SINGLETON PARISH COUNCIL
Minutes of the Meeting of the Parish Council
Held at Singleton Village Hall on 7 April 2026
Present: – Cllrs Lee (Chair), Carruthers and Clifford and the Parish Clerk, Verena Henderson, who took the Minutes. County Councillor Singleton also attended.
| 1. | Apologies for Absence were received and accepted from Cllr Cholmondeley. |
| 2. | Open Forum – None |
| 3. | Minutes of previous meeting held on 10 March 2026 and any matters arising The Minutes of the previous meeting, having already been agreed, were signed as a true and correct record by the Chairman. Matters arising The Goundsman had agreed to cut the hedge between the playground and the bowling green and would only be cutting the new growth to avoid any nesting birds. National Highways. On the 23/03/2026 the Clerk had re-sent the email and photographs originally sent to National Highways on 18/02/2026 but had heard nothing further from them. These were concerning the mess left behind by Kier on each junction of the new bypass. Kier apparently have been seen working in the area this week, but the mess is still there. The key safe has been found for the gate at the entrance to the car park. We now need to know the code as there have been two incidents in the last few months when the gates have been closed during the day and access to the car park has been impossible. |
| 4. | Police Matters – No reports from Singleton parish for January 2026. |
| 5. | Declarations of Interest – None |
| 6. | Planning matters and decisions 26/0146 – Land southwest of Weeton Road, Opposite the Miller Arms. Application to amend approved plans 24/0085 relating to erection of 5 two storey dwellings (2 pairs of semis and one detached dwelling) to be replaced with five detached dwellings. Planning application 24/0085 was approved on appeal by the Planning Inspectorate. Objection – the reasons are the same as the last time the Parish Council objected. These 5 detached dwellings are completely out of keeping with the rest of the village. The applicant has reverted to his original application, and this was not the one given approval by the Planning Inspectorate. 26/0105 – 89 Mains Lane FY6 7LD – Extensions and alterations to bungalow to form two storey dwelling. Concerns about the development being too close to the boundary hedge and questioning whether the current drainage would be sufficient to accommodate 5 bathrooms and a downstairs cloakroom. |
| 7. | Traffic and Highways issues County Cllr Singleton had submitted his report, the main issue being that Singleton does not report highway issues to LCC using their Love Clean Streets App. This can be done by any resident either via their phone or on-line to LCC Highways to report potholes. If LCC does not hear anything then it will assume all is well. Cllr Clifford had mentioned this 3 times in the last few weeks via Singleton Chat. Cllr Carruthers expressed frustration at having reported issues in the past via Love Clean Streets and these had been deleted without any action being taken. Cllr Singleton told the meeting that a job number would be given out when making the initial contact and if this had not been actioned, then he would chase it up on receipt of the appropriate number. Future roadworks 7 April – 6 May – Station Road – Excavation to install cable to connect to existing BT network by Openreach Ltd. Traffic control – two-way signals.27 April – 2 May – A585 Carriageway reconstruction/repair A585 Northbound and Southbound M55 J3 to Esprick. Convoy working and traffic signals to retexture the carriageway and raise skid resistance. Works location: Start 40mph to end 40mph Greenhalgh. End 40mph to B5269 Thistleton junction. |
| 8. | New By-Pass Kier had still not actioned the remaining items on the list compiled by Cllr Carruthers. On receipt of an updated copy of this list, Cllr Singleton will pursue this with Kier. |
| 9. | Update from Fylde Borough Council Fly-tipping is the main concern of many councils, and this is increasing. Singleton has also had to report many incidents. The litter-picker sends photographs to the Clerk of any fly-tipped rubbish he comes across when out and about and two such cases have been reported this week to Fylde BC. Cllr Carruthers is still very concerned about the amount of litter on the new by-pass and there are several large items which have been there for a very long time. The Chairman said that larger items would not be dealt with by officers emptying the litterbins or doing litter-picks but that these should be reported as fly-tipping and be collected using the appropriate larger vehicles. Unfortunately, these larger items such as doors, tyres, containers etc are scattered all along the bypass and are not in any one area. The Chairman had received reassurance that the litterbins would be emptied regularly, and the frequency increased if necessary. |
| 10. | Vacancy on Parish Council Fylde BC had produced an official notice of the vacancy on the Parish Council, due to the recent resignation of Cllr Bailey, and this had been placed on the 3 noticeboards and also the Parish Council’s website. No response had been received by the deadline of 1 April 2026. Fylde BC has now instructed the Parish Council to fill the vacancy by co-option. |
| 11. | Correspondence A resident from Pool Foot Lane emailed the Clerk enquiring about litter-picking in their area. This resident had been doing their own litter-pick recently. The Clerk referred this to the litter-picker who visited the lane and has now put this on his schedule to visit every 3 weeks, as well as visiting the closed section of Garstang Road. |
| 12. | Accounts and Any Invoices to pay An invoice has been sent to Greenhalgh Parish Council for the half annual payment for the hire of the Eurobin from Fylde BC. This amounted to £759.98. Three invoices were agreed and sorted out via email so that they could be paid before the end of the old financial year – 31st March 2026. These were as follows: – First Cut Grounds Maintenance – March invoice – £643.67, Litter-picker – 4 weeks – March invoice – £443, Clerk – Salary and expenses Feb/March – £359.45 New payments – First Cut Grounds Maintenance – April invoice – £643.67 – Proposed Cllr Lee, Seconded Cllr Carruthers. Agreed. Litter-picker – 4 weeks – April invoice – £443. Proposed Cllr Lee, Seconded Cllr Carruthers. Agreed. Clerk, Salary and expenses end March/early April – £289.09. Proposed Cllr Lee, Seconded Cllr Clifford. Agreed. |
| 13. | Any Other Business New food waste bins for Fylde. Is the starting date still in the autumn or will it be 2027? Average speed cameras on the A585. Is any data being collected from these? The Police would have this. Request to have Tree Preservation Orders made on two sites of trees on land on Lodge Lane near to the crossroads. This is a potential building site and already groundwork appears to have started although no planning applications have been submitted as yet. The Clerk will contact the appropriate officer at Fylde BC. The next meeting will also be the Annual Parish Meeting. It was decided to try, wherever possible to go back to having the Parish Council meetings on the same night every month. This would be on the second Tuesday in the month so that it did not clash with other meetings. |
| 14. | Date and time of next meeting – Tuesday 12 May – 2 meetings. 7.00 pm Annual Parish Meeting followed by 7.30 pm. Monthly meeting. As there was no further business, the meeting closed at 9.05 pm. |
Signed ……………………………………………… Dated ………………………………
Verena Henderson, Clerk to Singleton Parish Council,
Tel: 07530 605 291: email: Clerk@SingletonParishCouncil.org