MINUTES of the Annual Parish Meeting held in the School, Back Lane, Newburgh on 28th April 2010 commencing
at 7pm.

PRESENT Cllr. Mrs J. Citarella, Chair, Newburgh Parish Council.
Mr B. Howard, Clerk of the Council.

Five residents including Parish Councillors, County Councillor D. Westley and Borough Councillor, E. Pope.

1.
The Minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting held on 21st May 2009 were agreed and signed as a true record.

2.
Parish Council Annual Report.
The Chair provided her annual report: -

Every year the Parish Council has to produce a report of their activities over the preceding twelve months. A completed printed report will be available by the end of May but I would like to say a few words about some of the highlights of our work.

To go right back to the beginning of the year, at the last Annual Parish Meeting we launched our Local Food Initiative. This process culminated just before Christmas with the production and distribution to all households of a Local Food Directory. Copies are also still available at our Post Office. We hope that residents have found the booklet useful.

Planning has been an important part of our work this year. Seventeen applications in all were considered and I would like to say a little about two of these.
Subsequent to the closure of the Farm Shop on Course Lane, an application was submitted to the Borough Council for a variety of changes of use. We submitted an objection relating to the potential for increase of traffic using the site and gave a presentation to the Borough Council Planning Committee who followed this up with a site visit. The application was ultimately turned down and is now subject to an appeal.
Round O Quarry submitted an application to Lancashire County Council for extension of the recycling facility until 2020. The Parish Council objected on the basis of the continuation of the detrimental effect on the village, particularly the number of heavy vehicles using Cobbs Brow Lane. We made a presentation to the Borough Council who also submitted an objection. We were in the process of preparing a presentation to the County Council when a second presentation – to extend the in-fill activity – was received. The two applications will be dealt with together subsequent to a site visit, which we understand will be in May or June.

Further to last year’s report, on the section of footpath being blocked off by the owner; this matter has still not been settled. The ownership of the land has been brought into question as there are no records at the Land Registry. Ownership must be determined in order for the matter to be progressed and the Parish Council will continue to press for a satisfactory resolution.

We held another successful Open Gardens event, which featured ten gardens. Thanks to all those who participated and to Councillor Maureen Turner for organising the project. Over £1000 was raised and donated to the new Play Area Fund, which brings me to the final event that I want to mention.

In June we held the official opening of the new Play Area on Back Lane in conjunction with Newburgh Fair. This project has taken an enormous amount of work over some years and it was wonderful to bring it to completion. Thanks to Councillor Chris Moore for leading the project and also to the numerous sources that awarded the grants, which enabled it to happen.

To close, I would like to thank all Councillors and the Clerk for their continued support over the last twelve months.

3.
Issues raised by members of the public.
No issues were raised.