Council Meeting - Bits and Pieces

It seems the bridge is about to be painted, at long last! But plans for an extension to the cemetery are no further forward.
The Town Council needs another admin assistant, as Kevin is leaving. At the moment the post is for ten hours a week, on flexi-time, but there have only been four applicants for the job and the councillors wondered whether they are offering enough hours.
A letter arrived, concerned with the 19thC maps which were being kept in the cellar. The writer recommended moving the maps to a dry place, and that "three or four councillors" could work on the maps to restore them! As if the councillors don't have enough to do! Which reminded some of the councillors of all the records that the County Council just threw out some years ago....

Work is going on to make sure that the wards for elections of councillors are about the same size throughout the county - in fact, this is an international initiative, to ensure that the votes of each member of the public have about the same effect. The idea is fairness of representation, and in Powys it will mean that the total number of councillors will go down from 72 to 65. Some councillors wondered what the county councillors would find to do, since so many of their functions are being devolved down to the town councils and other functions are being taken over by the Welsh Assembly.

There are two vacancies at the Harley Almshouses - applicants need to be single and female, according to the terms of the charity.

At Hay School, a crane has been on site to lift in temporary classrooms, as the infants area is due to be knocked down over the Easter Holidays. So work is progressing well there.

SpeedWatch has also been doing well, and the police are considering extending the scheme to Gipsy Castle, as soon as they find a suitable place for the volunteers with the speed guns to stand without endangering themselves.

The town council are unsure about what is happening at the site of the old community centre, where Wales and West are supposed to be building social housing. Fiona Howard was distinctly unimpressed with the plans - she described the houses as "sheds" and said that they have only the tiniest of gardens, and there are still problems with the main access to the site, as well as problems with flooding. Wales and West are supposed to be engaging with the local community and the town council, but there has been no contact with them so far.
And at the other building sites around town - Readers Retreat has put up a sign directing people interested in the site into a dangerous situation they then have to reverse their cars out of. They were also refused planning permission for a portacabin on site. On the railway line, they've cut down two trees that they were not supposed to cut down, and gone onto private land to put a fence up. It seems they are not interested in getting permission for what they do - they're just going ahead and doing what they like.

The next meeting of the council will be the AGM on the 8th May, after the elections.