Notices and parish mag

Parish Magazine Update - Oct 2018

The following updated was published in October's Parish Magazine...

Escrick Parish Council

Neighbourhood Watch:  Escrick has not had an active Neighbourhood Watch scheme for several years. North Yorkshire Neighbourhood Watch Association is looking to revitalise its role in the county. If anyone is interested in re-establishing a scheme in Escrick, please contact us (details below) and we will pass on their details.

Autumn clean: Last year we coordinated an ‘Autumn clean’ in the village as a community event for volunteers to sweep up leaves from public areas after leaf-fall.  If anyone is willing to coordinate a similar event this year, please contact us.

Highways: North Yorkshire County Council highways have advised that the requested changes to the speed limit on the approach to the village from Mill Hill into Skipwith Road are unjustified. The Parish Council has received several additional concerns about speed, noise, size and volume of traffic over the summer months – each of which has been passed to North Yorkshire County Council as the highways authority for Escrick.

The Parish Council plans to explore the possibility of appointing a highways consultancy to get an independent expert opinion on the full list of highways concerns regularly raised by residents for this and other locations within the village.  We are also exploring the feasibility of getting an additional vehicle activated speed sign, for use on Skipwith Road.

The police camera van continues to be regularly deployed to its designated site on Skipwith Road, and has now caught 207 speeding motorists from 24 visits since the start of the year.

Planning: At the time of writing the planning application for a waste sorting centre at the former Stillingfleet Mine site had been delayed from September’s planning committee meeting. The Parish Council strongly opposes the development, and in conjunction with Stillingfleet PC has supported local residents with their objections.

The Parish Council plans to respond with objections to a national Government consultation that proposes allow shale gas exploration using ‘permitted development rights’ (i.e. avoiding the need for local planning permission). Removing the requirement for planning permission could see any number of exploratory sites established, regardless of their local impact or suitability of the location.

Maintenance: A new picnic table has been procured and installed at the playground. This was funded using S106 ‘recreational open space’ funding paid from local housing development. The village green association are continuing their programme of maintenance work to the pond and village green benches.

Two new street lights have been installed on Carr Lane as part of the continued programme of addressing the darkest spots in the village.  

After over a year of requests, City of York Council have finally crown-lifted the large tree on the A19 just north of the Skipwith Road junction, improving visibility at the junction and removing the pavement obstruction. 

The Parish Council has received several complaints about overgrown hedges. Where these are obstructing footpaths and overhanging verges the Parish Council has requested the residents to address the concerns, and if necessary can refer the complaints to North Yorkshire highways to take enforcement action under section 154 of the Highways Act. As a guideline trees/hedges should be no lower than 7ft 6 above a footpath, and 17ft above the roadway, and must not obstruct streetlights or road signs. The owner of the tree/hedge is responsible for maintenance.

The Parish Council cannot resolve disputes between neighbours regarding boundary hedges – these should be referred to the District Council.

Vacancies: The Parish Council has two vacancies for Parish Councillors – please contact us via details below if you would like to join the Parish Council.

Parish Council meeting dates:  Monday 1st Oct, 5th Nov, 3rd Dec, 7th Jan. All meetings at 7.30pm at Escrick & Deighton Club. Public welcome. Contact:  Chair (Richard Rowson), chair@escrick.org; Clerk (Helen Guest), clerk@escrick.org; Website: escrick.org