We have posted on the parish website a notice of the 2024 Annual Parish Meeting, to be held on 23^rd April. This is not a Parish Council meeting. It is a meeting for parishioners – for you – that the Parish Council is legally required to organise.

The requirement for Parish Councils to hold an Annual Parish Meeting stems from legislation dating to 1972. The purpose of the meeting, as stated at that time, is to enable the registered electors to discuss parish affairs and to have a say on anything they consider valuable to the people of the parish.

We have, properly, organised these meetings over the years, but like melting snow attendance has reduced over those years to, for at least the last 2 years and literally, nothing. It’s now a meeting without a purpose or any participants – the bureaucrat’s dream.

The reason is obvious. The legislation was framed and passed decades before widespread mobile communications, the internet and social media revolutionised the way government and councils communicate with their residents and keep them informed about local, regional and national issues.  

Despite the world having gone somewhere else since 1972, the continuing legal obligation on Parish Councils to organise an Annual Parish Meeting reflects sepia-tinted social expectations, organisational cultures and ways of working redolent of “The Vicar of Dibley.”

I believe the whole idea of an Annual Parish Meeting is now an outdated anachronism, a cause of wholly unnecessary, no-value-added work for small councils like us.

I feel strongly that it is time that it should be optional for small councils to hold an APM, at their discretion. I have argued my case with Jacob Rees-Mogg, but it’s clear that there is no political appetite or parliamentary time to revisit the 1972 Local Government Act.

So, stuck in our Groundhog Day timewarp, here we are again offering you the chance to attend a meeting no-one is interested in.

David Orme

Chairman, Dunkerton & Tunley parish Council

Many thanks to all who responded to the Parish Council’s recent call for ideas about the future of Manders Orchard and the Millennium Copse by the church. At the last PC meeting the ideas received from parishioners were reviewed, and the greater number of responses suggested that both areas ought to be kept and developed as wildlife/nature areas. This was good, because 2 of our new Parish Councillors had stepped forward to explore with BANES the development of a Nature Action Plan for the whole parish. So it can all be dealt with as part of that welcome initiative. More news as it happens.

If anyone wants to get involved in the design/development and/or implementation of the nature action plan in any way, please do come forward! If you contact the Parish Council we will get in touch about it when we know more about what’s involved and what we can hope to achieve.

Dear Parishioners,

The parish council owns two pieces of land – Manders Orchard located next to the cricket ground in Dunkerton and the copse located to the east of Dunkerton village churchyard –  that are both sitting idle.  The parish council wishes to engage in consulting with parishioners on suggestions and ideas of how both these pieces of land can be brought into productive community use.

If you have any ideas or suggestions as to how either or both these pieces of land could be brought into use for the benefit of the residents of the parish then please send them to the clerk on clerk.dunkerton@googlemail.com or on 01761 411305.

Closure date for submissions is 31^st March 2024.

Thank you

Kathryn Manchee, Parish Clerk

Dear Parishioners

Dunkerton & Tunley Parish Council Funding Information

The parish council’s work is funded by the precept which you pay as part of your Council Tax.  Each parish council sets its own level of precept to fund its work and staff as part of the annual budget setting, but the billing of it is undertaken by BANES Council.

The activities funded include:

• The employment of our experienced clerk and responsible financial officer
• Training for councillors and staff
• Maintenance of the various parish assets such as phone boxes, green spaces including land owned by the parish, bus shelters, street lighting
• Meeting room hire costs for parish council meetings
• Maintenance of the parish website (by law the parish council has to be able to display information such as agendas, meetings and financial information on a website)
• Insurance

Over the years when setting its budget the parish council has done its utmost to keep the level of increase in the precept as low as possible.  However over the last few years each annual budget has been set resulting in a year end deficit as the parish council’s expenditure each year has exceeded its income.  Obviously this cannot go on as we cannot keep eating into our reserves which by legislation have to be maintained at a minimum equivalent to three month’s expenditure. 

Therefore this year the parish council has increased the precept more than usual with a £10.60 increase per annum (based on a Band D household).  For an individual household (based on Band D) this equates to just over 20 p a week.  Based on research on the level of precepts in other similar size parishes within Bath and North East Somerset the level of precept still remains lower than many, and is well below the national average. Your parish council, in keeping with most other parish councils has only the one source of income, the precept. We are investigating other possible sources of income by diversifying the use of parish council owned land. One example is the cricket ground in Dunkerton where, thanks to the cooperation of the cricket club, we have been able to eliminate all the costs to the parish council of maintaining this.

Thank you for your continued support, your councillors will endeavour to continue maintaining the parish for as low a cost to you as possible.

Regards

Your Dunkerton & Tunley Parish Council Chairman

David Orme