Council Meeting

I got the time wrong. I thought the Council Meeting started at 7.30pm, but it actually started at 7pm, and I came in during the presentation by the local police officers. They were talking about parking during the Festival, and the difficulties there had been with Festival goers parking illegally all up Brecon Road. One of the people who had been given a parking ticket had even written to the Council, and complained in the letter that they had missed an event while they were moving the car!
There is going to be a meeting soon between the Highways Department, Town Council, Hay Festival and the Globe to make sure that parking is managed better during the Festival next year.
Parking came up more generally later in the evening, with a Powys wide movement to change the car parking fees to allow at least one hour of free parking. CRAP was mentioned - the Campaign for a Realistic Approach to Parking in Powys - and all the hard work that group have done to look at the issues surrounding parking in Hay. Gareth Ratcliffe said that there are now four supporters of CRAP on the Cabinet of the County Council, which makes change in that area more likely.

Another presentation was given by Mr Cook and Tracy Nettleton of the National Parks, who have decided to come out and meet people around the county to talk about planning, and find out what people's concerns are on the ground. They were asked about people driving off the road on the common land around Hay Bluff - which is illegal, and causes soil erosion. A park ranger recently had stones thrown at him when he stopped to talk to some motorcyclists who were riding illegally!

There was some concern about George the Town Cryer, who seems to have been lax in fulfilling his duties lately. The Council would like to have a word with him about it.

They talked about maintaining the path along the riverbank - a tree will be felled shortly, and they discussed strimming.

They also talked about the recycling facilities in the main car park, the profits from which are used for community projects - they earn about £700 a quarter from them, which all goes back into the town, so it's worth taking recycling down there rather than waiting for the bin men to take it away.

Mary Fellowes was at the meeting, as an observer, and she and John are giving up their work on the gardening around the Library this year. There was some discussion about who should take it over, and mental health charities were mentioned as a possibility.

Sue Felgate was going down to London to take part in a meeting about Timbuktu - and everyone is very concerned about the situation there. Hay is involved in an education project for girls there, and now the Islamists are in control of the city, the education service is being re-organised, with boys and girls being segregated into separate classes. Soon the use of French as the language of tuition will be banned, though nobody was sure which of the local languages would replace it.

And so we came to about half way through the meeting, with lots still to discuss - the concerns of local councillors are certainly wide ranging!