North Rode Parish Council
Serving the community of North Rode
Chairmans Report for 130th AGM held on 16th May 2024
First of all I would like to thank Brenda Lomas our Clerk, for the excellent work she has done keeping the parish council informed and providing advice and support for the Chairman. I’d also like to thank our Vice Chair Georgina Bailey for her support in attending meetings with the Police & Crime Commissioner, the newly formed rural parish council liaison group and more recently with our MP David Rutley. She has also liaised with Marton PC over the Neighbourhood Plan. This has help spread the load for myself as Chairman immensely.
We have had two new councillors joining us in the past year – Richard Edwards last May and Jon Burwood last June. This has brought is up to a full council of 7 member. Their active contribution to discussions has been very much appreciated over the year.
We have held three parish council meetings (May, September and January) and one extraordinary meeting in April this year. I believe we should consider increasing the frequency of meetings if we are to make effective change and/or set up active working groups for projects to help spread the load.
We were fortunate to receive funding for the purchase of a 2nd North Rode Defibrillator from the ‘Friends of North Rode’ community fund. This was installed on Park Road in September 23. The electricity for the cabinet is kindly supplied by the Pollock family in the Manor House and the location kindly provided by Marilyn Ainsley. To compliment the installation of our new defibrillators, the Parish Council arranged for two CPR and first Aid training sessions to be provided by the Dane Valley First Responders. As a consequence we now have over 40 villagers who know how to provide CPR and use the defibrillators if required. This has also encouraged other local parishes to carry out CPR training, which has got to be a good thing for a rural community. These village events I believe, have also aided community cohesion.
Highway Drainage and Flooding remains an issue for villagers, and visitors to our parish, as well as users of Daintry Hall Nursery School. Whilst the problem with drains and the sink hole on Church Lane appear to be resolved following numerous complaints from the PC and work done earlier this year, long standing drainage problems on Bank Lane and Bramhall Hill seems to be getting even worse. This recently reached a point after heavy rain, where both roads were effectively impassable to cars for a number of days and the PC have now enlisted the assistance of our MP David Rutley to try and get some action from Cheshire East Highways to resolve this permanently.
Traffic Volumes and HGV’s continue to be a problem on Bank Lane and Church Lane, compounded by recent road closures in Congleton and on Buxton Road and by flooding mentioned previously. Highways have indicated that the Buxton directional signage off the Congleton By-Pass will be installed imminently, and once installed, Highways will have addressed all of the actions promised back in August 2022. The next step will be to carry out a repeat traffic count monitoring exercise to obtain data we can then use compare with previous and press for further action to reduce traffic.
Both the Chair and Vice Chair have attended meetings with the Police & Crime Commissioner, the Police and Highways and raised traffic problems in North Rode. We also met with our new beat PC David O’Connor, who started in September and has been receiving and acting on HGV reports made to the Police by the Parish Council. In the past 12 months, over 30 HGV’s have been reported.
Complaints about road conditions during icy weather from residents on Bank Lane and Church Lane and Shellow Lane, led to the Parish Council requesting CE Highways to include these roads on their winter gritting programme and particularly in view of the increased traffic. We have also asked for a new grit bin to be installed at the bad bend at Park Road Junction, which the Parish Council have offered to fund. We have had no response as yet from these requests.
Following a large increase in the estimated cost of installing the three remaining parish boundary signs from £4K to nearly £7K, and the withdrawal of any Ward Budget contributions over the next five years, the parish council decided not to pursue installation at this point in time.
Over the past year we have responded to a number of consultations on planning applications requested by CEC. We have also communicated to CEC possible planning infringements that we have been made aware of and have chased up enforcement actions.
This year we are organising an evening to commemorate the 80th Anniversary of the D-Day Landings on Thursday 6th June, along with many other councils across the country. This is consistent with our aim to organise at least one village event a year to help promote social cohesion in the village. Preparations have involved removing, renovating and relocating the village beacon, and hopefully this will be an event that will be enjoyed by the village and remembered for years to come.
The Chair and Vice Chair have attended a number of meetings with the newly formed Congleton Area Rural Parish Council Liaison Group since October 23. This group was formed to promote inter parish communications with neighbouring parishes around Congleton, which might be affected by the same issues. It has been interesting see how other councils respond to issues and useful for sharing contacts. This group currently meets up every 3-4 months.
We were informed in January 24 that Cheshire East were consulting on the change of Ward Boundaries, which would involve North Rode moving out of Gawsworth Ward (Along with Bosley) and move into Sutton Ward, along with Sutton, Wincle, Macclesfield Forest and Wildboarclough. This would sadly mean we will lose Cllr Lesley Smetham, who has offered North Rode PC much support over the years.
We have started to investigate whether or not to produce a Neighbourhood Plan for North Rode. Cllr Brian Evans has attended a training session on this and Cllr Georgina Bailey is liaising to meet with Marton PC to gain their experience of producing a plan. Once we have determined the work involved and the potential benefit, particularly in terms of a consistent approach to planning, we will decide whether to go ahead or not with this.
In November, the parish council was informally consulted by Daintry Hall Management Committee on their draft plans for new village facilities requesting feedback. Draft plans were presented to the village in December 2023 also requesting feedback. Formal planning proposals have yet to be submitted.
The Parish Council Website continues to be updated with events, news, notices, minutes and agendas and also an increasing number of historical articles. This is our primary means of officially publishing statutory notices. It is unknown at the moment how many visitors the website we have at this moment in time.
A new North Rode Parish Council WhatsApp group was set up, and this has been useful for informal messaging on traffic incidents and providing instant update to councillors on activities
Whilst we have achieved a lot over the last twelve months, there are a number of long standing issues that still need to be tackled and I believe we can do more to help improve life and community cohesion in our village. Below are my thoughts on things we can do and not in order of importance.
- Set up Online banking for the Parish Council – this will make it easier to organise events and pay suppliers.
- Identify training that will enable new and old councillors to be more effective.
- Continue to press Cheshire East Highways on Buxton signage, white lining, drainage issues, and increase in traffic in the village.
- Continue to inform Police with data and press to enforce and warn HGV operators
- Provide regular first aid training for villagers – every 2 years?
- Keep remaining 3No Parish Boundary signs on agenda – is there a cheaper alternative?
- Keep PC Website up to date with events – perhaps a set up a Facebook Page?
- Create a contact email list to actively distribute information
- Improve our environment – Paint the faded fingerpost at Cocksmoss Lane Junction, renovate the old spring on Church Lane, Litter picking events at hot spots, Clean signs etc
- Organise the next village event – what will it be? – Well Dressing and Picnic?
- Improved Comms between councillors – are additional meetings needed?
- Set up sub-committees to deal with Highways & drainage, Litter and sign maintenance and specific events. This will enable us to be more timely and share the load.
- Continue to work with and support the Daintry Hall Management committee to help facilitate a village function room/area.
- Finalise thoughts on benefits of producing Neighbourhood plan for North Rode
- Make contact with our newly elected Police & Crimes Commissioner to ensure our concerns are known.
Cllr Huw Williams
Chair North Rode Parish Council
16th May 2024