2008 Parish Council presented to the Annual Parish Meeting by Mr Watchorn.

On 3rd May last year we had a Parish Council Election. This was preceded by the retirement of five councillors. Angela Sinclair, Rosemary Cranswick, Doreen Watson, Jane Tubbs and Linda Singleton. During their terms of office they had all worked extremely hard for the good of the village and I wish to thank them most sincerely.

Inevitably this left a huge chasm to be filled. Thankfully we had eight nominations for seven places so an election was held.

David Preece and I were joined by new councillors Christine Lineker, Erica Humphreys, Andy Betts, Philip Straw and John Miles. All of them have brought fresh ideas and talents to the council and their enthusiasm is immense.

During this first year we have instigated the creation of the Parish Plan Steering group and an Events committee. This has, for instance, resulted in the setting up of the very successful Saturday morning coffee shop. Other developments no doubt will be covered in subsequent reports.

These are, of course, the exciting bits.
However we still have to deal with the mundane such as:
The Village hall finances, grass cutting etc.
And the contentious:
Planning applications can be thorny issues, and above all, the Red tape and bureaucracy that goes with running a public committee in the 21st Century. So it is appropriate to thank our clerk, Ken Brockway, who's guidance helps us to negotiate this mine field. He gives us advice on things as diverse as the Borough Council's requirements for the siting of a dog waste bins to complex financial details required by our external auditors.

In addition County Councillor Martin Suthers & Borough Councillor John Cranswick regularly attend our meetings and both have made funds available to the Council for which we are grateful.

And finally the Village Hall looks exceptional so on behalf of the Parish Council I would like to thank Ron Merryweather.

The Council has met, as always, on the second Tuesday of each month, with the exception of August and the agenda has been as busy as ever.

There have been various planning applications and issues as usual.  Some are ongoing.  There is an issue regarding the use of a field at Sutton, and we are concerned about a piece of land in Granby where a number of disused vehicles are being stored.  We continue to press the relevant departments at Rushcliffe regarding such matters.

Speeding traffic through the villages remains a great problem.  We are part of the Community Speed Watch and will be having a report from them later.   We are awaiting the 30mph speed limit signs to be painted on the roads approaching the village which have been promised for a while.  Martin Suthers – our Councillor – has recently intervened on our behalf so we are hopeful this will be carried out soon.  Various damaged road signs have been replaced over the year but we still await new reflectors on the sharp bend out of the village towards Bingham.

We have all appreciated the resurfacing of the road – although initially there was a problem for horse riders until an anti-slip dressing was applied.  Some parishioners thought the paths had a rather unfinished look, but it is, in fact, an anti-slip surface.

We still have problems with HGV lorries coming through the villages, quite a few have foreign plates, but one wonders in all cases if ‘Sat Nav’ plays a part.  We would urge parishioners to assist by noting the name of the carriers, registration number, and to report to the carriers themselves that one of their vehicles has been on a restricted route.  The clerk is making contact with Elton Parish to see if they would consider a joint campaign to have the restricted route extended through Elton to the junction with the A52

We are hoping to have an extra street light on Chapel Green. This has been promised to us for a year now and we have identified a suggested site.

However, after a long wait, we do have a new salt bin at the top of Granby Hill.  So things do happen in the end!

Dog fouling continues to be a problem, particularly recently and we have circulated every household in the two villages asking the public if they witness an offence to record the location, identify the dog and handler etc. and report to Rushcliffe who will try to follow up on any information received.

On a technical note – we have agreed to a joint venture with the Parish Councils of Redmile and Plungar and Denton to furnish our joint Clerk with an updated computer system and Broadband. Initially Langar and Barnstone were included but have since withdrawn  This Ken has found invaluable, particularly as he now has a dedicated telephone line for Parish business.

