ANNUAL STATEMENT

Riston Parish Council 2023/2024 Report of Activities
Thank you everyone for attending and welcome to Riston Parish Council Annual Parish Meeting.
Starting with a fantastic 51% turn out from our valued Electors on voting day back in May 2023. I think everyone will agree, it has been an exciting and at times, challenging year with many things to celebrate in our Parish.

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As a Council we have continued the very important work of supporting other deserving community groups in the village, such as Playing Fields Committee, Long Riston Baby and Toddler Group, Hart Transport, St Margarets Church, The Horticultural show and the valuable circular “The Newsletter”. We have done this by way of donations as well as supporting their costs using a total of circa £7000 of the budget.
Toward the end of the summer, we had the most amazing display of bunting and flower boxes as well as the wonderfully huge bicycle spectacle at the corner of Dancing Lane. This proved to be a huge community event with many turning out to watch the Tour of Britain cycle race which took a route through the heart of our village, most of which was accomplished by kind volunteers from our community and a grant secured by our Parish Clerk.

Behind the scenes there has been much work and ongoing efforts to formalise Contracts of Employment and PAYE payroll for our employees. This is to ensure we are a responsible employer and fulfil our HMRC obligations. We are underpinning our values by looking to adopt some 23 Personnel related procedures this evening.

We have had a significant transition to modernise our payment and transaction methods from petty cash and cheques to Online Banking and auditable bank transfers payments, this has been well received by our key suppliers and improved the visibility and control of public money.

We are also undergoing substantial work to migrate our manual/paper financial records and budgeting to a subscription financial software, used by numerous parish councils to improve transparency, reporting and year end compliance all of which we hope to share with you in the coming months.

After reports of concerns about potential accidents. We have focused efforts to reduce the speed on the A165 and this is still being considered by East Riding of Yorkshire Council.

October saw the installation of the bench outside of the village hall to commemorate the Coronation of King Charles III.

And as colder weather set in, we fitted 5 fully stocked new Grit Bins throughout Arnold and Long Riston, in keeping with style of other street furniture. We intend to keep these well stocked so our parishioners may benefit and our roads and footpaths safer in the winter months.

We turned our attention to planting 000’s of bulbs with a fantastic turn out of volunteers as well as carrying out other improvements to overgrown areas of the village for a winter tidy up which received many appreciative comments.

We also procured a sustainable and native topiary Yew Christmas tree and located this at the site of the corner of Dancing Lane which will continue to flourish and provide a festive focal point for years to come.
A team of volunteers along with one of our Councillors worked hard to install a full suite of colour coordinating black out blinds in the village hall which I am sure you will agree bring a vibrance of colour and functionality to the hall. Again, many thanks to those people that took the time to do this.
In March 2024 we went to tender to enable us to undertake a major overhaul of the Electrics in the village hall to make safe severe faults and improve other features such as the fitment of energy saving LED lighting, making a brighter and safer environment for the hall user. Prior to this light baffles were missing and glass tubes were exposed. We also pushed forward with an RICS Survey of the Village Hall following concerns from users around its condition, we are continuing to plan the remedy of some of the issues highlighted.

Further to this, we have had significant work done to the fuse box to eliminate fire risk, improved the visibility of fire escape lights and extending that theme of energy efficiency, had motion sensors fitted to the lights in the toilets, entrance hall and store cupboard.

I think we can all say we are proud to serve this community and will continue to work hard for you throughout 2024/2025. We aim to distribute a questionnaire to the whole community about the work we do as a Parish Council seek your feedback in due course.

Please keep your eyes open for updates on our notice boards and the village website.

Many thanks
Your Parish Councillors.