Annual Parish Meeting of MORLEY PARISH COUNCIL

Draft Minutes of the meeting held 19th May 2014 at 7pmMorley Village Hall

Present: Chairman Councillor Cordey, Councillors, Jon Blake, Brian Clarke, David Hastings, David Eckles, Craig McLeod, Anna Allison.

In Attendance: (Clerk) Jo Rayner ,No members of the public - Meeting Opened 7.05 pm1. Apologies

District Councillor Michael Edney, County Councillor Margaret Dewsbury, Mr Roffe and Mr Moorhouse from Wymondham College, PCSO James King, Bob Boulter, & Tim Chenery.

2. Minutes of the last Annual Parish Meeting held on 20th May 2013The previous minutes were signed as a true record. Proposed by Councillor Blake seconded by Councillor Hastings, Signed by the Chairman Councillor Cordey

3. Matters arising None.

4. Annual reports from Local Organisations: Chairman’s Annual Report – please see end of document for separate report.

District Councillor Michael Edney (Wicklewood Ward)- Previously circulated by Parish ClerkThis year has been the sixth time in seven years that South Norfolk Council has frozen council tax. It represents a 25pc cut in real terms over the seven year period. And we have achieved the freeze in such a way that the economies we’ve had to make haven’t resulted in ‘cuts’ that the public would notice.

In fact by growing income, investing in the tools required to strengthen our Council and empowering staff working as teams rather than working as individuals in every corner of the council, service levels have actually improved and public satisfaction with in council services has improved even as central government financial support has dropped by 28%.

I’m not aware of another district council in England that can boast the same record of freezing whilst improving. As local families try to balance their books, I hope that they can appreciate that we are helping everyone with the cost of living as we live within our means.

So I just want to highlight a few areas where South Norfolk has made a difference this year as• We grow the economy with practical measures to support business, planning & housing• We look after those who need the council’s help the most• We maximise the Quality of Life for local residents and businesses

Starting with quality of life: I hope that you have noticed in March’s newspapers that South Norfolk now officially has the highest quality of life of any district in Norfolk or Suffolk according to the Halifax Building Society Quality of Life survey. We have come 16th out of over 350 areas nationally. This didn’t just happen by itself.

Our council takes a leading role in enhancing our market towns and villages that surround them. We’re investing £1m over the next 12 months in our market towns to improve thestreetscene, run events that drive footfall and attract visitors. Part of this plan includes upgrading the public toilets. Clean loos are an essential part of a modern shopping centre and we are treating our larger towns as the shopping centres they are, and parking is still free at least for the first hour.

It’s not just about the towns: South Norfolk is one of the few councils still to award community grants. This year we have given many grants of about £2000 to volunteer organisations.

This year we gave a small number of larger grants to Earsham Football Club to build new changing facilities, to Hapton & Tharston to refurbish a village hall and provide a new all-weather cricket pitch as well as in Poringland to create plans for a new twenty acre all-weather sports centre & pavilion.

South Norfolk has played a leading role in driving recycling forward. From October it will be possible to place envelopes, yoghurt pots, glass, envelopes & food-trays in the green bin. We worked with our neighbouring councils to form a company where the profits from the sale of the valuable things that are thrown away in the green bin will be retained by our local Councils to keep council tax down.

We are revamping our bin lorry fleet. £1.8m this year and next will see new lorries that are more reliable and cheap to run. We run the service ourselves: It’s not outsourced so can it be a coincidence that we were the only Council to not miss a day’s collection in last winter’s extreme weather. The vehicles to collect fly tipping and sweep the streets are also being updated.

We don’t forget that the Council is there to look after those who need help the most.

Building affordable housing is an important element that helps keep local families together and close to family and friends rather than see people forced to move to the city. In 2011 we set ourselves the near-impossible task of building 500 new affordable homes in South Norfolk in the following 4 years. In the teeth of a building recession, we have actually completed 20pc more than that [592 affordable homes] one year ahead of target. To put this in perspective, North Norfolk completed about 10 properties and Great Yarmouth just 30 in the twelve months.

Disabled Facilities Grants are another area where there have been no cuts: Adapting homes with a wheelchair ramp, installing a walk-in shower or even just fixing grab-handles helps keep people independent in their homes for longer and reduces the burden on the health service. Some of the work we pioneered at Long Stratton, is now acknowledged to be best practice and is being copied across the country as a recent report said that South Norfolk is recognised as the most efficient council in making sure that people get this sort of practical help quickly.

We’ve been recognised nationally, in The Guardian remarkably, for our ground breaking work on focusing our Housing Register on those who need the greatest help. Nowadays people on the housing register get housed typically within a month-or-two, whereas previously it could take years to get to the top of the queue. So we’re encouraging families, especially in villages where we have a ‘local connection’ requirement to register on the housing list.

