Rolleston Parish Council News 2008

Rolleston-on-Dove Parish Council
News 2008

NEWSLETTER - SUMMER 2008

ANNUAL PARISH MEETING
The Annual Parish meeting was held on Monday 21st April and an update on the previous year’s activities of the Parish Council was provided by the Chairman. The Chairman’s report covered the following topics:-

Parish Council; The Parish Council saw 5 members stand down last year, and has welcomed the following people to the Parish Council:- Mr. Andy Fitton, Mr. James. Toon, Mrs. Cathy Warren, Mr. Bryan Chinn. Mr. Jamie Winstone is vice-chairman to the Parish Council. The Chairman thanked the Clerk for her continued hard work, and both the Borough Councillor and County Councillor for their help and support over the last twelve months.

Liaison: The chairman reported that the Parish Council continued to liaise with a number of local organisations including: RODSEC, VDSG, Civic Trust, John of Rolleston and Rolleston United Foundation.

Flooding; The Parish Council has continued to work throughout the year to minimise the threat of floods in the village and we have been fortunate that despite heavy rain there have been no reports of flooding to property. The parish council continue to provide sand and sand bags to those properties vulnerable to flooding.

Highways; Road safety remains a major problem for the village, issues include: Traffic Calming, Knowles Hill, Road Surfaces, Yellow Lines, and Maintenance Agreements.

Planning; The Parish Council continues to consider all planning applications. Most applications concern individual households and their immediate neighbours only.

Youth facilities; A toddler and junior play area have now been installed on the Westbury Homes Site. The Parish Council continue to be responsible for both Meadow View and Elizabeth Avenue play areas, and are looking at improvements that can be made to the sites.

Craythorne Field; The Parish Council continues to support the use of Craythorne Field Football pitches by Rolleston Football Club, and have received reports to say that the drainage is much improved.

Jinny Nature Trail; The Parish Council were successful in its fight to prevent the Jinny Nature Trail from being opened up as a Bridleway. The Parish Council agreed in principle to allow cycles to use the trail, but this has been bitterly opposed by Stretton Parish Council. A joint meeting took place between the two Parish Councils to discuss the future of the trail, but Stretton have since decided to manage their end of the trail independently from Rolleston.

Bus Shelters; The Parish Council continues to maintain bus shelters in the village. The Parish Council will need to make provision over the next few years to replace some of the existing shelters which are reaching the end of their useful lifespan.

Village Police Service; The Parish Council has maintained a good relationship with our community policeman P.C. Lear who is responsible for Rolleston and a much wider area. The Parish Council continues to make representations to senior levels of the police service where structural problems lead to inadequacies in our local policing. Since the loss of PCSO Millington, the Parish Council have been unsuccessful in obtaining a new PCSO for the village. The Parish Council now pays for the room hire in order to NHW meetings to take place.

Footpaths; The Parish Council once again completed an annual walk of the public footpaths in Rolleston last summer and arranged for a programme of repairs to stiles and signposts to be implemented.

Village Clean Up day; is co-ordinated annually by the Parish Council and two took place in 2007.

Litter cleaner; The Parish Council lost the services of the litter cleaner in late 2007 and due to the overlapping of contracts, the glass collector’s employment has now been ceased. The litter and glass collection is now incorporated in the Environmental Officers contract.

Mowing: The Parish Council reviewed both the Mowing & Environmental officers’ contracts in late 2007/2008 and both contracts have been awarded once again to Mr. Phil Gould.

Conservation Area Appraisal; This document has now been passed by the full council at ESBC. The absence of a Borough Councils Conservation Officer since April 1st 2006 has detracted from the Parish Councils ability to deal with conservation issues in the village. The Parish council continue to pressure ESBC to make adequate provisions to deal with Conservation issues.

Brook Hollows; In previous years the Parish Council has supported a Borough Council proposal for a “Friends of Brook Hollows” organisation. Unfortunately the Borough Council have not been able to implement this at present due to staff shortages.

Precept; The activities of the Parish Council are made possible by the precept charged to Council tax payers. As always this remains a tiny part of the total council tax bill. This year’s precept has been set at £43,450.00 which is a 10% increase on the previous year.

Code of Conduct; As required by government legislation Rolleston on Dove Parish Council has adopted a code of conduct which has been signed by all members of the council. All parish councillors completed declarations of interests as required by law.

The Chairman concluded her report by advising the meeting that the Parish Council are dealing with many issues on behalf of the Parish and look forward to continued success with them over the coming year and thanked all Parish Councillors for their support over the year. Reports were also made by the following organisations:- Mr. John Morris, Borough Councillor, Mr. Tom Martin for RODSEC, Mr. John Underhill for Village Design Statement Group, Mr. Roger Gawthorpe for Rolleston Civic Trust and Rev. Ian Whitehead for St. Marys Church. A copy of any of these reports is available on request.

THE CROFT – VILLAGE GREEN
The application to register The Croft as a village green has now been completed and submitted to Staffordshire County Council (the registration authority). The Parish Council would like to convey it’s thanks to everyone who took the time to submit the evidence questionnaire.

ANNUAL AUDIT FOR YEAR ENDING 31ST MARCH 2008
An internal audit has now taken place for the Parish Councils accounts for the year ending 31st March 2008. The Annual return form has now been forwarded to the Audit Commission for the External Auditors completion.

PARISH COUNCIL CLERK REPORTS & MINUTES
Copies of the Clerks Reports, Agendas and Minutes can be downloaded from the village website: http://www.rolleston.org.uk/parishc/docs/index.htm.

