Introduction
Welcome to this long-overdue update from your council on what’s been happening. It is clear from the Parish Plan that good communications within our community is seen as very important. This printed newsletter is just one: the notice boards, a parish directory, the website with a calendar of events are others. All need to be improved and to this end a small committee has been formed, which will include a representative from the Parish Council. And because, as has been said, we are ‘one community split down the middle by a county boundary’ any public communication of ideas should consider Limpley Stoke. All constructive comments and contributions will be welcome.
This edition of the Bulletin includes articles by members of the Parish Council on aspects of the Council’s activities in which they are particularly involved.
Since the last Bulletin two councillors have resigned. Richard Blamey headed the Highways Committee and was the Council’s representative on the school board of governors. Ann Ross, an architect, was a valued member of the Planning Committee. Both were very considerable assets to the Council; we are very sorry to see them leave.
We are delighted to be joined by Nick Stevens and Claudia Towner. Nick is a retired solicitor and Justices’ Clerk. He will be the new governor on the School board and also on the Communications and Affordable Housing Committees. Claudia was an active member of the Getting About working group in the development of the Parish Plan and has joined the Roads & Transport Committee of the Parish Council as well as being the point of contact for Children & Youth.
The full list of councillors and their areas of interest is available here.
Hugh Delap
The Parish Plan. Making it Work.
It is early days, but the Parish Plan is beginning to bite as a number of the objectives are already being actively pursued. The new bus service to Bradford on Avon is running. Action so far has been the result, to a considerable extent, of local residents’ initiatives and this will continue to be the case. Much coming from the Plan, or ongoing and confirmed by the Plan, is on the PC’s “Get it going” and co-ordinating agenda and communication of how we progress is a top priority.
After the remarkable effort that has gone into creating the Freshford Plan, your Council are working to make sure that it is given due effect, not only in the parish, but by B&NES. In Planning matters, a useful method to this end is for the PC to make repeated reference to it in responses to consultation, but this is only one minor route to ensuring that B&NES councillors and officers, not only those involved in planning policy and control, take the Plan adequately into account in considering changes in or affecting our community. Meetings with B&NES are ongoing to this effect.
As we have been at pains to emphasise, local effort has not and cannot be confined to the parish councillors and we continue to look for help from residents, and others with a stake in Freshford, to help drive forward parts of the Plan’ s action points. Effect is obtained in direct relation to peoples’ time, skills and enthusiasm. We are most grateful to those who have come forward to such good effect already. Initiation of action and funding to support this has and will come from individual residents, groups of residents and specific interest committees, the PC, and beyond its co-ordinating role its councillors, and externally from neighbouring parishes, the local authority and government sponsored organisations.
Anyone who would like their own copy of the Parish Plan should contact Steph Jenkins, Parish Clerk, on 01225 722270 or through the Contact page on the website.
Stuart Campbell
Footpaths and Vegetation
This is the time of year, when hopefully, we can get out and about and enjoy walking the many footpaths we are so fortunate to have in our parish. It is also unfortunately a time of year when, perhaps, they need their greatest maintenance, especially, in this rather wet summer we are experiencing. I thought it might be useful to remind landowners who have a right of way across their land that it is their responsibility to make sure that any summer vegetation overhanging the footpath is cut back and that the footpath is accessible for walkers at all times. It is not however the responsibility of the owners to maintain the actual path. That is the responsibility of B&NES, who have a Rights of Way officer who visits our parish regularly. This rule also applies to hedges that adjoin a pavement. If they over hang the pavement especially at “pushchair height” they cause an obstruction and everyone is forced to walk in the road. Do let me know if you encounter any particular problems in our parish.
Mary Stanhope
Dog owners’ responsibilities
Since September 2002 all public land (i.e. pavements, grass verges, parks and open spaces) has been covered by the Dogs (Fouling of Land) Act 1996. And further dog control orders were introduced in April 2006[. (Cited as the Dog Control Orders (Prescribed Offences and Penalties, etc.) Regulations 2006).
Should a person in charge of a dog fail to clean up after the animal in public open land, including the public highway it’s an offence under the 1996 Act. Similarly, the 2006 regulations allow local authorities and parish councils to use dog control orders to deal with the main offences of failing to remove dog faeces and not keeping a dog on a lead, when the situation requires.
In recent months I have been liaising with the B&NES Dog Warden, to consider new methods for tackling dog control and fouling issues. We had received a variety of complaints, concerning various locations of the village. The Warden and I have discussed possible remedies for some of the problems and some of the measures we are thinking of implementing have already been pilot tested with success in other parishes within the Dog Warden’s jurisdiction. In the near future we will be trying one of them in Freshford.
In the mean time, should you have a complaint connected with dogs, please give me a call
Mandy Knowles
The Freshford Pound – a piece of village history
We have begun to clear the historic village Pound on Freshford Lane below the cemetery. And there are plans to arrange appropriate signage to mark its existence and significance.
