26th July 2007

Dear Councillor Woolner

MATTERS ARISING FROM THE PARISH COUNCIL MEETING OF 16TH JULY 2007

Further to my attendance at the Parish Council meeting of 16th July 2007, I have a number of concerns that I would like addressed.  I am therefore writing to you as a member of the Parish Council and hope that you will bring these matters to the attention of your fellow councillors!

The first of these concerns regards a discussion that took place at the Parish Council Playing Field Committee meeting of the 21st of May 2007 that failed to appear in the minutes.  The chairman stated that he had received a request from an unknown organisation about the possibility of using the playing field for a fund raising event.  A discussion ensued about who should be allowed to use the facilities of which the outcome was, that providing it is a lawful organisation and activity, anyone should be allowed to use the field (the statement the more the merrier was in fact used) and that if the organisation was within the Parish, no charge should be made.  Not only was this statement not minuted but it was in fact contradicted at the July meeting during a discussion about how much to charge and the “type of organisations” allowed to use the field.  There was a feeling amongst the parishioners present that this was a subtle (or perhaps not so subtle) way of excluding FLAT from using the facilities!

The second issue is that of the Parish Council’s public liability insurance.  This was discussed at the May meeting and it was clearly stated by the clerk that as long as any activity was a lawful use and with the council’s permission, it would be covered.  This was minuted to this affect.  However, this was again contradicted at the July meeting when the Parish Council appeared to be applying coverage of the PL insurance to “selective events and organisations”.  This again appeared to be a deliberate attempt to exclude FLAT from using the Parish facilities.  After much discussion the clerk agreed to clarify exactly who and what are covered by the PL insurance.  We would like a written response to this, accompanied by any documents that back up the council’s decisions.

Finally (for now) we would like to publicly state our dissatisfaction with the way that the council have kept any discussions of the wind farm off your agenda.  We feel that it is an abuse of the democratic process to ignore what is clearly the biggest issue within the Parish at the current time.  At the May meeting, in a written statement, Councillor Woolner requested that “past mistakes be rectified” and that the issue should be discussed at the May meeting.  The clerk appeared to hide behind “procedures” to keep it off the agenda  for that meeting but I fail to see how the council can justify it not being on the agenda for either the 16th of July or 27th of July meetings. I would like a written explanation of the council’s actions.

Yours sincerely

[signed]

Lyndon Mason
FLAT Chairman and local parishioner.