WADHURST PARISH COUNCIL

Notes on the meeting held on Thursday, 8th July, 2010

Start
With one apology for expected lateness and one absentee, we set off at a cracking pace and soon called upon our PCSO for her report, which she delivered with her usual enthusiasm.  She had continued to hold street meetings, and hoped that these would stir up greater interest in Neighbourhood Watch, whose AGM was imminent.  There had been a number of crimes locally but, with the exception of one at Bewl Water, these had mostly been minor, although a drugs raid had been carried out.  Snape Woods were in the news again – this time, it was a theft, the flasher having apparently discontinued his activities.  The theft victim being deaf, it was suggested that there should be a 999 mobile phone texting facility; Tamara will investigate this for us.  Finally, she is hoping to establish a couple of community noticeboards to help keep people informed.

Public Forum
There being just one member of the public present, the floor was his for a theoretical maximum of fifteen minutes; luckily he hardly took two.  He had come to enquire about the Pedestrian Crossing, which (like WS Gilbert’s “marriage with deceased wife’s sister”) seems to be becoming our “perennial blister”; it was mentioned under three agenda items.  The position is that the County Council is drawing up detailed plans of all the works required to enable a zebra crossing to be constructed in the vicinity of Lloyds Bank rather than the site originally proposed.  There is therefore no detailed proposal in existence upon which the Parish Council or anyone else can comment; the County Council seem determined not to ask if the crossing is wanted in its new position, or at all, until the detailed work has been designed.  The result is that the proposal, and the finance already earmarked for it, has been postponed to the next financial year, when there will be increased stringency, particularly on road safety matters.

News from On High
Bob Tidy’s report on County Council matters concluded with the foregoing information about the zebra.  Before that, he had told us that the financial cuts he had outlined last month would be similar in amount to what he had predicted but different in nature, meaning that road safety would be particularly hard hit.  In future, individuals would have to be more proactive in foiling and reporting crime.  Finally, he was asked to pass on our thanks and congratulations to the Council for achieving the Station Hill works in the predicted four days without too much disruption, and to a very high standard.  Next, Graham Wells reported on Wealden District Council matters, and tried to portray an optimistic atmosphere although projections were being prepared on the basis of a 25, 35 or even 45 per cent cut in funding.  In a recent survey of 64 council areas carried out by the GMB union, Wealden’s streets had been found to be the tenth cleanest in the South-East.  Unfortunately however, hazardous waste was being fly-tipped in the area; we should all be observant to try to catch the miscreant.  House prices in Wealden had continued to rise at a very high rate, which made it difficult for those seeking affordable homes; WDC was therefore when appropriate joining up with Housing Associations to try to save and complete insolvent developments, for the benefit of local people.

Committee Matters
The Chairman’s only announcement being that he had nothing to announce, we lingered but briefly on this item and proceeded to the reports of the various committees.  The first of these was Highways, Transport & Lighting, whose chairman had already commented on the Station Hill work; nevertheless, she felt bound to comment again that the high specification had meant the new surface was very expensive but should last for many, many years.  After this highlight, we slowly sank to the level of considering ownership of buckled manhole covers in the Lower High Street, via our new friend the Fire Station car park, for which it appeared that planning permission, if needed, had not been applied for.  Planning matters, so often an excuse for wailing and sighs, produced the happy news that the forthcoming winter’s Lapland at Bewl would be in the car park and would therefore be removed promptly afterwards – eliciting the wry comment that so long as it did not snow (the cause of its financial failure this year), it should be a great success.  The Recreation Ground Management Committee had again not met, which in no way inhibited its chairman from reporting: the kicking wall had now been moved and was being enjoyed at that very moment by a couple of youths making the most of the balmy evening, and the allotment holders were apparently grateful for its change of position.  Finally, the Environment Committee, proud of the fact that it had met, reported on a number of matters, including a proposal that WDC should install its own eighteenth century style litter bins in the High Street, of which further details were awaited.