As Alan Dodge says in his book Freshford, The History of a Somerset Village: in its day the Pound had a valuable role to play. With the purpose of impounding stray animals they were a feature of most villages from mediaeval times, and in particular before enclosed fields were the norm. The owner of an impounded animal would need to pay a small fee for its release from the walled enclosure. The Freshford Pound was maintained in Freshford Lane by the Lord of the Manor. The stone-walled enclosure could have been built two or three hundred years before the adjacent cemetery was established in the 1870s, and it remains to this day as a tangible link with our past.
Mandy Knowles
Affordable Housing
English Rural Housing Association (EHRA), a specialist rural housing provider, has been asked by B&NES to help develop a scheme for new affordable homes for local people in Freshford. They have taken over from the more general Housing Association, Western Challenge. The 2005 village survey identified up to a dozen households needing help with housing and wanting to stay in the village.
Together with the Housing Associations and B&NES’s housing department, the Parish Council has already undertaken a considerable amount of work to identify potential sites within the area and welcomes this initiative. But, as has been reported before, the sites have either not been for sale or the planners have had some reason to reject them. Chairman of the Council Hugh Delap said “the Freshford Parish Plan identified affordable housing as probably the most pressing need in the parish and the involvement of EHRA will hopefully provide the stimulus needed to get these houses built. Above all else we need to find a suitable site within the area and I do urge all landowners to think carefully as to whether they might be able to offer to sell land for this vital and worthwhile project. Hinton Parish Council tells us that the Housing Association buildings there have been a great success; they have always been consulted on the eligibility of potentially new tenants. We expect the same will apply here in Freshford.
Should you want to get in touch, please let me know.
Nick Stevens
The Proposed New Shop & Post Office
The PC is wholly supportive of the work being done by the dedicated team of people working with Gitte Dawson to establish a new PO and shop alongside the Village Hall. Outline Planning Permission has been granted and detailed plans are now being worked on. When the detailed planning permission is sought from B&NES the PC will hold an open consultation session before submitting their views formally
Hugh Delap
Police liaison and security
The Parish Council has an ongoing involvement with the Avon and Somerset Police. We are under the Radstock Sector. They have created five beat areas and Freshford is in Bathavon South with Peasedown. Each has a Beat Officer and there are PCSOs (Police Community Support Officers) who aim to provide visibility within the area and to communicate. There is also the community Contact Vehicle that visits Freshford regularly (see the notice board), so that residents can raise any issues with the Police
The Parish Council attends the regular Police liaison meetings for Parishes. We consider common issues and monitor those of interest to the parish.
A separate initiative by B&NES and the Police are the PACT meetings (Partners and Communities together). At three- monthly meetings the Parishes meet this committee (about eight officials) and raise any issues that are relevant to their community. These are voted on and the top three will be actioned by the panel. These meetings are not just for parish councillors: all residents are invited and the more there are the more votes there will be for the things that are important to us. The next meeting is on Monday 24th November at Hinton Charterhouse Village Hall (7 pm). Put it in your diary.
The Parish Plan identifies it is timely to review the status and relevance of the Neighbourhood Watch scheme within the village. We are investigating the service offered by B&NES and the Police, and will then need to review whether there is a case for more activity (and volunteers!) within the village.
Ray Benfield
Shared Space
The Parish Plan and the village have identified the need to consider implementing the concept of shared space for its people and vehicles. A public meeting in late 2007 was addressed by Ben Hamilton-Baillie, one of the country’s leading experts in such traffic control. He presented his proposals for Freshford which were enthusiastically received. A small team of interested parishioners, which includes myself as the Council’s representative, is now working on ideas for the important junction by the school, and also the junctions by the Church and Memorial Hall.
Ray Benfield
Freshford Mill - progress
Ypres Rose, the developers, are now underway with works on the Mill site. They are undertaking contamination testing as required by the Conditions of the permission and starting various ground works.
There are now two entrances to the site – the original site entrance and the new entrance, higher up towards Crabtree Lane. When the works are completed, the original site entrance will be closed off.
There have been several complaints from residents about construction traffic bound for the site coming through the village, rather than accessing via Westwood and Staples Hill, which is the agreed route. The PC have taken this up with Ypres Rose and also asked if they will erect temporary signs at the entrances to the village from the A36 stating that there is no access for construction traffic to the Mill through the village. The contact telephone numbers for the Contract Managers on the site are Ian Mitchell 07787 566014 and Ken Moore 07717 767749. Please contact Ken or Ian direct if you have any issues regarding working issues on the site or vehicle access.
