Chairman's Report Annual Town Meeting 2008

This will be a very brief report because I don't want to duplicate matters which will be raised elsewhere.

The most significant achievement of the Council in the past year has been the attainment of Quality Town Status. This has been gained through the tremendous amount of work put in by Maddie, the Town Clerk, with important contributions from all my fellow Councillors. Maddie has also increased the booking of the Market Hall and we must thank our caretaker, Alan George, for his help with this and other work around the town.

It was decided by the Council over a year ago that I should give an attendance record for the main Council meetings and I will quickly run through this. Out of a possible 12 meetings the number attended was:

Cllr Mrs Marian Andrews     11

Cllr Sir Peter Batho       10

Cllr Ms Victoria Burdett     10

Cllr Graham Cooke       6

Cllr Mrs Rose Damiral-White   10

Cllr John Fisher       12

Cllr Ken Howe       12

Cllr Barry Jones       12

Cllr Glynn Moye       10

Cllr Mark Palman       10

Cllr Ms Bryony Peall     2 (out of a possible 2)

Cllr Mrs Diana Sculley     12

Cllr Ms Chéleigh Trotter-Langlois   10

Cllr Col Ron Warren       11

Thanks to all the Councillors for achieving this average of 87%

During the year we finalised the acquisition of the Chantry road Play Area from the successors to the Gas Board and I would like to thank Col Warren for all the work he put into this, including getting back a rent overpayment which I would have given up for lost.

A lot of work has been put in by Councillors and others organising the Arts Festival and more recently the St Georges weekend celebrations. I would like to extend my warmest thanks to all those involved, too numerous to mention without the risk missing someone out.

One of the problems suffered by Councils, as with all voluntary organisations, is that the membership gets older every year. When, as happens about once a year, someone does resign, they are usually replaced by someone of a similar age. I was therefore very pleased when, after more than a third of the Councillors announced their intention to retire last May, several younger people put themselves forward for election and were well suppor ted by you, the electorate. After a recent resignation we were also fortunate to have someone walk into Maddie's office and volunteer her services and we were able to welcome our newest member, Bryony Peall. I trust you will join me in offering full support to our young members because they are our future.

Finally a thank you to everyone I have forgotten to mention thus far.

John Fisher , 21 st April 2008