Good Evening,

Welcome to the Annual Parish Meeting for Carlton with Chellington Parish Council. My name is David Jenkins and I am chair of the Council. I did not mean to be chair but Les Benson’s resignation as Chair last July left me, as Vice Chair, holding the baby. Les has subsequently resigned from the Council. In addition, Richard Davis announced recently that his membership of the Council will cease as of May. In both cases this is due to pressure of work.  Both these gentlemen have had a long association with the Parish Council and have both served as Chairmen in their time.  I will miss their wise counsel and I would like to thank them for all their work.

This will create two vacancies on the Parish Council and anyone who would like to get involved may offer their services to Nina. If more than two people come forward then there would have to be some kind of selection process.

The council has also lost two great friends who were also great characters. Mrs. Phyllis Gershon our County Councillor who worked tirelessly for her ward for many years. It is ironic that her death coincided with the end of the County Council. We now look forward to working with our new Unitary Authority of North Bedfordshire.

We also lost this year Billy Crammen our Village Handyman. He had not been well for some time but kept going as the Handyman until just a few months before his death. Well loved by many in the village; Billy’s death leaves a hole in our community and he will be missed.

My thanks also to Anne Geerts who for the last few months of Billy’s time working for us functioned as his line manager.

With my rise to Chair of the Parish Council, Jane Tusting has taken over as Vice Chair. She too has immense experience of the Parish Council and I thank her for her support.

So what has the Parish Council been up to?

Speeding

Peter Planterose and a group of concerned villagers organised a petition asking for speeding in the village to be addressed.  We have been working on this although making slow progress.   The first thing we did was to organise a speed survey. You may remember it and we surveyed several sites within the village.  To the disappointment of some the survey showed average speeds in The Moor and The High Street to be under 30mph with very few vehicles travelling in excess of that speed. However, average speed on The Causeway near the School and Playground and on Pavenham Road was very much higher with one or two vehicles on Pavenham Road getting over 60 mph. This clearly does need addressing. At present the Highways department is doing a County Wide Survey of speed limits with the

intention of adjusting them. They are due to have finished A and B roads this month and will then start to look at villages. We have written and submitted our speed data and a request that something be done to eliminate this menace.  The number of vehicle movements is not enough to make it worthwhile putting in speed cameras and when the Police do visit with their speed guns they don’t usually catch more than a couple in an hour.  We need a method of speed control that is permanent and effective.  We do not want a mass of speed bumps they damage cars and cause loud noises at night when people hit them going too fast. It also makes the place look like the Town.  Two options that are being put forward are Speedwatch and the use of Chicanes.  Both will necessitate extra signs going up but Speedwatch is likely to have the least visual impact on the Village. Rob Smith will tell you about this in due course.

Neighbourhood Watch

The village has not had a Neighbourhood Watch scheme for some time now since Jack Dancy stopped being Coordinator. The Parish Council applied for a grant from Bedfordshire County Council towards setting up a Neighbourhood Watch scheme. Councillor Tim Coles has taken on the role of Coordinator now and I would like to pay tribute to him for his work in this area. The scheme appears  to have made a successful start although I don’t think every street has yet got a street level coordinator. I need to stress that now it is up and running Neighbourhood Watch is independent of the Parish Council and questions about it need to be addressed to Tim and his committee of coordinators. Having a Neighbourhood Watch scheme in your street means that your household Insurance bills will go down.  If you don’t have a coordinator in your street or don’t know who your coordinator is then speak to Tim.

Post Office

Some while ago there was a fear that the village Post Office would be closed. The fear arose because there are two Post Offices fairly near each other in Harrold and Carlton. Fortunately, the management decided that because Harrold and Carlton may at times be separated by floods they needed both. However, we took the view that with a threat hanging over the Post Office it would be good to just express our feelings that we do need our village Post Office and Tim aided by Eileen Devine, Anne Geerts  and Louise Dempsey organised a petition to show the depth of our support for  the Post Office. If in future Royal Mail decide to axe more Post Offices we hope that this will help them choose not to close Carlton.

