What do you think?
Safety improvements to the pedestrian access around the school at Beaufront Woodhead
This recent work has included constructing a parking or drop-off bay (to the left of this picture) and a proper tarmac pavement leading around the bend and to the school gates. It appears that parents will be encouraged to park in the parking bay and for the children to be walked into school on the pavement. This is a much safer solution than the previous arrangement where parents would park outside the school, creating hazards for the children and other motorists.
What do you think? If you have a view on these safety improvements write to your county councillor, Jean Fearon,
- jbfearon@northumberland.gov.uk
- 01434 632802
- Garden House
St Helen's Lane
Corbridge
NE45 5JE
Please note that full and up to date minutes of Parish Council meetings are now being posted directly on to the new Parish Council web site and will no longer appear on this site. Because of the delay in publishing the minutes (meetings are only held quarterly) we may continue to post observed notes of the content of public meetings here. There is also a full archive of Parish Council minutes on the new PC web site.
 Minutes of the December 2009 PC meeting | downloads: 112 | type: doc | size: 38 kB |
| Notes about the March 2010 PC meeting | downloads: 131 | type: doc | size: 24 kB |
 Notes on Egger liaison group meeting - Feb 2010 | downloads: 108 | type: pdf | size: 250 kB |
August 2010 - the notice board has remained unlocked since the end of march and now reflects a more vibrant community. There is a regular changeover of notices all of which are up to date and there is even a display of the most recent minutes of the Parish Council.
Good news! - [A few days after the note below was posted on this web site] - The Oakwood notice board is once again unlocked and people are adding notices to it.
Sad News - [27th March 2010] - The Oakwood notice board now appears to be locked up once again! Shame!
May 2010 Parish Council Meeting
The May meeting was also the Annual meeting of the Parish followed by the Annual meeting of the Parish Council. The Annual Parish meeting followed the usual format. The chairman read out a report of the year's activities and said that he was resigning. Cllr Macfarlane left the meeting.
Cllr John Pennie was elected as Chairman and Cllr Cathy Duncan as Vice-chair at the beginning of the Annual General meeting. A lively meeting ensued, the councillors engaged with the residents who attended and a number of decisions were taken particularly regarding overgrown footpaths and the Parish web site. Cllr Mark Baxter had received a quotation for clearing the footpaths of weeds and nettles and the Council established exactly what the work entailed. Cllr Elaine Rodger declared an interest and took no part in the discussion on the web site. The Chairman established a set of ground rules regarding editorial control of the web site and it was agreed that the project should be progressed immediately. The Council agreed to abandon the www.sandhoe.info domain in favour of registering a new domain name; www.sandhoeparish.net.
The next Parish Council meeting will be held on Wednesday 8th September at 7.30pm.
March / April 2010 Parish Council Meeting
At the March meeting of the Parish Council, residents were able to hear of the present and future Egger plans from Nick Barratt (Northumberland County Council). In a nutshell, Nick told us that Egger were still making a lot of unreasonable noise, that the old Tynedale Council should have applied more stringent conditions, that Egger are planning further completely untested noise smothering tricks and that the County Council is unlikely to be waving any further restriction orders at Egger. Nick was thanked for his continuing efforts by the residents.
The rest of the meeting was taken up by a lot of discussion about the Oakwood notice board (still unresolved, in spite of a minuted decision in December 2009 to go ahead). No-one seemed to notice the previous meeting minute agreeing that it should be purchased after 1 April 2010.
There was some follow up to a request from the Beaufront & District Fruit & Vegetable Association for allotments which made no further progress other than to refer a request to lease some land via the vice-chairman;
The PC web site remained unresolved, in spite of a detailed and costed proposal prepared in May 2009, a minuted decision in December 2009 appointing a designer and a decision to meet with the designer which did not take place. The only progress on this item was that the chairman said that he wanted a sample web site preparing for the May meeting and after a residents' consultation a live site immediately afterwards).
It was reported that the Parish Council would have to, unexpectedly, bear the whole cost of the recent election in one payment rather than, as had been hoped and was the case in earlier years, to spread it over 4 years. The 21% increase in the Parish precept this year will be swallowed by the payment.
A resident asked about the state of the recently planted tree screen below Oakwood. John Pennie's report had said that the trees were in good health. The resident thought that they were perhaps in need of some attention as she could see no sign of life in many of them.
There was discussion about the state of footpaths in the area, particularly in the Anick woods, and a proposal that a working party of residents might like to spend a day or two levelling the paths and cutting back brambles and nettles. The last time the footpaths had been cleared it had cost £200 each time it had been cleared in May and August.
The chairman had heard about the Prudhoe big red bus for children's activities, but it was agreed that it would be unlikely to have any value in Sandhoe because there are too few children of an acceptable age. It was, however, agreed that standing at the bus stop in Oakwood might reveal how many children there are. Unless whoever does the counting is arrested first.
