Hello!
I hope you will forgive me for this letter being a little late this month. I got distracted by the wonderful news that the Golf Club Planning Appeal had been dismissed!
This decision was monumentally important for the whole village. If this application had been approved, it would have dramatically changed Hawkhurst forever. I am incredibly proud of what we achieved by working together as a community. Thank you all for everything you did and for your support.
Hawkhurst still faces considerable pressure from inappropriate development. January saw the appeal for Dandara’s proposed development south of Copthall Avenue. The examination of TWBC’s Local Plan starts in March and will run for several months.
It is also time for us to review and update our NDP. Our intention is to ensure there are plenty of opportunities for residents to have their say throughout this process: the NDP needs to reflect a shared vision for our village. Currently, we are looking for volunteers to join the Steering Group that will lead this review. If you are interested, please contact Richard at parish.clerk@hawkhurst-pc.gov.uk to find out more.
Perhaps, the most important piece of work for the Parish Council in January was agreeing our budget for 2022/2023. As you can imagine, this is always a challenging process, and this year was no exception. Like everyone else, HPC is facing rising costs, so trying to balance our ambitions for improving our facilities with our desire to keep the tax burden as low as possible was no mean feat.
Thanks to a great deal of hard work from councillors and officers, we were able to unanimously agree a budget, which I believe has enabled us to meet these twin aims.
With best wishes for a happy and healthy 2022,
Clare Escombe
Chairman, Hawkhurst Parish Council