Singleton Parish Council

TRAFFIC is reaching ‘horrific’ speeds through the village, councillors heard at their latest meeting, on Thursday, 26th April 2012.

In her report our new local PC, Lyndsey Hooper, said the ‘Golden River’ cables which had been put temporarily in the village had recorded 3,367 vehicles travelling at average speeds of 31.1 mph northbound and 33.1 mph southbound. But the highest speeds recorded were 74.4 mph northbound one night at 11pm, and 65.8 mph southbound at 9am one Sunday.

“Speeds like these are horrific,” said Cllr Maxine Chew. “It makes me shudder to think what might happen.”

PC Hooper suspected the lower-than-expected average speed may in part have been due to the more frequent speed-traps and more frequent policing, and while these measures were helping it was obvious that when police were absent some drivers just upped their speed again. She agreed with councillors that a traffic calming meaure like a chicane would make a big difference. So, too, would individual letters or emails of complaint from residents: the police needed solid evidence to fully support Singleton’s bid for chicanes, and the more detailed the evidence the better.

It’s personal experiences and views that count most, said Cllr Chew. “People power really is power, these days. Petitions are no good as they count as just one response. Send letters or email to me or our chairman, Cllr Bob Gallagher and we’ll collate them and pass them on to the police.” She had had one experience she would be mentioning - a white van, driven at speed along Mains Lane, had been unable to negotiate the bend near her home and crashed into her hedge, but by the time her husband had sprinted to the road the van had reversed and driven off.

As part of the their traffic measures, the police were continuing to stop drivers who were using mobile phones or driving without seat-belts, added PC Hooper, and traffic issues would continue to be a PACT priority. Young farmers would be given a talk, too.

Another part of her report covered crime. There had been three crimes in March, she said. One was an altercation at the petrol station: an argument resulted in some damage to goods but the perpetrator was traced through his car registration. The other two crimes were burglaries: in separate incidents two houses had been broken into through a back window, jewellery stolen from one, and the goods stolen from the other traced to an industrial estate.

Rubbish is a problem

THREE residents from Barnfield Manor attended our meeting to complain about the rubbish dumped in the paddock leading down from the Manor to Lodge Lane. But there is little the parish council can do about it, said Cllr Maxine Chew, in the chair in Cllr Bob Gallagher’s absence. She said that before we closed off the layby it was costing Fylde Borough Council (FBC) £500 a week to keep the layby clear. Cllr Chris Bailey had seen two men removing some of it, but they were there only to assess the situation and reckoned a digger was needed.

The problem, said Cllr Chew, is that it is private land and while FBC can remove rubbish it needs to be with the owner’s permission and there would have to be charges made to the owner. FBC is currently attempting to find the owner, whose whereabouts is currently unknown. But even FBC would have to pay for dumping it.

One resident said it wasn’t fair that residents had to pay £60 for dumping rubbish. Councillors pointed out that this charge was only for commercial vehicles, although it was also for privately- rented vans. However, a resident in a car could dump a car-full and trailer-full for free three times in one day. Cllr Mick Smith added that more than a year ago he had been able to get a free day permit from FBS for taking a van-full to the tip, but he didn’t know if that were still possible.

PLEASE return village hall questionnaires

RESPONSE to the questionnaire issued by the Village Hall Committee had already been good, reaching about 50% said Cllr Chew. But more replies were needed - a return of as near 100 percent as is possible is what was needed to re-inforce the committee’s Big Lottery bid.

Open minds about fracking

THERE’S no evidence that Cuadrilla’s fracking will result in a drop in houses prices, said Cllr Chew, and residents needn’t be alarmed by the geophysical survey which Cuadrilla has nearly completed. While some residents had been frightened by the noise of one of the seismic tests, it was no worse than pile-driving and she had heard that any drilling that might happen in the future would not be as noisy as that.

Parish councillors wanted to keep open minds about the issue until there was more evidence to go on. Cllrs Mick Smith and Chris Bailey are due to visit the firm’s drilling, when it happens next.

Cllr Chew is meeting Cuadrilla executives to discuss the situation and to complain about several issues, including some incidents where the men laying survey cables had been less than friendly towards residents. She had heard that Cuadrilla was following up the Gazette’s unfavourable report by inviting a Gazette reporter to visit their operation.

