Rolleston Parish Council News 2003

This year saw construction beginning on the Westbury Homes development – a talking point on numerous occasions over the last twelve months, I'm sure you will agree. Wanting to preserve the unique character of Rolleston, the Parish Council fought very hard against both this development and the Home Farm development, almost winning on the College site.

It is time now to accept the College development and welcome the new Rollestonians, many of whom are just settling in and preparing to spend their first Christmas in the village. When my wife and I moved into the village more than 30 years ago the overwhelming thing that 'sold' Rolleston to us was not just its outstanding beauty but also the friendliness of everyone in the village. Let us now extend this friendship to the residents of the Westbury Homes site; I'm sure they will have much to bring to our community.

I would like to wish everyone a happy Christmas and a prosperous and peaceful New Year, and reassure you in the coming year that the whole of the Parish Council will continue to work hard and fight where necessary for the benefit of the whole village.

USEFUL CONTACT NUMBERS
The Borough Council’s ‘Litter Hotline’ is: 0800 269098

Residents can use this number to report not just litter but leaves on pavement and dog fouling on pavements.

Residents can use this number to report broken street lights, potholes, damaged pavements, blocked drains overgrowth of trees that block out street lights etc.

The contact at Derbyshire Airfield is Martin Jones. He will be able to help with any concerns over low flying aircraft. If residents wish to report any low flying aircraft then they must do so as soon as the aircraft has been seen – this will enable Derbyshire Airfield to follow up your concerns.

JINNY NATURE TRAIL
The Parish Council has in the past taken the stand that the Jinny Nature Trail was a nature trail and not a cycleway. However, since the results from the Parish Plan questionnaire were finalised the Parish Council have agreed to enquire into this facility.

Over the last few months the Parish Council has been regularly in contact with Sustrans (National Cycle Network), discussing the project of a cycle path along the Jinny Nature Trail. Not all questions have been satisfactorily answered at present. There has been a recent site meeting with the Parish Council, Sustrans and the County Council that has helped.

The Parish Council agreed at their last meeting that once all relevant information has been received a public consultation meeting would be called in order for residents of the village to hear what is involved

YOUTH PROJECTS
As previously reported the Parish Council has recently set up a Youth Grant. The Youth Grant is there to help support other organisations with their youth projects or the grant could help anyone wishing to set up facilities for the youth of Rolleston.

Youth Grant Application forms have been sent out to all existing village groups. If anyone is interested in further information then please contact the Parish Clerk.

PARISH PLAN
The final draft of the Parish Plan was accepted at the October Parish Council meeting. Members wish to once again recognise the hard work and dedication shown by all who were involved with the questionnaire and subsequent Village Appraisal.

The Parish Council would also like to take this opportunity in thanking all the Rollestonian deliverers who, without complaint, took on the task of circulating all the documents throughout the village.

FLOOD WARDENS
The village is fortunate to have five volunteers to act as Flood Wardens. There are still some vulnerable areas that are not covered by Flood Wardens; they are: Chapel Lane, School Lane, Beacon Road and Alderbrook Close

All the ‘flood affected’ houses should have now received a flood survey. The survey has been compiled in order to ascertain who needs help and who can give help in times of flooding. If you haven’t received a flood survey and your home has been flooded in the past, then please contact the Parish Clerk.

If there are any residents who are willing to help and become a Flood Warden then please contact the Parish Clerk.

A fresh supply of sand and bags has been delivered to the Brook House Hotel. Residents affected by flooding can obtain their supplies from the car park at the rear of the hotel. The Parish Council would like to thank Mr. Westwood for once again allowing the sand and bags to be stored on his property.

VISIT OF FATHER CHRISTMAS
Once again Father Christmas will be touring the village on his sleigh with members of Burton Abbey Round Table who will be making a house-to-house collection.

PUBLIC MEETING – DRAFT PARISH PLAN
A public meeting will be held on Monday 15th September in the Methodist Chapel, commencing at 7.30pm. Enclosed with the Autumn edition of the Rollestonian you should have received a copy of the draft Parish Plan prepared by the Parish Council. The public meeting has been called to discuss this draft. The Parish Council will prepare following the public meeting a Parish Plan. This is one of the most important documents this village has produced. Your views and opinions are very much wanted on the draft preferably at the public meeting. If any resident has any comments to make and cannot attend the meeting then please put your comments in writing to the Parish Office as soon as possible.

