Traffic Calming Plan - click to enlargeThe Parish Meeting will be held at the Village Hall at 19:30 on Tuesday 28th March. It is a statutory requirement to hold an annual Parish Meeting at which parishioners can discuss issues relevant to the village. If you want to come to the meeting then please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. so that we can provide appropriate seating. We will answer questions on the items below, Please also let us know if there are other items that you would like on the agenda. We are hoping that our local Police Constable will attend - if there are no urgent problems for him to attend to.
Traffic Calming
Attempts to get a 20mph limit on School Lane have dragged on for years (see the 2022 Parish Meeting) and it has been difficult to come up with a plan that is acceptable to everyone. Bawburgh has chicanes where the houses are only on one side of the road - we don't have that opportunity so have removed the chicanes that were planned here. In January, we instructed Highways to proceed with a plan that is achievable. The total cost will be about £22,000 and will be funded from developer contributions. This seems like a lot of money! We did ask whether the contractors working on the new development could do the works but they don't have the necessary accreditations, so we have little choice but to pay NCC Highways. A large part of the cost is the legal process and traffic management.
The main points of the proposal are (see the plan) -
- Extend the existing 20mph zone on Mill Rd down School Lane as far as Braymeadow - there will be 20mph signs and 20 painted on the road
- Relocate the existing 30mph 'Slow Down' signs to Green Lane and lower down School Lane - there are very few places where there is space to install them. The current 30mph signs will be replaced with school warning signs that flash during school hours
- Provide an additional speed cushion on Mill Rd and repaint the existing speed cushions - 20mph zones are supposed to have traffic calming measures every 100m and the cushions on Mill Rd don't meet that requirement
- Provide speed cushions either side of the school
- Provide a village entrance on Burnthouse at the start of the 30mph zone.
- We did ask for the 20mph zone to extend onto Burnhouse and for the 30mph zone to be extended south on Burnthouse but Highways would not agree to that. (We have pointed out that Burnhouse is used by children going to school and asked that the speed limit be reduced to 40mph, also on LM Road as much of that road will soon be in a housing estate).
Lorry Traffic
We have been requesting for a long time that signage for the lorry route is provided for eastbound traffic on the A47 (it is only signed for westbound traffic) in order to stop HGVs turning off onto the B1108 and then coming through the village. Progress has been painfully slow but NCC Highways have agreed to provide improved signage on the B1108. The A47 and its slip roads belong to National Highways and they are refusing to fund improvements to signage, we are asking MP Richard Bacon to lend his weight to our request. There is a sign on the eastbound exit slip road that could be modified to include the Lorry Route but National Highways want NCC to fund a completely new sign and that would incur large fees and costs, we are fighting this.
A resident has put a lot of effort into getting the weight restriction zone on Burnthouse to be shown on Sat Nav maps - we have questioned both NCC and the Police as to why there is no national process for councils to update maps, it should not be down to volunteers to do this. We have asked the Police to do spot checks and issues fines. We have asked NCC to start the long legal process that would enable us to install a camera to record HGVs in the weight restricted zone.
Click for link to Local Plan at SNC - map and site assessment
Local Plan
In 2021 we consulted on SNC's proposals for the next phase of development, which would have included building a new estate in the Landscape Protection zone that is supposed to keep open countryside to the west of the village. The fear was that this would be the start of large scale development at the west end of the village, similar to what is happening at Cringleford.
We were surprised in Feb 2023 to learn that the remaining land at Elm Farm has been offered for development and this has been chosen as the preferred site. The proposal includes land for school drop off parking. Whilst this site avoids the problem of opening up the Landscape Protection to development, we were surprised to read that it had been reviewed by Planning Officers in April 2022 but the Parish Council was never consulted. We would have informed parishioners had we known! The Local Plan is currently being reviewed and has to be accepted by national government. It will be some years before any development can start and there will be a full planning process that people can comment on.
Other matters
- We are still trying to establish who is responsible for the maintenence of the road leading to the Village Hall
- Hoping to apply for an Orsted community grant to install solar panels at the Village Hall and maybe an EV charging point
- Everyone knows that costs have increased - we have appointed a new company to maintain the playing field and other areas as part of our efforts to contain costs. The Precept has only increased by 2% since 2018
- We are looking into resurfacing the 25 year old tennis court
- Village Hall maintenance of windows and car park (soakaway is subsiding)
Elections and Help
There are elections on May the 4th. The current six councillors are prepared to stand again for election and someone has agreed to fill the vacant place. However, we are a small council but with as big a workload as larger councils - our facilities at the Village Hall and Playing Field are used by many from outside the village. We are always open to offers of help from people who are prepared to deal with suppliers, contractors and council officers! See also the Notice of Elections article.
We get an overwhelming amount of information to pass on and would like help from people who are comfortable with computers and social media. Please This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or come to the Parish Meeting.