A ‘must visit’ event if you care about countryside

IF YOU WANT to protect Singleton from housing development, you should attend FBC’s consultation over its new housing plan. That’s on 29th May (3-7pm) at FBC HQ. There will also be a chance to air these issues at a Fylde Plan consultation meeting, to be held at the Miller Arms’ car-park on 15th June (1-3pm).

Write to your MP

WORRIED about unwanted housing encroaching into the parish? So too is MP Mark Menzies, councillors heard. The MP has issued a plain language interpretation of new planning laws in the Locality Bill, and wants residents’ letters and email to support his campaign to save countryside from developers.

No cold-calling

PC Hooper asked us if Singleton village should become a ‘No cold-calling’ area as the house stickers provided by the scheme help the vulnerable in particular and deter criminals. Mains Lane is already part of the scheme. We agreed she should contact trading standards.

Annual meeting

OUR next meeting, on Thursday 24th May 2012, begins at 7.30pm, as usual, in the church vestry, and will be preceded by our annual parish meeting, starting at 7pm. All are welcome to either or both meetings.

PARISH councillors are actively helping Singleton Village Hall Committee to get through the third and last round of its bid for lottery funds - and this Easter weekend we will be among those distributing the questionnaires vital to provide evidence that the hall is needed locally.

Thanks to work spearheaded by borough and parish councillor Maxine Chew, the committee successfully won through rounds one and two last year. But the committee has been advised that some of its ‘evidence’, which was from the days we created the Parish Plan, needs to be updated. Basically, do residents still have the same views? Do residents want the hall to do the same things? Or have ideas changed?

“We need everyone’s help,” said Maxine. “We know the hall is needed, and that parishioners don’t want to see it go the way of so many others, but we need to provide evidence of this to the Big Lottery Fund. So please fill in your questionnaires as fully as you can.”

Big Lottery organisers have suggested the committee should also focus on teenagers and the over-55s.

Built in 1924, the hall has been a focus of parish life ever since, but its use has reduced in recent years because of the building’s condition. The committee now needs to raise £275,000 to upgrade the building, which is in a Conservation Area, to provide the right venue for today’s activities.

“There’s nothing else quite like it in this part of the world,” said Maxine. “It’s got lots of character and is in a pretty setting, right next to the bowling green. Plus it’s got a sizeable car-park, ideal for modern functions.”

The new committee features Cllr Mick Smith as its chairman, and Cllrs Maxine Chew and Bob Gallagher as committee members, but also retains some members of the earlier committee - Janet Pawson is vice-chair, former parish councillor Sallyanne Davies-Ward is secretary, and Yvonne Coop remains treasurer. Also on the committee are Stacey Barber, Matthew Lee, and Sue Robertson.

THE five caravans which invaded the Lodge Lane layby last week  have now moved on.

They arrived on Wednesday of last week after, it is believed, being removed from the B&Q site, and were gone by Friday night, 30th March 2012, following the serving of a county council notice to quit and  frequent police visits, including the CCTV van which has been used a few times in the parish recently..

Our vice-chairman, Cllr Maxine Chew, was told of the illegal parking as quickly as it happened. She called police, and then rang the county council to arrange a 48-hour notice to quit as well as asking for bollards to be erected on the ‘open’ end, which was mounted by the invading vehicles.

Police reported at the time: “The area in which they were situated remains as classed as a highway, therefore, Mr Gregson from Lancashire County Council, in company with a Police Sergeant, has been to Lodge Lane. An appropriate Notice to Leave has been served, instructing the travellers to leave the area by Monday, which they expressed was their intention.”

Maxine is to continue pressing the county for bollards to close off the area the travellers’ caravans were able to traverse. Ironically, the laybywe closed only last year at great expense was aimed at deterring unwelcome visitors of a different kind and still had another phase to complete, namely filling in part with soil to prevent caravans entering…

LOCAL POLICE have provided “tremendous” support for our plans to slow down the traffic speeding through Singleton.

At our last meeting, on Thursday, 22nd March 2012, a police inspector told councillors he had sat outside outside the Miller Arms for three hours to see what the traffic was like there - and it “made my hair stand on end.”

Frequent speed traps had had little overall effect, he said, although a large number of motorists had been cautioned or fined for speeding, using mobile phones while driving, or not using seatbelts. Singleton Village was still seen as a swift bypass of the A585, and only tougher measures would cure that.

He had spoken to police traffic engineers, and arranged to meet county road engineers with a view to backing our call for traffic calming. But speed bumps were counter-productive, he said, as they create a lot of noise for the residents living near them. Far more effective were chicanes, like those at Woodplumpton, which had proved very successful.

