New NHS Dental Service for Hay

 I don't know about anyone else, but I haven't seen a dentist since just before covid lockdown, as the NHS dentist that I was going to see retired at that point.  The dental practice were unable to find a new NHS dentist, so only private dental services have been available in Hay since then.

All that is about to change, at least temporarily.

A mobile unit will be parking at the recreation grounds on Brecon Road until December.  After this, it will be moved to another location in Powys.

This will be a five day a week service, and patients will be invited to come in at the start of a session (morning or afternoon) and wait to be seen, so they can get through as many patients as possible.

Patients will be invited to the service from the existing dental waiting list for Powys, but there will also be emergency care available for people who dial 111 with dental swelling or pain.

Patients who need more complex treatment, or longer courses of treatment, will be referred to Brecon War Memorial Hospital, which has a dental unit.

So three cheers for the Town Council for providing a place for them to park, and all the other facilities they need.

Traffic Restrictions

 As Hay gets ready to open up to visitors again on 12th April, there's been some local concern about the traffic restrictions that will be put in place in the centre of town.  

Traffic restrictions, to aid social distancing, were put in place last year during the easing of the lockdown - that's when the flower boxes started appearing round town as well.

Once again, there will be pedestrianised areas and pick up points for collecting goods from local businesses at the edges of the restricted area.

Yesterday I saw Trudy, the Mayor, standing in the street outside Londis with a couple of local business owners, discussing the changes and why the council has had to bring them in, and she's also had a letter published in the Brecon and Radnor explaining what they are doing and why they are doing it.

There will be, for example, ten parking spaces in the main car park which will be free for people who stay for an hour or less, so they can just pop to the shops quickly.  They are also only closing the roads from noon onwards, so anyone who needs access to the centre of town can use their car in the mornings.

The Council is not trying to kill local businesses, as some opponents of the scheme have claimed.

Keeping the Library Open

 

I went past the Library the other day.  They were open for Click and Collect, with all the books ready for collection on a table by the door, in brown paper bags marked with the borrower's name.

The Community Interest Company, HayPublicLibrary.org have been negotiating with Powys County Council to keep the library open - they are trying to get the County Council to agree to a five year contract from 2021 - 2026.  As they report in this month's Wye Local, negotiations have reached a critical stage.  It's going well, but if they fail, Hay will lose the Library.  

So, what they need is a display of support from the local community.  Michael has been going round distributing the orange stickers to businesses and local residents (I've got one up in my window) and it would be very helpful to the campaign for everyone who can to display them.

It's not just about keeping the level of library service that we have now, either.  The CIC and HOWLS (Hay-on-Wye Library Supporters) have plans to expand the services that the library can offer.  For instance, Hay Town Council have awarded a grant to use in the library to establish a Climate Change Club, to be run by local young people (when people can meet in groups again!).

The CIC can be contacted on Query@HayPublicLibrary.org

Council Offices Up for Sale

It's finally happened - the Council Chambers are being sold off.  The sale includes the Annexe at the back of the building and the gardens and Powys County Council wants £400,000 for them.

Access Mobility Plan by the River

I had a chat today with a lady who lives along the road to the Co-op, and she's quite worried about plans she's heard for the area by the Gliss which is rented by Hay Council from the Water Board.
At the moment it's just a patch of rough ground, bordered by the Dulas Brook on one side. She said that Hay Council had been talking about plans to put in a new footpath and possibly benches, and even a bridge across the Dulas Brook to provide a new walkway to the Co-op. She was also worried because none of the residents along the road had been consulted about the plans.

So I went to Hay Council's website to look at the Council Meeting minutes.

The most recent minutes are from March, where an idea for providing better access to the riverbank for the disabled is discussed. The Council wanted to put together an Access Mobility Plan. No further details were given, apart from a possible pathway.
At the same meeting, they were interested in looking at a long-term plan to encourage disabled people to use the Miles Without Stiles routes which have been created around Hay. These are the public footpaths where stiles have been replaced by gates, to make wheelchair access possible.
They were also thinking about putting in information posts which would include audio information. Apparently GPs can now make prescriptions out for walking (rather than the more usual pills from the chemist), to encourage patients to walk further, and the Miles Without Stiles routes could be helpful in this, perhaps using the information posts as markers for how far the patient has to walk.
The Council also discussed the possibility of applying for a grant of £96,000 from the Visit Wales Tourism Fund. This would be for a project which would completely resurface the Old Railway Line (they estimated this would cost £56,000), with information boards and a life-sized wooden statue of a horse and carriage on the Old Tram Line (presumably the sort of carriage that had been used on the Tram Line). The Council would need to provide 20% match funding, but most of this could be in the form of volunteer hours. In March, this was put forward purely as an Expression of Interest.

