What the parish council has been doing

A year of progress
The Annual General Parish Council Meeting of Old Buckenham Parish Council was held on Thursday 6 May prior to the regular parish council meeting.
The Chairman and Vice Chairman resigned and the Parish Clerk chaired the meeting.
Norman Cawston was re-elected as chairman, and Tim Ing as vice-chairman, both receiving six votes for with one abstention. The Chairman then took over to chair the meeting.
Appointment of working parties.
Play area: Mike Craven Romain
Recreation Area: Stephen Thorley, Gerald Norton, Adrian Joel, Trevor Crook, and Carol Marshall.
Allotments: Adrian Joel, Carol Marshall and Tim Ing.
Standing orders: All councillors and the Parish Clerk.
Chairman’s annual report. Parish Council had completed the safer route to school footpath along with B 1077 footpath with help from Green Right’s Proprietors and Terry Cracknell. Norman Cawston thanked the Green Right Proprietors for getting the probation service involved in tidying up the Green and it was looking as good as ever. He then said that all monies for the play area had been raised and hopefully it would be completed this month. The recreation area is still raising funds and he was looking forward to its completion later this year. He also said the Parish Council had been asked to look at a possible continuation of the footpath down Cake Street.
Clerk’s annual report. This has been a difficult year for the Parish Council as there was effectively no Parish Clerk for nearly five months of the year. Having taken over in September, the clerk’s first priority was to set the precept for the financial year 2010/11. The Precept Meeting was held in October 2009 and the precept was set at £12,218 which equates to a 19% reduction on the previous year. It is hoped and anticipated that the precept for the financial year 2011/12 will show a reduction again on this year’s precept. The Parish Council are fully aware of the harsh economic times for the villagers, many of whom are on fixed incomes. The Parish Council will therefore ensure strict financial and monetary controls are effectively applied at all times and that all expenditure is within budgetary limits.
Also during the year the Parish Council has compiled several documents: a Village Emergency Plan, a Health & Safety Policy Document, Freedom of Information model publication scheme and a Financial Regulation Policy document. All this has been necessary due to legislation. The Parish Council are currently undertaking a review of its standing orders to bring them into line with current Government legislation. Also it has programmed in a full risk assessment to be carried out during the course of the next few months on all assets owned by the Parish Council. These programmes have involved the parish councillors in extra work during the year and the clerk would like to take this opportunity of thanking them for their efforts during what has been a difficult year under exceptional circumstances.