Outcomes of Special Parish Meeting
On October 4th a Special Meeting of the Parish was
held in the Village Hall and chaired by John Bantick. Over 100 residents
attended and heard four main speakers giving their views on issues relating
to building on Green Belt Land. Dr Graham Fothergill gave an overview of
matters relating to the wider issues. Particular mention being made of East
of England Plan, HCC building quotas and NHDC building strategy for the next
10 years. Henry Cobbold spoke in favour of controlled development and how it
might benefit the village. While not necessarily opposing Green Belt
development, Alan Richardson and Robin Wordsworth pointed out the downside
if a large new development took place.
A lively discussion ensued with lots of opposing views
from the floor and some helpful input from County Councillor Richard Thake,
Andy Beavan from NHDC planning and David Turner who represents the owners of
much of the land to the East of Knebworth. At 9.55pm a vote was taken on the
following resolution:-
“That the Parish Council is given the authority, by those
present at the meeting, to consider agreeing to the development of Green
Belt Land for housing providing; 1. That they will ensure that the integrity
of the village is preserved. 2. That this will result in substantial
financial gain for the Parish, thus enabling `Village Lead` development of
the village centre. 3. That, in any event, such proposals shall be referred
back to the village. “
“Yes” votes = 67. “No” votes = 22. Abstentions = 1O
Parish Councilors did not vote. The resolution was
carried.
Budgets
Since my last report the spending committees have
started preparing their budgets for the next financial year. We are
investigating whether we can clean up and repair the milestone which sits
against the wall of Burgess Funeral Directors. This milestone is well over
100 years old and was placed there when that part of our village was part of
the Parish of Datchworth.
War Memorial Old Knebworth
The base of the War Memorial in Old Knebworth has been cleaned. A small
amount of lettering needs highlighting and this will probably have to wait
to be completed until the spring but every name can now be read. We are now
working towards getting the top half repaired. We have one difficulty and
that is that there seems to be no record of the design of the figures at the
top of the memorial. They are now so corroded that it is not possible to see
what they should look like. If anyone out there has an old picture of the
top please let me know. |
