Parish Council

Report from Parish Council Meeting held on 2 October 2013

If I was to sum up the flavour of this month’s Parish Council Meeting in a sentence or two then they would be:

- Contributions to society, however quietly achieved, are eventually recognized.
- Perseverance, patience and a certain amount of doggedness does win through eventually.

An Award for a Local Resident

Cliff Baxendale, after many years of quietly making a difference in Nocton with the art works that many of us take for granted and his continuing work within the community to bring a special something into our lives, has been awarded the North Kesteven Community Champions’ Award for his contribution to art.  Congratulations and thanks, Cliff!

What’s Happening

• Continuing with the arts theme, Nick Jones from Arts NK brought along the template for a proposed piece of art work that was worked on by Nocton residents a while ago, as a project to enhance the Village Hall.  A cast is to be made of the template and further discussions will be taking place to decide how best to incorporate this ‘new’ piece into our village.
• The proposed Youth Group is moving on apace.  The process of recruiting a Youth Leader (initially for a year) to be funded from the 200 Club Community Funds will begin shortly and funding for start-up costs, etc sought from other community sources.   Initially, the Group will be run by a Sub committee of the Parish Council but it is hoped that over time it will be led by the community.  It is intended that the Group will start in the New Year – watch this space for further information!
• The finger signpost for the centre of the village pointing the way to the Church, School, Village Hall, the Cricket Club and footpath to Dunston was approved and will be erected at the junction of School Road and Main Road.
• The outside of the Village Hall is to be redecorated and the fence replaced.
• The proposed refurbishment of the Village Hall will be taking its first steps by using “pro bono” assistance from at least three architects whose draft plans will be subject to consultation with residents.
• 50 new (comfortable!) chairs are to be purchased for the Village Hall.
• The cones are to be replaced with stone bollards to match the existing ones around the Green.
• The Neighbourhood Watch Scheme has started and the new signs are already in place.  A couple of incidents have already been reported – so as a community we can now begin to make Nocton even safer!  Moreover, remember to let your house insurers know – many offer a discount!
• Royal Mail has recently confirmed that the long awaited post box is going up at Nocton Park.
• Signs in Wellhead Lane warning motorists that there are people walking in the road are now in place.
• SID is helping to reduce the speed of traffic though the village - with his winning smile.
• The Dog Warden reports that there is far less dog mess on the public footpaths.
• The Nocton Parish Council Website is to be updated and made more user-friendly.
• A Welcome Pack for new residents is to be reintroduced with start up costs coming from the Nocton 200 Club Community Funds.

To close, some issues to be aware of:

If you are planning any alterations to your property – no matter how small – please pass them by a planning officer at NKDC.  This is a free service – too many retrospective planning applications have been put forward recently and NK intends to start getting tough on offenders!

Most of our libraries are in real threat of closing including the laying off some of the mobile vans.

Core Strategy and Strategic Planning may sound boring, unimportant and not something that will affect us, but despite your Parish Council making many representations on the community’s behalf against what is sees as the worst excesses of the proposals currently going through the planning process, there is a very real threat that to meet targets large developments could be imposed on what are at present green sites.

Therefore, the quote this month is:

Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.

Next Meeting Tuesday 5 November at 7.00pm                   Councillor MaryAnn Williams