Carlton Colville

Parish council - The 2009 annual parish meeting and the annual general meeting of the parish council were both held on Wednesday, May 27 at the Methodist Church Hall. Attending the meeting were the parish councillors and also police Sgt Derrick Stone from the local police and Sandra Ward from the Transport Museum. District and County Councillors were unable to attend due to restrictions relating to coming elections.

Reports were given by local organisations.

Carlton Colville Parish Council's report included the following. The parish council currently has 11 parish councillors and there is one vacancy. Meetings continue to be held monthly on the last Wednesday of the month and there are also two committees which meet separately each month to discuss amenities items and planning items. Over the past year the parish council meetings have been regularly attended by the community police officer PC Andy Roberts, county councillors Roger Bellham and Ken Sale, and district councillors Paul Light and Pat Hawes, and also by the representative from the East Anglia Transport Museum, Sandra Ward. Parish councillors have been involved on behalf of the parish council on outside committees. Councillor Bamonde is on the Carlton Colville First Responders team, Councillor Fleet is on the Suffolk Association of Local Councils executive committee and Councillor Hall is on the Waveney District Council local forum committee. Councillor Fleet attends meetings of the Police Safe Neighbourhood Scheme. Councillor Earp has produced successful leaflets about local walks. Parish councillors have received training in the past year in connection with local planning policy and council issues. The parish council newsletter continues to be produced every four months by councillor Hall and copies have been distributed to most of the households in Carlton Colville with the delivery of the Advertiser newspaper. The parish council has continued in the past year to liaise with the higher levels of local government at the district and county level in order to alert these councils to the everyday matters that need looking into in Carlton Colville.

The annual police report for the year ended May 27 was read out by Sgt Stone and the crime figures were compared with those of the previous year. The five main areas of concern centred on the following categories: theft from motor vehicles which was 14 for the previous year compared with 52 for last year; burglary in a dwelling which for the previous year was eight compared with 16 for last year; burglary from other buildings which was previous year 22 and last year 54; criminal damage to dwelling which was previous year 34 and last year 19; and criminal damage to motor vehicles which was previous year 62 and this last year 29. There had been an increase in theft from motor vehicles and burglaries mainly due to Carlton Colville being hit in spates where numerous cars and garages had been entered on one or two nights mainly by opportunists. Damage offences had dropped considerably and this was thought to be the result of increased police patrols in late evenings. Police officers on the South Neighbourhood Team now receive an area of their own to look after and this has led to a better approach to problem solving. The holding of a number of Street Meets at various locations had been a great success and the police aim to hold one every two months.

Sandra Ward from the East Anglia Transport Museum reported a year of development and progress. The extended trolleybus route was opened offering further interest to visitors. A trolleybus from Athens was added to the museum collection. In September the museum was awarded �198,500 from the Heritage Lottery Fund for 'Tar, Sweat and Steam'. There are two years of detailed planning, construction, arrangement of displays and meetings before the launch in 2011. The museum was also awarded �300 from the Association for Suffolk Museums for photograph conservation work. Work continued on the new railway station and signal box. The platform level of the other railway station is being raised and made more accessible. Much work has been done on the tram track. Volunteers worked in cold and wet winter conditions until the daylight faded. Dedicated groups continued to work on various restoration projects. The number of visitors in the 2008 season was the highest ever. The museum opens for less than a third of the year and is staffed entirely by volunteers. In the background, administration work continued throughout the year with regular contact with other organisations such as the museums, libraries and archives council and the Association of Independent Museums. Representatives attended meetings and workshops at venues throughout Suffolk to share ideas, receive news, and to understand and implement the changing legal demands. Nominated members attended various courses and gained accredited qualifications in order to carry out their duties.

Councillor Jose Bamonde read out the First Responders report. The group is now in its third year since being founded through the parish council and is developing very well. All members are volunteers and help raise the funds needed to maintain and add to the recommended equipment which always seems to be expensive. With two full sets being used regularly, and shared by the group members, there is a lot of wear and tear and the need to replace. A grant was recently received from the parish council for �250 towards annual running costs. Most of the founder members have had to take a back seat this year because of health or work commitments. Fortunately, several new members have added their enthusiasm with outstanding success. Members are regularly committing themselves to providing cover for 12 hours a day, seven days a week, usually from 9 or 10am to 10 or 11pm. Some manage just a few hours, whilst others keep the phone with them throughout the day. Two people to a shift are available as far as is possible. Members also attend regular monthly training courses, assessments and promotional activities. Thus member involvement averages around 150 person hours a week which is outstanding especially as all already lead busy lives with families, work and some even with other voluntary groups. At this time the list of members holding current CFR qualifications are: David Willis, Anne Willis, Stuart Littleton, Ralph Paul, Karen Bunn, Nora Hussan, Kim White, Jose Bamonde, Maria Pereira and Paul Light. There are other members that sit on the committee and/or are part of the team of speakers. More members are always welcome so that even more hours of each day can be covered for the good of Carlton Colville. The East of England Ambulance Trust now compiles monthly statistics that give an indication on how all the groups in Suffolk are doing. With such a high rate of commitment it is no surprise to see that the Carlton Colville group recorded response time is averaging just over four minutes from the time when a call is received to reaching a patient.