Of course, the lockdown for Covid-19 began on 23rd March, so all of these plans may come to nothing.

I could find nothing in the Council minutes about a proposed bridge across the Dulas. They were talking about the houses that had flooded shortly before their meeting, though, and I would think that the construction of an extra bridge close to the point where the Dulas empties into the Wye might cause more problems for the houses upstream - so maybe not a brilliant idea?
It would also, of course, need to be discussed with Cusop Council, the Dulas Brook being the border between Hay and Cusop. The most recent minutes for Cusop Parish Council are from 18th March, when they were far more concerned with the possibility of Covid-19 lockdown, and made no mention of footpaths or bridges.

Town Council News

The column in WyeLocal reports that the precept for the coming year will be increasing by 19%, which apparently works out at about £10 for the year for the average household. The precept is the part of the Council Tax which is paid to the Town Council. The rest of the Council Tax goes to the County Council.
Over the last few years, the Town Council have been running the public toilets in Hay, and originally, they negotiated with the County Council so that they would have money to cover these costs, from the revenue collected from the car park. The County Council, however, refused to pay, leaving the Town Council to deal with the shortfall - and this is the only way they can do that, if we want the public toilets to stay open.
The Town Council also has to vacate the Council Chambers by the 4th May this year, and this means that the various tenants who are at present paying rent to the Town Council will also have to move out, and the Town Council will lose that revenue.
The Town Council already meet in a room away from the Council Chambers, at the Sports Pavilion on Brecon Road.

Death of Town Clerk

I was sorry to see, on Facebook, that Nigel Lewis, who had been Town Clerk for Hay Council for many years (and later their Financial Officer), has died. His funeral will be held on Friday 25th October, with a service at Hereford Crematorium at 10.30am and a Memorial service at St Michael's Church, Clyro at noon.

Town Council News

The councillors are changing round again. This time it's goodbye to Councillor Hugh Sawyer, who is moving on to a new business venture, and hello to Councillor Isobelle Keith, who works at PCI Pharma Services and has lived in Hay for two and a half years - her husband Tom grew up in the area.
Isobelle has hit the ground running as a member of the Town Council, as she is now the Co-ordinator for the Green Transport Action Plan. She has already set up a lift/car share group on Facebook at www.facebook.com/groups/238557719890177/
The Green Transport Action Plan is part of the Low Carbon Hay Steering Group, which was set up by the Town Council after they declared a climate change emergency. There are eight different topic areas, all with the aim to reduce the area's carbon footprint by 2030. They include: reducing business energy use, reducing domestic energy use, planting trees, working with Hay School and local secondary schools, transport, and supporting Plastic-Free Hay.
The Town Council is also supporting the Sustrans idea of a Hay to Brecon Cycle Path, more or less along the route of the old railway. This isn't possible along the whole route, as there are parts of the old railway line that have been built on, or are privately owned, but they hope to be able to re-route around those areas. Again, there is a Facebook page - www.facebook.com/pg/brecontohaycyclepath
Also on a green and sustainable theme, the Town Council mentions Hayfield Garden, the community garden on the other side of Hay Bridge, on Racquety Farm. They are keen to welcome new members to the group, which grows organic fruit and vegetables which are shared among the members, with the surplus being sold. They meet on Wednesdays and Saturday mornings, but people may be there on other days as well.
And finally, the newsletter that went out with WyeLocal has a thank you from the Town Council to Harold Coombes, who has been looking after the garden around the Council Chambers for the past 20 years and has now finally decided to retire!

Latest News from Hay Council

I haven't been going along to the Council meetings for a while, partly because I didn't have time to eat anything between the time I left work and the time the meetings started, and partly because the situation between the Town Council and the County Council didn't seem to change from one month to the next. So the following information has come from WyeLocal.

The Transfer of Assets has finally been decided - and not in Hay Town Council's favour despite long negotiations and a petition signed by 1,350 people.
So, the Town Council will continue to run the public toilets until 1st October, after which there will be, hopefully, another decision. To do this, they are having to increase the price of entry to 30p.
Meanwhile, the County Council has terminated the lease on the Council Chambers, to take effect in May 2020. This means that the Town Council will have to meet elsewhere, and the tenants of the council in the building will have to find other premises.
On a more positive note, the Town Council has received the draft lease for the Recreation Facilities, so that should be safe from closure.

The Town Council voted, at the beginning of the year, to accept that there is a Climate Emergency, and they are taking it seriously. They have a Low Carbon Group, which is working out what the Town Council can do, and they have ideas for several local projects. They are planning a community event in September.

A little while ago, I met Councillor Alan Powell taking a group of South Koreans around the Cinema Bookshop. They were from Gimhae, the first "Slow City" in South Korea. As well as seeing the bookshops, they went down to the Riverside Path to meet members of the Community Woodland Group and to see the chainsaw sculptures. They also met representatives of the Chamber of Commerce and Hay Festival.
Mayor Trudy Stedman also met the Swedish Ambassador, when they came for Hay Festival. They parked a bus at the Festival entrance.

