• Norfolk County Council Road Safety campaign – mind out for each other

    16865_ncc_cyclist_a4_poster-space-page-0Drivers and cyclists are being urged to look out for each other, as part of a joint drive by Norfolk County Council and Norfolk Constabulary to reduce the number of cyclist casualties on the road.

    ‘Mind out for each other’ encourages all road users to be more considerate towards each other with the aim of helping to make Norfolk’s roads safer – for both cyclists and motorists. Norfolk is regarded as a safe place to cycle, and 1 in 5 drivers cycle at least once a month, however both need to do more to keep each other safe.

    This campaign comes in response to the increasing number of adults taking up cycling, and the rising number of cyclists killed or seriously injured on Norfolk’s roads. 48 pedal cyclists were killed or seriously injured (one fatality, 47 serious injuries) on Norfolk’s roads in 2015 – more than in any other year during the last decade. This is a 50% increase on the 2014 figure (32 – no fatalities, 32 serious injuries), and more than double the number killed or seriously injured in 2010 (22 – one fatality, 21 serious injuries). Three out of every four cyclist injury collisions occur at junctions, and cyclists are seven times more likely to be injured on urban roads than on rural ones.

    Running until mid-October, the campaign includes bus, radio, press and online advertising. Norfolk County Council will be focusing on making both drivers and cyclists aware of the issues around cyclist safety, while Norfolk Constabulary are concentrating their efforts on enforcement to ensure all road users are obeying the laws of the road.

    The council will be offering free workplace seminars to cyclists to cover the economic, health and environmental benefits of cycling, whilst providing advice on equipment, routes and behaviours and delivering key safety messages. As a follow-up, commuter cyclists will be offered a bespoke on-road training session, which will offer an insight into the potential hazards a cyclist could face on their commute to work and advice on their riding behaviours.

    Norfolk Constabulary will maintain their ongoing commitment to treat all road users equally; if a cyclist is seen breaking the law or putting themselves or other road users at risk, they will be stopped and dealt with in exactly the same way a driver would be.

    Norfolk County Council’s Casualty Reduction Team are taking bookings from businesses for cycling theory workplace seminars. If you are interested in setting up a session, or want more information on what the sessions entail, email [email protected] or call 0344 800 8020.

    For further information, including tips on how car drivers and cyclists can help keep each other safe, please visit www.think.norfolk.gov.uk/mindout.

     

  • Minutes of Parish Council Meeting, 14 September 2016

    Meeting held on Wednesday 14 September 2016 in Claxton Village Hall at 7.30pm.

    In attendance:  Councillor Pat Clare (Chair, presiding), Councillor Mary Button, Councillor David Hamblin and Councillor Jason Cantrill (Councillors) and Mr Mike Balmer (Clerk).  Absent: Councillor Richard White.  Also attending:  13 Parishioners.  No County or District Councillor present.

    16.64 Approved absences – none.

    16.65 Declarations of Interest  There were none.

    16.66 Minutes of the meeting held on 20 July 2016
    The minutes of the above meeting, which had been circulated beforehand and placed on the notice board and website, were approved and signed.

    16.67 Parishioners’ Questions
    The Council was asked whether they thought the £1,000 grant from Anglian Water had been well spent (on a satellite broadband hub), and reminded the Council that two other options – a vehicle-activated speed (VAS) monitor and a village defibrillator – had been discounted.  Other parishioners voiced their concerns about traffic speed through the village, including some vehicles owned by people living in the village.  The Clerk was asked to update the meeting on the VAS monitor.  He had been in touch with the Clerk at Rockland St Mary (RSM) Parish Council as they were planning to bid to South Norfolk Council for funds to purchase one in 2017-18.  These devices cost around £3,000 and it was difficult to imagine a small Council like Claxton being able to afford one on its own.  So the proposal was a cost-share and a VAS-share arrangement.  Depending on the proportion each village paid, they would have the use of the monitor for that proportion of each year.  The Clerk undertook to check with RSM where matters stood.

    Another parishioner asked about the post-box at Claxton Corner which had recently been taken away to replace the post, and not been returned.  As that was in RSM Claxton PC had no responsibility to chase this but the Clerk will also ask the RSM Clerk if she knows anything about it.

    16.68 Linda Clitheroe
    The Chairman paid tribute to Linda Clitheroe, a former long-term Claxton resident, who had passed away earlier in the summer.  Linda had made a significant contribution to village life, having for many years been a Parish Councillor and latterly Chairman, Chair of the Village Hall and a very successful fund-raiser.  Her passing was a significant loss.