And this month we will complete a new Gypsy and Traveller “Transit Site” near the Showground. This will provide secure space for about a dozen caravans. The Police will have the key to the site and be able to move-on illegal roadside encampments promptly in a way that has not been possible before.

Growing the Economy is another important activity of the council.

But it’s not something we can do alone. That’s why we are pleased that, working with the New Anglia LEP, which replaced EEDA, South Norfolk firms have received more grants and loans to local businesses than any other area in Norfolk & Suffolk. Firms like Frank Dale Foods at Bunwell or, Tas Valley Mushrooms near Newton Flotman have all received help to expand and grow their businesses.

An integral part of this growing the economy is to ensure that our tourism businesses can market themselves more effectively in print, online and in editorial comment in publications. So we are now working with VisitNorwich to better promote the rural area to visitors to Norwich and, importantly, the friends and relations of local residents. We have played a big part in updating the VisitNorwich website and structured location and event-related information it in such a way that GPS-powered searches on mobile devices rank local tourism and event-related searches more highly.

Our Pub of the Year competition is still regarded as the leading such contest by independent charity The Pub Is TheHub. For five years we have selected local winners from the different parts of South Norfolk. The competition promotes our country pubs and also helps drive up standards of customer service helping pubs to remain viable for longer. And, where plans exist to close a pub, we’ve helped local residents place the building on the Community Asset Register to give local people the first option to buy the premises.

Housing is a controversial area but essential for jobs and the economy and South Norfolk will finally complete the arduous local plan process this summer, which will finally give certainty over which pieces of land can be developed or not. When South Norfolk Council was founded 40 years ago, there were 80,000 residents. Now there are about 125,000. That’s an average increase of just over 1pc per year in each of the 40 years. Although the housing numbers planned for seem so high, over the next 20 years they’ll continue that 1pc trend at a time when people are living much longer and families become more complicated.

Although larger settlements close to Norwich will share the greatest burden, our larger villages will have 10-20 new homes over the next 15-20 years – an average of one per year. Although new homes are needed, it’s not building at any price in any location: We’ve made sure that areas like the bypass landscape protection zone have been extended. Our design guide and pattern books will ensure that new development, where it occurs reflects the local area too.

And the New Homes Bonus and Infrastructure Levy from 1stMay means that there’s money to provide infrastructure alongside housing growth. That’s good news in Wymondham, where the railway bridge will be widened and flooding issues sorted, & at Long Stratton, where funding for the bypass is being put into place.

Finally, the Council is developing new business premises for local firms to rent. At Poringland, which is seeing housing growth, new offices for local people will reduce the need to commute to Norwich and keep people in the village during the daytime, which can only help other local traders like shops and pubs. At Hethel a new £5m extension to the Engineering Centre at Hethel is providing 32 self-contained serviced workshops for rent at just £12-14 psf.

The Council has 86 separate business elements from building control to dog-catching, paying benefits to fly-tipping. In each of these separate activities we aim to be amongst the best in the country. We have a well-trained, and loyal staff who deliver all this for an average of £2.50 per week per house. It’s something I’m proud to play a part in.

Michael Edney. SNC Councillor - Wicklewood WardDeputy Cabinet Member - Finance, Resources, Audit and Governance

Councillor Margaret DewsburyNorfolk County Council 2014 Annual ReportNew Chief Officer

A new Chief Executive Officer has been appointed and will start work in August. Her name is Dr. Wendy Thomson. She has previously worked as an advisor to Tony Blair and received a CBE for her work on public service reform. Council TaxNorfolk County Council has frozen the Council Tax for 2014, even though it had to make savings of £189 million, because it is aware that many people are currently going through difficult times financially.

The ‘Putting People First’ consultation sought to find out which reductions would have the least effect on local residents and the budget was set out accordingly. There was a lengthy five and a half hour debate before it was eventually agreed.IncineratorA similarly long meeting, four and a half hours, was held to decide to terminate the incinerator project which was to be based at The Willows, Kings Lynn.RoadsThe Government has offered another £3.4 million towards repairing roads that were damaged by the flooding at the beginning of the year. This will help make up the deficit caused by cuts that had to be made to balance the budget for the next financial year. The new contractors, La Farge, will take over repair and maintenance of the roads on April 5th.

Business RatesHaving met a group of local businesses to discuss current problems Norfolk County Council wrote to Brandon Lewis MP asking him to consider how the system of business rates was operated and identifying issues which need to be addressed to make the system fairer and to speed up the valuation appeals.

Broadband Better Broadband for Norfolk is a Norfolk County Council, BT and Government funded programme to improve broadband infrastructure by the end of 2015.

