2014/09

September Newsletter
Level Crossing
Mr Simon Shipperd came to our July meeting to talk about reducing the risk to level crossings and we put forward our ideas as to how Silverdale’s level crossing and the barrow (station) crossing can be made safer.

Trowbarrow Quarry
The AONB are hoping to meet with the landowners this month regarding access to the quarry.

The Royal, Silverdale and Woodlands Hotels
We applied for the registration of all 3 properties as community assets under the Localism Act, 2011 but they do not qualify as they are all hotels and under the regulations hotels are classed as residences and therefore exempt.
The Royal Hotel
We have made a number of objections to the current planning application – details can be found in the September minutes.

Jenny Brown’s Point
Ms Louise Martin, Cultural Heritage Officer for Headlands to Headspace (Morecambe Bay Partnership), spoke at or September meeting about the 5-year project and plans to include Jenny Brown’s Point. Attempts will be made to investigate the use of the chimney by targeted excavation and to improve virtual access with images on the web and possibly information panels at the site.

Parking
This remains an issue – we have bought some traffic cones to be used in places where inconsiderate parking is a problem particularly at busy times.

Silverdale History Weekend
We funded the history weekend which was held on 27th and 28th September.

Christmas Trees
We have agreed to pay for the supply and fitting of Christmas trees, lights and brackets to various shops etc along Emesgate Lane – the property owners have kindly said that they’ll have a tree and will supply and pay for the electricity for the lights.

Please find contact details below for our Councillors:
Chairman Terry Bond 01524 702693
Vice Chairman Tony Houghton 01524 701416
Harriet Bradfield harriet.bradfield@hotmail.co.uk
Shirley Mason 01524 701162
Keith Palmer 01524 702039/ 07969658547
Nigel Ribbons 07710044053
Paul Williams 01524 701513
Angela Woods 01524 701968
The Clerk, Denise Challenor, can be contacted on: 01524 761824 or clerk.silverdale@gmail.com

2014/06

June Newsletter
Broadband for Yealand and Silverdale (B4YS)
B4YS is looking to raise around £80,000 to enable Broadband for the Rural North to bring superfast broadband to Silverdale. We agreed to pledge £5,000 to the project and to review pledging more funds later in the year if necessary.
B4YS organisation and share collections for the Parish are being organised by Nigel Ribbons. Nigel is currently holding investment cheques (in a secure location) for committed shareholders in Silverdale, ready for when B4YS passes the “Go” threshold. To register your interest, lodge a membership cheque, offer to help, or to buy shares, please contact him at: 4A Bottoms Lane, Silverdale, LA5 0TN, 0771 00 44 053, nigel@silverdale.it. More information can be found on the B4YS website: www.b4ys.org.uk.

Temporary Skate Park
We have made plans to borrow a temporary/ mobile skate park from Lancaster City Council for the last 2 weeks in August (to be placed in the Silverdale School playground), but we need a team of volunteers to set it up/ put it away each day and to supervise its use in order for the skate park to go ahead – so far we have 4 volunteers but need more if we are to go ahead. If you can help please contact Terry Bond (01524 702693).

Annual Meeting
At our annual meeting in May Councillor Bond was re-elected as Chairman and Councillor Houghton as Vice-Chairman.

Silverdale United Charities
Councillors Mason and Woods are our representatives on the Silverdale United Charities committee and report back regularly to our meetings. The Charity funds are healthy and anyone in need of support or would like more information should contact Shirley Mason (01524 701162) or Angela Woods (01524 701968).

Parish Plan
We have reviewed the aims of the Parish Plan (produced in 2003) with regards the village centre and will arrange a meeting with Lancaster City Council to engage them with our ideas as these might affect any discussions regarding planning applications.

War Memorial Gardens
We have agreed to buy a stainless steel plaque for each soldier commemorated and will replace the 2 dead trees and missing letters on the Memorial.

Website
One tender has been submitted for the maintenance of the website from Mr Steve Lamb and his tender has been accepted.

The Royal
We are looking into applying for the registration of The Royal as a community asset under the Localism Act, 2011.