Hay in Bloom is getting established as an annual event. Local businesses have already been judged for the competition (on Friday 26th July), but front gardens will be judged in the week of 2nd September, along with container planting around town.
The Town Council is also looking for ways to get children involved, by creating imaginative spaces in their front gardens for wildlife using recycled materials. There are ideas for attracting useful insects like bees on the Hay in Bloom Facebook page or the Hay Community Noticeboard.

South Korean Delegation

I was showing a customer where to find some books the other day, when a large party of young South Asian men came trooping up the stairs. Somewhere in the rear was town councillor Alan Powell, and he told me that they were a delegation from South Korea who had come to see what a Book Town is like. They were having a tour of the bookshops in town, followed by a talk at the Swan Hotel.
I thought it was nice that they were all wearing little badges with the Welsh and South Korean flags.

Climate Emergency

All over the country councils are declaring a Climate Emergency in response to the recent school strikes and protests such as the Extinction Rebellion movement.
Herefordshire have also done this, though it's unclear how serious they are about alleviating climate change in view of their continued support for a bypass. (Hereford Highways Dept. have planted two trees in the middle of Hereford's Commercial Street....).

In Hay, the Town Council declared a climate emergency at this month's regular council meeting. They were already moving in that direction by forming a Low Carbon Group to see what they could do locally, and they will be setting out their aspirations and action plan over the next six months.

On Wednesday 17th April, there will be a public meeting at the Globe at 7pm. It has been organised by the Hay and Talgarth Labour Party. There will be three speakers.
Rose Lynas, aged 12, organised the Hay School Strike.
Mike Thompson, physicist and lecturer (retired) at the Centre for Alternative Technology in Machynlleth and researcher in climate change will talk about carbon sequestration - he spoke recently at the Science Group in the Swan.
Dr Lynne Jones is a former MP for Birmingham Selly Oak, scientist and environmentalist (retired). She will talk about the political aspects of climate change.
Admission will be free, but there will be a collection to cover expenses.

The contact for further information is Sean O'Donoghue, at seanonwye@gmail.com
Sean is very active locally - as well as the Labour party, he's involved in the Hay, Brecon and Talgarth Sanctuary for Refugees group, and he's also part of a Rewilding Group that meets occasionally at Shepherds.

And while thinking about climate change and what we can do about it locally, there has been some talk about setting up a local Extinction Rebellion group - there's already an active one in Hereford, which meets at De Koffie Pot.

School Strike for Climate Action

On Friday at 11am I went up to the Clock Tower where the children who were striking from school were gathering to march to demand action on climate change.
There was quite a sizable crowd there:

A lad called Sam gave a speech to explain why they were all there, and then they marched round the town, chanting and waving their placards, led by a girl with a megaphone at the front of the march. Hay is not very big, so they ended up going up and down Castle Street about 4 times! As they went, they were collecting signatures on a petition to present to the Mayor, to ask Hay Town Council to declare a Climate Emergency.
At the War Memorial, they stopped again for more speeches. These kids had obviously done their research, and put a lot of thought into the speeches they gave. I think the youngest speaker was 12, Rosa, who was also the one who started organising the march in Hay (other marches were going on at he same time across Europe, as well as a few scattered ones around the rest of the world, including one in Mali!). Trudy the Mayor also said a few words - she was delighted that the children were getting involved in such an important issue.
Then there was more marching, finishing up at the Globe.
Here Rosa stood up to answer questions from the audience, about how they had organised themselves (word of mouth spreading between siblings and schools, mostly). Mayor Trudy said a few more words as she accepted the petition ("343 signatures...344....") and she USED THE MICROPHONE!:).
She said that she would take it to the next Council meeting on the first Monday of March to be voted on. She also said that she had to admit that the Town Council were divided about 50/50 on whether the children should be in school or not, but that she had been very happy when Rosa first approached her.
The Town Council has been trying various initiatives to get young people interested in the work of the council for some time, and here was a group of enthusiastic young people asking to get involved!
I wasn't feeling very well, so I left early, but when I went, the kids were finding out which schools were represented in the room and organising so that they all kept in touch. Schools included Fairfield High School, Lady Hawkins School from Kington, Clifford Primary School, and Michaelchurch Escley Primary School.
I spoke to one mum whose older child was attending the march in Hereford, where he goes to Sixth Form College, and whose younger son was in Hay. Then there was Tiger, who is home schooled, so his mum said he represented a whole school on his own! He stepped up as they were organising a committee, to represent home educated children in the area.
The boys from Fairfield (one of whom had sprayed his hair green for the event), were well aware that the school did not support them attending - the school had sent an email to all the parents saying that any child going to the march would be marked as having an unauthorised absence. This was in contrast to Lady Hawkins School, which was supportive of pupils who wanted to attend. One parent in the room wanted to know how children in Kington could be involved in future actions, as there are two big schools there.

