Parish News

Drains and trees have been the issues on the agenda during this otherwise very quiet month of November. Given that Mother Nature in November has blessed us with some persistent if not heavy rain and high winds it is no surprise that many of our drains and gullies have been overwhelmed. Contrary to popular belief the task of maintaining and clearing these is down to Lancashire County Council and not our local Borough Council in Pendle. I think that it is fair to say that LCC do seem to take too long to get around to them (28 days seems to be their target) if they actually do. We report all the problem areas that we know about and chase them hard. We also now have an additional escalation method for chasing these, using the additional resources of PBC. So please bear with us. It is worth noting that we have seen the gully wagon throughout the village this last week, so we will wait and see what impact that has had. If you know of any specific problem areas please let us know. We would, however, ask that you give us the location of the problem using the what3words app. Yes, I know, I can hear you saying “what on earth is that?”. Unfortunately, it’s the method that LCC require for locating and spotting the problem.

We also have identified a number of trees in the village that look precarious either due to old age or disease. As these are on private land we are liaising with the relevant land owners to make these safe or remove them. Given their locations this could prove to be a not-so-simple job so we may need to exercise a little bit of patience.

Our next meeting on Monday 4th December will see us (due to absences in January) set our budget for the next financial year. We would hope that any increase in the precept that this may generate would be kept to a minimum.

Lastly and by no means least, Panto tickets have gone on sale and I believe are selling out fast. So please, to avoid disappointment book yours now. Details can be found below.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas.