Meetings
THE NEXT FULL COUNCIL MEETING WILL BE AT 7PM ON TUESDAY 9th SEPTEMBER IN THE MAIN HALL AT GURNARD PRIMARY SCHOOL.
THE DATE FOR THE NEXT PLANNING C0MMITTEE MEETING HAS NOT YET BEEN DECIDED.
THE DATE FOR THE NEXT COMMUNITY PROJECTS COMMITTEE MEETING IS TUESDAY 23rd SEPTEMBER 2008 (7pm or 7.30pm - time to be confirmed) IN THE MAIN HALL AT GURNARD PRIMARY SCHOOL.
There is often a Planning Committee meeting each month also, held on the 4th or 5th Tuesday at the same time and venue. Notices advertising all these meetings, as well as the annual meetings are placed on the Parish Noticeboard in Worsley Road 3 clear days before each meeting (7 days for the Annual Parish Meeting).
The Parish Council has both powers and duties and its main function is to serve the Community in Local Government, whilst at the same time making legal and balanced decisions. It effectively represents many interests of the Gurnard Community as well as serving as a Consultative Body for the Isle of Wight Council and Central Government, and often this extends to issues well outside of its normal remit.
The first Parish Clerk, Mrs Joy Bradley, was appointed on 10th June 1985 and served until 31st August 2000. She stayed on for one month after this, working alongside the current Clerk, Mr Rusty Adams.
The Clerk is an employee of the Parish Council, and as such is salaried from the Annual Precept. The current Contract between the Clerk and the Parish Council is for 25 hours per week, but often the workload extends to beyond these hours. It is important to realise that the Clerk is the servant of the Parish Council, not the Village, but nonetheless will always try to serve as an effective link between the residents and the Parish Council.
Whilst the following is not an exhaustive list, it certainly gives a flavour of what the Parish Council actually does, and how it can be used by the residents it represents most effectively: (The photos are of meetings held in the Methodist church hall, now demolished - new photos will be added eventually, but these will also remain as a reminder of a past era!)
1. MEETINGS
a. Full Council Meetings
These are held on the 2nd Tuesday monthly at 7pm, with the exception of the August. The items discussed will most likely include planning applications, consultation documents, Village issues, reports from the various bodies the Council is in partnership with and finance. There is always a Public session at the start of the meeting for residents to ask questions about the current agenda immediately before item 1, and this is limited to 5 minutes per person or group. There is now also the opportunity to speak during the meeting, at the discretion of the Chairman.
A lighter moment, as Councillor Mrs Pain receives some recognition of her 20 years' service!
b. Planning Committee Meetings
These are held as and when needed, but increasingly are being called most months due to the consultation period being less than the monthly cycle of full council meetings, and will nearly always be on the 4th or 5th Tuesday of the month, again at 7pm. The Public session facility will be the same as for Full Council Meeting, but only for current agenda items.
c. Community Projects Committee
This Committee was formed primarily to move the projects forward which were indentified in the Parish Plan, which itself was completed in January 2006. Gurnard residents were asked to volunteer to come forward to serve on this Committee, which was set at having 8 Members - 2 of which are Parish Councillors. It took a while to fill the seats, but the 1st meeting took place on 19th December 2006. As other projects come to light it is expected that the relevant consultation and implementation work will be undertaken by this Committee.
d. Annual Parish Meeting
This is a less formal meeting, called by the Parish Council Chairman, and is usually held on the 4th Tuesday of April at 7.30pm. This is an ideal meeting to attend to see what the Parish Council does as there a report is given on the year, both for activity and finance. There is usually at least one speaker and in 2007 this meeting featured presentations from Island Waste in recycling and from the Gurnard Pines Management.
The local Police Beat Officer is also usually present, as is the Neighbourhood Watch Co-ordinator. Refreshments are served and there is a Public Open Forum at the conclusion of the meeting. The 2008 APM was be held on Tuesday 22nd April at 7.30pm and, in addition to the usual features, Ray Harrington-Vail from the Footprint Trust spoke about how we can locally combat Climate Change - we also had Ray Allen, former script-writer from the BBC TV series "Some Mothers do 'Ave 'Em" who had some really comical tales to relate about his time there! The Parish Council also made a Parish Award to Carolyn Sibley - Carolyn is hugely involved in so many community areas, but the Parish Council particularly wanted to recognise her work both in assisting with the transition of the WI Hall to the Parish Council in 2007 and also for serving on the Hall Management Committee ever since.
e. Annual Meeting
This is always the meeting at which the Chairman is elected, and is usually held on the 2nd Tuesday in May. The only exception to this might be in an election year, where it has to be held within 14 days of the date when Councillors should take office and in fact the 2005 meeting took place on 7th June. Gurnard Parish Council splits this meeting into 2 parts with the first part being for the election of the Chairman and Vice-Chairman, as well as appointing Councillors to represent the Parish Council on various outside Bodies and Organisations. The 2nd part then proceeds as per an ordinary monthly Full Council Meeting. The Public session will usually take place between the 1st and 2nd parts of the agenda.
f. Working Parties/Steering Groups
Working Parties are set up when some project is undertaken necessitating this form of management. The Parish Council will always be represented but often membership is mainly filled by volunteers from the Village, who either have an interest in the project or a particular skill that is needed. Examples of this recently would be the Traffic Management Plan in 2001, the “Save Gurnard Post Office” campaign in 2003 and the Parish Plan (Gurnard: Your Vision of the Future) from 2004 to 2006. The Parish Council resurrected the Traffic Management Plan Working Party in April 2006. These meetings are not held in the Public Domain, but reported upon at the next full council meeting.