Finance and Community Engagement
Finance is in our conclave no more likely to produce belly-laughs than it does in the wider community, and this was true yet again as we turned our combined intellect to the income and expenditure for the first three months of the financial year (too early to be significant), our Financial Regulations (not bust, so don’t mend), and accounts payable (inevitable), so we moved on to the Community Engagement Strategy.  This sounds suspiciously like a last-government buzz phrase, which of course it is; it is also however a necessary part of maintaining our Quality Council status (which has a similar ring but has not yet been subjected to the coalition axe).  Fortunately, as a body whose meetings are, as required by law, open to the public (when members of the public, unlike councillors, can raise non-agenda items even when they have – and usually because they have – a prejudicial interest which would bar one of us from participating), community engagement is not a problem.  Unsatisfied members of the public have also learnt that they can lie in wait to lobby us, or bury hatchets, in the pub afterwards.  Nevertheless, one of our number raised the frequently debated question of whether, if users are represented (in a non-voting capacity) on the Recreation Ground Management Committee, local residents should not have similar representation.  It is all a question of how best to try to look after the interests of parishioners as a whole, rather than those of any particular section of them.  After a stimulating rehearsal of all the arguments, we decided to maintain the status quo. 

A couple more boring items of business despatched, we were permitted to repair elsewhere to celebrate our forthcoming August break, when the interests of parishioners continue to be in the forefront of our minds, rather than actually debated.  So it was cheering to reach the usual canine retreat and find already gathered there various locals who had also devoted a large part of their evenings to considering the interests of our parishioners, or at least some of them.

Next Meeting
The Council does not meet in August so our next meeting will be on Thursday, 9th September, 2010, at 7.30 pm at the Pavilion, Sparrows Green Recreation Ground, as usual.  Do come.

Notes on the meeting held on Thursday, 10th June, 2010

Prelude
Nothing seems to stand still in Wadhurst, except the traffic in the High Street.  So it was that we were invited to gather half an hour early in our council chamber at the Pavilion to enjoy a display by the Bocking Collection trustees of some of the collection – and very interesting it was too.  The catalyst for this was that the collection has been found a new home in our lovely dry pavilion instead of its previous incarceration in a damp dungeon at the Commemoration Hall.  This was the trustees’ way of thanking the Parish Council for the new accommodation.  Our meeting then started with a brief reminder of who Charles Bocking was, how he came to assemble the collection, why he passed it to the Parish Council for safekeeping, and our duty in that regard to future generations.

Start
In spite of this well-spent prelude, our meeting proper started only five minutes late, when our chairman called us to order with his customary mild firmness.  The public gallery was scarcely overflowing, as it has been for other recent meetings, with but one member of the public present and no axe-grinders in sight.  We accepted the apology of our absent member, welcomed Bob Tidy back after his illness, and proceeded to consider the written report of our PCSO.  This consisted mainly of a statement of the policing priorities agreed by the Neighbourhood Panel at its recent meeting and a brief summary of the few local crimes; this included two shop thefts a couple of days earlier, for which arrests had been made.

News from On High
The Public Forum having produced only helpful information from our visitor, we approved our previous minutes without comment, as usual, and called upon Bob Tidy to say his bit.  This started on an upbeat note with the news that the new Library at the Commemoration Hall would open on Saturday 17th July and everyone is encouraged to go and admire it; as this also happens to be the Scarecrows weekend, the new facility can expect quite a mass visitation.  Unfortunately, after mentioning conservation of wild flowers on our verges, he descended into doom and gloom; the new government had instructed ESCC to cut £8million of budgeted expenditure in the current year (of which but nine months remain) and, as an encouragement, would reduce the central government grant by the same amount: Adult Care and Transport & Environment would be the chief sufferers.  Against this, some central controls and quangos were being abolished, meaning that the 200-300 additional staff taken on in each of the last few years to cope with their demands would no longer be needed.  In spite of having to cut back on virtually everything, they must maintain front line services.

