Chairman: Mr. Brian Oliver Clerk: Mrs. Jane Potter

The meeting was also attended by:

Mr. David Fleming, Mrs. S. Owen, Mr. Steven Potter, Mr. George Staines, Mr. Gavin Strathern, (Parish Councillors) , Mr. John Archer (Chair man, Maldon District Council and District Council Ward Member);

Mr. Don Nowell (Chairman, Purleigh Village Hall Management Committee), Mr. Mick Elliott (Purleigh Playing Field Association Committee Member) and 10 members of the public.

Apologies were received from Mr. Kevin Ascott and Dr. Roger Woodcock, (Parish Councillors), Mr. Lawrence Cooper (Parish Councillor and District Council Ward Member), Mrs. Dawn Dack (Head teacher, Purleigh Community Primary School), and Mr. Bernard Steeples (Chairman, Purleigh Playing Field Association) who were unable to attend the meeting due to prior commitments.

The Chairman extended a very warm welcome to everyone present and thanked them for attending.

The Minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting held on 21^st April 2005, which had been approved at the Parish Council meeting held on 13^th May 2005, were distributed amongst those present. There were no matters arising from the Minutes to discuss.

Reports were then given by representatives of the following organisations regarding their organisations’ activities during the past year:

With the agreement of all present, the Chairman changed the order of the Agenda so that Mr. Mick Elliott could give a report from the Purleigh Playing Field Association first, as he had a prior engagement to attend.

As Mr. Steeples, Chairman of the Purleigh Playing Field Association, was unable to attend the meeting, Mr. Mick Elliott (PPFA Committee Member) read out a written report submitted by Mr. Steeples for the meeting’s consideration. Mr. Steeples’ report commenced by explaining that as reported at the 2005 Annual Parish Meeting the PPFA had been obliged to run a Fête last year in spite of its dwindling number of regular supporters. In the end, fortunately, the organization had managed to find a couple of new faces with enthusiasm and ideas and their input had helped the remaining ‘old hands’ to stay motivated.

As in 2004, the PPFA had run its own bar, which had still been feasible under the old licensing arrangements. By doing so, and with the assistance of the cricketers who were the organisation’s stalwarts plus the regular helpers who came along on the day, including those from other Purleigh groups such as the WI (who had again volunteered to look after the pavilion refreshments), the PPFA had managed once again to hold a successful Fête. Mr. Steeples’ report also acknowledged the many sponsors who had given donations of money or goods or who had advertised in the Fête programme. As a result of their efforts and the hard work of the core committee members the PPFA had again made a profit of around £3,000, similar to that achieved in 2004.

As usual the PPFA had been lucky to enjoy a beautifully sunny Fête day and visitors (who had come in many cases from far and wide) had informed the Committee that the format was just about right for a village Fête, including as it did some good music, a very entertaining dog agility display, some classic cars and bikes, a scarecrow competition, a few side shows and of course a bouncy castle.

With the new funds and those raised in previous years plus the grants the organisation had been awarded of £2,000 and £1,000 from Maldon District Council and Purleigh Parish Council respectively the PPFA were finally very close to the target needed for the planned pavilion extension for which the Parish Council had already obtained bids. Since then the PPFA had been involved in negotiating with the Council and its chosen contractor to make some cost savings. Mr. Steeples’ report advised that towards the end of last year the PPFA had been delighted to finally receive an award of £5,000 from the National Lottery ‘Awards For All’ Programme, having previously applied unsuccessfully. Even now however the PPFA were still dealing with building regulations and other issues, which had delayed the project and threatened to further increase the cost of the extension. Nevertheless, the organisation was determined to triumph in the end and Mr. Steeples was indebted to the great efforts of his fellow Committee Members, with the help of the Parish Council, to see the project through to completion.

Mr. Steeples’ report explained that when the extension had been completed the PPFA would be pleased to see the new facilities being enjoyed by existing users and maybe some new ones too. A suggestion of coffee mornings for mature residents had been put to the PPFA which they had agreed to support. The PPFA had been saddened that it had not been possible to continue with the youth club activities, but were pleased that the Cricket Club, the Croquet Club, the Brownies, the Folk Dancers and the Whist Drives continued to thrive, although not all were prepared to join the PPFA. Mr. Steeples’ report informed the meeting that there was hope that there would be a Purleigh Football Club fully established next season and the PPFA would be pleased if this happened.

