Thank you for attending the Annual Parish Meeting. Tonight is a night of congratulations from an exceptional year. First of all, I would like to congratulate Mrs Janet Jennings and Mrs Carol Lewis.

Janet Jennings has been awarded a Certificate of Good Citizenship for her work in raising money for charity over many years and Carol Lewis for her work with Heath Hayes School and womens sport in the area. We are grateful for their attendance and for their contribution.

John Hebden Karendeep and Inderpreet Sandhu

We also celebrate Mr John Hebden of Melvyn's Butchers and Karendeep and Inderpreet Sandhu from Select Store of Wimblebury for their service to the community. We are lucky to have these businesses here.

Last year, the award went to Heath Hayes Post Office, and I am exceptionally pleased to present a special award to Mr & Mrs Devgun to congratulate them on their achievement in reaching the last three of the national Post Office Customer Service awards.

To get to the top three of this award, with 25,000 organisations is truly amazing. Something that every person in Heath Hayes and Wimblebury should be proud of.

Councillor Bob Merry and Clerk Ray Smythe took part in the promotional video for the final judgement in London. We wish them the best of luck for that, but we celebrate the fantastic achievement of reaching the top three. Well done. We are proud of you.

Councillor Bob Merry continues to defy the years and chairs the senior citizens support group he created and which has been very successful, raising over £3,000. He was awarded the status of "Community Champion" by the Scarman Trust and this group is being looked at as a blueprint for groups across the county. We congratulate Bob and the committee on their continued success.

I would like to remember the late Reg Butler, who we were very fortunate to have as a Councillor and to thank Graham Garbett who has left us and welcome Vyvyen Baker. It is wonderful to have someone so young on the Council and we all wish her well.

Now, what has the Council done over the last year?

I can tell you that I am very proud of this report and this Council. This year has been unbelievably special.

The Heath Hayes Cabin last year raised £3,080 in hire fees, the highest ever. Five years ago, at the Hayes Green Community Centre, the difference between income and expenditure was £15,000. This year, we hope to make a profit.

The Centre has had improvements costing nearly £70,000 and is greatly improved. We have new hirers and a day nursery and the Centre is used seven days a week.

We have raised over £5,000 towards producing a map of the area and delivering it to every house in the area.

In the last year, we have donated nearly £8,000 to local groups and we continue to support organisations that benefit the area.

As a Council, we provide the best value that we can. We have reduced the tax burden each and every year in the last five years, the Band D annual charge has reduced by 25%.

I have been on the Council since it was formed in 1985, and last year has been the best ever. In fact, it has been spectacular.

This year, I would like to make a special mention for our Clerk, Ray Smythe, who has been with us for 14 years. I remember his interview, when he had recently retired as a police officer, and how we hoped he would help us take the Council forward.

Well, who would have thought we would end up here, out of 10,000 councils in the country, that we would end up in the top seven.

Ray has worked hard to help us reduce the tax by reducing costs and maximising income and applying for many grants. He has been extremely successful. Last year, we had expenditure of £128,780 on a £58,500 precept,with £45,700 in grants.

He has created charities for the Heath Hayes Cabin and the Hayes Green Community Centre, saving £5,000 a year in rates. He manages our website, run free of charge, in operation since August 2006, which has won two awards, including in March 2007, the national "Website of the Month" award.

We have Quality Status. We are in the top 5% in the country, one of 13 in the county and the only Council in Cannock Chase with Quality Status. Ray has been again asked to teach at the SPCA Clerks Training Day in July and has assisted other local Councils on a voluntary basis.

In October, Ray won the national award for Clerk of the Year. This was out of 10,000 councils and a great honour for Ray and for this Council. But another surprise was to come in November. Ray was asked to address Parliament, on Local Council Reform, and was invited to go to London to make a presentation to an All Party Parliamentary Group, followed by a question and answer session.

He told me he was looking forward to the presentation as he is very proud of the Council. Three Staffordshire MP's were present, including our MP, Tony Wright. To have our Clerk asked to advise Parliament on policy is a great honour for this Council. I have known Ray for 14 years, we have met and spoken regularly over this time and I can report that we have never had a cross word.

He takes his job seriously and professionally and has always followed the Council's wishes quickly and efficiently. I would like to thank Ray for all the work he has done, and to remind him that part of his pay is performance related and he has to keep up the good work.