PARISH COUNCIL: At the August meeting of the parish council, chaired by coun Tony Wilkins, a letter of resignation from Mr F J Edmunds was read out by the clerk, and was received with regret. Mr Edmunds had been a councillor for 15 years, and had done a great deal for the village during that time. He was still heavily involved in many other village projects but would be sadly missed on the parish council.

A letter had been received from the county rural estates services manager to say that he had asked the county forestry officer to inspect the chestnut trees in front of the school.

The clerk had written to the Foxcote Estate agent about the amount of ragwort on the estate, and he had replied that removing the ragwort was within a programme of works which the estate team were currently working through.

The clerk had written to the county highways area manager with a list of work needed on signs in the locality, and Mr Fred Yarwood had said he would do all the work when he could. Coun Rob Hawkins suggested that the Ilmington sign on the Mickleton Road, which had been missing for over a month, should be resited, as tractors kept hitting it. It should be sited on a wider piece of verge away from the corner and on the opposite side of the road.

A letter had been received from Mr Andrew Owen, who has for some years been helping to run football sessions for youngsters on Saturday mornings at the playing field. He wanted to know whether the young footballers should contribute to the maintenance and upkeep of the playing field. It was felt that no charge ought to be made but just in case there were any complaints it was suggested that an overall donation of £25 a year could be made for the complete football club.

The chairman reported that there had been a water leak on Keyte Road car park, which had first been reported by Mr Bernard Gardner. Severn Trent had turned the water off and then on again but it was reported to be leaking again. The chairman had contacted Severn Trent again.

The chairman had had two complaints about fireworks being let off after 1am on August 10. There was nothing the parish council could do about this, except to ask people to put a notice in the shop when they intended to let off fireworks, and this had already been done.