Council Meeting - Fly tipping, Recreation Facilities, Woodland Group, Hay Festival Parking

Pictures were shown of the cattle market. Brightwells, which lease the market, have been told to clear up the mess there. However, Fiona Howard said that, in her experience, Brightwells are very good at clearing up after each market - she has a back way into her garden which goes through the market. She also pointed out that the bath in the field shown on one of the pictures wasn't fly tipping - it was the trough for water for the sheep!
However, it was agreed that the fencing needs attention.
County Council officials had said they wouldn't come to Hay to discuss fly tipping with local councillors because the County Council is in purdah before the elections, and they can't do anything political. It was pointed out to them that fly tipping is not a political issue, and Gareth Ratcliffe agreed not to attend the meeting so there would be no whiff of impropriety.

Meanwhile at the sports pavilion, the Tennis Club has folded, with a small amount of money in its bank account. They have agreed that £250 will go towards cleaning the tennis courts, and the balance of the remaining funds will go to more cleaning and maintenance. The various sports clubs are sorting out the grass cutting between them, and HADSCAL have announced that they won't be getting involved. There is still some problem with the water supply and sewage to the Sports Pavilion, which needs to be resolved before the Town Council take over responsibility for the running of the building, and the estimate for the gas bill seems unreasonably high - they only use hot water for showers. Meter readings are going to be taken to check to see if the gas is coming on and heating the water when no-one is there.

The garage which was to become the headquarters of the Woodland Group has still not been cleared out - there is stuff from the football club still in there. However, a new idea was suggested - the Town Council could buy a shipping container and site it by the gas sub-station, nearer to the riverside paths. As it would not be a permanent building, it would not need to have planning permission. They estimated that a suitable shipping container would cost between £2,000 and £4,000. The money could come from the recycling fund or the council reserves, and the Woodland Trust would pay a nominal fee to use it.

There will be parking for Hay Festival on the cricket ground this year, but this needs to be manned so that cars are not parked there when it rains (which would damage the ground) and to take money. The sports clubs will have to find a rota of volunteers - and also to man the Gliss, if they want the revenue from the Festival parking there. Fiona Howard said that she wanted nothing to do with it, after many years of being stuck with the school car park duty.

Which leads on to more parking problems at Berry's Cottage, which has no on-road parking, and is just outside the boundary of the residents' parking scheme. It was commented that the residents' parking scheme was still a pilot scheme, with no signs of it coming to an end, in its third year! Councillors felt it would be too complicated to sort out a new boundary for the scheme to include Berry's Cottage right now, and are therefore leaving it as a job for the new town council after the elections.