Staveley & Copgrove Parish Council

Hi *|FNAME|*,

We hope you are keeping safe and well. The following news items have been posted on our website recently and we would like to bring them to your attention here:

Buddy Scheme Update

Over these past weeks, the majority of us have been required to stay home. How lucky we are, that not only are our homes in lovely countryside but, as the lockdown has demonstrated, we are part of a wonderful community.

Early in March, just before lockdown, we set out to contact every village household to reassure all, that whatever lockdown was going to mean, they would not be alone.

In Copgrove, being smaller than Staveley, through informal arrangements, residents have been able to help each other simply by looking out for their neighbours, keeping in contact, and sharing errands.

In Staveley, due partly to the greater number of households, we established a Buddy Scheme. Through the scheme, volunteer ‘helper/buddies’ from less restricted households were allocated to households who requested help and needed to strictly isolate. Some buddies were on stand-by to step in and help where and when situations and personal circumstances changed.

Buddies have cheerfully multi-tasked : picked up shopping,  phoned for friendly chats, helped with pets, picked up supplies and medicines and provided information about local home deliveries for their neighbours, for long established and for new friends.

To all those who have offered help and friendship and especially to those who continue to provide it: A BIG THANK YOU from the community. However, we do not know what challenges the next few months will bring. Whatever they are, you and your household will not be alone. If you are self-isolating, require shielding support, a buddy or other help, PLEASE GET IN TOUCH.

Likewise, for anyone who is finding every day is too like the day before and staying home means little human contact or you are very new to the village do PLEASE GET IN TOUCH. You are not the only one and we are happy to coordinate the exchange of phone numbers with a view to creating even more new friendships within the villages, our home.

TO GET IN TOUCH:

• Email: helen.north@staveleyandcopgrovepc.org.uk
• Telephone: 01423 340650

‘YOUR PARISH COUNCIL WORKING FOR YOU’

Help During Lockdown Restrictions

Harrogate Round Table has worked with Harrogate Borough Council, North Yorkshire County Council and trusted local charities to provide this helpful guide to local support available now in and around Harrogate. The information in this leaflet is to assist those people who are self isolating at home.

The Harrogate & District Community Action website also has advice, guidance and community information.

Harrogate Borough Council also have resident and business information here.

Staveley Grass Cutting

We would like to say a big thank you to the volunteers who have been cutting the grass on both Staveley Village greens and on Spellow Crescent in the absence of our usual contractors Harrogate Borough Council (HBC). Also thanks to those who have been watering the new trees which were planted during the very wet winter.

HBC will not be in a position to provide a grass cutting service for some time yet so we have engaged another contractor to undertake the work for the time being. The new contractor will start week commencing 25th May 2020. It should be noted that they will only be cutting the grass on Parish Council land and not on HBC Housing land, which remains the responsibility of HBC.

Phone Box Refurbishment Complete

The refurbishment of the phone box on Main Street that houses the community defibrillator is now complete. The work has taken longer than expected but the end result should see the K6 model box looking good for many years to come. Extremely wet weather at the start of the work and then the introduction of the Coronavirus restrictions meant that the contractor was only able to complete the work last week.

The phone box refurbishment work was part of the grant that the Parish Council received from the Allerton Park Landscape and Cultural Heritage Fund in 2019. Other projects completed from this grant were the tree works in the Jubilee Recreation Field, the Pinfold and the Village Green and the replacement gate for the Pinfold.

Wath Lane Fencing Project Update

The original plan for this project was to remove the existing fencing once the lambs had gone to pastures new in a few weeks time; we could even have coordinated the work to happen whilst Main Street/Wath Lane is temporarily closed to traffic for roadworks. The fence removal work was to be undertaken by Stuart Barton, who owns the field, supported by volunteers from the village. Clearly we can’t currently ask for volunteers to help with this activity at this time and so we will need to put the project on hold, possibly until this time next year.

Due to the field being in regular use for grazing, the only likely clear time before then would be when the sheep are indoors and quite frankly there is an obvious reason for them being under shelter and we wouldn’t like to try and battle the weather.

