Council Meeting Part Four

The next item on the agenda was the Globe - but I'll pass over that here and save it for a post of its own.

So we move on to travel expenses for councillors - is there any money to spare for this and when is it appropriate to give it out? There are lots of meetings going on that some councillors would like to go to, but the consensus was the official travel expenses should only be paid if it is necessary for the councillor to attend.

Then there was the long list of correspondence that the Council has received; only a few of these were singled out for special mention. Dates for diaries include:
The Domestic Abuse Forum is having a national campaign about violence against women, and there will be an event at Brecon Cathedral at 3.30pm on 18th November.
The Normandy Market has applied for permission to hold a market in Hay on 21st October, and all the councillors were in favour of this.

Gareth gave his County Councillor's report, focussing on some of his duties that are not directly concerned with Hay. (He also brought the sweeties that were being handed round - he went to Warwick University for a course recently, and sweets were left out on the tables - he collected the ones that were left over every evening!)
One of the areas he's concerned with is children in care, or "looked after" children, as they are now called. Some of these are long term, but others are only in care for a short time due to family crises such as a parent in hospital, for instance. There are 161 in total throughout Powys.
Gareth is also concerned about the changes to payment of benefits which will be coming up in the next financial year. Housing benefit will be paid to the tenant rather than directly to the landlord in future, so the tenant becomes responsible for passing the money on in rent. Gareth is concerned about this, and believes that more people will slip into rent arrears as they use the money for other necessities (like getting a car through its MOT, for example)
At the same time, under-occupied houses will have to pay a charge for the un-occupied rooms - so a single person in a three bedroom house (for instance) will have to pay a charge for the bedrooms they're not using.
This has been the case for people on benefits for a long time - if they rent a house deemed too large for them, the housing benefit will not cover the total rent and they have to make up the shortfall themselves. (I've had to do this myself, back in the days when I needed housing benefit). This seems to be something new, though. When Gareth was asked whether this would apply only to people on benefits or to everyone, Gareth said "Everyone." He also said that this is a case of the people in the worst situations getting the worst treatment.
There is a shortage of one and two bedroomed properties in Powys for people to rent, so it's very difficult to find a smaller property to downsize into and stay in the same area.

The meeting finished up ("Keep going - we're nearly at the end!") with a couple of short items.
Barclays Bank has applied for permission to put a ramp for the disabled outside their branch - and this was thought to be fine, but they'll have to move the bench to another position.
There will be a cycling festival in the spring.
The Health Focus Group needs to communicate much better - this was a reference to the recent meeting where about 70 members of the public turned up to find out what is intended for Bronllys Hospital. Also on health matters, it was commented how hard it is to get appointments in a reasonable time at Hay Surgery.

The next Council meeting will be on 1st October at 7pm.