The Parish Council takes a cold, hard look...

Gosh, it was cold outside. Fortunately, the Church Room, where Parish Council meets, isn't very far away, and there's always tea available. Unfortunately, when I arrived, it was painfully clear that the heating hadn't been on, and it was almost as cold inside as it was outside.

We were, only just, quorate, but both our District and County Councillors had shown up, as well as my near neighbour, Ginny. The reason for her attendance wasn't entirely clear to me, but incentivised by the notion that we might get home early if we stayed focussed, we sped through the agenda.

Keith Welham, our Green District Councillor, gave his usual informative report, circulated in advance in a manner that I approve of. If only he was a Liberal Democrat... On the other hand, whilst it was nice to see Gary Green, our Conservative County Councillor, turn up, his reports are a thing of brevity. I have a nasty feeling that he doesn't have much grasp of what goes on at the County Council, but given that he certainly isn't alone on the Conservative benches, perhaps I shouldn't be too critical. Too many of them are merely bench warmers, as Jessica Fleming's shocking lack of understanding of contracts at our previous meeting demonstrated.

The financial report, in its newly revised format, allows Councillors to easily evaluate how our spending is progressing relative to budget - you would not believe how impenetrable the previous Clerk made things (quite deliberately to my somewhat cynical mind). We are in good shape, and have learned the hard way that taking on responsibilities from higher levels of local government is a fool's errand unless there is an established, sufficient, funding stream. Our (relatively) new Clerk, Jennie, is willing to adapt to the needs of the Council, rather than the reverse, which was the case under the old regime.

It turned out that we have a tree warden (Ginny), and she gave her report. Having a tree warden in a rural parish can only be a good thing, especially as our nature reserve has a lot of trees which need attention.

The motion to install a defibrillator in the old BT telephone box (long since devoid of a telephone, but still lit at night), was passed, with my abstention. Whilst I'm not against it, I wasn't entirely convinced that we had really bottomed out the financing going forward. There is a lot of talk about Lottery funding, and possible support from our County Councillor, and I'm sure that we can work something out. Just think of it as that cautious streak that comes from years of looking at accounts...

I had asked for street lighting to be discussed, as our street lights are, frankly, pretty ancient, to the extent that finding bulbs for them is becoming difficult. We need to think about establishing a capital fund to pay for new ones - there are currently ten in the village, and we own them. It was agreed that, in drafting the 2018/19 budget, this should be a priority. It would be nice to move towards having environmentally friendly LED ones, but any upgrade would be an improvement, both aesthetically and financially.

The cold was really beginning to set in now, and it wasn't a huge surprise that we reached the end of the agenda in a lightning forty-eight minutes, allowing us all to retreat to the warmth of our own homes.

It's good to be back...