As Mr. Steeples had reported before, PPFA members did not feel they had enough energy or support to hold a Fête this year, although he was aware that several people had said "Oh they always say that but it will happen anyway!" The PPFA was afraid that this time those people were wrong and knew they would complain when there wasn’t a Fête this year, but the PPFA had repeatedly invited new volunteers via the Parish Magazine but had not received any response. Mr. Steeples’ report advised that there had been talk of organizing a different type of maybe not-for-profit event such as a music festival etc. but any event needed long term planning and couldn’t be organised in just a few weeks. His belief was that the best hope for the future was that if the various groups and clubs in the village could work together to organise an event or for the PPFA to get together with a neighbouring village who had the same problems as Purleigh. Meanwhile, the PPFA Committee would continue to support and represent the playing field users if and when they needed them.

Mr. Elliott then updated the meeting on the progress of the Pavilion extension, which had been delayed due to new Building Regulations, which required deeper foundations than those originally required by the District Council.

The Chairman commenced his report by thanking all Parish Councillors for their advice, support, and tolerance during the year. He informed the meeting that four councillors had attended every one of the 12 Council meetings held and that and in total there had been 89 attendances out of a possible 108. Councillors’ or/and/or the Clerk had also attended 19 other meetings on behalf of the Parish Council. The Chairman explained that Purleigh was very fortunate in that one of its District Councillors was also a Parish Councillor. The Chairman also offered his grateful thanks to Jane Potter for her work as Clerk and for making the Chairman and Council’s job so much easier.

The Chairman explained that, as the meeting was aware, at Parish Council meetings planning applications were examined at the request of the District Council, and this year the Parish Council had returned recommendations on 55 applications. The Chairman was also happy to report that some highways successes had been achieved during the past twelve months, notably the completion of the footpaths in Chelmsford Road and Cold Norton Road, the resurfacing of Cold Norton Road, and the installation of chevrons on the bend in Fambridge Road (in the vicinity of Greengates).

The Council had carried out a number of new initiatives that had involved purchases. A new fence had been installed around the pavilion car park; a safety surface had been installed under the tyre traverse and ladder walk, and new gate signs had been purchased and installed in the children’s play area; a parish notice board had been installed at Roundbush; and the Council’s website had been re-vamped. On this last point the Council hoped that all other village organisations would make use of the ‘page’ facilities this offered.

To help cover some of these costs the Council had been successful in obtaining grants from Essex County Council (£435 for the website and £1,000 for the notice board); from Maldon District Council (£1,400 for the safety surface and £2,000 to come for the pavilion extension); and from the Inland Revenue a tax-free payment of £250 for on-line filing!

The Parish Council had also made the following grants: £378.60 to the Village Hall Management Committee for water heaters in the toilets; £280 to the Knightswood satellite service; £1,150 to Purleigh School to help defray swimming costs for Purleigh children; £35 to Farleigh Hospice and £40 to the Essex Air Ambulance.

The Chairman reported that the running costs of the Council’s assets were significant. Last year grass-cutting in the village had cost £4,035, most of which had been spent on the playing field. As a result the parish had a field with an excellent surface, used successfully by the village cricket and croquet clubs.

A further £9,939.42 had been spent on other pavilion and playing field costs. This expenditure broke down to £5,173.25 on the Children’s Play Area (although as noted earlier the Parish Council had been given a grant of £1,400 towards the safety surface from the Maldon District Council), and general maintenance costs had amounted to £1,518.29. Sadly, nearly one-half (some £731.79) of this latter cost was due to vandalism to the Pavilion’s windows, doors, guttering, and down pipes. The Chairman invited anyone to contact the Council if they had any ideas on how to combat this problem, - the Council would be delighted to hear from them. Income from hire of the Pavilion and playing field facilities only came to £2,357.75, but this was not an issue because the facilities were there to be used.

Whilst on the subject of the playing field the Chairman thanked Councillor Ascott who carried out a monthly inspection of the Children’s Play Area and reported problems at Council meetings, and Councillor Potter who handled the booking of the playing field facilities.

The Chairman advised the meeting that a Parish Transport Needs consultation exercise would be taking place on Thursday, 27^th April 2006 between 2.00 p.m. and 6.30 p.m. in Purleigh Village Hall, hosted by the Essex Rural Transport Partnership and the Parish Council. The afternoon aimed to identify transport needs in Purleigh and enable parishioners to have their say to try to ensure that an adequate and appropriate bus service ran through Purleigh.

The Chairman ended his report by thanking all parishioners who worked so hard to make Purleigh a pleasant and desirable place to live.

