The Litter Blitz was held on the morning of Sunday 30th March and was very successful. Twenty five people took part including a few children. The members of the Parish Council thanked them for their efforts. The Vale provided the equipment and local people collected over 40 bags of rubbish and other waste. Three items were reported to the Community Support Officer who was patrolling in the village at the time; a purse and cards, backpack with clothing and cards and two car license plates. He took them back to the Police Station. It was reported that there was a lot of rubbish around the Sandford Lane Industrial Estate. The Clerk had asked the Vale if they would investigate the problem. It was hoped to repeat the exercise next year.
The Clerk with two members of the Flooding Working Group attended a joint meeting with Thames Water, the Vale and the County to discuss a report commissioned by Thames Water from Halcow on the problem of the flooding at the junction of Upper Road and Kennington Road. The consultant from Thames Water had initially come to the conclusion that their storm water drains had sufficient capacity to take a one in thirty year storm. However the meeting agreed that the modelling was inaccurate as it included using the ditch at Egrove Park as water storage which might not be available in the future. It was agreed that Thames Water needed to look at the information again and consider a simpler solution.
Two items, which were referred from the Annual Parish Meeting, were considered by the Parish Council. The first was that Kennington should become a Fairtrade Village. It was agreed that it seemed an excellent idea. The Clerk would circulate details of how to obtain Fairtrade status to the councillors and there would be a more detailed discussion at the next meeting. The Parish Council would welcome hearing from anyone interested in getting involved with this project.
The other idea was to install outdoor fitness equipment in the playing fields that could be used by adults and teenagers. The Play Areas Working Group was to be asked to consider it in the schemes they would be developing for the village playing fields.
The Parish Council would be supporting residents of St Swithun’s Road. Following an accident when a car ran into a garden wall, they had asked for help in getting traffic calming installed.
It was decided to enter the Village of the Year Competition. It was felt that there was a good community spirit in the village which should be recognised.