Please find contact details below for our Councillors:
Chairman Terry Bond 01524 702693
Vice Chairman Tony Houghton 01524 701416
Harriet Bradfield harriet.bradfield@hotmail.co.uk
Shirley Mason 01524 701162
Keith Palmer 01524 702039/ 07969658547
Nigel Ribbons 07710044053
Paul Williams 01524 701513
Angela Woods 01524 701968
The Clerk, Denise Challenor, can be contacted on: 01524 761824 or clerk.silverdale@gmail.com

2014/03

March Newsletter

Broadband for Yealand and Silverdale (B4YS)
A local group has been set up to look at bringing Broadband for the Rural North (B4RN) to Yealand and Silverdale – B4YS. The speed offered by B4RN is 50 times faster than that offered by British Telecom; the service fully encompasses everyone and the system has a life-span of at least 50 years. The group is looking for support from local schools and businesses etc, it has set up a facebook account and website (www.b4ys.org.uk). The AONB has already given some funding for banners and notices etc.

Police
PC Richard Barr has taken over from PC Marsh as the Community Beat Manager.

County Councillor
Unfortunately, County Councillor Alycia James has been able to attend our monthly meetings for some time now – we are in touch with the County Council about this as we are concerned about the lack of County Council presence at our meetings.

Speed Limits
A public meeting was held in November to discuss the 20/ 30mph speed limits as a result of which Members resolved to ask the police to help educate drivers in the importance of driving within the speed limits and ask Highways to extend the 30mph speed limit and simplify the changes from 20 – 30 mph (this should reduce the amount of signage).

Temporary Skatepark
We are looking into the possibility of borrowing a temporary/ mobile skate park during the school holidays from Lancaster City Council – possibly in the Silverdale School playground (as the school might be able to provide the necessary secure storage). We are also looking into hiring equipment (from a commercial outlet) for one day as a part of the Field Day event.

Train Safety
We have contacted Network Rail to express concern about the recent incident involving a car trapped on the level crossing and the frequent malfunctioning of the level crossing barriers amongst other safety issues. Mr Simon Shippard (Level Crossing Manager, Network Rail) has responded and would like to give a presentation to Members on his role within Network Rail and what they are trying to achieve.

ICT
A group of volunteers are running hourly workshops at Silverdale School until July. We are paying the school’s charge for the use of its premises for the first 11 sessions (at least); the workshops are free to users.

The Royal Hotel
Our Chairman has met with Mr Michael Holgate, the owner of The Royal regarding his plans for the building. Mr Holgate is looking to use the front part of the building (and possibly adding a conservatory) as a small public house with some garden attached and Manager’s accommodation above, with a commitment to run the pub for about 3 years; he would like to develop the pub and the houses at the same time and intends to submit revised plans to Lancaster City Council. We support the re-opening of The Royal as a pub business and would like to see the revised plans.

Tender – Public toilets
One tender was submitted for the cleaning of the public toilets and the tender for April 2014 – March 2015 has again been given to Mr Williams.

Precept
We have asked Lancaster City Council for £18,292 as our precept for 2014/15. This is slightly more than last year.

Annual Assembly
At the Assembly this month we had reports from Ms Diane Baxter (Lancaster District Manager for Libraries), Mr Craig McCoy, National Trust Ranger (Arnside and Silverdale), Ms Lucy Barron, AONB Manager (Arnside and Silverdale), Councillor Ribbons (Playground Management Committee) and our Chairman. Accounts of all the reports can be found in the minutes of the meeting on the website.
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Please find contact details below for our Councillors:
Chairman Terry Bond 01524 702693
Vice Chairman Tony Houghton 01524 701416
Harriet Bradfield harriet.bradfield@hotmail.co.uk
Shirley Mason 01524 701162
Keith Palmer 01524 702039/ 07969658547
Nigel Ribbons 07710044053
Paul Williams 01524 701513
Angela Woods 01524 701968
The Clerk, Denise Challenor, can be contacted on: 01524 761824 or clerk.silverdale@gmail.com

2013/11

November Newsletter

Hollins Lane and Slackwood Lane
In our last newsletter we mentioned that motorists were experiencing problems with visibility when emerging from Hollins Lane onto Slackwood Lane. We are pleased to report that the overgrowth at the junction has been cut back and the number of posters etc on the railings has been removed (or relocated) so the sight-lines are now clear.