Cllr Baxter had witnessed the damage being caused by a lorry to the wall at the foot of Oakwood Bank and it was hoped that the police or NCC would pursue the culprit for repair costs.
The next meeting (Two meetings in fact, the Annual Parish Meeting and the Annual General Meeting of the Parish Council) is planned for Thursday 20 May 2010.
December 2009 Parish Council meeting
The Parish Council met on Thursday 10 December. Items under discussion included the Parish Council web site and it was agreed to appoint Peter Rodger to design a new web site. It was minuted that Cllr Mcfarland and Cllr Duncan would meet with Mr Rodger to discuss the web site and its content in early January and that it was hoped that the web site could be launched in May at the Annual Parish Meeting of the council.
The repairs to the bus shelter were discussed. Cllr Rodger asked for it to be recorded that when such large sums were being committed to works in the parish, a full council consultation should take place in view of the limited budget available. The repairs to the bus shelter represented a quarter of the parish budget.
It was formally agreed that a new noticeboard for public use should be obtained after 1st April 2010.
There was discussion about the provision of allotments and it was agreed that the Council would attempt to identify suitable land.
Cllr Macfarlane had attended the opening of the new school building, the St John Lee remembrance service and a meeting of the Northumberland Strategic Partnership (NSP) .
It was reported that the Egger liaison group had met. There was no real progress to report in the reduction of noise intrusion. Egger had suggested to the liaison group that any noise nuisance should be reported to the gatehouse. Generally this is considered not to be a good idea unless the nuisance is simultaneously reported to the authority. Simply reporting it to the gatehouse internalises the issue.
There were 2 matters of 'urgent' business. NCC were to be asked to paint 'BUS STOP' on the road by the bus shelter. Tim Fish, the NCC Footpaths officer is to be asked to attend a Council meeting to discuss the state of footpaths in the parish.
The next meeting was planned for 18 March 2010
September 2009
At the September meeting of the Council it was agreed by councillors that Cllr Baxter would liaise with a joiner to obtain a satisfactory quotation for the bus shelter repair work and that the work would go ahead. The work was done amazingly quickly and the bus shelter is now a safer place to wait.
It was agreed that Cllr Duncan would research and prepare a design for alternative solutions to the notice board problem and that prices for the work would be obtained. Cllr Duncan went to extensive lengths to prepare a number of designs. The plans were circulated for discussion but as far as we are aware no further progress has been made.
It was agreed that Peter Rodger, a resident would circulate a proposal to councillors for the creation of a web site for the Parish. It was agreed that the papers would be considered prior to the next meeting and that a decision would be taken at the next meeting in December 2009. A proposal was circulated within a few days to each councillor and the Clerk. No further action has been noted.
14 August 2009
Government Office North East decline to refer Egger's application for a new shed to the Secretary of State. Read the letter [here].
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has been elected to fill the seat vacated by Harold Learman’s retirement from Sandhoe Parish Council. |
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Tynedale Council have made it clear that they were displeased with Egger's behaviour in commencing building work this month without obtaining planning permission. [Read more] Local residents were appalled by the company's actions and many commented on this "arrogant behaviour". The Council, which of course is in its dying days, has once again missed an opportunity to bring the Austrian behemoth to order. The planning officer's letter to Egger states
"The construction of the log handling unit would constitute unauthorised development and would be considered a breach of planning control."
Many residents say that this planning department never showed its strength where Egger is concerned, seeking only to enforce planning law where applications were from individual residents. The letter goes on to justify not taking any action, but the justification is lame. Given that the council will not exist in its current form in a couple of months, it is unlikely that they would engage in a planning conflict at this late stage, in spite of the fact that their letter makes it quite clear that the regulations have been breached.
"I trust this clarifies the Council’s position with regards to the unauthorised development and would again ask that you enter into earlier discussions with the Council in an effort to prevent such breaches of planning control."
Sad News - [30th December 2008] - The notice board now appears to be locked up once again! Shame!
HOT NEWS! - [18 December 2008] We are delighted to see that the Oakwood noticeboard has been liberated! This morning it was observed that the padlock has been removed from the noticeboard - and it's only 2 days since we had a rant about it (see beow). It's confusing, however, that the notice about it being locked is still displayed. Sandhoe Community has been asking for the padlock to be removed for some months. The parish council agreed (by a vote some 8 months ago) that the noticeboard would be modified so that half of it could be publicly accessible. In obtaining a price for the work it was recommended that because of its condition, the board should be replaced at a cost of about £80.00. This work was not commissioned by the parish council and as far as we are aware the matter has not been discussed further with residents nor amongst the councillors.
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