Ken and I attended a meeting last September, chaired by Kenneth Clerk regarding the public transport service linking the villages to Bingham and Nottingham, particularly the no 22 bus service.   There were lively submissions from representatives of all ages, from those wishing to get to Bingham for Doctors appointments, to Nottingham shopping and from youngsters wanting to socialise at the weekends.  Much depends on public funding as one would imagine.  However, I received a letter on 3^rd April with a new timetable which takes effect on 29^th May this year.  The Saturday service has been restored and generally the service is improved.  Currently they do not propose a timetabled Sunday service but are exploring the option of a Demand Responsive Transport facility which would necessitate passengers prebooking their journey.………………….

We put forward two nominations for the Rushcliffe Community Awards in the Building Stronger Communities section.   Doreen Watson for her long standing contribution to the village over many years covering all aspects of village life, and also the ‘Over 60’s Luncheon Club’ .  We attended the award ceremony at the Geological Survey centre in Plumtree and I am delighted to report that both received certificates – (photos etc. on the wall)

We continue to support the DARE programme at Orston school which is attended by children from Granby and Sutton.  Doreen Watson attended their graduation on our behalf.

Village Hall.       We continue with an on going programme of maintenance and refurbishment of the Village Hall.   In order to help finance this we held a very successful ‘Open Gardens’ event last June.   Ten gardens were open, there were Craft stalls on Sutton Green, children’s activities, raffle, bell ringing and the Vale of Belvoir artists exhibited in the Church.   Refreshments in the village hall were very welcome and as it was such a hot day some visitors didn’t get further than tea!  May we again thank all those involved for their time and tremendous effort.  We propose refurbishing the Committee Room - decoration, new curtains, improved lighting etc. which will make it a much more attractive and viable letting proposition for small meetings.  We also want to improve the lighting in the main room to make it more attractive for evening events.  We also need to consider outside decoration. We are delighted to announce that we have a grant of £1243 towards the committee room work and have to thank Martin Suthers for organising this.  We would very much like to have more bookings for use of the hall and hopefully the improvements will encourage this – please use our hall and spread the word!

Cemetery.         I am very pleased to report that we have completed the purchase of land in order to extend the cemetery. We received a grant of £750 from Rushcliffe towards this.  We are in the process of fencing and grassing, working on the drainage and planning some new hedging.  I would like to take the opportunity here of thanking Richard and David for their very generous physical contribution to this project and other maintenance.  It really is invaluable and much appreciated.

As with so many things these days, we are bound by rules and regulations particularly regarding health and safety, and the cemetery is no exception.  We have to comply with the recommendations of NAMM (National association of memorial masons) and their guidelines regarding the type and installation of memorials and headstones.  We also have to be mindful of the safety and condition of existing memorials etc.   With this in mind the cemetery has been surveyed and we published a list of those memorials that are in need of repair or attention.  We would again appeal to relatives to contact the clerk so that work can be approved.

I was talking to someone just recently who had grown up and still lives in the village and they remarked that when they visit the cemetery they always immediately feel aware of the history of the village and the personalities involved.  We on the Parish Council are very mindful of this and hope to do all we can to preserve that atmosphere. The cemetery has been open for the past 100 years and is a very important and special part of our village life. We hope now that, having been able to extend provision for possibly the next 100 years, that feeling of history will continue and be valued by generations to come.

I would now like to extend my thanks.  Firstly to Ron Merryweather, our caretaker here at the Hall who keeps it immaculately and always makes everything ready for meetings as well as planting and maintaining the wonderful displays in the beds and hanging baskets.  Ron had to have a spell of leave recently (we are delighted he has made such a good recovery from his operation) and we were extremely grateful to Linda Brockway, Ken’s wife, who stepped into the breach and took over the caretaking of the hall for seven weeks and did an excellent job.

Many thanks to Martin Suthers who, at the end of a very busy day, attends many of our meetings and is always on hand for advise and information.

Thank you also goes to Rosemary and John Cranswick who, despite a busy time taken up with Mayoral duties, have produced our excellent newsletter.  This is full of information and contact details as well as snippets of village news – contributions from all quarters and age groups are always very welcome.

