WADHURST PARISH COUNCIL

Notes in the absence of any meeting in August, 2010

Disaster
August, as every reader knows, is one of the months when the Parish Council does not meet but leaves the parish to continue ungoverned – which it normally does admirably.  This year, however, disaster struck; no sooner had we all departed for our country seats in and around Wadhurst than we were hotly pursued by a cleft-stick email telling us that our wonderful Clerk had been appointed Town Clerk of Crowborough and would be leaving us in early September.  This is no ordinary disaster, of the sort which parish councillors take in their stride; this is a devastating disaster.  In her nine years as our Clerk, Philippa has sorted out our procedures, ensured that we comply with the law and the Code of Conduct in every respect, and has run the parish with a light but firm touch; she has taken the bookings for the Pavilion at Sparrows Green and organised any work needed there, she has revolutionised our payments and accounting systems, her accounts have passed every audit, internal or external, with flying colours, she has provided wise guidance to individual councillors and to committees, and she has always been cheerful and charming with it.  In short, we shall miss her dreadfully.  But life must go on, and the process of finding a worthy successor is in train, to liven up our August somnolence.

Interests
One announcement eagerly awaited from the Government is whether it will live up to Conservative promises to reform the rules on “interests” as they affect local councillors.  We pointed out last month that a local resident objecting to noise at the Recreation Ground would, if a councillor, have a prejudicial interest preventing them from participating in debate on the topic.  The Times has recently gone further and pointed out that a councillor who had stood for election on a particular platform would be similarly constrained.  A prejudicial interest is one on which the voter on the Clapham omnibus would expect the councillor to be unlikely to be able to come to a balanced decision (eg like our hypothetical councillor, by declaring his or her position before hearing the arguments); because of natural caution, this leads in many cases to the withdrawal of everybody who knows anything about the topic under debate.  As a former Prince of Wales once said: “Something must be done.”

Is anything new?
At the end of the First World War, the government was concerned that the many unemployed, demobilised soldiers roaming the streets might give rise to civil unrest, so they swore in a good few of them as Special Constables.  The Prime Minister’s recent suggestion that people should volunteer as reserve policemen therefore has a familiar ring to it – even if the former Home Secretary Alan Johnson’s response was that volunteers are more suitable to run the Scouts than as police; he, like so many, apparently has no idea what the Special Constabulary is.  Special Constables have been in existence since time immemorial when people policed themselves, and today citizens still have a duty to support the police.  In 1831, an Act of Parliament granted Specials all “powers, authorities, advantages and immunities” as full-time serving constables, and that remains broadly the case today.  Although unpaid volunteers, Specials are fully trained and have, in most Police Forces, the same powers as their regular counterparts; they carry warrant cards, on or off duty, with all that that entails.  It is plain wrong to think that because they are not paid they are not real police; contrast this with the position of the paid PCSOs whose purpose is to provide a “reassuring presence” (in David Blunkett’s words) but who can do little except radio for police assistance.  The Prime Minister’s announcement, however, mentioned the economy, rather than Afghanistan.

European Union
Another area where the Government might commit itself is in its attitude to the EU.  We have so far heard few allegations that the trials and illogicalities of life are caused by “European Law”.  Could this signal a change?  As regular readers of this august publication will know, so-called European Law is enacted by or under the authority of our own parliament, in an expansive and usually repressive interpretation of an EU Directive on the topic.  Much time and tribulation would be saved if we could throw off this inheritance of Thatcherism and simply enact the wording of the Directive without expansion or deviation.  Our sensible judges could then interpret the law with discretion and common sense.

Turkey
Amongst the matters needing resolution within the European Union is whether to admit Turkey.  Is it, as our Prime Minister has been proclaiming, highly desirable that it should be permitted to join, or is it, as some Jeremiahs would have it, an alien place, full of Muslims from whom we should keep our distance?  This year marks the 95th anniversary of the disastrous Dardanelles campaign, when so many Australians and New Zealanders lost their lives in achieving nothing – except, it has to be said,  nationhood; it is virtually a rite of passage for young people from those nations to visit, and preferably take part in one of the annual Anzac Commemorative Services on the Gallipoli peninsular.  Mustafa Kemal was one of the Turkish commanders in the battle, showing exceptional brilliance in exploiting Anzac weaknesses.  Later known as Ataturk, he was the founder and first President of modern Turkey, converting it from an uneducated Ottoman remnant to a modern, secular state with phonetic latin script in place of Arabic symbols, but with the capital at Ankara in Asia instead of Constantinople.  He composed a poem relating to Gallipoli, which was read aloud by serving Turkish Army Officers at the Australian Service of Commemoration at their Lone Pine Cemetery, immaculately kept up like all the cemeteries on the peninsular.  The poem translates as follows: it does not smack of wild triumphalism:

Those heroes that shed their blood, And lost their lives, You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies And the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side Here in this country of ours. You, the mothers, Who sent their sons from far away countries Wipe away your tears, Your sons are now lying in our bosom And are in peace After having lost their lives on this land They have become our sons as well.

Next Meeting
The next meeting of the Council 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, 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. 

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