Cut ALL Goldhill Common Grass

Thanks again

Thank you again for supporting the above petition, which I presented to the CSP Parish Council in the public deemocracy slot at the start of their Full Council Meeting.

The Chairman responded that they do not discuss matters which are not on the agenda and having had advancee warning I would be presenting it to them, had arranged for it to be considered by the Open Spaces Committee at their next meting on 15th or 22nd May - which anyone can go along to and observe.

FYI, here is my preesentation:

PETITION: Cut ALL Goldhill Common Grass, presented on 27.04.’17.  

Chairman, Council Members, ladies and gentlemen: I hereby present a 43 signatures petition – a print out of 23 signatures online and 20 on returned leaflets - to CSP Parish Council requesting ALL Goldhill Common Grass be cut and the surrounding paths fixed.   

I hope you will allow me to briefly set out some informative background information.  

Well aware that highways and footpaths are usually Bucks County Council responsibilities, I understand the footpaths edging the common on the Goldhill North and Goldhill West sides are exceptionally the CSP Parish Council’s responsibility.  I trust any aspects of this petition currently outside the Parish Council’s remit will be passed on to those who are indeed responsible.  

I delivered 860 petition leaflets in the Chiltern District Council Goldhill Ward, and sent a limited number of emails to CSP friends and contacts.   I’ll readily accept that 43 isn’t a huge number in itself, but as most signatures, gathered in just over a fortnight are from people who would have received a leaflet, 5% is 10x the nowadays expected ½% response rate from a cold leaflet drop given no follow-up direct telephone or face to face verbal canvassing from me.  It is also a reasonable response in the context of it being a fifth of the average 25% local election voter turnout, and esp. as being out of season, the problem was not actually in people’s faces.  

My leaflet gave a number of reasons justifying my call for the grass to once again be cut, as I remember it always was from the 1970’s until a few years ago, but there are other equally good reasons which signatories have provided.  

I would also like to highlight a recently published study which only came to my attention after I had completed the petition.  Compiled by researchers from Public Health England, the NHS’s National Institute for Health Research and the Dutch health ministry, it is the first study to suggest ticks, which cause the killer Lyme Disease, could flourish in play areas and parks, especially where grass had grown high in ‘urban meadows’ - such as the uncut grass areas of Goldhill Common.  

Finally, I urge you to carefully consider all of the compelling reasons as to why ALL of the grass should once again be cut this season – and save money by doing so.  

Thank you all for your attention.

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