Annual Parish Meeting – 29th April 2026

Minutes of the Great Longstone Annual Parish Meeting

held at 7pm on Wednesday 29th April 2026

in Longstone Village Hall

DRAFT

Present. Cllr Jane Rigby (Chair), Cllr Phil Barrett, Cllr Andy Douglass, Cllr Stevie Hornsey, Cllr James Cox, District Cllr Helen Froggatt, Simon Headington (Clerk) and 36 members of the public.

The meeting was opened at 7.02pm.

1. Apologies for absence. Peter Donaldson, Sarah Stokes, Deborah Henley, Caroline Briggs, Mark Knight, Angela and Mike Robinson, Jade Ojari, Emma Richards, Louise Waine, Jeremy Cotterill, Jennifer and Peter Rowson, Alison Waltho.
2. Minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting 30^th April 2025. Proposed as an accurate record by Cllr Barrett, seconded by Cllr Cox. All in favour.
3. Chair’s report – delivered by Cllr Rigby. Key points were that it was another busy year, with highlights including:- Thanking her predecessor, Wendy Long, who was chair for 10 of the 18 years that she served on the Council.- Working with the LASRA Committee on the resurfacing of the Tennis Court. Thanks to Sports England, Little Longstone Parish Meeting and others for financial support.- The continuing work on the Neighbourhood Plan- Dealing with issues relating to the allotments- The ongoing care of various community assets, including the village greens

   – Working with the Churchyard volunteers

   – Ongoing highway flooding issues causing problems for the village hall

   – The success of the Christmas Eve Carol Concert

   – The need for more Parish Councillors.

4. Update on behalf of Thornhill House Trustees – Richard Thornhill, Vice Chair of Trustees, updated the meeting on the Charity’s plans to move the Nursing and Residential Home to a new, larger, site on Station Road. It was explained that this £5 million project would allow the charity to expand its services and make it more able to meet the needs of residents into the future. The existing site will continue to be managed and operated in exactly the same way as now, until the new site is fully ready for occupation. After this the old site will be sold to help pay for the project. The Trustees have engaged a professional fundraiser to help them to achieve their objectives. The Trustees have had initial discussions with the Planning Authority and the feedback will be incorporated into their plans. The Trustees are planning further engagement with the community in the coming months.
5. Update on the Neighbourhood Plan – Cllr Douglass reported that since the first meetings of the Steering Committee, just a year ago, progress had been made by the six workstreams (Climate Mitigation & Renewable Energy, Land Management and Nature Recovery, Transport, Business & Tourism, Housing and Community). A number of consultations had been conducted including public meetings and questionnaires. Work will continue over the coming year, building on evidence from these earlier engagements with the community.
6. Old Infant School Building – A brother & sister team from Sheffield explained their plans to open a Nursery for children from 0-5, in the old infant school building. They need to obtain planning permission for “change of use”, as a “Nursery” comes under a different planning category to a “Pre-school”. They will then also need to register with OFSTED so they cannot yet give a date for when they will be able to open.
7. Community WhatsApp Group – Alexa Masterson-Jones provided details of a newly created “Longstone WhatsApp Community”. Within this community a number of conversations (e.g. news, lost & found, announcements) and individuals can join as many different threads as they wish. A QR code was made available to people in the room who wanted to sign up. A question was raised about importing any existing “Groups” into this new framework and it was agreed to see if this is possible.
8. Reports from Community Organisations
   • Longstone Area Sports & Recreation Association (LASRA) – Mike Meurer, Chair of Trustees, reported that LASRA have had a successful first year and have now been working on establishing the areas that local residents would like them to concentrate on supporting.
   • Great Longstone Cricket Club – Dave Richards, Club Captain provided an update on the past year and plans for 2026. The club had matches on a regular basis during 2025 and has a full programme for 2026. The launch, last summer, of ECB accredited Junior Cricket Coaching with Dynamos (5-8) and All Stars (8-11) was very successful and will be returning shortly. New teams are being launched for women and for young people (under 13’s).
   • Longstone Events and Activity Programme (LEAP) – Jane Littlefield and Julia Morgans provided an update on LEAPs many activities, primarily based in the Village Hall.
   • Peak Wesley Way co-ordinator – Sheila Travis explained the origins and progress of this interesting programme that has found a clever way of combining low impact tourism with a way of maintaining a network of old village chapel buildings.
9. Update on Longstone Week 11^th to 19^th July 2026 – This year the preparation of the Great Longstone Well Dressing will take place in the school, ready for the blessing on Saturday. The first weekend will include Open Gardens and, on the Saturday (11^th), a Children’s Fancy Dress Parade and the FOLS Fete. During the week there will be musical and history events before the LASRA Sports Day on Sat 18^th. Through the whole week Scarecrow and Container Garden competitions will be running, and the Little Longstone Chapel will have a flower festival. A number of Cricket Matches are also in the schedule.

9. Persons on electoral roll – matters to raise. Nothing was raised.

The meeting closed at 8.25pm

Simon Headington
Clerk to Great Longstone Parish Council