MINUTES OF ANNUAL VILLAGE MEETING
HORTON, SOUTH GLOS
ANNUAL PARISH MEETING HELD AT
HORTON VILLAGE HALL
ON
Tuesday 13th May 2025
AT
7.30 PM
ALL WELCOME AND INVITED TO ATTEND

THE BUSINESS TO BE TRANSACTED AT THE MEETING WILL BE AS FOLLOWED:

•	WELCOME AND APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE
•	CLERKS REPORT – clerk read the report for Horton Parish Council
•	CLLR ROMAINE/RUSH REPORT – Absent – no report sent
•	PARISH ORGANISATIONS/GROUPS TO REPORT ON ACTIVITIES:-

•	HORTON PCC REPORT – was read by a representative of the PCC
•	LITTLE SODBURY PCC REPORT -was read by the Clerk to HPC
•	HORTON CofE SCHOOL REPORT – was read by the Clerk to HPC
•	VILLAGE HALL COMITTEE - was read by the Clerk to HPC

ANY PERSONS WISHING TO ADDRESS THE ASSEMBLY ON BEHALF OF A LOCAL ORGANISATION PLEASE MAKE YOURSELF KNOWN TO THE CHAIR PRIOR TO COMMENCEMENT OF THE MEETING

CLERK'S REPORT 
ANNUAL PARISH MEETING 2025

Horton Parish Council held it’s usual required 6 regular meetings this year
Precept – The precept was set at £7550.00, a decrease on last year with councillors mindful the current economic situation. 
The PC, along with Ward Cllr Becky Romaine continue to push for a 20mph speed limit around the school with hopes that this can also be extended further down the hill.  This has been hard to move along as it required the school to sign up to Modeshift Stars which saw some difficulties along with a change in staff at SGC.  The school sign up is now in place as is a new staff member at SGC who will take this on and continues to be pushed along by Ward Cllr Romaine who is organising a petition.
Road erosion continues to be a problem especially at Vinney Lane and around Totteroak.  Reports and requests have been made to SGC for repairs, however finance seems to be the ongoing barrier to decent repair.
Community Infrastructure money was used to purchase a replacement to the Bide A While bench half way up the hill and councillors will also consider a new bin in the same place – the smart new bench now making the old bin look scruffy.  It also leaks rubbish from the bottom.  CiL monies have also been used to pay for replacement defibrillator pads at the Village Hall following the use of the defib, which saved a man’s life.   
A second defibrillator has been purchased and installed by a villager in Little Sodbury End and HPC have agreed to fund replacement pads/batteries when the current ones are due to be renewed.    A third defibrillator has been suggested for Little Sodbury – HPC to consider at their next meeting.
There have been many planning applications for the Parish Council to consider, mostly straightforward but one or two offering some challenges.  Details of all planning applications may be found at www.southglos.gov.uk/planning with the respective comments made by HPC.

Report to the Horton Annual Village Meeting and Horton PCC
The church has continued to provide a full range of weekly services and services for special occasions (e.g. weddings). We have an excellent choir – sometimes augmented by singers from other parishes for special occasions. In addition, we have an experienced team of bellringers who provide welcome cheer to the community (heard at their best when the wind is from a northerly direction). Also, the church is beautifully decorated with flowers as and when the seasons permit.
The Parochial Church Council (PCC) for the Parish of Horton is responsible for the upkeep of the church and consideration of such matters of worship that the Rector of the Sodbury Benefice (Chris Butler) or parishioners bring to it. At the present time the PCC has one Churchwarden and four PCC members. In an ideal world we would have two Churchwardens and more PCC members as our resources are stretched just keeping the show on the road.
Over the last year the PCC has held four meetings. Two matters are probably worth noting.
1.	The celebration of a new special service, Plough Sunday, held in January at a relatively slack time of year for the farming community has been introduced. The initial service of this kind was well supported.

2.	The PCC, as required by CofE regulations, arranged for a so-called Quinquennial Review of the church and its fixtures and fittings conducted by an approved contractor specialising in historic monument management and renovation. This took place in November and the audit report was delivered at the end of March this year.
As regards finance matters it costs upwards of £20K per annum to support the general operation of the church and make minor repairs. A number of parishioners make regular donations; these are supplemented by a small number of occasional donations, collections at church services and fund-raising activities such as summer teas and lunches for bellringers and Harvest celebrations. 
I must end this report on a cautionary note. Our regular congregation is limited in numbers. Our finances are on a knife edge. We have a major challenge ahead of us in terms of roof repairs estimated to cost over £100K and the need to make a challenging application to the National Lottery Heritage Fund for a major contribution to this work.

