Present:    Mr. R. Dawe in the Chair.
        Mrs. C. Barnes, Vice-President, West Sussex Association of Local Councils
        Mr. B. Baldwin, Chairman, Horsham District Council
        Mrs. L. Kitchen, Leader, Horsham District Council
        Mr. T. Crowley, Chief Executive, Horsham District Council
        Mr. N. Butler, District Councillor
        Mr. F. Wilkinson, County Councillor
        32 Members of the Public.

1.    APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE were received from The Rt. Hon. Nick Herbert, M.P., Mr. R. Carter, Mrs. G. Grenney, Mr. A. Aldridge, Revd. Tessa Holland, Mr. M. Quaife, Mrs. W. Cliffe, Mrs. A. Loraine, Mrs. O’Brien, Mrs. G. Lindsay, Mrs. V. Augustine, Mr. D. Parfoot, Mr. R. Tanguay, Mrs. B. Bell and Mr. M. Russell.

2.    MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING.  These were duly AGREED to be a correct record of the proceedings thereat and were signed by the Chairman.  

3.    QUALITY COUNCIL PRESENTATION BY MRS. CARLA BARNES, VICE-PRESIDENT OF WEST SUSSEX ASSOCIATION OF LOCAL COUNCILS.  Mrs. Barnes stated that she was delighted to be here to mark this important occasion and present the Council with this well-deserved award for achieving Quality Council status, the second Council in the Horsham District to do so.  This was a more significant one as the Council was one of the recent created combined Parish Councils.  The Quality Council scheme was introduced in 2003 and there were now 412 Councils nationally that had achieved this.  Sussex had the highest proportion of any Council Association with 12½% of Town and Parish Council having achieved this and it was hoped there would be more.

    Becoming a Quality Council was about making a statement that the Parish Council was working to a level of competence that met a nationally recognized standard and those that had achieved it had increased confidence and were treated with more respect by other Councils and agencies.  The Local Government Bill offers the opportunity of being given the ‘Power of Wellbeing’.  Quality Councils would have the right to undertake activities for the benefit of residents for which they  had  no  express  power.    This  was  the  same power that exists for County and District Councils and was a great result for the parish tier. 

    Whilst the Council play a significant part, it could not happen without a qualified Clerk and Mrs. Barnes congratulated Mrs. Marshall on the work done and pointed out that she was greatly respected by her peers. 

    Mrs. Barnes congratulated everyone on the Storrington and Sullington Parish Council for the part they had played in this and in particular to the Chairman, Mr. Ray Dawe.

    Mrs. Barnes then presented the Quality Parish Council certificate to the Chairman.

    Mr. Dawe thanked Mrs. Barnes and stated that they were pleased to receive this and thanked her for attending this evening to present this.  

4.    CHAIRMAN’S REPORT.  Mr. Dawe stated that what was interesting was that the ‘Power of Wellbeing’ or need to take positive action on any matter for the good of the local community, which Quality Councils may soon get, was something that most people assumed Parish Councils already had.  This was by virtue of their being part of that group of bodies labelled with the all-embracing term of  ‘the Council’ and by and large the public did not distinguish between Parish, District and County Councils.  We all need to remember this collective responsibility.

    Mr. Dawe said that this was the last meeting of this Council’s four-year term and he wished to look back over this period since 2003 when it became the joint Parish Council of Storrington and Sullington.  The primary concern at the outset was to establish a financial position whereby any Council Tax increase was no higher than the general level of price inflation.  This was a major concern to the electorate.  At the same time the Council required a strong enough structure to carry out what needed to be done in the village.  Initially the new Council had grappled with inherited financial problems and with the cost of dilapidations became due at the end of the Old School lease.  However, it was pleasing to note that this year the Council Tax levied by the Parish had in fact been reduced – albeit by just 1p per residence!  Looking over the period there were two elements in budgetary terms that particularly struck the Council :-

1.    What was felt to be unnecessary costs arising from red tape and new supposed health and safety requirements.  An example of this had occurred at the Parish  Hall recently where until last year the Fire Officer used to call and went round the building to check it and would point out any shortcomings.  That no longer happened and it was down to the Council to try and make its own safety assessment or pay for a specialist to do the job.  At the end of the day should the Council get this wrong it would be in trouble.  There were many things like this that occurred and increased the costs the Parish Council had to meet for no gain to the public or greater safety.

2.    The Council were fighting on a front that divided equally between the cost of repairing wanton damage and attempts to try and deal with that damage by putting in greater security measures such as C.C.T.V., cameras.  They are of course occasioned by the same problem – petty crime.  The level of vandalism, the lack of policing and the public’s increasingly resigned attitude to both factors was truly shocking and must be addressed.  Unfortunately there is a considerable amount of vandalism.  Sometimes it is just graffiti,  but  the  Council  goes  to  the trouble of putting in a new bus shelter and almost instantly there is damage to it.  Close to the Parish Hall there is a play area where someone demolished the fence with an axe.  That was the type of thing that came up constantly before the Parish Council and do we repair it or what do we do?  This increasing amount of damage results in a high degree of costs for the Council and hence the local people.  There was now C.C.T.V., around the Sullington Parish Hall and the Chanctonbury Leisure Centre.

