Parish Chair’s Notes May 2025
At the Annual Parish Council Meeting on May 6th Hugh Patterson and William Malpas were re-elected as Chair and Vice Chair for the year 2025-6. We also welcomed Stephanie Dunbar who was co-opted on to the council at the end of April. The council now has its full complement of 9 councillors, and we were able to fill all the vacancies on the council committees.
There was around 30 residents in attendance for the discussion on the Finches Farm Planning Application for 130 houses. After an extended discussion, the parish council advised TWBC to refuse the application on flooding, highways, and green belt grounds. The presentation made at the meeting is available on www.capelparish.gov.uk
At the time of writing the Village Hall working party was due to meet on 8th May. Among the items due for discussion were the draft business case, expected timelines and the costs of a loan application to finance the works. The council is considering a quarterly newsletter to keep residents informed about the progress of the village hall scheme and other issues. We would look to reprint this in the parish magazine, but if you would like to be included on the email list please contact clerk@capelparish.gov.uk
Also, at the time of writing TWBC cabinet members were due to visit the parish on Wednesday 14th May to inform themselves of the issues facing the community. They were to be hosted by the Parrish Chair and councillors.
Capel Parish Council’s annual audit report and governance statement was given a clean bill of health by our auditor. Many thanks to our Clerk and Parish Manager, Louise Goldsmith for all her work on this.
KCC have a public consultation on installing double yellow lines at the Woodgate Roundabout on the TWBC side of the boundary with Tonbridge and Malling. Capel Parish Council’s response was to support double yellow lines being installed on the roundabout and for a reasonable distance from it, to ensure highway safety.
The next meeting of the Council will be on Monday June 2nd at 7:30 (planning committee at 7:00) in the Village Hall. All welcome.
Hugh Patterson