OVERGROWN HEDGES
These are still causing problems - Members of the Parish Council are constantly pressed by residents to report on problems being experienced by pedestrians due to hedges which overhang the footway. If your hedge is causing such a problem, could you please attend to it? It would save the Clerk the embarrassment of having to write to ask you to cut it back.

WESTBURY HOMES DEVELOPMENT
The Parish Council has become increasingly concerned with some of the views being expressed by residents as to what the Parish Council’s position was when the planning application for the Forest Site was received.

The Parish Council is an official consultee on all planning applications that are put forward from the village. However, the Borough Council is the actual Planning Authority. The College development and the development on the Grey House site in School Lane are two recent examples of the Borough Council appearing to ignore all the representations that were made against them.

The College development could not have received more attention. The Parish Council’s office is over flowing with correspondence written in an attempt to stop it happening. No stone was left unturned. Influential people took up our fight including Janet Dean MP, Maggie Punyer (Prospective Conservative Candidate) and Alex Fox (now Leader of the Borough Council). The Parish Council also used the services of a Planning Consultant.

Two appeals were made to Government Departments to get the plan ‘called in’ which would have meant that the decision would have been taken out of the hands of the Borough Council. The first appeal was made to Rt. Hon. David Blunkett MP, Education Minister, who was pressed to have the education needs of the area fully assessed and the second was made to Rt. Hon. John Prescott, Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for the Environment. This appeal was made following an article in the Burton Mail which indicated that the Technical College had talked with Borough Council representatives about building a new sports complex at Shobnall Fields from the sale of the Rolleston site. The Parish Council considered that this could be seen as a vested interest in the development getting the go-ahead and could not see that the application would have a fair hearing.

Both appeals failed and the rest is history. The plans went through on the casting vote of the Chairman of the Planning Applications Committee.

The Parish Council will continue to fight to control the effects that the Westbury Estate is having on the village and ensure that all planning conditions are adhered to.

The fight is not over yet. Who knows what the next stage of the Borough Council’s Local Plan will include? Residents should rest assured that behind the scenes there are members fighting to keep the village as it is and to maintain what we have inherited as a result of efforts made by previous Parish Councils.

YOUTH PROJECTS
The Parish Council has been looking into provision for the youth for some time. Residents may recall that the Parish Council engaged two Youth Workers last year who conducted a three-month survey on what the youth of the village want. One of the suggestions put forward from the survey was for a youth shelter. In the last edition of the Rollestonian it was reported that following strong opposition the youth shelter project was put on hold for six months.

Since then the Parish Council has had this issue on the Agenda constantly. Following the last Parish Council meeting one of the members put forward the idea of a Youth Grant. The idea of the youth grant would be to help to support other organisations with their youth projects or the grant could help anyone wishing to set up any facilities for the youth.

At this stage the Parish Council is still finalising the detail of the grant but if any resident is interested at this stage then please contact the Clerk with your ideas.

AUDIT
The annual return for the financial year ending 31st March 2003 has been approved at the July Parish Council meeting and will now be forwarded to the Audit Commission.

VILLAGE ‘CLEAN UP DAY’
On Saturday 28th June a successful ‘clean up’ day was held. At one time more than twenty-five volunteer were working away in the village. Many thanks are owed to all the help from volunteers especially the WI, Civic Trust, members of RODSEC and the Walking Bus. Apologies are owed to the parents of all ‘smelly and sodden’ children who made it their mission to clean the brook!!

FLOOD WARDENS
Mr. Blackshaw, on behalf of the Parish Council, has successfully enlisted four residents who have kindly volunteered to become Flood Wardens.

At the time of writing a meeting is being organised with the Flood Wardens and the Environment Agency to put the project into action.

The Parish Council would like to take this opportunity to thank the four residents for volunteering to become Flood Wardens.

FOOTPATH WALKS
Three evenings were spent walking the Public Footpaths in the village. Only minor faults have been found and will be repaired as soon as possible.

