Chair's Statement at Annual Parish Meeting 22 May 2024

Good evening and welcome to our Annual Parish meeting.

The past 12 months have been a trying one. We have struggled to get a full complement of Councillors and I would personally like to thank Councillor Gray and Councillor Foster for stepping in to help keep us quorate enabling meetings to go ahead. Unfortunately, some months we have not been quorate and we have had to cancel our meetings or cut them short. This in turn has had a knock on effect of moving forward with projects. There are only 2 residents out of Mareham le Fen on our Parish Council. We both run multiple businesses and have families. Whilst we try are best at all times to improve our village for ourselves and yourselves it is hard work. The saying many hands make light work comes to mind. It’s saddening that we see comments on social media about what people would like the Parish Council to do or asking why we have not done something, but nobody else has come forward to join us in helping. Two people from an electorate of several hundred is not enough to do everything you or we would like to do. This has been a frustration to us and we really hope this can be avoided in the future with new members joining us. The role of a Parish Councillor is a voluntary position, requires you to attend one meeting a month and can be a rewarding one but can also be stressful I will admit. We often take comments personally even when we know they are not meant to be. As we are passionate about our village. If anyone is interested in taking more information I am happy to chat with you.

We have now got a group of volunteers who are receiving training for the Community Speed watch initiative. We have purchased the kit and we are very nearly ready to roll out our first sessions. A huge thank you to our volunteers, your time is being put to great use and hopefully speeding can be monitored and dealt with very soon.

As many of you know there was a second planning application put in by Gleesons. After many stressful months and several residents opposing the planning, also several comments from the parish council opposing the extension ELDC have refused the planning application. Which is fantastic news and I am sure local residents who would have been directly affected will be over the moon.

The grounds maintenance contractor the parish council employed to undertake the grass cutting had performed well the last couple of years. On the back of that the parish council thought the village deserved to enter the East Midlands in Bloom best kept village competition. As always life likes to throw the odd curve ball and guess what!! As you have probably noticed our contractor unfortunately sent a less industrious maintenance team this season who sadly failed to live up to our high expectations. They have been removed from the role and the contractor has pledged to rectify the issue this week. Also Mother Nature has added a few additional curve balls with the rainy conditions.

We will hear more about the In Bloom competition shortly.

We had hoped the the diocese of Lincoln would be willing to support the reintroduction of a sports and recreational field but they clearly potentially have other plans for the land as they would not consider a long enough lease to allow the parish council to obtain grants or funds to invest in the former football field. We await news on what is in store for the land.

The very long drawnout purchase of the cemetery extension is very nearly completed. After discovering that the legal title to parts of our existing cemetery had not been transferred to the parish council properly by The Diocese of Lincoln in the 1960s.

Further work will be undertaken to put in a planning application to extend the current cemetery, and to construct pathways, install fencing and ground markers for future use. As a growing community this has been we thought an essential project to push forward on.

The amount collected through council tax for the parish council increased this year by 25% in order to balance the books after spending from reserves the last couple of years. This equates to about £9 a year for a Band D property and £6 a year for a Band A property. If we chose to cut the  amount added or even keep it the same and stop the  grass cutting (after comments I’ve received and seen lately I somehow don’t think you want that), we could stop buying benches, decorating bus shelters and not invest in public spaces to ensure we don’t stand a chance to become best kept village. Families of loved ones can go and find another village cemetery somewhere else if we don’t provide one BUT we think investing now to keep our cemetery and our community looked after and ready for the future is the right thing to do. So an increase was necessary to complete the purchase and cover legal fees involved.

The parish council is very grateful to everyone who has volunteered to assist in the Wombles group, community speed watch group and other projects we have undertaken. It means we can get more projects completed and in place. We have gained a grant to assist in a couple fo these projects which is excellent news.

We have also recently completed the installation of a new defibrillator which was donated to the local community. It is now operational and will be serviced by LiVES.

Thank you for asking the time to attend tonight and I look forward to seeing you all in the future. We have some exciting times ahead with the in Bloom competition.

May I take this opportunity to thank current and past Councillors who have given their time to volunteer as a councillor. Some had served many years on the council and the input has be massively appreciated by myself and am sure the community. Lastly and by no means least I need to thank Andrew our Clerk. He is a highly experienced clerk and works hard to keep us on the right track. He hears our frustrations and moans about things not going right and advises us on best ways forward. He motivates us to keep going when we feel down. He is our backbone and we appreciate every thing he does.

Mel Percival - Chair, Mareham le Fen Parish Council