Welcome to Lothersdale Parish Council

Lothersdale is a small village and civil parish in the Craven district of North Yorkshire, England. Situated near Skipton and located within the triangle formed by Skipton, Cross Hills and Colne. It is a small community of about 200 houses. Local amenities include a park, church,  pub, village hall, clubhouse and primary school. The Pennine Way runs through it.

The Parish Council has 5 elected members and meets in the Village Hall on the second Thursday of each month (except for August) at 7.30 p.m. It decides on the amount of local taxes (the precept), planning applications, and numerous other issues pertaining to local life. 

Residents are welcome to attend the meetings during which there is time set aside for questions to be asked and comments made. 

News........news.........news.........news.........news.........news 

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Annual Parish Meeting

Notice is given that the Annual Parish Meeting will be held in the Village Hall on Thursday 24th May 2012 at 8.00pm. 

Persons entitled to attend and vote are those who are registered as local government electors for the parish. 

The following business will be transacted at the meeting: 

Apologies for absence. 

Minutes of the previous meeting. 

Chairman’s report including finances. 

District and County Councillors’ reports. 

Any other business. 

The Annual Meeting of the Lothersdale Parish Council will also be held on the same evening at 7.00pm. 

A separate Agenda will be issued for this meeting, on 20th May, 2012. 

Esther Barrows. Clerk

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Parish Plan and Action Plan

May – July 2012

Parish Plan  Action Plan

The Lothersdale Parish Plan exercise began in 2003 when the Parish Council agreed to set up a small working group of Councillors, who with the Clerk, investigated how to consult the community about local services and needs.The Government wanted local communities to take more control of their own lives, to say what they wanted doing in their own neighbourhoods and to engage with other powers to get it done.

Parish Plans were comprehensive in scope, setting out a vision for how the community wanted to develop, and they identified the action needed to achieve it. A clear action plan would increase the village’s chances of getting support from the local district and county councils to enhance the parish’s economic, social and environmental well-being.

The comments collected and the replies to the questionnaires were then analysed and a draft Parish Plan and Action Plan was produced in November 2004.

Although Parish Plans identified ideas for change and aspirations of local residents, they were not legal documents. 2012 sees a new system coming into place, with residents being given another opportunity to comment on their needs and desires for the village where they live. If the village chooses to produce a new Neighborhood Plan, it will form a legally binding document that, although following certain standards, must be considered by your local council.

As a starting point, Lothersdale Parish Council is attaching the original Parish Plan and Action Plan (see above) for residents to look at and comment upon: Some of the original suggestions have been amended or removed as they are no longer relevant. However, whether it be to agree, disagree, amend or add, all comments are valued by the council.

Please submit all comments by July 11th to the clerk Esther Barrows

Telephone: 01535 636776

E: estherbarrows@hotmail.co.uk

A: 8 Rook Street, Lothersdale 

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High Speed Broadband (2) 

March 21, 2012

Plans are underway to bring high speed broadband (a minimum of 2Mbps download speed) to all of North Yorkshire within the next five years.  The county council says it is planning a project with £30m of funding to bring high speed internet to the slow spots and 'not spots' by 2017.

I went to a meeting with county and district council officials to find out exactly what this will mean to Lothersdale residents.

Because large commercial companies like BT are not interested in bringing fibre-optic cable services into remote areas (it costs too much and they will not make a profit), public funding is needed to persuade smaller internet suppliers that there could be a viable business for them in villages like ours.  This has happened in Bradley where the capital costs of setting up a wireless broadband service were paid by the county. Speeds of 20Mbps are now being enjoyed by people there at a cost of about £24 a month. Cheaper monthly fees are available for a slower service.

The county has also invested in its own internet network which links schools, libraries, council offices, gp surgeries and so on.  In our village there is a fibre-optic cable which runs from the telephone exchange in Crosshills directly to the primary school. By September of this year, the county will have developed plans to use this network to bring what they call 'high-quality' broadband to 100% of North Yorkshire with completion of the scheme by 2017.

Lothersdale residents can help secure a priority position for the village by registering their interest on a simple form on the county's website  http://www.northyorks.gov.uk/broadband   Click on the 'register your interest' button and you will be taken to the form and a speed checker which will tell you exactly what download and upload speeds you are receiving.

