Denton Parish Council
Minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting held on Tuesday 14th May 2024.
at 7.00pm at Denton Village Hall
Parish Councillors Present: Terry Hanner, Melissa Bunn, Ken Ashton, Robert Fearnley, Helen Sida-Page, Christine Kerr.
Also Present: Jackie Ellis (Clerk), 12 members of the public.
1. Welcome by Terry Hanner, Chairman.
Apologies
Chris Brown, District Councillor.
2. To confirm the minutes of the annual parish meeting 2023
These were confirmed as a true record and signed by Terry Hanner, chairman.
3. Guest Speaker: Matt Jones to talk about biodiversity
Matt is an employee of Norfolk Wildlife Trust and has conducted the parish council’s new biodiversity policy.
He spoke about his work and what the parish council have done to support this and how people can get involved. Report attached.
A member of the public asked about Deer Management as they can be quite damaging. Matt agreed that this does need controlling and deer control is operating on some of its woodland sites.
The trust is starting to think carefully about how to develop a deer management system that will have an impact.
4. Chairman’s report and financial report
Terry Hanner reported on the following:
- It has been a quiet year on planning
- Village sign is back and looking very good, thanks to Dawn for doing this.
- We have renovated 2 sign posts and there is 1 more to do. This involved 11 different people. Thanks to all who helped.
- Thanks to John Chapman for moving the speed monitor.
- Thanks to Helen for paying half the service cost of the defibrillator.
- Thanks to Robert and Matt for preparing the strip for the new wild flower meadow.
- We have held quite a few working parties on the playing field and thanks to everybody who helped.
- We have contributed £100 towards Harleston free town parking
5. District and County Councillor reports
Chris Brown, District Councillor emailed in the attached report.
Barry Stone, County Councillor emailed in the attached report.
6. Reports from Community Organisations/Groups
Garden Club, Art Club, Coffee Morning, Variety Club
Reports attached.
W.I.
Denton W.I. meets the first tuesday of the month. Numbers are growing. They get involved in a huge range of subjects; including Crochet, dancing, walking and they also had a wreath making session and then decorated the village hall at Christmas. New members always welcome.
Church
They have put in a new path and a new floor above the clock room.
Village Hall & Bar
Both have had a successful year. The Bar had a turnover of £22,000 and a profit £8,000 which is £2,000 up on last year.
Village Hall – Tuesday meals and Friday night food is going well. They are looking in to having solar panels.
They have combined the pool room and bar room to bring things together at a cost of £4,000 for carpet, tables and chairs. Thanks to Sarah for doing the garden and they now have a brown bin.
There is now an outside toilet at the Chapel which is always accessible.
7. Public Participation
Ken Ashton would like to wash sign posts, etc around the village and asked if anybody would like to help to get in contact with him.
Terry Hanner thanked everyone for attending and closed the meeting at 7.45pm.
NB – Full copies of all reports are available from the clerk on request.