BRASTED Parish Council has come under fire from residents who feel it is failing in its duties.

A sign placed on the noticeboard in the village accused the council of not publishing minutes and of putting out the wrong dates for meetings.

Parish councillor Penny Kift, who took a picture of the notice, said she believed it may relate to a cancelled planning meeting on January 6.

She said residents had wanted to attend the meeting to raise concerns about a planning application, but it had been cancelled without warning due to snow.

The villagers had then come to the next council meeting where they expressed their annoyance at the lack of information.

Cllr Kift said there seemed to be a breakdown in communication between the parish council and the village.

She said: "There's a lack of communication – that's sort of been acknowledged by the council. There was talk of a new website, people have gone on training for that."

The letter from the editor in the December/January edition of the Brasted Diary slammed the shortage of information about a parish council vacancy and the bus shelter.

The issue seems to have been addressed in the most recent edition of the diary, which has five-and-a-half pages dedicated to explaining who the parish council are and what they do.

However, Cllr Kift said the parish council spends too long focused on internal politics, such as a recent row over an election for a vacancy, rather than getting on with tackling issues important to residents.

She said the issue of the notice was raised at a recent parish council meeting but councillors seemed more interested in talking about a number of granite setts, which are small paving blocks, near the Stanhope Arms, which she replaced after they came loose.

She said: "They're making mountains out of molehills. They don't own the setts, they don't own the land. Why are they saying I needed their permission to take them out and are now saying I need to put them back in? I've done it and we should move on.

"While they're getting themselves in a twist about this there are serious problems out there that the public are not happy about. If they hadn't spent since the summer slagging me off they could have been getting on with things."

Parish council clerk Mike Downing said the minutes were available for people to look at if they asked. He said: "Parish councils work best when all members of the council work together as a team."

Mr Downing said the planned bus stop for The Green was ready and was waiting for the base for it to stand on to be laid.

Allotments next to the recreation ground have also been cleared and it is hoped new plot holders, including Sundridge and Brasted Primary School, will be able to move in soon.