As to other areas of capital expenditure, the Council had replaced the play equipment at the Storrington Recreation Ground, installed two football walls, one in Storrington and one in Sullington and a youth shelter in Storrington.  The Council was trying to find grant aid to replace the play equipment at both Meadowside and Cootham.  The major headache that had been inherited from the old Storrington Parish Council was the unfinished project for the Football and Cricket Pavilions.  When this Council took over there was still a need for guttering, lighting and internal furniture as well as a need to update the whole infrastructure surrounding the sports and leisure complex.  The continuing liability for Storrington and Sullington is that our Parish Council and thus the people of this village are obliged to maintain and improve all this but the benefit accrues to the thirteen parishes that use the Chanctonbury Leisure Centre services.  The Council had had to find the money and produce plans for this work, which was now well underway.  The dilapidated garages had been demolished and were being replaced with new storage units for use by the Council and sports clubs.  The unofficial car park that had been a mud bath would be finished to a high standard in about three weeks and there was a need to bring all the footpaths up to modern-day standards by making them 1.2m or 1.8m wide.  Works were being undertaken to cure the constant flooding in the area that resulted in users having to go through mud to get to the Leisure Centre.

The Parish Hall had undergone a makeover and the eighteen-year-old storage heaters that were inefficient had been replaced with reversible heating/air conditioning throughout the building.  Although the Hall is a lovely building, Mr. Dawe said that it had a large amount of glass, with high heat gain and loss, hence the need for a system to deal with this.  The Chanctonbury Room had been extended to make it better as a meeting room for the whole community. 

A feature of these four years was the constant assistance and support from the Storrington and Sullington Community Partnership.  Paul Mackie, its Chairman, was thanked for always giving time and help on virtually any matter and as an example of this was the investigations into the viability and cost of bringing back public toilets to the village that Mr. Mackie was undertaking.  Mr. Mackie also ran the village website and was one of the initiators that got the Storrington News up and running.  It seems that everyone agrees this is an excellent publication and of great benefit to our community.  People were very appreciative of it, the information it contains and their ability to respond to it.

A factor that was most important in the life of any Parish Council was its relationship with District and County Councils.  As Mr. Dawe had already suggested the three organizations simply termed “the Council” in the mind of many members of the public.   Mr. Dawe considered that any problems with these relationships were very rarely related to day to day performance of statutory duties, though there were headaches with planning.  Problems tended to arise on a level of requesting special assistance for some project or other.  The major issue that had been running for some years was that of High Street improvements, essentially replacing the aged patchwork quilt of pavements dating back to the 1960’s and a means of bringing Old Mill Square and its  car  park  up-to-date.
Mr. Dawe did not want at this gathering to go into difficulties on various fronts that currently existed with these projects, but he did sometimes feel that the lip service paid to roots up decision making needs transforming into reality. 

However, in talking about those two Councils, Mr. Dawe needed to thank two people.  Mr. Frank Wilkinson, our County Councillor, was an extremely patient man particularly when he was on the receiving end of the Parish Council’s “moans and groans”.  Without Mr. Wilkinson contact with the County Council would have been considerably more difficult.  Mr. Wilkinson was an excellent County Councillor and any problems or queries that occur are given to him and he always attempts to sort them out, not always the way this Council wants, but he certainly tries!  Mr. Dawe also wished to single out Mr. Neil Butler, who had done equally sterling work at Horsham District Council on behalf of this community.  For this Council Mr. Butler had often been a lone voice battling for Storrington for the last four years, but a very good one.  He had laboured well and hard on behalf of this community despite a period of ill health for sometime. 

It seems that there is not to be a Parish election this time and we only just missed the fifteenth and final place as unfortunately one of our existing Councillors was away and could not complete his nomination papers in time.  Mr. Dawe hoped that this would still qualify the Council to be a Quality Council!  It seems this Council has the qualified Clerk and it has proved that it is well run and satisfies all the major criteria needed.  The Quality Council status award was in fact the major part of tonight’s proceedings.

Mr. Dawe thanked the Clerk, Mrs. Irene Marshall, and Assistant Clerks, Mrs. Christine Caruso and Mrs. Caroline Read, for all the work and help that they had given the Council and also all his fellow Councillors.  It was not possible to do it alone and Mr. Dawe thought that the Councillors had proven that the best way they could achieve results, was by working together with shared goals, discussing difficulties and this had enabled the Council to reach this qualification.  Mr. Dawe hoped that the next four years would be less traumatic than the last and that they would be able to build on a positive foundation that he felt has been laid. 

Mr. Dawe said that much of what he had said could sound like self-congratulations for the Council, but on the night when it was to receive a Quality Council award perhaps it could be forgiven for this.  Mr. Dawe would like to see in four years time the person in the Chair able to confirm a deepening of relationship with the that District and County Councils for the betterment of the village.

Mrs. Worthington-Leese proposed a vote of thanks to the Chairman for all his sterling work and efforts over the past year.

Mr. Mackie thanked the Parish Council for the excellent working relationship with the Storrington and Sullington Community Partnership.  He also thanked Mr. Wilkinson and Mr. Butler for their support and good working relationship.

5.    FINANCIAL REPORT.  (See Appendix I).  The figures for the financial year 1st April, 2006 to 31st March, 2007 had been circulated to all present.  These were noted and no queries raised.

6.    ANY OTHER BUSINESS – Questions and comments from the public invited.  No questions were raised.

    Cllr. Mr. B. Baldwin added his congratulations to the Parish Council on obtaining this certificate.  His own Parish Council had received an excellent presentation from Mr. Trevor Leggo of S.A.L.C., on Quality Council status and he therefore congratulated the Parish Council as the amount of work was phenomenal and the Council were to be congratulated for the excellent work they had obviously put in.  Cllr. Baldwin thanked the Council for inviting representatives from H.D.C., to share this with you.

    The Chairman thanked everyone for coming and invited everyone to join in the refreshments provided.

There being no further business the meeting closed at 7.30 p.m.