One positive is that the Allerton Park Landscape & Cultural Heritage Fund, who granted us 75% of the requisite funds, have agreed the local blacksmith (who also made the new Pinfold gate for us) can make the fencing and receive some payment even though it cannot be installed. This will ensure he has an income during these difficult times.

To those of you who made donations towards the balance of the project funding, please be assured that the sum raised has been ring-fenced and is being held in the Parish Council reserves for this project alone.

We will have to wait a while longer to see how the new fence will compliment the beautiful avenue of trees, also given a face lift as part of the project, and look forward to meeting up with some of you to get the job done at some time in the not too distant future.

Parish Clerk Vacancy

The Parish Council has an upcoming vacancy for a Parish Clerk / Responsible Financial Officer. If you know of anyone who may be interested in the post, further information about the position is available here.

VE Day Celebrations

Staveley’s own photographer in residence was out and about on Friday 8th May 2020 to capture some of the VE Day celebrations around the village (at a distance of course).

You can see more Staveley photos in the VE Day 2020 Gallery here.

Parish Council Meetings Update

Following the recent update to the regulations governing Parish Council meetings – The Local Authorities and Police and Crime Panels (Coronavirus) (Flexibility of Local Authority and Police and Crime Panel Meetings) (England and Wales) Regulations 2020 – which came into force on 4 April 2020, we have agreed to the following actions with regard to our meetings:

• to cancel the Annual Meeting of the Parish Council, scheduled for Tuesday 19th May 2020. Regulation 6(c) of the above removes the requirement for a parish council to hold an annual meeting in May 2020. Regulation 4 (2) carries the current appointment of chairman on until the Annual Meeting in May 2021, although councils may elect a chairman at earlier meeting should they wish to.
• to cancel the 2020 Annual Parish Meeting. The Local Government Act 1972 Part III requires that an annual parish meeting takes place between 1st March and 1st June each year. There is however, no duty for the Parish Council to convene this. Neither is there an effective sanction should the Parish Council not set a date and time for this to occur.

These actions are in response to the current Government restrictions on social distancing and isolation during the Coronavirus pandemic. The Parish Council has opted not to conduct virtual (remote access and attendance) meetings during this period, which the above regulations now permit if the Council so wishes.

The next full Council meeting is provisionally scheduled for 4th August 2020. The full Council may meet again before that date if the Government restrictions allow and there is urgent business requiring attention.

Planning Applications

The following planning applications within the Parish have recently been submitted to Harrogate Borough Council:

20/01496/FUL Orchard Corner, Arkendale Road, Staveley HG5 9JX. Erection of outbuilding to provide home office and removal of existing shed.

20/01358/FUL Energyline Ltd Unit, 5 Jubilee Court, Wath Lane, Copgrove. Temporary retention (up to 6 months) of strain supports and the temporary use of yard (up to 8 weeks) as a testing site for prototype transmission pole designs.

20/01116/TPO Barley Court, Arkendale Road, Staveley. Crown Lift (to 2.6m) of 3 Ash Trees within G1 of Tree Preservation Order 20/2017

The following planning applications within the Parish have recently been decided by Harrogate Borough Council:

None.

The following planning applications within the Parish are awaiting a decision by Harrogate Borough Council:

20/01030/FUL Land Comprising Field At 434582 463336, Copgrove. Erection of 5 dwellings, open space and associated infrastructure.

You can track all planning applications within the Parish from 2018 onwards, including any Parish Council comments, on our website here.

The LINK Magazine

The LINK magazine, which serves the communities of Arkendale, Copgrove, Farnham, Ferrensby, Scotton and Staveley cannot be printed during the current Coronavirus restrictions. The magazine will continue to be freely available however in digital form, until further notice.

Copies of all the 2020 digital editions are available in Portable Document Format (PDF) on our website here. If you have a neighbour who is a subscriber but has no internet access, you may wish to consider printing part or all of the magazine for them.

You can read all of our past newsletters here.