2006/11

Newsletter 01.11.06.All is quiet

Now that the Children’s Playground is an everyday fact of Silverdale life, and the amount of traffic has receded for the winter months, Members of your Council can breathe again.

Mind you, we still keep nagging Lancaster City Council about some sort of design statement for our village centre, and we have also added that they will need to take a close look at the provision of (a) affordable housing, and (b) off-street parking in the Village centre. We’ll just get Christmas over, and then we’ll start in earnest.

The White Paper

Ruth Kelly is credited with the recent publication of the White Paper entitled “Strong and Prosperous Communities”. A lot has been written about this document, much of it biassed by the interests of the authority concerned. Given time we will see whether this has a significant impact on the principal councils, but, in the meantime, what is it likely to do for the people of Silverdale?

Well, your Council put a great deal of effort into achieving the award of Quality status, but has received virtually no reward for doing so. If the White Paper proposals pass through Parliament and onto the statute books, the most exciting provision will be for Quality councils to start exercising the powers of “well-being”, currently reserved for principal councils, in the Local Government Act 2000. In a nutshell, this means that your Council will be entitled to do anything which is thought to be beneficial to the Parish, and will not be constrained by the need to identify a direct benefit for the residents only.

Your Councillors

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

Peter Roberts

702315

Vice Chairman

Tony Houghton

701416

John Burrow

702784

John Eden

701678

Susan Fletcher

702400

Bernard Fryer

701734

Arthur Graves

701284

Ralph Henderson

701946

Or, the Clerk, Peter Challenor, on:

01524-761824, or clerk@silverdale-pc-lancs.gov.uk