Parish Magazine update - January 2019
The following update appeared in January's Parish Magazine:
Highways:
The Parish Council has now received a design and quotation for the installation of traffic lights at the A19 / Skipwith Road junction. This includes pedestrian crossings across both the A19 and Skipwith Road. NYCC has explored potential grant funding, and the NPIF funding announced in the Budget – but has not been able to find any funding for the scheme. The option of using Selby District Council ‘CIL’ funding has also been explored but the scheme does not meet eligibility criteria. Simplistically the Parish Council now has a choice of whether to fund the scheme itself through a long-term loan and get on with it; or to continue to look for other sources of funding, but with no certainty as to if/when these will be found. To inform this decision, the Parish Council agreed to get details of possible loan options. If a loan is feasible, it is proposed that this choice be put to a public consultation in 2019.
The Parish Council has asked two highways consultancies to provide proposals for the review of other highways concerns in the Parish. The intention is to provide impartial expert advice on those issues where residents disagree with conclusions reached by the highways authority (NYCC). This includes issues such as speed limits, parking restrictions, speed mitigation measures, and the request for a pedestrian refuge island for business park workers.
The police camera van continues to be deployed regularly in Escrick. Since the start of the year, 28 deployments on Skipwith Road have caught 274 motorists; 4 deployments to the A19 outside the Sang Thai have caught no speeding motorists, and 3 deployments on the A19 south of Escrick have caught 32 motorists.
Neighbourhood Development Plan
The NDP team will be holding a public meeting at Escrick Village Hall on Sunday 20th January at 3pm to report back on findings from the survey undertaken in the summer, and advise on next steps. All welcome.
Planning:
Former Stillingfleet mine site: The application for a waste sorting centre was due to be heard in November, but had to be delayed following objections raised by Samuel Smith’s brewery in support of local residents. The earliest this can go to planning committee is in January. The Parish Council strongly opposes the development, and in conjunction with Stillingfleet PC has supported local residents with their objections.
Clay extraction west of A19: A public exhibition was held on 17th November, which largely reiterated information already known. The Parish Council used the opportunity to reiterate concerns on the traffic impact from the proposed development.
Precept:
The Parish Council resolved to keep its precept unaltered for 2019/20. The bulk of expenditure covers insurance, grass cutting, street lighting, governance/administration – with a discretionary provision for two additional street lights, and for the highways consultants noted above. Full details of budget are on our website www.escrick.org/council/budget...
Councillor Retirement:
Our longest serving Councillor, Brian Forster, has stood down after 28 years on the Council. We’re very grateful for Brian’s diligent contribution over the years, and hope we will still get his contribution as a member of the public.
Vacancies:
The Parish Council has four vacancies for Parish Councillors – please contact us via details below if you would like to join the Parish Council.
Parish Council meeting dates:
Monday 7th Jan, 4th Feb, 4th March, 1st April. All meetings at 7.30pm at Escrick & Deighton Club. Public welcome. Contact: Chair (Richard Rowson), chair@escrick.org; Clerk (Helen Guest), clerk@escrick.org; Website: escrick.org