Will they Fund our Packington Post ? – Decision Today, Tuesday 2nd June 2015

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Will they continue to fund Packington Post?

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5 of our 6 Parish Councillors are pictured above with their Council Clerk at their first meeting in May 2015, when they decided to hold their June monthly meeting today, Tuesday 2nd June 2015, and to decide today whether to continue to fund the Packington Post – or not.

You may want to make your voice heard – if so, pop along to Memorial Hall Meeting Room for 7pm, prior to the Parish Council meeting at 7:15. Members of the public are welcome to be present at all Parish Council Meetings, and to speak before them.

Councillors will no doubt be considering the two letters below among the others sent to them:

Here is a letter to the Chair of the Parish Council, Chris Miles, copied to the Editor, Packington Post:

Dear Chris

I write in support of the Packington Post.  I have always enjoyed reading the publication and feel that it is invaluable to the village.  Having recently sustained an injury that left me confined to the house for some months, I appreciated the information about what was happening in the village that the Packington Post provided – this must be the case for many of the villages older residents too. 

It must also make the village a more welcoming place for new residents – when Nicole married and left home, I found it incredible that she didn’t know her neighbours or anything about where she had moved to – most definitely not the case in Packington! 

I strongly disagree that the decision to cut the grant to £150 should be made on the suggestion of just one councillor, especially when the village survey conducted in the past gave a 95% favourable response to keeping it.  Please record my support for the Packington Post!

Kind regards

Hazel Flamson

Here is a letter to the  Editor of Packington Post, asking us to forward it by email to our councillors prior to the 2nd June meeting:

Dear Parish Councillors,

     I am writing to you in your capacity of Parish Councillors with regard to the forthcoming discussion about the size of the annual grant to be made by the Council towards the cost of publication of the Packington Post.  

     Personally I consider that it is an excellent publication and one which helps to foster a sense of community within the village. It would be a sad loss were it to have to close owing to the shortage of funds and I should like to request you to allocate to the Post the £2,100 which has been requested, to avoid this occurring.

Thank you!

Lesley Birtwistle ( Nethercroft Drive, Packington ).

Here’s another letter, copied to Editor Packington Post, to our councillors prior to the 2nd June meeting:

    We understand that on 2nd June the Parish Council will be considering funding of PCG and the Packington Post.
     We moved into our bungalow, .. The Grange, on 4th August 2014. We had already come across the Packington Post online and were impressed.
      Nothing could have prepared us for the warmth of the welcome we would receive from neighbours or for the number and quality of events and activities in the village.  We feel that such a strong sense of community is underpinned by outstanding communications.  
      We were astounded to receive a really helpful Welcome Pack within days of arriving.  It included a hard copy of the  Packington Post and we immediately subscribed to the Packington alert email service.  We really appreciate the voluntary work of each and every member of the PCG and the team who deliver the Packington Post. Their efforts are worthy of your support and we do urge you to fight for continued funding.
     We note that properties are for sale in the village and that NWLDC Planning Committee have two large housing applications to consider.  It is unthinkable that against this background modest funding for proven communications networks should be threatened.  They are and will continue to be the cement that glues the community together.  What price social cohesion?
     We are confident that  you will do all that you can to secure appropriate funding.  Please know that although we only arrived in the village relatively recently, this is an issue we both genuinely care about.
Yours sincerely
Jenny and Ken Smedley