Town and Gown This is an exert from the Tisbury Parish Council’s February Minutes. 12.02.14 R4 monies – applications for funding had been made as follows for the £400,000 Available £ Sports Centre – dance studio 120,000 TISBOWLS – pavilion replacement 100,000 Swimming Pool - replacement 200,000 Fonthill Park Cricket Club 45,000 £465,000 P.Cnllrs noted the £65,000 ‘overbidding’ and agreed that these schemes would also be discussed at the Annual Parish Meeting during consultation with residents.(P) How wise of the Parish Council to discuss this matter at the Annual Parish Meeting and have consultation with the Residents. Well here is my six penny worth: What was it the Lady said’ No! No! No! No! (p) SPORTS CENTRE. Dance Studio. Who owns the Sport’s Centre, who uses the Sports Centre ? Why should ‘Our R4 funding’ be expended on it when the facility is shared by so many other Parishes who are centered upon us. If a Dance Studio is seen to be a necessity, maybe it might better be located in the main old School Premises rather than in either the Nadder Hall or The Sports Centre.(P) TIS. BOWLS PAVILION. I happened to be at the Area Board Meeting when an original application was made for funding to place a planning application and carry out preliminary investigation of the existing site. Hopefully the County Councillors who heard the application were better advised on the detail , than were extraneous members of the public such as I. Questions were asked however the answers thereto seemed vague on all fronts. Did one hear how many members there were in the Bowls Club, what its income was and whether Green Fees were payable? One was left with the impression that once Planning Consent had been obtained, then fund raising would start. Seemingly all that means is that R4 funding is requested to foot the Bill, presumably on the basis that the Parish Council owns the current Premises. Maybe such is what will happen, for the Parish has a history of forking out money on the Bowl’s Club’s behalf. Couldn’t members contribute more to their cause? What though one wonders is wrong with the small Premises currently occupied. Would it not be a good idea to stage a series of Bring and Buy sales on the adjoined open space so giving the public an opportunity to inspect the present Pavilion? Whilst there about, what of the Tisbury Social Club, to whom is its membership open ? (P) SWIMMING POOL. Ye Heavens what next. Tisbury was offered at least the site for, unless it was an actual swimming pool as a part of the Hindon Lane Development. The Parish turned it down . Recent Parish Accounts show that Tisbury bought an expensive new cover for the existing swim pool. Surely this is another act that needs getting together. Are there published accounts for the management of this enterprise? (P) FONTHILL PARK CRICKET CLUB. What on the earth has this got to do with Tisbury ? I thought the Village has its own premises and its own ‘Gifted’ but expensively refurbished Cricket Pavilion on the Campus Site. Financing two sites would be profligate in the extreme. How many cricketers are there in the village, how often do they play matches. If something is publicly funded is it too much to expect to hear news of ones protégés . Surely there might be mention of them in the Bicycle News or Focus, or maybe they might have a web site. Possibly Residents might be better informed concerning R4. Funding. Does the average person have the slightest idea what R4 funding is, or know that such financing doesn’t drop like manna from Heaven. One might commend the enterprise of those who seek such money, for as is ever the case ‘those who don’t ask don’t get,’ however that doesn’t mean that ‘those who don’t ask don’t want.’ let alone need. At no time in my thirty two years of Residence in the Parish of Tisbury have I heard the Parish Council publicise that such funding is available for suitable good works, nor heard any invitation that applications could be made for it.(P) From time to time an uninformative News Letter is issued which at its best reiterates things one might have gathered from reading the Minutes of Parish Council Meetings available on the Parish Council Web Site. Why doesn’t it advise us of the Nitty Gritty of local affairs thereby encouraging public participation ? (P) Might not suggestions have been requested from the Public as to the naming of roads on the Hindon Development. Whence cometh the Name Turner, surely not named after my Father’s first wife’s family, or after remote Cousin Alexander’s mother's family. Or does it refer to ‘Mine Host at the spiritual home of ‘Tisbury Action’ RIP. or a Ladywho once owned land hereabout,Will anyone bother to tell us? (P) What is all this talk concerning Social Housing and the Catholic Church? ( Where one might have hoped to see a new Village Hall built with the collaboration of the Church albeit with accommodation over?) (P) Some would have it that the Public is apathetic to the conduct of Local Governance, whilst the Public considers itself if not excluded from it, at least detached. Villages all too easily become cliquey, and new comers anxious for self integration obsequious to the status quo. Someone asks the Vicar , and the Vicar asks the Priest and so on down a well trodden incestuous line until the answer comes that things are just fine as they are, and there is no call for trouble making, so in the end those without a personal drum to beat just watch the parade pass by. (P) IS IT TOO MUCH TO HOPE, THAT IN MAY 2013, TISBURY SHOULD HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO ELECT ELEVEN PARISH COUNCILLORS. ONE NEEDS NEW FACES ALONG WITH THE OLD, PERSONS ELECTED TO OFFICE, RATHER THAN , YET AGAIN BE HAPPENED ON US ,BY DEFAULT. 6th.March 2012. contact : John B. Pope