Fifty one people attended the Annual Parish Meeting held on 29th April 2008. Ronnie Auld, Chairman reported that it had been an extremely busy year on many fronts for the Parish Council.

2008 has seen the completion of the environmental and safety improvements to the Station Access. This project took four years to plan and bring to fruition, due to determined efforts by the Clerk and David Cowen in particular and the total costs involved were in the region of £40,000. Apart from the precept income, outside funding had been obtained from BP Oils (£2,500), Mallinson Fabrications (£3,000), Carlisle Parish Councils Association (£2,363.20 - Carlisle District and Cumbria County Councils) and the Carlisle District Councillors Discretionary Fund (£3,000). Grateful thanks were due to all of these bodies for their help.

During the year there had been two resignations, but excellent replacements had been co-opted onto the Parish Council. . Stephen Scaife replaced Michael Smillie who had been on the Council for a few years and resigned for family and business commitments. Michael’s business knowledge, particularly in the field of finance, proved time and again to be of great value, especially when building the annual budget. Olly Roberts, who had served a total of 21 years on Dalston Parish Council resigned in October. Olly, with his great knowledge of all things Dalston, had made a most valuable contribution to the running of the Parish affairs during the early 80s and then again from 1996 to 2007. His responses to issues around the Council table were considered and measured and he was always able to fill in the details relating to Dalston history. He will be greatly missed. Olly has been replaced on the Parish Council by Cynthia Millar. Both retiring Councillors were thanked for their service to the community.

The Parish Council currently meets at Forge Green but was continually looking for any premises close to the middle of Dalston village that became available and might be suitable as a Parish office. The Parish Council and others had also worked very hard to try and find alternative premises as a replacement library, so far to no avail. The County Council commissioned Capita Symonds to produce a report into other suitable sites around the centre of Dalston with little materialising, but dialogue was on-going.

Since the loss of the house and its associated police office on the Green, the community policeman and other officers had strived to operate from Brampton. In 2007, thanks to the determination of Inspector Coates, PC Colin Hird was joined by a Police Community Support Officer, Emma Tonge, both now familiar figures around the village. Sergeant Paul Senior reported that the crime statistics for the Dalston area had steadily improved over the last five years, with the Brampton Local Policing Team achieving the best figures in Cumbria. The Police were moving into a period of customer focused objectives rather than excessive desk work. Traffic operations were to include regular speed and HGV checks and enforcements. After a number of false attempts elsewhere, a new Police Post had been established at St Michael’s School, with the help of a £3,240 grant from the Parish Council towards refurbishment of the rented space, as well as car parking provision at Nestle and it would hopefully remain operational for many years.

The Parish Council budgeting process looks well beyond the next financial year, for likely funding requirements and the consequences of both minor and major projects for the future. It finances a number of small on-going projects in addition to general management, such as riverbank repairs, village presentation, grass cutting, needs of the hamlets and so on, as well as the larger planned schemes In November 2007 £5,328 was awarded in annual grants to parish organisations.

The Chairman and Clerk represented Dalston Parish on the Carlisle Parish Council’s Association Executive Committee and Pauline Dalton and the Clerk were on the Cumbria Association of Local Councils Executive. Both organisations work with the district and county council tiers and try to ensure that parish councils are given a fair hearing and have a future place at the table. John Kelsey had attended environment meetings, with Bryan Craig and Oliver Rickerby representing the Parish Council at several meetings with other organisations, including the Agricultural Society Executive and Cumbria Highways. A good number of Dalston residents and councillors attend the Neighbourhood Forum meetings to lobby the County and District Councils on matters which are of special interest.

The Redspearlands Group, in particular Alan Lyne, was to be thanked for its hard work and dedication in looking after the parish footpaths. This year they have been working on a couple of projects, namely the Redspear Circuit and, hopefully in 2008, the refurbishment of footpaths 46 and 49 around the back of the Station, replacing stiles with new access gates. The Redspear Circuit is Dalston’s Health Walk for all ages and abilities and features 6 beautifully painted marker posts created by the children of St Michael’s and Raughton Head Primary Schools.

