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All meetings
start at 7:30 and unless stated are held in the Bramham Old People’s
Shelter, The Square.
Members of the public have
a right to attend any meeting, and, at the discretion of the Council,
may be entitled to address the meeting. If discussion is required on a
particular subject, the Clerk should be notified at least one week in
advance in order that it may be officially included in the published
Agenda.
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The role of the councillor is
important because parish councils are the closest tier of local
government to the people and as such are in control of many of the
basic services that are taken for granted. A councillor must have
extensive knowledge of the requirements of the local residents,
recognising the needs of the young and the elderly in equal
measure while taking into consideration the legal boundaries in
which they work. To be eligible for election as a councillor a
person must be over 21 years of age, a British subject, and be an
elector for the area. Also, during the whole 12 months before
nomination as a candidate he or she must have occupied land as a
tenant or owner in the parish (or within 3 miles of it) or have
his or her principal or only place of work within the parish. In
Bramham, Parish councillors have no party political affiliations
The number of
councillors making up a parish council varies with the size of the
parish – in Bramham we have nine. They are elected to serve for a
period of four years and Bramham’s council meets on the first
Wednesday of each month, except for the month of August. Their
work is entirely voluntary; no councillor receives any payment
either for attending the meetings or for any other service he or
she may render to the parish in the course of their duties.
Under our present system local councillors have almost no direct
control over how parishioners’ council tax money is spent. Their
role is largely an advisory one in which they report to the Leeds
Unitary Authority where the local problems lie and explain what
corrective action is needed on any matters concerning the
economic, social and environmental well-being of village
residents. Matters requiring action every month tend to be
planning applications and problems associated with highways,
(namely road and pavement surfaces, overgrown hedges, trees and
verges, defective road signs and street lighting, plus traffic
problems of parking or speeding.
Other topics requiring frequent attention are litter or other
forms of environmental pollution, refuse, drainage systems, safety
of and improvements to the Children’s Playground and maintenance
of parish property such as bus shelters, public benches, the
Playing Field and the Old People’s Shelter.
Apart from attending the monthly meetings most councillors accept
additional specific responsibilities requiring them to attend
other meetings often outside the parish. These tasks cover such
fields as crime prevention, environmental protection, special
village projects, and liaison with Leeds City Council and with
other communities.
The council meets
in the Old People’s Shelter and the detailed agenda for each
meeting is displayed in the Parish Council notice board in the Old
People’s Garden for about five days before the start of the
meeting.
All the work is undertaken by Leeds City Council and paid for out
of the Council Tax but the parish council does receive a small sum
from Leeds (currently about £7 per elector per year) which it
controls directly.
This covers essential administrative costs and in addition allows
the council to donate sums to worthy causes that it considers to
be beneficial to the village community. Typical examples have
been donations for the parish magazine, repairs to the village
hall, contributions towards crime prevention equipment in the
parish and donations to help primary school projects.
The aim of the
parish council is to ensure that our community continues to be an
attractive and safe environment in which to live. Ironically, if
it does its job correctly it becomes almost invisible. The job
that absorbed the most effort in recent years, involving countless
man-hours, was the provision of evidence for the Public Inquiry
into the Leeds Unitary Development Plan. Yet we have nothing to
show for it – except that Bramham remains the attractive village
it always was and is not now the suburb of an 8000 house new town
that some planners wanted it to be! |
The Village Hall and several local community groups will
benefit from grants recently made by the Bramham Community Fund. This
was set up from the proceeds of the sale of tickets for the Festival
which was held in Bramham Park over the August Bank Holiday.
Rachel Lane Fox, who chaired the fund committee, said
that it had been difficult deciding how to allocate the grants. “We
wanted the process to be as democratic as possible, so all organisations
or individuals within the village were invited to apply. In total, we
received applications totalling more than three times the money we had
available” she said. “There were some excellent projects and we were
keen to look at the applications, not only on their own merits, but also
in terms of the number of people in the village impacted by each
project, the visibility of projects about the village, and the spread
across different age and interest groups.”
The largest grant will be to the Village Hall which is
drawing up a substantial refurbishment programme. The Village Hall will
also benefit from the grant made to the Drama Group to help meet the
costs of new lighting. Another beneficiary is the Primary School, who
will be getting new hall curtains. These will not only benefit the
children of the school, but groups who use the school including the
Scouts, Guides, Brownies and Beavers.
Young people of the village are also supported with
grants for camping equipment to the Scouts and the Guides, and other
grants to the Roller Disco, the Youth Club, the Brownies and Bramham &
Clifford Football Club.
Both All Saints’ Church and the Methodist Church have
received grants and funds have been set aside for new plants in the
square, around the war memorial, and for providing a mains water supply
to the Aberford Road Allotments. There will also be a new carpet for
the Old People’s Shelter, a contribution to the Bramham branch of the
Yorkshire Countrywomen’s Association and a grant towards the production
of this magazine.
Committee member and Chairman of the Parish Council,
David Evans, said “I’m pleased that we’ve been able to help so many
groups in the village. I’m sure that many people were concerned when it
was first announced that the festival would be coming here, and I think
that the joint action taken by the Parish Council, the Bramham Park
Estate and Mean Fiddler, has resulted in a highly satisfactory outcome.
Not only were over 200 of our youngsters able to go to the concert at an
advantageous price, but now many more people in the village will also
see a benefit.” He continued, “We will, of course, remain vigilant in
our approach to future plans to host the concert at Bramham Park, but if
we can equal or improve upon 2003, we could well be making more grants
in future years.”
Melvin Benn, Managing Director of the promoter, Mean
Fiddler, said that he was pleased to hear of the awards. “I’m glad that
it’s worked out so well. Not only have we overcome many challenges to
mount a successful festival, but we have been able to share that success
with the local community”.
Colin Pool
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