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LET'S HAVE SOME FRESH FACES ON THE PARISH COUNCIL

Dear Ed,

Re:Parish council farce

I have read with interest Veritas’s letter about the Hawkinge Parish Council and various comments from others in the Big Chatterbox. I attended the March Parish Council meeting ( as a member of the public) and it is true that this was not o­ne which the Councillors should be proud of and hopefully such a performance will never be repeated.

I concede that just after the meeting I felt so let down that thoughts of the Standards Board crossed my mind but after a suitable cooling off period I came to the conclusion that this would probably achieve nothing.

I am not sure that the Standards Board of England is there to respond to every petty spat within Parish Councils nor should the Councillors involved be encouraged to run to the Board every time they are unable to resolve their differences in a democratic manner.

We should all remember that Parish Councillors are all unpaid volunteers most of whom try their very best to serve their respective communities.

In the case of Hawkinge many of the Councillors are having to come to terms with the fact that the village, o­nce 2000 residents, has expanded rapidly to a community in excess of 5000 and is expected to increase by further 2000+ in the next few years; if we bite the bullet we should be starting to think of “Townâ€? rather than Village.

Critics should be mindful of the fact that in the absence of new volunteers for Council then nothing will change.

I am willing take a lead and put myself forward for election and through this letter would urge others to seriously consider doing likewise. You never know perhaps a few fresh faces and ideas might make a difference, at least let’s give it a try.

David Godfrey