Barley Parish Council
Playground, BKV, Village Green, Boothman Wood...
Residents will have noticed that the new playground upgrade is nearing completion. At the time of writing the equipment and the safety carpets have been installed by Kompan and another contractor is currently installing three new access footways inside the playground area. These are a requirement to ensure that children can safely move around the playground outside of the range of the three sets of swings. We lost a week waiting for the contractor to be available then the works were further delayed due to inclement weather. The footway works have proved challenging due to limited widths and resolving level issues but the works are just about completed and you can clearly see one access path in the image below.
Once the footway works are completed the fencing contractor will arrive on site and replace the old timber fence with a like-for-like new timber fence. Whilst we have tried to protect the new equipment and carpet there has been a lot of dust and soil spillages etc so the site will need a good cleaning and sweeping then we will be good to open. We will provide an update on the Residents Facebook page soon when we are certain of the opening date.
I am thinking that the Parish Council might just have had a first in its 120-year history: a serving Councillor has had a baby and brought us a new resident into the village. We welcome baby Jake and pass on our congratulations and best wishes to Councillor Jayne and Phil.
The Council are leading on improving the appearance of the village as part of our entry in the Best Kept Village competition. We have a small group of residents supporting us by undertaking weeding and cleaning works and you might have seen how well the Turning Area and the Bullion roadside are looking. We need everyone to do a bit if it is only litter picking, it all helps make our village a better place to live regardless of this competition.
I mentioned last time that the Council are also continuing work with Pendle BC to improve the quality of the village green and verti-draining works (see image below) were undertaken in early June which break up the compacted soil and aerate the ground. Selective weedkilling is our next process to improve the quality of the village green grass by removing dot leaves, dandelions and clover.
It has been confirmed in the last week that the Alternative School have signed the documents and are officially the new owners of Boothman Wood. They have educational establishments in Barnoldswick and Burnley which offer a holistic and flexible full-time school experience that has been designed to respond to the needs of young people who are unable to remain in mainstream education; they provide access to personalised education. They have regularly been present in Barley in recent years, frequently hiring the Village Hall. The Parish Council are optimistic that a constructive working relationship can be developed with the new owners.
On 15th June the plaque to commemorate the coronation of King Charles and the associated village event was unveiled by John Lowcock. Despite inclement weather there was a good attendance and it will remind us of a great event in the village. We are all hoping that the oak tree planted to celebrate the event will soon burst into life and provide a supporting reminder of the special occasion.
At the time of writing, we are building up to a general election on 4th July and England have qualified for the knock out stage of the football Euros. You wouldn’t bet on either, would you?