WITH reference to the letter of April 23 from Mrs Barbara Anning of Mary Tavy regarding the non-celebration of HM The Queen’s birthday beacon by the parish council, I strongly concur with Mrs Anning.

The five appointed parish councillors, along with many other councils, had received the invitation to take part in this national celebration. According to the council minutes, they declined to take part in this national celebration. According to the council minutes, they declined to take part firstly, because of cost, which they thought money would be better spent elsewhere and secondly, time constraints on the part of two of the councillors who are sheep farmers and would probably be busy with lambing.

There was also an invitation for a representative of past and present councillors to attend the Queen’s garden party this summer. This was readily accepted by the current councillors who, by consensus, nominated their chairman to attend. Not realising that this invitation was only directed at serving or ex-councillors, I wrote to the council suggesting that due to their lack of enthusiasm for the Queen’s 90th birthday celebrations, that the invitation should be open to the whole village and a representative selected by means of a lottery. I do not believe that any ex-councillors who historically have celebrated such occasions were consulted as to whether they would like to be considered to attend the garden party.

As the use of money had been mentioned, I felt that I should remind the council that they had extravagantly and unnecessarily voted for many hundreds of pounds to be spent on a bi-monthly journal of council activities. I say unnecessary as the council already had four other mediums to promote itself and if it was considered so important this fifth medium could be shown on the village community notice board which is free to anyone, thereby saving £600.

Our nearest village is Peter Tavy which celebrated with a magnificent beacon on high ground and was clearly visible from Mary Tavy, burning for about two hours, all arranged through their parish council at little or no cost to the parish.

Roger Baldry

Mary Tavy