Parish Magazine for October 2021
New Parish Clerk David and former Parish Clerk Simon.On the 1st October David McGuffie became our new clerk. As was mentioned in the October Parish Magazine he was already the Parish Council Clerk for Blindcrake. He lives at Isel. He is a former power generation man having worked in various management roles for the British Nuclear Group and then in Australia for CS Energy in Queensland who have coal and hydro power stations. We welcome him.
At the same time we have said goodbye to Simon Smith of Sandale who has been an excellent clerk for Caldbeck Parish for over 4 years. While we have said goodbye to him as our paid clerk he has kindly agreed to continue to help us as a volunteer with the appraisal currently being conducted at the behest of Allerdale District Council into the alternative merits and disadvantages of the “direct” roadside footpath between Hesket Newmarket and Caldbeck and the alternative suggested route via Matthew Rudding. When the initial appraisal is complete a parish consultation will be organised seeking all Parishioners views, which will be important.
Simon has helped with the hand over to David. David will use the same email address caldbeckparishclerk@gmail.com
NewParish Councillor. Only one application was made for the recent co-option to the Parish Council to fill the vacancy left by Alistair McFadzean’s departure after years of service. Mark Telford applied and so was duly co-opted as mentioned in the September magazine. Although the name may not be familiar to you, you may have seen him cycling around Caldbeck with his dog in tow! He is a freelance photographer – you can view some of his photos of Caldbeck on his facebook page. He lives in the village with his wife Tara who grew up in Caldbeck, they have a young family and he is the son-in-law of our Vice Chairman Paul Doherty. Mark is looking forward to his new role
Money.The audit of our accounts to 31st March 2021 has been completed satisfactorily. The auditors drew attention to the fact that Parish Council should publish formal notice of dates when parishioners can inspect underlying records. Dates were published but not the formal notice. Secondly, the Parish Council should approve the Governance Statement prior to approving the final accounts even though the Governance Statement includes figures from the accounts. Papers are on the website, including arrangements for anyone wishing to inspect the final papers. https://www.caldbeck.org.uk/meeting/october-2021/
At the start of this financial year the Parish Council held just over £138,000, but most of that money is designated for specific purposes – the main amount being over £98,000 given solely for the direct footpath which will have to be returned if the direct footpath does not happen. Another £10,000 was money given anonymously to buy the land at Caldbeck and Hesket Newmarket which the Lake District National Park owned, and that has now been paid over in July to complete the land purchase for the community benefit. Other monies are earmarked specifically for other projects so the general cash reserves are not great – about £10,000.
In the last month the Parish Council has received a £1,000 grant from the County Council for the Caldbeck Green biodiversity project and an anonymous £1,000 donation for the public toilets for both of which we are very grateful.
The biodiversity project on Caldbeck Green is underway, and the £1,000 grant mentioned is mainly to fund new boardwalks over the gutters to enable round the pond walking, which should be constructed soon. We thank Simon our ex clerk for making the successful application and taking an interest in the project as a member of the biodiversity group. A Hesket Newmarket pond consultation has been done. The results are under consideration . The existing woodland planting at Howbeck Bridge is to be looked at by the group.
The toilets : we are looking into either moving them or we will refurbish them as they are. The best site if they are moved would be on Tenters bank at Caldbeck car park but that poses big problems as the land is part of the common, the consent of the Secretary of State would be needed, and the Open Spaces Society are likely to object. We now have £10,000 to either effect repairs or their rebuild elsewhere (£9,000 promised by Allerdaleand the £1,000 kind private donation received). One of the ladies loos is out of action at the moment and Allerdale have been helping to try and identify the problem, and hopefully remedy it before handover.
Caldbeck village street clean : anyone willing to help with this annual event is most welcome. 10 am on Monday 22nd November – meet near the pub. Best tools to bring if you have them – a shovel and rake and maybe an old barrow.
