The Parish Council has been working with the Trust and Fylde Borough Council on the creation of a Village Green since July 2023. The Trust had originally included a Village Green in its plans for the village many years ago.
Fylde Borough Council has been extremely helpful with this project, helping with the design and planning of the Village Green, as well as pledging £350,000 towards the cost of this venture. Never before has a grant of this size been made to a parish council in the borough.
Everything was in place for the work to start in the summer of 2025.
On the 31 August 2025 a letter was written to the Leader of Fylde Borough Council on behalf of the Trust outlining an apparent misunderstanding as to the transfer of the land in question from the Trust for the Village Green. The original report and words within it, sent in April 2025, had been interpreted differently by the Trust and the Parish Council. The Trust said that they had also become worried about local government reorganisation with the parish council no longer being under Fylde Borough Council in the future. The Parish Council responded that parish councils were never going to be involved in the review and would continue as they are. The review was only ever going to affect the higher authorities.
The Trust said that they had never discussed the transfer of the land and their response was that they had misunderstood what transfer meant. The Trust felt that the land should be protected and remain one of the Charity’s core assets. However, trusts and charities can go bankrupt, parish councils cannot – any financial problems parish councils may have get absorbed into higher authorities. The Trust still wanted to retain full or joint ownership of the land in question.
The Trust turned down the offer of financial help from Fylde Borough Council, which amounted to £350,000, without any further consultation with the Parish Council.
The Parish Council is obviously very disappointed at this decision. The funds from Fylde Borough Council have now been distributed amongst other parish and town councils in the borough and are not now available to Singleton.
The Parish Council and Fylde Borough Council are no longer involved in the project to provide the village with a Village Green. The Trust has said that it will work towards providing the Village Green on its own with Charity Commission guidance on dedicating charity held assets.
The Parish Council will now put the funds it has put aside for this project towards improving facilities on the Children’s playground and replacing the broken Speed Indicator Device to improve road safety and improve speed management within the Parish.
Singleton Parish Council
1st December 2025