Singleton Parish Council
Minutes of the Parish Council Meeting held at the Village Hall, Singleton
on 28 July 2016 at 7.15 pm
Present: – Cllr Bailey, Chew and Lee, and the Parish Clerk, Verena Henderson, who took the Minutes. Also in attendance were Sophie Diver, Project Manager for Highways England, Tristrum Bardrick, Assistant Project Manager of Highways England, Nick Henderson, Designer and Project Manager for Arcadis and Helen Batey, Public Liaison Officer for Arcadis.
1. Apologies were received from Cllrs Gallagher and Smith.
In the absence of the Chair and Vice-Chair, Cllr Chew proposed that Cllr Bailey take the Chair for this evening and this was seconded by Cllr Lee.
2. Minutes of Previous Meeting held on 23 June 2016
The Minutes were distributed, but unfortunately in the absence of Cllrs Gallagher and Smith, there were insufficient councillors in attendance this evening who could say that the Minutes were a true and correct record. These will be held over until the next meeting for official signing.
3. Presentation by officials on behalf of Highways England and Arcadis
Sophie Diver stated that this was the start of a consultation process to decide what was the best option for improving the A585 from Windy Harbour to the Skippool junction at River Wyre. Highways England is in charge of the motorway and trunk road network. This area of the A585 has been identified as one of the worse routes for reliability in the North West and is in the top 50 needing immediate attention across the whole of England. There is significant congestion along the route and also a lot of repairs are needed. The area they are looking at is 5km long.
The process started in December 2014 and a Route Enforcement Strategy was undertaken in early 2015. Public consultation will be rolled out in September 2016 on the options they have come up with. The next stage is a Development Consent Application, which will take a couple of years. They are looking at starting the works in March 2020 and the construction will take up to 2 years. The work will link in to the improvement works carried out recently to the Windy Harbour junction. Cllr Bailey commented at this point that there had been problems caused at this junction where 2 lanes go into 1 and there have been incidents of road-rage, some of which have been caught on camera. The Clerk was asked to write to Sophie Diver about this.
Nick Henderson took over at this point to show the 3 options that were currently being considered and which would go out for public consultation.
Option S1 – Dual carriageway with bridge under Lodge Lane. This option would come under Lodge Lane and go towards Poulton Industrial Estate before swinging up to Skippool. A lot of discussion about this one and the way it would cut through Singleton Hall grounds and other householders’ grounds. It would also mean that anyone travelling from the A586 at Windy Harbour would have to travel to Singleton via Poulton-le-Fylde.
Option S1a – Very similar to Option S1 with the difference that stretches of Garstang Road would be converted to cycle lanes.
Option – Northern Route – Again dual carriageway with bridge under Lodge Lane. This route would go North Eastwards towards Shard Road and Mains Hall. The problem with this one was that the area included 2 large caravan parks and it was also the most expensive route.
Finally the Online Scheme with gyratory system in Little Singleton and roundabout at Shard Road. This was the cheapest option and would involve a one-way system along Garstang Road and Little Singleton. Whilst this would remove some of the traffic from Little Singleton and Mains Lane, it would not be as effective at easing congestion as the other options.
It was pointed out by Cllr Chew that all these options would still not tackle the congestion along the A585 at Greenhalgh leading on to Junction 3 of the M55. This junction was totally inadequate for coping with the volume of traffic going through it. As more houses were planned to be built in Wyre, more and more traffic would be commuting along these routes.
Sophie Diver resumed by saying that they will be publicising consultation events and one would be held on the 16th and 17th September at Singleton Village Hall. Flyers and posters would be widely circulated from 5th September and information would also be available in local libraries. Any landowner affected by the proposed routes would be contacted directly prior to this. The consultation events would include a 3D video visualisation of all the schemes to give people a better idea of what was being planned. Also the District Valuer would be on hand at the meetings to give information about what the affect might be. They are looking to form a reference group, drawing representatives from all the areas affected. Highways England would continue to liaise with this group throughout the consultation and construction process.
People can contact them via email at the following address: –
A585WindyHarbourToSkipool@highwaysengland.co.uk
All the representatives from Highways England and Arcadis were thanked for their attendance and time and duly left the meeting.
4. Open Forum – None
5. Declaration of Interests – None
6. Matters arising from previous meeting
The Clerk had written to Keith Walker of the Dumbreck Trust to advise him that the Parish Council would look favourably at funding someone to litter-pick in the rest of the Parish if the Trust were willing to fund the same in the Village. The next meeting with the Trust is on 3 August.
Pool Brow Caravan Park – the Clerk had written to 3 officers at Fylde BC and also Cty Councillor Paul Hayhurst to advise them of residents’ complaints.
