SHEET villagers are smarting from what they regard as yet another slap in the face from Petersfield town councillors over funding for the Millennium Meadow. On Thursday night, the finance and general purposes committee threw out a recommendation from their grants panel to give Sheet Village Association £350 to help maintain the controversial meadow. The grants panel had already slashed the application by £500, but on Thursday it was axed altogether. Now, a full meeting of all councillors will have the final say on February 5. But angry Sheet villagers this week said that the continuing battle with the town council for funds to maintain the meadow only fuelled their determination to break away and form an independent Sheet Parish Council. It is the second successive year that Sheet Village Association has applied for funds to maintain the meadow, and come away empty handed. They have been at the mercy of town councillors who say Sheet villagers took over the management of the town council-owned land on the understanding that they would fund it themselves. Town councillors say they have lost money since they agreed to the deal, as they gave up a £500-a- year grazing contract. But Sheet Village Association (SVA) chairman Andrew Platt is now planning to confront councillors at their full council meeting on February 5, when they make a final decision on the grant. Speaking on behalf of the association this week, Lucy Pringle told The Herald: "Members of the association are feeling aggrieved and disappointed. We feel we have been singled out by Petersfield town councillors and had our request for funding denied for two years running." Mrs Pringle said the association felt Sheet villagers should be made aware that there was no co- operation from the town council in funding for the meadow. She said Sheet villagers spent a great deal of money maintaining the meadow, and also carried out much of the work on a voluntary basis. They organised fundraising events to help pay for the maintenance. The village had raised £10,000 for capital projects such as tree planting, fencing and the restoration of the hedges. "The meadow is used by, and enjoyed, not just by Sheet villagers, but people from Petersfield as well, and many wonderful events are put on in the meadow for everyone, notably the wonderful re- enactment of the battle of Trafalgar in 2005. "There is a huge amount of effort put in by many villagers to organise these events, they don't just happen on their own. There is a great community spirit in Sheet, and villagers get behind the events and work hard. "We feel it is such an injustice that Petersfield Town Council will not give the village associaton a grant towards the maintenance," said Mrs Pringle. And she added that the attitude of town councillors only strengthened Sheet's resolve to break away from Petersfield Town Council. "The Sheet Village Association has a huge amount of support for plans to set up a Sheet parish council, and we are hopeful these will go ahead soon for exactly this sort of reason. We would be masters of our own destiny and our parish council would have its own funds to manage." The chairman of the town council's finance and general purposes committee, Vaughan Clarke, had to declare an interest in the matter and leave the meeting while the Sheet Village Association grant was discussed. But he told The Herald: "What disappoints me is that this is all terribly negative. We ought to be thinking positively and praising people who do things for the town. All this is doing is putting people down. Whenever Sheet is brought up at the town council, it is negative." Mr Clarke continued: "I wish, for once, that people would be positive. It is not as if there is no budget. There is no will among the councillors to give the money. There is money left after all the grants have been agreed." Town clerk Neil Hitch told The Herald that he believed it was time the town council decided where it stood on the issue. "A councillor's job is to represent the views of the people, and the members of the town council have to make a decision once and for all on this issue, otherwise it is going to continue to be divisive year in and year out. We need to sort this out." He added: "We are perfectly happy to receive a deputation from Sheet Village Association and they are entitled, under the standing orders of the council, to address members."
