PARISH pump news from Fair Oak is attracting a global audience thanks to the information super highway.

By going online on the Net, Fair Oak and Horton Heath Parish Council blazed the technological trail for village authorities in the county. That was about two years ago and since then information about the council and the fast-growing parish has been added.

Parish clerk Glenda Willis says the council is currently updating the Internet details that include a new photo line-up of the councillors.

Alongside each picture is a potted biography. There is also a wide range of details about the village authority, including dates and times of meetings.

As well as a history of the parish there is a factfile on the way the soaraway development, including the new Lapstone Playing Fields, has changed the face of the area.

And the new technology has already put Fair Oak and Horton Heath firmly on the worldwide map.

Glenda said that the council had even received an e-mail from New Zealand.

It came from former residents of Fair Oak who had been surfing the net. They were surprised but delighted to have stumbled across their old home village.

There have been a couple of inquiries from Canada after Fair Oak was spotted on the website.

Glenda said Fair Oak was one of the first parish councils to go on the web. But it is a technological revolution which has since then been sweeping through more grassroots parish councils.

Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.