The Parish Council has again served the village with a full membership of nine Councillors. I wish to thank the whole Council for their regular attendance and involvement in Parish matters.
The year has followed very much the same pattern as in recent years. Planning applications keep rolling in, keeping Cllr. Ford busy. There will always be one party happy and another unhappy with the planning recommendations we make, but I am entirely happy that under Brian Ford’s guidance, the decisions we come to are the right ones for the village.
YKRA’s Ages of Mankind project is providing a superb facility to the village and our donation was well spent. Tony Read and his team deserve congratulations on this enormous undertaking.
The delays in completion of the Market Cross open space continue to frustrate us with no firm completion date to hand. The Market Cross itself is a superb piece of workmanship and will be a wonderful asset to the village. Here I wish to give sincere thanks to Paul Baldwin for his hard work in representing the Council in the completion of Church Farm and Blacksmith Close. It has involved him in a lot of time consuming work.
Graham Whiting has sadly given up looking after the planters at the entrances to the village and the care of the Burial Ground. Thank you Graham. We will need to address the future care of these areas.
Our endeavours to save the Post Office have taken up a great deal of my time and computer space. However the battle has been largely won with the support of our neighbouring villages and the persistent writing by many residents. It has shown what a united village and close cooperation between villages can achieve.
The many changes to our Policing arrangements has been a cause for concern.
Our thanks to Cllr. Jane Scott who, despite a gruelling year seeing the One Council evolving, has never once failed to support us on any subject. Thank you Jane and it is our sincere hope that you will continue to be our Councillor.
To Sue Lewis, our thanks for keeping our minutes and agendas flowing and for all your backroom work for the Council, particularly your work on the village website.
Our thanks to James Gray MP for his support and for paying us a visit.
There are a number of projects ongoing, all of which we hope when completed will enhance our village.
One piece of correspondence out of the volumes we receive from the Council stands out in my mind as one received with great relief – we were advised that Yatton Keynell was not to be included in the Alcohol Exclusion Zone.
Thank you for all your support, both Councillors and Residents.
Chris Dash, Chairman YKPC