The recent vote by the Happisburgh Parish Council to support the project has been reversed a week later by a procedural complaint by Councillor Glenn Barry who voted against the project at the meeting and has now found a way to try to scupper this much needed initiative for coastal protection.
His objection was that one of the councillors, Liz Dixon, who voted to support the project should have recused herself as she is part of the Coastal Research Group. This is despite the fact that a number of the other councillors vote on projects that they are on committees for, like the Lighthouse and the Lifeboat.
What the motivation for Mr Barry to thwart the wishes of the village can only be speculated on but it does raise the question of whether the make up of the Parish Council truly represents the village after the many years that elections have not taken place.
The Parish Council voted along the following lines on the question to support the marram grass initiative:
For:
David Mole
Liz Dixon
Elaine Batt
Val Howson
Julie Sheppard
Against:
Glenn Barry
Terry Bean
Cubitt Siely
Thomas Love
Our group will pursue the project with an application to the Coastwise project but it is a pity that one of the things that the Parish Council could do to help with the erosion has been thwarted by one or two negative, uninformed minds who do not represent the interests of the village.