Cut off – village divided as parish hall anger grows

Matters escalated when the electricity supply from the hall to the council’s offices in a cabin on the hall car park was disconnected on Tuesday, January 11.

Parish council chairman Chris Roberts accused the hall committee of carrying out a “vendetta” against the council.

“They are, basically, stopping the democratic processes of the village and preventing the parish council from functioning effectively and all that goes with it,” he said.

But village hall chairman Brenda Whiting insisted that the dispute stemmed from the council underpaying the hall for electricity supplied to the cabin since it was sited in the car park in 2006, and for not paying enough rent for the parking spaces occupied by the cabin.

A full council meeting on Monday, January 10 had to be switched from the village hall to the nearby Conservative Hall.

The planning committee meeting the following evening was due to take place in the cabin but was also moved to the Conservative Hall as by then the cabin had no electricity.

Bad debt

Mrs Whiting said members of the hall’s executive committee had agreed that the parish council’s bookings for meetings for the next 12 months should be cancelled because of the “heat” in the relationship between the two bodies.

She added that the committee considered that the money it claimed was owed by the parish council was now a “bad debt”.

Talks were held between the two sides on Tuesday, January 11, but after Mr Roberts and parish council clerk Simon Cross refused to hand over a cheque there and then to clear the debt, of around £2,700, and to give back the keys to the hall, the meeting broke up.

Shortly afterwards, the electricity supply to the cabin was switched off.

Strong feelings

Feelings have continued to run high in the village since a parish poll was held last summer over plans for a £500,000-plus redevelopment of the village hall, to provide extra storage space for hall users, a new meeting room and a permanent office for the parish council.

An action group set up against the redevelopment campaigned heavily in the run-up to the poll, with “No” posters displayed widely around the village, and the proposals were defeated.

Resignations followed both from the parish council and the village hall executive, with a new committee formed to take over the hall, including a number of members of the action group.

The row has spilled over into parish council meetings, with both sides accusing the other of insults and abuse.

Mr Roberts admitted it had now reached the point where only the intervention of an independent, outside body could resolve the rift.