A report was received from Deacon Ian of the Methodist Church. The Methodist Church has made a significant progress in terms of engaging with the local community and developing a sustainable programme of events. The weekly programme has been developed and includes weekly Sunday morning service and a monthly family service. There is a Monday afternoon craft club and Primary School after school club. Funky Monkeys meets on a Tuesday afternoon and those that attend enjoy games, crafts, music and generally having fun. The music group meets every Tuesday evening. Parents and Toddlers meet every Wednesday morning during term time. Oasis Luncheon club meets on the first and third Wednesdays of each month. On the second and fourth Thursday mornings there is a coffee morning. Fridays at 7 is a caf� church environment where adults can chill out, eat, drink coffee, watch films, enjoy modern music and explore what faith in Jesus is all about see website www.fridays-at-7.org. Fitness pilates meets every Saturday morning 9am. CRE8 is a breakfast club for young people which meets every Saturday morning from 10am to 12.30pm. The monthly cinema event has been well supported. Also arranged is an annual Alpha Course and annual holiday club. Various pieces of formal research have been conducted through the University of East Anglia to determine the feasibility of a health and fitness ministry in the proposed new building. For more information see website www.carltoncolvillemethodistchurch.org.

The reports from the community centres at Hall Road and Bloodmoor were read out. The community centre at Hall Road continues to function reasonably well, being in use most of the time. The men's toilets have now been refurbished and the floor in the main hall resurfaced. This year the windows in the lounge and the kitchen door are to be replaced and again some funding has been promised by Suffolk County Council. Litter in the play area and the car park continues to be a problem, especially the broken glass despite the best efforts of the community officer to educate the culprits Like most establishments of this kind new committee members are needed. The Bloodmoor community centre reports that it is doing reasonably well, with a progressive increase in bookings and repeat bookings. It now has, for the first time, bookings for every day of the month, including Saturdays and Sundays. The centre seems to be fulfilling the needs and demands of the local community and is likely to continue to develop. There is however, a shortage of people willing to devote time helping to run the centre. Anybody who might be interested in joining the management committee, which meets on the last Thursday of the month, would be most welcome.

Schools Report were read out from the Primary School, the Grove Primary School and Gisleham Middle School. Carlton Colville Primary School reported that once again this has been a busy year for its school community. The school achieves higher than national expectations across the curriculum. Outdoor learning is a high priority and this year a large market-style shop was added to the already extensive grounds provision. The school council has been pro-active in tackling vandalism in the grounds and asked for help from the community from which there was a positive response in dealing with this. A family information point has been launched to enable the school community to access a range of information which will enhance family life. The Grove Primary School reported that as a result of the school organisation review for Lowestoft and the surrounding areas, it was decided to extend the buildings at Grove Primary School to accommodate two additional year groups. With effect from September 2010 Year 5 children will remain at the school and the Year 6 pupils will remain at the school from September 2011. The published admission number is to remain at 45. The master plan is to extend the school by three new class rooms, build a larger staff room and extend the main hall. The development of the site also includes replacing hard play areas; additional staff car parking and cycle parking. It may be necessary to phase some of these works. Gisleham Middle School reported that it continues to flourish, with record numbers of out of catchment pupils due to join in September 2009. The main focus is on the pupils we currently have, providing them with a good education in a safe and caring environment. At the same time we do need to look to the future. In July 2011 the school will close and all the pupils will leave for high school. At that point all the adults working in the school will lose their jobs. The two main challenges ahead, for the governors and the leadership team, are maintaining a good standard of education over the next two years for the pupils and helping all the staff (there are about 80 adults contracted to work in the school) to find other jobs.

At the annual general meeting members voted for councillor Terry Fleet to be the chairman for the coming year and for councillor Julie Hall to be the vice-chairman. Councillor Fleet thanked councillor Gayle Hart, the outgoing chairman, for all the work that she had done for the parish council over the past two years.

It was agreed that the amenities and planning committees would be chaired by councillors Gayle Hart and Derek Fletcher respectively. District or County Councillors were unable to attend the meeting due to the coming elections and purdah restrictions.

The following matters were discussed. Arrangements had been made with the police for the purchase of the community police bike. A letter of support had been sent to Deacon Ian for his proposed community centre. Confirmation has been received that dog waste can be put in ordinary rubbish bins. The basket ball net at the open space had been checked and the circular support for the net was found to have been in place. A fourth notice board should shortly be going up and this would be near to Monarch Way. The meeting agreed that the donation towards the Friends of the Samaritans would be �250. The provision of the Four Towns Bus was discussed and it was agreed not to look into this any further at the present time as costs were high and feedback was still being awaited. Correspondence had been received that the dog walk at the Hall Road Community Centre needed to be cut. The clerk would contact Waveney Norse about this. Concerns were received about traffic at Gisleham School and the parish council was asked if it felt that action could be taken to bring interested parties together. The clerk was asked to contact Suffolk Highways and the Education Department about the current problem and to point out that traffic is likely to get worse when the school becomes a primary school, and to ask what plans are in place to answer the problem currently and in the future for safety of children. It was proposed that the parish council ask the district and county councillors to use their rights to 'Call for Action' with regard to this matter and the clerk was asked to contact them all to do this. Sandra Ward gave the East Anglia Transport Museum report for the month and explained that visiting numbers had increased greatly this year compared with last year helped partly by the improved weather. On busy days the museum has volunteers in the car park encouraging visitors to make the most economical use of car parking spaces and advising not to park in the adjoining streets. Work continues on a number of projects and they are in contact with the Seagull Theatre who will be working in partnership with them at a future date.

The next parish council meeting will be held on Wednesday, June 24 at 6.45pm at Shaw Avenue.