ONE of the highlights of the civic year is the Annual Town Meeting. An opportunity to report on the year to electors of Bishop's Stortford. On Monday April 12 we had one of the largest turnouts that I can recall for an ATM.
Reports on council, committees and trusts, were followed by a lively open forum ranging from councillors expenses, (there are none at Bishop’s Stortford Town Council which is a parish council, other than an annual allowance for the mayor), through to some matters which were really in the province of district or county.
Mindful of the parish role of our council and the added constraints of the pre-election purdah conventions we tried to concentrate on our own affairs. We were able to report that even though the town's element of council tax had been reduced for the fourth year in succession we have been successful in innovation and efficiency.
It was though disappointing to note that few members of the public normally attend our 40 or so open meetings or, exercise the right to speak that we introduced. At least our meetings can be read on our new enhanced website where they may be found with many other useful links. A few highlights of the year have been:
- Leading the way as a parish by establishing terms and conditions more suited to the 21st century and making the key appointment of a chief executive officer;
- Consolidating the successful move of the Tourist Information Centre closer to its customers and expanding its services;
- Carnival, which was a huge success bringing some 15,000 visitors to our town;
- Rhodes and its superb team going on to new heights of success, with over 70,000 visitors last year;
- Rolling out £41k of town enhancements from money secured last year. Bishop’s Stortford has now been allocated a further award of £135k through the East Herts District Council. It should be said that our Town Plan, another achievement of this last year and example of active inclusion of residents, played an important part in securing this further investment in Stortford;
- Directly engaging with the PCT on the Urgent Care Centre and anti-viral collection points issues. Firmly putting the Stortford case;
- Supporting the petition which has led to DWP commitment to enhancing the Jobcentre service in Stortford;
- Adopting a Council Environmental Policy and we have a structured programme of future works to assist our CEO and staff with priorities;
- Facilitating St Joseph’s and St Michael’s in their desire to establish joint parish centres in the grounds of the Old Monastery on land made available by the Council. Their target for opening is October 23;
- Posting my engagements on our website for all to see with an on-line booking form. It has been a real pleasure to attend several openings of shops this year so that it should be no surprise that BBC Radio 4 had an upbeat assessment of Bishop’s Stortford, even in these challenging times, as ‘unremittingly optimistic’;
- Invitations to attend many charity functions and to highlight their work with publicity and to have so far able to distribute over £10,800 to more than 25 good causes;
- Establishing a new Youth Council. We have some outstanding young people who have really shown great abilities and maturity not only in their fantastic support for the Mayor’s Show, adding considerably to my charity appeal, but in tackling some really difficult issues. I would like to thank them and every senior school in the Town along with our performing arts groups and Rhodes for delivering a wonderful evening of very talented entertainment which with the largest cast ever at Rhodes . The Youth Council were also quick to support and help fund the Film Factory project, filmmakers@eastherts.gov.uk , as mentioned in my last blog, which starts at the end of April and seeks to raise awareness of issues affecting young people such as under age drinking and to get them to reflect on personal responsibility and choice. In this we were able to liaise closely with East Herts District Council and our police inspector, Damien Kennedy, who has sought to work in partnership with council and with me as mayor. I have welcomed the opportunity to regularly do what he termed a ‘mayor’s walk’ with him every few weeks and to jointly engage with members of the public. It is gratifying to note without being complacent that his latest report was that crime has never been lower in Bishop’s Stortford.
- My thanks go out to everyone that has assisted and been involved in enabling the delivery of services at the council, Rhodes, and Tourist Information, along with the many volunteers at various events.
So, in summary of the year past: challenging times to which we have responded with innovation and with the positive outlook, hard work and commitment from councillors and the staff so that I trust that you feel that not only has the town council prudently fulfilled the responsibilities laid upon it as a parish council but that it is striving to exceed and excel.
