SINGLETON PARISH COUNCIL
Minutes of the Meeting of the Parish Council
Held at Singleton Village Hall 23 January 2024
Present: – Cllrs Ibbotson (Chair), Cllr Cholmondeley (Vice-Chair), Bailey and Clifford and the Parish Clerk, Verena Henderson, who took the Minutes. Two members of the public also attended.
| 1. | Apologies for Absence were received and accepted from Cllr Lee and County Cllr Singleton. |
| 2. | Police Matters A new Geographic Inspector has been appointed for Kirkham – Katie Buckingham. The parking is still horrendous outside the school, and it is felt another reminder is needed for parents as soon as possible. The situation is made worse because of the amount of traffic coming through Singleton at the moment and is deemed dangerous. The Clerk will email the PCSO about this and copy in the Inspector. |
| 3. | Open Forum The traffic situation on Lodge Lane was described as horrendous since the partial opening of the new by-pass. Drivers are using Singleton as a cut-through rather than joining the queues on the by-pass. Lodge Lane in particular has seen a huge increase in traffic. A member of the public who attended the meeting has written both to the MP and Highways about this. There have been many accidents with one car being written off so far. The signage is misleading with many thinking they are being directed onto Lodge Lane rather than Garstang Road towards the bypass. The changes of speed limits on Lodge Lane have been questioned and Cty Cllr Singleton is looking into this. At the moment the speed limit goes from 40-60-30-20. Kier is quite open to this being changed but Lancashire County Council must legislate for any change. As a result, the proposed new location of the SpID (speed indicator device) is halted until the overall speed situation is resolved. The question was asked if there is any way Garstang Road East can be opened up again. The answer is no. Permanent bollards are going to be put in place however, which will hopefully stop traffic from trying to go down there. More complaints received about the state of the pavements at the top of Lodge Lane. Also, the road surface opposite the entrance to the Kier Site on Garstang Road is in a very bad state of repair and it was wondered whether this would be improved before Kier left the site. Finally, the bus stop by the garage has been damaged and this was reported by a resident to LCC. LCC has written to the Clerk about this, and she will take this up with Cty Cllr Singleton. |
| 4. | Minutes of previous meeting held on 21 November 2023 and 21 December 2023 and any matters arising – The Minutes of the two previous meetings, having already been agreed, were signed as true and correct records by the Chairperson. Matters arising The Handyperson has quoted £389.80 for the work on the car park. Stones to be purchased from Huw Gray, which gave the best price. |
| 5. | Declarations of Interest – None |
| 6. | Planning matters and decisions 23/0711 – Hill Top Farm, Back Lane, Weeton – Extension of residential use. The Parish Council had commented previously about its concerns about the number of caravan/holiday parks in the area and the detrimental effect this was having on already overstretched resources and infrastructure. Highway issues are also considered to be a big issue with this particular site as it is on a corner of a very narrow lane. |
| 7. | Traffic and Highways issues Mains Lane de-trunking is on its way. It will then come under LCC rather than Highways England.Spids on Lodge Lane – delayed awaiting result of consideration of removing the 60mph speed limit on a section of Lodge Lane.Footway deterioration on Lodge Lane – Cty Cllr Singleton will follow this up with LCC Highways now that the road is open.Footway from Barnfield on the new road – Following a site meeting Kier plan to re-profile the verge to ensure it is flat. In addition, the traffic splitter island will be modified locating the centre pole and globe closer together so that it can be used for pedestrian use. Cty Cllr Singleton has requested further clarification.Overgrown grass/vegetation and overgrown hedges – LCC Highways are in possession of the two work plans provided by the Parish Council. Funds are available and this work has been subcontracted to a third party and the work will be carried out in this financial year. |
