Councillors were informed by County Councillor Mike Perry that he would be backing Option B at the forthcoming meeting to decide upon the fate of local fire stations in the region. Cllr Perry said that the option would retain Bidford, but sadly, Brinklow, Studley and Warwick would be closed under the proposals. County Chiefs meet on Tuesday 20th to resolve the issue.
Local business owners in Henley, who had made a plea for high Street parking to be extended to 3 hours (currently 2 hrs only) to increase longer-stays for their customers, heard that WCC had no plans to extend parking times at present. Councillors persisted that they still wanted 3 hour parking to be considered whenever a review of provision was next made.
The matter of approval of a job description for the role of Parish Clerk sparked considerable discussion by Councillors. Cllr Leech, produced a document from 2006 which he claimed should be adopted now, even though significant legislative changes in employment law had taken place since then. It was eventually agreed to adopt the document recommended by the National Association for Local Councils, although Cllr Leech voted against the proposal. This was followed later in the meeting by a vote of thanks from the Clerk to the people of Beaudesert, who had given her a resounding vote of confidence at the Parish Assembly held last week. Cllr Roy also extended her support for the Clerk which was followed by Cllr Matheou claiming that a work study exercise had been conducted on the workload of the Clerk some years ago that confirmed the need for a full time person. The Chairman agreed to place this matter on the agenda for the next JPC meeting.
The Clerk answered Cllr Leech's letter to the Stratford Herald (15th July) in which he claimed she was confused and did not know her own minutes. This was relating to the Council's application for the Best Village competition which Cllr Leech purported should have been reported to him as he was co-ordinating the town's application. He reminded the Clerk that she had minuted his comments during the Any other Business section of an earlier JPC meeting, but later claimed that Cllr Leech had not notified the Council of his intentions. Mrs Walsh explained that if Cllr Leech had wanted to be appointed as Co ordinator, he should have requested that it be included on the agenda for the appropriate meeting. Instead, he simply mentioned it in a non-decision making part of the meeting, giving other Councillors no opportunity to discuss or vote on his proposal. There was no confusion as far as the Clerk was concerned, and the minutes of the meeting in which the item was recorded (10th May 2010) were correct and approved as such at the next meeting held 17th May 2010. The Clerk said she would not be responding by sending a letter to the media as it was not productive use of her time but hoped that the Press representative attending the meeting would include it in the report of the meeting.
Henley ‘Reformists' given hard time at Parish Assembly
Members of the Henley Reform Association met with hard criticism when they came up against angry residents at a meeting of the Parish held on Tuesday 13th July at Henley Primary School. The Assembly, for the Parish of Beaudesert, was the second meeting to be held in three months. It was requested by 11 residents, although of the 52 residents present, only two of people who asked for the meeting to be held, actually turned up on the night.
The meeting was chaired by Cllr Les Goodman, Chairman of the Joint Parish Council for Beaudesert and Henley, and a Beaudesert elector himself. After welcoming everyone to the meeting, he highlighted the cost to the town of the recent Parish Poll and two by-elections for vacancies on the Parish Council and explained that the total cost to date was in the region of £3,000 and this would have to be paid by the tax payers of the town.
Bill Leech, a Councillor and resident of the Henley Parish and founder member of the Reform Association ,was faced with stern opposition when he and his co-member, John Latham, stated their reasons for pressing for changes to the present Joint Parish Council who they felt had managed the town's finances poorly. The Association had previously pushed for a vote on a Parish Poll at the first Beaudesert Assembly held in April of this year, but were defeated as only 6 electors voted in agreement with them. An identical Poll was held in the Henley Parish but a poor turnout of less than 13% of residents turning out to vote left the Parish Council taking no action on the request which was not binding upon them legally.
Mr Latham launched a personal attack on Jenny Walsh, Parish Clerk, who he claimed was over-paid and should be able to do the job in two days not on a full time basis. Cllr Leech also quoted statistics relating to the expenditure of the Council's Precept but was corrected by the Clerk who stated that his figures were gross exaggerations of the actual costs. The Chairman also pointed out that this year's Precept was frozen at 0% increase unlike many neighbouring Parishes.
Many of the electors present, responded to Mr Latham by giving their unqualified support to the Councillors and the Clerk. Mrs Avery Howells, who had retired from being Parish Clerk in the seventies after over 19 years service to the Council, stood up to say that even when she worked, ‘being Clerk was a full time job and she did not know how the present Clerk coped with the intimidation she had received from the Reformist Group- she deserves better!'. Mrs Walsh thanked Mrs Howells and all the residents who had registered their support which was very heartening.
Mr Latham, unperturbed by the rebuttal, went to say that the Joint Parish Councillors were only interested in having ‘power in the town' to which Cllr Goodman responded very forcefully that he resented the remark and that the majority of Parish Councillors worked tirelessly ‘simply because they loved their town'.
Sheila Dalman, also a Beaudesert resident who recently stood down from the Parish Council, stood up to say that the reason she had resigned in April was because she found it intolerable that Cllr Leech remained on the Council when all he wanted to do was work against the town. She had on several occasions, asked Cllr Leech if he would desist or step down from the Council. As he had declined to do so, she felt that she could not continue while he remained a Councillor.
The Chairman concluded the meeting by thanking all the residents who had attended and offered their support and gratitude to the Parish Council and its Clerk and said that the Councillors would continue to ‘do their very best for Henley in Arden'.
Parish Council meeting 28th June 2010
Last night's Parish Council meeting included a report from the Chairman that the Planning Application for a CCTV camera on the top of the Police Station, High Street, Henley, had been granted. It was hoped that the existing pole which was left when the last camera was removed, will now be taken away to coincide with the new one being erected.
A resident who asked at the last meeting if the Council were going to take remedial action, conduct a survey of residents regarding their concerns and publish the results, following the recent Parish Poll, was told emphatically by Councillors that no further action would be taken after a unanimous decision was recorded. A survey was felt to be cost-prohibitive given the small number who voted for the poll which was in the Parish of Henley (117 of 1721 electors in the Parish said they had lost confidence in the Parish Council and called for all Councillors to resign). Claims that the Council did not respond to criticism was dispelled by Cllrs who said that complaints were rarely aired by the public at meetings. Cllr Osborne said that the open forum session in the JPC meetings prevented answers to resident's questions being given on the same night - questions have to be placed on the agenda for the next meeting which usually means a 2 week gap. The Chairman responded by saying that the Council had set up Saturday surgeries to enable anyone to come forward who either could not attend the JPC meetings, or was uncomfortable with speaking in a public forum. The surgeries had been running since February but in that time only one resident had spoken which did not suggest that dissatisfaction was rife! Cllr Hubbocks stated " We do our best, but if people do not come and talk to us about their concerns what can we do?"
The Clerk responded to a recent statement made in Henley News On-line, that the Council had entered the Best Village competition without any consultation with the other applicants who were Henley News On Line, Henley Heritage Centre and Henmen. Mrs Walsh refuted the claim stating that the Council had not received notification from the other entrants and as the ethos of the Best Village competition was "the more the merrier" it should make no odds whether 2 or 20 applications were submitted from the same town. The Parish Council entered for two categories - Best Community project - The Market Cross renovation project, and Best Communication - the Council's video podcast for tourism. The results will be announced later this year.
A request had been made by 10 residents for another Parish Assembly to be held in Beaudesert and it was announced that the Chairman of the Parish Council would convene a meeting on Tuesday 13th July at Henley CE primary school commencing 7pm.
