The Parish Council has benefitted from the two new personnel mentioned in the last report: Elaine West agreed to become our Responsible Financial Officer and immediately got to grips with our accounts and engaged with our new internal auditor, Arrow Accounting. While our accounts for the year ending 31st March 2013 were filed late, the combination of the two ensured that we received a clean bill of health from our external auditor, Mazars. Linda Collison, who has now been our Clerk for four meetings has not only ensured timely execution and pursuit of our decisions and enquiries but has, with Elaine, reviewed and redrafted our Financial Regulations – a recommendation from our internal auditor. These were adopted at our November meeting. Linda has also been updating our Risk Assessment while Elaine has created our Register of Fixed Assets and brought an accountant's order to our financial records, procedures and controls.
We have recently had, unexpectedly, to draw on our funds to clear fallen branches from one of the weeping willows at the pond which succumbed to the recent high winds. This was a task that could not be effected immediately because both willows have Tree Preservation Orders on them and even tending to the broken tree had to be ratified by CDC's TPO officer. We now have the delicate task of trying to effect a compromise between the sanctity of a TPO on the larger tree and some prudent control of its growth. Fortunately, the work coincided with work by the Commons Management Committee on the pond which necessitated using some machinery and a skip to remove significant quantities of yellow iris, Iris pseudacorus. This species has a strong root which can survive well and propagate across suitable land such as ponds and wetlands. It also produces lots of big viable seeds. Its removal allowed some tidying of the pond after the work on the willow tree.
Lynn Woodgate has been overseeing repairs to some of the equipment at the Play Area and collating opinions as to what changes, including additions, might be made. She, the Clerk or I will be delighted to hear any views as to what might be appropriate and for which age groups.
Carol Hallchurch and Dick Ware are responsible for the Council's response to planning applications and containing their, and other Councillors', anger and frustration at some proposals and methods, and the budgetary constraints that mean that enforcement of the planning laws, which is not an obligation, are not always pursued. It is, sadly, the case that aesthetics are not a metric used by the planner, which adds to the frustration.
Dave McGhee has been leading our efforts to seek a solution to the damage to the grass triangle at the bottom of Barrack Hill which incorporates both the look of the feature and its safety aspects. He is also pursuing Bucks C.C. to remove some redundant street furniture and to make good the potholes in the lay-bys in Sampsons Hill.
We are planning to have the War Memorial cleaned. This was an idea first mooted under Colin Lambert's chairmanship and it is felt it to be a project well worth pursuing now so that, in the year marking the hundredth year since the start of the Great War, its condition respects those it commemorates.
Terence Prideaux
Chairman
N.B. We have introduced a fifteen minute period before the formal eight o-clock start of our meetings in order that villagers can pass comment, raise questions and lodge complaints rather than waiting until the end of proceedings which, of late, has been around ten o-clock. This will be an informal, un-minuted engagement, allowing people to leave before eight. The existing democratic period remains.