Council Meeting - Festival Buses and Toilets

So, the first part of the meeting was taken up with finding out where we were with ongoing projects. The transfer of land from Welsh Water, down at the Gliss, is still dragging on, mainly because the solicitor doesn't seem to have done anything about the record search. However, since the Council have been maintaining the land for years, it should be fairly easy to claim ownership.
Meanwhile there are still discussions going on about the information boards that the Council wants to put up there.
And someone along Gypsy Castle has put slabs down on Council ground that now need repair - the Council would be liable if anyone was injured and so they want them to be removed, just as the steps down the bank onto the railway line walk had to be removed, when someone put them in from the back of their garden a few years ago. On the way into the Warren there are more steps in the bank, but there it might be better for the Woodland Group to put proper steps in, because the short cut will carry on being used regardless.
Meanwhile Rob Golesworthy and Alan Powell have been repairing the Council Offices roof, but they need to put scaffolding up around the back to reach the wobbly guttering and fascia board. As this is a big job which would take three to four days, they will have to put it out to tender.
The website still isn't ready. The problem at the moment seems to be some work that has to be done by Giles' brother....

The shuttle bus for the Festival will not be going along Heol y Dwr this year. Instead, it will be going from the overflow car park in Clyro via Glasbury to the Festival site, and thus not going through the town at all. The Festival will be selling parking tickets along with event tickets this year, to minimise parking problems. There were problems with the corner by the Globe last year, with a lot of loading and unloading going on.
Steve Like wasn't happy that neither the Festival nor the Globe seems to have contacted the Council officially about their plans, though they do both seem to have spoken to Gareth Ratcliffe, who wasn't at the meeting.
It was also noted, with disapproval, that the metal frame for the staging by the side of the Globe has gone up again. If this is a temporary structure, though, there is nothing to be done about it except to make sure they take it down again when the Festival is over.

Money is being shuffled around the various Council accounts to pay for the renovation of the toilets, and the Council are also looking for a new part time admin assistant to cope with the extra work that the transfer of assets from the County Council will involve. This will be a 10 hours a week post (including some evening work) at £4,500 a year.
Healthmatic are the company chosen to do the work on the toilets, and they are looking for local contractors where possible. Two builders and an electrician have already shown an interest, and an advert has been put in Totally Locally. The Oxford Road toilets should be refurbished before the Festival, possibly even before May Bank Holiday, with the Clock Tower toilets due to be done in June.
The Clock Tower toilets will be changed from Ladies and Gents to one disabled toilet and one unisex toilet. It was decided that the radar key that wheelchair users can have will not be used with the disabled toilet - they will have to pay 20p to get in.
The plans for the changes seem to show a lot of unused space, and it was suggested that the market stalls could be stored there. However, some space is needed for maintenance, and there would not be enough room. At the moment, the Market has had to buy a vehicle and trailer (now that the space at the Cheesemarket is being used for other purposes) and are storing the stalls over in Clyro.