PARISH COUNCIL: At its August meeting, the parish council, chaired by Cllr Tony Wilkins, heard that no decision could be made on the financing of the bowls club netting until there had been a meeting of the cricket club. The chairman agreed to contact Mr Addison to see when the bowls club wanted to put up the netting.

District councillor Chris Saint had raised with the district council the dissatisfaction of parish councils with the standard of grass cutting, and he wanted to know how many times the grass had been cut in Ilmington. On only one occasion had all the verges in the village been cut, on every other occasion only some of them had been cut, and the contractors had been not more than five times.

The chairman reported that he and Cllr Rob Hawkins had met Mr Pat Reid, head of district planning and building control, and they had looked at Pembroke House and Nellands Cottage. The parish council was not happy with the decisions on either of these properties, and Mr Reid had explained in detail why the plans had been passed. He had said that they were trying to improve matters in the planning department. The chairman then showed him the extension to the Little House, Front Street, where the stone used did not match the existing stone. He agreed to look into this. The plans should be checked to see if there should have been a sample panel. After the meeting the plans were checked, and there was no call for a sample panel.

The draft constitution for a new playing field committee was then discussed, but it was felt that no decision could be made with only half of the parish councillors present. There should therefore be an extraordinary meeting of the parish council in October, specifically to discuss this matter, with Mr Greg Woodall and sports clubs representatives present.

On the chairman's instructions the clerk had written to Mr John Maples MP about the lack of action on the part of Severn Trent on the sewage problems in Armscote Road, and district councillor Issy Seccombe agreed to take up the matter up with county highways.

Cllr Martin Devereux asked if the grass could be cut round the AONB marker stones, and the chairman agreed to do this.