Notes from the PC Chairman:

Dear All

It seems to be only a week or so ago I was last burning the midnight oil to meet the copy deadline for the newsletter – however I am assured it was back in May, surely not!

So, what has been happening since May? Well, unlike my last Newsletter entry, things have been quite quiet on the PC front, which is a bit of a relief (well for me anyway). I can hardly believe that since my last missive we have (according to my sort of filed minutes) only had one planning application, for 15 Brookside, which the Council forwarded to SNC for approval but with comments. We have also been notified of a submitted appeal for one of the refusals on 17 Brookside.

With the planning bit over what else have we to talk about before I get onto one of my ‘pet’ subjects? The missing village sign……is still missing. This is a little bit like the contractor SNC gave the job to for our replacement sign. When quizzed by the Parish Clerk as to how things were getting along they came back to inform us they had given the job to a non- existent contractor – don’t ask me how, but there we go. We should get the sign back sometime in August or September (we hope).

The Housing Needs Survey plods slowly on. The latest development, which you may have picked up on, is that after all the proposed sites in Wappenham were rejected by SNC it appears that they may have found a potential site in Abthorpe that would absorb all the ‘cluster’ needs (including the Wappenham need) in a single small development. Not sure of any timescale, but I will keep you posted.

I must congratulate Jenny and the Village Hall team for picking what must have been the best Saturday of the summer to get a gang of labourers together to help demolish the old village hall loos. All went well (as confirmed by the resident Health & Safety adviser – although he was only 10 years old) and in 4 or 5 hours a huge impact was made. Let’s hope that the recovered bricks and tiles can be sold to a reclamation business so the Village Hall can boost its funds.

I was pleased to hear that the Recreation Ground committee were openly discussing with the Village Hall committee about joint initiatives involving the Village Hall and its surrounding area - it may be that in the future the synergies of both can combine in strength to make the hall a really valuable, lively, well=used asset for the village community.

Finally (at last I hear you cry) – Footpaths. There seems to have been rather a high volume of traffic (no pun intended) through the PC meetings on footpaths. It seems that not all is as it could be. Our Footpath Warden is (or may have had by the time you read this) having a meeting with the SNC/NCC Footpath people to try and get some repairs done where necessary, but also to get some clarification on landowners’ responsibilities. Always a tricky one but this is a two-way street (or path). They do their bit to keep things as they should and we respect their property and privacy. Which leads me onto the age-old problem of dog faeces. Please watch your dogs and if they defecate on the path clear it away – Thank you.

I have just remembered something very important – Village of the Year. After all the hard work put in by many village residents, we came up empty-handed on award night. There we all were in our best Chanel and Jimmy Choo’s only to be pipped to the post by another village. It’s a good job I had only spent 6 hours on the acceptance speech. In all seriousness, there had been a lot of effort put into the initial application and the judges’ visit, so again my thanks to all who helped – better luck next year!

Until next time!

With kind regards

Paul Featherstone