Annual Report
Message from the Chair from the Annual Parish Assembly held on 16th April 2019.
Dear colleagues, Parishioners and friends, thank you for turning out this evening and supporting this evening's meeting.
As many of you will be aware 2018/19 has been, shall we say a challenging year. Before I get into that I would just like to thank two long standing Parish Councillors that have been a rock over the years shoring up the Council, offering many a wise word both in and out of the council chamber. Both Councillor David Airey and Councillor John Forder have stepped down from Parish Council life. These 2 councillors have between them, nearly 45 years of experience. We have been blessed to have their counsel over the years and it's a sad time that we have to watch them stand down from council life. It will be difficult to replace this experience but an interesting time ahead now gelling this newly elected council.
We started last year with a massive drain on the council with the boundary commission taking a lot of councillor and the parish office time to resolve. I’ve lost count of the hours spent trying to challenge the options put forward, trying to defend Old Netley and the parish of Hound. We highlighted the potential loss to services and staff should the boundary change take place with Bursledon. After many months of defending and fighting our corner, we lost and 2019 saw the new year starting with having to make difficult decisions to close the public toilets at Abbey Hall and, even worse, lay off a member of the grounds staff team. I am both deeply worried and alarmed that politics has been brought into Parish Council realm.
Moving on from the boundary commission…
Our Parish Council is made up of people from within our parish from all walks of life - 12 members of the public trying to do something right for the community we live in. We don't get paid for doing council work and we are 100% voluntary. We employ the Parish Clerk, Mr David Nevin and he is the man in the know when it comes to making sure we do things correctly and on time. David heads up the rest of the parish team, both Bridget and Angie in the Office who I trust most of you would have met with dealings with the office. Then we have both our Grounds Team and caretaking staff. The whole team have been working hard over the past year improving the appearance of the Parish and making our office more efficient.
We’ve had 3 new members of council that joined in May, June and July. Unlike many Parish Councils we now have quite a young demographic and we always have people wanting to join our Parish Council. We aren’t like some TV programmes such as “The Vicar of Dibley” portraying the council. We are pretty much a new council full of ideas and ready to try and make the parish we live in better for everyone.
As I hope most of you have now noticed from around the village we have installed new benches along the sea front and in the burial grounds and up at Butlocks. These were able to be purchased with developers contributions and have been a great addition to the village with many people taking the time to comment on how nice they look. We have even had other City Councils and Parish Councils ask where we have had these made as they want to recreate some for other areas.
2018 saw the parish getting recognised for the amazing community event “Light up Netley”. We won an award for the event, which pitted us against other parishes across the south coast. It was an amazing achievement after a few years of hard work building the event into what it is today. This year just for a change we will be planning something slightly different. Watch this space. This award was our first, but I can assure you won’t be our last.
Our website has changed and now is a great place to find out what’s going on with Parish Council and things that are happening in and around the parish. Our Facebook and Twitter feeds are constantly getting fed!
Butlocks Play area has been targeted as the next area to be revamped and tenders have gone out and later this week we will be shortlisting these. A community engagement steering group will be formed so we can find out what the parish want from the play area before deciding on a scheme. Then later in 2019 this scheme will go live and handed over to the parish.
Grander schemes afoot
We are looking into developing either Abbey Hall or Hound Parish Hall or both. Why? Because we want to become less reliant on precept. Plus by redesigning the halls we can accommodate more exciting new things to be able to offer the Parish. We’ve appointed an architect who is developing our ideas into a concept. This concept is a wish list of ideas for what we would like to see from our parish halls. Now this is in its early stages and has been put on hold at the moment due to the latest parish elections. As soon as we have more info we will inform and hold a public consultation. Where we will gauge the response to the options to see if the ideas are viable options that the parish want to support. Nothing will be done without public involvement.
Defibrillators have been installed around the village at all our public open spaces. Our hope is that they never need to be called into use. But by providing this potential life saving facility we can hopefully save a life if and when the time comes. You do not need to be First Aid trained in order to use it as the system talks you through how and where to place and how to use.
I have been Chair for almost two and a half years now and can honestly say we have a wonderful team of councillors and staff. I keep mentioning to council that I want us to be trend setters and everyone following our lead, “Have you seen what Hound are doing” Can we do something like Hound are doing this year” Now we have to make small steps and things take time to change. But we have changed a lot as a council. We listen more to the parish. We hold community events, we aren’t scared to be seen out and representing the parish. We’ve attended the Pumpkin Festival and held 2 public question and answer sessions, all to raise the awareness of the fact that this is OUR parish and we need to be proud of where we live. If you don't speak out you won’t ever get heard.
This meeting this evening is my last as Chair of Hound Parish Council as all the Council seats were up for election. On Monday I’m proud to be able to say that all ten of the 12 Councillors have been re-elected and we have even filled the 2 vacant seats. So May’s meeting is soon upon us. You all are welcome to attend. A new council will be formed and Chair and Vice chair and all the committees will get re-appointed.
So, I would just like to thank everyone for your support in helping the Parish Council over the past year, and a special thanks to everyone that has supported my time as Chair.
