ANNUAL REPORT 2008/2009
Lawley & Overdale Parish Council is extremely saddened by the sudden death of its Chair, Cllr. Pauline Picken, who died in the Princess Royal hospital on 11 November 2009 aged 65. Pauline joined the parish council in 1997 and has served as Chair since 2004. In her time as Chair she has helped to raise the profile of the parish council and has been a prominent figure head at many civic functions. She was a member of the council’s Planning & Environment Committee, the Activity Committee and also represented the parish council on the Steering Group which oversees the Lawley Development. Pauline was instrumental in the parish council’s decision to fund its own CSO, and take over the management of both Lawley Community Centre and the Carpenter Centre. She was an excellent team player and has worked tirelessly to improve the lives of the local community.
The following report on the activities of the Parish Council was given by Cllr. Pauline Picken at the Annual Parish Meeting of Lawley & Overdale which was held at Lawley Community Centre, Lawley, Telford on Tuesday 28th April 2009.
"Good evening and welcome to our Annual Parish meeting.
It falls to me as Chair of the Parish Council to give the Annual Report which sets out the work we have done over the past year. I am just one of a team of councillors striving to improve the social, economic and environmental well being of our parishioners.
As a parish council there are some things we are unable to do because we are governed by Statute but if we don’t have the power to help our local community we certainly know someone who can. So by working in partnership we achieve many of our objectives. By working with Telford & Wrekin Council we have provided a new bus shelter at Bellpit Road and installed more dog/litter bins across the parish.
We are also working with Telford & Wrekin Council to upgrade the play provision within our parish and we hope that some of these projects will be completed this summer.
We continue to attend regular meetings with the Ironstone Developer Group and are continually updated on the current status. I would like to thank Guy Scott for keeping us in the loop during the down-turn and slow down in the building programme.
We have also developed a close link with Kathleen Hughes, the Residential Involvement Officer of Ironstone Management Services. Kath attends our parish council meetings on a regular basis and keeps us updated on the affordable and social housing provision within the Lawley development. Thank you Kath for all the work you put in.
On 1st April last year we took over the management of the Carpenter Centre in Overdale, initially on a three year lease. Our first twelve months there have proved to be very successful. We have begun new courses such as IT classes and we have also started monthly police surgeries.
We are hopeful that residents will feel the benefits of the parish council running the centre.
Our lease with Telford & Wrekin Council for this (Lawley) community Centre is due to expire so we are now in negotiations with them to renew the lease.
Last Christmas we decided to place a Christmas tree with lights outside both of the community centres. I would like to thank Bournville Village Trust for the Christmas tree that was planted in the front garden at the Carpenter Centre, Overdale. I would also like to thank Birse Civils who kindly collected the tree from the nursery in Wales and was then planted by Telford & Wrekin Services just in time for Christmas 2008. We shall continue to light up both trees each Christmas and we hope residents will enjoy seeing them lit during the festive season.
Whilst we have enjoyed many successes we unfortunately suffered a setback last year. We had hoped to register Lawley Village Green as an official village green but, in spite of our efforts to gather the required evidence to prove that the land has been used for recreational activities for at least 20 years, we failed to secure sufficient completed questionnaires from local people who could vouch for this. However, we would like to thank all those who took the time to respond.
We would also like to thank everyone who has recently completed yet another questionnaire, this time in an attempt to register Lawley Playing Field as a village green. Let’s hope we have more luck this time and that this land is successfully registered some time in the not too distant future.
Our proudest achievement in the last year has been our re-accreditation of Quality Status. We were the first parish council in Shropshire to achieve this accolade in 2004.
Quality Status lasts for four years and certain criteria must be met in order to retain it. However, the Quality Parish and Town Council scheme has recently been reviewed and although new criteria has been introduced, we have been successful in renewing our Quality Status for another four years, and not only that, we were the first parish council in England to achieve this.
Our next challenge is to adopt the power of well-being which will mean we can do even more for our parishioners. So watch this space.
In conclusion I would like to thank all of our councillors for all the time and effort they put in on behalf of the parish, and last but by no means least thank you to our Clerk, Sharon for all the work she puts in to keeping us a top performing parish council.”