Council chairman Cllr Bob Gallagher asked if the chicanes would include bollards as farm contractors’ vehicles currently rode over anything in their way, apparently not noticing any pavements they mounted. The inspector replied that each chicane had three tough bollards.

Police would continue their efforts, he added. Recently there had been longer spells of speed traps in the village, police cars now regularly drove through Singleton on their rounds, and our local PCSO visited Singleton daily for traffic issues, including preventing thoughtless parents parking on the zig-zag lines outside the school.

He noted that some ‘Golden River’ cables had been placed in the parish to record traffic speeds and vehicle types and he would be studying the results with interest as it could help our case.

Councillors agreed the police support was “tremendous” and “much appreciated.” But police support wasn’t everything, said the inspector. Residents would also have to back the need for traffic calming - and the best way to do that was to send individual letters to the county council rather than a single petition. We agreed to encourage our residents to do that, and will be approaching residents for their help - canvassing especially for residents’ feelings, fears, and stories of near-misses. The inspector also suggested shared funding would help our lobbying, so the council is to investigate the possibility.

Regular crime

ASIDE from the theft of lead from the church, there had been relatively little crime in the past month, the inspector reported. There was a domestic incident in Lodge Lane, a racist taunt at the service station, and a car had been mysteriously torched in Grange Lane.

Play area

COUNCILLORS were concerned at the damage caused by the contractors installing the new play equipment and will be writing to the firm concerned, showing photos of the tracks left and the inadequately-levelled ground around the new equipment.

New village hall committee

COUNCILLORS are delighted that a new village hall committee has been formed to complete the village’s application for lottery funding for the refurbishment of the hall. The application has been approved at the second of the three stages it has to complete. We’ll have more about this in our blog later, and the committee is setting up its own blog. Watch this space for more details.

Other issues

• - Thanks to the letters distributed by police, dustbin lorries have been able to reverse into Miller Crescent. But there was still one delivery van causing problems by bad parking and its driver will be fined if this continues.
• - Police will be leading Singleton Gala this year.
• - Several residents have wondered what the strange blue-tipped sticks appearing around the parish were. We’ve discovered they’re part of a geophysical survey being conducted for Cuadrilla.

Next meetings

Our next meeting is on Thursday, 26th April 2012, in the church vestry as usual, and starting at 7.30pm as usual. All are welcome.  Our AGM will be on Thursday, 24th May 2012, starting at 7pm and preceding the May council meeting, which starts at 7.30pm. All are welcome to attend those, too.

THE BIG QUESTION on all our lips at the most recent parish council meeting was whether the white van incident last year had anything to do with the theft of roofing lead and tiles from Singleton’s church last weekend?

You probably already know that St.Anne’s Church suffered damage as well as the theft and had to be waterproofed while insurance issues were resolved and the PCC, as it is rumoured, seeks to install a new kind of alarm with a flashing light and a verbal warning to deter thieves.

You may remember that last year we had a poor police response to residents’ fears that the occupants of two white vans outside the church one night were casing the joint for a potential theft.

Last weekend, however, the police response to an actual theft was incredibly quick and impressive, said Cllr Chris Bailey, with an immediate heavy presence once the theft was reported,  followed by house-to-house enquiries and leaving a CCTV van regularly outside in case the thieves returned while the scaffolding was still up and repair work continues.

However, the white vans of last year were not in the area this time, said PCSO Andy Rigby. But their people might have been here, in another vehicle, said Cllr Chris Bailey.

PCSO Rigby attended our meeting, on Thursday, 23rd February 2012, to report on PACT meetings as well as recent crime. In fact crime was down in January, he said, from six incidents last year to just two this year:

• - A caravan was broken into at the Windy Harbour Caravan Park, but nothing was stolen;
• - The office at Singleton Service Station was broken into and property stolen.

Police priorities

PCSO Rigby said last month’s PACT priorities were to concentrate on speeding through the village and cyclists riding without lights. This month’s priorities are the grass damage caused by the weekly bin lorry collections due to cars parked badly at Miller Crescent, and also to reduce the thoughtless parking of some parents taking their children to Singleton Primary School. “Some mothers seem to regard the zig-zags as just somewhere else to drop off their children,” said Cllr Maxine Chew.

