HEAVY rain has seen the river rise two feet on Monday and there is still water in pools at Widbrook Common and on Cookham Moor. But spring has to be on its way as the first snowdrops can be seen in the churchyard of Holy Trinity Church. There will be drifts of white eventually but there are plenty to see already. The fallout from the flooding of gardens and some houses in the Cookhams rolls on.

Cookham Parish Council is waiting to hear from the Environment regional chief with the hope that plans can be put in hand to avoid such heavy flooding in the village in the future. The Environment Agency feels it has been highly successful with the £100 million Flood Relief Scheme at Windsor and Maidenhead. The River Thames at Maidenhead did not flood this time although this was as bad a flood scenario as in 1947. But when the river floods it has to go somewhere and there is no doubt that new areas became flooded.

However the number of homes damaged by water in the rural areas is small compared with the hundreds or even thousands which would be flooded in Maidenhead without the flood relief Jubilee channel.

A STRANGE situation has arisen over plans to improve the Station Hill area at Cookham Rise which would cost about £20,000 involving the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead. Cookham Parish Council for the past few weeks has not known whether councillors are able to speak or vote on the improvements which include building a pavement outside the Social Club. This is needed to make it safer for pedestrians stepping out in front of parked cars. However as many members of the parish council are also members of the social club it was believed they could not vote as they had an interest in the scheme because of belonging to the club.

Under a new code of conduct members must declare an interest in anything to be discussed in which they have membership. The weeks drift by but clerk to the Parish Council, Mrs Janet Wheeler, told the BFP it was hoped a way round the problem could be found so that membership of the club might not be a bar.

FLOODING issues affecting people in Cookham, Bisham and Hurley will be dealt with at a surgery in Maidenhead Town Hall on Thursday from 5.30pm to 9.30pm.

THIS is the week of prayer for church unity and at Holy Trinity Church on Sunday there was a deacon from the Roman Catholic Church while the priest in charge at Cookham, the Reverend Michael Smith, was to preach at the Methodist Church on Sunday evening.

AT Cookham Dean Parish Church on Saturday, February 1 there will be entertainment by the 'Gaslights' with a three-course supper at Cookham Dean Village Hall at 7.30pm and tickets are priced £15 for tables of eight. Get tickets through Barbara Dent at 01628 476512.

COOKHAM Parish Council is to consider a request from local young people to have a skate board site.

CHARITY Concert with the Fabulous Shirtlifters takes place at Pinder Hall on Saturday, February 1.

January 24, 2003 12:00