Blundeston & Flixton Annual meeting – Monday 10th May 2010
At the annual parish meeting held on Monday 10th May there were present. Mr J Nichols ( Chairman), Mr S Perks, Mr. J. Blowers, Mr. S. Lewis, Mr. S. Rees, Mrs. G Soanes, Mrs J Browne, Mrs T Townend, Mr K Wood & Mr. G Wade. SCC Mr M Barnard, PC Stranks , and 28 Parishioners were also present. Apologies were received from Mr P Ashdown & SCC Mr C Law.
The Chairman informed those present that the Accounts for the Village Hall Management committee, the Parish Council and Charity Trustees were displayed for public inspection.
The Chairman reported that the Parish Council had met 12 times since the last annual meeting held on 12th May 2009. Two Councillors were congratulated on achieving 100% attendance & Mr Perks was thanked for standing in as Chairman on 3 occasions. This year has seen the retirement of our long serving clerk & I would like to express our warm thanks for her dedication over the past 15 years both and parish clerk & clerk to the village hall management committee. Although Barbara officially retired at the end of 2009 she has continued to be available for advice and help with our new clerk. We continue to have excellent support in our community from the Police who are always either present at our meetings or send in a report. Sue Kershaw gets to our meetings whenever she can & is also frequently seen around the village on her (very green) electric bicycle. PC David Stranks took over as Community Officer for our northern area in May of last year. I must also thank Paul Ashdown our District Councillor who has only missed the odd meeting & has certainly been instrumental in getting a number of things done for us during the year. Our County Councillors Alyson Barron & Malcolm Cherry were replaced after the election last June by Colin Law & Mike Barnard & both have managed to attend some of our meetings. However there are inevitably clashes with other Parish Council meetings, everyone seems to prefer a Monday, & it is impossible for them to attend them all. Both of them managed to find us £750 each from their County Locality budgets to help fund a new central heating boiler and additional radiators for the Village Hall and we are most grateful for that. The minutes of our meetings continue to be quickly placed in draft on the village website www.blundeston.org.uk and a summary version within a couple of weeks in the Journal, and thanks are due to Iris for that.
Suffolk County Council Report received from Cllr Colin Law who was unable to attend. I would like for you to pass on my thanks to the Parish Council for their help and co-operation in this first year of my 4 year term in giving me the opportunity to work with them over the last 12 months. I look forward to continuing to working together for the benefit of the Blundeston residents in the future. Any issues arising from the meeting, please forward to me for actioning. Cllr Mike Barnard reported the following. Plans for the B1074 improvements were being redesigned for parish Council approval. Community Speed watch will be officially launched on 18th May. This scheme is the first in Waveney. Over the past 12 months, SCC has provided funding for a new boiler in the village hall and tents for the scout group. Skate Park Mrs Dawson reported that Phase 2 was finally completed on 24th March. The park was officially opened by Bob Blizzard on 3rd April and despite the dreadful weather, several people came along to witness the event. Pictures of Mr Blizzard and our lead youngster Ryan George were featured in both the EDP and Lowestoft Journal, publicising the event. Phase 2 included ramps and a lockable cupboard built into the ramps. We would like to thank all of our funders who enabled the park to be completed. Contributions came from Foundation for sports and Arts, Suffolk Environmental Trust & Section 106 budget held on our behalf by Waveney District Council. Thanks must also go to the Parish council and parishioners for all their support throughout the project. Also Sue Kershaw our local community police officer who has tirelessly supported us and communicated so well with the young users. It has been a pleasure to work with these young people & to bring this project to fruition & extremely rewarding to witness how much it is appreciated by all who use it.  The Art Circle The Art group has had another successful year with 25 members plus a waiting list. The group produce varied works of art and the current subject is watercolour. In June 2009 we had a very successful art exhibition and in July we visited Gooderstone water gardens. Our art exhibition this year will be held on 22nd and 23rd may. Please come along and support us. It really is nice when people just come along and see how much the group has improved. If anyone wishes to add their name to the waiting list or to be contacted for forthcoming workshops please call in to the exhibition at the village hall. The Bowls Club Membership has been down again on the previous year but for a small village team this year was a good year for the county competitions and we had 3 representations in the area finals. On the green we play in 3 leagues. The Benacre league in which, we finally regained promotion back into league 1. In the Lothingland league we finished around half way but retained the Bob Whitley memorial. In the Lowestoft & District league we were disappointed by finishing in the bottom half.  