I don't think these kids are going to stop at one march - the Climate Action movement is organising future events, and I think they're going to be involved in local initiatives. There was a lot of positive energy in the room.

Later I went into Londis, where one of the new town councillors who had been at the march was telling the staff there all about it. She was very enthusiastic about getting the children involved in local action.

There's also been a lot of discussion about the march on the Hay Community page on Facebook, both positive and negative.

Public Meeting - This is a Rainy Day

Talk of the reserves of money led to discussion of what those reserves are for - surely the Council is saving for a rainy day?
Alistair pointed out that this is a rainy day!

However, Trudy said that half the funds in the Town Council reserves were earmarked for a project. She didn't want to say what it was for to begin with, claiming commercial sensitivity, but after a brief whispered conversation with Rob Golesworthy she said that she could say what it was for. The Town Council have been trying for some time to find suitable land to extend the Cemetery, and time is running out. There are only enough new grave plots left for a couple of years at the current rate of expansion. So the money is to buy a new plot of land.
A question from the back of the hall was - what about the living? Aren't the services for the living more important than the dead?
Trudy replied that the cemetery was a service for the living, because it is where the families of the dead go to find solace. There was applause at this.

Someone else asked if there was enough money to build a new Youth Club, which is badly needed.
There isn't enough money for that.
A chap from the Scouts stood up. He said there were 300 Scouts and Explorers in the Hay area, and they are looking for a base to operate from. They actually have funding for this, but need backing. He was told to talk to HADSCO about it (so some positive networking came out of the meeting).

The County Council are meeting on 21st February to discuss the new budget, before all the relevant groups can react to the proposals - but there is a bit of time after that until the full County Council considers the budget.
One lady asked if the County Council meetings were open to the public. They are, and members of the public can even ask questions at a certain point in the proceedings. Some meetings, like the Cabinet meeting where they discussed Hay, are online as a webcast.
The member of the Cabinet said that the Cabinet had been discussing other, even more extreme measures, such as scrapping the subsidy for every bus service in Powys! He also said that they can't cut the children's and adult services (the County Council has been having severe problems in this area) or education.

The last, and possibly most important question, was - What does the County Council need to hear from Hay to communicate to them what the people of Hay want? What will convince them to change their minds?
There is a serious lack of trust between Hay and the County Council at the moment.
The Cabinet member was asked about this, and he said that as far as he was concerned, his word was his bond. That may well be true, but Hay has discovered to its cost that the Cabinet as a whole is quite happy to go back on agreements.

So the meeting came to a close without anything much resolved. Really the only ideas for raising money for the town were to increase the price of the toilets, and Hay needs rather more than that.

However, there was a petition going round the hall, and a lady said she would take more sheets onto the Thursday market, setting out what the Town Council wants to put before the County Council. I don't have a copy of the wording here (I was busy trying to read it, sign it, and carry on taking notes!) but it does give the Town Council something to go to the County Council showing that a large body of the population support their proposals.
These include fighting to keep the toilets open, fighting to keep the new library open, and trying to gain possession of the old library building to use for the town, in exchange for the money that is already in the reserves.

Public Meeting - Questions from the Floor

So now it was roving microphone time....

One person pointed out that Powys County Council were in a difficult position because their funding has been cut - leading to comments about the huge salary of the chief executive which was reported recently (set nationally) and a suggestion to save money by reducing the number of county councillors.
And while I'm thinking about this, later in the meeting it was pointed out by James Gibson-Watt that the formula for deciding how much money each county council gets is based on the population. Powys is big, and thinly populated - in fact the population is going down. There is low unemployment in Powys, but this is because we export our unemployed - young people move away so they can get jobs. In turn, this means there are fewer young families, and fewer children going to local schools - so the education funding is cut, and so on down a slow spiral to oblivion. What we need is a way of encouraging inward migration to Powys to boost our population and get more funding!

Volunteering was mentioned as a way to keep services - but why should people volunteer to run services they are already paying for out of their council tax? (Which will be going up next year).
In the case of the Library - volunteers can't run a library. They can assist, but a library needs a trained librarian, and it's the trained librarians that are going to be cut.

Several people said that Powys County Council do not have a coherent policy - they stagger from one crisis to the next. One example of this was the building of the new Museum/Library complex in Brecon, which keeps going over budget and for which there seems to be an open cheque book. This was, said the speaker, "ineptitude", and "they couldn't run a bloody bath!"

