SHEET villagers have unveiled their proposals for the boundaries of a new Sheet parish in the latest move towards breaking away from Petersfield Town Council. Leading campaigners from the Sheet Steering Group, Ron Dark and Mark Harvey, outlined the proposed boundaries at the annual meeting of Sheet Village Association last week. The draft boundaries were drawn up after consultation with residents currently in the Petersfield Town Council area as far away as Herne Farm and Durford Road. In the light of their comments the proposed boundary now follows the edge of Adhurst St Mary woods to the west until it reaches the railway line. It then goes through Lord's Farm to the edge of the A3 and back to the railway line, along Kingsfernsden Road and back to the Sheet link roundabout. It follows Pulens Lane and turns sharply along the line of Tilmore Brook, turns to run alongside the A272 and back along the old A3 towards Adhurst St Mary. It is estimated that between 400 and 450 households fall inside the boundaries of the proposed new Sheet parish. Mr Dark told villagers last week that the proposed boundaries would now go out for consultation with East Hampshire District Council and members of Petersfield Town Council. The steering committee would, he said, also take into account the views of any villagers who wanted to see the boundaries changed. The steering committee will then formally petition all parishioners within the new map outline to find out whether they want to form a new Sheet parish. "What we have to show is that we are a community and looking to form a parish council to represent the community," said Mr Dark. "We are looking to petition villagers about the setting up of a parish council to give people greater control over their own affairs and decisions." He said the steering group had taken advice from democratic services officers at East Hampshire District Council since it had been given the mandate by the village association to investigate the setting-up of a parish council to take Sheet away from Petersfield Town Council. He said that throughout negotiations the importance of providing a sense of community had been stressed. "Boundaries are absolutely key to the project," he added. "We need a self-contained entity, one that stands up and calls itself a community." Talks had also been held with the Hampshire Association of Town and Parish Councils, and with members of Beech Parish Council, where villagers recently went through the process of establishing a new council. Mr Dark said there had also been dialogue with Petersfield Town Council. "We have had two representatives from Petersfield Town Council to most of our meetings and nothing but support from Bob Ayer and George Watkinson," he said. Villagers heard there was a 10 per cent response to the steering group's initial consultation, which covered the boundaries of the current St Mary's ward of the town council. Mr Harvey told the meeting the consultation showed that people living in areas such as Madeline Road, Ramshill and the new Ramshill development did not want to be included in a Sheet council. But residents of the Pulens Crescent area, although not in St Mary's ward, showed a high level of interest. He said that a manifesto was now being drawn up explaining how a separate council with more local representatives would be more accountable to the people of Sheet. "The manifesto will set out how expenditure would be tighter and for the benefit of Sheet, and a Sheet parish council would be better placed to single-mindedly pursue grants for Sheet," he said. He said the steering group was confident that enough people would come forward to form a parish council. And he stressed the new council would not mean another layer of bureaucracy. "We are very confident that Sheet matters would be managed with less bureaucracy. Villagers would pay the same amount of council tax or lower," he explained. He added: "The status quo does not work well and people want Sheet issues to be central to Sheet and not as a sideline of Petersfield Town Council." The steering committee, said Mr Harvey, believed that Sheet had a strong identity, with its church, village hall, its successful function room, school and two pubs. "The way forward is to get people on board with us and get our points across in formal consultation," he added. Villagers heard that 10 per cent, or 250 - whichever was the greater - of parishioners inside the proposed boundary would have to give the thumbs-up to the plans before Sheet Parish Council could be set up. Sheet's increasingly stormy relationship with Petersfield Town Council resulted last year in the formation of the steering group, which was set up to look at a permanent breakaway from the town council. The move was fuelled by rows over the village tree swing, Sheet Common BMX track and Millennium Meadow funding. l Sheet swing reappears: See page 3.