| 8. | New By-Pass A meeting was held with Kier on 12 January 2024 to discuss all the problems. Kier has undertaken to alter the traffic lights on the newly opened bypass to allow 2-way traffic lights rather than 4 as is currently the situation. There are lengthy hold-ups at this section at the moment. Work still has to be done at the Skippool junction to create a right-turn onto Mains Lane. Kier says that the by-pass will be opened up fully in March. A lot of complaints are currently circulating on social media. Complaints also about the number of heavy lorries using Lodge Lane, which are being blamed for the increase in potholes along this stretch of road. It has been reported that satnavs are directing drivers through Singleton. The noise is also still very bad from the underpass, but work is still continuing on the screening. The tree planting has also been criticised. A huge number of trees have been cleared for this by-pass and it will take decades for their replacements to grow. It was decided to wait until the work is fully completed and the by-pass is fully opened to properly assess the situation. |
| 9. | Correspondence Consultation of Future Sport and Leisure Facilities in Fylde. Following the closure of Kirkham baths in 2023, Fylde BC is conducting a survey to determine the future direction of sports and leisure facilities across Fylde. The survey can be found at https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/Fylde Swimming Public Consultation. The closure date is 31 January 2024.Lancashire Warm Spaces Grant Scheme – round 3. The latest round of grant schemes has now gone live for any organisations that did not manage to apply in previous rounds. Applications to be in by 4 February and this is open to voluntary or community organisations, registered charities, faith groups etc. Information about this has been sent to the Church Secretary and the Village Hall.Bus stop on Mains Lane. Email received from LCC about damage to the bus stop on Mains Lane. This appears to have been hit by a vehicle, causing a large crack to appear at the rear. The Clerk will refer this to Cty Cllr Singleton for his advice. |
| 10. | Update from Fylde Borough Council District Parish Liaison Planning Meeting – scheduled for this evening – was cancelled due to unavailability of appropriate resources. |
| 11. | Precept for Financial Year 2024/2025 The Clerk distributed calculations regarding the next precept. The amount Fylde BC were proposing had actually gone down from the previous year and the amount they were charging for Playground Maintenance had actually gone up from £4,199 to £4,581. With the increase in charges for everything else it was proposed by Cllr Cholmondeley that the Parish Council requests an increase in Precept by 3%. This was seconded by Cllr Bailey and Agreed. |
| 12. | Village Green Fylde BC’s Co-ordinator is fully engaged in another project at the moment and there will be a delay before he is available for Singleton unfortunately. |
| 13. | Accounts and Any Invoices to pay – Christmas Tree lights – reimbursement to Cllr Ibbotson – £54.98: Proposed Cllr Cholmondeley, Seconded Cllr Clifford. Agreed.PEI Delta – Replacement of flood lights and sensors on car park – £696.00. Proposed Cllr Cholmondeley, Seconded Cllr Ibbotson. Agreed.Litter-picker – 4 weeks. £411.00. Proposed Cllr Bailey, Seconded Cllr Cholmondeley. Agreed.Clerk – Salary and Expenses (which includes annual payment for website of £134.58) £355.82. Proposed Cllr Cholmondeley, Seconded Cllr Clifford. Agreed. Two invoices have been received for the cutting of hedges on the car park. The Clerk will investigate these and bring them back to the next meeting. |
| 14. | Any Other Business Cllr Clifford reported that there is still a lot of litter along the right-hand side of the recently closed section of Garstang Road. He wondered whether it would be worthwhile contacting the agency to arrange to have people come in to clear this. As the road would be closed there would be no health and safety issues as was the case last time their help was requested. The Clerk will look into this.The Trust has not got any answers back yet from the Charity Commission about the building application across the road from the pub. Their application will be going into Fylde BC soon.Bowling Club – Work hasn’t started yet. Discussions ongoing between them, the Trust and the Diocese. |
| 15. | Date and time of next meeting – Tuesday 20th February 2024 at 7.15pm. As there was no further business, the meeting closed at 8.45pm. |
Signed ……………………………………………… Dated ………………………………
Verena Henderson, Clerk to Singleton Parish Council,
Tel: 01995 670455: email: Clerk@SingletonParishCouncil.org