Broomfield and
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Reports to the
Annual parish Meeting
The Annual Meeting of the Broomfield and Kingswood Parish Council was held at Kingswood Village Hall on Monday 2nd June 2008. There follows a selection of reports from parish groups and organisations. (If your group submitted a Report that was read at the APM and would like it included here, please contact the Parish Clerk.)
Broomfield and Kingswood Neighbourhood Watch
Report to the Parish Meeting June2008
Once again there has been a change in Co-ordinators, Mrs. Stratton who together with her husband looked after Pitt Road and Cross Drive for many years has reluctantly left the area and returned to London to be near her family. Her place has been taken by another long time resident of Pitt Road, Mrs. Tandy
Crime figures for 2007, which will be published in full in the next newsletter, remain in total much the same as 2006 with Criminal Damage showing a pleasing fall to just 2 in this year. So much for the good news.
On the down side the parish is being inundated with scams, many of which do not come into the crime figures. Some come by post, promising you've won a prize etc. or blatantly inviting you to commit fraud by getting money out of a foreign country by posing as the relative of someone unknown to you, when what they are really after is your bank detail and identity. Telephone calls posing as from your bank or credit card company, often giving quite a lot of personal information but requiring you to 'confirm' by giving them the last 3 digits from the security number on the back of your card. Those people with computer on-line facilities are in some ways most at risk as the scamming techniques directed at them come thick and fast and are constantly changing. Many of these crimes emanate from abroad so are almost impossible to bring home to the criminals. I ask anyone who receives mail to save it and the envelope. This I collect and pass on to the police and it eventually gets looked at by trading standards and the fraud department.
Self help is the best we can do at present and to this end I have obtained material on identity Theft and from the Office of Fair Trading detailing the various ploys and scams which have been circulated to all members. Additionally the OFT produce a DVD illustrating some of the ploys. However the offer to borrow and view has had a disappointing take up so far.
Further reorganisation at the police station left us with the only contact being PCSO Jon White. In terms of policing this leaves rural areas such as ours very exposed. In terms of the officer, Jon White is diligent and hard working, we couldn't ask for better. However since money is being withdrawn from this initiative Jon's area is being doubled from 2 to 4 parishes so once again official police cover is being thinned down.
This Spring there have been persistent reports of motor bikes in the woods and on the playing field and Jon is looking into this. The problem of course is that it takes a great deal of time to be in just the right place to catch them when next they go joy riding. There have also been reports of silly behaviour around the scout hut. More time consuming work for Jon Any information which helps us to narrow down the times when these activities take place is most welcome.
As ever I rely on the members of this scheme and their hardworking co-ordinators to keep the information coming. We still get more from the parish than the police station so active involvement is essential. To combat the present spate of scams I think that keeping members informed by describing what has happened to others, is the most effective way of preventing our members being conned. For this, our newsletter is vitally important and I thank the Parish Council for their continued support which makes its production possible
Rose-Marie Bowker
Main Coordinator
KINGSWOOD PRE-SCHOOL GROUP
Registered Charity Number 1045792
NOTES FOR PARISH COUNCIL AGM 2008
To be honest, we can’t believe that it’s a year since our last report; the time has just flown by.
Pre-school has 18 children on our register as we enter term 6 of the academic year, which ends on Friday 18th July. We have 7 children leaving us at this time to head off to primary school in September, which will leave us with 11 children, which is a good number considering we are a small village setting. We do of course hope that this number will increase. However, with the number of settings in close proximity to ours, offering full day care or 5 sessions, we are finding it hard to compete in this very competitive field.
On paper we look financially stable at this time, however, we still continue to run at a weekly loss and with the reduction in numbers from September this will put a strain on our finances.
As a non-profit making registered charity the present committee and parents do work extremely hard to maintain pre-school and to raise funds for things such as supplies, staff wages, insurances and rent to name but a few, by holding raffles, dressing up days, lunch clubs etc., This year the committee decided to try a new type of fundraiser in the way of a dinner dance, which took place in March. The event was well supported by friends, staff and family from pre-school and with the proceeds from the ticket sales and the raffle, together with 2 independent donations, we managed to raise £1000, which for our small setting was a great achievement.
As with all voluntary organizations, we do find it increasingly difficult to find volunteers to take on the committee roles as we all lead such busy lives.
We are very fortunate to have a good team of staff that gives a lot of their time unpaid to assist with the running of the pre-school for which we are grateful.
A couple of the major challenges we will be facing come September is the introduction of the new Early Years Foundation Stage and the KCC Delegated Conditions, both of which we have to work to.
Again this year we have had the much appreciated support from 2 local businesses, Avenue Stores and Winterwood Farm. Avenue Stores continue to supply the pre-school with bread for our snack time. We would also particularly like to thank Winterwood Farm who supports us in every way they can and I’m pleased to say that the children are still enjoying the fresh fruit donated weekly by Winterwood. We were also very fortunate to have received some funding from Cllr. Parvin, which purchased a new laptop for the children to work on.
Everyone is continuing to work extremely hard for the benefit of all the local children who attend our pre-school, which we believe, is a vital and integral part of the village of Kingswood and we hope one which will continue and grow.
Tracy Fitzpatrick, Chairperson, Kingswood Pre-School Committee
Sandra Turner, Pre-School Manager, Kingswood Pre-School Group
2nd June 2008