Parish Council update
21st April 2023
HARTLEY WESPALL PARISH COUNCIL
ANNUAL UPDATE : APRIL 2023
HM Queen Elizabeth II
The death of the Queen was marked in September by a service of thanksgiving on 11th September and the opening of a book of condolence. As is traditional, a formal proclamation of accession attended by a wide cross-section of the village was read by the Chairman before the service. The Chairman wrote a letter of condolence to King Charles on behalf of the village, to which we received the reply below.
A tree commemorating the reign of Queen Elizabeth II will be planted on the village Green on Coronation Day.
Litter Pick
As part of Keep Britain Tidy’s “Great British Spring Clean” initiative, we organised a village litter pick on a very wet 1st April. The volume of rubbish collected was astonishing, mostly drink cans, bottles and food wrapping. Grateful thanks to all those who took part.
Village Green
The Parish Council received three grants from the Borough Council to be used for very specific purposes. After considerable debate, it was decided that we would concentrate our efforts on revitalising the village Green. A new access bridge has already been installed, basic play equipment has been ordered and a speed monitoring device has been purchased (with an additional grant from the County Council). We intend to cut back the surrounding invasive trees and bushes to make the whole area more inviting.
Finance
The sole source of regular income for the Parish Council is the precept, which is the amount of money requested by the PC from the Borough Council and in turn re-charged via the Council Tax to all houses in the parish. For 2023/24 the annual amount payable per household ranges between £27.68 (for band A) to £83.04 (for band H) compared with £26.42 to £79.26 for 2022/23. This represents an increase of 4.8%. With the exception of the commemorative tree, all the one-off expenditures (eg the bridge, the play equipment and the SID) were covered by grants and had no impact on the precept.
Speed monitoring
As mentioned above, the Parish Council has purchased a Speed Indicator Device which we are licenced to use for limited periods at a single site adjacent to the village Green. The SID records the date, time and speed of every vehicle that passes it. The data from the first deployment over a five day period at the end of February / beginning of March showed that 84% of all traffic travelling towards Rotherwick, exceeded the speed limit. Of those 1534 were travelling between 30 and 40 mph, 551 between 40 and 50, and 11 between 50 and 60. The good news is that on average vehicles slowed by 3 mph after passing the SID.
Roads
Continuing problems exist with drainage in parts of the village. One of the difficulties is identifying the party responsible for the maintenance of the ditches. We have had meetings with Hampshire Highways and the Wellington Estate with limited success so far but will continue to push.
Website and communication
The Parish Council maintains a website [www.hartleywespallpc.co.uk] on which news, meeting dates, agendas and minutes are posted. In addition there are detailed maps of footpaths and useful links to other resources such as the Basingstoke & Deane REPORT IT! Website.
The Clerk holds a database of parishioners’ email addresses which we use for distribution of news; if you are not on the list, and would like to be, you can ‘opt in’ by sending a request to be added to: clerk@hartleywespallpc.org
There is also now a Hartley Wespall WhatsApp group which can be accessed either via the link below or by scanning the QR code:
https://chat.whatsapp.com/ D1zOs68tz49H1rPeDZK4Fx
AGM
The Annual General Meeting of the Parish Council will be held at The Jekyll & Hyde pub at 1930 on Thursday 18th May. All parishioners are warmly invited to attend and raise ideas or concerns for the PC to consider. Refreshments will be provided.
ANNUAL UPDATE : APRIL 2023
HM Queen Elizabeth II
The death of the Queen was marked in September by a service of thanksgiving on 11th September and the opening of a book of condolence. As is traditional, a formal proclamation of accession attended by a wide cross-section of the village was read by the Chairman before the service. The Chairman wrote a letter of condolence to King Charles on behalf of the village, to which we received the reply below.
A tree commemorating the reign of Queen Elizabeth II will be planted on the village Green on Coronation Day.
Litter Pick
As part of Keep Britain Tidy’s “Great British Spring Clean” initiative, we organised a village litter pick on a very wet 1st April. The volume of rubbish collected was astonishing, mostly drink cans, bottles and food wrapping. Grateful thanks to all those who took part.
Village Green
The Parish Council received three grants from the Borough Council to be used for very specific purposes. After considerable debate, it was decided that we would concentrate our efforts on revitalising the village Green. A new access bridge has already been installed, basic play equipment has been ordered and a speed monitoring device has been purchased (with an additional grant from the County Council). We intend to cut back the surrounding invasive trees and bushes to make the whole area more inviting.
Finance
The sole source of regular income for the Parish Council is the precept, which is the amount of money requested by the PC from the Borough Council and in turn re-charged via the Council Tax to all houses in the parish. For 2023/24 the annual amount payable per household ranges between £27.68 (for band A) to £83.04 (for band H) compared with £26.42 to £79.26 for 2022/23. This represents an increase of 4.8%. With the exception of the commemorative tree, all the one-off expenditures (eg the bridge, the play equipment and the SID) were covered by grants and had no impact on the precept.
Speed monitoring
As mentioned above, the Parish Council has purchased a Speed Indicator Device which we are licenced to use for limited periods at a single site adjacent to the village Green. The SID records the date, time and speed of every vehicle that passes it. The data from the first deployment over a five day period at the end of February / beginning of March showed that 84% of all traffic travelling towards Rotherwick, exceeded the speed limit. Of those 1534 were travelling between 30 and 40 mph, 551 between 40 and 50, and 11 between 50 and 60. The good news is that on average vehicles slowed by 3 mph after passing the SID.
Roads
Continuing problems exist with drainage in parts of the village. One of the difficulties is identifying the party responsible for the maintenance of the ditches. We have had meetings with Hampshire Highways and the Wellington Estate with limited success so far but will continue to push.
Website and communication
The Parish Council maintains a website [www.hartleywespallpc.co.uk] on which news, meeting dates, agendas and minutes are posted. In addition there are detailed maps of footpaths and useful links to other resources such as the Basingstoke & Deane REPORT IT! Website.
The Clerk holds a database of parishioners’ email addresses which we use for distribution of news; if you are not on the list, and would like to be, you can ‘opt in’ by sending a request to be added to: clerk@hartleywespallpc.org
There is also now a Hartley Wespall WhatsApp group which can be accessed either via the link below or by scanning the QR code:
https://chat.whatsapp.com/ D1zOs68tz49H1rPeDZK4Fx
AGM
The Annual General Meeting of the Parish Council will be held at The Jekyll & Hyde pub at 1930 on Thursday 18th May. All parishioners are warmly invited to attend and raise ideas or concerns for the PC to consider. Refreshments will be provided.