THE next PACT meeting is on Tuesday, 6th March, at Elswick, starting at 6pm. After that it’s Tuesday, 3rd April, in Singleton and starting at 11am, following requests by Cllr Maxine Chew, Cllr Chris Bailey, and some local residents.

Parking in Miller Crescent

PCSO Rigby is to distribute parish council letters outlining what action may be taken if the parking doesn’t improve. Options could include double-yellow lines around the whole of the Crescent, fines for obstruction, or creating a roadside area where residents should leave their bins for collection by bin lorries which would then have no need to enter the Crescent.

Three-Tier Forum

THE first meeting of this new body, consisting of representatives from Lancashire County Council, Fylde Borough Council, and a single representative for all the Fylde parish councils, will be held on 12th April. The wish-list we’re submitting for consideration at the meeting includes clearing blocked roadside gulleys, improving road markings, filling in potholes and resurfacing.

 Next meetings

WE meet again on Thursday, 22nd March and Thursday, 26th April, in the church vestry as usual, and starting at 7.30pm as usual. All are welcome, especially as we have an ‘open forum’ session when members of the public may air their views and concerns.

SINGLETON Parish Council is starting a campaign to get some decent broadband in the parish.

At the moment residents in The Village are lucky to get half to one megabit - if they can connect at all - and some have been without broadband for months. Cllr Mick Smith is a case in point - he had had no broadband for 27 weeks, and although he was eventually able to get a weak and very variable service, he lost even that between Christmas and the New Year, he told councillors at our meeting on Thursday, 26th January 2012.

Contributing to our list of complaints was local resident  John Ashcroft, who said the poor and absent broadband had had a serious impact on his family, which would normally rely heavily on the Internet for banking, shopping, and email contact.  His children had suffered, too, because they had been unable to do their university research without visiting relatives who had a usable connection.

We were luicky to have Singleton School governor and IT specialist Garry Rayner at the meeting, for it was he who helped our earlier complaints to be sent to BT via MP Mark Menzies, even if BT’s reply was misinformed as it quoted broadband figures for another Singleton in the UK!

Most of the problems were due to the length of cable from the Poulton exchange, he told councillors. BT expects Singleton to get broadband at a slow 1.5mbps, even if many residents - especially in The Village - don’t get anywhere near that. How ‘good’ your connection is depends on the provider, with Orange and TalkTalk being the worst. Better providers are BT (bt.com), Be (bethere.co.uk) and 02 (broadband.02.uk).

The poor level of broadband we’re getting it not acceptable, he added, but the Government’s target of a 2mbps minimum in rural areas for 90% of the population by 2015 would probably not apply to Singleton as BT had no plans to upgrade the Poulton exchange to its ‘Infinity’ service, based on the high broadband speeds available with optic fibre cabling.

The only thing we could do was to persuade BT to upgrade to optic fibre sooner rather than later, Garry said. As a result the council is to distribute flyers asking residents to make complaints which the parish council and Garry Rayner can collate and send to MP Mark Menzies, who has been so helpful on this issue because he is keen to see better broadband throughout rural Fylde.

We’re distributing flyers via the InFocus magazine, by hand around The Village and in other ways, as well as informing people by word-of-mouth. Please respond by telling us of your broadband experiences and complaints.

Tree “could have killed someone”

John Ashcroft told the council that the 75ft high beech tree which crashed down outside his drive in Miller Crescent during the mid-December gales could easily have killed someone - and there could be more old or diseased trees potentially putting people at risk, especially schoolchildren.

“It’s just bad woodland management,” he told councillors.

“What really concerns me,” he said in an email to Singleton Trust’s estates office and copied to Cllr Maxine Chew, “is that during the run-up to Christmas, Church Road was used by literally hundreds of children from the school as they made their way to St.Anne’s Church: should the tree have come down then I can only imagine the consequences.
 
“This road is also used as a commuter route twice a day as well as a drop-off point for parents bringing their children to the school.

“Looking at the wood (Puzzle Wood) during the gales I am even more fearful that the wet ground, poor drainage and the condition of the trees themselves may encourage even more trees to come down. Consequently, I would hope that you will be able to investigate the situation described above and reassure me and my neighbours that the woodland is being managed in a renewable and safe manner.”

We agreed to ask Fylde Borough Council’s tree preservation officer to visit Singleton to audit roadside trees which may be a risk.

