PARISH COUNCIL - At the meeting on February 16, councillors and public received an informative talk about the role and work of the planning enforcement team at Herefordshire Council by its leader, Mark Tansley. There are still a number of birch, rowan and oak trees available if parishioners would like some to plant. In addition, there will be a morning of tree planting at Breinton Springs on March 12 at 10.30am, meeting in the car park. It will be possible to dedicate a tree to someone, or a cause, at a cost of £5.

For this, you will receive a commemorative certificate and it will be recorded for all to see. Please contact the clerk on 01432 340129 for further details.

Councillors and the public expressed concern that yet more public funding (£0.75million) will be allocated to the Local Development Framework and Edgar Street Grid. Herefordshire Council will issue a new timetable for the LDF, before a referendum in July and further consultation between July and October. This follows on the back of some 80 per cent rejecting Herefordshire Council’s current ‘preferred option’.

Three parish councillors attended a training session recently and had an update on the impact of the Localism Bill, which is currently going through Parliament. The session highlighted likely problems with the new planning powers and the protection of agricultural land.

Following pressure from parish councillors, and good works by Amey and the lengthsman, the long standing drainage issues at the bottom of Breinton Lane and at Warham seem to have been addressed. Councillors are still working on putting a website together – although not too difficult to set up, councillors need to balance the cost and ease of maintaining the website in the future. They are confident of getting on-line before too long.