September Town Council Meeting, Part One

It was another long meeting with a lot to get through, so this will be in several parts....

There was going to be a presentation from Mr Morgan, the Area Warden from the National Parks, but he couldn't come. It was suggested that it would be more useful for him to come at another time, so the councillors could actually walk around with him and see what he was talking about, on the Bailey Walk, for instance.
The Railway Line is getting overgrown, too. Alan Powell has been down there with his camera, which he showed round. It's getting hard to see that Hay is here at all from some directions! This is something to talk to Mr Morgan about - and maybe there are some tree cutting students locally who would like to get some practice!

Gareth Ratcliffe (as county councillor) said that he was going to see the Standards committee on Wednesday in case there was a conflict of interests between him having a business in Hay and being able to speak about the school/supermarket plans. He didn't anticipate any problems, but it did mean he had to leave the room a couple of times just to be on the safe side until the ruling was given. This could affect other members of the council who have local businesses, so everyone was waiting to hear what the Standards committee would say. Fiona Howard, as Mayor, said she wanted someone to come to the council and give clear guidance on the issue.

George the Town Cryer has now seen members of the council, and he claims that, based on the honorarium he receives, he will do ten crys for the Council and the rest will be subject to negotiation between him and the people who want a cry, for a further fee. The councillors agreed that he was entitled to ask for fees, but weren't too pleased about the limit to his duties for the town. He will be talked to again.

Mary Fellowes has said that she wants to give up responsibility for the flower beds round the Library and outside the Council Chambers, though she wants to keep control of the trough on Broad Street. Phoebe from Hayfield Gardens has been approached to see if she would be interested in taking over these areas with the community gardeners, and she seems quite keen, and would like to involve charity groups like Mental Health. She's going to be asked to produce a planting plan for the coming year.

There's going to be a survey of buildings in the conservation area in Hay this year looking at maintenance, and with this in mind the "garden" in front of Chancery House on Broad Street was mentioned, because it desperately wants tidying up again.
There has also been a request for the area around the Clock Tower to be a pedestrian area on market days, with all the stalls that are down there now.

Community Support are facing a £10,000 shortfall in their funding this year, and there was some discussion about what could be done to help them.
The area around the pumping station may be tidied up - there was talk of re-surfacing and putting in disabled parking bays.
There have been problems with grass cutting this "summer" due to the wet weather.
Meanwhile in Black Lion Green there are thoughts of putting in a play area next year to replace what used to be there.

At 6pm on 11th September, there will be a party to welcome Josie Pearson back home from the Paralympics, and there was some discussion of having a Mayor's Award for outstanding contributions to the town - not every year, but whenever something special like this happened.
Meanwhile, everyone enjoyed the Japanese visit (there were photos, too) and thought that it had been interesting.

And finally, there doesn't seem to be an up to date list of all the OAPs in town, which is difficult when you want to invite everyone over 65 to the Christmas Party - some people have died, and others get missed out! Perhaps an advert in WyeLocal would result in some people putting their names forward.