Dog Fouling
The PC continues to receive reports of dog owners not clearing up after their dogs. Normally it seems to affect one particular area but since Christmas there has been a problem throughout the village. We appreciate that most owners clear up after their dog and that we are only really addressing an inconsiderate few. We have asked the County Council to increase monitoring in the village and will press for fines to be imposed if anyone is caught. Please remember that dog waste can be disposed of in any public bin found throughout the village, not just ones labelled for dog waste.
Everyone takes pride in this village – there is no excuse for not clearing up after your dog!
Defibrillator Training
The Stephen Carey Fund and the North East Ambulance Service have kindly offered to run a refresher training session on basic life saving skills and how to use the defibrillator on Sunday 22nd April. The session is mostly factual rather than hands on but hopefully will give attendees the confidence to use the defibrillator if ever necessary. The session is free and will be held in the Parish Hall starting at 2 pm. It would be helpful to know how many people might attend so, if possible, please either email the Clerk at ridingmillclerk@gmail.com or sign up on the sheet displayed in the Parish Hall.
Spring Clean
Thank you to all the residents who helped with this year’s village litter pick. We concentrated on tidying the area around the A68 roundabout to the village as well as Whiteside Bank and the Slaley Road junction. A full report will be in this year’s Parish Council newsletter.
Annual Parish Meeting
The annual Parish Meeting will be held on Monday 14th May at 7.30 pm in the Parish Hall.
This is a meeting for all the electors of the Parish – it is not a Parish Council meeting. Reports will be received from the Parish Council, the Village Hall Trust, Broomhaugh First School and from the County Councillor and it will enable members of the village to raise any questions or concerns – or maybe come forward with suggestions to improve life in the village. Before the formal reports we plan to invite a speaker to give a talk on a World War One theme – details to follow. Everyone is most welcome
Due to the date of the annual Parish Meeting, the Parish Council’s next meeting will instead be held on Thursday 17th May in Church Cottage.
Play Park
Work to install the paths linking the play equipment is due to commence on Monday 16th April. This is likely to take a week and the Play Park will therefore be closed during this period. This completes the improvement works and to celebrate we will be holding a grand opening in May – details to follow.
The Precept
Every December, the councillors discuss next financial year’s budget and decide if there are any particular projects which they hope to undertake before agreeing on the precept to be set. Our precept forms part of the council tax levied by the County Council. This year you will see an increased precept for the Parish Council on your bill. The Council have identified a number of projects/additional expenses which will increase this year’s budget to £48,800. The precept has therefore been set at £37,500, an increase of £2000. The rest of the funds needed for these additional expenses/projects, £11,300, will be taken from the PC’s reserve account. For a full explanation of how the costs were derived please see the Minutes of the PC’s meeting from December 2017 (Minute 17/115) which are available on the ridingmill.org website. We also plan to include an article in this year’s Parish Council newsletter to explain our work and the associated costs in more detail.