In the absence of Mr. Cooper who had to attend a District Council meeting,, the Chairman read out the following written report, which Mr. Cooper had submitted for the meeting’s consideration.:

‘At this gathering last year I overheard the comment, "Why do we come to listen to these boring reports?" Well so be it. All I can do is congratulate as many as are here present on your sense of civic duty. Also to be congratulated are the team of Officers at Maldon who made it possible for the Council to carry through so smoothly its new function under the Licensing Act 2003. I never anticipated having the experience of sitting on a panel of three members to grant a premises licence for the sale of alcohol. Now consideration is being given to the licensing requirements of the Gambling Act 2005.

Last May Councillor Bass began two ‘swansong’ years as Chairman of the Council. Next Tuesday he will switch on the fountains within the Promenade Lake to mark its re-opening. Some work still has to be completed and the statue of Brythnoth has yet to be unveiled.

In the summer Mrs. Fiona Marshall took up post as Chief Financial Services Officer. Maldon District Band D Council tax for 2006/07 set at £151.66 is an increase of £7.21 or 4.9%. Excessive increases above 5% will result in capping.

A planning application has recently been submitted for a wind farm at Bradwell. This is in line with efforts nationally to provide more non-nuclear sources of alternative energy.

The proposal to replace the three Area Planning Committees (Central, South East and North West) with one single Planning Committee of 15 Members was not approved at the Council meeting on March 30^th .

Rather than give figures for homelessness and expenditure on bed and breakfast accommodation let me suggest that were each parish and settlement in the Maldon District to locate a suitable site for affordable housing then 60 or so starter homes could be built under the Council’s exception policy.

The intention of the new reception area at the Council Offices is that one receptionist will be able to answer or assist with all enquiries made by a member of the public – be they concerning housing, waste collection, planning, finance or any other Council responsibility.

A Government consultation White Paper on the future structure of Local Government is expected in July. No actual changes are anticipated to take place before 2009, so once again the survival of Maldon District Council hangs in the balance.

Since becoming the Council’s Chief Executive in January, Mr. Steve Watson has been going round taking the temperature of the Maldon District. Last week he told Members a little of his first impressions in a presentation under the heading: ‘A New Vision for the District: Supporting an active local economy; protecting our rural heritage; backing affordable housing; restoring civic pride." No doubt he will say something of this when he comes to the Parish Council meeting on 21^st April.

The naval Chaplain on board HMS Victory later became the Rector of Southminster and so on October 23^rd a Civic Service was held at the Church there to commemorate the bicentenary of the Battle of Trafalgar and the death of Admiral Lord Nelson.

That, Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen concludes my District Councillor’s annual report. My apologies for being unable to attend and present it myself.’

Unfortunately, a representative of Essex Police was unable to attend the meeting to discuss local policing issues.

The Chairman gave Mrs. Dawn Dack’s apologies (Head teacher, Purleigh Community Primary School), as she was not able to attend the Annual Parish Meeting due to holiday commitments.

The Chairman did however read out a written report submitted by Mrs. Dack for the meeting’s consideration.

Mrs. Dack’s report commenced by explaining that the year had been very busy, with lots of exciting curriculum events for pupils. Mrs. Dack was pleased to report that the school had received many positive comments from visitors and Local Education Advisers about its high standard of work and the good behaviour of its pupils.

School Times: Mrs. Dack’s written report advised that Purleigh’s school day was arranged as follows:

There had not been any changes in the times of sessions this term. The school had also run some ‘Walk to School’ weeks to encourage parents to park further away from the school and to have more consideration for nearby residents. The buses continued to arrive at different times to allow for staggered arrivals and departures from school.

Mrs. Dack’s report informed the meeting that there had been 187 pupils on roll in March 2006, and that they were arranged into classes as follows:

The school expected that the number on roll would fluctuate next term, as there were a few families who had informed the school that they were trying to sell their houses. As the Local Authority would not inform the school how many pupils it could expect in the next academic year until May 2006, Mrs. Evans had already visited a number of playgroups and nurseries to try to ascertain the number of pupils likely to enrol in September. As the birth rate was low, the expected number of admissions was likely to fall next year in line with trends all over the county.

Teaching Staff: Mrs. Dack’s report informed the meeting that the school had a full complement of teaching staff. Miss Wheelwright had passed her first term as a newly qualified teacher and was still receiving mentoring support from Mrs. Owen. Mr. Stotter and Mrs. Priest were sharing the teaching of class six and had begun booster sessions with their class in preparation for the Standard Assessment Tests next term. Their pupils were working well and making good progress. Mr. Stotter and Mrs. Arthur were teaching French to allow some planning, preparation and assessment time to be given to teaching staff. Mrs. Owen had started to prepare pupils for Key Stage One teacher assessments in year two and the school had recently held Standard Assessment Tests sharing sessions for parents of pupils in Years 2 and 6.