ELECTIONS
As a result of the first Postal Election the following residents were elected to the Parish Council for a term of four years:-

Ken Bradley 812290
John Hayes 813813
Wally Hodson Walker 813935
John Morris 814181
Andy Starbuck 813112
Paul Taylor 812118
Beryl Toon 813535
Marek Trelinski 813816
Vicki Trelinska 813816
John Westwood 814188
Jamie Winstone 812830

ANNUAL PARISH MEETING
The Annual Parish Council Meeting was held on Monday, 12th May 2003. At this Meeting, John Morris was elected Chairman with Wally Hodson Walker as Vice-Chairman of the Parish Council.

At the previous meeting, thanks were expressed to Audrey Gordon, David Blackshaw and Rodney Paul who were not seeking re-election. Audrey had served as a Councillor for sixteen years, David for eight and Rodney for four.

The Parish Council welcomes three new members John Hayes, Andy Starbuck and Jamie Winstone

POLICE
The Community Police Unit would like to ask village residents if they would consider becoming a ‘Special’. They are looking to recruit residents to work in Rolleston to help with local issues. If there is anyone interested then please contact Burton Police Station or the Clerk.

FLOOD WARDENS
The Environment Agency is introducing a new scheme for the flood -affected areas. A Flood Warden would be responsible for gathering information on houses/gardens that were affected by flooding and would help assist those residents. The Wardens would be responsible for passing on information to the Parish Council.

Two residents have already kindly volunteered but the Parish Council is looking for a further two more, preferably from the Station Road and Walford Road area. If you are interested please contact the Clerk.

BULKY WASTE COLLECTION
The date for the ‘Bulky Waste’ collection is Saturday 30th August 2003. The skip will be located behind the Spread Eagle Island from 9am-2pm.

JINNY NATURE TRAIL
With the help of a £2,000 grant from the WASP’s initiative, a new disabled access is to be installed at the entrance to the Jinny Trail.

Another project presently in progress is the provision of an Interpretation Board.

YOUTH SHELTER
Professional advice had suggested to the Parish Council that a Youth Shelter would be a help in providing a meeting point for the youngsters in the village. The overwhelming opposition to placing such a structure on Elizabeth Avenue Playing Field has caused the Parish Council to put the project on hold for six months.

LYCH GATE
At the May meeting, approval was finally given to go ahead with the renovation of the fretwork in the Lych Gate, the village War Memorial.

CRAYTHORNE WOOD
A quotation has been accepted for work on the trees in Meadow View and Craythorne Wood. This will involve staking, removal of some tubes and pruning of the bigger trees.

FOOTPATH WALKS
The following dates were agreed for this year’s footpath walks:-

Tuesday 10th June, Tuesday 1st July and Tuesday 22nd July. All dates meeting at 6.30pm outside the Spread Eagle.

DOG BYELAWS
Dog Byelaws have now been approved and the new regulations will make it an offence not to clean up dog faeces on all Parish Council owned land with the exception of Craythorne Wood. This is also the only location where dogs can be allowed off the lead.

PARISH PLAN
One of the first major projects for the new Parish Council to consider is the Parish Plan which will set out a programme for the next few years.

SEVERN TRENT’S REPORT
Severn Trent gave a report to the April Parish Council meeting. They have carried out a series of CCTV inspections on Burnside, Anslow Lane and Station Road. These inspections have revealed various problems some of which can be dealt with in the near future. The problems found included debris blocking a section of the pipe on Station Road, the manhole covers on Burnside needs repairing, surcharge plates require replacing on Anslow Lane and there is a blocked inlet pipe on Burnside.

The sewer in these areas requires re-aligning. This project will have to be submitted for consideration for funding in 2005.

Candidate	Party	Votes
Starbuck	Conservative	1009
Trelinski	Lib Dem	994
Hodson-Walker	Lib Dem	877
Trelinska	Lib Dem	851
Winstone	Lib Dem	836
Morris	Lib Dem	802
Taylor	Lib Dem	777
Hayes	Conservative	680
Bradley	Conservative	652
Westwood	Conservative	622
Toon	Conservative	609
Not Elected
Belsey	Conservative	569
Redgrave	Conservative	561

The Annual Parish Meeting will be held in the Methodist Schoolroom, Chapel Lane on Monday, 7th April 2003 commencing at 7.30 pm. At the Parish Meeting, reports are given by the Chairman of the Parish Council, Borough and County Councillors, John of Rolleston School Governor, Civic Trust, Village Design Statement Group and RODSEC.

