Bourne End Village Association AGM

CHAIRMAN’S REPORT -  OCTOBER 2016

The AGM was well attended and, aided by the wine and cheese, turned out to be an enjoyable social occasion.  A new committe was elected.  Once details have been finalised they will be posted on the blog and circulated in the forthcoming Bourne Ender.    

Chairman's Report

As Chairman, I wish to thank the Committee for all their hard work through the year, and I would also like to thank my wife, Jean, for all the secretarial work she has done this year, Mike Pritchard for keeping the Accounts and Planning Sub-Committee in order and John Mawer for all his work in producing the Bourne Ender and flyer, as well as his work in the planning team.

The year started with the  Remembrance Service last November and our thanks go to Jenny at The Anchor for sustenance after the event.  This was followed by two nights of carol singing in December, which raised £348.96 rounded up to £400, and was shared between DENS and the Iain Rennie Hospice Group.   We had a very  successful Quiz Night in February, and thanks go to Andrew Horton for the quiz itself, and everyone else on the Committee who helped with food and organisation. 

The Annual Village Show was a very enjoyable event, this year being followed by a Mad Hatter’s Tea Party.  This was a superb event and my thanks go to  everyone who put so much time and effort into it.  (Next year, if we do something similar, it would be nice if more people were in fancy dress – the children were great but only Jean and I dressed up; what a pair of extroverts!)

During the year we have had two litter picks in the village, one undertaken by BEVA and the other by McDonalds organised by Alan Butchers, the franchisee, which went all round the village so thanks very much to Alan.

This year the Bourne End Industrial Estate re-development has moved on.  Parkway, who demolished the site and have been progressing the building work have kept us informed and, I believe, have done a very good job.  Their Site Manager, John Riordan, will be giving us an update on progress at the end of this meeting.  The area for housing has been sold to another developer but at the moment we do not know who.  The Planning Sub-Committee have recently had a meeting with Herts Highways Senior Engineer, Chris Simpson, to try and sort out some of the our problems i.e. the cut-off point in Bourne End Lane, the entrance into Bourne End Lane from the A4251, the proposed footpath from Sharpes Lane to The Watermill and the proposal to try to get a 40 mph sign on the A4251 by the church.  The Watermill have just withdrawn their planning application and we intend to arrange a meeting as quickly as possible to find out what they are now proposing.

It has been an interesting year, with the industrial estate redevelopment and some very successful events.    I am delighted to see that we have a lot of new families in the village, quite a few with children, and hope that they will support our events .  However, we could still do with more input from villagers.  This is your village - how about more ideas please?  Once again, I would like to say thank you to a very hard-working committee and also to Ian Creasey who always helps us when needed.

Gordon Rolfe