Prisoners help

Talking about Puzzle Wood… We’re sending a ‘thankyou’ letter to another Miller Crescent resident, Dave Kay, for all his work on upgrading the wood. Recently he finished the footpaths with the help of four prisoners from Kirkham Open Prison. Dave, too, is concerned about trees, especially as one in Puzzle Wood is about to fall down.

Motorists watch out!

OVER the next two months police are to target motorists driving while using mobile phones or not wearing seatbelts as well as those speeding through the parish. Speed traps will be more frequent than ever before, and will stay in the parish for full shifts, not just the odd few hours. Insp Keith Ogle is also helping us to progress calming measures, such as chicanes or a mini-roundabout.

Sad news

We were saddened by the death of George Loftus, especially as he had been a parish councillor for eight years, and will be writing to his wife to express our sorrow.

Houses on the garage site

We have not been offically informed of the plans to build two five-bed detached homes on the site of Singleton Service Station and are hoping the plans are substantially the same as the original scheme, which we had approved. More details at our next meeting.

Next meeting

Thursday, 23rd February, at the church vestry, as usual, and starting at 7.30pm, as usual. All are welcome - and we have an Open Forum session when you can air your views and raise questions.

SINGLETON parish councillors Bob Gallagher (chairman) and Maxine Chew (vice-chair) met senior Fylde Borough Council executives at Maxine’s home recently and were delighted by how helpful they proved, she said at our most recent meeting, on Thursday, 15th December 2011.

The FBC executives they met were Allan Oldfield, Chief Executive, and Clare Platt, Director of Community Services. With them was supervisor Stephen Howard. The executives said they were unaware that the street-cleaning and litter-picking was not being done to contract and have provided full schedules of the work they promise will go ahead.

Parking at Miller Crescent

Grass verges cropped up again in the meeting, following complaints from residents about Fylde’s refuse collection lorry mounting the grass at Miller Crescent and leaving track marks. The problem, said FBC, is that cars block the lorry’s route - yet the lorry has precedence.

Cllr Gallagher suggested that the council should help fund a car-parking area in the Crescent and ask residents to park carefully when the lorry was due. Cllr Chris Bailey thinks a practical solution would be to have a central pick-up point close to the road so the lorry does not have to enter the Crescent. Such a scheme works well at Barnfield Manor, he added.

It’s not United Utilities that’s at fault!

For years we’ve been under the impression that United Utilities owned the fire station and was responsible for letting it fall into a state of disrepair not in keeping with a listed building. But we have been corrected: it’s not UU at all! United Utilities has informed us it sold the sub-station in 2007 to Electricity North West, which is responsible for the maintence and upkeep of all its assets. Sorry, UU.

We have been told that any complaints regarding ENW assets should be directed to Electricity North West Customer Relations, at PO Box 4375, Manchester M61 0ET. We will be contacting ENW.

New bobby for the parish

Police Inspector Keith Ogle tells us that Singleton will have a new Community Beat Manager from early February. She is PC Hooper. Insp Ogle assures us PC Hooper will not be reglecting Singleton in favour of Staining and Elswick.

Watch out for cyclists in the dark!

Maybe one issue PC Hooper could tackle is cyclists riding on pavements or without lights. As luck would have it, all the councillors had had very recent experiences of nearly having accidents with cyclists because the cyclists were either wearing black, or riding on pavements, or riding without lights in the dark, or doing all three. We’ve also had complaints from residents about the issue.

Christmas tree

Koi Pool is once again sponsoring a Christmas tree for The Village. But, as luck would have it, the firm had no big trees in stock this year and is getting one specially! Thankyou, Koi Pool.

Next meeting

We meet next on 26th January 2012, starting at 7.30pm as usual, and in the church vestry, as usual. All are welcome. Have a happy Christmas and a merry New Year!

FYLDE villagers are too complacent about crime, a police inspector told us at our last meeting, on Thursday, 17th November 2011.

Thieves know that in any street in the Fylde there will usually be two or three cars left unlocked and with valuables in plain view, Inspector Keith Ogle said. Thieves he’d spoken to said Blackpool wasn’t a good prospect anymore because people were more crime conscious, but in the Fylde stealing from unlocked cars was much easier than smashing car windows and leaving DNA evidence.

Insp. Ogle was talking about crime generally, following his report on October’s figures, which included two cars broken into for their contents.