By the end of December 2013 the year end target of 19,745 had been superseded and 22,335 premises had access to Superfast Broadband.

The Government has recently offered another £5.5 million towards rolling Broadband across the county but we have to find matching funding, if not from our own funds then from sponsorship or funding from businesses.

Mobile phonesA Government has set up a UK wide initiative called the Mobile Infrastructure Project to address the signal ‘Not-spots’ across the country by providing extra masts. The project will be delivered in five phases – Norfolk and Suffolk are in Phase 2.

SchoolsFor many years the majority of Norfolk schools were graded ‘satisfactory’ by Ofsted but last year Ofsted changed that category to ‘needs improvement’ and the County Council failed its Ofsted inspection. Since then officers have been working with schools and looking at how children’s achievements can be improved.

Following a county-wide study into children’s early development and needs the County Council has created a new strategy to improve early years practice and help raise levels of achievement in communication and personal, social and emotional development of children aged five and under. This is based on the understanding that a child’s level of development at the age of five is the closest indicator of their likely achievement at GCSE.

Safeguarding childrenWhen Ofsted inspected the county’s safeguarding children services last year it found that problems were not identified early enough and that there was insufficient early help available to families. To address this, a six month pilot scheme has been set up in some Norfolk schools, aimed at giving earlier support for families experiencing difficulties. Social workers will be based in the schools to provide guidance for families and training in child protection issues for teachers and school staff.

There has also been a drive to encourage more people to become foster carers in an effort to keep all children in care within the county. It is better for the children to remain within their home county, close to friends, and also less expensive for the council. There are currently 1,130 looked after children in Norfolk.

Youth Parliament

Elections for Youth Parliament took place in March with 29 young people hoping to represent their peers locally and nationally. Elections were held in nine constituencies within the county. Those elected spend two years in office and have the opportunity to take part in debates in Westminster and to work with local MPs and councillors.

I endeavour to attend all Parish Council meetings, but occasionally I have to miss one due to another meeting elsewhere, and I am willing to help with any fund raising or other events when I can.Margaret Dewsbury

Village Hall Committee – No Report

Community Speedwatch Report – No Report

Morley Youth Football Club – by Tim Chenery, ChairmanAgain Morley Youth Football Club has built on the previous year’s experiences. Focus on getting it right first time and adapting what the club does in line with the on-going changes in grassroots football. The good work carried out by the coaches & volunteers has enables the Club to expand without the need to advertise locally. Word of mouth being our biggest advertisement, being a reflection on the good work done by all.The Charter Standard Mark that the Club now holds has unlocked training and coaching development to enable the Club to move to the next level. This has been utilised with several of our new coaches just completing the training, the learning experience is to be rolled out to all. The new format is based on feedback from the children involved in Grassroots football.The Club has seen an increase in its registered members mainly in the younger age groups in readiness for next season.Children of the Club who are attending the Cambridge and Norwich football academies has increased with the latest candidates coming from our U6’s, U7’s & U8’s age groups. This is great for the children as it opens up avenues for further development and opportunities.Club participation in the South Norfolk Youth Football League is still our main league that we participate in. This season has been our best season yet with 4 age groups getting through to the semi finals. We have an U10’s lad who has been recognised as an outstanding sportsman who will be recognised at the end of year presentations. Plate and cup completions have also seen the best results to date.Specialised training for Goal Keepers was also implemented half way through the season again with support from Charter Standard on training. This has gone very well with positive feedback from parents and the children.For the first time we have entered a team in the Norfolk Youth Combination which again has gone very well this season, coming top of the division and winning the Cup.The only down side to the season was the adverse weather conditions, bringing rain and flooding for the first 2 month of the year. We managed to establish a work around at other locations to carry on playing football as well as utilising the Village Hall for the younger players. This all went well with no fines being imposed for un-played fixtures.The Club plans to keep up its level of commitment to football for the community for the foreseeable future and hope that the Parish Council will continue to help & support us in doing this.RegardsTim Chenery - Morley Youth Football Club Manager & Chairman

Morley Senior Football Club – No Report

Morley Bowls Club – No Report

Morley Church of England Primary School – No Report

Wymondham College A Successful YearWymondham College has had another very successful year, building on one of the best ever sets of examination results in 2013. We were delighted to have been named as one of nine “High Flying” state schools in the Guardian newspaper and to have featured as one of twenty state schools recommend

nationally by The Tatler magazine. A record thirteen current and recent former students are holding offers from Oxford and Cambridge for October 2014.

