Chairman’s Reports

Chairman’s Annual report 2022

Chairman’s Annual report 2021

2020 – Our Annual Electors meeting for 2020 due to be held on 20 April 2020 had to be cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Chairman’s Annual Report 2019

A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF THE PARISH COUNCIL

It has been another successful (and dare I say enjoyable) year for your Parish Council – and throughout the year there has been one constant on our meeting agenda ….. that of a certain planning issue concerning the land South of John Wilson Business Park – otherwise known as Grasmere Pastures ….. but more of that later !

In May of last year, I was again honoured to be asked to be Parish Council Chairman for another year – but I would state that although it is my name at the top of the page, every member of your parish council is as important as the other.

As you are all aware, the parish council took the decision to trial moving our formal parish meetings to bi-monthly. Following this successful trial, in May of this year we formally adopted this into our procedures, and this has given us all so much more time behind the scenes to achieve our goals – the main one being to serve the residents of this parish in the best way possible. We do however still meet informally to discuss progress and we use these meetings to welcome residents to discuss any planning or other issues.

In May we welcomed Lorraine East onto the parish council which again brought us up to a full council. Lorraine has proved a most welcome and vital addition to the team.

Also in May we were alerted to the planning of a “Love, Peace & Reggae” weekend concert to be held on the Rugby Club field – in fact tickets were then being advertised and sold at several outlets. Many residents raised their concerns over this possibility as this could have attracted up to 499 people under licensing current laws. Our clerk Amanda did a lot of searching and groundwork on this, and we would also like to thank Cllr Samper for her advice along the way. Needless to say, the concert never really transpired, and indeed later became the focal point in the local press.

I was also invited to represent the Parish Council on the tender group for the new children’s playpark, which I think just exemplifies how highly our opinion as a Parish Council is both valued and respected by the City Council, and shows that we do have a close working relationship with not just our elected councillors but the whole council itself.

One of the projects that we had long thought of concerned the possible replacement of damaged or tatty road signs. We raised this issue with the City Council, and they were more than happy for us to progress this issue. As you can well imagine, it is quite a task to survey all of the village, and therefore we agreed to address this in phases – many of you will note that the Primrose Way estate now not only has new road signs, but for the first time these are numbered. Sadly though – and despite our requests – we have received no specific suggestions regarding the need for replacement signage from any resident and therefore we will carry on in our own time. My thanks to both Amanda and Tricia for their hard work and efforts – efforts which ironically have since been favourably commented upon by many residents of the area.

One of the ongoing issues and concerns that we encounter is the condition of our public footpaths. One particular area in this category concerned a small stretch of pathway at the top of the Sainsburys steps as this was becoming both muddy and hazardous. We were happy to not only fund this repair, but also to play a great part in the actual design and specification of this – thanks to Councillor Fitzpatrick !

We are looking at other footpaths within the village but as you may well appreciate, it isn’t just a case of filling in with a bit of gravel – it’s a bit more complicated – and dare I say costly – than that !

Remember the play park? It had been originally hoped that this would have all been done and dusted in time for the half term holidays, but due to a combination of delivery and procurement problems, the City Council took the decision in July to postpone works until after the summer break.

We saw this as a good time to look into refurbishing the adult outdoor gym, and we duly obtained the required quotations and designs, inviting both Canterbury City Council and the Medical Centre for comment. The new gym was installed in October and has proved a very popular addition to the area.

We continue to work with all local associations and groups in the village, and have assisted with funding where rules permit – however unfortunately the Rugby Club formally advised us in July that (and I quote) “that they wish to no longer have any dealings with us”. Sadly, this still remains the case to date, but we would welcome the re-introduction of dialogue as, like we said, we look to assist and help ALL local groups and associations.

In September we learnt of the sad passing of Kent County Councillor John Simmons after a short illness. John was a true gentleman and extremely knowledgeable with regards the workings of councils, particularly regarding financial or budgetary matters. I speak for many when I say that John will be greatly missed.