7. Planning Matters and Decisions
16/0475 – Land off Shard Road, Singleton, FY6 9BU – Use of land for private equestrian purposes with siting of a series of timber and canvas-over-steel frame stables – The Parish Council objects to this proposal as it thinks 18 stables is excessive for private equestrian purposes. It is too intensive and contrary to Planning Policy SP13 and completely out of character for the area.
16/0466 – Singleton House, Weeton Road, Singleton FY6 8LL – James Carter Homes Application to discharge details associated with conditions 10, 21, 22 and 23 … – The Parish Council has no specific observations.
16/0331 – St Anne’s Church, Singleton FY6 8LN – Revised plan relocating ramp. The Parish Council supports the proposal.
8. Police and PACT Report
Police Report received stating that 5 crimes had been logged from 01/07/2016 to 26/07/2016, which included 3 cases of driving off without paying for fuel, one road-rage and one of criminal damage.
As regards the weekend motorbikers, a traffic officer attended on a Sunday towards the end of June and only 6 bikes had passed him between 09:00 and 10:00hours and they had not exceeded the limit. The officer had, however, booked a car that was doing 45mph. The Clerk was asked to write again to the Police Inspector to advise her that the worse time is between 6.00am and 8.00am on a Sunday morning for speeding motorbikers.
Two Police Alerts had been put on the website and these referred to a male dealing cannabis from a car in the Wyre area and being seen outside a local school. The other referred to a scam circulating in the Blackpool and Lancaster areas whereby phone calls and text messages were received from callers pretending to be from HMRC. Full details of these are on the website.
9. Traffic and Highway Issues
Frustration was felt by Cllr Chew after LCC had stated that it did not have the resources to enforce every instance of damage to highway verges and that it did not intend to put right the damage it had caused to the verge on Pool Foot Lane.
10. Correspondence
• Email received from Sarah Wilson, Principal Waste Development Officer at Fylde BC, to say that there is a working group of elected members considering the introduction of Public Space Protection Orders for dog control and other potential sources of anti-social behaviour. The Parish Council would be very much in favour of a Public Place Protection Order for its children’s play area, and the Clerk had responded to this effect.
• District Parish Liaison Group – This had proved a very disappointing group in recent times and the Clerk was asked to write to Fylde’s Chief Executive and ask that more time be given to open discussion and feedback from the other parish councils attending.
• Report received from Fylde BC Customer Services that a complaint had been received from a resident about human waste and associated litter being found on the children’s play area. This had been dealt with and cleaned up by Fylde BC.
• Thank you card from Singleton Gala Committee for the Parish Council’s donation to the annual Fete. Unfortunately rain had cut short the proceedings and it is feared that this year they made a loss. The Parish Council is very appreciative of all the hard work put in for this event by the volunteers involved.
11.
Wish List – to be deferred to the next meeting.
12. Accounts and Cheques to Pay
• T A Pawson – SPID – £60. Proposed Cllr Lee, Seconded Cllr Bailey. Agreed.
• Forsyth & Steel – Newsletter – £68.00. Proposed Cllr Chew, Seconded Cllr Bailey. Agreed.
• Clerk – Salary and Expenses for June/July – £173.30. Proposed Cllr Chew, Seconded Cllr Lee. Agreed.
• Shaun Thornton – Installing repaired Noticeboard and memorial bench etc. – £680.00 – Proposed Cllr Lee, Seconded Cllr Bailey. Agreed.
• Singleton Village Hall – Rent for Flooding Meeting – £30.00. Proposed Cllr Lee, Seconded Cllr Bailey. Agreed.
13. Any Other Business
• Cllr Gallagher has purchased a sign for the top of Pool Foot Lane and will install this once the works have been completed to the footpaths.
• Cllr Chew reported on the recent flooding meeting held with Staining Parish Council. She also had a reasonably satisfactory meeting with representatives from the Environment Agency. They are very limited as to what they can do because no housing was involved in the flooding but they have relaxed regulations for the farmers in respect of clearing the dyke. The Parish Councils have come up with 2 schemes, one where water is held back from Martin Mere and only slowly released, and the other where some land could be used as a flood basin, possibly at the back of Mains Lane. The Environment Agency said that if we could persuade our MP to find the money, they would be willing to implement one of these schemes.
• Bowling green. Two requests received from financial help, one for the rebuilding of the bowling pavilion and the other for help towards replacing the lawn mower. These would be discussed more fully at the next meeting.
14. Date and Time of next meeting
The next meeting is to be held on Thursday 25 August 2016 at 7.15pm.
As there was no further business, the meeting closed at 10.00 pm.
Signed …………………………………………… Dated ………………………………………
Verena Henderson
Clerk to the Parish Council
Tel: 01995 670455