Davenham Parish Council

Report 2005/6

The last 12 months have seen a number of steps forward on issues that have been simmering away for some time. A highlight for me has been the start of the public consultation on the development of Laburnum Road field, to turn it into a valuable and attractive area for community use. The Groundwork Trust has been appointed to oversee the development and those interested in contributing their thoughts can contact - nicholas.rowles@groundwork.org.uk. Ultimately proposed plans will be drawn and put on public display and comments invited, before the final action plan is drawn.

Another issue close to my heart is the need for ongoing unity building between the diverse parts of our parish. As the A556 cuts through the parish so it helps to divide the newer Kingsmead development from the old village centre of Davenham and rural Whatcroft. To this end it seems timely that our AGM is held in the hall at Kingsmead School and alternate monthly parish council meetings will in future be held in Kingsmead School and the Methodist Church Hall in Davenham. A working committee is now in place to help ensure that links continue to be forged between the new and old parts of the parish.

During 2005 a new group was established to monitor anti-social behaviour (ASB) covering Moulton and Davenham village; this group liaises with the Kingsmead and Leftwich Police Community Action Teams. It is fair to say that the work has been rewarded by ensuring that police target areas where repeated offences take place. However, it can’t be stressed often enough that the Police need your information as soon as the offence is committed so do please continue to report crime.

Planning applications are a great time-consumer for our planning committee members as more of our parishioners elect to stay in the parish and extend! However, the members are grateful to those applicants who include as much information as possible with their applications as it makes the assessment process much smoother and quicker.

Kingsmead has seen the adoption of the spine road at long last and improvements are planned to the phasing of the traffic lights at the junction with London Road and the by-pass road. We have campaigned hard on these issues and are still involved in support of Moulton for a re-assessment of the safe walking route to the County High School Leftwich.

Parking has proven problematic for both Davenham village and Kingsmead Square. These situations are being monitored and the Highways Authority is assessing two junctions in Davenham Village that are repeatedly blocked by badly parked cars. Not only do these drivers cause problems for traffic backing up onto the main village road, but also they have caused a bus route to be diverted and we fear the day when emergency service vehicles will be caught in the same chaos.

The village garden in Davenham has been re-modelled to improve visibility for vehicles leaving Hartford Road and the area around the War Memorial has been cleaned on a number of occasions, as it is prone to become slippery in autumn time. We have contacted the street cleaning team at Vale Royal to ensure that the team keep up with their regular cleaning and we are currently requesting an extra dog bin position. On the latter subject, ordinary refuse bins can be used for the same purpose and there are plenty sited around the parish.

Davenham Parish Council is made up of volunteers who work on behalf of all parishioners. Their work can be seen in action by attendance at any PC meeting. There is a 15-minute slot before each meeting when you have a chance to raise any issues directly with members. There are two notice boards situated in Kingsmead Square (outside the pharmacy) and in the Davenham village garden (outside The Oddfellows) that show meeting dates, times and venues. There is press coverage of our work in the Northwich Guardian most weeks and our members and volunteers deliver the parish newsletter approximately twice a year. We also have a web presence giving contact details and back copies of PC meeting minutes - see www.davenhampc.org.uk.

Please get involved in the work of your parish; it’s often easier to criticise than to contribute!

I have enjoyed my time as Chair and I would like to thank members for their patience and support; the Clerk for his attention to detail; those parishioners who did attend meetings or raise issues for their interest in our community and finally, I would like to wish the new Chair all the best for the coming year.

Summary of Accounts 2005/6

Lorraine Dunne
Chairman
May 2006