I see in the parish magazine there is a note about a trust administered by the parish council, the one where there is a distribution at Christmas to the aged of this village. Not a lot, up to £10 in the past, so enough to put a smile on your face.
The trustees, the parish council, have decided, that because of advice from the Charity Commission, probably global advice, that in future these distributions will no longer take place and instead they will have to submit an application form to beg for money. I say beg because that's what it amounts to. I suspect that the cash will sit there for years because those who badly need the odd shilling over Christmas will probably think it is not worth advertising to the parish council that they are short of money. It's bad enough filling forms in for claiming benefit and as you know, and while most of us have no trouble filling in forms and claiming the cash we are entitled to, the elderly don't usually get their full whack, because they have different values, especially about asking for money.
They suggest friends and relatives nominate them, even worse in my view, whole can of worms opened when outside interference is involved. Best to leave things as they are and stick with an annual distribution, then everyone has a smile on their face at Christmas. They have managed to ignore the Charity Commission in the past without getting their wrists slapped so why change old habits now.
Movement on the bridge improvements at last, as a road closure starts again early November. There is one thing, all this delay must be putting a few pounds in certain pockets, unfortunately not mine.
I have to agree with your comments regarding the new criteria by the Misterton parish council for the Christmas payout from the charity. In the past I know that certain people did not warrant receiving this Christmas gift as some of the recipients , alltho they were pensioners were quite well off financially. I do feel that it would be better to pay this Christmas money to those pensioners who are legitimately receiving any pension credit as these would be the rightful recipients of the charity money, Unfortunately , I have no idea how this could be implemented due to the restraints of the data protection act. Perhaps someone with more knowledge than me could come up with a solution.
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