I made my weekly pilgrimage two and a half miles along the road into the centre of our Parish of Tisbury to buy a Sunday Paper, and to have another attempt at the ATM. Happily the latter is now functioning again..

It is a well known fact that if a man has a few pounds in his pocket he is inclined to extend his horizons. So it was for me as I trod what must have been the ‘Yellow Brick Road’ for it was bestrewn with posters advising that soon a Wizard would be visiting Tisbury from somewhere called Oz.* Alas there was no room for his annunciation in the community notice board but even if there had been how would his PR Persons have accessed the locked cabinet? Was there not some arrangement that the showcase would be left unlocked so that the public might have access to it ? It is an excellent little display area however totally inadequate to the needs of Tisbury. Myriads need use of a place to display events ie, The Music Café, That Swap Shop, Various Charitable Events, etc. etc. Tisbury is littered with fly posting, that’s fine by me, but surely a twin Parish such as ours , having resolved to erect a Community Notice Board might have done better .

PARISH WEB SITE.
‘Governance Nerds’ welcome the
TISBURY PARISH COUNCIL WEB SITE.

Congratulations to Ms. Suzanne Keen, and the Parish Clerk Mrs Sandra Harry, and www.weebly.com who host web sites for free. There is nothing all dancing and all singing about it, but it records the nitty gritty that Parish Councillors attend to on our behalf.

It is not easy for everyone to access the Parish or Community notice board to read the Agendas for Parish Council Meetings . It will be excellent to have the Agendas displayed on the Parish Council Web Site in advance, and to read the draft minutes of each meeting before they are approved by the Parish Council. Possibly members of the general public might wish to raise some question arising there from. Its hard to do so if one knows not what happened at a Parish Council Meeting, if the first one reads of the matter is at least one, but probably two Council Meetings down the line.

The reports that appear in Focus seem as but an ‘Opiate for the People’ As an example of that problem the February issue of Focus records a January Press Release on Parish Council Affairs. To which meetings does this Press Release refer? Would one be wrong to suggest the decisions reported were taken at the December Meeting of the Parish Council ? Can’t check this at the time of writing because the Parish Web Site isn’t yet so up to date. Unfortunately Focus wasn’t due to be published until the start of February, and the February Parish Council Meeting was on the evening of the second of February. Not sure whether my hasty e.mail query concerning TisVis would have been delivered in time for the February meeting,

As I read it, there was suggestion of a ‘Community Campus Proposal,’ what ever that might be. Seemingly the matter has to do with TisVis. Is one to understand that TisVis is expecting another hand out from the Parish Precept? I know of the original concept of TisVis, for I was associated with it, however what the excuse for its continuance? It has spent thousands of pounds obtained from Europe, and too received further money from the Parish Precept, is it now to receive more ?

WHO NOW CONSTITUTES ‘TisVis’
NONE OF ITS ORIGINAL MEMBERSHIP WAS ELECTED, we being but Volunteers who collected questions posed by local residents at a couple of open public consultations, (with excellent balloons! ).There was one such consultation at the Church Fete, and another at the Victoria Hall. The resultant questionnaires having been distributed to every Household in TISBURY and WEST TISBURY, were then collected and duly processed, before the collated answers were published, and a very slick presentation it was.

It is tempting to consider the whole exercise a waste of time and Public Money, but though there was a redeeming factor in that the Residents of both Tisbury and West Tisbury were
ASKED THEIR OPINION ON LOCAL AFFAIRS.
It was not the fault of TisVis that some subsequently misconstrued the facts it published, although some possibly misinterpreted the questions posed.

(For examples of the former ,One lot of objectors was seemingly unaware that not only was The Hindon Lane site within the Village envelope but that the Permission for its Development came not from the then District Council, but was granted by a Government Inspector following a Planning Enquiry. Others imagined that the Station works site was in the Village housing redevelopment area when it was well outside it, and was thus unavailable for any housing according to the TisVis Survey)

STILL TISBURY HAS NO EAST OR WEST. As hinted at above Tisbury Parish extends to outlandish areas such as Upper Chicksgrove, and as far west as St.John’s Church only a few yards off the village square. In fact Tisbury Parish extends to scarcely beyond St.John‘s Church. Thereafter ‘there be West Tisbury Dragons’ which ravage the Tisbury Parish Community Charge Payers utilising all the facilities we alone pay for.

IT IS PAST TIME FOR TISBURY AND WEST TISBURY TO AMALGAMATE UNDER ONE PARISH COUNCIL , SO AS TO REFRAIN FROM SPENDING PUBLIC MONEY UNNECESSARILY. It is seemingly WEST TISBURY who hold out against the amalgamation. I am becoming INPATIENT for want of progress on this matter.

* place has nothing to do with the film of the Oz Magazine called ‘Hippie Hippie Shake’ due to be released soon.

Sunday, 7 February 2010