Please think carefully before you post misleading or derogatory information relating to the Parish Council

An unfortunate feature of FaceBook is anyone can post any opinions without any reference to facts and everyone simply accepts the statements as truth. The Parish Council understand that people have different opinions on topics but hoped that people would at least be polite when addressing controversial issues, and that they could even approach the Parish Council directly before making statements that are factually incorrect. It would be nice to see more people attending the Parish Council meetings. Throwing out insults is not opinion – it is abuse.

From recent misrepresentative comments on FaceBook, the Parish Council would like to correct the misleading information posted.

1. The Community Pavilion is not too expensive to heat and is being used. It has been accepting bookings since 2019, and the hire income generated is clearly stated in minutes
2. We stopped talking booking temporarily in the lead up to the Jubilee event in June if this year to carry out annual maintenance required under the grant acceptance terms and conditions. We are required to carry out annual maintenance work  until August 2026 under the grant clawback conditions. The grant was a three-party grant between MESSAGE (now folded), the Mepal Sports Football club and the Parish Council in 2005. Prior to September 2013 MESSAGE was responsible for the Pavilion Maintenance.
3. The decking recently installed outside the fire escape was the lowest cost solution to address the building control inspection failure which required the PC to carry out work to provide the legally required level exit from the social room for fire escape from the building.
4. Football is welcome to return to Mepal – the  recent Parish Council minutes simply state that the Parish Council has been informed that we cannot apply for the existing pitch maintenance grants. We reluctantly feel that the £5000-£10,000 annual costs (depending on amount of use and weather) to maintain the pitch(es) should not be passed on to all parishioners. Any football club wanting to use the parish council facilities will need to apply for the grants themselves and meet the costs, and sign a memorandum of understanding to that effect before they play. This has been agreed with the Football Foundation who have agreed to work with any club for such funding. This does not seem unreasonable.
5. Comments regarding the number of teams wanting to play at Mepal is not backed up by any formal booking requests.
6. The Parish Council do not claim to ‘run this village’, and this is not the purpose of a Parish Council. Councillors all volunteer their spare time to do their very best to make the correct decisions, and to carry out their statutory responsibilities to the best of their abilities.

Due to our continual pleas to “Be Kind” being ignored, the Parish Council will now immediately withdraw from using the village Facebook page to repost important parish information as we find the behaviour on this platform unfair and unkind.

If you would like to find information about your parish and what is happening within the Parish Council please use www.mepalparish.org, come to a meeting or get involved, we have vacancies and would welcome support, even if you do not wish to become a Councillor.

Please make sure you read the full facts and not just pick out the pieces that make the best story to prompt a reaction and if you don’t know about something “ask” we are always happy explain anything you might not understand.