Churchwardens’ Report for St Adeline’s Annual Parochial Church Meeting 
18 May 2025 

Firstly, we would like to thank the Rector and the retired clergy who have supported us in the year since the last APCM. We are extremely grateful. We would also like to thank all who keep the church decorated for the festivals and for those who supply the flowers for the altar, along with everyone who assists in cleaning the church on our Thursday ‘ clean and chat’ mornings. 
We appreciate the input from the PCC members, in particular to Michael Stephenson who so ably manages our finances - thank you Michael, we are very grateful. Lynne Williams and Jonathan Tucker are licensed as Sides-persons. We thank them for their service, also for the volunteer readers. 
Attendance at the services ranges from between ten and fifteen, except at festivals when the attendance is much higher. We shared Plough Sunday with St James, Horton which was a great success. 
Brenda, Linda and Michael attended a Deanery meeting regarding a proposed Tyndale Trail next year to mark the translation of the Bible by Tyndale between 1524 and 1536. This is being instigated by the Area Dean, Rev’d Graham Stacey. Our visitors book is used by people visiting our church from all over the world, one being from a person who is the 13 generation descendant of William Tyndale. This is an on-going project and there is another meeting this month. Benefice wide, Linda Hurst is a member of the Pastoral Care Group and Brenda Cordy attends the Inclusive Church Group. 
Brenda organised a Craft Fair in Horton Village Hall, raising £700 for our church. Our welcome table has prayer cards and a book where people can write their prayer requests, which has been well used. Water, biscuits and treats for dogs are also supplied for our visitors. 
We are very grateful for one of our visitors who has contributed a new bench for the churchyard after the previous one became very dilapidated. We are very grateful to Horton and Little Sodbury Parish Council for their kind donation towards the costs of cutting the grass in the churchyard. We are observing ‘no mow May’ this year within the churchyard to encourage wild life and wild flowers to flourish. 
Due to an extremely unsociable incident, it is with utmost regret that we have decided now to keep the church closed at night. Dave Ferris kindly offered and it was agreed that he would hold the keys to the church door and porch and he closes them in the evening and re-opens them again between 7.00am and 8.00am in the morning. We are very grateful to him for undertaking this, but feel very sad that we have had to take this action.

May 2025
Horton Cof E School - Head’s Report to Parish Council
Dear Parish Councillors and Clerk 
I trust this finds you well. In terms of the school, it has been a very positive year. Despite having small numbers, the children are flourishing within the nurturing, ambitious and exciting learning environment and community. The school is blessed with caring, committed and very talented staff and the children benefit from specialist teaching such as in music, history, PE and the arts and greatly enjoy their learning during Forest School and the numerous clubs on offer. 
We have also benefitted from wonderful members of our community and wider afield, coming in to share experience and knowledge with the children and lending support for other projects. Our PTA continue to help the school provide enriching events eg a visit to see Joseph at the Hippodrome. 
Through our federation with St. John’s Mead, the older children have had numerous enriching experiences meeting authors, history workshops, science and technology challenges. It means that our children have all the advantages of a small school with the benefits of working alongside pupils at a larger school and this in turn helps them get ready for secondary school. We had an Ofsted inspection recently and whilst we cannot comment on their findings yet (the report is due out next month) please look out for that coming shortly. 
In response to the parish council request, the school gained the Modeshift travel award last June and has maintained it again this year. There have been challenges to promoting parents parking in the village hall car park and walking to school – not least because of road closures and emergency road maintenance. We continue to promote safe and sustainable travel. 
Our older children benefitted from Bikeability training (cycling proficiency) recently and we have had a bicycle rack installed at school. Already a few, very fit and intrepid individuals have cycled up the hill to school. We still advocate for a school sign to be installed so that drivers can see that there are children and families crossing and slow down whilst driving through the village. We hope that our parish council and councillors can help with this. 
Our school governors take an active role in the school and have representation on the village hall committee. The school continues to promote village events in the school newsletter and directly to parents via Dojo (which is an online communication tool between parents and the school) e.g. the VE Day celebration last Thursday and upcoming musical events. 
Funding continues to be a significant challenge for schools. We are tackling increased costs and more charges being passed on from the local authority to schools. Services that were once bought back reasonably from the LA are no longer available and it is expensive to gain these necessary services elsewhere – with little regard paid to the size of school in their charges. The LA continues to be the poorest funded county in England. As a result, we spend significant time trying to find additional funding support and are very grateful to the community and local charities for their support. 
As a school we are committed to our community and the people within it. The children continue to raise money for the church roof – this year donations from our school’s Easter service went towards this. Whilst we do not make much, it shows how much our families appreciate our local church and its members. 
This is my final report to the Parish Council as I will be retiring at the end of the academic year. It has been an honour to serve as executive head at Horton but after more than 30 years continuous service I am having a rest. I love Horton School, it is incredibly special and I am proud of the care and learning it provides our children. I know my successor will be keen to continue working with the parish council and community. I wish you all the best and thank for your valuable service to Horton community. 
Best wishes, Nicola Berry