However, the council’s main concern on the night was speeding through the parish which, despite some 800 tickets and warnings, continues unabated. The council is currently investigating the possibility of creating a mini-roundabout at the main road junction with Church Road. But, said Insp Ogle, chicanes had worked very well at Woodplumpton as they had ‘designed out’ speeding more effectively than bumps or roundabouts.

Speeding will continue to be targeted, said the Inspector. From January there will be more police cars available in and around Kirkham; the community beat system is being updated through appointments and promotions; phone systems are improving; and a new satellite tracking system will enable faster responses to incidents.

Residents’ fears about vandalism and theft were being tackled, he added. Thefts of metal were a current problem because any recaptured metal was difficult to trace back to its owners, but two Blackpool scrapmetal merchants had been thwarted recently - one had been closed down, and the other prevented from starting business as a result of police interventions.

Residents shouldn’t fear calling police to any incidents, even verbal threats, he added after Cllr Chris Bailey said residents had reported two lurchers on the loose and potentially worrying sheep. “It doesn’t matter what gangs are operating in the area,” added Insp Ogle, “Nobody’s got a bigger gang than us.”

Other issues
OUR concerns at the meeting included:
- The county’s litter-picking, which isn’t happening at monthly intervals, as it should;
- The inadequate grass-cutting around the parish and, in particular, at the playground;
- Surface weathering in the car-park behind the village hall;
- Poor broadband in the village;
- Hedge-cutting;
- The poor state of the fire-engine shed, a listed building at the junction of The Village and Church Road, which has not been renovated satisfactorily by its owners, United Utilities.

A new swing
The council has decided to order a ‘team swing’ for the playground, following residents’ requests for more play equipment. It will be installed with rubber matting around it, like the other play equipment.

Precept
The council decided to increase its precept by 2% to allow for increasing costs. This is much less that last year’s 5% increase and well below the rate of inflation. The increase is necessary to cover higher parish maintenance costs and to allow for the bigger projects expected during 2012.

Our next meeting…
… is being arranged. It was to have been on 15th December but may now be brought forward. Watch this space.

THE hottest topic at our last meeting, on Thursday, 20th October 2011, was United Utilities’ proposal to put a sewerage plant on land between Mains Lane and the River Wyre.

Nearby resident Simon Beard asked us what we proposed to do about it and all we could say at this stage, as voiced by Cllr Maxine Chew, was that the parish council would respond to any application when it was received. She is also a Fylde Borough Councillor and will respond to any application submitted to FBC. But, she told Simon, we had all attended United Utilities’ ‘public exhibition’ at the River Wyre Hotel on Tuesday, 18th October 2011, and we had all voiced our individual opinions there.

The council is annoyed that United Utilities did not bother to keep the council informed of its plan to hold a meeting. A limited number of leaflets were distributed to some residents in Mains Lane, and more extensive leafleting was carried out in Poulton and Hambleton - not Singleton parish. Council chairman Cllr Bob Gallagher, who lives in Pool Foot Lane, did not receive a copy of the leaflet until the day after the meeting! Worse, said Cllr Chew, United Utilities chose to hold its meeting in an upstairs room, with no provision for the disabled.

Simon said that Singleton residents in the area were ‘disgusted’ and ‘devastated’ by the proposal and would do their utmost to block it. The two 30ft high tanks and even higher chimney would have a colossal impact on the environment. It was especially ‘appalling’ because it would be in a beautiful part of the river, affecting not only Mains Lane residents, but people in Hambleton - not to mention the even wider impact of any smells. “And to be told we’d be better off with mains drainage is an insult when we’ve spent a lot of the money on the problem.”

United Utilities hadn’t resolved its problems elsewhere in the Fylde, he added. Yet there were perfectly suitable industrial sites further up the river that would be much more appropriate for a sewerage plant. All United Utilities seemed to be concerned with was cost, without any regard for the environment.

Another visitor to our meeting was County Councillor Paul Hayhurst, who said he was in the same situation as the parish council and would have to wait for a formal planning application before expressing his view.

Police visit

The plant proposal might have been the hottest topic, but a close second was traffic. We were fortunate to be visited by Road Traffic Sergeant Pete Beresford and Police Sergeant Niamh O’Donoghue and plied both for information and support for our continuing battle against speeding through the parish - The Village in particular - and our desire to have a traffic-calming and pedestrian-protecting mini-roundabout at the junction of Church Road with the main road through the village.

Police have stopped 800 motorists for speeding through the parish since the anti-speeding campaign started in January, and 500 of those were through the village. As reported at our last meeting, the majority of speeders were local people.

