Search
News
The latest news from Somerby.
Click the link to download
Proposed Pickwell Abattoir
We had an unusually well attended meeting in March, the prime reason being that the proposal to build an abattoir at Bay Tree Farm was on the agenda. We had a very sensible debate with parishioners raising many questions. Obviously the stark statement that an abattoir is proposed was very likely to cause alarm to everyone in Pickwell, it sounds so awful. What the council felt was important was for people to know factually what was being proposed and, within reason, what it would be like and, equally important, what it would not be like. More »
Richard Lane is proposing to relocate his Melton Meats operation from the centre of Melton to Bay Tree Farm as Melton Borough Council want the land on which the abattoir currently stands. Prior to the meeting councillors had looked very closely at what was being proposed including visiting the current abattoir whilst in operation. At the meeting Richard Lane and Mark Gale fielded a lot of questions from councillors and Pickwell residents who, at the end, were better informed if not necessarily totally in agreement. Mr Lane invited anyone who wanted to call in unannounced to see/hear/smell the current operation. In our opinion this is vital so that everyone gets a proper understanding of what they are being asked to approve or otherwise.
Councillors were concerned that the proposal, as submitted, had a number of deficiencies especially around the two important areas of
i) Traffic movements into/out of the site and onto the A606, which were greater than stated on the proposal. As a result there will need to be formal approval by Leicestershire County Council Highways Department if the proposal is to proceed.
ii) Arrangements for waste water treatment which had not been specified at all. Although this will be dictated to the site by the Environment Agency to preclude contaminating any water course; we need to fully understand the proposal.
Richard Lane agreed to resubmit the proposal with the requested detail and so we will get the opportunity to debate again within the next one or two months. This should help as people will have as much time as they need to investigate and reach an informed conclusion.
It was stressed at the meeting that
i) Any valid objections had to be on specific planning grounds; simply saying “I don’t want an abattoir” is not acceptable
ii) The Parish Council does not make the decision, it can only pass on its comments and recommendations to Melton Planning Committee who actually make the decision. Even then it can be appealed (as the Three Crowns was). There is the opportunity for parishioners to speak through a spokesperson at that meeting if they wish.
HOWARD BLAKEBROUGH « Less
PRESS RELEASE
The Temporary Closure of
Somerby Road, Cold Overton.
To enable Leicestershire County Council to carry out carriageway strengthening and subsequent resurfacing works it will be necessary to close Somerby Road Cold Overton for approximately 6 weeks from Monday March 15th 2010.
The road will be closed to all through traffic between Cold Overton and the Knossington Road junction near Somerby, a distance of approximately 1.5 miles, with the alternative through route available being via Langham; the A606; Pickwell; Somerby; and vice versa. More »
The alternative route for all local traffic will be via Knossington Road Somerby; Knossington village; Cold Overton Road Knossington; and vice versa.
Leicestershire County Council will make every effort to reopen the road as soon as possible to minimize any inconvenience caused by the works.
For any further information, please contact
Leicestershire Highways on 0116 305 0001 « Less
The Parish site has recently been expanded with a number of new pages.There is now a page for environmental matters, a page for local history and even a page about the Parish Pantomime. Let us know if you have any ideas for future additions.Click the links on the green menu bar to get to the new pages.
At long last we have the report on this problem. To summarise, it is saying: -
1 The drainage pipe which runs under the Medical Centre needs to be increased in size to 450mm
2 The Highways manhole to the right of the Medical Centre needs to be increased in size to 1.2 metres.
3 The existing land drain that runs through the proposed site for the affordable housing will be diverted and increased in size to 450mm.
4 The existing land drain which runs past the site needs to be jetted and cleaned of all obstructions
5 The Town End land drain discharges into local ditches. These, we suspect, have either been filled in or, at least, not maintained by the relevant land owners; this needs remedying.
Some of this is within the remit of the affordable housing contractor and will be done given that the scheme proceeds.
The solution to the other problems are the responsibility of others including, we think, Leicester County Council Highways, Severn Trent Water (possibly), Melton Borough Council (possibly) and DEFRA (possibly).
We are now arranging to get the parties to a meeting on site to agree the solution, their responsibilities and the timetable to remedy. We are pushing to get this arranged ASAP and will keep everyone informed. There is obviously a cost implication to this and getting this into stretched budgets will need some pressure from us, but we will progress as quickly as we are able.
