Agenda 18th March 2014

Wendy, I am sending this to the ‘official’ website as well as directly to you, so that you will be fully aware in time for the meeting on the 18th March
Here is the message:-
Hello, Wendy
I have just had a conversation with Ian Kirk, who told me that the Parish Council had been told by your contractor that I had made insulting remarks about the Council or Councillors when I went to investigate the chain saw activity on the buddleias down Page’s passage.
This is not true.
I did indeed go to find out what was going on, when I heard chainsaws going in Page’s passage and saw the buddleias crashing to the ground. I knew that the council has intended to tidy up the overhanging vegetation on footpaths, but was shocked to see that the colourful buddleias were not just being ‘tidied’, but were being cut right down to knee height, and so finished for this year, if not for ever. I asked the people what they were doing, and was told by the head that they were doing what they had been told to do by the Parish Council.
Naturally, I was not happy to see these colourful shrubs taken right out, in this way, but I did NOT make any rude or insulting remarks about the Council or its members. What I did say to the lead contractor, in one sentence, was “ the Parish Council told you, well, let’s see what other clearances they will make” I said no more than this.
What I had in my mind was that the footpath down the north side of Middle Street has for ages been overhung by foliage, which is OK in daylight, but in darkness cannot be seen. So anybody walking down the Middle Street footpath, in darkness, has either to cover their eyes or else abandon the footpath and walk down the road itself. This is made worse by the lack of lighting output, as I wrote to you about earlier. The situation has been better or worse over years, but there has never been a comprehensive clearance of obstructions to pedestrians.
So what I meant by my simple remark was simply that if the Parish Council has ordered radical cutting back of foliage, then OK, but let the Council clear all the walkways, and not just a few of them. No clearance was made on the footpath I mention.
Wendy, I am sorry to write in this way, but I do not like to have people thinking and gossiping, behind my back, about things I have not said or meant. I am very prepared to stand by and justify anything I have said or done, but I also expect that people will be as open with me as I will be with them. If the Parish Council is unhappy about anything they think I may have said, then please will they tell me, so I can either justify it or set the record straight.
What I am trying to do here is to set the record straight.
Best regards
Tim