I am no longer Chair of the Parish Council; just an ordinary Councillor. The EGM on 28th November 2016 to discuss legal advice on the correct procedure for leasing Millennium House to any organisation such as Pensilva Community Association resulted in three Parish Councillors walking out of the meeting and resigning along with a fourth. The EGM was held in closed session so the minutes would not normally be made public. The Parish Council has decided to issue a statement about the EGM which should be in this issue of the Parish Pump. Since this EGM was so significant to the community and the future of Millennium House, I wanted to make the minutes of the EGM public but had no support from the remaining Parish Councillors at the December meeting. I also disagree with the statement about the EGM as I do not think it accurately reflects the legal advice we were given. Because of this I could no longer remain as Chair. I decided to remain as a Parish Councillor because we have been reduced to five when we should be thirteen, which puts us in a difficult position. At least two Parish Councillors are needed to make payments from the bank account and this has been me, the Vice Chair and one other who has now resigned. I am also the only one adding anything to the parish website. We are not allowed to recruit new Parish Councillors because we are within six months of the next election in May 2017. The Parish Council precept (the Parish Council part of our council tax) for 2017-18 has been set at £64,000 which is a small reduction on the current precept of £64,770.
Don’t forget the parish website st-ive-parishcouncil.gov.uk with council meeting agendas and minutes; also downloadable copies of the Parish Pump. For those of you who do Facebook, our St Ive Parish Council page is still being updated with parish news. Phone me, email me on martin.corney@btinternet.com or "martin corney blog st ive" in search engines will find my blogs for you to comment on this article and other gems.
