Chairman’s Annual Report 2005-6
It has been a busy year for
Councillors and the Clerk. We have
been involved in consultation on major
District and County plans as well as
more detailed issues in the District.
Joining other parishes and rural
District Councillors, we were
successful in resisting the threat to
rural services and in drawing
attention to the need for savings
within the city before more of our
services were attacked. Councillors
are also involved as members of a
number of committees and community
groups. The Planning Committee met 14
times and considered 32 applications.
We participated in Trafalgar Day
celebrations by lighting a huge beacon
on Windmill Hill.
The dreadful state of our
roads has resulted in a continuous
dialogue with Wiltshire Highways. The
Parish has also been pressing for an
extension of the 50mph speed limit on
the A350 from Semley to the A303. Our
work has paid off in part, with
resurfacing of Wise Lane through to
Upton. Many other roads including
Holloway Lane, Friars Hayes Lane and
Underhill, as well as Sheepwash Lane,
still need work.
Over £600 was spent on
supplementing the bark under the
children’s play equipment in Knoyle
House Ground, a necessary action for
safety reasons. The trees beside the
equipment have been removed as the
roots were bursting the retaining
wall of the driveway of an adjoining
house. A replanting scheme will take
place once the wall is rebuilt.
Councillors and the Clerk have cleared
back the overgrown areas to the side
of the football pitch and on top of
the wall. Consideration is being
given to placing a cricket net
alongside the pitch. Work has been
necessary on a fallen tree in the wood
on Haddon Hill. A chain and padlock
had been unlawfully removed from the
access to the Windmill by persons
unknown and it has been replaced.
Work has continued on opening up the
views at Windmill Hill.
The finances of the Council
were well managed, with a small
expenditure in excess of income
balanced against a surplus in the
preceding year.Cllr Swain has attended
a number of meetings relating to the
Wigglybus, the Link Scheme and changes
to the management of our ambulances.
The Link Scheme is now running, though
we need more volunteer drivers. The
Wigglybus team is planning to increase
the services for East Knoyle,
including Wren‘s Shop. Salisbury
District Council originally intended
the pensioners’ concessionary bus
scheme to start after 9.30am on
weekdays but, following pressure from
across the whole District, including
the Parish Council and especially Cllr
Tom Couper, they have relented.
Pensioners in possession of a
concessionary bus pass can travel free
at any time within the District.
We are delighted to see the
progress being made on building the
shop and look forward to its opening
in the summer.
We will now turn our
attention to creating a parish plan
and design statement. This is an
important way of focussing the
attention of other authorities on how
we want our parish to develop and,
equally important, how we don’t want
it to develop. It feeds into planning
guidelines from regional Government,
through County to District level, and
also into grant availability. Without
it, we will have less and less say in
what happens in the Parish.
A Government White Paper on
the future of local government is
expected later this year . Most
observers expect to see District and
County Councils merged into unitary
authorities. It is expected some
functions will pass to Parish
Councils, particularly those with
Quality Status. We hope to apply
for Quality Parish Status in the next
few months. This may give us access
to government grants and may give us
more control over how our local
services are delivered. Most of the
requirements for achieving Quality
Status are already in place, but one
necessary step in this has been the
qualification of our Clerk in Local
Council Administration. He has been
working at that for the last two years
in his own time and we congratulate
him on passing the assessment.
I would like to take
this opportunity to thank all the
councillors for their hard work, and
in some instances, hard labour, as
well as their time over the past year,
and to thank the Clerk for his
considerable efforts on our behalf.
Cllr Sabrina Sully, Chairman
Parish Councillors for East Knoyle
are: S. Sully (Chairman), D. Haworth-
Booth (Vice-Chairman),
S. Dawson (Chairman, Finance
Committee), S. Wilson (Chairman,
Planning Committee), A. Campbell
(Chairman, Highways, Common Lands and
Rights of Way Committee), S. Garrett,
D. Williams, L. Coffin,
P. Wharton, S. Swain, T. Hyde.
Contact may be made through the Parish
Clerk: Keith Shipman, Ivy Cottage,
Shaftesbury Road, East Knoyle SP3 6AR
Tel: 01747 830886, Email
k.shipman@btopenworld.com.
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