In the 2007 Cumbria in Bloom competition, Dalston won the Large Village Trophy, Barras House residents were presented with the Special Category Award by the Mayor of Carlisle and St Michael’s won the Youth Award. Obviously it is hoped to build on the success this year with a new team of people looking after the Station and the Square areas. Grateful thanks were extended to Carlisle City Council for its continuing support with the provision of bedding plants. Special thanks were also due to Judy Rickerby for lots of work over several years in these areas.

The Festival had been a huge success and it was anticipated that the 2008 event being held from 2nd to 9th August should build on the previous two years. Congratulations were due to all those on the Committee guided by Alan Dinning, the Chairman who plan, organise and run the Festival. The Parish Council will continue to support their efforts wherever possible, but any offers of help, particularly with the scarecrows and floats would be appreciated.

There were a couple of excellent schools in Dalston village and a first class primary school in Raughton Head which the Parish Council tries to liaise with whenever appropriate. Next year sees the 50th Anniversary of Caldew School and the staff and pupils will be looking to everyone in the Parish to join in the inevitable celebrations. More information can be obtained from Cheryl Eastburn, the Caldew Enterprise and Communications Co-ordinator.

In 2007 a questionnaire was completed by 340 parishioners and businesses and the overwhelming message arising was that there was a traffic and parking issue in Dalston and that the Parish Council must try and do something about it. Everyone recognises that the volume of traffic through Dalston is increasing – Dalston is the de facto southern bypass for Carlisle and this situation will only get worse as Carlisle grows and creeps ever closer to Dalston. While the Parish Council can do little about traffic movement, it can, in conjunction with Cumbria County Council and Carlisle District Highways, look to improving parking, not just in The Square, but elsewhere in the village. Following this questionnaire and a subsequent very well attended public consultation, the Parish Council is sponsoring a working group comprising Parish Council representatives, people from Highways, Carlisle City Council and other interested parties. This working group will be meeting in the near future to progress some plans to alleviate parking in the village as well as to improve the environs of The Square. This will probably be an even bigger project than the Station Access and it will be essential to attract as much external grant funding as possible, together with other ways of financing the scheme, but it may well result in further pressure on the precept. Hopefully Cumbria County Council and Carlisle District Council will find it possible to assist Dalston with such a major environmental project.
The Parish Plan published in 2005 included a list of important tasks for the future. The Council has pursued some of the high priority actions identified, but there is still much to do before 2015. Dalston Parish Council agreed to the Charter with Carlisle District and Cumbria County Councils which imposes certain disciplines on inter-council administration. Councillors have also signed up to a new Code of Conduct. Almost the whole Council attended a CALC Roadshow which looked at Council functions and it received a very high rating in all the main areas.

During the year the Parish Council was consulted on 101 planning applications between May 2007 and April 2008. The Chairman thanked his colleagues on the Parish Council who had contributed to a busy and reasonably dynamic year for the Council, with specific mention of Ian Newton who was always willing to attend to the many little repair jobs that frequently crop up in the Parish. Outside the Council, acknowledgement was made of Stephanie Diver for her dedicated clearing up after the selfish and mindless people dropping litter around the village, to the Recreation Association team, many of whom were involved in the organisation of the Festival and Judy Rickerby for making such a success of the very popular scarecrow event. Liz Auld, the Chairman’s wife with 16 years experience as the Parish Clerk was a ready source of information and grateful thanks of all the Council were expressed to her for another year of sterling service and support. Dalston WI was thanked for providing the refreshments at the meeting.

The Clerk reported on the Parish Council accounts for 2007/08. The total income was £63,259.61 with expenditure of £58,040.22, leaving a surplus of £5,219.39 to carry forward. Part of the station project income and expenditure was included in the next financial year. The precept for 2008/09 had been raised to £33,600, approximately £31 per annum for a D band property.

The guest speaker was Dr Jim Cox OBE who spoke as a board member of the Commission for Rural Communities. The Board, funded by DEFRA, focuses on tackling rural disadvantage in relation to rural economies, affordable housing, social exclusion, road safety and access to health care. Its role is to feed information to local and national government by providing expertise in relation to the state of the countryside statistics, acting as an advocacy for rural people highlighting the misconceptions regarding rural poverty.