“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”
Thank you and see you all in May.
Dear colleagues, Parishioners and friends, thank you for turning out this evening and supporting this evening's meeting.
As many of you will be aware 2018/19 has been, shall we say a challenging year. Before I get into that I would just like to thank two long standing Parish Councillors that have been a rock over the years shoring up the Council, offering many a wise word both in and out of the council chamber. Both Councillor David Airey and Councillor John Forder have stepped down from Parish Council life. These 2 councillors have between them, nearly 45 years of experience. We have been blessed to have their counsel over the years and it's a sad time that we have to watch them stand down from council life. It will be difficult to replace this experience but an interesting time ahead now gelling this newly elected council.
We started last year with a massive drain on the council with the boundary commission taking a lot of councillor and the parish office time to resolve. I’ve lost count of the hours spent trying to challenge the options put forward, trying to defend Old Netley and the parish of Hound. We highlighted the potential loss to services and staff should the boundary change take place with Bursledon. After many months of defending and fighting our corner, we lost and 2019 saw the new year starting with having to make difficult decisions to close the public toilets at Abbey Hall and, even worse, lay off a member of the grounds staff team. I am both deeply worried and alarmed that politics has been brought into Parish Council realm.
Moving on from the boundary commission…
Our Parish Council is made up of people from within our parish from all walks of life - 12 members of the public trying to do something right for the community we live in. We don't get paid for doing council work and we are 100% voluntary. We employ the Parish Clerk, Mr David Nevin and he is the man in the know when it comes to making sure we do things correctly and on time. David heads up the rest of the parish team, both Bridget and Angie in the Office who I trust most of you would have met with dealings with the office. Then we have both our Grounds Team and caretaking staff. The whole team have been working hard over the past year improving the appearance of the Parish and making our office more efficient.
We’ve had 3 new members of council that joined in May, June and July. Unlike many Parish Councils we now have quite a young demographic and we always have people wanting to join our Parish Council. We aren’t like some TV programmes such as “The Vicar of Dibley” portraying the council. We are pretty much a new council full of ideas and ready to try and make the parish we live in better for everyone.
As I hope most of you have now noticed from around the village we have installed new benches along the sea front and in the burial grounds and up at Butlocks. These were able to be purchased with developers contributions and have been a great addition to the village with many people taking the time to comment on how nice they look. We have even had other City Councils and Parish Councils ask where we have had these made as they want to recreate some for other areas.
2018 saw the parish getting recognised for the amazing community event “Light up Netley”. We won an award for the event, which pitted us against other parishes across the south coast. It was an amazing achievement after a few years of hard work building the event into what it is today. This year just for a change we will be planning something slightly different. Watch this space. This award was our first, but I can assure you won’t be our last.
Our website has changed and now is a great place to find out what’s going on with Parish Council and things that are happening in and around the parish. Our Facebook and Twitter feeds are constantly getting fed!
Butlocks Play area has been targeted as the next area to be revamped and tenders have gone out and later this week we will be shortlisting these. A community engagement steering group will be formed so we can find out what the parish want from the play area before deciding on a scheme. Then later in 2019 this scheme will go live and handed over to the parish.
Grander schemes afoot
We are looking into developing either Abbey Hall or Hound Parish Hall or both. Why? Because we want to become less reliant on precept. Plus by redesigning the halls we can accommodate more exciting new things to be able to offer the Parish. We’ve appointed an architect who is developing our ideas into a concept. This concept is a wish list of ideas for what we would like to see from our parish halls. Now this is in its early stages and has been put on hold at the moment due to the latest parish elections. As soon as we have more info we will inform and hold a public consultation. Where we will gauge the response to the options to see if the ideas are viable options that the parish want to support. Nothing will be done without public involvement.
Defibrillators have been installed around the village at all our public open spaces. Our hope is that they never need to be called into use. But by providing this potential life saving facility we can hopefully save a life if and when the time comes. You do not need to be First Aid trained in order to use it as the system talks you through how and where to place and how to use.
I have been Chair for almost two and a half years now and can honestly say we have a wonderful team of councillors and staff. I keep mentioning to council that I want us to be trend setters and everyone following our lead, “Have you seen what Hound are doing” Can we do something like Hound are doing this year” Now we have to make small steps and things take time to change. But we have changed a lot as a council. We listen more to the parish. We hold community events, we aren’t scared to be seen out and representing the parish. We’ve attended the Pumpkin Festival and held 2 public question and answer sessions, all to raise the awareness of the fact that this is OUR parish and we need to be proud of where we live. If you don't speak out you won’t ever get heard.
This meeting this evening is my last as Chair of Hound Parish Council as all the Council seats were up for election. On Monday I’m proud to be able to say that all ten of the 12 Councillors have been re-elected and we have even filled the 2 vacant seats. So May’s meeting is soon upon us. You all are welcome to attend. A new council will be formed and Chair and Vice chair and all the committees will get re-appointed.
So, I would just like to thank everyone for your support in helping the Parish Council over the past year, and a special thanks to everyone that has supported my time as Chair.
“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”
Thank you and see you all in May.