Sgt O’Donoghue reported that other crime was down - no serious crime in September compared to six crimes at the same time last year, and of the four incidents of anti-social behaviour, three were from one incident and the remaining one was road rage. However, speeding continued to be the police priority.

Sgt Beresford said police were targeting speeders on different days of the week and at different times and his gut feeling was that the campaign was having a general effect in slowing down motorists not only through Singleton but further along the roads feeding into Singleton, such as through Weeton.

Our chairman, Cllr Bob Gallagher, raised the issue of the use of mobile phones by saying that none of the tractors passing through the parish seemed to be complete without a phone pressed against the driver’s ear, and Sgt Beresford said it was a problem throughout the Fylde.

You can help

Residents could help considerably, he added. All you have to do is report any transgression and the police would at least caution the culprit, even if there was no prosecution possible. Residents could call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 in total anonymity and without any fear of reprisal. Cllr Chew said people could contact her, too. And Sgt O’Donoghue was keen to find a local resident prepared to be trained to become a Special Constable.

A mini-roundabout?

Councillors repeated their desire for a mini-roundabout at the Church Road junction, especially as the mini-roundabout at the Lodge Lane junction had proved so effective over the years. But the trouble, said Sgt Beresford, was that so much depended on accident figures, resulting in prioritised action elsewhere in the Fylde. Cllr Clive Barnden said “It’d be a shame if we have to suffer a death before any action is taken.”

Sgt Beresford agreed to look into the issue and arrange an engineer’s visit to assess the risks. At Cllr Chew’s request, he is also to provide accident figures for the Singleton portion of the A585.

Co Cllr Paul Hayhurst said the county council was about to spend money on creating 20mph areas throughout the county and he would support applications from both Singleton and Staining for these.

The parish council decided to await feedback from Cllr Hayhurst  and the police before making any decisions as to how to push forward.

Next meetings

We meet again on 17th November 2011 and 15th December. Both meetings start at 7.30pm, as usual, and will be in the church vestry, as usual.

SINGLETON councillors were disappointed there had been no PACT meeting in September and that the police figures for crime covered a wide rural area of the Fylde, making it difficult to ascertain how much crime there had been in our parish. But we were heartened by the growing police presence and the increasing number of fines issued for speeding.

At our meeting on Thursday, 22nd September 2011, we heard that crimes had included an attempted break-in at a mobile home at Windy Harbour; and an attempt at a burglary, also at Windy Harbour, which was foiled by the approach of the mobile home park’s security patrol. There was also a theft from a car: the front and rear plates were stolen from a car at Pool Brow Caravan Park, in Poolfoot Lane.

Nearly 800 were caught speeding!

There are now regular police patrols around Singleton and Weeton to catch speeding cars, driven mainly by local people, it seems. From January to July 499 motorists were caught, and a further 249 were caught from 12 visits of the speedtrap van between July and September. By the time you read this the total may have increased to nearly 800.

Only 9% of the drivers were from out of the area, and the majority of the 91% were from the FY4-7 and PR4 areas. In fact, some 63% were from FY postcodes.

A member of the public attending the meeting asked why there had been a speedtrap at 6am one Sunday morning, and  councillors explained it had been to deter motorbike riders who have been making a habit of racing around the parish at that time.

Councillors commended the police on their increased coverage of the parish and the increasing number of speeding motorists that were being fined.  But we still want to discuss policing issues generally - especially the need for a mini-roundabout at the bottom of Church Road - and hope Inspector Keith Ogle will be able to attend a parish council meeting for this.

Trees behind the garage

Cllr Maxine Chew reported that the borough’s enforcement officer had visited Darren Soothill to discuss the demolition of two Trust trees in the woods behind Singleton Service Station and the chainsawing of branches on a large tree at a back corner of his garage.

We understand that while the officer has allowed some tree work - and residents should not be dismayed if there hear some chainsaw noise - any further destruction of trees in the conservation area may result in a prosecution.

Shale gas

Cllr Maxine Chew had attended a meeting called by Quadrilla and reported back on the firm’s finding that there was considerably more gas under the Fylde than had been expected. The story has made headlines in local and national newspapers and we are continuing to keep an eye on developments.

Next meetings

We’re meeting on the following Thursday evenings: 20th October, 17th November, and 15th December. All three will be in the church vestry, as usual, and starting at 7.30pm, as usual. All are welcome.