From our Reporter at the Parish Council Meeting
THERE WERE SEVEN OF THEM - not dwarfs, but our loyal members of the Parish
Council. There was no Chairman, no Clerk, no ECDC rep, no CCC rep, and it was
all very tidy as everyone had filled the seats nearest the top table so that
one had a wonderful view of the whole proceedings. A rare treat.
Andrew Camps chaired the meeting and explained that Steve Kent-Phillips was Karen for the evening. One member unprepared for this moved into shock and said "Gosh, that's some transformation", which made everyone look at Steve in a new light. But they were worried about the Chairman who had been on holiday at the last meeting and was still away - "is he on holiday again?" - "no, he's still on the same holiday." Hmm!
The meeting quickly moved to ECDC and CCC Reports. There were none. Both representatives had said they would not be at this meeting but neither dared to say they would not be sending any reports. But who can blame them. Why say anything is there if nothing worth saying.
Initially there was some confusion about the whereabouts of the ECDC and CCC correspondence. Andrew eventually found an ECDC file and we witnessed the dangers of commenting on a document which you are seeing for the first time. It takes a moment or two to discover what it's about, whether it's useful, whether it's worth reading out. And there were delays until the temporary clerk got control of the problem, and, looking over Andrew's shoulder, said "Just, another agenda, dump", and the meeting started moving forward again. The one outstanding document was an ACRE event which the PC thought should be attended as it intends to acquire "Quality Parish Status". Did you know that? And Karen is going to be trained as a Quality Parish Clerk. Doesn't that make the heads of everyone in the village just hang a little higher. Doesn't that make everyone ever so proud and pleased no matter what street lighting they are given?
Then, what joy, the CCC correspondence file was discovered and this was very full. Fortunately Steve was on top of the situation now and got most into the dump box in double quick time - phew! At one stage Andrew picked up a paper, said "Ah, that's the complaint we had", and promptly put it on one side. What was in it I wondered, this was possibly the most exciting part of the evening, surely Crier readers will want know. Alas, it has now vanished forever.
By ten minutes past eight the meeting had reached item 7, "Resurfacing the Play Area". The childrens' playground is really quite expensive to maintain. The one quote for resurfacing the swings is about £4,500. GeoffreyWoollard thought this an astonishing amount of money and suggested they should buy the material and lay it themselves. He said he would the first one there helping - once his ankle had recovered. Eric was equally keen to get out a spade, and others were swept along, became enthusiastic, and thought of asking parents to roll up their sleeves. Some were concerned about the job being done well enough but whoever did the job would need to be inspected and approved. Andrew was a little sceptical and sounded like the man who had been doing similar tasks for years and raised some practical problems. It looked as he'd been there, and had done that - many times.
Now we came to the big one, the reason why Eric was so keen to have Geoffrey on the PC. It was the National Trust's (NT) Proposals for the Fens. Geoffrey had already registered his opposition and his aim was to alert all the villages to the full dangers of the project.. He said we would all be affected in some way by the flooding, especially our Chairman who would be "right in the middle of it". Modesty must have prevented Geoffrey from mentioning his own house. With about half the parish being bought up and flooded, Eric and Geoffrey saw little benefit to anyone and wondered if we wanted "more tourists and pestilential flies". Someone thought the Red Lion wouldn't mind more tourists but wasn't sure if it needed any more flies. Eric thought it "madness" to flood half of our 4,000 acres and to destroy something it had taken years to drain. Steve said it was unlikely to happen. Geoffrey countered by saying "that's what we thought years ago" - but events have now moved on and the NT is buying up pieces of land stretching from Burwell right through to Quy.
Fortunately there may be a chance for any interested person to see the NT at work. Another "Public Local Enquiry" about Harrison's Drove is being held at the Gardiner Hall in Burwell on Tuesday morning 28 November at 10.00am. Some years back the land containing Harrison's Drove was bought by the NT which wished to restrict access (or even close) the well-established paths. Burwell residents maintained that the Drove was a BOAT (Byway Open to All Traffic) and a Public Local Enquiry was held in September 2003. At this Enquiry it seems "the NT brought down a top London Barrister to make the locals look silly, but he didn't succeed." But he did succeed in persuading the Inspector to reject the BOAT claim. Afterwards it appears that a compromise was reached and a bridleway was accepted by all parties, including the CCC. If that is the case, why this new Enquiry? It is not unreasonable to speculate whether the NT is now opposing the Bridleway, whether it will bring down it's big flash London lawyer, or whether it is just a simple ratification of the informal compromise. For anyone with the interest and time there may be a good piece of informative entertainment on that Tuesday morning - and it's free.
Geoffrey then started on the Bridge of Reeds and its £20 million cost. The Lottery has refused a grant and Geoffrey quoted the Evening News suggestion that local industry and wealthy bigwigs should find the money as it is an integral part of NT's plan. He spoke of this with horror and members appeared to agree with him. The upshot of all this is that a letter will be sent to all the other PCs affected containing a resolution opposing the NT scheme (see the official PC report for the full text) and also the statement that the SP PC "asserts that the Bridge of Reeds is a waste of money."
The Recreation Ground arrangements are still proceeding slowly though Steve was too nervous to say very much. I suspect he didn't want to be like Geoffrey Boycott who always, when England are 195 for 1, says something like "EE, they're rubbish, we're whopping them, they can't play for toffee!". After this bit of Boycott wisdom England usually lose 6 wickets for 18 runs within twenty minutes.
During Any Other Business Sandra Ginn asked about the travellers who had taken up so much time at the last meeting and had aroused such rage and fury. The meeting was puzzled by the question and wondered why Sandra had asked it. She said she was curious whether there was any news about the travellers and wondered why they weren't on the Agenda. "Ah, they've gone" was the simple answer.
With immaculate timing Eric then took out a little book, gave a few coughs, and said "I was right and everyone was wrong about the way we voted at the last meeting." He then proceeded to read a lengthy passage about the "Mode of Voting" which proved he was absolutely right and that all voting should be by a show of hands. (Some people may worry about having obtained a position through an incorrect, even illegal, procedure!) Eric turned to Geoffrey and told him that the book, A Parish Councillor's Guide, used to belong to Geoffrey's cousin Lorie Woollard. When Lorie retired from the PC in 1958 he had given it to Eric. There was a slight concern whether it was out of date when someone suggested the date of the book was 1910. A careful study of the little book proved that it had been published in 1950. So that's alright. Everyone was mightily relieved they will now be following the correct procedures, and all went home happy.