Sadly, Blaise Morris has resigned from the Council for personal reasons. Blaise had responsibility for the parish footparths and other matters and had ben very active and efficient in identifing sources of finance and arranging for the footpaths to be repaired and put in good order. The Council advertised the vacancyand there were no nominations from the public to satnd as an replacement councillor and it therefore fell to the Council to look to appoint a replacement councillor. Investigations were made and the Council is pleased to report that at its meeting on 6th september Mrs Carmel Naughton of Bakers Cross, Hadham Cross agreed to be and was duly appointed to the Council. she will be taking over the areas of responsibility held by Blaise and carrying on his good wrok with our footpaths.

It came to our attention that the play equipment in the playing field required some attention and repair.One of the supporting wooden posts on the net climb had broken and this has now been repaired. We used the opportunity to have all the equipment looked at by an independant expert and also our insureres. Basically they recommended that the matting under the swings and the roundabout be replaced and also some repairs be made to the round-a-bout. Also the sites of the various pieces of equipment need weeding and filling with new impact absorbing bark. We will shortly be attending to these works. There had been suggestions from the public that a fence should be errected around the play area, but we thought that this could be a source or potential source of danger in itself.

The local authority are to supply us with anti dog fouling signs. These will be errected as soon as they are received.Problems of dog fouling have ben reported to us and it is really a question of being a good neighbour or doing to others as you would wish done to you. William Compton has taken on this area of responsibility.

we have received commenst from residents concerning the behaviour and attitude of the constructors working at the development of new houses next to the Spar shop. we have written to the firm involved but have not received any reply from them.

As you will have noticed work began in July on the traffic calming scheme through the village High Street. The contractors recently ran short of certain supplies and work has come to a tempory halt while new supplies are being obtained.There have been many enquiries when the work would commence to repair the road on the way to Widford, so that the traffic lights could be removed.The local authority tell us it is hoped that work will start in the autumn.

We had applied for a grant to help with the cost of repairing the war memorial. this was rejected by the local authority.We have been able to identify another possible of funding, the War Memorial Trust and an application to them is being made to them.

BT had made proposals to convert the phone box at Tower Hill to a cashless machine. We were not happy with this and have responded to BP accordingly.

The next meeting of the Council is on Tuesday 1st November at 7.30 pm in the Village Hall.You are most welcome to attend and remember you have the right to raise any issue under our usual "Resident's Comments" item on the agenda.

Ralph Camp - Publicity Officer.