Parish Magazine Update - 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: 1st June, 6th July, and 7th 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