Charvil Parish Council Annual Report 2020

CHAIRMAN’S FOREWORD

Dear Parishioners,

In normal circumstances your Parish Council would be hosting a Public Meeting in the Village Hall, at which the previous year’s work and finances would be presented by each of the various committee chairmen, and you would then have an opportunity to question any of your Councillors. Unfortunately, in these dark Coronavirus times, such a gathering is simply not possible, and hence our presentation must be made in the formats accompanying this opening Forward. Naturally, your Councillors would be pleased to respond to any questions which may be posed either directly to them, or to the Parish Clerk, or online to our website.

**Gregory Memorial Bench donated by Charvil Village Society**

With the above in mind, I will simply make a couple of introductory comments on each of the four main sections attached here (Finance, Amenities, Planning/Environment/Highways and Staffing), and you can then review these sections in more detail in the links below.

As regards the Finance of the Council, in common with every local authority across the country, Charvil Parish’s finances will take a hit in this current year as a result of ‘lock‑down’ and the need to close our various facilities (Hall, Pavilion, Pitches, Tennis etc.) which would otherwise have provided revenue to the Council (and fun for the community!). However, as our year‑end is at 31^st March each year, the figures which are presented below for the Fiscal Year 2019/2020 were only slightly impacted. You will see that our overall Revenue was marginally up on budget and our expenses slightly down. This is good but will certainly not be the case for the current Fiscal Year 2020/2021 (fuller details below).

As regards the village Amenities, as noted above, these have all been in lock‑down since mid‑March, and right now we are unclear as to when they will be permitted to re‑open. As you will know, at the time of writing this, the Tennis Courts were allowed to re‑open on a limited basis, and we very much hope that the remainder of the amenities will be able to open sometime very soon, albeit probably also on some form of limited basis (more details on these amenities is also given below).

As regards the Planning, Environment & Highways, I am guessing that it is ‘Planning’ which is of greatest interest to most residents. Those who attended the Open Meeting in the Village Hall on 2^nd March 2020 will know that there is considerable ‘feeling’ in the area around the potential new housing developments, both in Charvil and in the other adjoining Parishes. You will also appreciate that Charvil Parish Council is not the Planning Authority, but we are working hard to minimize the impact on the village. Right now, while the Coronavirus is with us, there remains uncertainty as to how these plans will proceed, and the Council will publish any further information once we receive it. Other concerns within the village include the growing incidents of lazy owners allowing their dogs to foul the sports pitches, and speeding motorists, particularly on Waingels Road and the Old Bath Road. (see more details below).

**New Signs at St Patrick’s Recreation Ground**

Finally, we have seen some changes over the past year in the Employee Team working for the Council. We are very sorry finally to announce the retirement of Roger Burns who has been a high‑profile figure around the streets of Charvil, keeping the village clean and beautiful for the past fifteen years. Thank you very much Roger! We also lose Mike Weldon who has been our Village Warden for the last two years, thank you Mike. However, we now welcome Keith Hayward in the new Facilities Caretaker role.

In summary, I encourage you to review the attached sections on each of the above topics (and more), and please do get back to us if you have any questions/comments/suggestions. Have a safe and relaxing lock‑down and, hopefully, a safe and speedy re‑opening.