Open Meeting

It will explain what has happened since this wonderful bequest was made and what may take place now.

But most of all councillors want to give everyone in the parish their chance to make sensible suggestions, thoughtful comments and serious contributions to decisions that have to be made.

This meeting will be held at the parish hall on Wednesday, April 17th at 7.30 pm.It will be chaired by Alison Weekes, chairman of the parish council, Richard Drew, vice chairman, and Nicholas King, chairman of the John Griss Charity.

Alison said:” We understand that several factors have made the situation around this wonderful and generous bequest less clear than I would have liked. These include the pandemic and the lockdowns which prevented the council holding a public meeting before. It has also been complicated by many other factors including the emotional attachment so many people had for John Griss, and a division between some councillors who wanted to sell both the land and lakes and his near derelict cottage and those who were determined to keep these assets.

The situation has also been complicated by the divided response to a village hall poll about prospects for the village hall, and by the tragic illness and early death of Donna Evans, Clayhidon’s parish clerk. It was Donna who kept the community up to date with reports in the Pump and the parish website run by Gareth Weekes who died last year but had found no one willing to take to take it over.

Because of these factors and the necessity to keep financial negotiations secret, the council understands some people have felt they were not kept up to date with what has been going on with the legacy.

The Hartsmoor Lakes are now the subject of a five year lease and have been transformed by two enthusiastic and determined lessees. They will be present to explain their hard work at the site at the meeting. Supervision by the John Griss charity is enhanced by a co-opted member, Andy Don, who lives in Ashculme and is a fisheries expert for the  Environment Agency.  The charity is very appreciative of his help and guidance. The plan is for the fisheries to be developed and eventually bring in a substantial annual income. The land there is subject to a separate five year lease renewed annually.

After much deliberation and prolonged planning negotiations, the charity has now been paid £285,000 for Rose Cottage which will now be developed into three new homes, two of which will be low cost units to be administered by a housing association.

Separately the council has just cashed £42,000 from the sale of a small field it shared with a Churchinford charity begun in 1675 to give money to the poor of both parishes. We are awaiting advice from the Charity Commission as to the future of this money.

The parish also now has this new website which the council wants the community to use. So we hope this will improve all aspects of communication.

I would also like to point out that whatever problems we have faced with communication, we had an election for the parish council last year where no one was prepared to stand for election apart from Lee Saunders who replaced Richard Brown. All parish councillors are also members of the John Griss charity.

Please come and join us at this event and take part in your community.