image credit: Westham Community news
An effort by Westham Parish Council to de-silt the pond appears to have reached a breaking point today (November 19), as campaigners and residents are left wondering what on earth is going on.
At the beginning of the monthly Council meeting, held on Monday 15 October 2018, Westham Parish Council suspended standing orders and voted to spend up to £60,000 to de-silt and remove the silt from Westham Village pond.
The results of that decision can be seen today, which have left parishioners wondering if only half the job has been done.
Talking on the Westham Community Facebook newsfeed this morning (November 19), a campaigner says, “if this to you is not what you expected a desilted pond to look like, if like me you expected the whole pond to be desilted not half a pond, then please come to the Westham village hall tonight at 7.30 and ask questions about your local area.
“Please remember a Parish Council are there for the good of the community and the area we live in in my opinion this is very questionable at the moment. They clearly are not listening to the very people that voted them in”.
The campaigner adds “I have been patiently waiting to see our beloved pond desilted the inlet pipe found and the pond and the village returning to normal . Well that was my dream but sadly this dream has turned into a nightmare. The photos I have shared show an incredibly shocking attempt in my opinion of a half hearted attempt at desilting our pond by the Westham Parish Council with our money”.
The newsfeed, (November 18) outlines many questions about the attempt to de-silt the pond from a series of Westham parishioners.
In an excoriating post (November 18), Christian Belcher says “Well that’s a nice bit of pond ‘dredging’ that!!! Not!
“You seem to have taken the water away and left all the silt still at the inlet end! All the rubbish you said would be taken away, is still there, and you had the cheek to tell me by letter not to enter the pond to remove the bricks and rubbish….Westham Parish Council (WPC)!! WPC you said it would be dredged to a metre!!!???
“Want a job done properly, save cash and do it yourself! This company did a great job of doing what they do in the way they do it, but they need about 6-8 weeks using that method
“I expect your going to let it rain this winter and let an inch of water cover it and all the ‘Clowns’ who voted you in will be made to think you did a great job! What a complete ‘cover up’ of incompetence that will be!
“If you are a councillor and you think this is done, you should stand down as a councillor!
“At least the Heron can walk all the way around the middle now on the silt!!
“So people of Westham or Pevensey, If you don’t think enough has been done for this pond, get yourself down to Westham Village Hall 7:30pm tomorrow evening and ask your question, every little helps!!”
Behind the arguments about de-silting Westham Village pond are some big questions about the barriers that have been built up by Westham Parish Council with regard to the management of their affairs with the people of Westham.
The Pevensey Bay Journal has described the parish council as dysfunctional and the newspaper is to reveal aspects of the work of the council which we believe will call into question whether the body can continue in the current form.
The description of parishioners in the audience of a full council meeting as ‘clowns’, for example, referred to by Christian Belcher in his excoriating post, in our view, should be reason for the councillor who offered this view to resign.
Behind the affairs of Westham Parish Council in our view also, are some serious questions about the role of the chair of the Council, Keith Stevens, and Alison Stevens, the parish clerk.
These questions will be put to the parties concerned, as well as Wealden Council.
What appears to be happening is that Westham Parish Council is sinking into some kind of local abyss.
Nobody can doubt that the question of how to de-silt a village pond is a complex one.
Having said that, the approach taken by the council, in particular the way in which communications between the council and parishioners have broken down so badly, may be symptomatic of a much deeper problem buried deep in the body politic of the organisation.
Questions are being asked about what will happen at election time for parish councillors in Westham next year.
Our view is that Westham Parish Council is unlikely to survive to that point.
There are some very clear procedures through which a parish can invoke a parish meeting that calls for a parish council to resign.
As any parish council chair will know, the first task of any parish council is to listen to what parishioners have to say.
Westham Parish Council seems to have stopped listening to what the parishioners of Westham are saying. This a dangerous state of affairs.
Looking at the state of Westham village pond today, there is some difficulty in seeing anything other than the possibility that the reason Westham Parish Council made the decision to spend up to £60,00 to de-silt the pond was because parishioners forced them to make the decision.
If, as seems possible, their reasoning was some kind of desperate attempt to save not the pond, but themselves and their roles, then this effort appears not to have worked.
The crisis of Westham Village pond will not go away. The precious asset must be restored.
Westham Parish Council has the money in their bank account to make this happen.
Most importantly, what is required here is the will to make this happen.
That process will begin with the day that the council listens to what the parishioners say.
That day is unlikely to happen with this council, in our view, not even if they spend all day rehearsing the line that was intoned by chairman Keith Stevens in the full council meeting in October when he said three times to the Westham parishioners in the audience ‘I hear what you say’.
Unless the council begins to remove the barrier between themselves and the parishioners their days may now be numbered.
The task requires not just hearing what parishioners say, but listening.
Kevin Gander commenting on the Westham Community news feed says, “those of my friends who live in this are. Please come along. Their response to the community’s questions and concerns should be very interesting!”
Will the heron seen here in the silt become the Chair of Westham Parish Council, nominated as standing orders are suspended at 7:30pm?
The state of affairs at Westham Parish Council seems to be in utter chaos.
How can this dysfunctionality and lack the most basic of competencies with communications with parishioners have prevailed for so long in Westham? There is a story waiting to be told here.
Perhaps what is required, is not just the nomination of the heron as Parish Council chair, but for some village elders to step in. There is wisdom in these trees.
The meeting of Westham Parish Council takes place tonight, Monday 19 November, 7:30pm, at Westham Village Hall.
