We are very sorry to announce that this year’s fireworks display has been cancelled. It is simply not possible to safely run such an event while working to the current guidelines and laws, as well as protecting our staff, volunteers and contractors and the general public.

The Parish Council gave careful consideration to this at its Events, Environment and Finance Committee meeting on 27 July. We thank everyone who has supported the displays in the past two years and we very much hope the fireworks display will be back in 2021.

Other events are under consideration and updates will be given when they are available.

The outbreak of the coronavius and its development into a pandemic is affecting everyone’s lives and it is appears that it will be with us for some time.

Government advice on trying to stop the spread and deal with its consequences is changing on a daily basis. The main thrust of current advice is for social isolation to avoid the spread of the disease.

If you need information on the virus please make sure you look at official, reputable websites for information. We suggest the following:

• National Health Service Website
• National Government Advice on coronavirus
• Durham County Council Website Coronavirus pages

The Parish Council’s volunteer website and social media administrator has advised the Parish Council of his intention to retire from his role. This is after over 10 years voluntary service.

Ian Forster began volunteering with the Parish Council in 2009 as Assistant Parish Clerk when his wife, Margaret, was Parish Clerk. In 2010 he set up a new Parish Council website with the help and support of Durham County Council who host it. In the same year he set up the Parish Facebook and Twitter accounts.

In 2016, Ian worked with the County Council to switch the site from a Microsoft to WordPress based system. This resulted in a bigger, brighter website. Since October last year, on top of his normal administration duties, Ian has spent many hours to ensure that the Parish Council website meets new accessibility legislation. This work has included reducing the number of Portable Document Format (PDF) documents on the site. These have now been replaced with text on pages instead . Ian has ensured that every photograph on our site, and there are many, all have alternative text embedded. This enables electronic readers to communicate what the photographs show to people with sight impairments.

The website and social media is now at the centre of Parish Council communications. Ian has always tried to ensure that the website and social media has been of true community value and not just promoting parish council business.

The website and social media has benefitted from his own photography and the council from his planning knowledge. He has led a range of social media campaigns in his time such as encouraging votes for grant aid and community issues such as dog fouling.

In developing the website, Ian has worked with local businesses personally to set up our business directory on our website. This has resulted in over 50 businesses being represented and having their own webpage. Ian has continued to work with businesses to update their pages when necessary. More recently, Ian’s focus has been on ensuring Coronavirus information is available locally.

Last year the Parish website had 25,000 hits which is an excellent achievement for a Parish Council site. The Parish Facebook page has over 1700 followers and nearly 1700 likes.

As the Parish Council’s ambition, workload, governance and administration has grown so has the time required to undertake website and social media duties. This has ultimately led Ian to reach his decision.

Currently, Ian will assist the Parish until the end of lockdown or 1 July whichever is later.

Coxhoe Parish Council Youth Team are running an Easter Egg Competition.

The draft minutes of the full Council meeting held on 4 March 2020  are now available. Please click on the link to view  and download them.

Its a difficult time for everyone and particularly our local businesses.

We are proud of our businesses and particularly, at the moment, those that are providing for our basic needs through remaining open and providing take away and delivery services. Our community is encourages to shop locally for our basic needs.

We can help our existing business by heeding advice and staying indoors. The more we can slow down the virus the more likely we can get things back to normal.

We know that businesses that have been forced to close are eagerly awaiting being allowed to reopen. Most will be planning for that eventuality. We are therefore delighted that ‘Wing and a Prayer’ has joined our business directory. This popular shop sells the produce of around 35 local businesses. During closure they will be promoting the sale of their products that customers can have waiting for them once they are able to reopen. Check out their facebook page for details.

Find out more about Wing and a Prayer and what they have to offer.

As a result of the corona virus it was decided to cancel the April, May and July Meetings of Coxhoe Parish Council.

We are following advice from the government on the status of the meetings required by law.

The Annual Meeting of the Parish Council was held on 10 June 2020 via Zoom, when the accounts for 2019 to 20 were approved and some urgent decisions were made.

The Human Resources Committee meeting which was due to be held on Wednesday 15 July is being held on Thursday 16 July at 6.00pm by Zoom. The Events, Environment and Finance Committee meeting which was due to be held on Monday 13 July will be held on Monday 27 July at 6.00pm by Zoom.

The Parish Council will hold meetings as needed.

We will continue to update our website and social media pages, and to carry out the agreed activity of Coxhoe Parish Council, working for our communities.

The next meeting of the Parish Council’s Youth Strategy Group which was due to take place this Thursday, 19 March 2020 has now been cancelled

Draft minutes of the Youth Strategy Group on 30 January 2020

The latest Monthly Meeting of Coxhoe Parish council took place on 4 March 2020. Among the decisions made by Parish Councils were the approval of two important meeting related policies.

The Council’s Public Participation Policy March 2020 (Review Date March 2022) sets out the how the community can get involve in  the various meetings of the Parish Council. It sets out the protocol for doing so.

The Attending and Reporting meetings Procedure Open and Accountable Local Government March 2020 (Review date March 2022) is a guide for the press and public fir attending and reporting meetings of the Parish Council.

Our Safeguarding Children and Vulnerable Adults Policy February 2020 (Review Date February 2020) was approved at our meeting in February 2020.