Council Meeting - More Finance - and a Bench

There was some good news about the Warren - it looks like the purchase of the fishing rights and river bank by the Warren Club will be going ahead, with the help of HADSCO, who have agreed to a donation, and to pay the balance of the final amount, whatever that might turn out to be after all the other fundraising.

Rob was concerned that the Council's financial decisions in the main Council minutes might seem quite starkly put, and he wanted to be sure that anyone who wanted to could see the Finance Committee's minutes, so they could see that the amounts decided on were carefully deliberated. Nigel the Town Clerk said that the committee minutes were available at the Council Chambers for anyone who wanted to come in and consult them.

There was talk of an extra skip for cardboard re-cycling in the main car park, but several councillors said that they'd rather see if they could move the re-cycling bins elsewhere, so the spaces could be used for cars instead, which would make more money. The Cattle Market was suggested as an alternative location, but that would need to be discussed with the people who run the cattle market.

The Solar Energy project, that was mentioned at the last Council meeting, came up again - but as it's a commercial proposition, the council don't want to get too involved. It should be for the people running the project to get in touch with the County Council for discussions.

And finally there was the matter of the Bench.
Half way up the slope from the Swan to the Blue Boar there is a public bench, which was originally put in next to the phone box (which has since been removed). There is a BT junction box next to it, and BT want to put in another junction box to provide super fast broadband to the town. To do this they need to move the bench - and they want to shunt it uphill, right under Fiona Howard's windows.
At this point, she left the room, as she couldn't discuss the matter - it being a conflict of interests. She made quite clear that she was furious about it, though!
Everyone agreed that a public bench shouldn't be right underneath anyone's house windows, though it was useful for the bench to be in that general area. At the moment it is against a blank wall. When it was put in the building behind that was a shed, and it is now a holiday cottage.
And at that point I left them discussing the correspondence. Gareth wasn't there, so there wasn't a County Councillor's report so I don't think I missed anything vital.