It was pointed out that Hay is important to the economy of Powys as a whole, as a tourist destination and base, and if Hay was supported the town could generate more income for the county. Hay deserves a more coherent policy from Powys - and Powys doesn't have a strategy!
The problems that we are facing now, said another speaker, are only going to recur. Can there be an agreement that Powys County Council don't renege on?

James Gibson-Watt took the microphone here, and said that the original agreement worked out between Hay Town Council and the County Council was a good one, and he doesn't understand why the County Council went back on it. It's important to stick to agreements or trust is destroyed. Smaller councils around Powys are being called on to deliver services that the County Council used to deliver, and so trust between them is essential, and needs to be restored. It is shortsighted to close down facilities now because once they're gone, they're gone for good. If we could keep going through this rough patch, retaining our facilities, we would come out of it into a much better position in the next few years.

The Town Council said that it was difficult for them, because very few members of the public turn up to council meetings, and when they did have a Meet the Councillor event only 20 people turned up even though they'd distributed over 2,000 leaflets, to every house in Hay.
To which the reply was - they've got a room full of people now.
Trudy said that, when dealing with the County Council, they felt like ten people in a room - and they needed the evidence that the people of Hay were supporting them, which would give them more power in negotiations.
The Town Council is also restricted by legislation in the way it chooses to spend its money. They can't just give a grant to the Library to keep it going. Again, the total amount they are allowed to give in grants is based on the electoral roll of Hay.

One of the ideas the Town Council do have involves the pot of money which has been sitting quietly in reserve for many years, and which is supposed to be used for a community initiative (this is from the days of the old District Councils, I think). The Town Council basically want to do a swap. The County Council gets that money - about £200,000 - and the Town Council gets the old Library building. The Town Council could then use the building for meetings and a variety of groups, and it would save Powys County Council money in the long term. The Town Council are meeting on Friday (today!) to discuss this.

So I'll end this post on that thought, and wrap up the report tomorrow.

Public Meeting about County Council Cuts - Here We Go Again!

The school hall was full when I got there - several of us latecomers ended up on a low bench by the wall. Most of the Town Council were there, along with Gareth Ratcliffe, James Gibson-Watt, and another local County Councillor who is also on the Cabinet - he's the one who was recently involved in a bit of controversy because he was in New Zealand, but he's back now.
There was a bit of faffing around to start with, because the tech didn't work, so they couldn't show the presentation they'd put together. Instead it was Mayor Trudy Stedman with a sheaf of notes and a microphone in her hand.

And here's a plea from someone who has been in many public meetings - if there is a microphone, USE THE MICROPHONE! And don't just hold it, bring it up to your mouth, and speak loudly as well, so that those of us at the back or with less than perfect hearing can follow what's being said!

So, Trudy introduced the County and Town councillors, and gave a brief run down of the story so far.
Starting around 2015, the Town Council spent two years negotiating with the County Council to save the public toilets and other public assets for the town. This involved the County Council giving the Town 20% of the car park takings, on the strength of which the Town Council took out a £70,000 loan to improve the toilets, which they took over the running of.
Then there was an election in May 2017, and the new Cabinet refused to honour that agreement.
In the September, Hay Town Council had a meeting with the new Cabinet which was described as "acrimonious". They could not come to a new agreement.
In December 2018 the Cabinet finally got round to discussing the matter at County Hall. The Town councillors watched the live webcast of the meeting, which is the only way they found out what decisions the Cabinet had made - there has still not been an official letter telling them the outcome.
The Cabinet decided that Hay would have no car park income.
The County Council would write off the £70,000 loan, which the Town Council were supposed to be paying back at £10,000 a year (no money has yet changed hands).
This looked at first sight to be a good deal, until the Town Council worked out that, under the original agreement, they should have had £95,000, and repaid £45,000 by now, so the Town Council would lose out. They have taken legal advice and been told that they have a strong case against the County Council, as the original agreement has been operational, so the County Council should give Hay the money they originally agreed. However, the cost of mounting a legal action against the County Council has to be considered.

The County Council has given Hay two options about the toilets (at the Clock Tower and Craft Centre). The first is that the Town Council continues to run them, and the second is to give them back to the County Council, but with no guarantee that the County Council would keep them open. Currently the County Council only directly run two sets of toilets - the ones in Brecon and the ones at Ystradgynlais bus station. All the other toilets in the county have been hived off to be run by smaller councils and groups of volunteers.
The toilets cost £30,000 a year to run, and bring in an income of £18,000. This is 90,000 people paying 20p a time (slightly more people than that used the toilets last year, but that's how many paid for it).

