The next scheduled meeting will take place at Singleton Village Hall on THURSDAY 24 April 2025 at 7.15pm. Members of the public are welcome to attend.
The Agenda and draft Minutes from the previous meetings will be published approximately one week beforehand.
Verena Henderson, Clerk to Singleton Parish Council: Email: Clerk@SingletonParishCouncil.org or Tel: 07530 605 291
Singleton Parish Council
Verena Henderson, Clerk to Singleton Parish Council:
Email: Clerk@SingletonParishCouncil.org: Tel: 07530 605 291
DRAFT MINUTES
SINGLETON PARISH COUNCIL
A meeting of the Parish Council will be held at
The Village Hall, Singleton on Thursday 24th April 2025 at 7.15pm
Your presence is requested
A G E N D A
| 1. | Apologies for Absence |
| 2. | Open Forum – The Council will open the meeting for 15 minutes for any questions from the public – |
| 3. | Minutes of previous meeting held on 24 March 2025 and any matters arising- |
| 4. | Police Matters |
| 5. | Declarations of Interest |
| 6. | Planning matters and decisions – 25/0184 Bankfield Lodge, Pool Foot Lane FY6 8NA – Alterations and extensions to dwelling 25/0203 8 Mains Lane, FY6 7LF – Use of existing detached garage as a residential annex 25/0229 Granvin, 137 Mains Lane FY6 7LD – Application to vary condition 2 and remove or vary condition 4 of planning permission 22/0886 |
| 7. | Traffic and Highways Issues |
| 8. | New Bypass |
| 9. | Update from Fylde Borough Council Fylde Area Committee meeting 22 May 2025M&M Windfarm – Local Impact Report |
| 10. | Village Green update |
| 11. | Correspondence |
| 12. | Accounts and any invoices to pay – |
| 13. | Any Other Business – |
| 14. | Date and Time of Next Meetings, including Annual Parish Meeting |
Verena Henderson, Clerk to Singleton Parish Council:
Email: Clerk@SingletonParishCouncil.org: Tel: 07530 605 291
SINGLETON PARISH COUNCIL
Minutes of the Meeting of the Parish Council
Held at Singleton Village Hall on 24 March 2025
Present: – Cllrs Lee (Chair), Bailey, Carruthers and Clifford and the Parish Clerk, Verena Henderson, who took the Minutes. County Councillor Singleton also attended.
| 1. | Apologies for Absence – Cllr Cholmondeley. |
| 2. | Open Forum – None |
| 3. | Minutes of previous meeting held on 20 February 2025 and any matters arising The Minutes of the previous meeting, having been already agreed on-line, were signed as a true and correct record by the Chairman. Matters Arising The Miller Arms – Asset of Community Value. Cllr Lee will propose a Motion at Fylde BC Full Council meeting to reinstate what is a valuable protection. The previous 5-year period has now expired. ID Badges for councillors – The Clerk will take this up with Democratic Services at Fylde BC. Lodge Lane Lay-By. More fly-tipping there and the bollard has not been replaced. LCC Highways originally put the bollard in and hold the keys for it. The Clerk will pursue this with them. Resuscitation Training. The second training session was very well attended with 32 people at the Village Hall. Again, it was an excellent session and Cllr Clifford proposed that a donation of £100 be made to the Northwest Ambulance Service as a gesture of thanks. This was seconded by Cllr Lee and Agreed. Property on Windy Harbour Lane. Planning permission has been granted for the revised layout of the leisure development on either side of Windy Harbour Road. This does include the removal of some trees. It does not include the provision of the large turning area, and the developer is now liaising with LCC about the provision of a more appropriate closure to Pool Foot Lane. It is intended that the works which had been undertaken are reinstated to provide the landscaped edge to the golf course. Bench on Children’s Playground. The handyman has tightened everything up on the bench and it is now stable. He has not charged for this. The handyman has also planted some new primroses in some tubs to replace some that were not doing too well. Again, no charge for this. Defibrillator. Cllr Clifford had been to speak with the manager of the Shell Garage and asked him if they would be willing to house another defibrillator to serve Little Singleton. They are very willing to help, and the Clerk will email their head office. Lights on the car park. There are still some problems with these, and the Clerk will contact the contractor again to have them sorted out. |
