Home

Community

Visitors

About Craster

Diary

This year your Parish Council has worked to represent the community and to improve it. We have made progress on many issues and have, with the County Council, solved some long standing concerns.

The number of tourists visiting the parish seems to be increasing all the time. While we have no data on numbers, we do have the evidence of the high number of cars which are unable to find legitimate parking spaces. They park in the village preventing residents being able to park close to their homes and they park on the approach roads to the village which makes access, particularly to buses and emergency vehicles, problematic and creates dangers to walkers.
Each August the Parish Council is asked to submit proposals to the County Council suggesting three schemes to improve traffic management in the parish and to prioritise them. Last August, as our highest priority, we proposed a traffic management scheme which would start the 30mph limit at the Tower Bank and drop it to 20mph at the entry to the car park, where there would be a traffic calming measure reducing the road to one way only and a facility for pedestrian crossing. We hope this scheme will reduced the perceived danger which prevented the Turn Field in obtaining planning permission for use as a car park, and inhibit cars from drifting past the car park and into the village.
Our second priority scheme is to have the speed restriction on Smithy Bank extended round the corner onto the Bogue Road, and the third request is to have a footpath from the Arch, down the Tower Bank.
Following an initiative by the Parish Council last year the Quarry car park was resurfaced and a new layout introduced. This removed the facility for coach parking, but provided and additional 30 spaces for cars. At our suggestion the viability of enlarging the car park by moving the boundary fence and parking closer to the quarry walls was considered. In June we were informed that a costing of the scheme had been done by a quantity surveyor and that the estimate was acceptable. Unfortunately there were concerns that the engineering works involved in the extension could destabilise the quarry walls and the project was placed on hold while a survey was conducted. We are pleased to report that tenders have now been received to conduct the geological survey and it is expected to be carried out in the near future.
To address the issue of anti-social parking by visitors in the village a task force has been established and is examining the feasibility of restricting parking in the residential areas to residents. An extensive survey of the views of residents has been conducted. This is being extended to the businesses operating within the village. Based on the information gathered the task force will develop proposals for a scheme to be put to the County Council.
The parking problems have been helped by our Ward Councillor who allocated £12,000 of her members allowance to have grass-crete installed at the side of the Church. This, together with the £18,000 she allocated last year for grass-crete in Heugh Wynd, has aided parking in that area and has been helpful to residents and visitors to the Church and Hall.

For many years after even moderate rain water has flooded from the National Trust land to the east of the Bogue Road onto the road. After heavy rain, it was necessary to wear boots to walk dry foot into the village, and if there was overnight freezing the ice rink was a real danger to traffic. Following an initiative of your Parish Council, two long lost culverts under the road have been found and cleaned by the County Council drainage team and the farmers of the adjacent land. These have now are on the schedule of routine for the County Council. This has totally solved the problem.
The other long standing issue relates to the state of the road going through Dunstan. This was resurfaced last week and a new drainage system was installed to the east of the village. There is still some finishing work to be done with respect to the drainage at the west of this road, but we are working with the County Council to resolve these issues.

The representatives from the Parish Council have continued to participate in the management of the Cemetery. Much progress has been made in formalising the systems and the Caretaker now has a formal tenancy agreement and a contract for her work at the Cemetery on a self-employed basis. The Committee has new Terms of Reference which have been approved by the three Parish Councils, the Clerk has an agreed Job Description and Contract of Employment and the Chair and Vice-Chair have agreed Job Descriptions. More importantly the Cemetery nearly broke even last year, the total payments being just £327 more than the receipts on a turnover of £9,000. This is a significant change for all three parishes as previously a subsidy of around £7,000 per annum was required for the Cemetery. The committee is continuing to review the operations and expects to be able to make further savings during the next year.

During the year there were 13 planning applications relating to developments within the Parish. The Parish Council responded to all of these to provide local knowledge to the planning officers and to assist the decision making process. On all but one of these our recommendations were the same as the officers. The one where we disagreed was for a development in Church Street where we considered the provision for parking was inadequate and did not conform to the County and National guidelines on this issue. The County approved the application even though it did not meet the criteria they themselves set. The decision was made without reference to the Planning Committee, our Ward Councillor or the Parish Council and despite the many local objections.  This is so clearly outside any boundaries of openness or transparency that your Chair has led a campaign which has gained support from Parish and Town Councils and County Councillors throughout the County to have the system changed.  The objective is to make the system more open and responsive to local issues and local knowledge.  This is still an ongoing issue with the Executive Officers of the County Council.

The Parish Council has received notice of a pre-application for a development of seven holiday cottages on the land to the west of Dunstanburgh Road. There is a new protocol which allows applicants to permit the Parish Council to participate in the pre-application process and we have indicated that we are prepared to participate at this stage. This is an item on the agenda at this meeting and we are be seeking the views from residents to guide our response.

Recent legislation on openness and transparency makes new demands of Parish Councils. We now have to publish our draft minutes on a web site within two weeks of a Parish Council meeting. The end of year accounts have to be on the web site so all can see them and conduct their own audit of the Council’s spending. This does have an advantage in that we no longer are required to have an external audit, although the need for an internal audit, by an external person, remains. To help us meet this requirement we are planning to have our own web site in the near future and are collaborating with other Parish Councils in the design of a generic site which we can all adopt and adapt. There is grant funding for this work.

The current financial regulations do not allow Parish Councils to hold reserves significantly in excess of their precept unless they are earmarked for specific projects. We currently have reserves of £18,000 which has come from the sale of land to Northumbria Water and accumulated funds from the precept over the years. To engage the residents in allocating this money two Parish Meetings have been held during the year and projects identified. These range from new footpaths and signage to a grant to assist finance a sea rowing boat for the community, in fact this project has already received £1,000. These meetings resulted in the residents being involved in setting the precept for next year, and the last Parish Meeting considered this should become a precedent for the future.

The Council took over the ownership of the two bus shelters and numerous litter bins from the County Council and is now responsible for their on-going maintenance. We have tendered for and appointed a contractor to do this work and we are currently identifying the possible costs of renovating or replacing those litter bins that are in poor condition. We will have to allocate reserves for this expenditure.

The government localisation policy, and the removal of the District Council, has changed the work load for Parish Councillors. In a single-tier authority County Councillors have a much bigger role than District Councillors and for smaller communities to obtain a good service from the County Council, particularly in times of cut backs and austerity, it is necessary for the Parish Council to do more. The legislation relating to local government is vast and complex and we are still finding things that we need to do to ensure we are totally compliant.
 We know several of the current council will not  be seeking re-election next year and we need residents to replace those who have given in the past. This is a challenge, but if the residents do not meet that challenge then the Parish Council will cease to meet its responsibilities to the community.