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January 1996 Open Letter about Parish Council Plans

Updated on

COMPTON AND SHAWFORD PARISH COUNCIL

D.W.H.Richman
Clerk

15 January 1996

An open letter about Parish Council Plans

Dear Parishioner,

Some of you have been asking about the Parish Council’s intentions in various areas, so I thought I should take this opportunity to explain our position.

The Parish Hall

The Parish Hall will be 100 years old this year. Although the fabric of the building is largely sound, we would like to make improvements to turn it into a more pleasant place for parishioners to use and to attract more hirers. You may have noticed that the loos are well past their “best-before” date. We are looking at ways to contribute to the cost of these improvements by disposing of the plot at the side. The cottages that used to be on that site burnt down some time ago.

The Memorial Playing Field

We are talking to the Sports Club and its various sections about future uses of the field. The present pavilion, which the parish owns, is in such a poor state that it is uninsurable. We are working on an application to the Sports Council for lottery money towards the construction of a replacement pavilion. This is a complex process and will take some time. If anyone has expertise in this area we would love to hear from you. Our current thinking is that any new pavilion should be about the same size as the existing facilities. We don’t believe that people want a large community centre like that proposed by CASCA about 5 years ago. I am also pleased to be able to report that, after several years’ negotiation, we have reached a favourable agreement with the Highways Agency about the terms of the transfer of the surplus land to the Parish.

I would like to stress that the Parish Council is committed to public consultation within the parish before taking any final decisions on either of these projects. We need to finish our homework first so that we have some reasonable plans to put up for discussion.

We will certainly give a progress report at the Annual Parish Meeting on 25 April, but in the meantime if you have any questions or comments please feel free to talk to me or to one of the other Parish Councillors.

Yours sincerely,

Adrian Walmsley, Chairman Compton & Shawford Parish Council