One of the Conditions attached to the permission is that working hours are restricted to between 8am and 6pm on Mondays to Fridays and 9am and 12pm on Saturdays with no working on Sundays, Bank or Public holidays. Earlier in the summer, there was some working outside of these hours and the PC took this up with Ypres Rose. They have assured us that now there are Contract Managers located on the site, working hours will be strictly adhered to. Again, residents should contact the Contract managers direct if they are aware of any breach on these working hours.
Ypres Rose have applied to B&NES for permission to move the bat house location from next to the flood alleviation pond to now be located in the existing Building H in the part over the mill leat.
Rowena Wood
Buses: The 94 and the new 95
One of the recommendations of the Parish Plan was for the 94 bus route to be serviced with a low level access bus. The PC are pressing both B&NES and Wiltshire for this.
The new 95 route to Bradford on Avon town centre and Sainsbury’s is now in service on Tuesday mornings. The first five weeks saw 9,8,8,0,8 passengers respectively using the service. This service is being run for only six months initially on a trial basis to test passenger number viability. A bus to Bradford was a firm recommendation from the Parish Plan and over 60 residents completed the questionnaire in the PO saying they would be interested in a service. Although there was a slight majority in favour of a Thursday service, because this is Market Day, the vast majority of respondents to the questionnaire said they would be interested in the Tuesday service. So we would urge residents to take advantage of the service – at least so we can show there is take up! The PC will also make the point, in the meantime to B&NES and Wiltshire, that a Thursday service would be more popular. If you have guests staying, why not take the bus to Bradford and then walk back along the tow path to Avoncliff, have lunch at the Pub or tea rooms and then wander back to Freshford on the footpath! Copies of the bus timetable are available in the temporary PO and Doctor’s surgery. It’s an old saying, but still true: Use it or Lose it!
Rowena Wood
Freshford Station gardens – Help needed!
The Heart of Wessex Partnership has entered Freshford station gardens in the National Rail competition for community gardens – the result will be announced in September.
The PC and Friends of Freshford have joined together to take on the on-going maintenance of the gardens. Some residents have volunteered to join this maintenance group but we would really appreciate more helpers. Please contact Rowena Wood on 722100 or Richard Blamey on 720048 if you would be prepared to do a few hours work every 4 months. The gardens are such an asset to the station that we want to keep them looking good throughout the year, both for the benefit of residents and users of the Station and also those passengers passing through the line.
There has been an issue with the lighting at the Station staying on in daylight hours – the PC has taken this up with the Properties department of First Group. First Group have recently installed a second cycle rack at the station because the first one has proven to be very popular. They are also investigating the car parking situation at the Station to see what improvements could be made to increase the parking area for users of the line
Rowena Wood
Construction work at the Sewage Works
The PC have been informed by Wessex Water that they will be undertaking essential environmental improvement works at Freshford sewage treatment works between September 2008 and February 2009. Wessex will be writing to all residents in Station Road with details of the work timetable as they will need to bring construction traffic down the Road to access the Works. They have said that whilst deliveries and construction vehicles may lead to a small increase in traffic movements, they will aim to minimise disruption to the local community as much as possible.
The PC have asked that Wessex liaise with First Group to ensure that there is no reduction in car parking spaces at the Station during the works.
Any resident with concerns about this work should contact Scott Hughes of Wessex Water on 07825 120349
First Great Western will be introducing their new timetable on Sunday 7th September. The details will be posted on the notice boards, in the Post Office, the Surgery and website www.freshfordvillage.com/pages/services.php) as soon as they are available
Rowena Wood
A Pre-school in Freshford
The Freshford Village Plan identified a need for a pre-school facility in the village. A group of local parents are now beginning work to establish a community-run pre-school in the back room of Freshford Memorial Hall, with the aim of opening in September 2009. Current plans are to run the pre-school in term times and within school hours only. We aim to cater for children from three until school age, and to be eligible to accept nursery education grants.
To help the development of this project, and to give an indication of potential interest, please let me know if:
- You are interested in your child/children attending a pre-school from September 2009
- You would like to join a team of parents working to establish and manage the pre-school
- You are interested in working at a pre-school in Freshford
Please contact me through the website, or telephone 01225 723924.
Claudia Towner
Repairs to the War Memorial
The PC have worked with the Friends of Freshford to apply for a grant towards the cost of restoration works on the War Memorial. A grant has now been received towards the work from The Wolfson Foundation and English Heritage, which will partly fund the cost and the Friends of Freshford will also make a grant; but there will still be the need for a several hundred pounds to be raised locally. The PC will be making a donation from Precept and would also invite donations from residents. English Heritage will monitor that the work is done to their stringent requirements. The stone will be cleaned and replaced as necessary, the lettering will be cleaned and repaired and the finial and railings repainted. The PC have asked Williams of Bath, who will be carrying out the work, to complete the work by November in time for the Remembrance Day service. Any resident who would like to contribute to this project should contact Stephanie Jenkins on 01225 722270.
Rowena Wood