The village website is not taking sides on this issue but has been asked by the Parish Council to present the original ARC editorial with the Parish Council response.

Reference: June 2009 edition of ARC                                                19 June 2009

Dear Parishioner,

Please find attached Appleshaw Parish Council’s response to ARC’s leading article on the subject of Democracy in the June 2009 edition. (ref: click here to read the ARC article)

Given the erroneous and damaging nature of the article, we asked the ARC editorial team to publish an immediate retraction, along with an apology for having misled their readers. The editors did not respond to our request.

In the absence of a retraction or apology, we consider it important that Appleshaw and Redenham parishioners have access to the facts behind the article.

Appleshaw Parish Council

 To the Editors of ARC                                                                        15 June 2009

Your front page article headlined “Democracy’ in the June edition of ARC was misleading and littered with errors. Not only did you fail to check your facts before going to press, you also failed to offer Appleshaw Parish Council the “right of reply.”  Yet you presented your case as being based on undisputed fact, and suggested that parish councillors were not following “official guidance” in the appointment of new members, thus in effect accusing them of maladministration. This editorial approach is both disappointing and damaging, and is surely not an even-handed way to proceed in village life.

The actual facts are: 

  1. You allege that the Annual Parish meeting of 7 May 2009  “was not publicised properly yet again.”  Fact:  The date and time of the AGM was recorded in the Parish Council minutes of March 2009 that were posted on the three village notice boards at the end of March. These were subsequently printed in the May edition of ARC. The meeting’s date also appeared in ARC’s What’s On section.   A list of PC meetings dates for the forthcoming year was supplied to ARC editors last November and, along with other village organisations, the Editors of ARC received an invitation to the Annual meeting. The Head Teacher of Appleshaw School, two Hampshire police representatives, a Test Valley Borough Councillor and a village WI representative were among those present at the meeting. In addition, apologies were received from representatives of Pippins’ Playgroup and the Fete Committee, the Rector, a Hampshire County Councillor, a Test Valley Borough Councillor and ARC Editor Jenny Hopkins.

  2. You claim that the Parish Council vacancy was not properly advertised, and that a check of the previous 12 months’ PC minutes revealed no reference to it being advertised.   Fact:  Test Valley’s official Parish Council Vacancy Notices were posted on all three of the village notice boards on 2 March 09, as soon as they had been received from TVBC.  Two of the three notices (Redenham being the exception) were still in place by March 24 when the Clerk posted that month’s Minutes.  The PC Minutes of September 08 record the Clerk’s advice to councillors that the process of advertising the vacancy could not be initiated until TVBC had received a letter of resignation from the retiring member Mr Chris Linssner. 

  3. Your article states that the recent co-option onto the PC of Mr Tony Burden “will be a disappointment to those awaiting a formal invitation to apply for it.”  Fact:  formal invitations to join parish councils are not issued.  Mr Richard Waterman, Parish Clerk to nine councils including Appleshaw, points out that following the co-option of Mr Burden Appleshaw has its full complement of eight councillors for the first time in many years. During his nine years as Clerk to Appleshaw he recalls a number of vacancies being advertised in ARC, all to no avail. The question, therefore, of an election never arose.

    Mr Waterman has also confirmed that, following Mr Linssner’s resignation, he received no letter or contact from anyone in the parish indicating that they wished to join the council.

    Following publication of this damaging article, the Parish Council has agreed that an immediate published retraction is required from the Editors of ARC together with an apology for having misled your readers.   To this end, we look forward to the publication of this letter, unedited, in a Stop Press edition of ARC.

    Yours sincerely,

    Cllr Mr R Caddy – Chairman
    Cllr Mrs P Wood – Vice Chairman
    Cllr Mrs G O’Halloran
    Cllr Mrs K Lee
    Cllr Mr M Davis
    Cllr Mr G Miller
    Cllr Mr A Baulf
    Cllr Mr T Burden

    click here to download and read the ARC replies

     

     

    Appleshaw PC to ARC           

     

    Mrs Joanna Marshall
    The Editor, ARC
    Chalk Down
    Redenham
    Andover, Hants
    SP11 9AW                                                                                          19 June 2009       

    Dear Joanna,

    Thank for your letter of 16 June in response to the Parish Council’s concerns regarding your editorial about “democracy” in the June edition of ARC.  

    We are disappointed that you have failed to acknowledge the damage caused by your article.  To say “it was never the intention of the ARC editorial team to imply that there was any form of maladministration by you as our Parish Councillors” is not the point. The reality is that the effect of your article is to have left readers with the clear impression that maladministration has occurred.

    On the understanding that you are not planning to make a retraction, or to apologise to your readers for having misled them, we have decided to address the matter ourselves.

     With best wishes.

     Yours sincerely,        

     R. Caddy, Chairman

    P. Wood, Vice Chairman