We have a real treasure in our parish – the disussed railway line. However, it is not going to stay as beautiful as it is now without some TLC. The Parish Council spends over 22% of its precept on maintaining this facility and it cannot committ any more funds.
David Balmer used to lead a team of volunteers who supplemented the work of the Parish Council with additional grass cutting and general maintenance. Sadly, David is no longer with us and we owe it to his memory to keep up his good work.
Would you be willing to give up a few hours a month during the spring and summer? Nothing too stressful just some strimming, tidying and clearing up.
Let me know.
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Peter: the group you refer to was a large delegation of villagers – considerably larger than the small number of the scheme’s proponents – and it only emerged from “the shadows” to express opposition to a misconceived plan that would have changed the railway walk’s character. This was all aired at the time, in the press, council meetings and in the comments to the planning application. “Could possibly have been in a position” sounds pretty doubtful to me as well.
That said, has there been any movement on this David?
I don’t think it’s worth dragging up this subject again. The PC suggested we install a car park to make the walk accessible to more people. The PC decided against this due to objections. End of the matter as far as I’m concerned.
The PC then decided to continue to maintain the walk spending the same amount of money annually that it has done for the past few years. It would be great to spend more but the PC does not have any more money. It would be great if some volunteers got together to work on the walk. Only one person came forward when I put out a request for help.
I would be happy to spend a few hours a month helping, as long as I have a few days notice.
Thanks
Tonie
The.parish council could have possibly been in a position to have secured additional funding had it been allowed to develop the railway walk in a manner that would have benefited all members of the community. Alas it was not to be and a group objected, decided the plans were not to their liking and stopped the work in its tracks so to speak. I also seem to recall some sort of undertaking by this group to help maintain it, but having successfully stuck a stick in the spokes as it were, they disappeared back into the shadows.
It is shame that the Parish Council did not get the support but the choice to follow this path rather than continue with the original plan was made. Let’s hope a group can be formed to simply keep it tidy. At least the Parish Council tried to improve it for everyone.