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There has been a lot of activity to report this
month as all the committees and the Council have met. The meetings of the
Village Hall and F& GP committees due to be held on the 28th January
had to be abandoned due to very heavy snow which made it impossible for
members to meet. Both committees did meet on the 3rd February.
Parish Council
vacancy still open
Among the many items to come out from the above
meetings was the fact that the vacancy for a Parish Councillor is still
open. It is hoped to co-opt a new member at the next Parish Council
meeting on the 24th March. It is therefore still not too late for
interested people to apply. Please do consider if you could offer your
services to the village. Full details of what is involved can be obtained
from our clerk Mrs. Claire Graham phone 812375 or talk with any
councillor.
Library
cut-backs
Another item raised was the planned reduction in
the staffing level of our library to single manning. It was reported that
this economy was due to lower usage and also to enable trial Sunday
opening in some larger libraries. This was thought to be very unfair to
Knebworth taxpayers. The Clerk was asked to write to the Herts. County
Council Cabinet Member responsible for Libraries to complain about this
lowering of service level. This is a classic case that we must use this
service or risk losing it altogether.
Villagers
petition!
Residents of Meadway who had heard of proposals
to demolish their homes dominated the Parish Council meeting held on The
11th February. Although council housing is not within the remit of the
Parish Council it was felt that as the representatives of the village that
it should be involved and had therefore invited those involved to this
meeting. Well over thirty very concerned residents attended this meeting
to hear Mr K. Thompson, the Chief Executive Officer of North Hertfordshire
Homes Ltd (NHH), explain just what was happening at this very early
consultation stage. He stated that the problem had arisen due to the age
of the properties and type of slab construction, which now rendered them
'statutory defective'. This meant that they could not be improved to the
new Government Decent Homes Standards, which was the NHH objective. It was
agreed that there had been a communication problem and NHH said that they
would now try hard to rectify this. A petition was handed in to NHH signed
by most of the Meadway residents stating that they didn't want to move
from Knebworth. The Parish Council offered the use of the Village Hall as
a venue to enable further meetings to try and resolve the way ahead on
this important matter.
More funding
obtained
Some good news for the Lytton Fields play ground
users is that Knebworth has been successful in obtaining £3000 from the
NHDC Parish Challenge Fund towards some new play equipment. The Parish
Council has more than matched this sum so that work can now progress
without delay. Included in the list of new equipment is a new roundabout
for age 5 - 15.
More vandalism
It is sad to have to report that some motorised
vandals have been active on the night of the 3rd February in the main
Recreation Ground. The steel gates and fence at the top of the Watton Road
entrance have been attacked with a van or lorry. The result is broken
concrete fence posts, fence and gates leaving them all flat on the floor.
This surely must have damaged the vehicle involved and must have made
quite a noise. Does anyone know anything?
More colour
To finish on a brighter note the bulbs in the Jubilee Walk are now coming
through and should produce a nice splash of colour at this end of the
Recreation Ground. We suggest a visit should be made on a nice spring day
to see just what has happened since last year. Thank you to Andrew our
groundsman who has planted the majority of the 4000 bulbs.
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