Mrs. Dack’s report advised that Miss Laura Fish, the school’s School Centered Internal Teacher Training (SCITT) student had received good observation reports last term. Her post was still funded by the Local Education Authority and had been a useful resource for the school during the year. Mrs. Dack was also pleased to report that Mr. Stotter had passed his National Professional Qualification for Headship.

Midday Assistants: Mrs. Dack’s written report informed the meeting that the school had a full complement of midday assistants and that there was a waiting list for any posts that may develop. Many of the school’s midday staff were also Learning Support Assistants. During the term midday staff had attended a skipping workshop and had been trained in child protection matters.

Bus Duty and School Transport: Mrs. Dack’s written report informed the meeting that the two school buses continued to run each day. 20 children travelled by mini coach and 53 children travelled on the full sized coach. Mr. Davis continued his role as Bus Duty Supervisor for 5 hours per week, in addition to his 25 hours per week commitment as school caretaker. The 5 hours per week bus duty continued to be funded by Essex County Council. The school had held a ‘Walk to School’ week which had commenced on 13^th March 2006.

Educational Visits/ Visitors/ Curriculum Issues/Community Relationships: The school continued to be part of a number of clusters whose aim was to support the school and help it to go from strength to strength. Each clusters had a member, or members, of staff allocated to it and were as follows:

As part of the continued move to enrich the curriculum the school had been encouraging visitors and visits had been made by each class. To this end, the school had held a book week, a hobbies and talents week and an art week. Children had participated in skipping sessions, a pupils’ voice audit, sari demonstrations and had raised funds for the school’s chosen charity – the Essex Air Ambulance.

Visitors to the school had included: Governors, the school nurse, Educational Welfare Officers, specialist teachers, Air Ambulance staff, Andrea Dolton, SCITT tutors, students from Anglia University, leadership advisers, Mrs. Felton, Mrs. Goringe, a Physical Education teacher from the Plume School who had worked with year 5 and a language teacher from St. Peter’s High school who had worked with year 6.

The school had also visited All Saints’ Church, Purleigh, for the Christmas Concert and for the Easter Service led by Reverend Elspeth Bland. Mrs. Dack’s report thanked Reverend Bland and the Churchwardens for all their assistance and for helping the children who really enjoyed their visits to the Church.

Internal Staff Training: Staff training continued as outlined in the school’s Development Plan. Neil Stotter continued to work with the Learning Support Assistants and Miss Deer worked with the midday staff to ensure continuity of policy. Teachers met each Tuesday for a planned training session, which during the year had included topics such as monitoring the curriculum, gifted and talented pupils, calculation policy, marking, school development planning and skipping.

Primary Learning Network: Mrs. Dack’s report explained that during the year the Dengie Cluster of ten local primary schools had met twice. Training had included the use of white boards, calculation and planning for Mathematics. Linked consultants from the Local Authority had supported this programme. Miss Fulluck and Miss Wheelwright had attended the training sessions and had fed back relevant information to staff at staff meetings. Mr. Stotter had then led a session on the use of whiteboards at the school. Alongside this a six day package on redesigning the curriculum was being run.

Thanks: Mrs. Dack concluded her written report by thanking the Parish Council for its continued support with the funding of the swimming pool which would be open again at Easter. The report also thanked the residents of Pump Lane and The Westerings for their patience about some parents’ parking. The school was sorry to learn that PC Hughes had retired as Community Police Officer but thanked him for all his hard work in Purleigh. Staff and pupils at the school would miss him.

Mr. Potter, a Trustee of the Foundation, advised the meeting that the Trustees had met on 27^th February 2006. The investments had generated an income of £233.053 in 2005, which had been available for disbursement. Since no individual students had applied for funding, it had been decided to allocate £70 each to Purleigh Primary School, the Sunday school, and the ‘Small Saints’ group, the remaining £23.03 being reinvested as capital.

Mr. Don Nowell (Chairman, Purleigh Village Hall Management Committee) commenced his report by his report explaining that in the year ending 31^st December 2005, the Village Hall had been used on 396 occasions compared with 346 occasions in the previous year. There were now ten regular user groups of the Village Hall and the Committee was encouraged that the number of users had increased. The Committee had been pleased to welcome a ‘Stitch and Craft’ group as a new regular hirer of the facilities. Usage had varied from occasions to a peak of occasions.

Mr. Nowell reported that the Committee had been grateful to the Parish Council for its grant of £378.60, which had been put towards the installation of a water heater in the gentlemen’s toilet. assisted with this project. Mr. Nowell’s report continued that A leaky cistern in the disabled toilet had caused some problems but had hopefully been rectified.

