Yorkshire Pudding Rally 2020

published on 19th Aug 2020

Dear Escrick Residents,

As some of you may be aware, the Yorkshire Pudding Rally is due to take place Friday 28^th August to Sunday 30^th August. With the current situation it will be very different to normal years, the decision has been made to not allow guests to enter the village to use the pub or the club, to further reduce the risk to local residents. All guests will be temperature tested on entering the event, and once in will not be allowed to leave and re-enter. Social distancing will be in place across the event itself as well numerous measures to adhere to government guidelines.

Selby Licencing and the Safety Advisory Group have given the go ahead to the event. However, it goes without saying that if the government guidance changes to prohibit such an event then the decision will be taken to cancel.

Permission has been granted based on the local government advice here: https://www.local.gov.uk/covid-19-outdoor-events-guidance

Yours,

Escrick Park Estate

Parish Magazine update - July 2020

published on 25th Jul 2020

Escrick Parish Council update July 2020

As the Parish Magazine is not being published at the moment, this month’s update is online only.

Covid 19: 

At July’s meeting the Parish Council discussed whether to reopen the playground. It was agreed to reopen the playground with restrictions in line with Government guidance, and to keep the situation under review.

Highways: 

A19/Skipwith Road junction scheme: The Chair of the Parish Council and County Councillor met with officers from North Yorkshire County Council highways team. The County Council confirmed that they had changed their position, and that for the scheme to go ahead the Parish Council would need to fund the full life cost of the scheme, not just the initial implementation. Also the PC would need to fund a further more detailed feasibility study. Officers undertook to investigate if there was any flexibility in this position. Disappointingly, it looks like despite the local support expressed in the consultation, that the scheme is unlikely to go ahead. The Parish Council and County Councillor are looking at other avenues that may offer opportunities to address the issue, such as a the Selby District Local Plan, and the Parish Council will revisit the topic in October.

Skipwith Road speeding:  The Vehicle Activated Sign has been turned to face north for southbound traffic. Initial statistics have shown a similar issue with southbound speeding, and it was resolved to seek support from North Yorkshire County Council highways team on potential speed mitigation measures for the area.

Overgrown hedges outside the Parsonage: North Yorkshire County Council confirmed they are progressing through the steps required to take action.

Motorbike noise: It was noted there had been several complaints about motorbike noise, and that police had stepped up their presence in the area.

Bus stop:

It was agreed that the Council would ask North Yorkshire County Council to ask Arriva to stop using the unmarked bus stop locations outside the church, as this caused traffic congestion and a hazard to road users. It was suggested they stop in the lay-bys just north of the Sang Thai instead.

Planning:

It was agreed that the Parish Council would make further verbal representations at the City of York Council meeting on 8^th July considering the application for a caravan/leisure park at the former North Selby Mine, focusing on ensuring that approval conditions are well defined, and that improvement to pedestrian/cycle access are strengthened.

The application for a waste sorting site at the former Stillingfleet mine site was due to go to NYCC planning committee in July, but appears to have been delayed again.  The application for clay extraction west of Escrick business park is due to be heard in July.

Maintenance:

Requests for help with an ‘appearance and environment’ working party have had an enthusiastic response, and a small group of residents have made great progress at tidying the area around the fountain, and planting new plants. A wildflower border along Carr Lane is being considered as a potential next initiative.

Parish Council meeting dates:  7^th September, 5^th October, 2^nd November . All meetings at 7.30pm online. Public welcome.  Contact: Clerk (Sally Look), clerk@escrick.org,   Chair (Richard Rowson), chair@escrick.org; Website: escrick.org

Escrick Playground to open from 4th July with restrictions

published on 2nd Jul 2020

Escrick Parish Council, in consultation with the Escrick Playing Fields Association, has reviewed Government guidance, undertaken a risk assessment and agreed to open the playground with restrictions from Saturday 4^th July, in-line with the said guidance.

 We have put the following restrictions in place:

• A maximum of 20 people on site (adults and children combined)
• Each piece of equipment is only to be used by one household or bubble at a time
• Please clean points of contact on equipment before using (bring your own sanitising wipes or similar)
• Thoroughly wash hands before and after attending
• Do not use the site if you are required to self-isolate
• Consider your family risk profile when deciding if it is appropriate to use the facility
• No eating on site

This decision will be regularly reviewed and may be reversed if restrictions are not observed. 

Weekly inspections of the playground will take place.

We request that users show consideration for others, and if the site is busy to limit their time at the facility to allow others to attend.

We request that parents of any older children that use the site unsupervised ensure that they fully understand and comply with the restrictions.

We have implemented an enhanced cleaning regime (using an anti-microbial surface treatment), but this should not be a substitute for good personal hygiene.

Please report any concerns of over-crowding or non-compliance with these restrictions to the Parish Council: clerk@escrick.org. However, we cannot offer an immediate response, so please report any behaviour requiring urgent intervention or anti-social behaviour to the police on 101, (and separately notify the Parish Council). 