Particular thanks go to our clerk, Ken Brockway, not just for the pure parish council work and for wading through all the paper work on our behalf, but for all the extra time he puts into the organisation of the village hall and attention to cemetery business.  We really are extremely grateful – thank you Ken.

And to fellow council members – thank you for your support and the encouragement given to me over the past three years as Chairman.  I much appreciate it.

Every four years the Parish Council is nominated and we are very pleased that there has been such lively interest this year with several new candidates coming forward.  There will, therefore, be an election on May 3^rd and the newly elected Parish Council will meet on 8^th May - so there will be some new faces to look forward to which is excellent.

Councillor Sinclair gave the following report for the Parish Council at the Annual Parish Meeting on Tuesday 16th May 2006

Another busy year for Granby – we have met regularly once a month throughout the year with the exception of the holiday month of August and it is surprising how full the agendas are. We are very proud that John Cranswick our local ward councillor is to be inducted as Mayor of Rushcliffe later this month. Our congratulations and best wishes for the coming year.

Planning applications are a regular feature, both within the obvious boundary of the village and occasionally beyond. We can report that the application by Lefarge to build a 60m chimney at Barnstone was eventually turned down but that Rushcliffe BC has designated Barnstone an Air Quality Management Area which will also benefit us here in Granby. A positive outcome. Because there were so many building projects in the Village, both private and here at the Village hall, it was decided not to enter the Best Kept Village comp. this year.

An event that affected our whole area last year was the Game Fair at Belvoir Castle. Initially we were very concerned when it was announced that one of the main traffic routes would come through Granby. However, we were in consultation with the organisers and Richard met with those responsible for the traffic movement in order to put one or two worries we had to them and in the event everything went extremely smoothly with little or no disruption and we were able to write and congratulate the CLA on their organisation.

With traffic in mind we became increasingly aware and concerned about the children who had formed the habit of playing on the central village green. This green is not a suitable or designated play area and we have put up a notice to that effect reminding parents that children must be supervised and that there is an official Play Ground behind the Village Hall. However it must be pointed out that parents are, ultimately, responsible for their children and we can only warn of the dangers of playing close to a busy road.

Which also brings us to the concern we, and many members of the public, have for the speed with which some drivers travel through as well as on the approaches to the village. At the invitation of the Police I and two concerned members of the village attended a presentation on Community Speed Watch. Briefly, this is a method of reminding motorists to observe the speed limit using members of the public to monitor traffic and report those exceeding the speed limit. Habitual offenders may then receive a 'friendly' warning from the police. We distributed information seeking the views of the village and appealed for volunteers via the newsletter and I am pleased to say we now have a team trained in the use of the equipment. Keith Collingwood from Sutton is co-ordinating the scheme along with 5/6 other volunteers. Members of the parish did attend a meeting airing some concerns as to how the scheme would run and we were able to explain the issues to them.

The Police held a meeting here in the Village Hall a month or so ago with regard to general security after a spate of burglaries here in Granby and the surrounding areas. Useful information and general reminders were given.

On a general note, we have supported the DARE project in Orston School – we have a new litter bin on the green by the bus shelter kindly supplied by Rushcliffe. The salt bin outside the Church has been excellently repaired by John Culley after an appeal in the newsletter, but the salt bin at the top of the hill is in a very poor state. Almost monthly requests to the Highways dept for a replacement have not met with any success and we understand now from a press report that NCC are withdrawing salt bins so we will have to wait for developments there.

The Cemetery. Draft guidelines and regulations were published last May/June and comments for discussion invited from the parish. The response was very useful and we were extremely grateful to those who attended the council meeting. After further consultation the amended regulations were approved and reflected the comments and contributions made to our discussions.

Last year we reported that we had applied to extend the cemetery – the existing area having been in use for nearly 110 years. Obviously there is limited space left and we feel we must extend the area while land is available in order to preserve the facility for the village well in to the future. We are in negotiation to purchase further land and hopefully this will progress. We have applied to Rushcliffe for a grant towards the costs and should hear if we have been successful within the next couple of months. This will not cover the whole cost but will help. As far as the maintenance of the gravestones is concerned inspection has revealed that quite a few are in need of attention and some have had to be laid down for safety. An appeal for relatives or those responsible to carry out repairs has not been successful and many more stones may have to be laid down soon.

