Kilsby Village

KILSBY PARISH COUNCIL ANNUAL REPORT

March 2009 – April 2010

Annual report data click here

Kilsby is very fortunate to have a willing and pro-active group of councillors who give their time to maintain and improve the life of our community. This year we welcomed Phil Martin, Anne Cole, Charles Smedley and Mark Longmore as councillors, giving a full council for 2010/2011. Catherine Camp continues to be a first rate Parish Clerk and works above and beyond the call of duty; we have recently extended her hours and moved her up the salary scale but she is motivated by doing a professional job.

Reg Dunn has taken on the role of vice chair of the Parish Council and works non stop for the village, particularly in the area of highways. The Recreation Ground is now managed as a charitable trust by a group of trustees under the chairmanship of Reg Dunn with David George as secretary.

Thanks are extended to John Lathan who had to resign as a consequence of poor health; and also to Brian and Catherine Lomax and Robin Brown our District and County councillors.

The PC would like to thank Steve Hartwell for his grounds maintenance work in the village, Chris Lomas and her colleagues who produce a top class newsletter, Don Atwell who with Eddie Taken and Nigel Gostick’s help keep the website as a valuable resource. Thanks also to Phil Martin our neighbourhood watch coordinator.

Kilsby became a Quality Council during the year; only the 13^th Parish in Northants who have achieved this status. The application made us look very closely at our procedures but puts us in a position that we can take on more influence over our own affairs as the proposals for devolvement of local government to grass roots is developed.

The spend (ex VAT) up to 31 March 09 was £34421 against a budget of £35132. The council has budgeted for a precept of £35050 this year which is a reduction in the amount charged to Kilsby residents of 1.8 % for the 2010/11 rates bill. Two major things happened in financial terms in the last year.

1) We moved the Reserve account for the village from the Bank of Ireland to Nat West in order to ensure the reserve was fully protected.

2) We repaid the public works loan because the change in financial markets meant we were receiving no interest on our reserve whilst being charged 4.5 % on the loan. The spending figures exclude repayment of the loan because the money was transferred from reserve to pay the settlement figure.

Planning The Parish Council has a separate Planning Committee chaired by Vince Penman. This has considered 25 applications during the year. We are deeply concerned that the planning committee will not be able to attend site meetings following a recent ruling by DDC which we will protest against in the strongest terms. In terms of planning there are 3 major developments to report:-

1) Under the planning permission for DIRFT 2 there is a requirement for the developer to provide support to the local community by providing funding for projects to improve road and footpath infrastructure. This is a substantial sum and will allow us to deal with a number of things raised in the Parish Plan in the area of road and footpath improvement and safety.

2) We continue to have dialogue with Barby Sporting Club over the noise nuisance suffered in Kilsby. The PC has discovered a similar case in Wales that resulted in a noise abatement order and have agreed to meet with DDC and BSC to establish how that affects our situation.

3) Charles Smedley has attended a symposium on behalf of the owners of the BT site on the A5 who plan to build DIRFT 3 which will be a 6M sq ft warehouse development and will have severe consequences on the local infrastructure and road network. The PC is already in dialogue with Pro Logis over this development and will work to minimise the effect locally.

Policing -The PC in partnership with Crick and DIRFT has sponsored the recruitment of 2 dedicated PCSO’s on a beat which covers the 2 villages and the industrial estate between.

Cemetery Extension -We have begun discussions with local landowners to extend the size of the cemetery as the capacity within it will be fully used within a few years.

Annual Report produced: 20^th June 2010.