The year got off to a very disappointing start last May when only five people submitted their names to serve on the Parish Council. However, I am pleased to say that we were able to co-opt Councillor Peck back onto the Council and also welcome Councillors Mrs Lorna Acomb, Barrie Davies and David Thompson.

Many of our Councillors give a great deal of their spare time working behind the scenes attending various meetings and, in many cases, carrying out repairs to village equipment. We have representatives on the Yorkshire Local Council Association, Postal and Telecommunications Advisory Committee, Community Centre Management, The Nether Poppleton Moat Fields Management Group and the Community and Police Group. This year a number of our new Councillors attended a course run by the Yorkshire Local Councils Association from which they learnt a great deal about Parish Council work. In other words, it is not just a case of meeting once a month to have a good old natter!

Much of the year's work has, as usual, been concerned with planning and there have been several new developments. Most have been acceptable, and we are very pleased that, on the whole, the views of the Parish Council have been acknowledged and many or our recommendations implemented. The major exception has been the construction of York House on Hodgson Lane, where, in spite of many objections and the best efforts of the City of York Planing Officers, the building was completed with several contraventions of the planning conditions. An appeal against an Enforcement Order will be held in Poppleton Community Centre on Wednesday, 3rd May, when it is hoped that as many residents as possible will be present to support the Council.

The Parish Council continues to look after the Village Greens and keep them neat and tidy. Last autumn a group or volunteers planted hundreds of crocus bulbs to create the carpet of colour which could be seen earlier this year and will be even better next spring. We have re-turfed part of the main Green, trimmed the path edges and recently renewed the maypole ribbon hooks. We are very grateful to Mr. Benton for volunteering to maintain the War Memorial garden for us and I think everyone agrees that it is a great improvement.

We give our ful1 support to the Community Centre and together with Nether Poppleton Parish Council have made a grant to help to clear off the final outstanding debt on the building. The Community Centre and the facilities which it provides is something of which the whole village can be justly proud.

We have also supported the restoration of the 16^th Century Tithe Barn in Nether Poppleton, and in that context, in December the Council were invited to meet the Duke of York when he came to present his charter which had been awarded to the group headed by Mrs Janet Hopton for community initiative in the Manor Farm area.

I would particularly like to mention two schemes we have worked on this year. First the Millennium project to install attractive village name signs at the entrances to the village on Station Road and Hodgson Lane. These will be constructed of local bricks with an engraved Stone insert and will look extremely nice. Unfortunately, the commissioning has been delayed for about a year by the red tape of the City Council but, hopefully, we shall see them in place within the next twelve months. The other project was to erect signs at the level crossing calling on drivers to switch off their engines whilst waiting for the gates to open. This seemed simple and eminently desirable but, once again, the City Council is making things as difficult as it can and creating obstacles to put in our way!

Elsewhere, through pressure on the City Council, we have achieved improvements to the footpath from the Library towards Nether Poppleton Post Office, repairs to many roads and pavements (though not enough), a promise of improved street lighting (when finances permit!), installation of dropped kerbs for prams/wheel chairs and we added our weight to the campaign for improvements to the school entrance, which is now nearing completion.

Vandalism continues to be a problem with seats being broken and elderly residents being intimidated. We have liaised with the Police but, regrettably, the lack of adequate funding means that they do not have the resources to react as quickly as we would wish and by the time they arrive the trouble makers have disappeared. We are, however, trying to keep up with repairs because we do not want to be beaten by these mindless yobs and we believe that you would want to keep the village as attractive as possible at all times.

We are also trying to combat the rush hour rat-run through the village by motorists who are frustrated by the long hold-ups at the Wills & Ellis roundabout. We have asked for a speed restriction down Hodgson Lane but this has been declined.

To sum up, we are here to look after the village on your behalf, and hope that you feel that we have been successful. We welcome any comments on our activities and would like to see more people attending the monthly Parish Council meetings.

Finally, I would like to thank each and every member or the council for their commitment and dedication during the last year. Just because I have been acting as Chairman does not make me any more important than any one of them and I am proud to have been part of this superb team. It would be invidious of me to single out individual Councillors but I think that no-one will mind me mentioning our Clerk, James Mackman, who has done such sterling work and even earned an accolade from the District Auditor for the excellence of his accountancy! I also, on behalf of the Parish Council, want to express our appreciation of the tremendous support received from City Councillor Mrs Janet Hopton who has attended every Parish Council meeting since her election and performed miracles for us by bullying or cajoling the various officers of the Council. Thank you very much Janet

Keith Smith

10 April 2000