2012/02

February Newsletter

Precept
We have asked Lancaster City Council for £19,889 as our precept for 2012/13 – this is the same as last year.

Bankwell
As Bankwell is seriously overgrown we have instructed a contractor to clear it – it is hoped that this will be done mid-February – the AONB have advised that this month is one of the better times of year to deal with the overgrowth.

Annual Parish Assembly
This will be held on Monday, 19th March at 7.30pm in the Green Room at the Gaskell Hall. Our speaker this year will be Ms Anne Burrow, a volunteer with the North West Air Ambulance. Everyone is welcome!

Tenders
We are currently inviting tenders for the cleaning of the toilets (details can be found under ‘work available’ on the website). Tenders must be submitted before 20th February. We will shortly be advertising for the village maintenance contracts – these will be put on the notice board and website.

20 mph Zone
Lancashire County Council are to introduce a 20 mph limit on certain roads in Silverdale – we have been in discussion with them about this and 2 public meetings have been held. Full details will be available soon.

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

2011/11

November Newsletter

Overgrown Vegetation
The 1980 Highways Act has provisions for dealing with vegetation that impedes passage on a public highway – hedges or other vegetation should be cut back to the boundary and for a clear height of 2.2 metres. We have had a number of instances of overgrown vegetation brought to our attention of late and should remind residents of the problems that can be caused for drivers and/or pedestrians – if residents would take care of any such overgrowth we would be grateful.

Cold Callers
The police have advised of a number of phishing telephone calls made in the Carnforth area. The most common involve a company who offer to access computers and remove viruses on behalf of Microsoft and a company offering an unbelievable discount on winter heating costs. The police would like to remind residents to be wary of cold callers and to simply hang up. The Telephone Preference Service is a free service that can reduce the number of sales calls received – tel: 0845 070 0707 to register your phone line.

Drainage to Public Toilets
Since taking over the care of the public toilets about 18 months ago there have been four blockages in the sewers. As a result we have had a camera search and discovered that the conifer trees on the land belonging to BT’s Telephone Exchange in Gaskell Close are causing a problem; we are in contact with Lancaster City Council’s in an attempt to resolve the problem.

Dog Fouling
There have been a number of reports of dog fouling recently. Villagers are urged to clear up after their dogs.

Christmas Trees
We are arranging for 2 Christmas trees in the village – one in the grounds of Bleasdale House School and one in the playground – so look out for some Christmas cheer before too long! On which note, as this is our last newsletter for 2011, we would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

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

2011/08

August Newsletter

Library
We have been advised that Lancashire County Council will carry out works to the library building to make it fit for use before the winter (unfortunately, this does mean that the library will be closed at some point to enable the works to be carried out). We have also been told that the long term plan is to find new premises and the County Council is looking into the possibility of using part of the telephone exchange building.

Camping and Caravan Sites
We believe that decisions regarding planning controls for camping and caravan sites should be made in accordance with AONB policies, having regard to the environment and the local economy, and we will continue to adhere to make comments in sympathy with these. We should point out that whilst we may make comments and objections with regard to planning decisions they have no more standing than those of individuals when considered by Lancaster City Council.

Bicentenary Celebrations
We continue to celebrate Silverdale’s bicentenary and at 7.30pm on Saturday, 12th November in the Gaskell Hall a talk will be given by a local historian on “Silverdale’s War Dead”.

We have had the “Beating of the Bounds” banner (made by Ms Barbara Winkfield) framed and it is currently on display in the Gaskell Hall.

A spin-off from the celebrations is that the National Trust is to produce a circular history trail leaflet which will include old photographs from various viewpoints; Terry Bond has been involved with this and it is hoped that the leaflet will be ready in September.

Queen’s Jubilee
Whilst 2011 sees Silverdale’s bicentenary, 2012 will be the year of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and we would welcome your ideas as to how our village can celebrate this!

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

2011/05

May Newsletter

Tenders
The following tenders have been awarded in the last quarter:
Cleaning of the public toilets – Mr Paul Williams (from 1st April)
Grass cutting (St. John’s Avenue and Woodwell) – Mr Neil Pharaoh, Envirocare (from 18th May)
Parish Contractor and playground maintenance – Mr Michael Knight (from 18th May)
Maintenance of the website – Mr Steve Lamb (from 1st June)

Annual Parish 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 of the National Trust and County and District Councillor Sarah Fishwick. The Chairman gave the annual report of the Council’s work and Mr Paul Calland made a presentation on the work of the Bay Search and Rescue Service.