This was the first appeal to the public - should the Town Council fight to keep the toilets open?
Alistair Shaw (who didn't need a microphone!) said that a town with no public toilets was crazy - Hay would lose all the tourists who come here.
Trudy also said that the Town Council had considered raising the precept to cover the cost (this is the amount of money Hay Town Council gets to run the town, presently £42,000 a year), but they thought this would be unfair, as it is visitors who use the toilets, not locals.
Sean O'Donaghue asked if there was a Disability Rights issue here? There is legislation to say that a town needs to have a toilet for the disabled, with level access for wheelchairs.
The Deputy Chair of the Chamber of Commerce was also present, and he said that the Chamber of Commerce has no income, apart from a small amount of membership fees, and that most of the money they raise goes towards the Christmas Lights, so they can't really help.

Other areas of concern include the Sports Pavilion. Here there is qualified good news - the town has been offered a 99 year lease of the building, and the bowls club have been given permission to build the pavilion they want. However, without the income from the car park, the Town Council cannot give as much money as they would like to the running of the sports facilities, so the sports clubs have to do more fund raising.

The Council Chambers were also discussed at the Cabinet meeting in December, where it was decided that the Town Council would be given 12 months notice to leave the premises. The County Council were apparently surprised to discover that the Town Council has tenants in the building (from whom they gain income for the town), including Dial a Ride. Apparently someone at the Cabinet meeting said that "We will make sure the tenants are okay," but the Town Council has no idea what they mean by this. They also don't know when the 12 months notice starts from, because the County Council have not contacted them officially yet. Trudy was asked where the Council would meet when they lost the building, and answered: "No idea!"

The Library is also under threat - again, along with the 9 other rural libraries that were threatened last time. However, the big libraries in the county, such as Brecon and Newtown, are not being asked to find savings, even though it is the rural areas that need libraries more. Gareth has asked questions at County Hall about this.

Another loss to the town will be the Registrar of Births, Marriages and Deaths. At present they only come (and use an office in the Council Chambers) for two days a week, and this will cease. In future people will have to go to Brecon for this service. The Registrar is also being withdrawn from Builth Wells, Knighton and Llanidloes.

Tomorrow, I'll cover the questions from the floor....

Town Council News

I haven't been going to the meetings lately, but I was pleased to see the Town Council's sixth newsletter tucked into the latest edition of WyeLocal.
They start by asking if any local group would be willing to take over the annual firework display at Clyro Court - the Black Mountain Lions have been running it for years, but this year was the last year they were prepared to organise. They will be on hand, though, to give advice to any new group that wants to step into their shoes.
The Council have set up a Low Carbon Hay Steering Group, to look at lowering the carbon footprint in Hay and looking at various energy solutions. They are looking for local residents, businesses and landowners to take part in the planning.
The annual senior citizens' party will be at the Masonic Hall on 8th January this year, with Dial-a-Ride involved to get people there and home again.
The Recycling Fund awarded a £500 grant to the Canoe Club to put on free taster sessions this summer. They organised nearly thirty free canoeing sessions with over a hundred local children, and also managed to support a regular group of twenty paddlers.
The Hay in Bloom prize for best dressed window display went to Golesworthy's this year. The prize was a gift voucher from the Old Railway Line Nursery and a certificate and silver salver to keep. The hanging baskets were themed red, white and blue to commemorate the end of the First World War. In the small window category, the winners were Satori, Otherworldz and the Fudge Shop on the Craft Centre. Runners up were the Old Black Lion and Oscars Bistro. Private gardens also got prizes for best hanging baskets and best container, and the Town Council hopes to encourage more people to take part next year. It not only makes the town look nice, but it encourages bio-diversity as well!
As part of the Hay in Bloom scheme, the Town Council is hoping to plant native trees and bulbs around Hay, and encourage more wild flowers in the open spaces.
As well as putting a lot of energy into the Hay in Bloom scheme, the Council would like to revive the Hay and District Show, if they can find someone local who would like to organise it.
Miles Without Stiles is still continuing, with new kissing gates planned for footpaths around Hay to improved disabled access, and also ramps for businesses around town to use.
The Community Speed Watch group is looking for new members, too.
Nigel Lewis has now retired as Town Clerk, after many years of service, and Nick Burdekin (his assistant) has been promoted. Nigel will continue to work for the Council as the Responsible Financial Officer.
And there's a new Councillor, Syd Morris - reviving the Hay and District Show was his idea. He's a shopkeeper and part-time gamekeeper, and was a volunteer fire fighter for twenty years.

Contact details are:
davidjames.23@btinternet.com for the Lions Fireworks Display
haytownclerk@hotmail.co.uk for Low Carbon Hay, the senior citizens' party, Hay in Bloom and the Hay and District Show
helen.scott@dyfed-powys.pnn.police.uk for Speed Watch.

Meanwhile, the saga of the Transfer of Assets still rumbles on in the background....

Meet the Town Council

Hay Town Council are holding a Drop In Session at the Swan Hotel on Thursday 13th September between 7pm and 9pm. So if you want to find out what they do, the issues affecting the town and how they spend the precept, this is a good chance.