Less High
Next, it was Bob Standley’s turn to report on Wealden matters; wilting violet that he is, he failed to report that he had been elected Leader of the council, and reported only on its administrative matters.  Like the County, our District Council had been instructed to make a ten per cent cut in costs, but as they had budgeted for cuts whatever government might emerge, this was less dire than it appeared; furthermore the cuts were small because they were simply a proportion of the mean and meagre grants Wealden had received under the previous administration.  To ensure that the reduction in central government direction would not be enjoyed to the full, the government were now demanding that any item of expenditure over £500 must be disclosed; the supply and publication of such information has a cost attached.

Chairman’s Announcements
So we moved on to the cabaret section of our agenda – except that on this occasion our chairman took us seriously through the draft annual report we have to make to our beloved parishioners, and then to the maintenance of the churchyard towards which we make a contribution.

Highways, Transport & Lighting Matters
The cabaret actually materialised in the report of this committee, when we had to agree to ask Wealden District Council to engage in the due process of consulting us about the time restrictions we wish to impose in the Washwell Lane car park and thirty of the spaces in the main car park; eventually we established that the consultation might extend to other “stakeholders” such as the Business Association and even the public.  This is of course part of the overall scheme of obtaining additional parking spaces at the fire station and encouraging long-term parkers to use them.  Before getting to this bundle of fun, we had had to sit through a report that the zebra crossing was not dead but might move further down the High Street after all, and the news that the Station Hill resurfacing in the first full week of July might be achieved in four days of road closure but that access to the station would be maintained somehow or other.  As with all good cabarets, there was widespread audience participation on many of the topics raised, including whether damage to fingerposts resulted from human or vehicular misconduct, and the past refusal of the railway authorities to fix an additional lamp onto their existing standard so as to shine onto the road at the station entrance to make it safer for pedestrians crossing at that point.

Other Committees
The Planning Committee report was unexceptional, but coloured by the knowledge that one local resident appeared to be seeking a phsycho-analysis of its workings to explain perceived inconsistencies in the comments it had passed as a consultee to Wealden District Council, in particular on floodlighting matters.  Next came the Recreation Ground Management Committee with three requests, all of which were graciously and rapidly approved: to move the new kicking wall to a position where it would not endanger allotment holders, to install a basket ball hoop out of the grant earned for being a Quality Council, and to permit the planting of further screening vegetation if required as a condition of any planning permission for tennis court floodlights.  Under Finance, our Clerk was congratulated on the complimentary report from the Internal Auditor, and thus ended the published agenda.  The only remaining item being Urgent Issues at the discretion of the Chairman, we were surprised but delighted when he felt this an appropriate heading under which to congratulate Councillor Gadd on her marriage the previous weekend, as do we.

Next Meeting
The next meeting of the Council will be on Thursday, 8th July, 2010, at 7.30 pm at the Pavilion, Sparrows Green Recreation Ground, as usual. 

Notes on the meeting held on Thursday, 13 May, 2010

Start
As you, Gentle Reader, well know, your Parish Council has no politics other than the common desire to do what is best for our parishioners, so our debates are not coloured by whatever happens to be the prevailing hue, or lack of it, in Westminster.  It remains to be seen whether the mooted relaxation in the disclosure regime for local councillors and other measures promised to ease our plight will actually materialise; cynicism can be a great comfort at times like these.  Our deliberations at this, our first meeting since the general election, were unaffected by the change of government, apart from the occasional predictable reference to coalition.  Indeed, so relaxed was the atmosphere as we gathered that your scribe wondered whether our chairman designate (up for re-appointment) was ever going to stop dictating instructions (or so it seemed) to the reporter from the Courier and call us to order.  Silly scribe!  It was the chairman of yesteryear who eventually came to life a full five minutes late, seized the chair and asked for nominations for election to our highest office.  Tom Doyle, the only candidate, was duly and unanimously re-elected and the meeting carried on under his benign rule.

