CHAIRMANS JOTTINGS JANUARY 2021
By Will Taylor
We continue to hope you are keeping safe and well in these extraordinary times. As you will be aware, the COVID 19 coronavirus pandemic continues to dominate the news, even more dramatically this week, with more lock down measures being announced to try and stem the spread of the new strain of the virus.
We are still unable to hold full face to face council meetings and in the latter half of last year we were only able to meet on an ad hoc basis for the signing of cheques or official documents etc: due to the latest lockdown even these ad hoc meetings are banned.
The regular council business, however, continues and we are only able to communicate by telephone and email but we have also been holding occasional zoom meetings.
If, however, any Finstall resident needs to contact the Parish Council with any council concerns, please contact the Clerk to the Council at finstallpc@live.co.uk
The new contractor responsible for the playing field maintenance and dog bin emptying has worked out very well indeed and we have had some excellent reports from you about it. Thank you we are very grateful for this feedback.
The new contractor has also kept his eye on the playing field equipment during his visits and has told us of two problems, the first item raised was corrosion in the supporting legs of the slide, they will have to be replaced, we have removed one of them to use as a pattern to allow us to have two new ones made, in the meantime we have had to take the slide out of use. The second item was the rubber coating on both of the toddler swing seats was beginning to break up creating possible pinch points; these seats have already been replaced with new ones.
The playing field and its equipment will continue to be inspected by ROSPA every year, generally around March time.
The lengthsman scheme, which is doing some of the day to day maintenance and cleaning of our highways and includes battery replacement of our village speed sign, has been continuing as normal, but some additional safety measures will be needed to protect the workforce, such as additional barriers etc; to keep people at a distance and to comply with the present lockdown rules.
We are still having reports of fly tipping in the area this is difficult for the council to control; some of these occurrences have been covered in the local press.
If you put items at the front of your house for the scrap metal man to take away please make sure they are suitable items for him to remove, if not please contact the District Council for disposal or take them to one of the local household waste sites.
Hoping things will get back to normality in the next few months.
In the
A very Healthy and Happy New Year to you all.