Public Toilets
At our meeting in May we reviewed the expenditure to the public toilets – the total expenditure for 2010/11 was £6,778 (of which £5,913 had been received from Lancaster City Council, who paid £4,450 towards running costs, covered the cost of the electrical works and refunded part of the rates). Improvements had been carried out to the toilets during the year and it is anticipated that the expenditure won’t be as high this year, although there is an ongoing problem with the drains – we are liaising with Lancaster City Council, British Telecom and other users to try and resolve this.

Bicentenary Celebrations
Silverdale is 200 years old this year and the celebrations continue! The next event, ‘Beating the Bounds’, will take place on 21st May. Meet at 9.30am at Jenny Brown’s Point. Why not join the public party on this historic walk around the boundary of Silverdale village? Wear suitable clothing, bring a packed lunch and drinks. Return to Gaskell Hall at approx. 4pm for refreshments. Phone 701977 for more info.

New Members
Last but, certainly, not least! We welcome 4 new Members onto the Council – Harriet Bradfield, Keith Palmer, Nigel Ribbons and Angela Woods join Councillors Terry Bond, Tony Houghton, Shirley Mason and Paul Williams who were elected unopposed on 5th May. Councillor Keith Palmer was also elected unopposed on 5th May whereas Councillors Bradfield, Ribbons and Woods were co-opted at our meeting on 9th May.

We would like to say a big thank you to Arthur Graves, Eve Holden, Anne McNaughton and John Taylor who retired from the Council this month – they made an invaluable contribution and we are very grateful for all their hard work.

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

2011/02

February Newsletter

Bicentenary Celebrations
Silverdale is 200 years old this year and the celebrations have begun! Shortly every household will receive a flyer detailing events in the meantime – to whet your appetite – spring events include Maypole dancing on 7th May, a 1940s dance night (Gaskell Hall), ‘Beating the Bounds’ on 21st May, a guided walk around the Golf Course on 11th June (evening) and a weekend of Open Gardens on 11th and 12th June.

Public Toilets
Works have been carried out to ensure that the electrics meet current regulations and some of the sanitary ware and tiling is in the process of being replaced.

Tenders
…are currently invited for the cleaning of the public toilets and village maintenance – full details are on the ‘Work available/ tenders invited’ part of our website.

Annual Parish Assembly
This will be held on Tuesday, 22nd March at 7.30pm in the Green Room at the Gaskell Hall. Guest speaker to be announced! Everyone is welcome.

Arnside Viaduct Closure
The viaduct will be closed from 26th March for 16 weeks and a temporary timetable will be introduced – information should be available shortly in the local shops etc and First TransPennine Express is planning to hold ‘Meet the Manager’ information sessions on Tuesday, 8th March from 1100 – 1345 on Grange station and from 1400 – 1545 on Arnside station.

Elections
Local elections will be held on Thursday, 5th May. If you would like to stand please contact Ms Daphne Snelson, Elections Manager, Lancaster City Council (tel: 01524 582058) and ask for a nomination paper (to be signed by a proposer and seconder) and consent to nomination form.

If you would like to contact any of our Councillors, please feel free to telephone them. Their names and telephone numbers (all preceded by 01524) are:
Chairman Terry Bond 702693
Vice Chairman Tony Houghton 701416
Arthur Graves 701284
Eve Holden 701665
Shirley Mason 701162
Anne McNaughton 701538
John Taylor 701059
Paul Williams 701513
Or contact the Clerk, Denise Challenor, on: 01524-761824, or clerk@silverdale-pc-lancs.gov.uk

2010/11

November Newsletter

Public Toilets
We have appointed a plumber (Mr James Langhorn) to refurbish the toilets – work will start this month.

Railings
The painting of various stretches of railings around the village continues – hopefully you will have noticed the vast improvement!

Budget
We have set our budget for next year and will be asking Lancaster City Council for a precept of £19,889 – approximately 2% more than last year – we have tried to keep our costs down and have allowed £1,000 towards the village bicentenary celebrations next year.

