SINGLETON parish councillors Bob Gallagher (chairman) and Maxine Chew (vice-chair) met senior Fylde Borough Council executives at Maxine’s home recently and were delighted by how helpful they proved, she said at our most recent meeting, on Thursday, 15th December 2011.
The FBC executives they met were Allan Oldfield, Chief Executive, and Clare Platt, Director of Community Services. With them was supervisor Stephen Howard. The executives said they were unaware that the street-cleaning and litter-picking was not being done to contract and have provided full schedules of the work they promise will go ahead.
Parking at Miller Crescent
Grass verges cropped up again in the meeting, following complaints from residents about Fylde’s refuse collection lorry mounting the grass at Miller Crescent and leaving track marks. The problem, said FBC, is that cars block the lorry’s route – yet the lorry has precedence.
Cllr Gallagher suggested that the council should help fund a car-parking area in the Crescent and ask residents to park carefully when the lorry was due. Cllr Chris Bailey thinks a practical solution would be to have a central pick-up point close to the road so the lorry does not have to enter the Crescent. Such a scheme works well at Barnfield Manor, he added.
It’s not United Utilities that’s at fault!
For years we’ve been under the impression that United Utilities owned the fire station and was responsible for letting it fall into a state of disrepair not in keeping with a listed building. But we have been corrected: it’s not UU at all! United Utilities has informed us it sold the sub-station in 2007 to Electricity North West, which is responsible for the maintence and upkeep of all its assets. Sorry, UU.
We have been told that any complaints regarding ENW assets should be directed to Electricity North West Customer Relations, at PO Box 4375, Manchester M61 0ET. We will be contacting ENW.
New bobby for the parish
Police Inspector Keith Ogle tells us that Singleton will have a new Community Beat Manager from early February. She is PC Hooper. Insp Ogle assures us PC Hooper will not be reglecting Singleton in favour of Staining and Elswick.
Watch out for cyclists in the dark!
Maybe one issue PC Hooper could tackle is cyclists riding on pavements or without lights. As luck would have it, all the councillors had had very recent experiences of nearly having accidents with cyclists because the cyclists were either wearing black, or riding on pavements, or riding without lights in the dark, or doing all three. We’ve also had complaints from residents about the issue.
Christmas tree
Koi Pool is once again sponsoring a Christmas tree for The Village. But, as luck would have it, the firm had no big trees in stock this year and is getting one specially! Thankyou, Koi Pool.
Next meeting
We meet next on 26th January 2012, starting at 7.30pm as usual, and in the church vestry, as usual. All are welcome. Have a happy Christmas and a merry New Year!