Our parish councillors are: Julian Halls, Jack Hornby and Adam Osborne. Our district councillor is Jack Hornby. http://wymondhamtc.norfolkparishes.gov.uk/category/councillors/
So you know who to contact for help and support on local issues and problems. They have a duty to represent our concerns and views.
I am delighted to hear that Jack Hornby won a District and a Town Council seat. It is good to have a mixture of ages represented on the council so I am pleased that this youg Cllr was elected.
Let's hope he can stop the over-development of the village.....the caravan site, houses on Bunwell Rd, houses on Chapel Rd, Solar park.....and God knows what else that may be in the pipeline.
I also hope that our 3 newly elected councillors will represent the concerns of local people and stop the over development of Spooner Row (and Suton). Time will tell.
Well at least he spoke up for residents and tried to help, particularly with contentious planning applications. Didn't see much of that from our previous Conservative councillor.
Well lets see if the newly elected district and parish councillors make a difference!! In any case, isn't it all a bit ridiculously political around here. We are not living in Westminster. What most people want is a quiet village life with councillors who support them.
Conservative Councillors have always supported the Village. For instance it was a Conservative run council who provide some funds to the Village hall refurshbishment project and working with local residents it was Conservatives who provided funds for the footway along station Road. Conservatives also provided funds for the play equipment on the playing field and resurfaced the car park by the school.
Most of the things you have listed were done years ago. The footpath was built in 2001, I don't know who had overall control at the council then, but volunteers also contributed to the improvements. I doubt if the funding came from the conservatives personal funds, although it may have been them who allocated the money back then? The funding would have come from people's hard earned money paid in taxes. I think the general feeling is that in recent times things changed, in that our councils would rather support developers, and the village community doesn't count for much. Councillors have a statutory duty to consult, represent, deliver and improve the well-being and quality of life in their community.
It appears that the writer is splitting hairs. I never said that the money came from Conservatives personal funds but that the funds were allocated to the Village by Conservatives run councils. Also I forgot to mention that it was Conservative Councillors who pressed the County Council to find a soloution to the drainage issue under the bridge in Station Road, Wymondham. The work should take place fairly soon. Unlike other people the Conservatives dont just talk about things they get things done for the communities that they represent. This might explain their very good election results in last weeks election.
I think this forum is moderated by Lib Dem supporters!
Thank you for your thoughts. This forum does not have any specific political leanings. It does however, try to reflect local topics relevant to the village. (Webstation)
-- Edited by webstation on Saturday 16th of May 2015 04:20:12 PM
To clarify the position of duties of District and Town Councillors if you have any concerns
Town Councillors have 3 main areas of function
To set the precept and give overall scrutiny to how money is spent, deal with grants etc etc
To look at Leisure and Environment matters such as Play areas
To look at Planning, Lighting and Highways matters
These are overseen to a certain extent by the Town Council which meets every month. Whilst the precept is ours to decide as is the spending of any money on play equipment etc the Planning committee gives recommendations to the District Council on matters with varying degrees of success or failure. Once the matter has been considered by the Planning sub committee it passes to District for their decision , if the Planners decide to delegate this to themselves , which happens far too often in my view, they can but the District Councillor can call the application in to be heard by the full Committee if he so wishes.
District Councillors duties concern such matters as Environmental health , noise ,nuisance, food hygiene ,dog fouling to name the hot topics, and they also deal with Licensing ( Pubs and Taxis)
They also deal with the final say so on Planning matters , which can be very emotive and full of vested interest, to say nothing of Planners who take their lead from the full Council policy on these matters as well as a plethora of to be frank, confusing and dare I say it deliberately wooly and contradictory Planning guidance. They, the Planners, get very cross and irritable about critiscism , justified or not. It is certainly true to say that Growth and Localism, as that section is called have been heavily biased towards Growth as opposed to Localism which are the views of the locality. Hence the reason why we have a plan which says we are only to have 20 new houses and we now have 40 new houses approved and in the pipeline although 5 may not be built !
Despite anon saying we have not had success, we ( the Town Council planning sub 3 Conservative and 2 others) have in fact blocked an additional 7 but of course they can always appeal to District Council NOT Town, so it passes to that body to do the final deliberation
Town Councillors cannot get involved directly in any District Council matters although I have tried , so matters in these areas need to be referred to the District Councillor. I genuinely wish him luck because he will need it if he wishes to properly represent the views of the Town and the Ward (Cromwells).
There are a number of matters which I will be passing onto the new District Councillor which have been referred to me, in error whilst we have have had a somewhat absent past District Councillor who was very complicit as far District matters and wishes were concerned.
I have tried to make this as clear and unbiased as I possibly can so readers, if they have issues can be clear as to whom they should be referring issues.
I have dealt with planners and as far as I am concerned they do not mind critiscism but insults is another matter. They do have too judge all applications against the guidelines otherwise they would be breaking the law. The guidelines were set by the Government that his Party was part of and they did not object to them when there were in Government. It is very easy for someone like Mr Halls who does not have to take the decisions on planning to say no. He wont be held accountable for his actions but the planners will be.
If that were true Anon 2 why do we then have 40 houses approved and a legally approved plan as a service Village ( Spooner row) for a max of 20 ! If you live in Suton which is also outside the Wymondham Area Action Plan they have a target of 0 and if the Development at Gonville Hall gets approved that will be 375 houses.
So we have a plan but let's just ignore it
The National Policy Planning Framework has been warped and corrupted by a constant stream of revised planning policies, and it is widely recognised that Localism is dead in the water. This Policy in its original form is VERY clear about sustainability which to work has to be in balance. When all you get is approval for a site on Economic ( profit) grounds which, not surprisingly is alligned to one particular party's policies, who you may have noticed are in the majority and have been for a long time, it should not be for me and the public to constantly TRY to rail them in.
As for accountability , please give me ONE example locally where this has happened. Planning decisions once approved cannot be appealed against unless the applicant thinks the conditions have been to draconian! If you were an objector - tough luck and no grounds for appeal. This is so far out of balance it is not true
Yes I agree we need houses but we need infrastructure as well. That is what sustainability and localism is about and I am pleased to note our new MP says he wants to address this .
The original e mail was and still is about who you should be referring matters of concern in the listed areas.
The current planning guidelines were approved by the Lib Dems when they were in Government. He is trying to have his cake and eat it by denying that fact.
They are only guidelines like you say. It is up to local councils to use their discretion and make the choices. How they interpret the guidelines leaves a lot to be desired around here.
Little surprised to read that Jack Hornby according to his dads thank you for voting for me letter in the Wymondham and Attleborough news suffers from Asperger syndrome and has cerebral palsy.
Don't remeber reading that in the election leaflets
Let us hope this does not effect his ability to represent us