What with one thing and another, I haven't been to many Council meetings this year, but I have been looking at the fifth Hay Town Council Newsletter, which is an insert in the WyeLocal magazine.
They start with good news - they applied to Natural Resources Wales back in April for funding for a project called Shared Spaces, and they have just found out they've been granted £10,000! The funding will be used in the Miles Without Stiles project to make local footpaths more accessible, and to provide portable ramps for shops, create wooden sculptures, install interpretation boards, plant native trees, wildflowers and bulbs, and install electric car charging points! They're also setting up a new Low Carbon Energy Steering Group to look at ways of reducing Hay's carbon footprint.
Anyone interested in getting involved, or who would like to know more, should contact Nick Burdekin at haytownclerk@hotmail.co.uk

Miles Without Stiles has already been improving the footpaths locally, resurfacing and extending the riverside path onto the Warren, for instance. They've also put a new bridge in the Cae Mawr field by the car park. This was funded by the Brecon Beacons National Park, who will also be replacing stiles and kissing gates around the field over the next few months.

Another new project is Hay in Bloom. In addition to the little train under Hay Bridge, the Steering Group has plans for more floral structures on the roads leading into Hay. They have also entered Hay in a national competition run by Cultivation Street. Hidden away on their website is a way to vote for your favourite project, and Hay's train is on there. My neighbour is a keen gardener, and wants to be more involved next year. This is also something people can contact the Town Clerk about.

In the absence of volunteers, a new Town Councillor has been co-opted. He's James Prothero, who recently moved to Hay all the way from Three Cocks. The mayor this year is Trudy Stedman, and the Deputy Mayor is Josie Pearson.

Next Council Meeting

Hay Town Council normally meets on the first Monday of the month, but because of the Bank Holiday this month, they will be meeting on Monday 14th May instead, at the Swan Hotel, at 6pm. I saw the announcement on Facebook this time. It's also the AGM for the Council, and the time when the new Mayor is chosen.
I won't be there this time - I'd already promised to go to a friend's poetry reading before I realised the date clash.

Council Meeting - Water, Bench, Floral Displays, Toilets and The Car Park

So this Monday I headed down to the Sports Pavilion, which turns out to be a pretty decent place to hold a meeting apart from the noisy heater (which was essential, because it was bitterly cold outside).
When I arrived, the Council was talking about the legal requirement to test the water in the public toilets and the sports pavilion (I think for Legionnaires Disease), and how Healthmatic, who run the toilets, had failed to do the test so far - so they won't be asked to do the sports pavilion. The Council are looking for someone who will do the tests.

And there's a new bench opposite the Cinema Bookshop! This one has a wooden seat and wrought iron ends. The Agincourt bench has been taken away to be spruced up a bit, and it will be sited on Hay Bridge, and the bench there will be moved (I didn't catch where it was going to). So the Council can finally get in touch with the lady who was driving the car that ran into the original bench, as she said she would pay for the damage. Gareth Ratcliffe has the brass plaque that was fixed to the original bench, in memory of Arnold Wesker, so that can now be put on the new bench.
The Council will now go ahead with getting a bench for Bell Bank, now they know how much it costs (installation was only £55) and how easy it is.

The EU auditor has been, looking into the records of the Two Towns One World project that the Council had to take over to bring to completion - and he's mostly happy, apart from querying the fact that rent was charged for the room that the project co-ordinator was using. There was paperwork spread all over the office, apparently, but they managed to find every detail that was needed!

There will be celebrations of Hay's independence again this year, around the 1st April, and the Council will be taking part. They will be awarding the Citizen of the Year Award - there have been several nominations already - and also doing at least one workshop on making hanging baskets in the Parish Hall, as part of Hay in Bloom. They're hoping to get donations of plants and other supplies for this, and they're hoping to encourage local businesses to take part and brighten up the shop fronts.
There was also talk of a planter to be put at one of the entrances to Hay, possibly in the shape of a pile of books.
They also wondered if there was any way of linking the floral displays with the World War One commemorations later in the year.

