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Oving Parish Council News Update
New Clerk
After many years service Glyn Thomas has retired from the position of clerk. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Glyn for all the hard work that he has put in on behalf of the village and wish him well with his new spare time.
We have been very fortunate in securing Sue Mordue as our new clerk. Sue lives in North Marston and is clerk to a number of local parishes including North Marston, Whitchurch and Weedon so is well known in the area and of course knows the people and processes well at AVDC and BCC.
You may contact Sue on 01296 670707 or email her at clerk@oving.org
Village Improvements
New street lights have been ordered and are due to be erected in The Pightle anytime now. The new design was agreed with residents and the replacement is as a result of serious corrosion which makes repair expensive and only a short term measure.
A new dog bin will be sighted on Church Lane. Dog fouling continues to be a problem in the village despite the availability of dog bins. In addition some people are walking dogs on the Rec, allowing them to foul and not disposing of the mess. Should this continue banning dogs on the Rec will have to be seriously considered.
Although this winter was not as bad as the previous one for snow we have decided to order additional grit bins to be placed around the village. Despite intensive lobbying we have not been able to get BCC to grit Bowling Alley so provision will be made for bins along this route.
Following a formal tender process, Lynch Garden Services have been award the contract to cut the greens and verges. The first cut has already taken place and we are pleased with the result. Please let Sue know if any areas have inadvertently been missed.
May Elections
Thursday May 5th sees local government and Parish elections. Chris George has moved away from the village and Stuart Nicholls will not stand this time around. Many thanks to them for all the hard work they have put into the Parish council. Anyone interested in nominating themselves can obtain the necessary forms from AVDC. The deadline is the 4th April.
Playground
It is great to report some very good news. The finishing touches are being put to the final design of the new playground which, it is planned, will be in place this summer. Several thousand pounds have been raised in the village through some memorable and enjoyable fundraising events. However, to realise the ambitions for the playground it was evident that the amount raised would need to be supported by a grant. Oving Parish Council had been successful in obtaining a grant of £49,022 from WREN through the Landfill Communities Fund, enabling the playground to go ahead.
Thanks to all those in the village who have supported and the fund raising events and special thanks to Amanda Barber, Helen Barrett, Francesca Bateman, Kath Cheetham, Rachel Joy, Mitch Linton, Emma Ludlow, Ali Murray and Sarah Westacott for their hard work in canvassing the children, finding suitable equipment, liaising with suppliers etc. Thanks also to Mary Peeters for crafting the WREN application.
Pavilion and Meeting Room
At its meeting on 8th March the Parish Council made an important decision which will significantly affect our ambitions for improvements at the Recreation Ground.
Villagers will be aware that we had intended, with the aid of lottery funding, to build a new, dual purpose building to serve as sports changing rooms and pavilion on the one hand, and as a village community meeting room for a wide range of village activities from playgroups to pilates and from coffee mornings to club room. The cost of that building was estimated at around £370,000.
The Council was disappointed to learn in December 2010, when the criteria were announced, that our ambitions to get a large grant from the lottery would not be realised because these grants will only be given to areas of serious deprivation. We are excluded on the basis of our postcode.
We do have a very good case to win smaller grants ( just like the one from WREN above) but these will not, in the foreseeable future, amount to enough money to build both the Pavilion and Meeting room as we had hoped.
We have decided therefore to build a smaller building for use as a village community / meeting room and to give the existing pavilion a spruce up to extend its life until a new building can be put up in its place. Having obtained a new estimate from the architect, we think these new proposals will cost about half of our original scheme and are achievable in a reasonable timescale.
Fund raising events are continuing to be successful and enjoyable and there are smaller grants available – we can and will ask WREN for further funds. A combination of these grants and local fundraising should enable us to achieve our objective within a timescale we can all work towards.
The new building will go next to the new playground mentioned earlier in this bulletin.
Sunday Football
Much has been written on this subject however the Parish Council would like to place on record a few facts. Sunday football is not and never has been disallowed on the recreation ground. A full review of all documentation has taken place and the PC is very clear on this point. The PC is however committed to the Rec being used as much as possible and will continue to support its use for all age groups in all relevant sports to promote fitness and wellbeing. Furthermore the PC is clear that bad or abusive language is unacceptable from any user of the Rec and will deal with regular offenders by denying them use. The PC has fully debated this issue at a number of meetings, taken into consideration the views of residents, however submitted, but remains of the view that Sunday football is a normal and reasonable activity to take place on a village recreation ground. The PC agreed this position some time ago and under standing orders must not revisit this decision for a given duration – it has never banned a discussion or further decision but is merely following due local government process.
Annual Parish Meeting
This will be on Thursday 25th May at 8.00pm in All Saints Church. Everyone is cordially invited to attend and if previous year’s meetings are anything to go by it promises to be lively, entertaining and informative!
Best Wishes
Ambrose McGinn
Chairman
Oving Parish Council
31st March 2011
T: 641026 e: ambrose_mcginn@oving.org
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