May 2025 Chairman's & Playpark report
PARISH COUNCIL CHAIRMAN'S REPORT
Good evening everyone and welcome to our Annual Parish Meeting. The aim of this meeting is to update you on what we, as your Parish Council, have been doing over the past 12 months for the benefit of the village and it also gives you the chance to ask questions or raise any other issues within the Parish Council’s remit. The Parish council has no links to any church or political party, all the councillors are independent volunteers here to represent you, the villagers and I am pleased to say that we currently have a full complement of 8 councillors.
I am now pleased to present the Annual Report for Hogsthorpe Parish Council for the 2024/25 Local Government Year.
Our meetings are usually held on the second Wednesday in the month at 6 pm in the Village Hall and all are welcome to attend, the first 30 minutes are set aside for residents to speak so if you have anything you would like to say please do come along and let us know. We have a dedicated website and a Facebook page to help keep parishioners informed of events and activities.
I am indebted to the time, effort and commitment given by fellow Parish Councillors, our Clerk, and to Colin Davie and Roger Dawson for attending meetings and giving us their expert advice and opinions on County and District Council matters. Following the local elections we will have a new Reform Council representative and we hope that he will be equally as diligent.
I have only been the chairman for a short time but during the last year we have achieved a good number of things and in the coming year are aiming for many more.
Following a meeting with the District Council we hope, even after the changes that come into effect following the local elections, our hard work in securing agreement for the road repairs in and around Hogsthorpe will still come to fruition in the near future.
We have now adopted many of the grass verges and they are being cut by a contractor regularly, helping to make the village look tidier and well kept. A big thank you has to go to the residents who also cut their own verges.
The grass in the churchyard and cemetery is being cut regularly and the grass cuttings are being picked up, this is also the case for the playing field, again making things much more neat and tidy. The gate from the churchyard to the cemetery and the iron post that was redundant have also been removed and taken away and the demolished wall tidied up. The new noticeboard for the cemetery will soon be installed and the cemetery rules and regulations will be put in there. The churchyard and cemetery have had a couple of tidy ups but there is still much to do in the coming year. We also have arrangements in place for the War Memorial to have the lettering replaced and have a tidy up.
The annual Christmas Tree was erected in the Churchyard and looked very festive along with the decorations in the Heritage Garden, which complemented each other beautifully.
The benches in the churchyard were painted and reinstalled and we hope to have more benches and planters in the coming year.
The memorial benches for Councillors Les Wildman and Paul Smith have been installed and commemorative plaques attached in their memory.
After a resident mentioned that the village signpost in the churchyard had seen better days, one of the councillors contacted highways and a brand new sign has been put in place. Village Maintenance as ever, is a constant rolling programme but if there are particular jobs that you feel need attention, please could you let the clerk or myself know so that we can look into it.
The Heritage Garden is now being maintained regularly and until the untimely drought in March was looking vibrant and colourful. The benches have been revarnished and the Village Sign that was knocked down has been painted by a local artist and re erected and is a credit to the village.
The untidy plot on the corner of Wilkinson way is now being kept neat and tidy after we contacted the owner and looks much nicer.
We have held two village litter picks in the last two months and aim to make this a regular monthly event. To date we have removed roughly 20 sacks of rubbish from the village and surrounding area and this is great for the residents, wildlife and the environment.
Our speed awareness indicators that were taken down at Highways request are awaiting reinstalment. Sites have been identified and we are just waiting for the new poles to be erected before we can put them up again. Hopefully this will be in the very near future.
The council has supported Hogsthorpe Allotment Associations We were successful with a grant application for £650 to install new fencing and we greatly appreciate the hard work of all our allotment holders of which we now have a full complement
We continue to provide litter, dog waste bins and benches to benefit all our residents and visitors to the area.
We are holding a VE Celebration event on this coming Sunday and I really hope to see a lot of the villagers there to support this.
Things that are in the pipeline with the help of grants, are a mini Free Library for the Heritage Garden and making the village entrances more bright and welcoming with planters, floral displays and new signage.
As I stated at the beginning of the report I am very new to the Council but I hope that even during this short time the residents have noticed the things that have been done. We need your engagement and support to help us make the improvements you want to see, if it is at all possible for us to do so.
I will close by saying a huge thank you to Kath Hayes the Parish Clerk, without whom I would be lost and my fellow Councillors for their help. It is a privilege to be serving the village as Chairman of the Parish Counciland I will always aim to do my absolute best for the village and its residents.
PLAYPARK REPORT FOR COMMUNITY MEETING 7TH MAY 2025.
Over the year we have been very short of committee members but from a standing start two years ago, some mountains have been climbed.
The financial state is in good order, with a balance of approx. £3000 available for general running of the playpark. (The balance in the bank at the end of the year was £5500 but an invoice for repairs of £2500 is still outstanding). There are copies of the accounts available should you wish to see them.
This year we have obtained a grant of £8400 from the National Lottery for installation of a monkey wall which seems to be very popular with the kids. The District Councillor, Stephen Evans was also very helpful in helping us get a grant of £1000 towards the cost of £2500 for playpark equipment repairs. Thank you to Cllr Evans.
The main income has, of course, been from the car boot sales, now held every Sunday. These are run entirely with the efforts of Ellen Smith and her partner Matthew West. Without this, the finances would be in dire straights. The cost is very cheap for a pitch – come along with your ‘stuff’ to sell or just visit to find a bargain to swell the numbers and have a coffee and cake.
You may notice that the playpark is now looking spick and span, newly painted and tidied. We had hoped to carry this out by volunteers but without people coming forward, we paid to have this done.
We have tried many avenues to try and get the football pitch used but despite every effort, have not yet been able to secure any football clubs to come and use the pitch. However, now that the grass is cut to a high standard we are still hopeful that this might be achieved, although we will need to fix the floodlights and make a referee changing room available – but this can be done.
One good outcome of the much neater grass is that the school will again be using the playing field for their sports day.
We still have many ideas on how to make use of the playing field more – perhaps a zip wire, maybe holding events, (e.g. picnic in the park) or we would love to run a summer fete but we need more committee members to make this happen.
You will all have received a flier through your letter box (if not there are some available). This was not meant to suggest that the Playing fields could be sold off but without the sterling efforts of the three committee members and myself, this facility would be bankrupt.
The playing fields were obtained by Alan and Betty Joyce together with some very hard working members of Hogsthorpe community who set up the charity in 1994 for the benefit of the inhabitants of Hogsthorpe and surrounding area. When the remainder of the trustees resigned a few years ago, the Parish Council became the sole trustees. However, just to make it clear, it is run autonomously and needs its own functioning committee.
I am putting out a plea to you to please come along and join the committee to keep up the good work and make more things happen.
Ellen, Diane and myself are available to talk to – just seek us out.