Logo Image
return to the previous page

 

 

 

 

report offensive content
click to view site banner advert 2

click to view site banner advert 3

 

text version

 

 

Homepage

bookmark this website print this page    


   

Ref. Tisbury Newsletter

Re; Tisbury Parish Council News November 2013. Sorry to hear that a Parish Councillor has had to leave us for Egypt in such troublesome times there. As we are advised there is a vacancy for a Parish Councillor. It really would be nice that the Co-option process give due consideration to any Candidate defeated in the Parish Council Election last May, should any of them still be interested in becoming a Parish Councillor. All too often persons who failed to offer themselves for Election , at the times we might expect to have an election suddenly find a calling to be a Parish Councillor when the door is ajar. Lets keep Politics out of the Parish Council, hopefully the person co-opted will be someone other than another Member of he Tisbury Business Association, which seems already well represented .

As Invited, here are my 'Strong Views' on Parish Council Expenditure. It is good to hear that efforts are being made to keep the Precept as low as possible in these hard times. One way of doing that is to get rid of 'Marjorie' the Compost Heap. It is not only a drain on the Parish Precept but too is environmentally unfriendly. Due to its location most persons who might use it, would need to take their Garden Waste to the top of Mount Tisbury in some sort of motor vehicle. That apart the Wild Life Lobby suggested that every garden should have it's own Compost bin to encourage Wild Life, not that any Parish Council should have but one garbage heap. There is already such a facility available through the Green Bin System.

Most months of the year I see £215 departing our Bank Account in the form of the Community Charge. Obviously most of that goes to County, but living as one does on the periphery of the Parish one gets the impression that I and my neighbours subsidise the happenings in Tisbury. I resent that the Parish of West Tisbury pays nothing towards the facilities they enjoy, which on the whole we do not. Until West Tisbury Parish amalgamates to be as one with Tisbury Parish, I see no reason to seek its views about anything in Tisbury Village. 'No Representation without Taxation'. It appals me that the Village all have use of, has two Parish Councils and two salaried Parish Clerks, and twenty Parish Councillors ? One trouble with the Community Charge is that we have not had a Revaluation of 'Bandings'. That is no fault of The Parish or County, however far too many houses are under valued when it comes to the payment of Community Charges. If one purchases and renovates a small Property and enhances it until it becomes 'something else', The original Tax Banding remains in place. The reason there has been no revaluation is that Government is fearful that it would lose too many votes were the system made equable. As for Business Rates if shops have to pay them, then surely Farmers should do so too on both Buildings and Land. Such is the case in Mainland Europe.

Hindon Lane Development. Good to hear that it is well under way, and that completion is expected next year, but one also heard that sales are disappointing. I do not doubt that there was a requirement that there be Light Industrial Units on this Development along side affordable Housing. Hopefully there will be 'Local Employment Opportunities' when the units become available, but not sure that the Light Industrial Units are too attractive a feature on an Estate of quality houses, neither though is having the 'Rat Run' off the Hindon Lane through both Wyndham Place Estate and The Churchill Estate. I suspect we are going to regret that Rat Run, especially if this Campus project happens upon us. That of itself should enhance the Parish Precept no end. I hadn't realised that TESCO planned to open up in Tisbury, however a village of our size could do with a relocated SUPERMARKET, all be it our self same CoOp. Possibly it and a more spacious Petrol Station, and better sited Light Industrial Units might be built at Station Works Tisbury. I do not for one moment doubt that it is still the intention of the owners of Station Works to build houses on that site, even if it is' without' the Village Envelope. I believe the last application included some sixty houses.

POTHOLES in the High Street, Square, and Vicarage Road. Nice to hear all are to be repaired in February. Quite the wrong time of year to do such repairs. I would be the first to admit that the Pot Holes in Quarry Lane, Upper Chicksgrove were filled in earlier this year, however we are once again full of the things. As that road services not only a Railway Line, but too a working Quarry, it needs constant repairs. It would be nice if the Council was to clean the Culvert that takes Flood Water from Fields to the North to the Nadder below, and too if it spends the £70,000 promised for the repair of Quarry Bridge over the Nadder, for both ends on the East Side are shedding lumps of facing stone into the river below.

COMMUNITY GRANTS FOR SMALL ORGANISATIONS.
So the Parish Councillors ;
'realise that there are a number of small organisations in the Village that get little opportunity to apply for grants that, although small in amount, would make a big difference to Community Life as a whole.'

What a pity that instead of funding a Cricket Pavilion at Fonthill Bishop, the last Parish Council didn't use some of the £400,000 from the Developers of Hindon Lane (where permitted) for more local projects. The Church and the Social Club had substantial sums of money too, but one noted that the £1000 Wardour Catholic School needed for new Lavatories was denied them. One still awaits to hear who owns that Cricket Pavilion at Fonthill Bishop. One suspects it is owned by the Fonthill Estate rather than the Cricket Club. If such is the case then hopefully the Cricket Club has a substantial Lease on the Cricket Field and too, on the Pavilion Tisbury Funded. The last Parish Councillor I asked, said that he had no answer to either query. Unfortunately confusion persists about local Governance. Discussing this Pavilion with a neighbour who has lived in Tisbury Parish far longer than I have, it surprised me that she imagined that Fonthill Bishop was in Tisbury Civil Parish, just because now it is in Tisbury's Ecclesiastical area. Maybe as we have already funded two Cricket Pavilions we might go for a 'Hat Trick.' for seemingly one can never have too many Cricket Pavilions.

NEIGHBOURHOOD PLAN.
'A Small Team is working on this Plan that will take the priorities identified in the TisVis Document as a starting point.' I take it the latter is the Questionnaire that also informed that Tisbury did not wish to see houses built outside the Village Envelope at Station Works ? That is the only document I ever got to see, but maybe there is another. I still await to see how TisVis spent the substantial amount of money received from Europe to fund this project, to which amount the then Parish Council added extra money. ( I must declare my interest for I was a TisVis Helper, up until the collating of the answers to that Questionnaire.).
Might the Village please be advised as to how this 'Small Team' is comprised. Do we speak of Parish Councillors, or what used to be known as Tisbury Action, or any other than the Parish Councillor with specific responsibility for 'Neighbourhood Planning ? Is The Tisbury Business Association involved , or any who promulgated the idea of purchasing Johnson's Field , a proposal that was rejected by the Public.

May be if Tisbury Parish had a better sited more capacious Public Notice Board, we would all be a lot better informed. Nice though it is to receive the Tisbury Parish Council News letter, surely it might be made a perk of the Village Wardens or be available as a freebie in local shops. Would not either relieve pressure on the Precept ?

contact : John B.Pope