1st Blundeston Brownies We continue to run on Monday afternoons after school in the Village hall. We currently have 16 brownies with a short waiting list. This year girl guiding is celebrating 100 years. We began this special year by joining other local brownie groups in a centenary launch party at Pleasurewood Hills in September & should finish it by joining in a finale at east point. We are now working towards our adventure 100 badge centenary challenge which involves collecting 100 points by doing a variety of activities. Sue Kershaw our local community police office helped the girls obtain their road safety badges. Up and coming we have a visit to the new fire station amongst other activites. Blundeston charity trustees The charity purchased a house at The Hedgerows, Lound Road with the intention of letting it. The first tenants moved in at the beginning of May and we hope they will be happy in the house. At Christmas 112 households in Blundeston received Tesco vouchers to the value of £45 for single persons & £70 for couples. 16 students living away from home received book or Tesco vouchers to the value of £70. The trustees expect to have additional revenue this year. They are exploring ways in which they can more properly reflect what they consider the real aims of the charity. As a first step they are considering a yearly one off payment to Blundeston students attending university & living away from home. They would also wish to help anyone who has to travel to receive medical treatment. For example, a series of visits to Papworth or Addenbrooks or indeed Norwich. The trustees would be grateful for suggestions showing ways in which they could help. The Local History Society The society has a membership of approx 50. We have 4 guest speakers during the year (Feb/Mar/Oct & Nov). The society has in its possession a considerable amount of material appertaining to our locality. If anyone has any achieve material that we could use (Film, documents, photos etc) it would be appreciated. The Royal British Legion This year has 2 sides, one of sadness one of joy. The sadness was the loss of Arthur Brighty a long serving member of the branch. He would enter a room of tired weary people and bring a shaft of humour to them. He will be sadly missed. Our poppy co-ordinator Dulcie Knights has decided to stand down. She was awarded the ‘Gold bar’ for all her hard work. Once again the branch distributed vouchers at Christmas to the widows of past members. Two members of the branch paraded a St Georges standard at the Sunday service in the church. An invitation was made to the Rev. Leslie Hobbs to become branch chaplain to which he agreed. Blundeston Pre-School In 2009 the pre-school underwent a series of changes both in respect of the composition of its management committee and within its daily routines. We were delighted to promote existing staff member Nicola Dyer to the post of lead supervisor following her successful application & interview. Fundraising has been successful. We now have a designated fundraising coordinator within the committee and we saw the introduction of both Halloween & valentine themed events which will hopefully become regular features along with the traditional Easter fayre, Christmas raffle and summer sponsored event. We have now submitted a comprehensive funding application to Suffolk County Council for a grant to develop the settings outside area and have been grateful for the support from the Parish Council in respect of this. Further aims for 2010 include completion of the Ofsted self evaluation form and the development of resources for the setting. The completion of such aims will ensure that Blundeston pre-school is able to continue to offer high quality childcare and educational opportunities to children within Blundeston & surrounding areas for the foreseeable future. Saint Mary’s Church The usual Sunday morning attendance is between 17 and 20 but greatly increased on ‘special’ occasions. eg. Easter, carol Service, crib service, Baptisms etc. The children’s club which is held on 2 Saturday mornings at Christmas & Easter and for a week in August is thriving. Application forms can be obtained from Denyse. Coffee mornings are also popular. We raised funds by having a bookshop which has proved popular, an Art & Craft fair, a celebration of St George by the Taverham band and of course the flower festival with the teddy bears parachute jump at which 471 bravely jumped. This year’s festival is on the 12th/13th June and we have two celebrity bears donated by The English cricket team and the Norfolk Fire service. We would like to thank ‘Clive’s gang’ who have made such a difference in the churchyard, by clearing scrub and ivy from the old tombs, trees etc. We would also like to thank those who clean the church on a regular basis but we could dearly do with some more help in this department. If we could have some more volunteers we would be grateful. The church is the responsibility of the parish and as a parish we are responsible for its upkeep. We do ask for your help and support to keep this historic and important building running and in good repair. Thank you.1st Blundeston scout Group The group has been busy during the past 12 months and has participated in a variety of activities within the Parish. These include assisting with the teddy bear parachute jump, Attending the armistice day service, Christmas parade, 5 mile ramble with families and friends and we have introduced a bingo night open to all which is held on the last Wednesday of the month and has become very popular. I would like to thank the parish council and hall management for all the support they have given the group. We have numerous children both boys and girls along with a waiting list to join. I am sure that we are making our mark within the district scout association. Sunshine Club We have had another successful year with various outings and lunches. We have 22 members and anyone over the age of 55 is welcome to join us on Monday afternoons. For the past 3 years we have received a grant from the Suffolk Foundation towards outings, meals and rent of the village hall. After this year we do not know what will happen about this funding as it was only for 3 years. During the year we sent £45 from our ‘pennies’ jar to the James Paget Hospital ‘palliative care’ in memory of Gladys Marjoram, Maureen Teasdale, Stella Snowling & Cissie Fitgett.  W.I.  There have been several changes to the structure since the last annual meeting. Our meeting night has been changed to the 2nd Tuesday of the month. We have also started up several new groups as extra activities. These include a rambling club, a reading group, a cinema and theatre group, an aromatherapy group and a luncheon club. We have had a varied programme of speakers throughout the year. Members help at the annual teddy bears parachuting and flower festival at the church. Our membership is now 45 most of whom live outside Blundeston. Police report Read out on behalf of PCSO Susan Kershaw who was unable to attend. Once more the past year has flown by & I thank the parish council for their continued support to me in my role as your police community support officer. Blundeston & Flixton are nice safe villages to live in & I will continue to assist the people to keep it that way. The community speed watch is now up &  running & I wish it every success to educate drivers to keep their speed down on our country roads & a big thank you for the volunteers that have come forward. Without them the scheme would not have been possible. In the previous 12 months there have been a total of 44 crimes. 16 of which were committed in HMP.