This is the Chairmans report for the period April 2024 to Match 2025 prepared for the Annual Parish meeting held on 14th May 2025.

 St Breock Parish Council – Chairman’s Annual Report – May 2025
This is the opportunity for me to reflect back on our Council’s achievements and challenges we have undertaken during this past year. Each year our Council receives from the Renewable Energy Systems (R.E.S.) St Breock Wind Farm an agreed community fund which is to be used for various projects within our parish. Over previous years this fund has been used to provide new seating in our burial ground, replacing/ renewing play equipment in the Burlawn play area together with renewing the impact surfaces within the designated activity areas. Running alongside those projects we have a ‘rolling programme’ of installing notice boards, seats and defibrillators in all of the five hamlets that make up our parish, these are Burlawn; St Breock; Trevanson; Whitecross and Edmonton. This year we have almost completed that programme as the last remaining defibrillator is scheduled to be installed in Trevanson. As with all defibrillator installations, trying to secure a nearby power supply to the unit is always difficult but I am confident that this will only cause a slight delay to its installation. Once this has been completed it is our intention to arrange for another informal C.P.R. evening to take place at the showground for our parishioners to participate in.

Our new burial ground at St Breock is now in use and we have already had a small number of burials take place. Some concerns about the lack of taps within the burial ground have been raised by visitors tending to the graves highlighting how difficult it is to carry cans of water from the tap located at the main gate down to the bottom burial terraces. We intend to use this year’s allocated funding to extend the mains water supply to the other taps that have already been installed when the burial ground was first commissioned. Having outlined some of our achievements it is unfortunate for me to have to mention that we have recently experienced some acts of criminal damage within our parish. These incidents include considerable damage having been caused to some of the equipment in the play area, panes of glass being smashed in the Burlawn bus shelter and wires being disconnected from the Whitecross defibrillator, all of which were logged with the Police who have already dealt with one of the perpetrators.

Planning and planning issues are currently and will always be an ongoing challenge not only for St Breock but for all other town and parish councils. With Cornwall’s annual target for new and affordable homes being increased from 2000 to over 4000 I feel will impact considerably on the planning challenges we are already experiencing. A huge emphasis is being placed on having more affordable homes but the term ‘affordable’ has never been properly defined but it is consistently being used by developers with the presumption that planning permission will automatically be granted. Unfortunately for those people on low incomes and low salaries buying a new home is virtually an impossibility. There is however a need for more social housing and this is something our Council always advocates when dealing with ‘affordable housing led planning applications’. St Breock supports affordable housing when it can be shown that there is a real need with the added proviso that they are for the right people in the right location. Whilst on the topic of planning it is the appropriate moment for me to give an update on the Egloshayle, St Breock and Wadebridge Neighbourhood Plan (NHP) which is due to expire in 2030. This plan has lain dormant since the extremely controversial but well documented Governance Review in 2019.This year our Council has tried on several occasions to re engage with the Wadebridge and Egloshayle councils with the

intention of re visiting the N.H.P. and collectively moving it forward to its conclusion by 2030. Unfortunately those attempts have not been successful but we felt that this situation could not continue as it is and that a solution had to be found to finally resolve the problem. Having consulted with and taken advice from Cornwall Council our council has now taken the decision to allow the neighbourhood plan to stand as it is and embark upon producing and adopting a new Neighbourhood Priorities Statement (NPS) for the parish of St Breock. This statement will enable the Council in conjunction with its parishioners to identify the housing needs within our parish. The templates provided by Cornwall Council will assist us with this process.

On a lighter subject in January I was fortunate enough to be invited to the inauguration of our new parish Rector, Jules Williams. Her service was held at Egloshayle church and the congregation was full to capacity. I together with other Chairmen stood in front of the congregation and welcomed Jules into the St Breock parish and I look forward to meeting her again. Alongside Jules we now have a new secretary in post at the Royal Cornwall Showground, Mark Stoddart, who took up his new role in September last year. This year will be his first Royal Cornwall Show and I am sure that we would all wish him fine weather and a very successful show.

Finally I would like to thank all of the St Breock Councillors and our Clerk for the support they have given me during this year and for their time and commitment they have given to our parishioners. I would also like to thank our local Cornwall Councillor Robin Moorcroft for his support during this past year.