Believe it or not, Chestfield Parish Council celebrated its 30^th anniversary in 2018. We thought it would be a nice tribute to recreate the first ever meeting Minutes, and we therefore printed these in our magazine, which made interesting reading indeed. Many of the older residents will remember being asked to pay the princely sum of £1 per year to help with the first magazine – how things change….but like they say “from little acorns”? Since the creation of the Parish Council we have only ever had two Clerks. The duties and responsibilities of Parish Clerks is often misunderstood and underestimated – but let me tell you…we would be lost without them ! The first clerk Linda Livingstone, was in post for 22 years – and we commemorated this by presenting her with an engraved vase emblazoned with the Parish logo – and of course our thanks !

On Sunday 30^th September, we held our inaugural village clean-up session, where several residents assisted in the collection of litter (and the odd garden chair!) around the village. Some of the team even helped tidy up flower beds and hedgerows.

This proved very successful – so successful in fact that we are holding another session in a couple of weeks’ time on Sunday, 7^th April.  For anyone who would like to give up a just a couple of hours on that morning please just turn up at the playpark at 10.30am – your help would be much appreciated. All relevant equipment and PPE will be supplied, including a very eye catching vi-viz vest complete with our own logo !

Many of you will have noticed that a mixture of spring flowers are beginning to appear on the grass verges along Chestfield Road. In past years former Parish Councillors Len Claisse and Eileen Watkins planted the bulbs – this year this has been carried out by Councillor Pat Gibson and my wife Karen … strangely it proved quite difficult this time around, as the ground was incredibly hard due to the wonderful weather that we had experienced last year (you can’t really water grass verges can you?). Thanks to Pat and of course Karen.

In October, we also continued our shrub bed project which entailed the tidying up of the beds and surrounding bushes. I would like to thank Chestfield Rotary Club for their help.

All this just goes to show the immense pride that we share for our village and the community spirit that runs throughout.

In November the works on the children’s play park was finally completed, and this was officially opened by Sheriff of Canterbury, Councillor Jeanette Stockley. A few issues have been highlighted since, and we are assured by the City Council that these are being duly actioned.

On Remembrance Sunday, I attended the service held at St. Johns and laid a wreath on behalf of the village. With this being the 100^th anniversary of the end of the Great War, all churches around the country were to ring their bells in unison as a mark of additional respect. Unfortunately, St. Johns were unable to do this due to the church bell being damaged awaiting repair. However, the church did manage to expel the sounds of bells that evening by way of recordings of the Canterbury Bells being played through their public address system – credit to everyone involved for their planning and ingenuity!

Following discussions with Father David, he explained the problem with the bell in further detail, and that the church were trying to raise funds for its refurbishment. The church put forward the relevant grant application, which culminated in us agreeing at council to award the sum of £500 towards restoration costs. I know that the church are continuing to raise funds for this, and hopefully they will soon reach their ultimate target.

As with every year we erected the Christmas Tree and banner at the beginning of December, however – unlike every other year, it was neither windy, raining or muddy !!

The carol concert itself turned out to be quite a turn of events from all other years, as due to a combination of rather unfortunate and unforeseen circumstances, yours truly led the proceedings, although I would thank the various representatives from both churches for their help on the night. That night we also had two young girls from the village help out by giving a reading and by singing a carol, which made the evening even more unique as we have wanted to involve the children of the village in our carol concert for a long while now – it was disappointing (if not somewhat ironic) that neither Father Kevin or Father David were there to see it !

We actually had a record attendance, and hopefully this has indeed set a trend for the future concerts. There is no doubt that the earlier start time has helped !

My thanks as always to Councillors Chris Brealy, Bob Todd and Chris Ellis for their help on this.

In February of this year we received official notice that the application hearing regarding the proposed Grasmere Pastures had been tabled. Both myself and Amanda met with representatives from the Grasmere Village Residents Association, SPACE, and the Richmond Road Residents Association. The groups have long been opposed to the development of the site and produced excellent, well informed argument against the scheme which culminated in them making the relevant deputations to the City Council members along with our own.