And negotiations with the County Council about the revenue from the car park are continuing. After the County Council said that they would not honour the agreement made with the previous Cabinet, by which Hay Council would receive a percentage of money from the car park to pay for the extra responsibilities they have taken on, such as the toilets, there seems to be a bit of a change of mind. A report will now be put before the new Cabinet, with all the correspondence that passed between Hay and the County Council for the original agreement, and Gareth, as county councillor for Hay, will be asking questions of the Cabinet on behalf of the town council.
This is also linked to all the asset transfers that are supposed to be going on, with the town council taking over responsibilities from the County Council, and the outcome of the negotiations has major implications for the working of the town council.
The main problem is the public toilets. 80,000 people a year use them, and if there were no public toilets, tourism to the town would decrease. The town council took over the running of the toilets, and took out a loan to pay for the refurbishment, on the understanding that they would be able to pay the loan back with the revenue from the car park. If the money is not forthcoming, the town council may not be able to afford to continue the contract with Healthmatic.
The councillors were sure that the County Council would argue that Hay was asking for too much, since there are also ongoing negotiations about the new cemetery and community centre provision, and that other towns in Powys would think that Hay was getting something they weren't.
But Hay is only trying to hang on to the assets they have - the town council isn't asking for anything extra.
There will be a meeting soon with Liam Fitzpatrick from the County Council, and the councillors will be making sure that they have definite figures on how much they need to run the services in Hay.
There's also the principle at stake that the County Council can't make an agreement and then refuse to honour it just because there's been an election.

Council Meeting - Transfer of Assets, Library and Community Centre

The Town Council have finally lost patience with the County Council, after yet another letter they have sent which has not been replied to. They think it's time for legal action, and were discussing solicitor's letters and contacting the ombudsman, as well as the Welsh Assembly and One Voice Wales. At this stage, they said, there is no point in worrying about upsetting Powys County Council. The last communication they got from the County Council was from someone called Clive Pinney, who told them that he was "awaiting direction from the Cabinet" on the issues around the car park etc.

Meanwhile, the Library will be moving into the room in the new school building in the New Year. Trudi, the Mayor, went to the Open Evening at the new school, and was told there that the school would be moving into the new premises in February. They would take a while to get settled in, and then the Library would move across in about April.
This has consequences for the Town Council, who will not be able to meet in the old school hall in February, and cannot meet in the Council Chambers because of the stairs. They also, of course, cannot meet at the Swan, because of the sale of alcohol there.
There's a possibility they may be able to meet in the new Library room later in the year.
Meanwhile, Trudi has written to the County Council department in charge of property, to express an interest in the old Library building, before the Cabinet meeting the following day. She was quite prepared to withdraw the interest if that was what the Town Council wanted. There was some confusion over who was eligible to apply for and expression of interest, but it seems that Town Councils qualify under the heading of "third sector organisation".
There is still, of course, the problem of how to pay for the old Library building, without the rental income they get from the Council Chambers, and on the whole, they thought there was more chance of them being able to hang on to the Council Chambers, as the County Council have already said that they can only have one building. It might even be possible to restructure the Council Chambers so that there is disabled access and a downstairs disabled toilet (instead of the one on the first floor that nobody with a disability can get to).
In any case, if they were to try to take over the Library building, they would need a detailed business plan, with costings and so forth, which they do not have. (Readers of this blog may remember that HOWLS tried, and failed, to get accurate figures from the County Council so that they could prepare a business plan).
At present the Registrar's office, suitable for weddings, is on the ground floor of the Council Chambers, but the County Council is moving over to a system of sending registrars out by appointment rather than having an office as a base - this already happens in Talgarth. What happens to the records without an office to store them in is unclear.

The Community Space in the new school will be controlled by the school - the school will control the bookings, and the first priority for the use of the space will be for the school. Money from bookings will go to the school.
The Town councillors queried how this was, in any way, community space if this was the case. As it seems to be set up, it's just a room in the school which the school lets out occasionally. It's certainly not a replacement for the old community centre, and calling the school a "community school" is meaningless.

Under planning policy, when Wales and West Housing Association took on the site of the old community centre, an equivalent community space had to be provided for the town. This clearly hasn't happened. The Town Council will therefore challenge the County Council, and include the National Park in the discussion.
At the moment, there is only outline planning permission on the old community centre site - there are various problems with access and so on before full planning permission can be granted.

And while all this is going on, HADSCAL have put forward their latest plans for a hall and changing rooms on the land they own by the playing fields, which could also be a community centre. This plan has history going right back to the millennium, when grand plans for a community/sports centre came to nothing - but they are trying again. They have sent copies of the plan of the proposed building to the Town Council, and have asked for a representative of the Town Council to sit on their committee. Three councillors are also part of HADSCAL (they left the room while this was being discussed).
They have enough money to take this to the planning stage, but need to raise more money to actually build the hall, and they provided two sets of plans. Depending on funding they could start with a basic phase one, and possibly move on to a bigger phase two. I'm not sure about the legalities surrounding this, but it seems that, if they do manage to build it, HADSCAL are not able to manage the building.
However, unlike the "community space" in the new school, this hall would be suitable for weddings, funeral teas, youth club, local theatre group, and so on - and for playing badminton and other indoor sports.
There was some discussion of the pottery group which used a room in the old community centre, where they could also store their work between sessions - this would not be possible in this new hall, and it certainly won't be possible in the "community space" at the new school.
Somebody mentioned the Salem Chapel, and how nice it would be to use that space for the town.