held at The Village Hall, Lyminge on Monday 9th July 2007

Despite this meeting being advertised in the village Newsletter, attendance was poor with only 11 people on the night. Mr. John Carr, Vice Chairman of The Lyminge Association, kindly presided.

Mr. Carr welcomed everyone and they watched a short slide show which he had prepared highlighting some ‘problem’ areas around the village. He informed everyone that Folkestone/Shepway do have a procedure system for reporting environmental problems, and that the aim for the evening was to ascertain who might be willing to contact the relevant bodies to rectify some of the problems identified. He also suggested that we might initiate a programme of ‘self help’ within the community to put defects right.

One member of the audience commented that Etchinghill and Postling both seemed much ‘cleaner’ villages when one passes through them than Lyminge. Mr. Kedge mentioned that the Council will not street clean where there are no kerbs and it appears that streets are only cleaned locally approximately every 13 weeks. Another member of the audience suggested that it would be good to have a designated street cleaner of our own.

Mr. Kedge also raised the question of cutting the grass verges around the village. It was decided that we should investigate who is actually responsible for various things like verges, overhanging branches etc.. e.g. local authority/property owner ? In particular, the areas between property boundaries and the road itself.

It was therefore decided that we make a list of pending issues to address:

1. We write to the Council about street cleaning etc.. where there are no kerbs.
    
2. Ascertain who is responsible for checking condition of highways and footpaths.
    
3. Find out who is responsible for the well and the footpath alongside it. There are some rusty poles in the area of the well. Apparently some work is to be done on the well but a proper survey is needed to deal with the well structure and walls. Hopefully there will be insurance to cover this work - there seemed to be some question as to whether the well had suffered any damage following the recent earthquake.
    
4. To find out who is responsible for streams and waterways since some are protected. e.g. there is some sort of preservation order concerning watercress growing which could prevent action being taken.
    
5. Upkeep of the bus shelters. Some members of audience were worried that our ‘rural’ shelters might be replaced with modern ‘town’ style shelters out of keeping with their surroundings, or that they might be scrapped altogether if complaints were voiced regarding their tatty condition.
    
6. The issue of graffiti gives rise to concern locally. It is planned to contact local authorities and canvass opinion about how to respond - there are council leaflets to be consulted regarding this in the first instance. It is also essential to contact the relevant authority for each item bearing graffiti e.g. substation boxes. In this case, public cleaning could pose a safety risk and might be frowned upon. It may be that the village can deal with the majority of these offending items itself.
    
7. It was felt that pride in the village should be promoted - possibly through the Best Kent Village Competition (not KEPT village !).
    
8. Negative comments were voiced regarding Notice Boards around the village and their condition. It was pointed out that none seemed to have been updated (e.g. out of date notices, upside down bus timetables, etc..) and this does not promote a desirable image of the village. The Parish Council is apparently inthe process of dealing with notice boards and organising their placement around the village. It is planned to contact the Tourise Board regarding the Tourist Information Board to have it cleaned/repainted. Similarly, it is planned to contact the bus companies to get up-to-date timetables in place in shelters and BT to refurbish/clean the telephone box which had been vandalised.
   Shepway needs to be consulted about re-marking the parking bays in the car park clearly.
    
9. It was strongly felt that bins for dog mess ought to be provided as currently people are using the bins on Tayne Field to deposit their doggy ‘offerings’. These had been emptied by the Primary School caretaker until recently but this practice has discontinued and is hardly a suitable use for ordinary litter bins anyway. It will have to be clarified as to who will be responsible for the emptying of such bins and/or pay for this service if installed.
   It was pointed out that Richard and Marian Chubb (present) are now on the Parish Council and they endeavoured to assist with clarifying such points as they were able.
    
10. John Carr suggested a sub-committee be formed to actually do some clearing and tidying in the first instance and that perhaps this could link up with the Parish Council who could deal with the ‘legal’ side of clearing and things like the supply of gloves, black sacks etc. for this purpose.
    John also proposed, and it was agreed, that a small ‘working party’ go out on Wednesday 11th July to clear weeds growing near the Post Office, to show willing, and then produce some ‘before’ and ‘after’ photographs following this clear up. We also need to investigate whether Local Authority insurance would cover ‘working parties’ and if not, how much more such cover would cost.
     
11. Mike Foxon had suggested an annual ‘Spring Clean’ and this was thought to be a good idea.
     
12. Another meeting around September/October time was suggested and John Carr will contact those people willing to form the Sub Committee.
     
13. The plaque on the trough near the New Lyminge Surgery could do with a polish (Adrian Willcox may well be willing to undertake this !).
     
14. It was suggested by Sandra Bright that it might be helpful if the Parish Council was well represented at the next meeting by perhaps having Glenn Floyd and/or David Monk present to help resolve queries there and then, so to speak. Sandra has also thought, since the meeting, that maybe the local/regional council might be willing to provide the villagers with something of an incentive to clean/tidy/spruce up the village - perhaps in the form of some bulbs or a planter/trough or similar.
     
15. It was felt that what was good about the village should be given a ‘plug’ in the next edition of the Newsletter - Promote the village TO the village.

It is proposed that there be a Report of this Meeting in the next Newsletter.

It is also hoped to try to encourage more people to attend the next Meeting and to obtain answers beforehand to some of the questions raised at this Meeting.

To view the Addendum reports with photographs of the Post Office Bus Stop Clean-up please click here to download the file. If you need Adobe reader to open it, you can download it here.