The Parish Council has a policy of not allowing any more memorial benches to be placed in the cemetery. There have been a number of such requests in recent months, and if the Council were to accede to these requests the cemetery would have too many benches in it. Furthermore, if a member of the public erects a bench on Council land then there are issues as to who is responsible for maintenance costs etc. If parishioners are wishing to erect memorial benches on highway verges etc. then they must seek permission from Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council.

 

The Parish Council does not have any powers over planning applications. The Council is merely a consultee in the same way that individual landowners are consulted on particular planning applications. The Council considers applications sent to it for consultation either at Planning Committee meetings, or at full Council. These meetings are all advertised, and parishioners may come to the meetings to hear the Council’s deliberations, and to speak to the Council on particular applications, provided they follow the procedure laid out below. The Council will not take ‘sides’ on planning applications, but will raise objections / observations on applications which do not comply with planning law or guidance, or which affect the community as a whole. It is the Council as a corporate body which makes these objections / observations, not individual Councillors. If any person is aggrieved by a Council decision on a planning matter, then it is to the Council, through the Clerk, that they should make their feelings known; individual Councillors and their relatives should not be berated.

 

Cllr Hindley will be exercising her power to call this year’s Annual Parish Meeting. It will be held on Thursday 3^rd April 2008, at 7.30 pm, in the Moxon Room, Village Hall. This is not a meeting of the Council – it is a parishioners meeting; it is your opportunity to discuss any matter of interest or importance to life in the Parish of Cawthorne, and to question Councillors on Council matters. The calling Notice will be displayed in due course.

 

The following procedure to enable parishioners to address the Council came into effect from the July 2007 meeting of the Council. Councillors and the Clerk attend at 7.30 pm as per usual practice; members of the public who are in attendance are allowed to ask questions of the Council, on any matter, from 7.30 pm to 7.40 pm; at 7.40 pm the formal meeting of the Council commences. Members of the public are not permitted to participate in the formal meeting unless they have complied with the requirements previously advertised. This procedure also applies to Council Committee Meetings, although timings will normally be half and hour earlier.

 

The next meeting of the Parish Council, which will be the ANNUAL MEETING OF THE COUNCIL, will be held on Thursday 1^st MAY 2008, at 7.40 pm, in the Moxon Room, Village Hall. All parishioners are welcome, and are encouraged to attend at 7.30 pm.

 

F. Johnston, Clerk to the Council.                                            Telephone: 01226 765569.