| 4. | Police Matters The number of crimes reported for the Elswick, Little Eccleston, Singleton and Greenhalgh wards for January 2025 was as follows: – Violence and sexual offences – 10; Anti-Social Behaviour – 9;Criminal damage and arson – 3; Other crimes – 3. |
| 5. | Declarations of Interest – None |
| 6. | Planning matters and decisions 25/0097 – 18 Mains Lane, Singleton FY6 7LF – Erection of front boundary wall and gateposts up to 2.1 metres in height (retrospective application). No significant observations. 25/0068 – Lever Lea, 112 Mains Lane, Singleton FY6 7LD – Application for approval of the reserved matters of access, appearance, landscaping etc in regard to planning permission 24/0276. No significant observations. Query raised by Planning Officer in respect of Mains Hall Barn. This was a planning application where the Parish Council questioned the installation of some aluminium windows into a building in the curtilage of a listed building. The Planning Officer confirmed that the windows facing the listed building would be timber and that it was those on the opposite side and out of view of the listed building that would be aluminium. The Parish Council accepted this assurance. Planning Decision 25/0033 – Land at North Lodge, Lodge Lane FY6 8LT – Permission in principle for the erection of two dwellings was refused. |
| 7. | Traffic and Highways issues Blue Badge Parking at the Church. The problem of disabled people not being able to park near to the Church was again raised. County Cllr Singleton will investigate this again .After making enquiries, the Clerk had been contacted by the Senior Waste Operations Supervisor at Fylde BC who had arranged to have a mechanical “bobcat” digger used to push back the encroaching vegetation on the footpaths of Lodge Lane. This had been used and although quite a bit of mess had been left behind, the paths were a great improvement and widened to a satisfactory degree. A sweeper was also promised, and one spotted in a lay-by, but Garstang Road between the petrol station and the new by-pass is still in a mess. The Clerk will ask for this to be attended to and also for the “bobcat” digger to be used here. The potholes on Church Road had been filled in by LCC. Although improved, the road surface was still poor along one side from the fire station to the Church. Mains Lane. This is in the process of being de-trunked. However, there is no time scale when this will be completed and therefore Mains Lane is still part of National Highways network for the time being. Mile Road – An order has been raised to re-line the white lining on this road. Mains Lane/Shard Road junction. A speed hump is to be located on this section of Mains Lane and will be supported by bollards and signage at either end. Since the filter system had been introduced at the traffic lights for traffic turning left onto Shard Road, motorists had found it dangerous when exiting from this part of Mains Lane .Community Pay-Back Scheme – The Clerk will try once again to ask this organisation to help clean up the recently closed area of Garstang Road East, which had a big problem with litter. Cllr Clifford is very happy to meet with the organiser. Road Works: – Garstang Road, Singleton 31/03/2025 – 4/04/2025 – Two-way signals – work by Electricity North-West Road Closure: – Grange Road, Singleton 22/04/2025 – Tree cutting |
| 8. | New By-Pass Cllr Carruthers had compiled an extensive list of work still needed and snags on the new by-pass and surrounding areas and this had been passed on to Kier. Problems include the general mess left behind, the state of the lay-bys on the by-pass and the damage that has been caused to them already by heavy lorries driving over the grassed areas and damaging kerbs. Litter is a big problem and over-full bins. Who is responsible for litter-picking in this area? Graffiti is also a recurring problem. Kier’s representative had acknowledged receipt of this list and will sort out some of the things on the list and enquire about others. County Cllr Singleton suggested that the Parish Council has a meeting with Kier at the Village Hall and he will try and get dates for this. It was agreed that a meeting needed to be arranged to thrash out these problems. |
