Brafferton Parish Council
Chairman’s Annual Report for Year Ending 31st March 2019
This is my eleventh and final report as Chairman of Brafferton Parish Council, covering the 2018/19 financial year during which the Council met on nine occasions.
Without doubt, this must have been one of the most interesting years for the Council. I noted in my last statement that petitions from Brafferton and Helperby ratepayers had been lodged with our principal authority, Hambleton District Council (HDC), requesting them to carry out a Community Governance Review. Such was the breadth of support, HDC was obliged to comply with the request, and after what seemed to be interminable rounds of consultation, concluded that the community in the two villages would be better served by a single, non-warded, Parish Council with seven Councillors. An order was issued accordingly to wind up the two existing Councils at the end of the financial year — which coincided, as originally envisaged, with the end of the four year Council term — and to create a new Brafferton and Helperby PC, with effect from 1st April 2019. Newly elected councillors are waiting in the wings to take office after this meeting.
In the main it has been an extremely quiet year on the planning front, with six applications — one relating to tree works, one for a minor extensions to a domestic property, two retrospective change of use applications (school house to private dwelling, and agricultural land for domestic use), one for demolition and rebuilding of agricultural dwelling, and one for eight properties on part of a site at Boroughbridge Road previously refused planning permission. An objection was only lodged in relation to the last of these on the same grounds as previously cited for the full site development, primarily the poorly sited access, and all bar this were approved by the Planning Authority. One very significant case, however, was the applicant’s successful appeal against the earlier refusal of outline permission for up to 28 properties on the Boroughbridge Road site, albeit with the welcome imposition of a requirement for 50% Affordable Housing .
For many years the Council has been concerned about vehicle speeds through both villages, and discussion took place about the possibility of starting a community speed watch group. After taking into account the lead-in time for Councillors to be trained up, the imminent dissolution of the two Councils, and the uncertainty around which, if any, of the existing Councillors would be elected to the new Council, it was decided not to proceed with this for the time being.
Although there has still been no progress with the repairs to the cobbles around the War Memorial in Helperby, which the Council has agreed to support financially, Helperby PC has secured a grant towards the cost of a preliminary scheme to map the existing cobbles, clarify the question of land ownership, and prepare a specification for cobbling works, with the aim of commencing a trial restoration area at the Memorial. This is now underway.
The Council’s expenditure for the year was £4,864 — broadly as budgeted overall, with some additional costs resulting from preparations for the transition to the new Parish Council, being balanced by modest underspending elsewhere.
To conclude, I would like to thank my fellow Councillors for their continued support during the year, and in particular the Clerk for his unstinting efforts to keep the Council at the forefront of best practice, for which I am most grateful.
Chris Owens 15th May 2019