Traffic Issues
Inconsiderate parking remains a problem in the village and the public should be aware that this can cause difficulties with access for larger vehicles – please note – Silverdale’s fire engine was replaced by a larger vehicle recently which is even harder to manoeuvre through the village than the previous one – it is really important that people bear this in mind when deciding where to park.

Christmas Tree
We have recently planted a Christmas tree in the playing field; in the past we have bought a cut tree every year but, as having a Christmas tree in the playing field has proved so popular, we decided to invest in a living tree – hopefully, this will save money in the long run!

Woodland
We have formed a sub-committee to manage the 4 areas of woodland we own (Burton Well, Bankwell, Woodwell and Burton Well Scroggs); the sub-committee will manage the woodland to ensure public safety and maintain the biological habitat.

Please find contact details below for our Councillors:
Chairman Terry Bond 01524 702693
Vice Chairman Tony Houghton 01524 701416
Harriet Bradfield harriet.bradfield@hotmail.co.uk
Shirley Mason 01524 701162
Keith Palmer 01524 702039/ 07969658547
Nigel Ribbons 07710044053
Paul Williams 01524 701513
Angela Woods 01524 701968
The Clerk, Denise Challenor, can be contacted on: 01524 761824 or clerk.silverdale@gmail.com

2013/08

August Newsletter

Exhibition of Photographs
We are helping to put on an exhibition of photographs of the AONB area in the Gaskell Hall over the weekend of 19th / 20th October –“Visions of Silverdale and Arnside AONB”. You are invited to enter yours! There are 5 categories (natural history/ wildlife, landscapes, buildings, people and village events) and there will be a special junior section (for those aged up to 11). To help get an idea of the number of photos to be displayed you are asked to submit a formal entry form – please email Terry Bond if you would like one. If you have any questions or queries contact Terry on 702693 or tgbond@hotmail.com

ICT Support
A group of volunteers are providing workshops and support to ICT users on Wednesday evenings in the Green Room of the Gaskell Hall (the library’s wi fi can be accessed here) over a 3 month pilot. We are paying for the hall hire over the pilot period.

Notice Boards
The AONB kindly donated a new notice board to the village as a part of their 40th Anniversary celebrations – we have put the notice board in the playground where it will be used primarily to display minutes of the Playground Trustees meetings. We are looking to replace the notice board on the butchers’ wall (out of parish council funds).

Hollins Lane and Slackwood Lane
Motorists are currently experiencing problems with visibility when emerging from Hollins Lane onto Slackwood Lane. This is due to the number of posters etc on the railings there and growth of vegetation. We are looking into how these problems can be solved.

Please find contact details below for our Councillors:
Chairman Terry Bond 01524 702693
Vice Chairman Tony Houghton 01524 701416
Harriet Bradfield harriet.bradfield@hotmail.co.uk
Shirley Mason 01524 701162
Keith Palmer 01524 702039/ 07969658547
Nigel Ribbons 07710044053
Paul Williams 01524 701513
Angela Woods 01524 701968
The Clerk, Denise Challenor, can be contacted on: 01524 761824 or clerk.silverdale@gmail.com

2013/05

May Newsletter

Tenders
The tender for cleaning the public toilets has been given to Mr Paul Williams; Mr Neil Pharoah (Envirocare) has the contracts for grass cutting and grounds maintenance of the playing field and Mr Stefan Laws has the tender for Parish Contractor. We look forward to working with Paul, Neil and Stefan over the next 12 months.

Annual Assembly
At the Assembly in March we had reports from PC Tony Marsh, Ms Diane Baxter (Lancaster District Manager for Libraries), Mr Alan Ferguson (National Trust), City Councillor Kath Graham and Councillor Ribbons (Playground Management Committee). The Chairman gave the annual report of the Council’s work and Mr Tony Parker (Secretary for the Furness Line Action Group) gave a talk on rail travel to and from Silverdale station –accounts of all the reports can be found in the minutes of the meeting on the website.

