Yattendon Parish Plan - Review
Some five years have passed since we distributed throughout the whole parish the questionnaire on which our Parish Plan was based.  A number of major and some minor initiatives have resulted, many of them dependent on funding, some £70,000 secured as a result of producing the Plan.

The Working Group set up five years ago carried out much of this work and increasingly your Parish Council has become involved.  With the Parish Council we believe it is now timely to seek the views of the parishioners of other initiatives they would like to see addressed.  Therefore, we are distributing to each household in the parish a further questionnaire, this time a much simpler one which you will have received by the time you read this article.

We urge you to complete this and return it to one of the addressees listed in the questionnaire.  The form will remain totally anonymous and we will subsequently publish a summary of your views along with information about how we the Working Group and the Parish Council will do all we can to meet your wishes.

Tom Bune
Chair, Parish Plan

Yattendon Parish Plan and M4 Noise
We reported in the March edition of The Broadsheet some of the continuing measures being taken to try to reduce noise in the Parish from M4 traffic notably the plans by Yattendon Estates to plant a belt of trees.

In response to our continuing dialogue with The Highways Agency, we received a long letter from them dated 13 March 2009 which included a host of information.  This information was in response to our request for comparative details of Junctions 13-15 (which has enjoyed a degree of resurfacing with noise reducing material) and Junctions 12-13 (which affects us).  Interestingly, these two sections were constructed by different contractors using different construction methods and different materials.  Consequently, west of J13 has deteriorated more rapidly calling for earlier repair work.

The Highways Agency also point out the damaging effect of long goods vehicles and somewhat surprisingly records show a greater number of such movements between J13-14 than J12-13 i.e. 8013 eastbound and 7539 westbound compared with 6700 and 6907 averaged over a 24 hour period.

We asked also for comparative wear figures and although The Highways Agency have provided these they agree that they are not in a “user friendly” format and they have promised to let us have more intelligible figures.  Furthermore, an annual survey is carried out of wear e.g. rutting, ride quality, texture, fretting and cracking with the next inspection due around October 2009.

Urgent Request for Volunteers
Many of us would agree that one of the most welcome recent initiatives was the re-introduction of the Youth Club.  The Yattendon & Frilsham Youth Group which meets in Yattendon Village Hall every Wednesday evening has proved very popular for 13-18 year olds not only in Yattendon & Frilsham but also from adjoining areas.

Since the initial grant secured by the Parish Plan team, Carole Lowe with her team has taken the Group from strength to strength obtaining significant extra funding to support a wide range of activities.  Carole’s work deserves the highest praise.  She is however deeply dependent on volunteer help in running the Group from 7.00p.m to 9.00p.m each Wednesday and with recent changes there is a very real need to recruit additional volunteers.  The commitment is not onerous, 2 hours attendance on average once per month but without more help the future of the Group cannot be assured.

IT WOULD BE A SERIOUS LOSS WERE THIS VALUABLE FACILITY FOR OUR YOUNG PEOPLE TO FOUNDER. We urge a few parishioners, therefore, to volunteer to support the Group.  Carole’s telephone is 01635 201177
PLEASE CALL HER

Yattendon Parish Council
A full complement of Parish Councillors is now installed. Kate Petter has been elected Chairman, supported by Tom Bune, Sally Leach, Ken Mee, Chris Turner and new Councillor Noel Desnos from Burnt Hill with Doreen Davies continuing as our energetic Parish Clerk.

As ever, do utilize your Council representatives by raising with them any topics which you believe need attention in the Parish.

We continue to seek volunteers to support our many activities. Do let Tom Bune 01635 201699 or tombune@btinternet.com know if you can help.