Dates for your Diary!
We have booked the Silverdale Institute for our 2011 meetings – the dates are as follows:
Thursday 6th January
Monday 7th February
Monday 7th March
Monday 4th April
Monday 9th May (the local elections will be held on Thursday, 5th May – more on this in our next newsletter!)
Monday 6th June
Monday 4th July
Monday 1st August
Monday 5th September
Monday 3rd October
Monday 7th November
Monday 5th December

If you would like to contact any of our Councillors, please feel free to telephone them. Their names and telephone numbers (all preceded by 01524) are:
Chairman Terry Bond 702693
Vice Chairman Tony Houghton 701416
Arthur Graves 701284
Eve Holden 701665
Shirley Mason 701162
Anne McNaughton 701538
John Taylor 701059
Paul Williams 701513
Or contact the Clerk, Denise Challenor, on: 01524-761824, or clerk@silverdale-pc-lancs.gov.uk

2010/08

August Newsletter

Meet Your Councillors!
In June we decided to trial a Members’ surgery – if you would prefer to raise something with us face to face, rather than phoning or writing to us, you can call in to the Institute from 7.15 – 7.30pm before our monthly meetings (the first Monday of the month) for an informal chat. Of course you are also very welcome to stay for the meeting if you wish!

Wild Camping
We have been concerned about wild camping on the shore over the summer months and are hoping to meet with the RSPB (who own the land involved) soon to discuss how best to deal with any issues e.g. litter, bonfires etc.

Signage
Last year we agreed to pay for the cost of supplying and installing some signage to warn of the dangers of tides and quick sands and we are pleased to say that Lancaster City Council is in the process of fitting the signs (Arnside Parish Council is paying half of the cost of the sign on Cove Road, near Holgates Caravan Park).

If you would like to contact any of our Councillors, please feel free to telephone them. Their names and telephone numbers (all preceded by 01524) are:
Chairman Terry Bond 702693
Vice Chairman Tony Houghton 701416
Arthur Graves 701284
Eve Holden 701665
Shirley Mason 701162
Anne McNaughton 701538
John Taylor 701059
Paul Williams 701513
Or contact the Clerk, Denise Challenor, on: 01524-761824, or clerk@silverdale-pc-lancs.gov.uk

2010/05

May Newsletter

Annual Parish Assembly
At the Assembly in March the Police reported that the detection rate for reported crimes in the Carnforth area (including Silverdale) has risen from 13% (in 2008/09) to 25% in 2009/10; Diane Baxter (Lancaster City Council) reported on news from the library and told us about the plans for various improvements to the library building; Alan Ferguson from the National Trust and Lucy Barron from the AONB gave a report and our Chairman, Terry Bond, presented his annual report.

Parish Contractor etc
In March tenders were submitted for the maintenance of the playground, grass cutting and for the work of the Parish Contractor. The contracts were awarded to Mr Paul Holgate who also had the contract last year.

Public Toilets
We took over the management of the toilets on 1st April – we will review whether or not we should continue with this in a year’s time. We are about to sign Lancaster City Council’s lease which states that they will contribute over £4,000 a year towards the running costs. The City Council have arranged for the Probation Service to paint the toilets. We accepted Mr Paul Williams’ tender to clean and check the toilets daily and are preparing a schedule of repairs which will be put out to tender.

Railings
You may have noticed that work has started on the painting of the railings – this is being carried out by the Probation Service.

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

Village Bicentenary
The celebratory weekend will be 15th – 17th July 2011 when there will be a history trail; lots of ideas have been put forward about how we can best celebrate the bicentenary in 2011 including Maypole dancing, followed by a 1940s dance night (May 7th). St. John’s Church will celebrate its 125th anniversary and the Silverdale Hotel its 175th anniversary next year too. Terry Bond is keeping everyone up-to-date with plans via the parish magazine. If anyone has any ideas, or wants to help in any way, please contact Terry on 702693 or tgbond@hotmail.com.

If you would like to contact any of our Councillors, please feel free to telephone them. Their names and telephone numbers (all preceded by 01524) are:
Chairman Terry Bond 702693
Vice Chairman Tony Houghton 701416
Arthur Graves 701284
Eve Holden 701665
Shirley Mason 701162
Anne McNaughton 701538
John Taylor 701059
Paul Williams 701513
Or contact the Clerk, Denise Challenor, on: 01524-761824, or clerk@silverdale-pc-lancs.gov.uk

2010/02

February 2010 Newsletter

Shoreline Management Plan
At our meeting in January we discussed the Environment Agency’s Shoreline Management Plan. The proposed plan can be found on www.mycoastline.org. The Agency proposes that there be ‘no active intervention’ for the area of coastline from Bolton-le-Sands caravan park through Heald Brow to Ashmeadow in Arnside. We have raised a number of concerns with the Environment Agency based on what would happen should sea levels rise by one metre. Local residents wishing to respond to the plan have until 30th March to send their comments to the Environment Agency.

