Chairman's Report 2025-2026
Swaton Parish Council Chairman’s Annual Report 2025 to 2026
Every year I reflect back over the last 12 months to summarise, not only the notable events from within the Parish Council, but also the village.
Late in May, villagers had the opportunity to attend a special meeting organised by Cllr Campion with the Lincolnshire Reservoir project team as it had been some time since the last consultation. The event was held in the hut and allowed residents to ask questions of the team. Cllr Campion and Cllr Mrs Penketh are also on Community Liaison Group that meet with the Anglian Water project team and provide a local voice into those discussions.
In June the Swaton emergency group went live. Consisting of 12 of volunteers, the group has a defined emergency plan and would step in to work within the village and link into District and County Council support teams in the event of a significant issue like severe flooding. In the same month, Quickline appeared in the village installing new optical cables both underground and pole to pole. The scheme is intended to offer an alternative to the BT networks and should be available from mid to the end of 2026.
New telemetry devices were installed in September which will provide early warning of changes to water levels at several locations in the river Eau upstream of the village. The Emergency group and other residents of West End now receive live updates on rising water levels which I hope will avoid and more cars being damaged due to flooding.
For a long time, the Parish Council has run with fewer than its full allocation of 7 councilors. In July, Cllr Mrs Brookin was co-opted into the council bringing it our numbers to that threshold. Unfortunately, Cllr Parsons had to step down in September due to relocating to the south of England. In November Cllr Griffiths was co-opted, probably our youngest councilor, bringing us back up to our elusive 7.
Last year we saw a new face join use at Parish Council meetings in the form of County Councilor East. Despite a hectic schedule, Cllr East manages to make time in his evening to attend some of our bi-monthly meetings for which I am very grateful. District Councilor Jackson was reelected and also continues to joins us at some of the meetings and always provides a detailed breakdown of district news and useful links which I share out via the village email group.
The departure of Cllr Parsons also impacted the mowing of the park as he shared that task with Cllr Campion, John Wilkinson and John Brookin. John Brookin stepped down and Cllr Campion no longer had a ride on mower towards the end of 2025. Fortunately, John Wilkinson agreed to continue to cut the grass in the park over the coming year. I wanted to say thank you to the volunteers that have worked to keep our park presentable and special thanks to John Wilkinson for agreeing to carry on the work single handed.
Our two speed signs have two pairs of batteries each, with one pair charging whilst the other is in use. We have had these batteries since the signs were installed in 2019 and the period of usable charge was getting to be much less than a week. The Swaton Vintage Day committee was generous enough to donate the Parish Council the money to buy a full set of batteries. The new batteries significantly reduce the burden on our volunteers who charge and cycle the batteries. I want to thank Tony Patrick for his continued support in looking after the sign in the middle of the village which he has done since the signs were installed.
Out new litter picker, Nicola Arnold, has continued to keep the village tidy and clear of litter drop mainly from cars passing through. Thank you Nicola.
Our local park continues to be popular with residents and many people from further afield. I have had on my to do list for some time the installation of the new sign for the park which clearly shows the rules that should be followed by people using the park. This year I managed to cross that job off my list and I also replaced the net in the goals making them look like new. Local boy Thomas Wilson has started his Gold Duke of Edinburgh award and as part of his 12-month volunteering tasks has been helping me since April with the park maintenance and weekly inspections. We have a gate post to replace just ahead of the Annual Parish Meeting so I’ve included it in this year’s Chairman’s report.
Cllr Mrs Penketh’s support in running the Monthly (now bi monthly) surgery continues to provide easy access for parishioners to the Parish Council and she tirelessly updates the PC website.
Our patient Parish Clerk, Shelagh McIntyre, was tested with the introduction of a new email portal, Parish Online, that hasn’t been the easiest of things to use. Shelagh continues to guide our small council and I thank her for her continued support and patience.
Cllr Mrs Patrick continued in her role as Finance Officer for the Parish Council which is a role that many local councils pass on to the Clerk. Her continued support and diligence in the role not only saves the council money but also provides a clear review of our finances that we continue to carefully manage.
Unfortunately, not all things the Parish Council has tried to do for the village have been successful. Cllr Mr Campion put forward proposals to Highways to potentially reduce the risk of further accidents at the crossing of the A52 and Swaton Lane through improved road markings. The local Highways group opted to not progress the proposal.
Alan Wilson - Swaton Parish Council Chairman. May 2026
Alan Wilson
Swaton Parish Council Chairman