Sewage on Carr Lane

published on 2nd Jul 2020

The Parish Council are aware that once again the sewer on Carr Lane has overflowed on to the road.

This is an issue that the Council has been raising for some time with Yorkshire Water, and has more recently sought the support of the local MP with escalating with them.

Yorkshire Water have asked that residents report this when it occurs so that they understand the frequency of the issue. They can be contacted on 0345 1 24 24 24.

Dear Mr Adams MP
Re: Carr Lane, Escrick, YO19 

Thank you for your email received 20 May 2020 and your patience while I looked into the problems your constituents have been experiencing with sewage flooding and how we can resolve this. 

Our investigations here have determined that the sewers capacity struggles to cope in heavy rainfall. To help stop this from happening we have installed a holding tank under the road. This helps hold some of the water before it is discharged into the sewer. Although this hasn't fully stopped it from surcharging it has helped stop it from happening as often. We also flush through the sewer once every 90 days. This makes sure the sewer is always running at its full capacity. This can be increased or decreased at any time where needed. The last flush took place on the 25 April 2020 and the sewer was left running clear from this visit. We will visit again on or around the 23 July 2020. 

To monitor the flushing's effectiveness, I would be grateful if the residents would contact us directly with any problems they are experiencing. This is so we can get a good idea how often the problems occur from the sewer, and we can revise our works where needed. 

Kind Regards 

Liz Barber 

Chief Executive

Playground remains closed

published on 15th Jun 2020

Please can parents remind their children that the Playground is closed, and they should not be using the equipment.

This is by order of section 20 of part 2 of The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) Regulations 2020.

Additionally, some of the equipment has been damaged in recent days and is in a dangerous condition as a result and must not be used. The maintenance company have been called out to undertake repairs, but in any case the equipment should not be being used at this time.

Appearance and environment...

published on 8th Jun 2020 (updated on 9th Jun 2020)

Is anyone interested forming a small working party to help improve the appearance of our village, and/or try a few environmental initiatives?

The Parish Council often gets suggestions that there is more the village could do, such as flower beds, a wildflower verge, illuminating the Jubilee monument, bat boxes, maybe even an Escrick in Bloom event. We're lucky that the Village Green Association do excellent work maintaining our village green and pond, but there are other locations in the village that we could also improve.

The Council discussed this at June's meeting, and agreed to consider funding requests to help a group get started, but envisage the activity being volunteer lead.

The planters by the village signs have been refreshed, and we've moved on to the flower beds behind the Jubilee memorial. 

If you might like to be involved, please let me know, whether it's helping planting, watering, donating plants, or other ideas. It's early days, so we haven't got a firm plan or approach yet. (Specifically, if anyone has any plants to donate for behind the Jubilee memorial, can you let me know in the few days)

Richard - chair@escrick.org 

Parish Magazine Update - June 2020

published on 6th Jun 2020 (updated on 24th Jul 2020)

Parish Magazine Update - June 2020

As the Parish Magazine is not being published at the moment, this month’s update is online only.

Highways: 

The Chair and County Councillor plan to meet officials later this month to try to find a way forward on the A19/Skipwith Road junction scheme.

The Skipwith Road speed sign will be turned later in the month to run a trial period on southbound traffic.

Issues with the missing H bar marking at the Main St crossing, and overgrown foliage outside the Parsonage remain outstanding, and will be escalated with the highways authority.

Residents are reminded to ensure that foliage from their property does not obstruct pavements or exacerbate moss build-up (taking care not to disturb any nesting birds).

Council members:

Ian Reynolds has stood down as a Councillor. We thank Ian for his brief return to the Council. We have two vacancies at present.

Planning:

The application for a waste sorting site at the former Stillingfleet mine site, and the application for clay extraction west of Escrick Business Park are both due to go to NYCC planning committee in July. 

The application for increased infill activity at the former brickworks quarry west of the business park has been resubmitted. Residents that commented on the previous application are encouraged to resubmit their comments using the new application reference, as comments against the previous application are not automatically carried across.

At the time of writing there is no significant update on the caravan park application on the former North Selby Mine site.

See our significant planning applications page for more details on the above applications.

The Neighbourhood Plan working group provided an update on their plans, in part adapting their plans to reflect the new work at District Council level on a new Local Plan for Selby District, new grant availability, and changes to working logistics due to Covid restrictions, further details can be found on the NDP section of our website.

Maintenance:

The Parish Council agreed plans to replace the low level fence along the village green on Carrs Meadow. The Village Green Association (VGA) will cover the majority of the costs and coordinate the work. The Parish Council agreed to contribute £500 in lieu of the income that the VGA would normally have been received from the 10k and ‘Dinner on the Green’. The County Councillor also kindly committed £1,000 from his locality grant budget. 

Cllr Chambers has tended to the planters by the village signs, building new frames and planting new plants.