As far as local government is concerned, Parish Meetings are unique events; at no other level does the elector have the opportunity of putting forward propositions on local affairs. The number of electors taking advantage of this opportunity varies greatly from year to year. In a year where there are contentious issues, it is usual to have a good attendance. Currently there are many important issues affecting the village which you may want to discuss - Westbury Homes site, Flooding etc.

The Parish Council Elections will take place on Thursday, 1st May and for the first time will be decided by postal voting. Everyone of voting age will receive a postal vote.

At the January meeting of the Parish Council, a budget of £49,775 was set for the next financial year with a precept totalling £30,000 no increase from the previous year.

DESIGNATION ORDER TO BAN THE CONSUMPTION OF ALCOHOL ON ELIZABETH AVENUE PLAYING FIELD

The Parish Council has been successful with the application for a Designation Order on Elizabeth Avenue Playing Fields. This Order will come into effect from 7th March 2003.

The Parish Council has received several complaints about this issue. The festive season seems to be increasing each year. Concern has been expressed from local farmers who dread the disturbance fireworks bring to their cattle. Members of the Parish Council would like to appeal to all residents asking for some consideration to be shown with the use of fireworks particularly if your home is close to livestock.

The Parish Council have recently adopted a 'Model Publication Scheme'. As a public authority the Parish Council is required to adopt and maintain a publication scheme. The Parish Council's Agenda has been on Rolleston Website for sometime but now you can access the Parish Council's Minutes and Clerk's Report.

Members of the Parish Council are being constantly pressed by residents to report on problems being experienced by pedestrians and car users due to hedges which overhang the footway and roads. If your hedge is causing such a problem, could you please attend to it? It would save the Clerk the embarrassment of having to write to ask you to cut it back.

The following names have been put forward to the Borough Council as suggestions for the streets signs on the new estate:-

Forest School, Needwood, Wraight, Robinson, Jinny, Netherfield, Bakewell, Sophia, Ealand, Sherholt, Yoxall, Byrkley and Garrett

The Parish Council has been in contact with the police after receiving several complaints about the parking of heavy-duty lorries on Station Road around the entrance to the building site. It has been reported that up to seven lorries have been parking on the pavements and road between 7am and 8am. The Parish Council has also contacted Westbury Homes regarding this asking them for their co-operation in dealing with this problem.

The Parish Council is also aware of the condition of the road surface being covered with mud that is being left by the contractors and has contacted the Borough Council and the County Council about this.

Three quotations were necessary in order to obtain a grant for the repair of the fretwork. The Parish Council has had great difficulty in obtain three quotations but English Heritage has given permission to apply for a grant with just two quotations. A Church faculty is now required and once this has been obtained a full application can be submitted.

The Parish Council is lobbying Severn Trent to address the problem of sewage bubbling up through the manhole covers on Burnside and Anslow Lane. A joint site meeting between Severn Trent, Borough Council, County Council, Environment Agency and the Parish Council is at present being organised to discuss the recent flooding in the village. The issue of the sewage problem on Burnside and Anslow Lane will be one of the items brought up at this meeting.

It was considered appropriate that the donations received for Alan’s Memorial would be spent on providing kissing gates on the footpath from Beacon Road to Craythorne Field. There have been problems moving this project forward and the family are concerned that this project may be delayed even further.

It came to the attention of Alan's family that St.Mary's Church is enquiring into the renovation of the Church's clock face. Alan's wife, Maureen, thought that this project was in keeping with what Alan would have wanted. Alan supported both the Methodist Chapel and St.Mary's Church for over 30 years and it was felt by the family that some contribution should be put forward to the Church in memory of Alan. The money collected through public subscription has therefore been offered to St. Mary's Church. The Kissing Gates project has presently been put on hold.