Chairman’s Report November 2022
You may recall, that Mere Town Council has received contributions from C G Fry pertaining to the development of the Hill Brush site in Woodlands Rd. These financial contributions came with conditions for its expenditure but I am pleased to report that we are now progressing well with two of the projects that were identified as priorities – others will follow in due course.
For now though, we are hoping to go out to tender very soon for the refurbishment and improvements of the play area at Walnut Road. It was gratifying to learn that a recent questionnaire, distributed amongst the community, returned support for this amenity, whilst confirming an upgrade was essential.
The second project is also progressing – this is for the full-scale renovations of the footpath from Clements Lane to the centre of Mere, via Lordsmead Mill and Angel Lane and will include re-surfacing, removing invasive vegetation which has considerably narrowed the path and adding discreet low-level lighting.
I must give thanks to our Project Co-ordinator, Roger Pipe for his diligence with these projects.
The Vice Chair, the Town Clerk and I recently met up with Debs Shannon, a teacher at Mere School whose Year 6 pupils have formed a Mere School Eco Committee. Whilst, we agreed that the Climate Change agenda is high priority, we were not able to support tree planting on the sports fields. This fact is substantiated by our landlord, the Duchy of Cornwall, who agree that the Town Council is limited on any suitable spaces for tree planting but who have pointed out that Mere will definitely not be behind the curve on the tree planting carbon offset work, since the Duchy of Cornwall has planted 900 trees as part of their hedgerow tree planting campaign and 70 trees as a commemorative wood for the Queens Jubilee campaign. Anyhow, we were happy to suggest some appropriate sites for wild flower sowing for the school’s Eco Committee to consider and it is highly commendable that the school is embracing these ecological issues.
At the November meeting complaints were well voiced concerning the HGV traffic in Pettridge Lane and Clements Lane. Unfortunately, there is not a lot we can do about this. There isn’t an alternative route which is better. The layout of Mere is what it is. We must try to find a way to promote conscientious, safe parking and driving. The Town Council did recognisethat the safety of pedestrians on Edgebridge is paramount and, hopefully the progression of our footpath project from Clements Lane to the centre of Mere will, when completed, encourage pedestrians to use this route rather than the more hazardous route around Edgebridge.
On December 2nd, the Christmas Lights will be turned on in Mere along with a visit by Father Christmas. On behalf of the Mere Town Council, I wish you all a Happy Christmas.
