News
December update (2012)
Parish Council Notes
PARISH COUNCIL NOTES December 2012
By Kerry Woodrow
Parish Councils were set up by Act of Parliament on 1st January 1895. Wollaston Parish Council dates from then and my Great, Great Uncle, Watkin Owen Sanders was a founder member of that Council. Apart for two gaps there has been a member of the family on the Council ever since. In all that time the Clerk has always worked from home. I am not sure how convenient this was at the beginning as the first Clerk, John Prentice, lived in Wellingborough. He holds the record for length of tenure of office as he remained Clerk until 1955, an amazing 60 years. However, over the past few years the burden on the Clerk has increased steadily as have the hours of work and in the summer it reached the point where it was no longer possible to run the Clerk’s Office and a home under the same roof. Therefore at the beginning of September, our Clerk, Angela Young, set up shop in the Bryson Centre at Scott Bader where she can be contacted. Her hours are 0900 - 1500 on Mondays and Wednesdays and 0900 - 1200 on Thursdays. Her phone has changed to: 01933 667722.
Thankfully the awful summer now seems a long time ago. The dreadful weather brought its casualties, not least the Wollaston Carnival. This has been running for 28 years and it now faces an even bigger challenge than last summer’s weather. Due to a host of circumstances there are no longer enough volunteers to organise it. Unless people willing to help come forward there will be no more Carnivals - a great loss to the village. May I therefore please exhort any would-be volunteers to contact Richard Aldridge on 07976 600461. The Pocket Park is a much loved and much used village asset. Over the years it has been cared for and improved until it has reached the point where, on a decent day, it is unusual not to find someone enjoying the garden and its flowers. However this too needs new volunteers. If you have green fingers and would like to help keep this little corner of the village looking neat and tidy please contact Jane Woods on 01933 665010.
Since the September edition of WASNAV much of the Council’s work has been concerned with the Neighbourhood Planning Group (NPG). We are exceedingly lucky to have Mike Haybyrne, a former Borough Council of Wellingborough Planning Officer on the Working Party and his report of the work and progress of the NPG is published elsewhere in the WASNAV magazine. Also published elsewhere is Councillor John Mitchell’s account of the saga of getting the County Council to adopt The Gap. A tale of how patience and perseverance eventually paid off. It is thanks to him that despite the County Council telling us they have no money for routine maintenance so much has been done recently to repair the potholes and other damage to our footpaths and roads. Due to the County Council’s neglect of these over many years there is still a great deal to be done but at least we have made a start. Street lighting too has been high on the agenda. Now the dark nights are with us, the inconveniences caused by the County Council’s decision earlier in the year to switch off a large number of lights to save money are now only too apparent. There is a plan to upgrade our lights with new ones that are not only brighter but very much more energy efficient than the ones we have, many of which should have been ‘pensioned off’ years ago. We are currently waiting to hear when this will happen.
We are often asked by people wishing to draw something to our attention, who on the Council is responsible for what. The following table should help answer this.
Wollaston Parish Council (December 2012)