Saltford’s Annual Parish Meeting was held on Tuesday 6 April (via Zoom), chaired by Cllr Chris Warren. Cllr Warren gave the following report on the past year:
SALTFORD PARISH COUNCIL 2021
Good Evening everyone and welcome to the 2021 Parish Meeting. This last year has been different from any other and has given us all challenges which we have managed to overcome.
First I’d like to say a few words about this Parish Council and the role we play in the community.
The first PC to represent Saltford was elected in 1991, and as a statutory body it has since been integral to what makes our village a great place to be. My current council were elected May 2019, with a few new additions along the way. We welcome new Cllrs Shay and Julie and thank Will and Duncan for their service. Particular thanks to Cllr Hounsell for his service to the Parish for many years.
We raise our funds through the precept, an additional annual charge that appears on the Council Tax demand that plops through our letterboxes around this time of year. I will pay this year the hearty sum of almost 19 quid which I’m sure you’ll all agree is an absolute bargain! The great thing about having the precept means the money can be spent on local projects, decided by the residents, not swallowed up in B&NES annual budget.
What do we do with the money raised? Well we are able to award grants to local organisations like the Scouts, the Girl Guides, the Tennis Club, the Football Club, Great Western Air Ambulance and the SCA which directly benefits the community.
We regularly give financial support through grants to the SCA, who in turn use those funds to support the Post Office & Library. Our funding has gone towards producing SCAN magazine and to improvements to Saltford Hall.
Communication with the community is very important, and thanks to our Clerk and someone very tech savvy who shall remain nameless we are a presence on Facebook and Twitter, this has proved to be a success with some 11,000 people engaging with our FB posts. We send out a regular e-newsletter and have a page in every issue of SCAN as well as our public notice boards.
As a statutory body we respond to nearly all public consultations that affect Saltford including local plans, transport plans, joint spatial plans etc. This work is often time consuming and is done by councillors in their own time and to a high standard, it is also vital that we do contribute as no one else will fight our corner for us.
The Parish Council has a modest register of assets, including the K6 type Phone Box outside the Bird which is nearly completed. We look after the churchyard, keeping it safe as well as manage the allotments at Wick House Close.
We are very lucky to have an excellent Clerk who receives a wage as well as the running costs of the office. Lottie is technically the Parish Council between meetings and I cannot speak highly enough of her professionalism and positive outlook.
I hope you like our new Saltford Parish Council logo, it was designed by Cllr Taylor and Cllr Godfrey was the liaison between our requirements and the Graphic Designer.
I am happy to report the current council get on really well with each other, (yes, we do!!) and we have a very constructive and positive attitude towards the things we get presented with. As Chair, I really appreciate how fortunate the village is to have a group of Councillors who have a broad range of experience and skills to offer as we are all volunteers and do it for the love of the job(😀). We publish an agenda before every meeting and the minutes of the meeting are made public a few days later to show we are accountable and above board. We scrutinise all planning applications presented to us. For those who attend our meetings either via Zoom at the moment or in person later this year, I hope we project a feeling of unity and that we are all acting in the best interests of Saltford.
I am extremely proud of my council, and would like to thank my fellow councillors for their hard work over the last year, their support and in trusting me in the role of Chair, it has truly been an honour to represent our wonderful village.
Thank you.