October Council Meeting - Planning, Gwernyfed School, Toilets, and Dog Poo

First of all, good wishes go to Nigel, the Town Clerk, who was rushed to hospital a few days ago.
Unfortunately for the Council, he was in the middle of doing several things that only he knew the details of - however, Heather stepped in as deputy Clerk for the evening.
One of these things was the electricity contract for the Council Chambers, which has been proving to be a nightmare to sort out. Apparently the Cheesemarket has been having similar problems with Ecotricity about their electricity contract, too.

The application for planning permission for the eighty houses on the edge of Hay has now been put in and the Council have 21 days to read through a document that's about four inches thick and make comments on the plan. It's very comprehensive, apparently, even including things like a dormouse survey. One of the councillors has been reading it online, from the Powys planning department. There will also be a public meeting shortly to discuss the plans.
Of particular interest to the Council was the "easement" that the developers had asked for, in order to drain the site across land owned by the Council. They could charge quite a substantial sum of money for this, though they still need to discuss it fully in the sub-committee meeting next Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Steve Like is concerned about the sports and leisure facilities at Gwernyfed School. Last year he went to meetings where it was agreed to transfer the leisure facilities on the school property into the control of the school - and if the school closes, then the community facilities would close too. There has been no information at all from the County Council on this, though.

This year's Christmas Party for local old people will probably not be at the Swan this year. The hotel has been taken over by Llangoed Hall, and prices have risen somewhat. However, Picadilly Caterers from The Strand at Talgarth have given a much more reasonable quote, as long as the Council can find a hall to hold the party in. A few years ago, they tried the Masonic Hall, but there are problems of access there for disabled party goers. Picadilly Caterers are the ones who have the contract for the monthly luncheon club in Hay.

The Council website is almost ready to go! Giles just needs to do a bit of training with the people who will be updating the site.

A coin sorter has arrived, to count money from the turnstiles on the toilets - but Rob Golesworthy has tried it and can't get it to work for him. Heather will give it a trial run shortly. Fiona Howard suggested that a sign should be put up - "it only has to be laminated" - to explain why the toilets now have to charge 20p. She said that, when people are aware of the reasons, they are usually okay with it. However, there was a recent school trip that had problems because they weren't aware of the charges, and there weren't enough 20p pieces in the party to get them all into the toilets.
The Council have signed the loan agreement for the toilets, and the next step is to pay the contractor who did the upgrading work on them. Most comments about the toilets have been positive, praising the cleanliness (the cleaner is local).

Dog fouling remains a problem though - not quite so much with dog poo being left on paths, but with dog poo being picked up in plastic bags which are then flung into the bushes. More than one councillor has been round collecting them from the riverside path. At this point in the meeting, the lady sitting next to me in the public seats murmured that we should say that the riverbank is an SSSI, and maybe that would deter the dog poo flingers. In fact, the riverbank really is an SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest), so she has a point.