| 9. | Update from Fylde Borough Council The biggest issue for Fylde is the Local Government Re-organisation and the uncertainty that surrounds it. Lancashire did not meet its recent deadline of deciding how it is going to move forward and at the moment it could either be just 1 authority, 2, 3, 4 or even 5! The Government’s plan is also that there will be an elected Mayor. Still uncertainty therefore about mergers between which Borough Councils. The population requirements are for 5,000 residents in one authority. At the moment the joint populations of Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre amount to 4,600. With population growth expected in the next couple of years, that could reach the required 5,000, but a different authority may be brought in. No decisions have been made as yet. Devolution to Lancashire has been welcomed, however, with money coming from Government directly to Lancashire to cover certain budgets such as schools, with Lancashire being in control of where that money goes rather than having to compete with the rest of the country for funding. |
| 10. | Village Green The plans have now been costed, and Fylde BC will be putting the work out to tender. Electricity North-West is happy with the plans and the entrance to the village green coming alongside the Fire Station, which will necessitate the removal of some bushes. The two trees currently located there will be left in place and Electricity North-West has offered to provide more trees for planting. Cllr Lee had presented the plans to the Singleton Trust at their recent meeting, and they were happy with them. Singleton Trust will be supporting this venture alongside the Parish Council. |
| 11. | Correspondence Email received from a resident who complained about the problem of litter and dog mess on Garstang New Road from Singleton Fiveways (the closed part after the construction of the by-pass). He and his wife had done a litter-pick and filled two bags which included 30 bags of dog poo. The Clerk had reported this to Fylde BC and asked that the Dog Warden be advised but she was not sure if Fylde BC was responsible for the litter on this section of road. The ownership and responsibility for this closed section of the road would be added to the questions to be put to Kier at the forthcoming meeting. |
| 12. | Electric Vehicle Chargers in the Parish Email received from Rural EV Charging concerning the proposal to site two electric vehicle charge points on the car park. Many ChargePoint operators are now focussing their investments on larger council contracts, but they are happy to try and find an operator for us and will propose the legal costs be met by the operators. They had attached a form which the Clerk will complete and return to them. |
| 13. | Storage Facilities at the Village Hall. The Parish Council would find it very useful to have storage facilities at the Village Hall for the Parish Council records and Christmas lights etc. Perhaps a locked cupboard would be appropriate, and the Parish Council would be happy to contribute towards this. The Clerk will write to the Chairperson of the Village Hall. |
| 14. | Accounts and Any Invoices to pay First Cut Grounds Maintenance – £517.68 – Proposed Cllr Lee, Seconded Cllr Carruthers. Agreed. Singleton Village Hall – Rent from October to March (to include the two sessions of resuscitation training) – £255.00. Proposed Cllr Bailey, Seconded Cllr Carruthers. Agreed. Litter-picker – New Rate – £443.00 – Proposed Cllr Lee, Seconded Cllr Clifford. Agreed. Fylde BC – Trade Waste bin weekly collection 1/04/2025 – 31/03/2026 – £1,332.76 (Half payment due from Greenhalgh PC of £666.38). Proposed Cllr Carruthers, Seconded Cllr Clifford. Agreed. Clerk Salary and expenses – £518.79. Proposed Cllr Bailey, Seconded Cllr Lee. Agreed. |
| 15. | Any Other Business St. Anne’s Church is to hold a Feast Day on 27 July 2025 and would like this to be a parish get-together. It will start with a Church Service at 9.30am and carry on into the afternoon for the parish. The Clerk will ask for more details and promote this on the website. To be discussed further at the next meeting. |
| 16. | Date and time of next meeting Thursday, 24 April 2025 at 7.15 at the Village Hall. As there was no further business, the meeting closed at 10.00pm. |
Signed ……………………………………………… Dated ………………………………
Verena Henderson, Clerk to Singleton Parish Council,
Tel: 07530 605 291: email: Clerk@SingletonParishCouncil.org