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Little Ouseburn Parish Council ">
Little Ouseburn Parish Council ">
LITTLE OUSEBURN, KIRBY HALL & THORPE UNDERWOOD PARISH COUNCIL NEWSLETTER
FEBRUARY 2018
A very warm welcome - especially to those of you who have recently moved into the village and are reading this for the first time. There will also be a few of you who may reading this a last time before moving on - to whom we wish a very fond farewell!
It’s been a little while since our last Little Ouseburn Village Newsletter so we have a quite a lot of news from the village and the surrounding area to tell you about!
There is also a monthly Parish News booklet available from John Gawthrope on an annual subscription basis for news of events in the wider parish area.
NEW VILLAGE NAME SIGNS
We are delighted to see the new Little Ouseburn village name signs and signage on the B6265 in position – so much more in proportion and a great improvement on the huge metal signs they replaced. This also makes it easier for pedestrians walking along the verge to avoid having to step out into the road.
VILLAGE PUB
It’s always sad to say goodbye, but the possible sale of the village pub will also potentially bring a new business opportunity to an enterprising person with planning permission granted for new accommodation over and alongside a ‘micro pub’. There are also plans in place to resurface the road outside the Green Tree and we hope that this will be taking place soon.
KIRBY HALL BRIDGE, GRADE II LISTED
We are working on an initiative to add chevron road signs to one of our village’s historic monuments, Kirby Hall Bridge (on the Boat Lane side) to help protect the bridge after a number of vehicles have damaged it over recent years.
GREAT OUSEBURN EXPLOSIVES SITE
Hot off the press: the planning has been refused for the re-application for the explosives site in Great Ouseburn.
POTHOLES
The recent cold snap has caused a number of potholes to appear very quickly in the Main Street and on Back Lane - it is good to see that Highways have responded fairly promptly to our initial requests for repairs to be carried out, although this is going to be an ongoing problem until the cold weather ends.
INCINERATOR GRANT
Our successful application to the Allerton Waste Disposal Incinerator Plant has meant we were able to purchase a new planter and bench now installed on the green in front of Broomfield Cottages. Hope you agree they are both attractive additions to the village.
QUEEN ETHELBURGA’S DONATIONS
We are very grateful to the Queen Ethelburga’s estate for both the replacement of the damaged salt bin at the end of Back Lane and for the two new recycled plastic benches sited outside the church. The salt bin is for the use of the whole village and is regularly restocked by the QE estate. Please feel free to use the salt if needed – a little goes a long way!
VILLAGE PATHS
You will have noticed that the Highways Department have been widening the paths through the village where grass had encroached to make the pathways narrow. There is still a stretch to be completed from the village hall down to Kirby Lodge and we hope this work will be completed soon.
OPEN GARDENS
This year’s Little Ouseburn Open Gardens event is taking place on Sunday 13th May and John Gawthrope is this year’s chair.
VILLAGE EMAIL
We are grateful to the Village Hall Committee for setting up the village email system which seems to be proving useful for getting messages around the village very quickly and efficiently. We also have a dedicated Facebook page ‘Little Ouseburn Village News’.
FLAXBY
The planning application to transform the disused golf course at Flaxby Park into a major new sustainable village community has now been submitted to Harrogate Planning. This could support over 240 full time construction jobs, 659 jobs in a new village centre and £450+m for the local economy over the next 20 years. You can view this major planning application on Harrogate Borough Council’s website as well as the proposed local plan. It includes 2,750 high quality homes, a retirement village, two primary schools, a GP surgery, sports facilities, a new village centre, as well as lots of open space. There are also provisions to improve access at the entrance of the site, which already offers easy access to junction 47 of the A1(M). The former Goldsborough Railway Station would be reopened, offering direct links to Leeds and York. Many regard this as a better proposal than the proposals for ‘Great Hammerton’ and there is a lot of excitement about this site being given the go ahead. You can have your say online or in writing to Harrogate Planning.
KEEP GREEN HAMMERTON GREEN
“Say NO to 3000 houses” The campaign team have sent us the following information:
Harrogate Borough Council's draft Local Plan has been very controversial with villagers across the region objecting to proposed overdevelopment of rural areas.
A site at Green/Kirk Hammerton is proposed for a 3000 house new settlement which HBC has recommended be located on green fields between Cattal, Whixley, Kirk Hammerton and Green Hammerton - potentially 10,000 extra people living in our area (compared to Boroughbridge’s population of 3,400) and possibly 6,000 more cars on the A59 and local roads. This is in addition to new developments for houses in Boroughbridge itself.
Local residents are arguing that the rationale for the development being sited there is flawed. They are objecting on several grounds - it's not sustainable, it will build on prime agricultural land, there are inadequate transport links and the A59 won't cope with so much extra traffic, there is no infrastructure to support this with doctors' surgeries being very busy and local schools being over-subscribed and that there are no local jobs, so new residents would have to commute.
This new town - the size of Tadcaster - will also join up ancient villages and potentially damage close communities plus residents are arguing that many people on this side of the A1 gravitate to York to shop and for leisure activities so much-needed revenue for Harrogate and Knaresborough businesses from new residents will be lost to York.
There is an alternative site - the developers at Flaxby Park, which is deemed to be a far more suitable location, have applied to build 2750 houses. This site has several advantages - as a former golf course it's not prime agricultural land, the recently built multi-million pound roundabout will filter traffic, there is existing infrastructure - such as gas which villages on the east side of the A1 don't have - and thousands of potential jobs will be within walking distance with the creation of the new business park opposite.
There is a consultation period underway at present which gives villagers the opportunity to object to these plans - the deadline is 9th March 2018. The action group fighting these plans are holding surgeries in the run-up to the deadline and can forward specific instruction on how to object: Contact kirkhammerton.kghg@gmail.com or telephone Chris Eaton on 079722 16658 if you need help or advice on how to register an objection. Remember, EVERY member of a household can object and each counts as one vote so please get all your family members involved. We need to let our voices be heard.
After this period, the next phase is the Examination in Public (EIP) - the action group has retained a planning expert to help continue the fight against these plans and are hoping that the Independent Planning Inspectorate will recognise HBC's weak and flawed argument for siting a new town here and be able to view the plans with impartiality. But in the meantime, please write in to object to this settlement - you can get more information at http://www.kghg.co.uk/
SUGAR BEET FACTORY
More good news! We have been advised that Al Khaleej are no longer pursuing Allerton as a suitable site for the sugar beet plant for a number of reasons and are now looking at a site in Spain.
ALLERTON WASTE RECOVERY PLANT/INCINERATOR
The incinerator has been running in test mode since late summer and appears to be operating smoothly to date. We will continue to monitor.
Little Ouseburn Play Area Refurbishment Project
“We are a group of mums from the village with young children who use the play park and feel it would benefit from some updating / improving. We are hoping to try to arrange the installation of some new equipment and a picnic area, along with refurbishment of some of the existing equipment.
As a group we are looking at possible grants available that we can apply for with the assistance of Harrogate Borough Council. When we have some proposals we would like to present all our ideas to the village.
We would like to encourage ANY feedback for our idea, and if anyone has any suggestions for community fundraising, use of space, current equipment, relocation or removal of the goal post, preferred new equipment please email sarahgreensit@btinternet.com by 31st March, 2018.
We are very lucky to have such a fabulous space available within the heart of the village and feel that improving it will encourage everyone to use and enjoy it”.
Thanks from, Charlotte Evans, Lizzie Nellist, Claire Hassall and Sarah Greensit.
