Parish Chairman’s Notes March 2025
The Annual Parish Meeting will take place on Monday April 7th at 7:00 in Capel Village Hall. The meeting is chaired by the Parish Chair but is not a meeting of the Parish Council. It is an opportunity for the parish’s elected representatives to report back on what they have done over the past year, and for residents to question them. This year the focus will be on the future of the Village Hall. The working party set up by the Parish Council to consider the issue, would welcome residents’ thoughts on what facilities they would wish a new or refurbished and extended hall to contain. We hope to use these ideas to inform the initial design of the replacement facility.
Subject to the confirmation of the Council on 31st March the Parish Office will move temporarily to the United Church building on Five Oak Green Road, where we will share space with the church. This is necessary because of water ingress and the failure of the heating system in the existing parish office situated within the Village Hall. Contact details for the Parish Manager and Clerk remain unchanged: [clerk@capelparish.gov.uk; tel: 01892 837524/07508882810]
The Main Modifications consultation on the Tunbridge Wells Local Plan is (finally!) expected imminently at the time of writing and Capel Parish Council will be responding when we see the document which is expected to be over 300 pages long.
The Parish Council have installed two new picnic benches in the playground. Two benches have been moved to accommodate them and we have put these to gether as a seating area. Thanks go to the former Friends of Five Oak Green Rec who partially funded the project and Capel Groundcare who installed it.
At the time of writing the Recreation Ground and Allotment Working Group are due to consider quotes for repairing and restoring the village sign on the Green which was damaged and taken down for safekeeping at the end of last year. The original sign was created by the late Mike Lamb and was erected over 30 years ago.
Councillors are due to meet with the KCC Highways Engagement officer on April 4th to review the parish Highways Improvement Plan with a focus on the junction by the Village Green.
Hugh Patterson