A PARISH meeting was held in the village hall. The chairman, councillor Rod Stroud, opened the meeting by welcoming the ten parishioners present and couns Davey, Simpson, Cleary and district councillor David Lee. He explained that the purpose of the meeting was to allow people to air their views on local matters to the parish council and make their feelings known.

He gave a resume of the events of the past year which included the possible Asylum Seekers Centre at Throckmorton, the LSRC sports field, Church Lench village hall, the Jubilee Committee which had raised over £10,000 for the provision of a childrens' play area (the maintenance and insurance of which would be undertaken by the Parish Council), the demise of the village skips, the new permissive footpath through the Heritage Orchard reducing pedestrians on that stretch of the Harvington Road and finally the resignation of coun Derek Ridgley, who had moved to Bishampton, coun Rick Swatkins through ill health and coun Judith Husband who had been a stalwart of the parish council for many years. No candidates put forward for the local elections in May 2003 and as a consequence two vacancies needed to be filled by co-option. This would be undertaken as soon as possible.

Village Hall: Brian Berry gave a report on the progress made towards improvement to the village hall. A grant of £2,500 had been made by Awards for All to pay for an architect. A 35 per cent response had been received from parishioners giving their views and following this the architect would draw up several suggestions which would be put before villagers in an open weekend.

Speeding: Coun Davey issued to plea to local residents to desist from speeding through the village. He feared a serious accident was in the offing.

Village Litter: The chairman thanked villagers who had helped the parish clerk to pick up litter from the roads within the community. Wychavon DC had provided equipment and £500 had been received from this initiative.

Dog Fouling: The use of the sports field by dog walkers was being investigated. Dog fouling notices would be placed in Malthouse Lane and the dog warden would be patrolling the village at various times and would issue "on the spot" fines for local abuses.