Planning ApplicationsThe College has recently received approval for a revision of the new classroom block planning application it first submitted in 2013. The classroom block would have allowed the College to meet the demand for sixth form study in science and technology and allow the removal of a number of portacabins on the site that are currently used for teaching and for support staff accommodation. The College has bid for central government funding for the classroom block in 2013 and 2014 but on both occasions have been unsuccessful. The College is now looking at alternative options for meeting the demand for specialist classroom spaces.

Path from Morley VillageThe College has been asked to provide help with the efforts to establish the pathway from the Village to the College. The College Estate Manager has agreed to provide assistance as have NORSE who are the College grounds maintenance contractors. The College wishes to place on record its thanks to NORSE for helping with this project which will provide a safe route for adults and students walking from the Village to the College.

Traffic MeasuresThe reduction in central government maintenance funding over the past 3 years has meant that the College’s plans to provide additional parking and traffic calming measures on the College grounds to alleviate the problems on Golf Links Road have not been realised. Again the College bid in 2013 for central government funding to complete this scheme and despite the bid being supported by the Parish, the District Councillor, the Police, the Fire Brigade and the Highways Department the bid was not considered to be a high enough priority, in competition with other school bids to the same funding scheme, to secure the necessary finance. The College continues to seek ways to fund this extremely important work.

AdmissionsEach year the College arranges an ‘Admissions Appeals’ week at the end of May, in accordance with its responsibilities under the Schools Admission Appeals Code, and 2014 will be no exception. The College received over 250 applications for day places in Year 7 with 82 places being available. All applications for the places at the College are administered through the Local Authority in accordance with the Schools Admissions Code. Once again we have been pleased that all applications from children living in the Parish of Morley have been successful. Demand for Sixth Form day and boarding places remains very high with the College receiving over 700 applications for 200 places in Year 12.

Farewell and Thank YouThis is my last term as Principal of Wymondham College as I will be leaving at the end of term to take up my new post in Edinburgh. I should like to place on record my thanks to the local community through the Parish Council for the very cordial and productive working relationship that I have enjoyed with many representatives of the community and with Councillors at all levels of Local Government. The College is lucky to have such good and supportive neighbours in the Parish.My successor, Mr Jonathan Taylor, takes up his position in September.Melvyn RoffePrincipal Wymondham College

PCSO James King – Norfolk Community Police - No Report

Browne’s Charity & Morley Fuel Allotment TrustHistory: These two charities were set up many years ago. Both used income from land. Browne’s provided shoe leather so that children could go to school and Morley Fuel Allotment Trust was set up to help the retired agricultural workers in the village of which there are only two left. All the land was later sold and the money invested with the Charity Commission. The Browne’s Committee meets every year to decide how the income should be used to benefit the villagers. The Clerk holds the details.

5. Parishioners’, members of the public and pressThere were no members of the public or press present.

SUMMARY OF ACCOUNTS 2013/2014RECEIPTSPrecept 6640.00

SN Grant 210.00

NALC Bursary 0.00

VAT Refund 701.46

Rents 668.75

SNC Recycling 250.00

Insurance contribution VHC 497.51

Interest 0.92

Other 300.00

TOTAL RECEIPTS £9,268.64

PAYMENTS

VAT 727.99

Audit 30.00

Expenses 536.92

Wages 2592.66

HMRC 0.00

Dog bins 183.90

Insurance 863.23

Subscriptions 208.62

Training 125.00

Pest Control 280.00

Donations (s.137) 442.00

Grass Cutting 0.00

Ground Maintence 2205.00

Hedge cutting 160.00

Turner Field Rental 0.00

Repairs 153.77

ROSPA Play Area Inspection 59.95

Other Projects 830.17

TOTAL PAYMENTS £9,399.21

Meeting closed 07.15pm

Mrs Joanne Rayner Signed by the chairman

Clerk to the Parish Council ______________________19th May 2014

Date:

Contact Details

http://morley-parish-council.norfolkparishes.gov.uk

Roger Cordey (Chair) Winton, Golf Links Road 01953 602430Anna Allison (Vice Chair) 44 Chapel Road 01953 605215Brian Clarke Mill Farm House, Mill Lane 01953 857406David Hastings Black Thorn Barn, Downham 01953 798944Jon Blake Hawkfield House, Chapel Road 01953 878420David Eckles Foxgloves, Deopham Road 01953 606711Craig McLeod Holly House, 13 Chapel Road 01953 529222

Parish ClerkJo Rayner Cherry Tree Cottage, 32 Queens Street, Spooner Row, Wymondham NR18 9JU

01953 602358morleyparishclerk@gmail.com

District CouncillorMichael Edney Pillar Box House, Hackford, Norwich, NR18 9HW

01953 851342medney@s-norfolk.gov.uk

County CouncillorMargaret Dewsbury 6 Park Avenue, Barford, NR9 4BA

01603 759693mdewsbury@s-norfolk.gov.uk