Moresby Parish Council
Report to the Annual Parish Meeting
May 8th 2017
1. Councillors There were no elections to the parish council during the year but there were changes in that Mrs Conway resigned and Mrs Boyes was co-opted. Mr Lawson was re-elected chairman and Mr Troughton vice chairman at the annual meeting in May 2016.
2 Ward and County Councillors Mr M Barbour and Mrs G Troughton continued as ward and county councillor respectively.
3 Meetings of the Council The council meets normally on the first Monday of the month save in August when it does not meet. When the first Monday is a bank holiday the council meets on the second Monday. Meetings take place in public at the Moresby Park Rugby Clubhouse. A public participation item is included in every agenda.
4. Finance. The parish council accounts are detailed in a separate paper. The council started the year with a balance of £18423.14. It received £20075.12. It made payments of £21207.80 and ended the year with a balance of £17290.46. The accounts were audited by the internal auditor who was satisfied and his appointment for a further year was confirmed. The accounts for the year ended March 2016 were audited in July 2016 by the external auditors and were passed.
5 Highways The Gallows Lonning one way system was abandoned by the county council and it returned to its former state with traffic able to travel both ways. No reason was given or any statistics provided showing why the experiment had failed. It does mean that fewer vehicles are queuing to join the A595 at the foot of Rectory Brow but there has been a major increase in traffic using the lane to join the A595 at the Howgate roundabout. Problems continue with the priority arrangements at the old railway bridge on the C4006 but this is as a result of poor and inconsiderate driving. The C4006 through Moresby Parks was resurfaced and the speed bumps renewed. The flooding problems around Eden Drive and Churchill Drive have not been resolved and whilst both councillors have attempted to engage the officers from both councils, local residents have attended parish council meetings in force to voice their concerns and plead their case for action to be taken. There has been some work to patch and fill potholes in the parish. Many of the footpaths beside minor roads in the villages are in a poor condition but financial pressures on the county council mean that no work has been undertaken. A traffic count was requested on the B5306, the old A595, through Howgate and although the county council were slow in arranging the count one had now been completed and the council awaits the report.
6. A595. At the beginning of April 2016 a drop in arranged by Highways England was held at Lowca Village Hall for members of the public to find out about proposals to close the existing A595 from the Howgate roundabout south towards Whitehaven. Work in the planning stage to build a new road in order that the existing A595 which it is accepted is slipping and in need of substantial work can be repaired has continued. The council, local residents and land owners have in the main been kept in the dark as to the engineers thinking but are promised an open meeting to discuss the issue before any final decision is taken as to the route of the new road. It is believed that no work will be undertaken during 2017/2018 and it is more likely that it will be 2019/2020 before work is completed.
7. Moresby Primary School The head teacher attended two council meeting during the course of the year to provide information about the progress the school is making. The parish council were pleased to note that overall standards have improved immeasurably in the year and pupil numbers carry on increasing. The parish council will continue to support the school and its governing body whenever it can. It made a donation to the costs of the fire work display which was a huge success.
8. Play Area. The play area continues to be very well used. The parish pay a local man to check the units on a regular basis and undertake some litter picking in the area.
9. Landscape Work The parish council purchased a new ride on motor mower during the financial year and volunteers use the machine throughout the growing season to keep the grassed areas in good shape. The council are very grateful to those volunteers especially Mr Lawson who does a large amount of the work and deals with the administrative side of the work. No work has been done on Walkmill Country Park but complaints have been received about some boardwalks. These were passed to the county council. Planters were sited in three further areas of the parish during the year. These were at Scilly Banks, Howgate and Low Moresby. A litter picking session was undertaken along Moresby Parks Road which resulted in a number of bags of rubbish being collected.
10 The Parish Lengthsman. The lengthsman scheme which ran for 5 years ended and no replacement scheme was put in place. The district council parks department have undertaken a small number of jobs on an ad hoc basis and discussions are in hand to come to some more formal arrangement. The parks department continue to hold a contract to cut the playing field and manage the knotweed around the allotments.