I think it only correct and proper that we do at this stage recognise the efforts of Dr.Robert Jackson from GVRA, Mark Boardman from SPACE and Gerard Jakimavicius of the RRRA throughout this whole saga – and may I just thank Councillor Pat Todd for also contributing on the night, and also for the compliments paid towards the Parish Council.

By the way, for those that don’t know, the application WAS UNANIMOUSLY REJECTED !

Which brings us back around to another year – we do have a few exciting projects in mind, and hopefully you will enjoy them also ?!

In closing, I would ask all present to thanks the members of the Parish Council – and of course our very knowledgeable and hardworking clerk Amanda – and also to our army of volunteers in various spheres for their efforts on behalf of the village this year, and for making this the special village that is Chestfield  !

Steve Bailey, Chairman, Chestfield Parish Council, 2018-19

 

2018 Report from Chestfield Parish Council Chairman, Councillor Steve Bailey

A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF THE PARISH COUNCIL

One of the first items recorded in the minutes of last year’s Annual Parish Meeting highlighted the distinct possibility of new housing being built within the immediate area – although neither of the potential sites were within the village, one particular site (namely that formally known as ‘the land South of the John Wilson estate’ (or as we all know it Grasmere Pastures) has very much been subject to debate and conversations throughout the past. As has been pointed out on several occasions Grasmere Pastures is not within the village boundary, and therefore we are limited as to our involvement at this stage, we did formally raise our objections to the proposed scheme with our particular concern being shown towards the issues of the access and egress to the development, and the potential impact that this would have on our village. More than one year on, and although the planning application has been tabled by the developers, this has yet to be formally discussed at City Council, so in that respect it most definitely is a case of the old adage ‘no news is good news’ for the time being.  It remains to be seen however what impact (if any) recent statements from central Government have.

In 2016 we worked with Kent County Council on the tree replacement programme at the front of the play park. This time around, focus was afforded to the replacement of the diseased trees at the rear of the play park. As this particular row of trees was directly in front of the houses in Fern Close, we also consulted the residents, who were fully supportive of the decision to remove the diseased trees and replace them with Cyprus Fir trees – they have taken very well, and in fact the residents of Fern Close decorated them at Christmas!!

It is pleasing to see that the Share and Coulter site has remained clear after its much-publicised clear up, but the topic of fly tipping remains very much at the forefront of our minds, and we look forward to assisting local City and County councillors in this ongoing battle. We believe that the recent changes to the allowed trailer size at the council tip is a positive move, although I still think that the issue of the voucher system needs to be addressed.

In February of last year, we reached agreement with Whitstable Rugby Club as to how the ball court could be accessed by the children and youth of the village. Sadly one year on, we must report that despite our efforts, this agreement remains both un-returned and un-signed by Rugby Club, and as a consequence the ball court remains unavailable for the general use of the children and youth of this village.

In March of last year, I was contacted by the City Council Monitoring Officer who formally advised me of an anonymous complaint being recorded against me by a member of the public for alleged breach of conduct. I am pleased to advise you all that following a very thorough seven week investigation, I was completely exonerated of any misdoings. I would like to take this opportunity to thank our clerk Amanda, all members of the parish council and my wife for their unstinting support throughout this extremely testing and stressful time. We as a Parish Council do have our own internal complaints procedure, although on this occasion the complaint was made directly to the City Council.

The complainant did identify himself upon the conclusion of the monitoring officer’s findings,  and was afforded the opportunity to read out their reasoning statement under special dispensation at the June meeting. This matter has been formally recorded on file.

During this particular meeting, the individual concerned exercised their right to record proceedings for record purposes. Whilst we would fully concur that recording of proceedings is fully lawful, we did seek legal advice form the Kent Association of Local Councils. From this advice, we did designate a specific area from which individuals may record so that other attending members of the public remained unaffected. This has now been formally adopted for all meetings, the frequency of which many of you will have noted has changed to a bi-monthly schedule. This extended period between meetings has allowed us to better action our ongoing projects and individual responsibilities.

