed signs in
the village, extending the 30mph limit area and reducing the speed limit past
the school. Sadly, we have met strong
resistance from the police and North Yorkshire Highways. With the help of our traffic working party we
are revising our strategy. We have not
given up!
Planning issues are a major part of our duties and when applications
come before us we must balance the needs of progress with the needs of the
local environment whilst keeping within the parameters of planning law. There is truth in the statement “you can’t
please everyone”.
Broadband has never been very good in Beckwithshaw although there has
been some improvement in some areas.
Councillor Tom Muirhead has taken on the case for the Shaw Lane area and
this, with the involvement of North Rigton Parish
Council and other local residents, is ongoing.
We have carried out litter picks both spring and autumn and a huge thank
you to all residents and Councillors who have helped in this task. It is very sad that the litter picks are
necessary but without them our surrounding road sides would become very
unsightly and more littering would be encouraged. We have arranged for our spring litter pick
to take place this coming Saturday, 14th April, starting at 10.00am
in the village hall car park. Please
come and help us.
We carry out an annual inspection of Parish Council Property and have a
contractor in place for the maintenance of the area of grass opposite Shaw
Lane. The work in the copse is carried
out by volunteers. Again, a big thank
you to all who have helped.
Finally, I would like to thank everyone who has contributed to the
workings of the Parish Council this last year.
Mark Nicholson
The Annual
General Meeting closed at 7.55pm.