Planning
Last month Mr David Hall, Development Control Manager for the Lancaster City Council Planning Service, came to talk to us. He explained his role, the guidelines etc referred to when a planning application is considered and the ‘tests’ for deciding when enforcement action should be taken if a development does not comply with planning regulations. When deciding whether or not to grant planning permission the planners aim to balance the right of the owner to develop and the impact on neighbours. Issues raised which are nor related to planning, e.g. property value or loss of view, cannot be taken into account although loss of amenity can.

Speed Indicator Display Sign (SPiD)
Last year we mentioned that we were hoping that a SPiD would be deployed at Stankelt Road to help deter speeding drivers, unfortunately, the initial bid to fund this was unsuccessful and other funding sources are being considered.

Parking
We are still very concerned about the problem of inconsiderate parking in the village and, if it continues, we will seek advice on introducing double yellow lines at problem spots in the village.

Public Toilets
Lancaster City Council has decided to close most of the public toilets in rural areas from the end of March, including those in Silverdale. We will discuss whether or not we should take over the provision of the toilets at our meeting in March. Lancaster City Council has offered to pay some of the revenue costs of providing toilets for the first year (nothing would be paid towards the capital costs).

Annual Parish Assembly
Our Annual Parish Assembly will be held in the Green Room at the Gaskell Hall on Monday, 22nd March at 7.30pm. Ms Lucy Barron, AONB Manager for Arnside and Silverdale, will be our guest speaker. Everyone is welcome.

If you would like to contact any of our Councillors, please feel free to telephone them. Their names and telephone numbers (all preceded by 01524) are:
Chairman Terry Bond 702693
Vice Chairman Tony Houghton 701416
Arthur Graves 701284
Eve Holden 701665
Shirley Mason 701162
Anne McNaughton 701538
John Taylor 701059
Paul Williams 701513
Or contact the Clerk, Denise Challenor, on: 01524-761824, or clerk@silverdale-pc-lancs.gov.uk

2009/11

November Newsletter

War Memorial Garden
We are looking at carrying out various improvements to the Garden over the next few years – possibly planting a yew hedge, removing the gate from the entrance and replacing with a ramp on one side and steps on the other, carrying out some levelling of the land, taking back the stone edging to create more space and increasing the seating. We are hoping that some of the works will take place before the Remembrance Day service.

New Councillor
We give a warm welcome to Anne McNaughton who we have agreed to co-opt on to the Council, Anne will take up office once she has signed her Acceptance of Office and will replace Dorothy Kitson. Dorothy represented the Council on the Playground Committee and Councillor Williams has taken over this role.

Seats
You may have noticed that 2 seats on the footpath from the Cove to the Lots have been vandalized, these are due to be repaired by the Parish Contractor using recycled plastic slats which we feel will be less prone to vandalism.

Warning Signs
At our October meeting we agreed to pay for 6 signs to be installed at various access points to the coast warning of the danger of quicksand, deep channels and fast moving tides with an additional sign on Cove Road, near Holgates Caravan Park in Arnside Parish Council’s area and to be part-funded by them.

200 years of Silverdale
In 1811 Parliament passed an ‘Act for Inclosing & Embanking Lands within the townships of Warton with Lindeth, and Silverdale, in the parish of Warton in the county palatine of Lancaster’. Two surveyors, William Miller & Richard Mount, gave notice that they would “perambulate and view the boundaries of the commons and waste lands” in Silverdale on 17th July 1811 commencing at Slackwood Barn @ 10.00am. A meeting was also to be held on the previous day for all those with any rights to the commons to present themselves and prove their case. In August a map was published indicating the names and siting of roads in the village. Those deemed to be injured or aggrieved were requested to state their case at a meeting on 24th September at the home of one James Kellet. (Our thanks to Barry Ayre for this information.}

This is the start of our village as we know it today and we intend celebrating the 200th anniversary in 2011. To date we have held 2 open meetings to discuss ideas about events and we will be discussing arrangements for financing the events at the November meeting of the Parish Council.

If you feel the need, or desire, to contact any of our Councillors, please feel free to telephone any of them. Their names and telephone numbers (all preceded by 01524) are:
Chairman Terry Bond 702693
Vice Chairman Tony Houghton 701416
Arthur Graves 701284
Eve Holden 701665
Shirley Mason 701162
John Taylor 701059
Paul Williams 701513
Or the Clerk, Denise Challenor, on: 01524-761824, or clerk@silverdale-pc-lancs.gov.uk