The Village Hall. Having conducted exhaustive searches for the original, NCC have been able to offer us a duplicate conveyance for the purchase of the Village Hall in 1953 which has allowed us to register ownership with the Land Registry.

As I am sure you all know the kitchen had to be updated in order to comply with regulations and the new one is now fully operational which we are all thrilled about. It has been put to good use by various organizations all of whom appreciate the new facility. Two members of the council have attended a food hygiene training course.

Additional work was required by Rushcliffe with regard to safety and security. The internal doors had to be fireproofed and the security of the main door upgraded. Fortunately Cllr Martin Suthers was able to offer the full cost of the main door from a fund he has available for such grants and we are extremely grateful to him for that. At this point I would like to thank Martin for his support throughout the year. He attends many of our meetings often after a full day and is able to give us a great deal of information and advise, and puts in many a good word for us, for which we are extremely grateful.

Apart from general care and maintenance which with a building of this age and type is never ending, we have also had to repair the flat roofs on the hall, an expense we had not anticipated which was identified as a result of the survey we had to have done - and I am sure you can all see that there is still a lot of ongoing work to be attended to.

Which brings me to the precept. We had very long discussions and difficult decisions to make. The Parish Council is responsible for the running of the Cemetery and the Village Hall as well as the general maintenance of the village. Even after taking into account the grant we had from Wren (without which we could not even have contemplated any improvements) our reserves have been seriously depleted and I can only reiterate the piece from the newsletter explaining the situation ……….

We are, of course, fundraising as well. The Christmas Fair and Prize Draw last November raised over £700 and, hopefully, you are all aware of the Open Gardens event planned for June 11^th. More information will be circulated, with requests for help, very soon. Any help fundraising or ideas for the use of the hall are very welcome – after all, it is your hall and maintained for your use.

However, we could not manage without the tremendous work done by our caretaker Ron Merryweather and we do thank him most sincerely for all that he does, way in excess of his job specification. So we were very pleased to be able to attend the Neil Virgo awards last October when Ron was presented with a certificate by the Lord Lt. of Nottinghamshire acknowledging his outstanding contribution to Granby Village Hall. Very well deserved.

Equally, I would like to thank our clerk, Ken Brockway, who, as always, cheerfully wades through all the paperwork, reads all the small print and keeps us up to speed, manages the accounts as well as keeping a watch on the village hall and cemetery. All this and he has started to set up an excellent web site – so do visit

Finally, thank you to Rosemary and John Cranswick for all their work on the News Letters and my ever grateful thanks to all the members of the Parish Council for their support and friendship.

Parish Council Chairman Councillor Mrs A. Sinclair gave the following report to the Annual Parish Meeting on Tuesday 10th May 2005.

This is my first year as Chairman and it has been a steep learning curve. I would like to thank all my fellow councillors for their support. Special thanks to Ken Brockway, our Clerk, who steers us all through the mountains of paperwork he receives on our behalf and interprets the ever mounting rules and regulations appertaining to parish councils. Also like to thank Martin Suthers who regularly attends our meetings and is a great support. Last , but not least, must thank Rosemary, my vice chairman, who has been extremely supportive. Also like to include John Cranswick and thank him and Rosemary for all the work they put into the Village Newsletter. Excellent publication anyone who has any news or information of events or personalities to let her know as she is always pleased to have any contributions.

Planning: The main issue this year has been the application by Lafarge to build a 60metre chimney at the cement works at Barnstone. We objected on environmental grounds and were able to put the parachute school at Langar in the picture as they had not received notification of an application from the Council. They have objected, obviously, on safety grounds. No official notification of a decision yet received.

Sutton is to have a 30 mph limit the application was supported by a local petition.