Mr. Nowell explained that a big change the Village Hall had faced during the year was compliance with the requirements of the Licensing Act 2003. The Committee had renewed the Hall’s licence for music and dancing but could no longer apply for an occasional licence to cover the provision or sale of alcohol or other licensable activities such as the performance of a play. They now had to apply to the District Council for a Temporary Events Notice for special events and were restricted to twelve of these per annum (with the year ending on 24^th November). Organisations planning to hold an event with special licensing requirements were urged to give the Committee as much notice as possible lest the limit of twelve TEN’s per year was used up in the early part of the calendar year.

Mr. Nowell’s report concluded by looking forward to the Art Exhibition which was the principal means of raising funds for the Village Hall. The Committee was looking forward to participating in the revised format of the Art Show in 2006.

As Mr. Steeples, Chairman of the Purleigh Playing Field Association, was unable to attend the meeting Mr. Mick Elliott read out a written report submitted by Mr. Steeples for the meeting’s consideration. Mr. Steeples’ report commenced by explaining that as reported at the 2005 Annual Parish Meeting the PPFA had been obliged to run a Fête last year in spite of its dwindling number of regular supporters. In the end fortunately the organization had managed to find a couple of new faces with enthusiasm and ideas and their input had helped the remaining ‘old hands’ to stay motivated.

As in 2004, the PPFA had run its own bar, which had still been feasible under the old licensing arrangements. By doing so, and with the assistance of the cricketers who were the organisation’s stalwarts plus the regular helpers who came along on the day, including those from other Purleigh groups such as the WI (who had again volunteered to look after the pavilion refreshments), the PPFA had managed once again to hold a successful Fête. Mr. Steeples’ report also acknowledged the many sponsors who had given donations of money or goods or who had advertised in the Fête programme. As a result of their efforts and the hard work of the core committee members the PPFA had again made a profit of around £3,000, similar to that achieved in 2004.

As usual the PPFA had been lucky to enjoy a beautifully sunny Fête day and visitors who had come in many cases from far and wide had informed the committee that the Fete format was just about right for a village fete, which included some good music, a very entertaining dog agility display, some classic cars and bikes, a scarecrow competition, a few side shows and of course a bouncy castle.

With the new funds and those raised in previous years plus the grants we were awarded of £2,000 and £1,000 from Maldon District and Purleigh Parish Council respectively the PPFA were finally very close to the target needed for the planned pavilion extension for which the Parish Council had already obtained bids. Since then we have been involved in negotiating with the Council and our chosen contractor to make some cost savings. Then toward the end of last year we were delighted to finally receive an award from the National Lottery Awards For All Programme for £5,000 having applied previously unsuccessfully. Even now, however, we are still dealing with building regulations and other issues which have caused us delays and threaten to further increase our costs. Nevertheless we are determined to triumph in the end and I am indebted to the great efforts by my fellow committee members with the help of the Parish Council to see the project through to completion.

When the extension has been completed we shall be pleased to see the new facilities enjoyed by existing users and maybe some new ones too. A suggestion of coffee mornings for mature residents has been made which we would support. We were saddened that it was not possible to continue with the Y2K youth club activities, but we are pleased that the Cricket Club, the Croquet Club, the Brownies, the Folk Dancers and the Whist Drives continue to thrive although not all are prepared to join us on the PPFA. There is hope that we shall have a Purleigh Football Club fully established next season and will be pleased if this happens.

As I have reported before the PPFA members do not feel we have enough energy or support to hold a fete this year although I am aware that several people have said "Oh they always say that but it will happen anyway!" Well we are afraid they are wrong and we know they will complain when there isn’t a fete this year, but we have put messages in the Parish Magazine and received again received no response. There has been talk of organizing a different type of maybe not for profit event such as a music festival or whatever but any event needs long term planning and can’t be organised in just a few weeks. My belief is the best hope for the future is if the various groups and clubs in the village can work together to organise an event or if we can get together with a neighbouring village who have the same problems as we do. Meanwhile our committee will continue to support and represent the playing field users if and when they need us.

There were no questions from the floor.

The Chairman concluded by thanking the speakers and members of the public for attending the meeting and Mrs. Pauline Potter, Mr. Tom Potter and Mrs.  Ruth Ascott for the refreshments.

There being no further business, the Chairman closed the meeting at 8.09 p.m.

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Refreshments were then served and parishioners had the opportunity to look at the deeds of some of the Parish Council’s landholdings.

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