Parish Chairman’s Notes November 2023
The Regulation 16 Consultation on our Neighbourhood Plan ended on October 17th. At the time of writing the Capel Neighbourhood Plan Working Party await the comments, so that a response can be made. We also await the arrangements for the next stage which will be the appointment of an Independent Examiner to consider the plan. We hope to be able to give a fuller update next month.
The clerk has been consulting residents via an online question questionnaire about the proposed portable Speed Indicator Device (SID) scheme, along Five Oak Green Road. The three proposed sites have now been approved by KCC, subject to community approval (hence the questionnaire). The project costing around £9000 will be funded by the parish council.
The Planning and Advice Team at KCC has analysed the results of the recent speed and CCTV surveys assessing the suitability of Five Oak Green Road for a zebra crossing, unfortunately they have said it is not suitable. However, KCC has since advised that they would be happy to consider installing a system of traffic calming in the form of chicanes/ kerb buildouts which would not only assist with crossing the road, as they could be built out to the centre line with a dropped kerb and tactile paving but would also reduce traffic speeds. KCC has advised the scheme would cost between £50,000 and £100,000 and the Parish Council asked them to apply for Local Transport Plan funding to finance this. If this is not successful, the money would have to come through developer contributions from any building within the parish. [We note the scheme is very similar to one the Parish Council put forward to KCC in 2018!]
Other items discussed at the parish council on 25th September:
It was agreed to replace the parish council website that has been in place since 2017. It is difficult to find items on the current website and the visuals and search features are outdated. It was agreed that the Clerk should seek some quotes for both a new website and for the site to be administered externally to ensure all the information conforms with the website accessibility guidelines.
To purchase a North Ridge Excelsior-G Cast Iron Semi Rotary Hand Pump and hoses for the allotments and arrange for it to be installed by BN Pumps in the Spring.
Cllrs Patterson, Saunders, and the Clerk met with the plumber to discuss the upgrade to the public toilets financed by the UKSPF grant from TWBC. It is expected that the work will be carried out at the end of October. We expect new doors and work to the path outside the toilets to be completed at around the same time.
Hugh Patterson