Bus shelter

A few years ago we constructed a bus shelter to keep people dry whilst waiting for the bus. That has been sadly abused and is being used for various unsavoury uses at night. There is an increasing body of complaint and many people waiting for a bus in the rain choose to stand in the rain rather than go in. As a result a decision has been taken to demolish it and replace it with a bench and litter bin.

Highways

A major part of the Parish Council’s business is dealing with issues about roads. Tim Coles and I share the duties on this. Problems arise because of variety of natural causes and also because the Highways budgets are not big enough to do everything that we would want.  Some things we have looked at include

The railings and ditch on the Harrold Road. That became completely silted up so that water was pouring out of it onto the road. In addition the railings themselves are scruffy and damaged. We would like them to go altogether but that is not going to happen I would imagine on grounds of road safety. We will continue to ask for this though. Highways has agreed to clear the ditch so that water and silt can drain away properly. Once that is done they will assess whether the railings need to be there. In my heart I think the railings will stay but if they can be made tidier with broken and bent posts replaced then I would be satisfied.

A second area was Street Close. We wanted the roadway to be repaired so that the large puddles which form on it could be stopped. Instead for some unknown reason they decided to completely replace the footpaths. The footpath we wanted done was The Causeway footpath. We asked for that to be done from the crossroads up to the school. When they started they had promised to do this and a bit more. Sadly, the path needed much deeper work doing than just a top dressing so they did the worst bits and then ran out of money. We have protested about the checkerboard effect they have left but I don’t think much will happen. Also on The Causeway we had the drains repaired. They have been blocked for some while. I think this goes some way to explaining why the ditch at Bridgend silted up with several years’ worth of accumulated silt getting washed down. The final issue which we keep hearing about is dog mess. We are going to move the dog bin hidden away up The Gannick so that it is obvious as you walk down the Causeway. We would also like to put at least one more in. However, the best answer is for dog owners to bag it up and take it home or put it in the bin. If you know who is doing this again tell Nina and we will get the Dog Warden involved.

Village handyman

Following Billy’s death we have now appointed Richard Sinclair to keep the village tidy. Anything which you think needs doing can be reported to Nina.

Baptist Chapel Wall

When the Baptist Chapel closed we were given a sum of money to maintain the graveyard. A decision was made to try and encourage wild flowers to grow by using a management regime similar to that used in a hayfield. We also decided to maintain the chapel walls and recently the last of those has been repaired. This was Les Benson’s task for the Council and I am grateful for his enthusiasm in carrying it forward.

After hours bus.

The HomeHoppa bus service run by AGS cars sponsored by Beds County Council came to an end leaving youngsters stranded in the village unable to go into Bedford on an evening in the weekend because of lack of transport back. The Council has taken the decision to fund a re-launch of the service for a trial period. This will hopefully give our village youngsters between 15 and 18 a method of getting home after a night out in Bedford.

No Cold calling.

We have introduced the No Cold Calling scheme although I have to say I was doorstepped the other day. If you do get such a call follow the instructions you were given when the scheme was launched.

Affordable housing

Some of you will have sons and daughters who would like to live in the village but can’t afford to do so. We were looking at providing affordable housing for local people with the Rural Housing Trust. Sadly, they went into administration with the credit crunch. Their business has been taken on by Hastoe Housing Association. These are the people who built the Poundsbury Estate in Dorset under the aegis of Prince Charles. You can find information about this landmark project on the Internet. It is a stunning development and really does what we would like to do here in Carlton. It’s very early days yet but I would love to see something of a similar high standard going up here so that young people starting out in life can afford to live in this glorious part of the world.

Precept

In this time of Credit Crunch we have taken the decision to try and freeze the precept. I think mine has gone up by less than 1%. I hope you will appreciate our efforts to keep your costs down.