W P C Annual Report 2016_2017

Please call at The Windmill if you think it’s yours

Police Report

We are pleased to report that during the month of February 2017 there was no crime reported in Wymeswold. This is great news and we hope it continues.

Data Tag Kit Collection

The Data Tag kits have almost all been collected but there are a few still to be issued. If you signed up and have not received yours yet, please get in touch with Garry and Angie Boorman. Street signs will be displayed which state that property within our village is marked, it will also help if you start to use the kits and display your house stickers. Hopefully ‘Data Tag’ can help to prevent crime in our village.

Another 50 or so free kits are available to villagers who have yet to sign up, so please help to spread the word.  They retail for almost £40 so to have a free kit is definitely a good thing!

Wheelie Bin Stickers

‘Slow Down for Life’ wheelie bin stickers are still available free from the Parish Council. If you would like any please get in touch or see the noticeboard for further details.

Mantle Pieces

Charnwood Borough Council are planning to start the work to replace the footbridge on Hoton Road over the River Mantle which has unfortunately been closed for some time. We are pleased to announce that this will be the first of our installations of the Mantle Pieces project. CBC has agreed to incorporate our newly designed railings into the bridge. We look forward to the grand opening!

The next meeting of Wymeswold Parish Council will be held on Monday 3rd April in the Sports Pavilion, Burton Lane, Wymeswold, starting at 7:00pm. All parishioners are welcome to attend.

Alice Gardam

Clerk to Wymeswold Parish Council

wymeswoldpc@hotmail.co.uk

Tel 01509 881664

Schoolchildren have been finding out all about health and safety from housebuilder Barwood Homes at its Storkit Meadows development in Wymeswold.

The year 5 and 6 pupils from the village primary school visited the site off Rempstone Road, where the company is creating a new community of two to five bedroom homes. The youngsters learned why health and safety is so important when it comes to construction, tying in with their curricular work on the subject.

Barwood Homes sales director Steven Allenby said: “We always take health and safety on our developments extremely seriously for all our staff, operatives and visitors. With the primary school being close by, we felt it appropriate to engage with them, especially as health and safety dovetails well with the children’s current school work.”

Wymeswold Primary School headteacher Jan Scallon, who accompanied the children on the visit, added: “The children have really enjoyed this whole experience and have put a lot of effort into it. The lucky ones who visited the development were very excited and couldn’t wait to tell the rest of their class what they saw. They loved seeing different aspects of a building site and especially having the chance to wear the PPE safety gear.”

Health and safety-themed artwork made by the children will be turned into posters to be displayed around Storkit Meadows, while Barwood Homes will present the Brook Street school with some educational, programmable IT hardware later this year.

The first phase of homes at Storkit Meadows is set to be completed this spring. For more information, call 01604 369200, or visit www.barwoodhomes.co.uk.

Precept/Budget 2017/18

Wymeswold Parish Council receives the majority of its funding from the ‘precept’ which is one element of the council tax charge levied on the dwellings in the parish.

In 2016/17 the precept represented 2.44% of the overall charge householders paid. This equated to a cost of between 47p and £1.42 per week (dependent upon the council tax band at which your dwelling is rated).

Our funding is spent in a variety of ways, the majority being spent to maintain and keep the areas we are responsible for in the parish (These include the Washdyke, Playing fields, Cemetery, Churchyard and Children’s play areas)

Each year the Parish Council calculates the funding it requires for the coming year. For 2017/18 the budget setting process has seen a number of areas where we will be encountering increased levels of expenditure. Therefore we will need to increase the precept required meaning that the parish precept element of the 2017/18 council tax charges will be increasing.

We have looked to streamline our expenditure where possible but still have 3 main areas of increased expenditure. These are:

· Increased mowing costs. We have re-let the parish mowing contracts for a 3 year period following a tender process. Whilst we contracted with the most economically advantageous suppliers the annual costs have increased. We have increased the grass verge cuts and the cemetery as well as St Marys’ Churchyard will be box mown rather than strimmed.

· Auto enrolment and work based pensions.

· Increased utility costs.

The increase of precept will be just over £4,500 which will mean an average increase in precept charge of between 9 and 27 pence per week depending on your dwelling Council Tax banding. Whilst this is an increase, as a Parish Council we feel that it represents a warranted level of increase.

The next meeting of Wymeswold Parish Council will be held on Monday 6^th March 2017 in the Sports Pavilion, Burton Lane, Wymeswold, starting at 7:00pm. All parishioners are welcome to attend.

Alice Gardam

Clerk to Wymeswold Parish Council

wymeswoldpc@hotmail.co.uk

Tel 01509 881664