Dear Editor
I was disappointed to read Rex Collinson's comments in last month’s issue of the newsletter attacking our district councillors.
I was at the hearings, listened carefully to what was said and was encouraged by the pragmatism shown.
Sometimes it is difficult to step back and weigh up the odds of success or failure when you are in the heat of battle. The district councillors, given their wider remit saw the bigger picture, something the Parish Council clearly did not, otherwise they would not have wasted nearly £30,000 on futile legal challenges.
Phil Ford summed things up vey nicely in his letter when questioning whether the Parish Council really had a mandate to spend such sums on legal challenges especially when there were only 30-40 objections lodged with SCDC against the schemes. So was there a clear majority view in the local community on this issue or did it suit certain parish councillors to form this view?
And now to the Village Hall. It appears that the design is to change and the Nursery to be removed from the scheme so what we all voted for in the referendum is no more. Nearly £50,000 has been spent on the last design and I now note that the parish councillors have scrapped this and resolved to spend another £5000 on a redesign with a view to getting more pre application advice.
The Village Hall was very low down on the wish list when we were all surveyed; the Medical Centre was top and should therefore be the priority.
So Rex if you are really listening step back and have a rethink on this over ambitious project or at the very least give the villagers the opportunity of another vote?
Norman Gautrey
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