Annual Meeting
At our annual meeting this month Councillor Terry Bond was re-elected as Chairman and Councillor Tony Houghton as Vice-Chairman.

Skate Park
We are still looking into a site for the proposed skate park and would welcome suggestions.

Local Plan
South Lakeland District Council has suggested that a Local Plan covering the whole of the AONB area be prepared – this idea (which we support) has yet to be presented to Lancaster City Council.

Please find contact details below for our Councillors:
Chairman Terry Bond 01524 702693
Vice Chairman Tony Houghton 01524 701416
Harriet Bradfield harriet.bradfield@hotmail.co.uk
Shirley Mason 01524 701162
Keith Palmer 01524 702039/ 07969658547
Nigel Ribbons 07710044053
Paul Williams 01524 701513
Angela Woods 01524 701968
The Clerk, Denise Challenor, can be contacted on: 01524-761824, or clerk@silverdale-pc-lancs.gov.uk

2013/02

February Newsletter

Precept

We have asked Lancaster City Council for £18,043 as our precept for 2013/14 – this is less than last year.

Trees

A survey of the trees on Parish Council land was carried out recently – some trees were identified as in need of removal and some have been identified for surgery. Action will be taken to deal with the trees shortly.

Dog Waste Bags

After a successful trial supplying dog waste bags at The Lots we have decided to also provide bags at The Chase and Woodwell. We hope this will help to alleviate the problem of dog waste left on footpaths, pavements etc.

Tenders

We are currently inviting tenders for village maintenance contracts (please see ‘tenders invited’ on the website). Tenders must be submitted before 20th March and will take effect from 18th May for one year.

Skate Park

Following an approach from a group of young skateboarders, who are looking for somewhere they can skate safely in the village, we are looking into a suitable site for a skate park.

Annual Parish Assembly

This will be held on Monday, 25th March at 7.30pm in the Green Room at the Gaskell Hall. Our speaker will be Mr Tony Parker, of the Furness Line Action Group, and he will update us on Silverdale station and on the proposed changes to the rail service. Everyone is welcome!

Please find contact details below for our Councillors:
Chairman Terry Bond 01524 702693
Vice Chairman Tony Houghton 01524 701416
Harriet Bradfield harriet.bradfield@hotmail.co.uk
Shirley Mason 01524 701162
Keith Palmer 01524 702039/ 07969658547
Nigel Ribbons 07710044053
Paul Williams 01524 701513
Angela Woods 01524 701968
The Clerk, Denise Challenor, can be contacted on: 01524-761824, or clerk@silverdale-pc-lancs.gov.uk

2012/12

November Newsletter

Broadband Provision
Mr Andrew Halliwell, Assistant Project Director (Lancashire County Council), and 2 representatives from British Telecom (BT) came to our October meeting and explained that it is the UK government’s ambition for 90% of the UK to have access to superfast broadband by 2017 using public funding. The plan is subject to approval from the European Commission which is likely to be given in about a month’s time. Lancs. CC target is for 97% of households to have access – the remaining 3% are spread across the county in urban as well as rural areas; a large proportion of Silverdale will have access to 30Mbit/s per second (many times faster than at present). Silverdale will be one of the first areas to go live and the ‘roll out’ will take place in 2013. Users will be able to apply for provision from the whole range of service providers including BT. Assuming that approval is given BT will discuss the plan for implementation with residents nearer the time.

Speed Restrictions
No doubt you will have noticed the new signage indicating the 20mph and 30mph speed restrictions which are now in force. Please note – the police advise that motorists found to be exceeding the 20 mph speed limit will be given an endorsement on their driving licence and a fine – there will not be an option to attend a speed awareness course so, please, do take care and observe the speed limits!

Christmas Trees
Hopefully you will have also noticed 2 Christmas trees in the village at Bleasdale House School and in the playground and we would like to take the opportunity of this, our last newsletter of the year, to wish you all a happy and peaceful Christmas and 2013!