HOWARD BLAKEBROUGH
The Three Crowns development has been turned down by the inspector, which is a real disappointment. As you may remember we objected to the over development of the site and its implication on parking and traffic flow into and out of Church Lane. The inspector only appears to have taken the parking implications into account so we don’t know, as yet, why the other points were ignored. One other annoying point is that we were never told when he was coming to site; we were promised this and we intended to ensure that the High Street was looking suitably busy/full and make what representations we could. Attached is the pdf file with the detail of the inspector's decision.
Cold weather means different things to different people. Whilst many of us enjoy the snow and the fun that comes with it there are always those for whom it brings worry and sometimes hardship.
Many of us have neighbours who find getting out and about difficult at the best of times, and may never think to ask for help. Please keep an eye for your elderly of infirm neighbours during periods of bad weather. If anyone is in particular need of help please inform the Parish Office who will assist wherever possible.
Collections have had to be suspended today (6th January) due to the dangerous road conditions.
They will be restarted as soon as possible. Verdant will restart the collections from the point they stopped.
If they are able to restart the collections this week they will be continuing the work on Saturday.
If they are unable to restart the collections until next week, brown bin collections will be suspended until all backlog has been cleared and the crews will continue to work on Saturdays.
Unfortunately Somerby Church clock has stopped working.Thankfully there is nothing wrong with the actual mechanism. Due to 'health & safety' issues it is not longer advisable for someone each week to climb a ladder to reach the tower door to the passageway, leading to the clock winding mechanism. It is planned to automate the winding mechanism, a solution that has been carried out in many other churches.
The cost of this work is likely to run into several thousand pounds.An appeal has been launched to help raise the funds to pay for the work.Please contact Dorothy Wakefield,PCC treasurer at 62 High Street, Somerby if you would like to make a donation
Is there anybody out there who would enjoy spending some winter Tuesday evenings at various local pubs with good company? Do come and join us, you don’t need to be super-intelligent, just knowing the odd quirky fact is often enough.
Why not give it a try?
Call Peter Jones 567703 or Pat Fynn 454634 for further details – all welcome.
The second phase of the parish Community Speed Watch programme is running for the last week of September and the first week of October. The teams are made up of local volunteers. It is hoped that motorists will continue to moderate their speeds when driving through the parish. Results from this second programme will be published later this year.
The familiar sight of the red phone box may soon be a thing of the past. BT is wanting to rid itself of phone boxes that do not pay their way and have written to us saying all four parish phone boxes are under used and therefore potentially for the chop. There are four phone boxes in the parish with two on Somerby and one in both Burrough and Pickwell.
They will sell the box without the equipment for £1 or they can be kept as working phone boxes providing the parish council agree to pay an annual £300 contribution for each box and enter into a 15 year agreement. Two of the phone boxes are only used once a month as so many people now have mobile phones. The other two are used more but not to the extent that BT require. More »
So what should be done?
If they are bought without equipment they must be maintained and out to an alternative use.
Should one box be kept in working condition so that there is at least some degree of service for the foreseeable future?
Please let us know your views by email, letter or phone, as we need to decide by mid December this year. If we do nothing then all four phone boxes will disappear. « Less
‘Village celebrates opening of new sports and play area’
Somerby sports and play area was established almost 20 years ago but over time the site and equipment had begun to deteriorate.
Following consultation with parishioners the Parish Council decided to embark upon a major revamp of the site with the aim of providing a top quality facility that could be used by local children and also by Somerby Primary School.
The sports pitch surface has been improved through a regular maintenance scheme More »
New ‘Football Association’ posts and nets were acquired together with the application of artificial ‘astro’ turf to the goal areas allowing all year round use of the pitch.
Styles were fitted at both sides to allow the easy retrieval of balls from the next field.
The play area has been significantly expanded to provide enhanced play facilities for younger children
New equipment includes
Climbing frame
Slide
New junior swing
Play elephant
The facility is now used every day of the week.
In addition to children from Somerby School the opening will be attended by representatives from Somerby Parish Council and the land owner ‘The Ernest Cook Trust’ without whose ongoing help and support the facility would not have been established.
Donations have also been received from the local churches and the village fete committee. « Less
'Are you interested in becoming a founder member of a new local Tennis Club?
Dan Roberts has asked the Parish Council to put this note in ‘Towards’ as he and several other parishioners would like to set up a local Tennis club. If anyone knows of any land or a redundant court that might be available to rent then please contact Dan.
If you are interested, please contact Dan Roberts on 452150.'
The first stage of the parish wide Community Speed Watch programme has now been completed and we have now received the results back from the co-coordinator. Click on the link to view the results.
Powered by Leicestershire Community Portals.
XHTML 1.0 validated. WCAG compliant. Page generated in 0.1291 seconds.