Village Hall and Childrens Playground are two "hot topics" at the moment. It is marvellous news that work on the Village Hall should commence shortly. If it has already started, the Parish Council meeting which is on 6th October, will have to be held elsewhere. I would hope to have enough notice to pin up a notice, if you follow me! The Parish Council may be able to make a modest donation towards the balance of money required for the Village Hall, but the only way it could have made a larger contribution in such a short timescale, would have been by borrowing. It was understandably reluctant to go down that road. Even then, we couldn't have called it a "donation" as we are bound by law on the amount that can be given in donations each year.

It is "the law" - in this case forthcoming new legislation, which is going to make facilities on the playground depleted. As two of the items affected, see-saw and roundabout, would have to be renewed and then require a higher level of maintenance, it has been regretfully decided not to renew them. It is hoped that the slide, which has to be moved for the Hall extension, can still be re-sited. We had not budgeted for any expenditure on all this, of course, which in turn may affect a decision on a Village Hall donation.

As all will be aware, Anti-Social Behaviour is a major cause for concern now. Quite out of the blue, though, I had an urgent questionnaire from East Riding of Yorkshire Council on the subject, to complete. By coincidence, examples in Rudston had been reported at the last meeting, so I was able to respond. However, this is planned to be an annual thing, so if incidents could be reported please, it would help the Clerk produce figures next year. Depending on the severity of the incident, it will have been reported to Police and/or Neighbourhood Watch in the normal way, but if a member of the Parish Council were informed later, it would help, please. It is understood that our Neighbourhood Watch

Co-ordinator is producing an article for the Newsletter, so the topic may be covered elsewhere. (No article received at time of going to print, Ed.)

If anyone has an unwanted vehicle to get rid of, and has not seen the notices, you have until 8th October only to let E.R.Y.C. do it for you.

Finally, a piece of Government literature made me smile. It proclaimed that they had "a message for rural areas". Given the latest goings-on*, I think the message must be something like: "We don't give a stuff for the countryside, and can win the next election without you lot!"

P. Crossland (Clerk)