One issue that we have discussed at length on many occasions is the continued practice of HGV’s parking overnight at the end of Reeves Way at the entrance to the John Wilson Estate. Many nearby residents have raised complaint in this regard, and we have formally brought this matter to the attention of Kent County Council as the responsible body. Whilst agreement has been reached for the introduction of yellow lines to discourage such parking, we hope to see this followed up with better policing and enforcement in the future.

In June of last year, we were advised the City Council were to carry out an upgrade of the play park this year. I am pleased to advise you all that I was invited to sit on the CCC panel for this, and it was pleasing to see that CCC also asked the children of Swalecliffe Primary School for their thoughts on the two shortlisted designs. It was very pleasing to receive their comments and thoughts for the area, and indeed to note that that evening’s presentation at the WI Hall (on 14 March 2018) was extremely well attended and engaging. I will be involved in a further consultative meeting prior to the final award, and I would like to thank CCC on behalf of the village for involving us in this process. I am confident that whatever design is chosen will prove a valuable new addition for the children of Chestfield. The play park will be closed for a period to allow the new works to take place, although the scheduled completion will be well in time for the summer holidays. You will also see the addition of two new benches in the play park, and we thank former Kent County Councillor Mike Harrison for his input into this particular project. We are also looking to add a historic timeline of the village, although the creation of this will follow the planned works.

Following comment from one elderly resident, we investigated the installation of improved DDA access at certain bus stops, and hopefully our planning of this will soon come to fruition. On the subject of bus stops we are pleased to inform you that we will shortly be installing a replacement for the existing bus shelter in Chestfield Road. The positioning of this will be slightly altered, and we would thank the nearby residents for their agreement to do so – oh – and it will be the right way round this time! These projects could not have taken place without the agreement of Stagecoach and Kent Highways, and believe me this has taken great efforts on Amanda’s part to liaise with all parties and pull these projects together – efforts for which we acknowledge whole heartedly. The now bus shelter is currently en-route from Sweden, although we have been assured that it isn’t flatpack!

In December we held the traditional Carol Concert outside of St. Joseph’s Church. At the suggestion of residents we not only erected a banner to advertise the event, but also brought the timing forward in an effort to have more family involvement. Without doubt the combination of both led to the resultant record attendance, with well over 50 people in attendance. Once again we held the now traditional Christmas lights competition, the standard of which never ceases to amaze us !

In January we held our events to thank our team of volunteers – their efforts are truly appreciated by the parish council, and these events are our way of showing that appreciation. Although I say it every year, we really wouldn’t have such an effective parish council without each and every one of our volunteers. We would also thank Chestfield Cricket Club for their kind facilitation of these event in offering the use of their facility free of charge…The success of the parish council isn’t just down to the individuals that sit on it – it’s about the community around it !

The issue of dog fouling is unfortunately never far away, and is something that we see a somewhat a blight on our village. We have provided additional bins, posted signage and have even tried to spray fluorescent paint on the offending deposits in a in effort to hopefully prick some consciences!

Sadly though, and as much as we can try to stamp this out, we are forced to rely on improving the behaviours of those that actually cause the mess in the first place – no – not the dogs, their handlers!! Remember, there is no such thing as a bad dog…..just bad owners! We will continue to try to help eradicate this issue in whatever way we can – maybe the City Councils’ dog wardens may be able to help ?!!

Before closing, can we just go back to the start, and that whole housing/planning thing?? Recently there was a series on TV called ‘The New Builds Are Coming’ (it’s still available on ‘catch up by the way) – it follows the planning process from all perspectives, and is a great insight into how much effort and thought is afforded by all sides…however, one thing that it does show is the importance of having a voice – we are proud to be your voice and your representatives.

Steve Bailey, Chairman, Chestfield Parish Council, 2017-2018

baba0fe7e4