Horton and Little Sodbury Village Hall Committee 
Chairman’s Report for the Parish Council, 2024-25

The hall is still getting a steady flow of bookings for fitness classes, craft events, coffee mornings, parties and wedding receptions, although attendance at ‘events’ is still lower than pre-Covid.  Regular bookings at the hall include a table tennis club, Pilates, Zumba and Boxercise.  The school uses the hall every Tuesday for PE.  
So what else has been happening at the hall over the past year?
Over the May Day bank holiday weekend last year, we held a plant swap with teas and cake.  
Our Entertainments Team, masterminded by Barbera Denton, Caroline Bannister and Alison Barlow, put on a fantastic Father’s Day breakfast in June.  In July Alison Barlow presented a fascinating ‘get to know Horton’ evening, looking back at the past 30 years or so of activities in the village – fetes, pantomimes, gymkhanas and other gatherings.  A fantastic look back at some of the things we have got up to in the past.  
Barbera hosted another very successful Oktoberfest.  
In November we got a few more trees, free of charge, from the Woodland Trust to top up the planting after some of the earlier batch of trees we planted didn’t make it.  
There was also an end of year cabaret in December, showcasing acts by villagers.  This year’s village Christmas card once again supported our local churches who are fundraising for major repairs.  
We reprised our Quiz Duo in January and February and plan to do the same in 2026. 
Rockhampton Wind Quintet came back to play for us in January and we have asked them to come again next January.  The award winning folk duo, Ninebarrow, came back to us for about the 7th time to play to a sell-out crowd in March.  
The Horton Bull Run in April went very well indeed, with a good turnout of runners.  As in the past, it was on the same day as the London Marathon, which we showed on our big screen.    
Many thanks to everyone who attended or helped organise these events.  
In April a group of 12 villagers attended an all-day first aid course which was very well received.  There seems to be sufficient interest to run further sessions.  
Early in May, some villagers held a VE Day commemoration with tea, cake and nostalgic songs. It was very well supported.  
In June we are holding a mini golf tournament round the village, with a golf hole in several people’s gardens, followed by tea and cake back at the hall.  
In July, in a first for the hall, we have Feria Orchestra, a 12-piece chamber ensemble, coming to perform Saint-Saens’ Carnival of the Animals, a piece which should appeal to people of all ages.  
We’d really appreciate any suggestions for events that you’d like to see in the future and hope you’ll support any events that we do run.  We are also very grateful for offers of help at events – perhaps behind the bar, in the kitchen, or baking a cake.  The Village Hall committee is very small, so help is always needed.  
We were delighted that the defibrillator which the Parish Council supplied to the Village Hall, and which we look after, saved a life a few weeks ago.  This shows what a valuable resource it is.  Literally a lifesaver.  
Tony Wake has continued to do a sterling job editing our bi-monthly village newsletter to keep everyone abreast of what’s going on at the hall and in the village.  Many thanks to Tony for all his hard work.  
This year we have not had to spend much money on capital projects and repairs, so our outgoings have been less than in previous years.  The day to day running costs of the hall still amount to over £1000 per month, so we need a steady flow of income from hires and events just to cover those costs.  
We may need to replace our elderly oil boiler in the next few years and are hoping to use that opportunity to make the hall a bit more energy efficient.  
We really appreciate the grants and support we get from the Parish Council and from South Glos Council.  Once again, the Parish Council has kindly agreed to pay towards our grass cutting in the forthcoming year.  We are very grateful for the increased grant which you have awarded us this year.  
We are very pleased that the hall continues to provide a valuable resource to the village.  
Katharine Lea-Wilson
Chair, Horton and Little Sodbury Village Hall, May 2025