Extract from Issue 35. of The Breeze, Spring 2023 by Chairman, Nick Maxey.
I would like to thank our previous Chairman, Andy Cairns, for all his hard work on the Parish Council (PC) for our community. The change in the atmosphere, collaboration and achievement over recent months has been down to his individual efforts, and I hope you will all join me in thanking him for his efforts and wish him well for the future as he moves out of our Parish for the next few years due to work reasons. I hope that we will see him and his family back in our Parish in the future.
“The future has a way of arriving unannounced!” and in Upper Rissington there is a genuine feeling of anticipation as we approach the point at which our Parish will finally belong to us again. The allotments are open and many allotmenteers are in the process of preparing their land for the growing season. We should see the Tennis Courts and Bowling Green available for use soon and Vistry are working hard to complete all other Public Open Space (POS) areas in a collaborative and progressive way.
Can I promise everything will be perfect at POS handover? No – I cannot, and perfection is unachievable! However, I can promise that the PC are working as hard as they can, within their available time, to ensure all the significant areas of concern are completed. The timetable for handover should be available by the next edition of the Breeze and I hope much sooner.
Looking further forward, what I can promise is that the PC will have a 100% failure rate on resolving the things that we do not know about! The adoption process has been and continues to be all-consuming. However, once we have control of our Parish, the PC and the Clerk will have some more capacity and at this point, we will work towards resolving all the other issues that have endured for so long. Please tell us what needs doing and where the focus is needed by engaging with the Council website and Facebook page or by coming to Council meetings.
This year sees elections for the PC; the election day takes place on 4 May. Whilst most of the existing PC will be offering themselves for re-election, there remain several empty seats. This is your village and your opinion matters; without your support, developing the village into the community you want is more difficult. No experience is needed and the strength of our community can be best shaped through the diversity of thought that is created by a cross-section of our residents on the PC. Please consider whether you can spare the time to be part of the PC, to enable the building of our community. If you want a coffee or chat about the role and the amount of work that is needed then please reach out to me through my email nick.maxey@upperrissington- pc.gov.uk. I promise that you will be up to the challenge and that it is a rewarding way of helping your community.
I look forward to chatting to you all over the coming months and wish you a happy Spring period.
Nick Maxey
Chairman – Upper Rissington Parish Council
