THE May meeting of Amport Parish Council began with the election of officers.

Cllr Ian Long remains as chairman with Cllr Nick Hoare as vice chairman, Cllr Alan Maddern as financial officer and Cllr Chris Harris having responsibility for Amport Fen. Other appointments will be announced in due course. A new member, Angela Reckitt, was also co-opted on to the council.

They went on to discuss the following matters: The Green: As the grass is growing so fast at the moment, it was decided to arrange to have it mowed once a week until after the fête in mid-July. It was felt that, by keeping the grass short, dog fouling might be less common. The problem of dog fouling had been discussed with the local dog warden, who went on to talk to the school to try to publicise the issue as a number of families with dogs spend time on The Green after school.

The council are planning to replace some of the old play equipment — the balance beams and the stepping stones — with three new items: a sloping balance walk, parallel beams and stepping logs. These are all low-level pieces of equipment which can be used be children of all ages and also adults. It is hoped that this project will benefit from Section 106 money and also possibly a grant.

The Fen: Chris Harris reported that it is planned for the extensive areas of nettles, brambles and ivy to be cleared once the birds have finished nesting. In the autumn, some of the trees may need attention.

Footpaths: The paths are due to be cleared during the first week of June. A quantity of broken concrete has been dumped in Hunts Lane and Cllr Kurt Morton said that he would remove this and also a fallen tree on footpath 1b in East Cholderton.

It is hoped that before too long a village lengthsman could be employed who would be able to undertake a variety of handyman-type jobs around the ten parishes for which their Test Valley Borough Cllr Zilliah Brooks is responsible.

Highways: The chairman had been to a meeting set up by Zilliah Brooks to enable a representative from all the parish councils in her ward to talk to borough and county officers responsible for the care of roads in the area. The chairman showed them photographs of the road across The Green and also mentioned Wiremead Lane as being particularly in need of urgent attention. Unfortunately, although they acknowledged the many problems, they did not appear to have any solution for most of them.

Local residents who have failed to cut back their hedges which are now making driving dangerous will be reminded of their liabilities.

Website: Cllr Angela Reckitt has offered to take on the task of improving the village website and plans to view a number of similar websites to determine the best way of displaying information. It will need to be regularly updated to keep it interesting and relevant. The chairman said that the council would be prepared to pay for any training that councillors needed to enable them to produce a professional website.

Superfast broadband: The chairman mentioned that Hampshire County Council now has a website where concerned parties can register their interest in obtaining faster broadband speeds for their area. He said that, in order to accelerate this process, the more people from Amport who did this, the sooner it might be provided. He suggested a noticeboard with a petition where people could sign up might be put up at the fête.

Noticeboard It is planned to put up an open noticeboard, which can be used for all public notices, on the piece of grass opposite the end of Wiremead Lane, where at present notices are pinned to an electricity pole.

Finance: The council had approved donations of £500 to provide free teas at the Queen’s 90th birthday celebration in Monxton on 11 June, and also to provide portable toilets at the fête.

Next meeting: 28 June in Monxton and Amport Hall starting at 7.30pm. There will then be a break with no more meetings planned until mid-September.