BIGBURY Parish Council have hit back at members of the public who wrote about their ‘dismay’ at the state of the village.

In a Letter to the Editor in the Gazette on Friday, March 4, P and J MacGuire wrote to complain about ‘the village sign being destroyed’, the ‘ridiculously tiny 30mph sign’, ‘a smashed hydrant’ and a ‘row of rubbish bins’.

Pam Trundle, parish clerk to Bigbury Parish Council, replied saying: ‘Regarding the Bigbury village sign – this was damaged along with the stone trough and speed limit pole during a road accident, whereby a very heavy vehicle such as a lorry or a tractor knocked into them demolishing the lovely old stone trough and breaking the village sign.

‘The owner of the farmhouse did in fact tidy up the damage himself and DCC were asked to replace the Bigbury village sign with another metal sign. Our contact at DCC informs me that he has tried to trace the whereabouts of the sign since its removal but, to date has not had any luck.

‘The fire hydrant sign is the concern of SWW who have been contacted and not the parish council.

‘With regard to the Christmas tree – this was put up in December by the Bigbury Fair Committee to supply a good display of lights along with the adjacent fencing. The tree has since been removed.

‘The “ridiculously tiny” 30ph sign is the statutory continuing speed limit sign and is beyond the parish council jurisdiction.

‘The other point raised by your correspondent regarding wheelie bins - I travel this road every day and have never seen the wheelie bins outside the property drive longer than the day of collection, so I do feel that that criticism is very unfounded.

‘The residents and the parish council are not a “disinterested” bunch of people – we do our best with the minimum of funds available to us and unlike many other parishes, we do not have a vast amount of voluntary helpers to call upon to assist in parish matters due to our large amount of retirees and high proportion of second-homes whose owners are not here to help out.’