Cllr Rowson has varnished the Parish Council noticeboard, treated the Jubilee Monument with a memorial cleaner to reduce moss/lichen build-up, and cleared the overgrown buses behind the monument to allow replanting of suitable plants in the wall.

Various hedge trimming has taken place as agreed at May’s meeting.

The Village Green Association has undertaken work including laying a pipe to facilitate easier top-up of the pond from the beck, and repairing tyre tracks caused by an unauthorised vehicle over Christmas.

The Council noted the concerns reiterated by a resident regarding the build-up of moss and detritus on Wenlock Drive and the ongoing issue with bushes obstructing the footpath and exacerbating the moss/detritus build-up.  As path sweeping is a District Council responsibility, the Parish Council agreed to request additional sweeping from Selby District Council, and write to the residents responsible for overgrown bushes. The District Council will also be asked to sweep in/around the traffic islands at the A19 junctions.

The Council discussed establishing a working group to try to catalyse and progress appearance and environment initiatives. The Council felt that this was best lead as a voluntary activity at arm’s length from the Council, but that it would in principle be receptive to providing some funding where appropriate. A budget of up to £100 was allocated for plants in the wall behind the Jubilee Monument.

Parish Council meeting dates:  6^th July, 7^th September and 5^th October. All meetings at 7.30pm online. Public welcome.  Contact: Clerk (Sally Look), clerk@escrick.org,   Chair (Richard Rowson), chair@escrick.org; Website: escrick.org

Help rid Gassy Woods of Himalayan Balsam

published on 2nd Jun 2020

The Escrick Park Estate would appreciate any help residents can offer in controlling the Himalayan Balsam in Gassy Woods.  Normally they would arrange annual clearance of this invasive species, but this isn't feasible this year due to COVID restrictions. If you are able to help with just a little whilst walking in the woods, it would be greatly appreciated.

North Yorkshire - Buy Local

published on 31st May 2020

Please see attached notice from North Yorkshire County Council:

Parish Magazine Update - May 2020

published on 17th May 2020

As the Parish Magazine is not being published at the moment, this month’s update is online only.

Covid 19: In general, the Parish Council is continuing to operate. Legislation was introduced in April to allow Parish Councils to meet ‘virtually’ via video conferencing, and May’s meeting was held this way. The Council intends to continue to meet ‘virtually’ for the foreseeable future. 

At the time of writing, the playground is closed in line with national regulations, albeit the playing field remains open for recreation. The Council has liaised with its grass cutting contractors, and as they have working practices to work in line with social distancing, grass cutting has been maintained to the usual schedule. The Council is reviewing the impact upon work on the Neighbourhood Development Plan. 

The Council expressed its thanks to the Escrick Park Estate for keeping its permissive paths open for residents.

Highways: 

A19/Skipwith Road junction scheme: There has been no further update from the County Council. As the next step was due to be a site meeting with officers, this is impacted by the pandemic.

Plans to re-orientate the VAS sign for southbound traffic are on hold pending the easing of the lockdown. In the meantime the impact of lockdown on traffic has been monitored, which has seen roughly a 2mph increase in average speed.

Issues with the missing H bar marking at the Main St crossing, and overgrown foliage remain outstanding, and will be re-raised with the highways authority.

Residents are reminded to ensure that foliage from their property does not obstruct pavements or exacerbate moss build-up (taking care not to disturb any nesting birds).

Council members:

The Council welcomes Stuart Hawes who was co-opted as a new Parish Councillor at May’s meeting. We have one remaining vacancy.

Planning:

The application for a waste sorting site at the former Stillingfleet mine site was due to go to NYCC planning committee in May, but appears to have been delayed again. 

The application for increased infill activity at the former brickworks quarry west of the business park has been resubmitted.

At the time of writing there is no significant update on the clay extraction or caravan park applications.

Maintenance:

The Parish Council has agreed a programme of maintenance for the year. This includes: painting the bus shelter woodwork; addressing concerns about the bus shelter electrics; tidying the area around the Jubilee fountain and treating the fountain with a monument treatment to reduce moss build-up (albeit plans to add lighting and flowers will be reviewed when the impact of Covid-19 on the Council’s budget is better understood); the village green fence along Carrs Meadow will be replaced by the Village Green Association (the Council will look at ways to find contributions to the cost of this, in lieu of the income that would have been received from the 10k and ‘Dinner on the Green’). Cllr Chambers has volunteered to attend to the planters in front of the village signs, and the Council expresses its thanks to the volunteers who have tended to these for the past few years.  Additional pavement sweeping was considered, but Councillors retained the position that this should only be undertaken in areas of no residential frontage and elsewhere residents should be encouraged to take responsibility for the pavements outside their own homes.

Parish Council meeting dates: 1^st June, 6^th July, and 7^th September. All meetings at 7.30pm online. Public welcome.  Contact: Clerk (Sally Look), clerk@escrick.org,   Chair (Richard Rowson), chair@escrick.org; Website: escrick.org