Barley Parish Council
Village Hall upgrades, Ogden reservoirs, BKV, Local Government...
The clocks have just leapt forward, and we are into British Summer Time; this has been happening for the last 110 years. It started in 1916 during the First World War. The Summertime Act 1916 was passed to conserve energy and increase daylight hours for wartime production, following Germany’s lead earlier that year. It has been a recurring annual practice ever since except between 1968-71 when there was an experiment to keep Britain on GMT+1 all year round to boost trade with Europe. Following a parliamentary vote in 1970, the experiment was discontinued, and the UK returned to switching clocks back in October 1971 mainly because many thought it was too dark in the mornings leading to safety concerns for school children. I suspect all of us have been caught out at some time by this.
The Council have been pleased to support the Village Hall in its endeavours to upgrade the patio room at the village hall. We have provided a smart TV which will benefit all users and compliment the new furnishings, carpets, blinds and decorations.
Major works are just starting on Ogden reservoirs which will last until October. On Upper Ogden the project will involve installing a flow control system on the secondary spillway, raising the finished level of the impermeable core and increasing the height of the wave wall to prevent wave overtopping. On lower Ogden the existing spillway is being reinforced and the clay core brought up to its required design level, allowing the reservoir to reach its full capacity. Footpaths will be closed at times.
The Best Kept Village competition will not be taking place this year. The retirement of senior members of their committee and the loss of the major sponsor, Barton Grange which has been taken over, has prompted the Committee to take stock for a year and relaunch in 2027. The PC have discussed this development and to continue as if the competition was ongoing. The purpose of the competition is to promote local pride, community spirit, and high maintenance standards including encouraging voluntary efforts to keep public spaces clean, deter anti-social behaviour and enhance community life. These aspirations are the same as the PC hold so we will continue to do our bit and encourage residents to look after their patch and help us when they can. We are also seeking to recruit a new Lengthsman since the Lengthsman scheme organised by Sabden PC has folded due to loss of grant support and our maintenance man has left us and got a full-time job.
If you have not heard, local government reorganisation is underway again. We currently have a two-tier system with Lancs CC responsible for adults’ and children’s social care, maintaining roads, libraries and waste disposal. The twelve borough councils are responsible for rubbish collection, housing and planning and environmental health. Blackburn and Blackpool are independent authorities responsible for delivering all their services.
The government propose to mix this all up and are consulting on options to have either 2, 3, 4 or 5 unitary authorities to represent parts of the County. The Parish Council have responded to the consultation, and we agreed to support the three unitary council option of Central, Coastal and Pennine Lancashire which would include Blackburn with Darwen, Burnley, Hyndburn, Pendle and Ribble Valley and Rossendale. We did this because we thought any unitary authority needs to have some size to achieve economies of scale and to have a loud enough voice in the northwest and Westminster.
Finally, it is with sadness that I report that Ian Dixon and May Dugdale, who lived at 10 Narrowgates, both passed away within days of each other. They were quiet people and maybe not that well known, but they were dear neighbours to the residents of Narrowgates and will be sadly missed and condolences to their families.