11 Planning Matters There were 13 planning applications in the year on which the parish was asked to comment. The major application was for outline planning permission to build 100 new dwellings on two sites on farm land adjacent to School Brow. This highly contentious application was subject to a large number of objections. The council arranged a public meeting attended by the landowner’s agent when she provided details of the scheme and answered questions and listened to statements from local residents. The council submitted a reasoned paper setting out their objections to the application. The clerk together with the ward and county councillors attended the site visit. When the application came before the district council planning panel a number of residents spoke against the proposed development and the panel were tied 4 in favour and 4 against when they voted. The chairman gave his casting vote to allow the application. At the time of writing this report no decision letter has been issued because the S 106 conditions wording is with the legal department. Of the 12 other applications, 6 were for extensions to existing dwellings, two were applications to build outhouses/sheds, one for a new conservatory, one to amend conditions, one for the siting of a static caravan and one for a new access to an existing building. The council raised no substantive objections to any of these applications
12. Defibrillator The council asked the secretary of the Community Heartbeat Trust to attend a parish council meeting when he outlined the benefits of siting a defibrillator in the parish. The county councillor made a grant to cover the costs and BT has given permission for a redundant telephone kiosk on Moresby Parks Road to house the unit. A posting on the council Facebook page indicated support and a flyer has been prepared and circulated explaining the proposal and informing residents that awareness sessions are planned after installation.
13 Police and Enforcement PCSO Hollie Dennis remains the delegated PCSO for the parish but her attendance at meetings is now infrequent. The policy of the constabulary is not to provide a report of logs relating to incidents in the parish but for the council to use the police website where incidents are recorded. This is an unsatisfactory arrangement given that information on the website is usually three months old. There has been little crime reported but often at council meetings when the PCSO was present issues concerning traffic matters were raised and the officer was able to advise the safety camera manager about the speeding issues The parish council continue to ask that the safety watch van attend at a more appropriate time but generally the van is in the parish during the quieter times of the day. It seems that this problem is prevalent in many parts of West Cumbria. After the end of this reporting period a PCSO provided training in the use of the police speed gun and in the coming months it is hoped that use of the speed gun will deter speeding especially along Moresby Parks Road
14. Consultation/Planning Applications The parish council continue as a land owner within 500 metres, to be advised by the National Grid, of a proposed new transmission route. A further round of drop in events was undertaken during the year and the formal consultation to which the parish council responded ended in the first week of January 2017. A large number of comments and objections, especially by parishes to the south of Sellafield, to the proposed route were received by the developer and no announcement has been made as to the outcome of the consultation. Nu Gen Ltd, the developer of a new nuclear power station at Moorside south of Beckermet, consulted on their proposals during the summer of 2016 but at present it is not known whether as a result of comments and objections and requests for clarification the company will amend their plans. They arranged a further consultation dealing solely with the health impacts of a new power station to which the council responded. The Copeland Local Plan 2013/2028 site allocations and policies plan preferred options made no progress in the year. This was of particular concern to the parish and related directly to the outline planning application at School Brow. The parish were denied the opportunity of appearing before a planning inspector to enlarge on their objections to extending the boundaries of the settlement. The School Brow development is outside the existing settlement boundaries. One matter on which there was no consultation was the decision by Stagecoach to end the bus service to Moresby Parks. Reay’s, a Wigton bus company took over the service for a short time but gave notice that due to a failure to cover costs they would withdraw after giving the statutory notice required.
15 Donations The parish council supported the Cumbria Community Foundation winter warmth fund, the Great North Air Ambulance and the school. It made a small payment to the Moresby Parks Playing Field Association account to ensure that it did not become dormant.
16 Newsletter The council produced what is hoped will be a quarterly information sheet during the year. Mr Kelly undertook almost all the work to produce the newsletter and the council’s thanks are due to him for this innovative idea which was well received by parishioners.
17. Moresby P C Website/Facebook
The website has been operating for a number of years on www.moresbypc.org.uk and contains information about the council and its councillors together with an archive of parish council meeting minutes. It fulfils the transparency regulations for small councils required by law. The parish council has a Facebook page which continues to attract “likes” and a good response when a matter of interest is posted.
18. Locality Working
The parish continues to work with the adjoining parishes of Distington Lowca and Parton on issues common to all. The group the Howgate and Distington partnership have been acknowledged as a locality within Copeland There have been fewer meetings than normal during the reporting year. A separate report has been prepared.
19. Broadband Whilst there are a number of cabinets in the parish concern continues to be expressed that speeds are not at a level that was expected.
20. St Marks Chapel Due to refurbishment work at the rugby clubhouse the council met once during the year at the chapel. The council invited Paul Kerry the priest in charge of the parish to speak to the council about work that he and his Church wardens were undertaking to encourage community cohesion and well being and how best use could be made of the chapel building.
21. Public Participation at Council Meetings There has been an increase in attendance by residents at parish council meetings. The planning application at School Brow attracted upwards of 20 to one meeting and a number attended follow on council meetings. The flooding and drainage concerns around Churchill Drive /Eden Drive resulted in another good attendance. The council welcomes public participation but asks that parishioners follow the protocol and standing orders adopted by the council
J C Shaw April 2017