Best kept Village.. In the final again, but pipped at the post and the award went back to the North of the county. This was probably in order to spread the award around, so if we enter again this year we must keep on our toes.

Many thanks to all those who worked so hard keeping the village looking so good The final spending of the money we won in the past still has to be finalised because we are waiting to hear from Rushcliffe if they will finance a litter bin on Church Green. If not, we shall use some of the money to provide one with a suitable plaque. Suggestions received ranging from a Village Sign, a Sculpture on the Green, Gates at the entrance to the village all investigated but costs are high.

Cemetery. Application is being made to extend the cemetery. A revised set of guidelines and regulations has been drawn up, available from clerk if required.

Village Hall. Extend grateful thanks to the caretaker and his wife, Mr. & Mrs. Merryweather for their unstinting efforts, much appreciated. Hall always made ready for bookings and events and especially the planting of the boxes and baskets and keeping everywhere so neat and tidy.

Best news is that we have been granted œ12.980 by Wren towards the new kitchen. Work to start in the summer when there are fewer bookings. Looking forward to a smart new kitchen and hope it will also encourage more bookings. We have also renewed the window, it was in a very poor state and dangerous, and now have a regular window cleaner! Funds raised towards the upkeep at Xmas Fayre, Xmas Prize Draw etc. 449 and 290. Also sold teas etc. when Belvoir Art Society exhibited.

Taxi Scheme. The council investigated, in conjunction with Barkestone, Plungar and Redmile and Langar cum Barnstone possibility of an assisted taxi scheme for those without their own transport. Details were circulated but there was no particular uptake. W e shall keep the matter under review and observe how the other councils get on.

Lastly, Game Fair on 22/24 July. W e are informed that Granby is on the designated route for cars and to anticipate up to 4000 per day. It will be v important to keep the main street free of parked cars in order to keep the traffic flowing - otherwise there will be enormous congestion and holdups. We shall possibly consult with police how best this can be managed and hopefully arrange for alternative parking for those who generally need to use on road to park their cars.

Mr Watchorn gave the following report to the Annual Parish Meeting on Tuesday 13th April 2004

The Parish Council has seen quite a few changes in the last year. Last year's Chairman of the Council, John Rea and Rex Cranstone, a long serving member of the Council didn't seek re-election. There were no new candidates, consequently the PC only had 5 members. Under Local Government rules we were able to cooped two new members, Mrs Jane Tubbs and Mrs Linda Singleton who are already very valued members of the team. I was elected Chairman in May and Rosemary, Vice Chairman.

At the time of the Parish Meeting last year, Mrs Janet Rea had tendered her resignation and we had advertised and interviewed for a replacement. We chose Mr Ken Brockway of Redmile. Ken was already Clerk to two other Councils, we make three and he is now taking on a forth. As such he is a professional Parish Council Clerk. Parish Councils face more scrutiny and more accountability than ever before. We can no longer be a bunch of "Dad's Army amateurs". His experience is invaluable in the mine field of Local Government.

We had an extremely successful Gardens Open Day. It raised £1,486.53 and provided a splendid day for the whole village. So many people worked so very hard to make the day a success, but I must say a special thank you to Rosemary who's enthusiasm inspired us all.

Granby won the Best kept village competition for the second year running. A remarkable achievement. The Judge's comments were most complimentary and the prize money of £1,125.00 even better. We can all feel very proud.

The Village Hall continues to be probably our biggest expense. During the year the toilet refurbishment has been completed. I think you will agree that they are a vast improvement. We are now contemplating up grading the Kitchen. Plans have been drawn up and we are at the stage of inviting tenders.

The piece of land in front of the bungalows on Sutton Lane as now been bought for the princely sum of £1, on the understanding that it will be maintained as an amenity area. It will now probably be know as Sutton Lane Green.

And finally I would like to say a special thank you to our County Councillor, Mr Martin Suthers, who regularly attends many of our meetings and is always ready to help when we are dealing with the County Council.