ANNUAL REPORT BY CHAIRMAN OF PARISH COUNCIL -  May 2005

I have now completed my second year as Chairman of Little Milton Parish Council, and it remains an honour and privilege to do so. Little Milton is a wonderful place to live, and it is largely due to the efforts of so many people who give their free time to the village who make it so. It also makes the job of the Parish Council easier, because we would be incapable of achieving very much at all without their help. A lot has happened in the last 12 months.

 Since last year we have built the Multi Use Games Area, and I am delighted to say that the facility is attracting people from other villages as well as our own to enjoy sport all year round, and we are generating a healthy income as a result. The recreation ground as a whole is now being managed by a team led by Mark Willis, and thanks to them we have a thriving facility open to all.

We also have new traffic calming measures at each end of the village, thanks to the efforts of the A329 committee, and it will be interesting to see how long it takes to educate drivers that priority is always given to traffic exiting the village. Thanks go to Alison Shelton, Dave Taylor, Mark Platts and the rest of the committee for their determination to make the village a safer place. Plans are now being developed for the centre of the village.

The Primary School, led by Eve Hunter and Isabel Fox as Chair of Governors has recently received a superb Ofsted report, confirming what we already knew that we have an excellent school in our midst, with rising pupil numbers, and congratulations and thanks go to all of the staff and governors for their achievement.

The Orchard Pre School has also been subject to Ofsted, and again thanks to the efforts of Yvonne Brammer, Linda Lovegrove, Val Coates, and the rest of the staff and governors the school achieved superb results again and again the Pre School is full to bursting.

There is also a growing feeling of excitement about the new village Hall, being built as we speak, and thanks are due to Richard Alliston as Chairman of the Village Hall Committee and the rest of the committee members for their hard work and single-minded determination to give the village a facility second to none. I would also like to thank the former trustees without whose hard work we would not have the funds available to build this facility, and to everyone in the village who generously made a donation, or organized a fund raising event. You will no doubt have noticed your Precept increase from this Parish Council due to the loan to complete the Hall, but I do believe that we are easily capable of paying this off sooner rather than later from the events and users which will come back to the new Hall.

St James Church continues to thrive, despite the efforts of the Church Commissioners to extract ever higher payments from us to keep it going. We achieve this through the efforts of the PCC, led by Victor Storey and Raymond Fergusson, who continue to raise ever larger amounts through the fete, Rofford Teas, and other events. Raymond Fergusson has organized the fete and has sold all the raffle tickets almost single handedly for more years than I can count, and Teresa Quested organizes a cake

mountain and an army of volunteers for two Rofford teas events every year. We also enjoyed a wonderful donation from Joyce Inge from her plant sale, which raised £1,000 for the Church, and from Paul Jeffery, who managed to extract more money from Gordon Brown than anyone thought possible!

Thanks are also due to Simon and Sarah Oddie, who have kindly donated their wonderful garden and grounds for the Fete each year, and to Jeremy and Hilary Mogford, who allow us to invade their premises with teas, scones, sandwiches and cakes in June and September, and dent their stock of champagne!

In other villages, just one of these achievements would be just cause for celebration. But Little Milton as ever punches well above its weight-we have amazing people who set ever higher standards for themselves and the village, and they succeed in making the lives of people who live here better.

The Newsletter is yet another success story, with rising advertising revenues and more pages of news and events. This is entirely due to the efforts of Raymond Fergusson, who acts not only as editor, but credit controller as well, so that the Parish Council funds are ever better as a result.

Annie Rogers, Alison Shelton and Shirley Thomas continue to man (or woman!) the Post Office and act as the focal point of all the gossip in the village-an essential element of village life! It is as always a labour of love for all the staff and especially Annie, who deserts her home village of Chalgrove to give us our Post Office. We hope she never decides to retire, and will stay on for the new facility up on the Recreation Ground.

Extra thanks go the Ann Hawkins and her efforts for the WI (and keeping the Lamb busy!) and to Janet Betts, whose work for Age Concern may often go unnoticed, but never unappreciated. Thanks are also due to David Haenlein, who has single handedly created the Little Milton website, and keeps it updated and fresh. I recommend a visit to www.littlemilton.org.uk

But life isn’t always a bed of roses. We remain concerned about the Lamb Pub, the Post Office, and the future of the land adjacent to the Recreation Ground. A village like ours cannot take anything for granted, and we as a Parish Council must always be alive to future threats to our welfare.

Finally it has been my pleasure to serve the village amongst my fellow councillors, Mabel Wood, Barry Coward, Isabel Fox, Alison Shelton and my superb Vice Chair Simon Oddie, and again Raymond Fergusson as Parish Clerk. They each make me look far more competent and organized than I deserve (particularly Raymond), and I bask in their reflected glory and wisdom. We are always greatly helped by John Nowell Smith our District Councillor, and David Turner, our County Councillor, who have been tremendous allies for our cause at District and County level. We could not have better friends than these!  Thanks to both of them for their hard work on our behalf on a wide range of issues.

FINANCIAL REPORT

The Clerk reported that the Parish Council conducts its finances within the framework of an overall budget and that the Parish Council monitors its income and expenditure during the year and takes any corrective action to ensure that it achieves its financial targets. The year ended 31st March was dominated by the investment in the MUGA and although self financing the investment was £68,265. Another major cost is the newsletter, £3,798 but this cost is offset by the level of advertising income. The cost of maintaining the recreation ground was £1,594 although the Parish Council does receive an annual contribution of £500 from the LEA as the school uses the facility. The Parish Council spends just under a £1,100 supporting community facilities, such as the Post Office, Car Hospital Scheme, Bus Tokens and the Village Web Site. The cost of the Council administration is £1,770 and includes the cost of the Clerk, Insurance and Audit Fee.

The Parish Council reserves at 31st March stood at £7,971 an increase during the year of £719. The Clerk stated that it was important to maintain a prudent level of reserves to meet any unforeseen circumstances and there have been a few in previous years such as Stone Bassett and Gipsy site enquiries.