Minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting 2025

Draft minutes from the Annual Parish Meeting held on 13th May 2025.

Chairman's annual report

The Chairman’s annual summary of events during the period of the last year are as under:

The Parish Council have agreed to the replacement of our notice boards throughout the Parish

and 4 have already been installed with traditional shapes, fonts and colours. Thank you to Cllr

Damian Le Gresley and Cllr Tony Iles for all your efforts in getting this done.

We now have the number 49 bus running through Broad Hinton, offering those residents who

found it difficult to get to the bus stops on A4361 convenience and freedom. It is now convenient

for everyone in the village due to the tenacity of Cllr Adam Gilmore, thank you.

Cllr Jim Gunter and Cllr Louise Skillen have contributed considerable time in dealing with local

flood issues, monitoring water levels, creating flood maps and working with residents and

farmers to improve flood mitigations. Many thanks to Cllr Gunter and Cllr Skillen.

Cllr Jim Gunter has again successfully, with the Wiltshire Council Local Highways and Footpath

Improvement Group (LHFIG), completed the required improvements to the A4361 by securing

the 50mph zone from Gadbourne Banks to Summers Lane and including the replacement and

1re-siting of signage. Cllr Tony Iles is also progressing, with LHFIG, improvements to the WB turn

off where the signs have been replaced. Both are chasing continuous further improvements.

They also work as a team as part of our Planning Group with Cllr Skillen, dissecting the

labyrinth of planning applications with which we are presented. Thank you, Cllr Gunter, Cllr Iles

and Cllr Skillen.

Cllr Tony Iles has also voluntarily cleared our streets of the dumped hay and mown our verges,

thank you Cllr Iles.

The Neighbourhood Planning Steering Group has progressed significantly. The group have

presented yet another of the many open meetings to consult the residents of the Parish.

Resident’s attendance and feedback at the meetings have been impressive and the Steering

Group are all working tirelessly on the results of resident’s feedback. Thank you to all residents

who filled out the surveys. This has now progressed the Neighbourhood Plan to the Regulation

14 statutory consultation stage of the process, a landmark. Much of the progress is due to the

driving force Cllr Adam Gilmore and the skilled efforts of Cllr Damian Le Gresley. Thank you to

Cllr Gilmore, Cllr Le Gresley, and congratulations to all members of the Steering Group for all

your hard work in getting to this stage. Thank you.

Thank you, Cllr Adam Gilmore and Cllr Damian Le Gresley for continually informing the Parish

with social media communications and frequent updates on the Parish Council website. Cllr Le

Gresley also miraculously makes our accounting systems work for us and dedicates his

financial knowledge to support our Clerk, Peter Barry and the Parish Council. Thank you, Cllr Le

Gresley.

Residents on Yew Tree Lane are organising a Community Speed Watch group and the Parish

Council have agreed to supply a Mobile Speed Indicator Device which can be moved to different

areas of the Parish, as agreed by Wiltshire Council. Your safety is thankfully in the hands of Cllr

Adam Gilmore, Cllr Louise Skillen and our Clerk Peter Barry, thank you all.

We now have a defibrillator in each village. Our Clerk, Peter Barry has negotiated a new

contract with new suppliers, coordinated the installation and updating of the defibrillators. He

also organises workshops for the use of the units and coordinates a team of residents who

continually check they are working. Thank you, Peter, for all your hard work and the residents

who support him to keep the residents of this Parish safe.

Our Clerk, Peter Barry is the backbone of the Parish Council. He does a sensational job with our

accounting system and reports, he liaises with the Parish Steward and he keeps us informed on

all issues arising, he runs Teams meetings and contributes to social network platforms. He

contributes much time in supporting Councillors with issues they are dealing with. Thank you

very much Peter, for your excellent work, dedication and ongoing support.

I’d also like to thank Cllr Adam Gilmore for his ongoing support as Vice-Chairman and thank him

for the outstanding work he does in the many roles he has taken on. We would like to thank our

Wiltshire Councillor and Chairman of Royal Wootton Bassett Area Board, Cllr Allison Bucknall

for her continuous support and sound advice. We congratulate you on your re-election.

The Parish Council works as a team and this report has only skimmed the surface of the

enormity of the work that the Parish Council takes on. These are highly skilled, dedicated and

very hard-working individuals who voluntarily give up their valuable time to make this Parish a

better place to live. Thank you all, with much appreciation, on behalf of the residents of our

2community and I thank the residents of this Parish for giving me the opportunity of being part of this wonderful Parish Council and community.

Personally, I would like to wholeheartedly thank our Clerk Peter Barry, my Vice-Chairman Cllr

Adam Gilmore and the whole Parish Council for their unconditional support and sensitivity

during my cancer diagnosis.

Cllr Alex LaRoche, Chairman, Broad Hinton & Winterbourne Bassett Parish Council

Draft Minutes of 13 May 25 Annual Meeting.pdf

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