News

Dear Editor,

I attended the Parish Council meeting on the 24th. July. It is amazing how people hear what they want to hear.

I heard the resolution that was passed by the council as that it would recommend to SDC that the buffer zone should be reopened and that a path should be created on the SDC land extending to Killing Wood.

This was what I wanted to hear. I do not recall any details about the exact line of the path in relation to the De Havilland Close houses being discussed at all. I cannot find any minutes on the Parish Council web site relating to this. Mrs. James is quoting the minutes as saying that the resolution was to create a properly marked footpath away from the rear boundary fences of the properties in De Havilland Close.

What is important about this is that the next day this, as yet unapproved, version was used in discussions with SDC about what course of action to take.

Someone apparently has a recording of the meeting and so surely this could be used to verify the matter if the owner is willing to make him/herself known and to make the recording available.

There are no Parish meetings during this month but in the meantime Mr. Stack at the SDC will probably be making plans of action.

In the News Section of The Hawkinge Gazette there is a report of the meeting held with the Local District Councillors present, representatives of SDC, representatives of the Partnership and Parish Councillors (unspecified).

It was reported that it was agreed to go forward with a path "somedistance from the gardens to allow residents some privacy and to plant shrubs and trees adjacent to the fences."

Even this is open to different interpretation. Are the residents of De Havilland Close to be treated differently from those of Vickers Close and Horsley Close? What distance is "some distance" from the gardens because there is little scope to increase this where the bank exists. What sort of trees and shrubs is meant?

Finally which fences are to have the shrubs and trees planted adjacent to? Are they the back garden fences - which I would very much approve of - against which there is already effective planting for much of the length of the strip or the fence at the outer limit of the buffer zone 6 metres out from the gardens?

All over the estate there are examples where, to improve privacy or create a windbreak, people plant inside their boundaries. Therefore to have shrubs and trees planted against the outside of their fence at the expense of the community tax payer should be accepted with gratitude by these residents.

Yours sincerely,

Peter Brun