ANNUAL PARISH FOOTPATH WALKS
This year’s Annual Footpath Walks are to take place on Tuesday 3rd and Tuesday 10th June, departing from outside the Spread Eagle Public House at 7.00pm. A map of the various footpath walks is also available free of charge from Starbucks News.

CLARENCE
CLARENCE is the Customer Lighting and Roads Enquiry Centre for Staffordshire County Council and takes reports for highways defects and street lighting faults throughout the County. Issues can be reported by telephone on 0800 232323 or via email Clarence@staffordshire.gov.uk

NEWSLETTER - SPRING 2008

ANNUAL FOOTPATH WALKS
This year’s Annual Footpath Walks will take place on the evenings of Tuesday 3rd and Tuesday 10th June, commencing at 7pm, from outside the Spread Eagle. All of the public footpaths are walked over the two sessions and anyone is welcome to attend.

ANNUAL PARISH MEETING
This year’s Annual Parish Meeting will take place on Monday 21st April, commencing at 7.30pm in the Methodist Chapel Schoolrooms. This meeting is an opportunity to hear of the achievements and progress made by the Parish Council in 2007, along with those of the other Village organisations, including, the Civic Trust, Village Design Statement Group (VDSG), RODSEC and St. Marys Church. Reports are also made by the Borough Councillor and County Councillor.

VILLAGE CLEAN UP DAY
This year’s Village Clean up Day will take place on Saturday 10th May, commencing at 9.30am. Two village clean up’s took place in 2007, both of which proved to be a great success. Any help is greatly appreciated. Remember your wellies!

FRIENDS OF ROLLESTON OPEN SPACES
The Parish Council are currently looking at the feasibility of setting up a “Friends of Rolleston Open Spaces” group to look after the general maintenance of areas such as Craythorne Woods and the Jinny Nature Trail as well as heading up any future projects for these areas and applying for grants towards future works. In addition, Burton Conservation Volunteers carry out “work days” each year within the village and always welcome new volunteers. If you are interested in the “Friends of Rolleston Open Spaces” group or would like to join Burton Conservation Volunteers on any of their forthcoming work days, then please contact the Clerk.

YOUTH REPRESENTATIVE
The Parish Council still has two vacancies for the role of Youth Representatives. If you are between 16-18 years of age, in full time education and a resident of Rolleston why not join us. The Youth Representative input is greatly valued. If you are interested and want more information then please contact the Parish Clerk on any of the contact details at the end of this newsletter.

FLOODING
We have been fortunate that despite heavy rain at times during the past year there have been no reports to flooding of property. Sandbags continue to be provided by the Borough Council (although they are under no obligation to do so) and thanks are due to Mr. John Westwood for continuing to allow storage on his property. Once the threat of floods has subsided, please return your sandbags to the storage area for future use. The Sand needs to be emptied out of the bags, as they deteriorate very quickly. The bags are much more effective if they are filled on an “as required” basis.

THE CROFT – VILLAGE GREEN
The Parish Council has decided to register The Croft as a Village Green to comply with the Commons Registration Act 2006. The Croft has been defined and used as a Public area for at least 30 years, and this registration will protect and maintain the area for public use.

The process involves registration with Staffordshire County Council, (The registration Authority), and whilst the Parish Council can provide evidence of use as an open space with public access, it would be appreciated if village organisations and individuals could help by completing a form stating their own knowledge of use, e.g. fetes etc., and even walking on the land, in order to assist the Parish Council’s application.

If you are willing to assist in the application by completing a short questionnaire on your knowledge of the use of “The Croft”, please contact the Clerk for a form. We hope that you will be willing to help – it is important that this land is protected from any future commercial interests.

KNOWLES HILL SPEEDING ISSUES
The Parish Council has continued to press the County Council with regards to several ongoing issues within the village, including the speeding concerns around Knowles Hill. The County Council have recently responded as follows:-

“The percentile speeds taken previously do not show a noticeable speed issue on this bend and it is believed that the safety measures previously undertaken improve the situation, by making the bends more visible. I intend to reapply the surfacing to the existing rumble strips in the spring (temperature and moisture prevent it being done now)”. In addition, they have agreed to place a Mobile SID Signs (Speed Indication Devices) at this location. The SID Signs will record speed and volume date over a period of 2-3 weeks and then the County Council will analyse the results.

DOG FOULING
Dog Fouling is a subject that disgusts most residents, dog owners and none dog owners alike. Yet unfortunately is an issue that needs to be raised once again, following a recent increase in the amount of faeces on the footway. The Parish council would like to urge the small minority of irresponsible dog owners to clear up after their dog. It is an offence not to clear up after your dog and the Parish Council have now asked East Staffordshire Borough Council Enforcements Department to intervene.

COMMUNITY TRANSPORT INITIATIVE
The Parish Council is aware of the lack of an effective 'bus service to Queen's Hospital, and have unsuccessfully tried to persuade the 'bus companies to provide a service. We are exploring the possibility of a regular service to be provided as a Community Transport initiative, which could be "ad-hoc", or run on a timetable. Before we go any further, it is necessary to establish the likely demand, so we have asked Hatton, Tutbury and Anslow Parish Councils, (where there are similar difficulties) for their views on the possibility of a joint scheme to serve a wider area. Would anyone who is interested in the future use of this project, or could offer assistance, please contact Heidi Light, Clerk of the Council on any of the contact details listed.

PARISH COUNCIL CLERK REPORTS & MINUTES
Copies of the Clerks Reports, Agendas and Minutes can be downloaded from the village website: www.rolleston.org.uk.

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Last updated: 1 June 2008