Unapproved Minutes 7 May 2025
WEST KEAL AND KEAL COTES PARISH COUNCIL
Please note these minutes are draft until approved as a true record
MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL PARISH MEETING OF WEST KEAL PARISH COUNCIL
The Annual Parish Council was held on Wednesday 7TH May 2025 at 7.00p.m. in The Keals Village Hall, West Keal.
Present: Councillors A. Watson (Chairman), J. Roughton, M. Lacey, M. Rickard and Paul Rennie.
Clerk Sarah Kulwicki.
Also present: 2 members of public
The chairman declared the meeting open at 7:00pm.
1) Apologies for absence
Apologies received from Councillor Heaton.
2) Notes of the Annual Parish Meeting held on Wednesday 8th May 2024 to be approved as minutes
It was:-
Proposed by Cllr J. Roughton , Seconded by Cllr M. Rickard and RESOLVED that the notes are approved as minutes and be signed by the Chairman.
3) Chairman’s Annual Report:
Firstly, I would like to say a very big thank you to all the councillors for all the support, dedication and hard work through the year. Our main objective being to ensure we all live in a safe, well-maintained village, and without working as a team this would be hard to achieve. A thank you goes to both our district councillor Terry Taylor and County Councillor William Grey, for being present in our meetings and giving the council the support when they need it most, it has been very much appreciated. Following the recent election, it is with great sadness that Mr Grey will no longer be representing our county so I would like to say a very special thank you to him for his upmost commitment to us as a parish council, he will be very much missed. On the note of sad goodbyes, our wonderful Clerk Sarah, who has stood by this council for the last 10 years, is sadly leaving us as she has been offered a very exciting new position elsewhere. As much as we had hoped Sarah would never leave us, we wish her all the very best and cannot thank her enough for all she has ever done for us. On a brighter note, we have no vacancies, following the co-option of Paul Rennie and Phil Heaton in this last year that gave us a full house! We also do have our new Clerk lined up, so a very big welcome goes to Deborah Money, I am looking forward to future meetings with her.
There have been various things that have been completed this year, down Fen Road in Keal Cotes there have been some passing places installed. These will improve the issues of large vehicles passing down that road however it is a shame we didn’t see some improvement at the main road end, so this is something we will keep working on. The Perspex in the Phone Box in West Keal has been replaced. The village now has lovely welcome gates as you come into the village that was very kindly made and erected by a councillor and a past member of the council, they really do look great.
The council are working towards arranging possibly two new bus shelters, one in each village, this will be a very big improvement and a much safer option for our residents, watch this space for updates on this.
At Christmas time we did run our Christmas extravaganza that was very well supported and enjoyed by many. It wouldn’t have been possible without all the hard efforts of the councillors for all the organising, advertising and taking part on the day. A big thank you goes to
Martin Lacey who brought some of his wonderful animals to display a nativity scene, all the children loved stroking the animals and so did the adults too! We managed to raise £427.62 that was donated to our very beautiful West Keal Church.
The Newsletter that gets sent out to our residents is always filled of interesting and eye-opening stories, there is a very big thank you that needs to go to Margaret for making these through the year. The hard work and effort that goes into them really shows as they make such lovely reading and as much as a lot of things nowadays are all done online, not everyone is technology handy and therefore still get to feel apart of the village and keep up to date with what is happening in the local area. It is very much appreciated that she does this for our residents.
A busy year for the council yet again, but an enjoyable one too. Working together and working with our residents wherever possible. Thank you to everyone for all their efforts and I look forward to seeing what we can achieve this year.
4) Looking forward
The council will continue to work on local matters and welcomes new ideas. The main item to be worked on this year is getting 2 new bus stops installed.
5) Any other business at the discretion of the Chairman
None.
The meeting closed at 7:10pm