    16.69   Broadband in Claxton
    The Parish Council was updated on the latest news from the Better Broadband for Norfolk (BBfN) programme that Claxton had been included in the next rollout of superfast broadband beginning in mid-2018.  Since the last meeting there had been two approaches to provide a better service.  The first was from B4RNorfolk (Broadband for Rural Norfolk) who had offered to present to the parish on their proposals for a bespoke local fibre-optic network.  In addition BT had advertised their Community Fibre Partnerships which required matched funding from communities for a similar service.  Some Councillors questioned whether BT should be allowed to make more money given that they had to date failed to deliver such services under the national rollout. Nevertheless the Council felt it worth giving both organizations the opportunity to present, but wished them to do so back-to-back at the same event, with BT starting, to be held sometime in October or November (but not during a Parish Council meeting).  The Clerk was not sure whether BT would be interested in such an arrangement but undertook to contact both organizations and set out the proposal.  He would need to track down the large folder sent by BT which had been in circulation for several weeks.

    16.70   Revised Bus services – 85, 85A and 86
    Since the launch of the new service by Our Bus in late August there had been mixed experiences and several issues.  The Parish Council opened the floor for comments.  One of the main issues was the unreliability of connections in Loddon.  If the minibus from RSM ran late it often missed the X22 in Loddon meaning a further delay of 30 minutes in journeys to Norwich.  The Clerk had driven the route and had only just reached Loddon within the 12-minute window on the older timetable (now reduced to 10 minutes) without factoring in any stops to pick up or drop off passengers.  This suggested the timetable was unreasonably tight.  Some villagers now simply drove to RSM, parked on The Street during the day and caught the bus direct into Norwich.  In addition there was now no weekend service meaning anyone without a car was stuck in Claxton over the whole weekend.  The Clerk wondered whether one tweak to the timetable allowing a drop at The White Horse junction in Chedgrave would allow passengers to cross the road with time to spare before the X22 came past would improve things.

    One parishioner explained that the statistics on which the removal of the old service was based were flawed.  While concessionary passengers had been permitted to board the bus in Claxton at 0929, they could not swipe their bus passes until the bus reached RSM because of the 0930 threshold, and therefore no concessionary use of the bus from Claxton was ever recorded.  The discussion concluded with a number of parishioners querying how the Our Bus service – which often had just one passenger between Claxton and Loddon – was economically viable and less expensive than restoring the old service which simply diverted down to Claxton from Surlingham Lane, and then returned and went on to Norwich.  After due consideration the Council asked the Clerk to construct a letter to the County Councillor, copied to the responsible officer in County Hall, asking for a further review and consideration of a reversal of the changes.  The Clerk will clear his letter with the Council before dispatch.

    16.71   Parish Council meetings in 2017
    The proposed dates for Parish Council meetings in 2017 were accepted except for the March meeting which would now be on 29 March.  The full list of dates is now: 18 January, 29 March, 17 May (APM and Annual PC Meeting), 12 July, 13 September and 15 November.  The Chairman said she would be away for the November meeting but the Vice-Chairman could take that meeting in her absence.

    16.72 Planning Matters
    The Clerk was asked to confirm with South Norfolk Council that their earlier support for the application at Durrants Barn (2015/2802) was still valid and would be taken into account during the peal by the applicants.  The Clerk has since confirmed that this is the case and that all representations made at the time will be forwarded to the Planning Inspectorate.

    16.73 Finance
    A detailed financial statement had been made available to Councillors and parishioners alike, and Councillors had seen the complete list of proposed payments well in advance, so there were no surprises.

    a) The bank balance at 14 September was £2,932.53. The latest Financial Report had been circulated separately in advance.
    b) Receipts – Contributions from District Councillor (£200) and Village Hall (£230) towards the acquisition of a projector and screen.
    c) Grants – none.
    d) Payments
    Cheque    Payee                                     Amount     Description
    100332    M A Balmer                         £ 254.60    Salary (£193.50) Aug-Sep 2016 &
    IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIAdmin (£61.10) Jul-Sep 2016
    100333    HM Revenue & Customs  £193.80     PAYE for Clerk Q2 (Jun-Sep 2016 inclusive)

    On a proposal from Pat Clare, seconded by David Hamblin, the schedule was approved for payment, and cheques signed.

