brill parish council annual report june 2022 to May 2023

as submitted to Annual Parish Meeting, May 23rd 202s

Chair: Jennifer Tuffley (until May 2023)
Councillors: Trent Baker, Hannah Hulme Hunter,, Steven Judge, Liza Kent, Emi Slater, Liz Springs
Parish Clerk: Bobs Damerell

Purpose

To serve the civil parish of Brill Parish, building a safe, sustainable, harmonious and productive community

Successes in the last 12 months?

Community & Groups

  • Facilitating the late Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations; bringing the community together, attracting a generous Arts Council grant for a brilliant display of homemade flags, and supporting tree planting for the Queen’s Green Canopy

  • On-going work with Brill With Ukraine group to support Ukrainian families settling in Brill including language training, helping them feel at home, liaison with Bucks Council and other bodies (work for which we have been nominated a Proud of Bucks award)

  • Supporting numerous local events and groups throughout the year with promotion on the Brill Parish Council & community website, social media and posters

  • Organising the cleaning of the War Memorial and renovation of the surrounding garden

  • Promoting the on-going Telephone Box Food Bank Collection

  • Supporting Brill Fête and Brill Community Market with public liability insurance

Environment & Amenities

  • Adoption of a new management plan for Brill Common in association with BBOWT, including building strong partnerships with community groups and volunteers working on the common plus participation in Bernwode-Otmore-Ray farm cluster group with surrounding land owners  

  • Facilitating an effective community Spring Clean of village streets and access roads

  • Publishing a biodiversity policy and setting aside no-mow areas on The Green to promote biodiversity and support bee populations, these areas marked by attractive wooden signs kindly produced by a resident

  • Writing and implementing a new policy on encroachment, kickstarted with a successful Beating the Bounds of Brill Common event

Leisure, Sport & Play

  • Building a good working relationship with The Brill Society who manage Brill Windmill on our behalf, including setting up a sub-committee 

  • Building a good working relationship with Brill Sports & Social Club who coordinate non-school sport and other leisure activities and events on the playing fields

  • Organising initiatives to reduce dog fouling on the playing fields, including a poster competition run in association with Brill School

  • Operating an effective online booking scheme for public use of the MUGA

Roads & Traffic

  • Developing a pragmatic plan for on-going traffic management within Brill including purchasing (with support of Haddenham & Waddesdon Community Board) two speed indicator devices, which will be operative early in June

  • Building a strong working relationship with our Local Area Technician for Highways

  • Gathering support for a possible solution to congestion on Sun Corner (dependent now on Bucks Council funding)

  • Applying for permanent bollards to replace temporary cones outside the Memorial Hall (also dependent on Bucks Council funding)

  • Erecting new signs to encourage visitors to park behind the Memorial Hall to reduce congestion elsewhere

Communications 

  • Erecting three new bulletin boards for community use

  • Producing a monthly newsletter (email and print), maintaining an attractive, comprehensive and accessible website, keeping the community informed through social media, posters, and personal contacts

Business & Meetings

  • Developing a robust system to review and award small grants to village groups and projects, including money to support the purchase of a second community defib., Art on the Hill, official opening of MUGA and new playgrounds, Jubilee Flags and community picnic, Brill History Day and Brill Community Market

  • Setting up Dropbox as an online depository of documents

  • Establishing a finance subcommittee and setting a robust and realistic budget for the coming year

  • Developing and refining policies to support the work of the parish council and interactions with residents

  • Working on contingency and emergency planning to enable the work of the parish council to continue with minimal disruption in future years

Challenges in the last 12 months? 

  • Coping for over a year with a heavy workload and only 4-5 councillors until - finally! - co-opting two new councillors in April (we are now up to full strength)

  • Understanding new rules and opportunities around funding for the management of common land

  • Caring for our precious windmill; implementing the finding of a recent structural survey and planning to meet as yet unknown financial demands

  • The high expectations of the community - and our own enthusiasm! So many worthy ideas, so little time.

  • Finding on-going homes for our Ukrainian community

How can parish councillors and Clerk best support each other in the coming year?

We will continue to build our team by respecting and listening, discussing with insight and evidence, reaching compromise where needed, and implementing decisions fairly and efficiently.