Stanhoe news
Parish Council news
Please do take a look at the draft minutes of our Parish Council meeting of 6 September. Here are just a few things you may be interested in hearing more about.
Road safety
Following the discussion concerning the lack of footpaths in the village, we had heard from the Highways team at the Borough Council with proposals and estimated costs of providing a Trod along part of the Bircham Road. The costs are significant but there are possible funding options which our local councillor, Sam Sandell, was happy to explain to us. One of these is CIL funding (Community Infrastructure Levy) – the next round of applications starts in January 2024 – and another is the Parish Partnership Fund. The next step will be to investigate exactly what is required and how much it will cost. The PC working group will report back at the next meeting. The working group will also have a look at other solutions such as permissive paths. We would be glad to hear your thoughts and ideas so please do get in touch.
We were very glad to hear that the white lines at the Bircham crossroads had been repainted and that new Give Way signs are due to be installed this month.
Playing field and playground
In my last update I mentioned that the Parish Council and the MEHM trust had a meeting in August to talk about ways of working together on village projects.
This has been followed up with discussions at both the Parish Council and MEHM meetings and it has been agreed that we will form a working group with representatives from both parties to start to formulate ideas and options for the use and maintenance of the playground and playing field. We will be launching a village-wide consultation so that everyone can have their say before decisions are made. We will, of course, keep you up to date with our progress.
Incidentally the damaged climbing frame in the play area is scheduled to be removed on the weekend of 23rd September.
Village appearance
Many thanks to our trusty volunteers who have been hard at work tidying up around the pond, cleaning the village sign and removing the broken bench at the War Memorial. It is looking so much neater. We are also considering replacing the notice boards and the litter bins which are quite scruffy. Work has started on the professional cleaning and repainting of the War Memorial and is due to be finished by the end of this month.
Parish council website
For reasons of legal compliance we need to look at having a separate website for the Parish Council, which would mean detaching it from the main village website at stanhoe.org. However, I do want to reassure everyone that stanhoe.org will remain firmly in place as a reliable source of village news, events and information. The only difference you may see is that the Parish Council pages will be reached via a link to the new website. stanhoe.org is a very valuable village asset and thanks must go to Charles Butcher who has skilfully maintained it for some years.
Next meeting
The next meeting of the Parish Council will be on Thursday 9th November at 6pm at the Village Hall.
As you know members of the public are very welcome to attend. It is always interesting to hear from our neighbours and it makes the job of the Parish Council so much easier if we know what our community wants from us. For the last two meetings we have been lucky enough to have our local borough councillor, Sam Sandell, with us and she has been able to contribute much to our discussions that we may not have been aware of. Sam has told me she is glad to be able to attend and how welcome she has been made to feel. I believe we can achieve so much for Stanhoe by working together. Please do join us if you can.
If you have any comments, questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us via the Parish Clerk at stanhoe.council@gmail.com.