    16.74   Report from Clerk
    The Clerk reported that he had written to the developer of Staines Barns following the previous meeting, had received a reply and cleared and despatched a further response.  No further replies had been received.  He had contacted Highways on a range of issues (potholes, sand, uncut verges and blocked drains) and had provided new bus timetables to one parishioner who did not have internet access.

    16.75 Correspondence
    The Clerk tabled a short list of correspondence which had been circulated to Councillors or received prior to the meeting.  Items included:

    • NPFA summer newsletter
    • NDR updates
    • Norfolk ALC Newsletters
    • Community Action Norfolk “Signpost” magazine for Summer 2016
    • Clerks and Councils Direct August and September 2016

    16.76   Items for next Agenda
    Buses – an update.

    Date of next meeting – Wednesday 16 November 2016 at 7.30pm.

    The meeting closed at 2028.

  • Village Hall Accounts 2015-16

    The Village Hall accounts for the past year have now been audited and no areas of concern have been identified.  The full accounts were approved by last night’s Annual General Meeting and are shown below.vhaccounts2015-16-compressed

  • Scam alert – fresh gravel delivery

    A neighbour in Loddon sent in the following extract from a post on Facebook yesterday.  Curiously the same individual was also peddling spare pea gravel in Claxton yesterday morning.  We reproduce it here to alert villagers to a possible scam.

    “Just had a guy tried to drop some gravel off.  For allegedly £5.00 because he needed to pick some machinery up from the next village. not the case at all. had to call police in the end. he put some sprinkles of gravel on drive, that was already 1|2 inch thick. No visible change. Wanted £5.00 per yard. Didn’t get it. Be warned that these people are about. I ended up calling 999 and he left with £50.00. if I had been at home when he arrived he would not have got anything. Thank goodness the police advised him to take the £50.00 & go. DO NOT ALLOW ANYBODY ON YOUR PROPERTY unless you have asked them to come. I have registration of the vehicle and a receipt for what the police officer said was fair. Do Not Allow anybody unless requested.”

  • Telephone Scam

    A resident of Claxton has told us that earlier to day they had a call from 0203 322 9050.

    A recorded message claimed to be from HM Revenue & Customs and stated that there is to be a lawsuit against the resident who should press 1 for their case officer.  Fortunately the resident in question is fairly savvy and declined to follow the instructions, instead looking up the number on the internet.  Their findings suggested that this was a very serious scam to obtain personal information.

    If you want to check whether any telephone number has a history of scamming or other calls the best website to use is http://www.whosenumberisthis.co.uk/.  Simply enter the full number and see what has been said about it.

  • UK Power Networks: 105 national number

    On 22 July we published a letter to Parish Councils from the Public Affairs Manager at UK Power Networks, outlining a new, simpler scheme for taking action during a power cut.  This scheme came into force today and below is this morning’s communication from UK Power Networks about the scheme.

    Dear Stakeholder

    Following on from our last email, you may have seen today’s launch of the new national power cut phone line – 105 – to help people contact the company that looks after their electricity network. This would be UK Power Networks for London, the East and South East of England.

    The number, which is available to electricity customers in England, Scotland and Wales, will enable people to report or get information about power cuts as well as report damage to electricity power lines and substations that could put themselves, or someone else, in danger. 105 is funded and delivered by the electricity network operators, and is a first for the UK’s energy industry. As well as calling 105, people can find more information on the website: http://www.powercut105.com/

    We would be incredibly grateful if you were able to promote the new number, perhaps on twitter or your website if you have one. Possible tweet may be something like:

    “If you have a power cut, call 105 – a new, free service for people in England, Scotland and Wales. Find out more at www.powercut105.com

    You can find more information on the Energy Networks Association’s website: http://www.energynetworks.org/info/powercut105.html. Or if you would like posters or leaflets then please contact [email protected].

    UK Power Networks still runs a Priority Services Register for your constituents who may be more vulnerable in a power cut e.g. older people, those dependent on medical equipment, parents of young children etc. To join, they can call 0800 169 9970, email [email protected] or apply online at www.ukpowernetworks.co.uk/priority.

    If you have any questions or would like any further information, please let me know.  Also, if you are able to support awareness raising of 105, please can you let us know when, where and how you can help by contacting/emailing us.

    Kind regards,

    Michelle Dorrell
    External Communications Assistant
    UK Power Networks

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