The more people complete this information, the more evidence will be supplied to support our case for improvements.

In addition, the county is looking for a so-called 'Digital Champion' who can help co-ordinate information and act as a link between residents and the council.  If anyone is interested in filling this position, please let me know.  I understand that there is not a lot of work involved.

The last response from LN Communications, the company which built the Bradley system, was in October last year.  They said they needed a suitable property with a line of sight down the dale into Bradley, Carleton or Cononley. A 'repeater' receiver and transmitter would be fitted to this property and would then send the signal into our village.  If you know of anyone who owns a potential building, please get in touch.

Stephen Cohen

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New Heating Oil Club

 February 2012

The Oil Club has recently formed the Lothersdale and Cononley Heating Oil Club  

If anybody is interested in joining the club to buy bulk heating oil, please follow the link below :

http://www.oil-club.co.uk/heating_oil_clubs/The_Lothersdale_Village_heating_oil_club.html  

 www.oil-club.co.uk 

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High Speed Broadband

October 25, 2011

The company which is installing hi-speed broadband locally has announced that it has the network in Bradley up and running and will have the Carleton extension completed within the next 6 weeks.

They have been conducting radio tests around Cononley with some positive results. Next they will be looking at Lothersdale and trying to work out how to get the feed down into our dale. This will mean finding a repeater point somewhere that can see both Bradley or Carleton as well as Lothersdale. At this point they will probably need the assistance of the Parish Council and they will discuss the matter further with us at that time.
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September  18, 2011
Extraordinary Meeting of Parish Council  

Members of the Public are invited to attend an Extraordinary Parish Council Meeting on 22nd September 2011, at 7.30 in the Village Hall.

The one and only item on the agenda will be:-

Johnny’s Croft.

 AGENDA
To give a resume of the history of the Council's interest in, and involvement with other parties over the land.

To consider the revised information received from the estate agent, and the guide price and to decide whether to go ahead with the purchase.

The Council has in the past indicated an interest in being a part purchaser of the property, and if approved, to consider the means of funding the purchase.

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Digital Switchover
May 17, 2011

A message from the Craven Community Safety Partnership:
The Digital Television switchover takes place in the Yorkshire TV region in August / September this year.

To prevent elderly and vulnerable people being targeted by conmen to buy unnecessary TVs, equipment and aerials, or to use the switchover to gain entry to their homes, Digital UK is issuing the following advice:

  • No-one needs to buy a new TV.  All TVs can be converted with a digital box.
  • No-one will call unless you make an appointment.
  • Most aerials will work perfectly well after the switchover. If viewers are getting a clear picture with no interference now they do not need a new aerial, and there is no such thing as a “digital” aerial. Some viewers may need a “wideband” aerial to receive all the available channels.
  • The best advice about aerials is to wait and see what you get after switchover. If you do get an aerial engineer to call, make sure they are a member of the Register of Digital Installers (www.rdi-lb.tv) or a member of the CAI Plus Scheme (Confederation of Aerial Industries (http://www.cai.org.uk/).
  • Do not buy equipment from cold callers.

More information is available on http://www.digitaluk.co.uk/ or phone 08456 50 50 50
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ANNUAL PARISH MEETING REPORT

May 12, 2011
This year an average band D home in the village will pay just under £59 for parish council activities. (£4 more than in Thornton in Craven and £3 less than in Sutton). We plan to spend £13,295 this year and also transfer £2,000 to our reserves which have been badly depleted by the previous council. Although the reserves look healthy, with a balance of £11,500 at the end of the financial year, it’s only when you look a little deeper that you realise that £2,500 of that is money that was received a year ago as the proceeds of the Millennium Fund (and it took a long time to track down where it had been kept). That cash is ring-fenced and cannot be spent on general council activities such as paying for street lights.

An example of the spending that had to be paid for last year was the expensive and un-necessary drainage work that was carried out in a privately-owned field next to the recreation ground. Subsequent investigations in the last few weeks have revealed that the cause of the flooding of the tennis court is a broken water pipe leading to the Chapel. We are now seeking advice on how to get the pipe repaired and how to get someone else to pay for it.