Please find contact details below for our Councillors:
Chairman Terry Bond 01524 702693
Vice Chairman Tony Houghton 01524 701416
Harriet Bradfield harriet.bradfield@hotmail.co.uk
Shirley Mason 01524 701162
Keith Palmer 01524 702039/ 07969658547
Nigel Ribbons 07710044053
Paul Williams 01524 701513
Angela Woods 01524 701968
The Clerk, Denise Challenor, can be contacted on: 01524-761824, or clerk@silverdale-pc-lancs.gov.uk

2012/08

August Newsletter

Dog Waste Bags

Our Chairman kindly made a wooden dispenser for dog waste bags which has been fitted at The Lots – this is a trial scheme to see if the provision of free bags encourages dog owners to clear up after their dogs. We will review the trial at our November meeting.

Public Toilets

You may have noticed that BT have removed the trees which grew alongside the drains behind the Gaskell Hall; this is because the tree roots were causing problems to the drains; Lancaster City Council have laid new drains. The cistern and flush mechanism to the gentlemen’s toilet has been replaced and a new hand-dryer has been fitted.

Faster Broadband

We have been in contact with B4RN (Broadband for the Rural North) and Lancashire County Council/ BT regarding broadband provision in Silverdale and Mr Eddie Sutton, Assistant Chief Executive of Lancashire County Council is to attend our October meeting to discuss this with us. We hope to have a similar discussion with a representative from B4RN and then hold a public meeting – please look out for more information and come along if you can!

Please find contact details below for our Councillors:

Chairman Terry Bond 01524 702693

Vice Chairman Tony Houghton 01524 701416

Harriet Bradfield harriet.bradfield@hotmail.co.uk

Shirley Mason 01524 701162

Keith Palmer 01524 702039/ 07969658547

Nigel Ribbons 07710044053

Paul Williams 01524 701513

Angela Woods 01524 701968

The Clerk, Denise Challenor, can be contacted on: 01524-761824, or clerk@silverdale-pc-lancs.gov.uk

2012/05

May Newsletter

Inconsiderate Dog Ownership
This continues to be a problem and the issue is frequently raised at meetings. Two dog wardens from Lancaster City Council came to our meeting in March and advised that they can act on information given to them (this can be given anonymously) e.g. by issuing a fixed penalty fine. The telephone numbers for reporting problems are 01524 582000/ 582935. Posters asking people to clean up after their dogs can be downloaded from the City Council website should residents wish to display one. The wardens reminded everyone that excrement can be disposed of in an ordinary litter bin or taken home and placed in a grey wheelie bin; some new litter bins have been supplied by the City Council at various locations around the village. We are speaking with the National Trust about the possibility of making a wooden dispenser for dog waste bags at The Lots – this would be a trial to see if the provision of free bags encourages dog owners to clear up after their dogs.

Tenders
The tender for cleaning the public toilets has been given to Mr Paul Williams; Mr Neil Pharoah (Envirocare) has been given the contracts for grass cutting, Parish Contractor and playground (grounds maintenance); Mr Steve Lamb continues to maintain our website. We look forward to working with Paul, Neil and Steve over the next 12 months.

Annual Assembly
At the Assembly in March we had reports from Geographic Police Inspector Vickers, Ms Diane Baxter (Lancaster District Manager for Libraries), Mr Alan Ferguson (National Trust), County Councillor Sarah Fishwick and Councillor Ribbons (Playground Management Committee). The Chairman gave the annual report of the Council’s work and Mrs Anne Burrow gave a talk on the work of the North West Ambulance Service.

Annual Meeting
At our annual meeting in May Councillor Terry Bond was re-elected as Chairman and Councillor Tony Houghton as Vice-Chairman.

Faster Broadband
We will be arranging a public meeting soon to discuss ways of enabling faster broadband provision in Silverdale – please look out for more information and come along if you can!

Please find contact details below for our Councillors:
Chairman Terry Bond 01524 702693
Vice Chairman Tony Houghton 01524 701416
Harriet Bradfield harriet.bradfield@hotmail.co.uk
Shirley Mason 01524 701162
Keith Palmer 01524 702039/ 07969658547
Nigel Ribbons 07710044053
Paul Williams 01524 701513
Angela Woods 01524 701968
The Clerk, Denise Challenor, can be contacted on: 01524-761824, or clerk@silverdale-pc-lancs.gov.uk