The Council Before Christmas

It was a slightly depleted Council this month, as Fiona Howard is unwell, so Rob Golesworthy chaired the meeting, and Nigel Birch is in hospital. However, it seems that they may finally have found someone they can co-opt onto the Council, which has had an empty place for some time - so she may turn up in the New Year.
Lots of different things were discussed, so I'm just going to put them down more or less in turn instead of trying to "theme" my post.

The Transition Towns AGM was on in Cusop Village Hall at the same time, and Steve Like wasn't too happy with their agenda, since they were going to talk about affordable housing and other matters that he felt were the domain of the Council. Members of Transition Hay will be meeting with officers of the National Parks soon, too. Steve said he didn't want them to take credit for the Council's work. Steve was also unhappy about the new rubbish recycling system, especially for people like him who live in flats in the middle of town, with nowhere to store their big bins and boxes. However, the new vans that collect the rubbish will only take loose recycling, so they can't go back to the system of coloured plastic bags. Steve said that, in that case, he would stop recycling, even though he thinks it's an important thing to do, and put everything in the purple plastic bags which are collected fortnightly.

Last month, I missed an announcement about a Solar Energy Project, which sounds intriguing, so I'm going to try to find out more.

They were also talking about the annual grant that they give to Dial-a-Ride, which at £1,500 is less than previous years. Questions were asked about the other local councils in the area covered by Dial-a-Ride, Llanigon, Clyro and Clifford, and apparently some years they give a grant and sometimes they don't, though Hay is the main beneficiary of the service, so it makes sense that they should give the largest grant.

There have been complaints about the potholes on the little road down to Black Lion Green, but it was pointed out that there is actually no legal right of way for vehicles there. This is where councillors with a history of local knowledge come in useful, because they remembered when some surplus tarmac was put down about thirty years ago on the (wide) footpath, and a bollard at the top was removed, since when, everyone who lives down at the bottom takes their car down there. So it's not a road, and the potholes are not going to be repaired.

The railings at the end of Castle Street still haven't been repaired, either, since the unfortunate accident when the poor gentleman fell on them. The Town Council erected them, and the bench, in memory of John and Annie Grant, who used to have the old newsagents on Castle Street, but it seems that the responsibility for repair is the County Councils, so a letter will be sent asking them to expedite matters (followed by a plea for Plain English from other councillors - if you want to say "do it as quickly as possible", why not say that?)

The Senior Citizens' Christmas Party will be over and done with by now, but there were still last minute things to organise on Monday night, causing Gareth to disappear to arrange bingo prizes from the Co-op - he had to leave the meeting early to go on his shift, and was wearing his Co-op uniform.

The Woodland Management Group have asked for a grant from the Recycling fund, and members of the group left the room while it was considered. They need public liability insurance to cover the volunteers (having been covered this year by the insurance of another woodland management group) and they also want to buy some maintenance materials. They started off by relying on donated tools and so on. The grant was agreed, since the group have done a good job and it certainly benefits the town to keep the riverside walk tidy. Newer members of the Council were talked through the criteria used as guidelines for these decisions. It was also agreed that they should review the guidelines, and bear them in mind in future.