The previous council borrowed £3,000 from the Parish Trust to pay for the printing of the Lothersdale Book of Walks. Sales of the books have proved to be very poor; just over £1,000 has been received. The Parish Trust has asked for the loan to be repaid and this has taken place.

Major pruning was carried out to trees in the recreation ground at a cost of £2,056.

Previously unpaid bills for street lighting are being paid off at a rate of £250 a year for the next 3 years.

An example of the new financial stringency that the new council is following includes the replacement of our insurers at a saving of £300 a year in the premium and the full cost invoicing of the school for cutting the grass on the football field.

Planning applications

Very few applications were received last year. The principal ones were:

  • Conversion of part of the Pub to a cottage: rejected
  • New house at the Fold: withdrawn
  • Wind Turbine at Lower Dowshaw Farm: Approved by the district council despite objections from the parish council
  • Multi Use Games Area (MUGA) in the recreation ground: approved

Recreation Ground
Replacement of the worn-out tennis court with an all-purpose multi-use games area is to go ahead. Special thanks must be given to the Social Club and its members for organising the grant application - £41,000 has been awarded by the Lottery and this will cover all the costs of the new MUGA and the reimbursement of planning application fees already made by the council.

Unfortunately there has been some serious vandalism of one of the play structures in the park and we are currently processing an insurance claim for its repair.

Broadband
The council would like to see high speed broadband brought into the village by using the fibre-optic cable that already runs from Crosshills exchange to the school. NYCC and the company promoting a similar scheme in Bradley have responded by requesting details of the likely number of customers that could be achieved. Residents are urged to sign the petition that is currently being circulated.

Mill Yard
There have been complaints from residents that the bin wagon cannot get through the Mill Yard because of obstructions. A complaint has been made to CDC and an enforcement officer is due to make an inspection.

Other items
Car parking outside the school in the morning and afternoon continues to be a problem despite a Police presence last year. The council has come to the conclusion that it cannot see a way to resolve the matter.

Despite efforts to obtain land to use as allotments, the council was unable to proceed.

A new clerk, Mr Ken Beasley, was appointed and he has ensured the smooth running of the council’s affairs and meetings.

Boundary changes in the next 2 years will bring in several new properties to the parish which were previously with Cowling and Glusburn and Sutton. 

A council website was launched in December last year and is now the place where agendas, minutes, news and other items can be viewed and downloaded. You can also read the full version of the original Lothersdale Book which has been out of print for many years. Other groups and organisations in the village can add their own pages to the website.

A bouquet of flowers was presented on behalf of all residents to Danielle Brown, the Gold Medal archer at the Commonwealth Games.

Last year the council helped North Yorkshire Police buy a speed gun on the understanding that it could be used in the village. The gun had been purchased but it had never appeared in use. We complained to the police about this and have been promised that it will be brought into the village on a regular basis.

We have asked for new road signs to be placed at the top of Sidegate Lane warning lorry drivers that the road is unsuitable for large vehicles. There have been a number of instances of trucks getting stuck in the lane. NYCC have said they do not have enough money to pay for the signs, so we will look at the cost of doing it ourselves.

The year ahead will see your council focus on the things that matter to the village and we will listen carefully and sympathetically to all the points put to us. I think I can speak on behalf of all the councillors when I say that it is an honour to represent you.

Chair: Stephen Cohen
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THIS BOOK IS MADE FOR WALKING

April 4, 2011
Now that Spring is here and the days are getting longer, why not get the latest edition of the Lothersdale Book of Walks.  It has been completely revised and reprinted and is on sale at the Hare and Hounds, Crosshills Post Office and also from the parish clerk.

Additional Broadband Information

Petition

FAST BROADBAND IS ON ITS WAY
March 30, 2011
High speed broadband could soon be available in the village.  Trials are taking place at the moment in Bradley using  a wireless distribution system which could be extended to Lothersdale.  Bradley school is the hub from where the signal is sent.  The company behind the scheme thinks it might be possible to include Lothersdale in the network.

Speeds of up to 20Mb could be achieved.

If you are interested in finding out more about this, please send an email to the parish clerk at estherbarrows@hotmail.co.uk 

SCOOP THE POOP 

February 17, 2011
Plastic dog waste bags are now on sale again at 50p a packet.  Get yours from Beeches Barn, next door to the Hare and Hounds Pub.