PARISH COUNCIL -- The member of the public thought twice before venturing out on a bitterly cold Tuesday evening; thrice in fact since in the end the seat remained empty. The temperature did, though, have the effect of concentrating the collective mind ..and resulted in cold and calculated decision making. At least I assume that to be the case since my faculties slip into neutral as freezing point approaches, the result, I suspect of sitting for too long in hot climates, under a mosquito net, feet in iced water, swathed in fridge cooled sheet ..But back to the meeting ..the national call for volunteers to operate hand held speed cameras seems like a good wheeze, and should make the local operator flavour of the month as each village vehicle appears in the viewfinder.

AWARDS FOR ALL -- After the disappointment suffered by the cricketers in their Award for All bid, it's promising that the awards committee has reviewed the priorities for dealing with grants to small groups, with a period of consultation with the grass roots. Pity, then, that this window of opportunity was closed before the likely respondents got wind of this initiative.

POLY TUNNELS -- John Berry chaired a useful meeting of the Bush Bank Residents Association on Sunday. The discussion was somewhat constrained by the county's lack of clarity as to the legal position of the tunnels, a position which is the opposite of clear and unambiguous, and unfair to all, not least the farmers. Do they need planning permission? No ..but then again, maybe yes ..perhaps. At least that's clear, and anything would be better than a voluntary code ..possibly.