Allerton Bywater Parish Council

Allerton Bywater Parish Council

ALLERTON BYWATER PARISH COUNCIL

PARISH COUNCIL ANNUAL REPORT

2014-2015

COUNCIL MEMBERS

Councillor S MURRAY CHAIRMAN

Councillor K ASPREY VICE CHAIR

Councillor J TAYLOR

Councillor L TOMLINSON

Councillor M WEAVER

Councillor J A COLE

Councillor A M JABIN

Councillor J TRAYOR

Councillor G VICKERS

Councillor M TOWNSEND

PARISH CLERK

Julie Eshelby

ALLERTON BYWATER PARISH COUNCIL

The Parish Council along with the Village In Bloom Group [who are a sub-committee of the Parish Council] have been very busy throughout the year working on projects to improve the village and the outstanding results are there for all to see. The Village with the new planters and new flower displays throughout the village is a credit to all who have worked on them and the results have been commented on by both residents and outside bodies the extensive planting was paid for with a grant from the CISG group. This year’s spring judging went very well and we are now working on further projects to further enhance our displays rockeries are being built and a riverside project to provide moorings and an outdoor teaching facility are well under way. The group could do with further members as the work is ongoing and is to the benefit of the village in general. We also need residents to water the planters to ensure the plants do not die.

Now completed the Parish Council and the In Bloom Group will look after the Miners Memorial grounds and flower displays in future years. The monies left from the memorial fund have been handed over to the Parish Council for the future maintenance of the memorial and ring fenced in a bank account specifically for that purpose.

The Parish Council web site is now well established [allertonbywaterparishcouncil.co.uk] and contains information about the village and current activities by different groups within the village. It is regularly updated by Councillor Ken Asprey who has received many favourable comments about the site.

The In Bloom Group is now being chaired by Yvonne Smith who runs her own garden services business locally.

We wish in bloom group good luck in continuing and improving the displays around the village.

We remain in a strong financial position and have once again worked within our budget.

Owing to LCC not being able to inform us at the time we set our precept as to whether we would receive any funding from them we had to increase the precept to cover the amountof the money we would normally have received from them.

Listed is a detailed account of work undertaken by your Councillors in the last year.

IMPROVING THE ENVIRONMENT

  • New planters and extensive planting of bulbs throughout the village.
  • Working to ensure the St Aidan’s site flood defences are brought into use as soon as possible.Meetings have taken place with our Local MP, Ward Councillors, The EnvironmentAgency,RSPB, Yorkshire Water and LCC. This is still on-going owing to problems in signing the site over to the RSPB and the temporary closure of the site whilst the ongoing problems are resolved. Hopefully the problems will be resolved in the near future and the site reopened.
  • Leeds Road where the pasture hedge was will be tidied up again and roadside planting will take place in the near future.
  • We havetwo village caretakers John Robshaw and Dennis Hogg who do an outstanding job collecting litter within the village and also perform other tasks as required. Thanks to both of them for all their efforts.
  • Many thanks to Geoff Bird who did an outstanding job for us during his time as a village caretaker he has now retired and we wish him all the best in the future.
  • Improvements to the verges within the village, birds beak fencing has been installed and older sections repaired in various places. This helps to preserve the grassed areas and prevent motorists parking on them.
  • A new Jubilee hedgerow of Laurels has been planted on Park Lane at the junction’s of Park Avenue and the traffic lights owing to the previous one failing to grow also more mature Rowan trees have been planted to enhance the verge in future years.
  • The verges within the village are allmaintained by LCC and it is an offence to park on them, tyre marks etc. are an unsightly mess and action will be taken against anyone parking on the verges or parking cars for sale on them. Please respect the work being done by the group to improve the Village.
  • More volunteers are needed to assist with the village in bloom projects and we hope more residents will join the group and give up a little of their time to assist in future projects now they can see what a difference the group is making within the village.

IMPROVING ROADS AND FOOTPATHS

  • The involvement with the village in bloom competition has a knock on effect in the overall standard and cleanliness within the village as we now qualify for extra road sweeping and grass cutting and along with the efforts of the group and the village caretakers weeds have been cleared and sprayed along the edges of the pavements.
  • Along with our Ward Councillors repairs have been carried out to roadsas required, although we consider in lots of cases the repairs are inadequate and some roads require completely resurfacing. The roads in Park Avenue in particular are a disgrace and the area requires completely resurfacing.

HELPING RESIDENTS

Throughout the year we have dealt with various complaints from residents about.

  • Vandalism
  • Street Lighting
  • Pot Holes in the roads and pavements
  • Tree Removal
  • Flooding
  • Noisy Neighbours
  • Planning issues
  • Travellers
  • Motorcycles on the Lines Walkway
  • Funded local groups and activities
  • Parking issues outside the School and the Millennium Community Development play area
  • Dog Fouling
  • We are still working with the Ward Councillors to try and resolve the issues being caused by the closure of the household waste site at Cinder Lane Castleford

GRANTS

  • The cricket club have just received help in repainting the boundary fence. Paint was supplied and labour provided by the Probation Service Payback Scheme.

CHURCHYARD

The Parish Council and the caretakers continue to maintain the churchyard cutting the grass on a regular basis along with assistance from the Probation Service Payback Scheme workers when available.

The Probation Payback team can still be used directly from them but on a limited basis depending on the demands made upon the service.

The Parish Council along with our Ward Councillors are in negotiations with the Probation Service to ensure that the Payback workers will be available to undertake the invaluable work they do within the village for the foreseeable future.

OTHER ACTIVITIES

We work very closely with our three Ward Councillors Keith Wakefield, James Lewis and Mary Harland to resolve resident’s problems and complaints. I would like to thank them on behalf of the Parish Council for all their work on behalf of the Community.

Congratulations to Clive Cowell on his award of a medal for the outstanding work he and his group did in raising the money and building the Miners Memorial which is a lasting tribute to the miners who lost their lives at the former Allerton Bywater Colliery and is an asset to this village.

Residents are still failing to clean up after their dogs and still walk them with no means of cleaning up despite repeated warnings and notices throughout the village. This village has an abundance of litter bins to place the doggy bags into please use them. Dog wardens are operating within the village and it is much cheaper to buy the bags and clean up after your dog than to pay the fine.

Councillor S Murray

Chairman

Allerton Bywater Parish Council

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