The Annual Parish Meeting was held in the Village Hall Lounge last night, with eight members of the public attending.
Chaired by Cllr Mark Rowley, and Minuted by the Parish Clerk Anita Curtis, this was not a Parish Council meeting, but one where residents’ concerns could be aired and given more time than the half an hour Public Session at each Parish Council meeting.
This report then, is not an official one, but comments from one member of the public. There may be comments I misheard, or didn’t hear at all, and if this is the case, then I would welcome more comments and corrections from those who attended.
Five issues were raised and these were:
The White Lion
Yellow Lines
Motorcycles
20mph signs
Raw sewage
White Lion. A number of rumours had been circulating about the future use of this public house since it had been bought by auction last year. Cllr Rowley was able to confirm that Corby Borough Council, on occasion, had been renting the B&B facilities for the last nine months, on a temporary basis, to provide homes for temporarily homeless or displaced persons. However, he understood that when the renovation work was completed, the building would be opened as a pub again with B&B accommodation as before. Kettering Borough Council are not using it as it doesn’t comply with their criteria.
Yellow Lines. Concern was raised at the length of time since agreement was reached to get these lines in place and their actual appearance. Cllr Rowley explained that whilst all the official contracts were in place, KBC had a large number of sites to ‘yellow-line’ throughout the Borough, and they would all be done at the same time, which was both efficient and cost effective. The image here, shows the official notice (on the lamp post at the bottom of Wood Street, which explains the poor
image) and the number of sites to be yellow-lined. As can be seen, this includes the Newton Road, and Grafton Road/Wood Street sites. It was understood that the Parish Council have been pressing for action as soon as possible.
Motorcycles. A number of unlicensed and uninsured motorcycles had been seen around the village, mainly at weekends. This is of concern to the police and they are under investigation. The police have requested that if any are seen then a call should be made to tel: 101, noting the date, time and location. It would be advantageous to ask for a crime number when calling, as the greater the number of reports, the sooner that the police can take further action. It was also said that the motorcycles are brought in a van, so if anyone sees them being unloaded, try to get a description of the van, including the registration number. The police also said that taking photographs of them as they drove (badly) past would not be recommended. Nothing was said about taking pictures from the safety of your house.
2omph Signage. There was a general discussion about this signage as some thought that the speeding through the village was partly caused by the inability to see the signs as they were too high. Cllr Rowley responded by saying this concern had been passed to the correct department, who had sent out an official who confirmed that they were at the correct height and conformed to the criteria laid out for them. Other speed reducing efforts were mentioned, but the subject was rather unsatisfactorily concluded with the additional comment that the police radar guns were not calibrated to record anything under 30mph.
Raw Sewage in the River Ise. There have been reports of this seen in the brook, particularly around the ford and below the bridge. One resident had been reporting this to Anglian Water, however, the proper authority is Environmental Health. It was commented that the sewage pump just upriver from the ford is an old one and when a piece of the equipment gets stuck, which it does occasionally, rain or no rain, then to stop the sewage from backing up the (too) small pipes, it legally allows the overflow into the river. It was commented that to enlarge the sewage pipes in the village would entail a very high cost, but perhaps the Parish Council should be talking to KBC’s Environmental Health to replace the old pumping station. From documents we’ve seen here at the website, it would appear that the current sewage pipes, north of the river, were laid at the time that the Council houses were built in the early 1950’s and just look at how many houses have been built there since. This can’t be proved, so perhaps it’s time a serious study was done on this subject. I know, not easy when everything is underground, but not impossible, just expensive. Remember, I did say this was not an official report.
The meeting closed at around 7pm and was followed by the Parish Council’s Annual Meeting and this was followed by the Parish Council’s regular monthly meeting. Minutes for these two meetings will appear after they have been ratified at the June meeting.
Pam Hopkins
PS The image of the River Ise was taken when it was in flood with rainwater, just because the water colour is brown, doesn’t mean . . .