Report from I.W. Councillor Roger Mazillius

Posted by Admin on 20 February 2010, 12:00 am

COUNCILLOR ROGER MAZILLIUS
I.W. COUNCILLOR FOR COWES SOUTH & NORTHWOOD
21 OXFORD STREET, NORTHWOOD
ISLE OF WIGHT PO31 8PT
Tel: 01983 295556
Email: roger.mazillius@iow.gov.uk

REPORT – MARCH 2010

VILLAGE GREEN

Further to my last Roger’s Report in Northwood News, I can confirm the agreed settlement terms were approved by the I.W. Council’s General Purposes Committee last Thursday.

In brief, this granted “village green” status for the lower approx. two-fifths of the field – this is the area nearest to the Pallance Road footpath. Residents have the right to use THIS area for “lawful sports and pastimes” as they have done for the past twenty-plus years. The designation does not grant any rights additional to those historic ones, i.e. generally walking, dog-walking and exercising, flying kites, blackberrying, playing with children, etc.

In addition the landowners have agreed to grant a permissive walking right around the perimeter of the remaining land, i.e. along the back of the Pallance Road gardens and round the back of Harry Cheek Gardens to join up with the public footpath running from the Wyatts Lane footpath, down the fence to the bottom and then northwards to the Pallance Road footpath. None of this affects the public’s existing rights over this registered public footpath.

A fence of a temporary nature will be erected to clearly show the division between the two areas of land. A gate will be installed in this to allow a two metre width pedestrian access along the Pallance Road gardens boundary as referred to above. The fence will stop before the edge of the existing public footpath. Residents are urged to use this access responsibly, as in past usage.

May I repeat my sincere thanks to all residents who supported my application.

NORTHWOOD PARISH COUNCIL ELECTIONS

The entire Parish Council of eight places is up for election on 6th May 2010. However if the General Election does take place on this day, they will be postponed for about three weeks.

There will I suspect be several present Parish Councillors (including myself) who will not be standing again. Apart from this of course all EIGHT places will need candidates.

So the purpose of this article is to sincerely say to all you keen villagers out there to seriously consider standing for election to the Parish Council.
It is, after all, YOUR Council and you will recall that NONE of the original eight Councillors were ACTUALLY ELECTED because there were only seven nominations. So we had to co-opt one other to make up the number.

I only stood myself in case we did not get enough nominations. If we had got nine or more, I would have stood down in the five day window allowing me to do this before election arrangements were finalised because I wanted to see fresh faces inputting into this local level of democracy.
Even if you don’t want to stand, you can give your practical support to village life, e.g. help with the plant tubs weeding and watering, help with our litter-picking Saturday mornings and a whole host of other parish activities (I won’t list them all as I don’t want to put anyone off!)

All you need to stand is to complete a couple of simple forms and two signatures of local residents. For further information about this and for the forms you can email clive.joynes@iow.gov.uk

Clive is the I.W. Council’s highly regarded elections specialist. Get in early before he gets really busy with General Election work.

NEW ALDI STORE AT BAE SYSTEMS SITE

By the time you are reading this I expect this planning application to have been decided. The recommendation before the Planning Committee is for approval and I will be supporting that recommendation, as is the Parish Council. If granted I would expect the store to be in use from approx. this time next year or possibly a little earlier. UPDATE – APPLICATION APPROVED.

The application also seeks outline permission for light industrial and office use for the site with all the extra employment opportunities this will bring in future years. I will be pressing for appropriate highway and traffic management improvements as conditions for approval. I will be updating this report on the northwoodvillage.org.uk website in the Village Forum threads.

ALLOTMENTS

As many of you will have read in last week’s County Press, our stay at the allotments will end after September. I am looking for another suitable site and would be grateful to be told if anyone knows of such an area of land we could use for this popular activity.

In the meantime may I express my thanks to all who have worked so hard to establish their growing plots on the existing site and to the owner of the site for all the facilities she kindly provided to make the allotments a viable proposition. The Parish Councillors are keen to see this activity continue within the village and we will I am sure do all we can to facilitate this for the future.

Best wishes

Roger