Time to pay up

East Preston Parish Council allegedly owes rent and electric payments to the village hall committee and will not pay. Why not? The council gets enough from our council tax. and has a reserve of about £200,000 (which is shown on its annual returns).

The village hall committee has stopped the council using the village hall and cut off the electricity supply to its office. Good for them. If I owed payments for electric, I would be cut off.

If the village hall extension, with office and a meeting room for the parish council, had been built, would it still have not wanted to pay more rent?

East Preston Parish Council – if it owes money, pay up! When, according to its website it pays for the council cabin £636.92 plus VAT per quarter, it must know it has not been paying enough for the use of the village hall, car park and heating for the cabin.

The government has stated that it wants village councils to have more say on local issues but at our recent parish council election only approximately 900 people voted.

Perhaps this an indication of how much East Preston really wants a village council?

Also, the parish council, which is supposed to be non-political, is holding meetings in the Conservative Hall.

I know the council has used this venue when the village hall is unavailable, but I feel this is not an ideal situation.

Bryan Turner

Lavinia Way

East Preston