Jobs
This being our Annual Meeting, jobs had to be allocated and committee appointments made.  They were, virtually unchanged from last year.  Jan Pearman was duly reappointed Vice-Chairman.  The committees, in case they are of interest, are now composed as follows, the first-named in each case being chairman, and omitting for the sake of brevity Christian names and indications of sex.  Environment:  Whatmore, Gadd, Gates, Kent, Mamlok, Wheeler; Finance: Doyle, Monaghan, Phipson, Price, Standley, Whatmore; Highways, Transport & Lighting: Monaghan, Berger, Colvin, Gadd, Phipson, Whatmore, Wheeler; Planning: Berger, Bell, Kent, Mamlok, Monaghan, Standley, Whatmore; Recreation Ground Management: Phipson, Pearman, Standley, Whatmore (and representatives from the Junior Football Club and the Tennis Club); Personnel: Price, Bell, Kent, Monaghan, Wheeler.

Police and Public
Having accomplished our annual duties, we resumed the normal agenda of a parish council meeting and noted the three apologies for absence and the lack of any interests to declare.  Our PCSO having business elsewhere, she had submitted a written report which included the sad break-in and theft from Costcutters and four other incidents.  Then it was time for the Public Forum, when the only stranger present expressed strong support on behalf of the Business Association for the car parking proposals but urged caution in introducing them, being fully aware of the law of unintended consequences.  The minutes of our previous meeting attracting as usual no comment, we leapt into unexplored territory.

News from On High
Bob Tidy being still ill, the floor was clear for Graham Wells, whose turn it was to report on District Council matters.  This being the only possible opportunity for a political diatribe, he announced that he would talk rubbish, and proceeded to do so:  641 households in Wealden District have joined their more advanced brethren and are now composting their household waste, and the recycling scheme has been embraced with gusto by most local inhabitants.  He told us also of the possibility that the housing allocation might be reviewed by the new government, that WDC had opted to continue with a leader and cabinet rather than a directly elected mayor, and of the steps being taken to work closely with town and parish councils to achieve a greener Wealden.

Chairman’s Announcements
The Chairman reported on the visit to Aubers to mark the tenth anniversary of twinning, and the several very moving events and visits in which he had joined.  The Aubersois were already planning for the centenary of the Battle in 2015 and we should be doing likewise; it is easy for us to forget the traumas they suffered in both World Wars.  As a Quality Council, we had received a grant of £766 from the Sussex Associations of Local Councils, and we must find a good community project to which to put it.  The Chairman instructed us all to think – a novel concept in some chambers, but not in ours.

Highways, Transport & Lighting Matters
These provided two opportunities for us to engage in our favourite activity of talking at once about mostly irrelevant matters.  The first was the allegation that eight tons of material had already been used by ESCC to patch up the potholes on Station Hill; it was agreed that this must be nonsense but it did elicit the information that only a hole exceeding 4cm (just over 1½ inches to those who were educated in pre-metric times) in depth qualifies for emergency repair.  Like bad dentistry, the temporary stoppings seemed to get dislodged within hours and were therefore a fearful waste of money and effort, particularly as ESCC said it would take only four days to resurface the road completely.  Scarcely had we agreed to ask the County Council to expedite this exercise, now due in early July, before we sauntered with our eyes wide open into car parking.  The recent survey had not of course produced definitive information, and each of us of course knew in what respect it was misleading and why, but it had indicated that virtually all the Washwell Lane bays and half those at the Greyhound were occupied by all-day parkers; other users parked for a short time only – about 25 minutes in most cases.  If all-day parkers could be diverted elsewhere, the parking problem would be solved at a stroke, perhaps.  The proposal, supported by the fire authorities but not by our local firemen, to create long-term spaces at the Fire Station should be pursued.  We had approved it in principle but still awaited the detail.

Other Committees
Planning matters were approved without debate, so we heard from the chairman of the Recreation Ground Management committee of the popularity of the new play equipment – too popular in the case of the kicking wall where balls and linguistic excesses were causing a problem in the neighbouring allotments.  The committee would meet to consider the problem.  There would be a formal opening ceremony later in the month in which the Primary School would play the major part.  Environmental and Finance matters proving unusually unexciting, the meeting ended shortly before nine o’clock, when no-one seemed in a hurry to leave and only three grumpy old men seemed to need to slake their thirsts.

Next Meeting
The next meeting of the Council will be on Thursday, 10th June, 2010, at 7.30 pm at the Pavilion, Sparrows Green Recreation Ground, as usual. 

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