IMPORTANT: BOGUS PARISH WEBSITE AND BUSINESS DIRECTORY

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If you receive an invoice from service-support@parish.uk DO NOT RESPOND. This is a bogus organisation and is a quite sophisticated scam. The website www.silverdale1.parish.uk is NOT in any way connected to Silverdale Parish Council.

A Silverdale resident and businessman has received e-mails and an invoice from this email address under the name ‘Silverdale Parish’ asking for a renewal to an online business directory. The businessman thought that this related to his advert in the Silverdale St John’s Parish Magazine. He paid the sum requested but then did not see his advertisement included online.

Silverdale Parish Council has investigated this and has received the following response from its website administrator. “The parish.uk site has been around for a few years now, it came out of nowhere and has a page for what looks like every single parish in the UK, all looking terribly official – it is not a clone of your existing site, but does have a lot of the area/council information within (all publicly available info, nothing untoward or worrying at this stage) – the issue though is that the site then has a ‘local directory’ of business/shops/people in the area and will invoice these people to stay listed within this directory – the directory of course has no value, it’s not anything to do with the parish council and doesn’t purport to be – they make their money by emailing invoices for services you didn’t know you were part of, then in a panic think you’ll lose the access/page so pay the renewal.

“Nothing to do with the parish council, not a data breach, hacking or anything concerning your information, but the site itself does raise a few eyebrows. It was featured on a Radio 4 programme a few years ago, this was sent to me around the time:

“SCAM alert – on today’s Radio4 ‘You And Yours’ about a website “Parish. Uk “ – NOT legit! It’s asking local businesses nationally to pay £40 or be removed from Parish council local business directory (which of course doesn’t exist). highly sophisticated scam! Article about it starts at 29’20”:  https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001ljdx.”

PLEASE NOTE: Silverdale Parish Council’s official website is: www.silverdale-pc-lancs.gov.uk and the official village business directory is on the Silverdale Village website: www.silverdalelancashire.uk

DROP IN TO GASKELL HALL TO SEE LOCAL PLAN – 15th November

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Officers from Lancaster City Council will be at The Gaskell Hall in Silverdale from 10 am to 1 pm on Saturday, 15th November to answer your questions about the proposed Local PLan. The new Local Plan will apply across the entire district and, once completed will supersede the current planning framework for the district including the 2025 Climate Emergency Local Plan Development Plan Document and the 2019 Arnside & Silverdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Development Plan Document. Once completed the scope of the new Plan will be applicable to all of our district’s communities. This consultation is for 4 months, concluding Monday 26 January 2026,
https://www.lancaster.gov.uk/planning/planning-policy/local-plan-review
The online Local Plan Hub, where you can comment, is here: https://local-plan-review-lancaster.hub.arcgis.com/

REMEMBRANCE DAY – 9 NOVEMBER

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On Remembrance Day, Silverdale’s residents and organisations are invited to remember those who gave their lives for our freedom. We come together as all ages to give thanks for those locally and further afield who have lost their lives in war,
and pray for peace in this age.

Timings are:

10.15 – Short service at St John’s Church, Emesgate Lane
10.45 – Congregate at the Silverdale War Memorial, Emesgate Lane
10.50 – Act of Remembrance at the War Memorial

Lancashire Local Government Survey

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Residents may wish to air their views in a survey on local government reorganisation. The 15 current councils in Lancashire are working together to submit proposals for unitary councils to Government by 28 November 2025. Several possible options are being considered, ranging from two to five new unitary councils that will replace the 15 Lancashire authorities. The survey was launched on 2 September and will be open for four weeks. https://www.givemyview.com/lancashirelgr

Silverdale on BBC North West News

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Silverdale was featured on BBC North West News on Wednesday 27 August 2025, in a segment on the lack of affordable housing in the village. Presented by BBC North of England reporter Judy Hobson, the story is part of a series on rural deprivation. The text version is here. Silverdale Parish Council is proud to be working with the Rural Housing Enabler Service, Lancaster City Council, and Lune Valley Community Land Trust to explore options for providing affordable housing for local people like Ellie and Dan.

Will you help in an Emergency? Find out more!

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Volunteers are needed urgently to register as Street Wardens for the Silverdale Emergency Resilience Group (SERG) to help vulnerable people in their area of the village if an emergency occurs and the emergency services cannot get to the village. If you are interested to know more, please attend the next meeting of the Silverdale Emergency Resilience Group on the 23rd August, 2 – 4 pm at Silverdale Village Institute. For more information contact: jenny.webster@silverdale-pc-lancs.gov.uk

SILVERDALE EMERGENCY RESILIENCE GROUP (SERG)

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Over the past months, the Parish Council has been active behind the scenes revising the Silverdale Emergency Plan and trying to recruit members of the community to sign up to help in the event of a major emergency. The plan would only be activated if the emergency services could not get to us and we were left to fend for ourselves for an extended time. We will get more information to you soon but, in the meantime, a case study about SERG has been written for the Lancashire Resilience Forum website (where there is extensive information about how best to prepare for an unexpected emergency). If you want to read it, you can find it here: https://www.lancashireprepared.org.uk/case-studies/parishioners-plough-ahead-to-set-up-the-silverdale-emergency-resilience-group-serg

Emergency Planning meeting – Saturday 26th April

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IMPORTANT – Silverdale Parish Council needs you to get involved in creating an Emergency Plan for the village. This is resulting from a central government request that all communities become resilient in the face of unexpected major events when the Emergency Services may not be able to respond immediately. The next meeting will be held at the Silverdale Village Institute, Springbank LA5 0TE on Saturday 26th April 2-4pm. Please attend if possible if you would like to help, either in one of the roles described, or as a ‘street warden’ to help deliver information and reassurance to your neighbours. At the meeting, Richard Gargini from Wennington Parish Council will tell us how they have created their plan and acquired emergency equipment without having to raise the parish precept.

Councillor Vacancy

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Currently we have a vacancy on the Parish Council.  This is an unpaid opportunity to have an  influence on how the village is cared for and to contribute to the work involved, according to one’s personal skills and attributes.  Training will be offered.

The post will be filled as quickly as possible, so it is important to express one’s interest to the Clerk soon, who will provide further information – Sarah McDaid: clerk@silverdale-pc-lancs.gov.uk

 

Silverdale Housing Needs Survey 2025

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Thank you to everyone who responded to the Housing Needs Survey that Silverdale Parish Council circulated in February, and to Stephanie Gorner and Joe Hannett at the Rural Housing Enabler Service for producing it and analysing the results.

In summary: Twenty-one households are in need of alternative accommodation within the next five years.  Nine houses, nine bungalows and seven flats are required, plus four adapted/ supported housing arrangements, with some respondents indicating more than one option. Eighty per cent of the respondents said they were not registered with the local Choice Based Letting Service (Housing Options Advice Service, run by Lancaster City Council) .

Some of the respondents’ comments about providing affordable housing in Silverdale include:

  • It would enable me to have secure accommodation in my old age.
  • I think Silverdale would be good for new housing to be built.
  • Silverdale is very short of first-time buyers’ small accommodation.
  • Small, small properties have gone to Air BNBs – could be rented to local people instead.
  • We both work and volunteer in the village; however, we cannot afford to live here.
  • Dedicated low-cost housing is needed.
  • My son needs to live independently.

The next step for Silverdale Parish Council is to contact Housing Trusts who may be interested in working with the Parish Council in forming a viable, long-term plan to meet these housing needs. For the full survey go to: https://silverdale-pc-lancs.gov.uk/the-parish-council/surveys-reports